Location : Home-based
Application Deadline : 26-Sep-13
Additional Category Management
Type of Contract : Individual Contract
Post Level : International Consultant
Languages Required : English
Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start) 15-Oct-2013
Duration of Initial Contract : 2 months
Expected Duration of Assignment : 2 months
Background
Building on a long history of effective collaboration, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of Singapore (GoS) have set up a Global Centre for Public Service Excellence (GCPSE).
The GCPSE's aim is to find and promote the evidence needed to galvanize public service capacities for improved development results. It will deliver this by acting as a knowledge and convening hub on public service excellence, promoting cutting edge practices in public services management and reform. It aspires to offer: 1) a structured way of thinking (theory) about public service excellence, that values each country's own development experience; 2) evidence of successes and failures through well-documented case studies and cross-country comparisons; 3) opportunities to convene thinker-practitioners in South-South and Trilateral knowledge sharing events, organised in partnerships that promote excellence in the policy and practice of the public sector.
Social Innovation:
There are obvious limits to engagement with the end users of public services and policies, such as time, manpower, and funds. This can result in a low degree of empathy and understanding for the needs of the users – particularly those who have little access and influence on the decision making process. Limiting the policy and programme design process to a select few creative thinkers in Government often fails in bringing out a product that leverages the full potential of the citizenry and private sector to contribute, minimizes risk and achieves intended outcomes.
Social innovation opens a door to the vast intellectual capital that can be tapped into to solve some of the toughest governance challenges – namely citizens. Those who use public services every day are most likely in the best position to know areas for improvement and, if they care about it, they might also be willing to contribute their time and skills for free. Studies at LSE and MIT have shown that performance and motivation highly depend on a sense of purpose and that monetary incentives are actually counterproductive when it comes to motivating people to solve complex issues. A wide range of initiatives from hackathons or government jams to challenge competitions has proven that people are willing to invest their time and effort into solving social issues. Being able to meaningfully engage with citizens requires going beyond classic consultations to find new ways of creating shared meaning and to co-create public services.
Social Innovation at the GCPSE:
To test out social innovation as an approach, the Centre has recently partnered with Social Innovation Camp Asia to launch a series of Social Innovation Camps (SICs) across Southeast Asia. The SICs are run by local partners in 8 cities and bring together a wide range of stakeholders to innovate and create prototypes for social enterprises, public service solutions or software/mobile applications. The GCPSE takes particular interest in scaling the innovations coming out of the 'Public Service Innovation Lab ( http://sicampasia.com/public-service-innovation) which is integrated in the SICs. The Lab challenges SIC participants to re:think and re:design public service without pre-determining the issues/challenges tackled and approaches taken. This approach is a departure from providing definite answers (a priori) to exploring practical/doable/applicable solutions through a design-thinking approach (a posteriori).
Objective:
In order to support the effective and innovative implementation of its mandate, the GCPSE is looking for an expert in the public service to support the evidence building work of the Centre on the subject of social innovation. How to best leverage social innovation for the Public Service has been capturing the attention of a wide range of thinker-practitioners – both from the academic world and among policy makers in Government offices tasked with the modernisation and reform of the public service (see for example the work by NESTA at http://bit.ly/1b5tq7n and http://bit.ly/1eDVIFR).
In this policy note, the GCPSE is looking to capture a global snapshot of how social innovation approaches have contributed to public policies and programmes – both as initiatives taken by the Government and from outside Government. The note will provide an overview ('state-of-the-art') of various methods and tools used, showcasing recent examples where social innovation has been employed by Governments and what impact this has made on policy development, programme design and implementation. The intention is to familiarize the public service 'thinker-practitioner' reader with the underlying philosophy and methodologies, as well as challenges and opportunities that have been discovered. Where available, evidence of impact will be highlighted.
The note will cover the wide range of possible applications in the field of public service from a functional perspective (e.g. planning, service delivery, implementation monitoring, public communication, etc.). It will provide examples from a large variety of development contexts, focusing on middle- and low-income countries. It will feature both ICT-enabled innovations and social innovations that do not rely on the use of ICTs. The policy note will highlight emerging trends beyond the well-documented 'usual suspects'. The policy note will apply a gender-based approach to its analysis and provide the reader with insights leveraging social innovation to promote sustainable development solutions.
The policy note will inform discussions at a consultation on social innovation and design thinking (tentatively 1st - 3rd December 2013) with participation from Governments, UNDP, experts and practitioners. An additional policy note on 'design thinking' will be commissioned separately.
Bidding Process:
Interested individuals must submit the following documents/information to express their interest and demonstrate their qualifications:- 1 or 2 page proposal for the policy note (in the form of an abstract / outline of the paper)
- Personal CV including past experience with similar assignments;
- List of publications;
- Financial proposal (please provide a lump sum figure based on the abovementioned deliverables).
Important note:
Please scan all your documents into one PDF file and upload to the application website. UNDP Singapore reserves the right to disqualify any incomplete submission.
Any request for clarification must be sent in writing to procurement.my@undp.org. Please write the Project reference 'MyIC/2013/022' in your e-mail heading.
The deadline for submitting requests for clarification/question is 19 September 2013.
Duties and Responsibilities
Deliverables:
Produce:
- A 'policy note' (roughly 8,000 to 10,000 words) written for a public service 'thinker-practitioner' audience;
- Concise (4-pager) version of the 'policy note' (roughly 850 to 1,200 words) for 'busy practitioners';
- An executive summary (2 pager version) of the 'policy note' (approx. 500 words) for 'very senior officials' (incl. 10 key recommendations for policy makers);
- A set of slides with key take-aways from the 'policy note' (that can used for presentations or packaged as an online slideshow);
- A factsheet with key data (that can be turned into an info-graphic);
- Ten key facts from the report (that can be disseminated via social media).
Duty Station and Travel:
The expert will be contracted as a home-based consultant and official travel is not foreseen. If travel is deemed necessary, prior approval from the Director, GCPSE is required. Travel and allowances will be covered as per UNDP standard rules and procedures and will be funded outside the ambit of the consultancy contract.
Reporting and Approval Process:
Working from home, the expert will deliver knowledge products related to the abovementioned thematic focus areas. The expert will report to the GCPSE Director through telephonic and electronic communication. It is expected that the consultant submits a first draft within 4 weeks of contract start date and reverts with a revised final draft for approval within 2 weeks after receiving comments. The final will be released upon acceptance of the deliverables by the GCPSE Director.
Competencies
Functional Competencies:
- Excellent communication skills;
- Able to think and communicate concisely and analytically;
- Comfortable working with a variety of people within a multicultural environment;
- Able to work and follow-up independently and to take initiative;
- Able to ‘multi-task' in a deadline-driven environment and work under pressure;
- Strong work ethic and commitment;
- High level of creativity and imaginative thinking;
- Mastery of Microsoft Word.
Required Skills and Experience
Academic Qualifications
- Postgraduate degree in a related academic field.
Professional Experience
- Minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience;
- Work experience with the public sector, in international organisations or the NGO sector is an added advantage;
- Demonstrated experience in the subject matter;
- Demonstrated experience in writing and editing publishable text (writing samples may be requested and a written test conducted);
- Demonstrated experience in producing knowledge products.
Languages
- Excellent written and spoken English;
- Proficiency in other languages would be an asset.
FC: 11888
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
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