Request for Proposal (RFP) at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

The United Nations Development (UNDP) is a United Nations organization tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. Headquartered in New York City, it is the largest UN development aid agency, with offices in 170 countries.

Applications are invited for:

Title: Request for Proposal (RFP) - Individual Contract for "GCP Commodities Adviser (Coffee)"

Overview
UNDP’s support to sustainable coffee production and trade goes back several decades, and includes early support to major certification organisations, coffee supply-chains, coffee farmers and sustainable productive landscapes. UNDP currently develops and implements a portfolio of projects that support sustainable, green and deforestation free coffee. This commitment makes UNDP one of the major international development agencies which promote sustainable coffee production and consumption.

UNDP is particularly focused on the need for systemic change in coffee producing countries dominated by artisanal smallholder family farmers with low frenchification and productivity, and insufficient sustainability or quality differentiation. These ‘low-efficiency’ origins lack competitive advantage compared with high-efficiency origins which are competitive at a much lower price point, and some of which have and can further increase production and productivity significantly, increasing vulnerability and risk in the sector in terms of future coffee availability, sourcing options, origin diversity and related coffee qualities. Sector transformation is imperative in many of these countries.

To build competitiveness, ‘low-efficiency’ producing countries must not only improve farmers’ yields and improve quality to access specialty markets, offer sustainably produced products, strengthen farmer organisation etc., but also undertake more complex transition processes to increase farm-size, diversify or phase out coffee farming in lower altitudes with support to conversion into other crops, increase resilience to climate change and reduce carbon emissions to contribute to the countries’ climate change commitments. Overall, they must overcome succession challenges by making coffee production an attractive livelihood option for younger generations of farmers. UNDP remains committed to supporting producer countries in this transition process.

UNDP’s Green Commodities Programme (GCP), within UNDP’s Food and Agricultural Commodity Systems (FACS) Practice, supports systemic change in commodity sectors around the world, including, among others, the palm oil sector in Indonesia, the cashmere sector in Mongolia, the soy and cattle sectors in Paraguay, and the coffee sector in Peru, where UNDP has supported a multi-stakeholder dialogue process that led to the formulation of Peru’s National Coffee Action Plan.
The GCP works to enable multi-stakeholder processes because the problems facing commodity sectors are too large and complex for any single stakeholder group to address. Systemic change requires the participation and effective collaboration of all actors. UNDP GCP recently launched The Effective Collaborative Action (ECA) guide, which is methodology that builds on the foundation of 10 years’ experience in transforming food and agricultural commodity systems.

Over the decade our work has evolved from dialogue and collective action (and our methodology on National Commodity Platforms) to Changing Systems through Collaborative Action. And we are broadening the application from support to commodity production to the transformation of food systems. Given the interest in systemic change in the global coffee sector UNDP’s Green Commodities Programme wishes to strengthen its team with a Commodities Adviser (Coffee).

Scope of Work
Below are the key elements of the commodity advisor role:

International Coffee Organization’s Coffee Public-Private Task Force - country work:

• A stakeholder mapping and baseline assessment of approximately 5 exporting countries.
• Manage the national stakeholder engagement and relationship building processes in key exporting countries and coordinate with key stakeholders (including, UNDP country offices and regional advisers and team leaders, Global Coffee Platform national teams, key counterpart institutions and stakeholders, EU missions and other potential donors and partners).
• Coordinate relationships with ICO and CPPTF Secretariat, as well as other Technical Workstream leads, and ensure participation in joint processes.
• Co-design and support processes to develop or strengthen national multi-stakeholder platforms in several exporting countries, using the ECA methodology and in close collaboration with the Global Coffee Platform. The processes will involve leading national stakeholders, potential global partners, such as donors, companies, or expert NGOs, as well as ICO CPPTF coordinators and facilitators.
• Support formulation of proposals for donor and company funding, based on the co-designing process, that will allow implementation of national collaborative process to transform national coffee sectors, as well as other CPPTF Roadmap priorities.

UNDP Green Commodities Community Platform:

• Assess the existing coffee dialogue platforms and knowledge hubs including their target groups and main content focus/objectives. Identify gaps and opportunities for a UNDP-facilitated platform with target audience groups (who are our clients?) and content focus/objectives.
• Prepare the set-up of the Coffee Space. Detailed lists of potential invitees, what are the topics and how will we cover them
• Membership recruitment and launch. Facilitation and coordinate interaction between members.

Institutional Arrangements

• The consultant will work from home.
• The consultant will report to, and be directly supervised by the GCP Senior Commodities Advisor and the GCC Manager, both based in Europe;
• The Consultant will be given access to relevant information necessary for execution of the tasks under this assignment.
• Payments will be made upon submission of a specification of deliverables report and certification of payment form, and acceptance and confirmation by the Supervisor on days worked.

Qualification Requirements
Academic Background:

• Academic degree (Master’s preferred) in relevant field, such as economy, sociology, biology, agronomy, business studies, development studies etc.

Experience:

• Minimum 8 years’ work experience working with or in producing countries, ideally with public sector collaboration, and initiative development and implementation, or public-private partnerships.
• At least 4 years’ relevant experience in coffee/commodities, including in companies, coffee-focused organizations, development agencies or -projects.
• Insight into the sustainability challenges of the global coffee sector, understanding of the global coffee value-chains and its actors. Familiarity of the main players in the global coffee sector preferred.
• Experience working in or with exporting countries, ideally with existing key public coffee sector stakeholder relationships.
• Experience with multi-stakeholder dialogue and collaboration processes.
• Experience with digital community platforms preferred.
• Experience with development project formulation and management, for coffee as well as in general.
• Experience with UNDP or other UN agencies an advantage.

We are looking for someone who has:

• An excellent collaborative work style, with an openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback
• A track record with ways to promote diversity and inclusion in dialogue
• An excellent ability to plan, manage, organize, implement and report on work
• Demonstrated experience in virtual facilitation and use of virtual tools
• The ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines
• Outgoing, proactive and energetic personality
• Outstanding communication and advocacy skills
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills
• Demonstrated integrity and ethical standards
• Excellent oral and written English required (Pass/Fail)
• Additional languages, such as Spanish are an advantage.

Application Closing Date
4th April, 2022.

Submission of Documents
Proposal should be submitted only at the following email: procurement.rblac.regionalhub@undp.org Your proposal should be submitted under subject/reference: 19514-2022: Individual Contract for "GCP Commodities Adviser (Coffee)".

N/B: This process is directed only to one individual. Any proposal received by more than two individuals jointly or legal entity will be rejected. Likewise, all the proposals from consultants involved in the elaboration of the present Terms of Reference will be rejected.

Related Documents

• 19514-2022 Individual Contract Procurement Notice_03212022 (PDF).
• 19514-2022 Annex 2 - Offeror's Letter (MS WORD).
• 19514-2022 Annex 5 - Designation of Beneficiary (MS WORD).