Youth Startup Support Consultant

Background

Please provide Offeror’s Letter and proposal together with your CV and cover letter (if applicable) in one single file while submitting an application. And please note that the system will not accept the uploading of more than one document so please merge or scan all your documents into one prior to uploading. Below is the download link of the Offeror's Letter.

A. Project Title

Youth Co: Lab

B. Project Description

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the important role of youth in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and calls for action against the challenges faced by young people that limits their economic, social, and political inclusion. Today, young people are more connected, creative, informed, and persuasive than any previous generation. But at the same time, of the 660 million young people in Asia and the Pacific, around 160 million are not in employment, education, or training, facing dire economic insecurity. In addition, many young people are left out of decision-making processes, which further contributes to their marginalization and exclusion.

Co-created in 2017 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Citi Foundation, the Youth Co: Lab project aims to establish a common agenda for Asia-Pacific countries to invest in and empower youth to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs through leadership, social innovation, and entrepreneurship. By developing 21st-century skills, catalyzing and sustaining youth-led startups and social enterprises across the region, Youth Co: Lab positions young people in front and center to solve the region’s most pressing challenges. In addition, Youth Co: Lab works closely with multiple stakeholders across the region to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem and enable young people to take the lead on new solutions to meet the SDGs.

UNDP and its partners believe that youth can make a real and positive differences and create their own opportunities by engaging with the challenges head-on through social entrepreneurship and innovation, exploring dynamic approaches to mobilizing peers and communities, and creating adaptive solutions to addressing youth economic marginalization. Through the project's initial phase in 2017-2021, UNDP China was able to strengthen the youth-led social entrepreneurship ecosystem in China with support from multi-stakeholders. With this success, UNDP China is currently seeking an Individual Contractor to provide tailor-made support to the youth startups on the project.

Duties and Responsibilities

C. Scope of Work

UNDP China is looking for Individual Contractor as a Youth Startup Support Consultant to provide support to the startups on the Youth Co:Lab project. The Individual contractor shall undertake the following tasks:

Startups Support and Management

· Conduct needs assessment interviews and surveys for youth-led startups on the project. Based on the results, draft a report upon the startups’ key demands.

· Provide business management mentoring, coaching and account management support to the promising youth startups on regular basis (monthly is preferred).

· Provide support to improve the sustainability and health of the startups, including corporate finance, human resources, customer acquisitions, business development, legal, etc.

· Support the matchmaking between the startups and ecosystem partners (including the private sector, government, CSOs, NGOs, etc.) for connection of resources and opportunities.

· Facilitate and broker investment support (including grants, angel investments, incubation and acceleration programmes, impact investments, corporate investments, etc.) to the youth startups.

· Support the expansion of entrepreneurship training courses designed by the project. Produce promotional materials and manage promotional procedures to expand the training courses to the public.

· Draft reports on the success stories of mentoring support to youth startups and the recommendations to project’s further improvement.

Event Support

· Provide coordination support to the implementation of youth events for the year 2022, including the 2022 Youth Entrepreneurial Acceleration Camp, the 2022 Youth National Dialogue, and the 2022 Asia-Pacific Forum on Youth. Coordinate with vendors, partners, and stakeholders on the events organizational arrangement including invitation, agenda, logistics, communication, and other necessary areas.

· Travel to events location for event organization, if needed. The 2022 Youth Entrepreneurial Acceleration Camp is expected to the held in Shenzhen, China, with an expected duration of 7 days maximum. The 2022 Youth National Dialogue is expected to be held in Beijing, China, with an expected duration of 7 days maximum. The 2022 Asia-Pacific Forum on Youth is expected to be held in Beijing, China, with an expected duration for 7 days maximum. The three missions may happen or may not happen, based on the actual restriction for COVID 19. The Contractor shall quote the maximum expected cost in the financial proposal. The cost will be reimbursed based on the actual duration and location of travel.

Partnership Management and Communications

· Support UNDP China youth portfolio on partnerships development and resource mobilization, including partnership management for existing partnerships and development of new partnerships with potential partners from private and public sectors.

· Prepare outreach materials (i.e., PowerPoint presentations, brochures, etc.) associated for on project vision and outputs for partnership development.

· Prepare necessary documents and legal instruments for partnership development, including documents for due diligence, financing agreement and other relevant documents.

Competencies

D. Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The Contractor is expected to deliver the deliverables upon below targeted deadline. The Youth Development Analyst of UNDP China will review and confirm acceptance of the deliverables.

Deliverable 1: Produce promotional materials and manage promotional procedure to expand the entrepreneurship training courses to public, by 11 June 2022.

Deliverable 2: Reports on the success stories of mentoring support to youth startups and the recommendations to project, by 11 November 2022.

Deliverable 3: Coordination support to the implementation of youth events for year 2022, by 31 December 2022.

Deliverable 4: Outreach materials (i.e., PowerPoint presentations, brochures, etc.) associated for on project vision and outputs for partnership development, by 10 April 2023.

E. Institutional Arrangement

The Contractor will report to the Youth Development Analyst of UNDP China. The Contractor will liaison with the Youth Development Analyst directly in the course of performing the work.

The Youth Development Analyst will have the following responsibilities: (i) Provide relevant documents; (ii) Discuss and agree on the methodologies of the assignment; and (iii) Monitor and evaluate the progress of the assignment. The contract and payments will be performance-based and regularly assessed by the UNDP China.

The success of the project depends on the timely delivery of each component. The Contractor should ensure timely identification of potential risks and signal any delays in deliverables.

F. Duration of the Work

The Contractor is expected to commit to complete the deliverables on a period of 11 Apr 2022 to 10 Apr 2023.

G. Duty Station

The assignment is home based with expected travel to Shenzhen, China for 7 days maximum and to Beijing, China for 14 days maximum. The Contractor will NOT be required to present at a certain office during the work.

H. Qualifications of the Successful Individual Contractor

The Contractor should possess the following expertise and qualifications:

Education:

Bachelor’s Degree in business management, economics, marketing, development, international relations, or related fields is required.

Experience:

At least 3 years working experience in innovation, entrepreneurship, business strategy, business management, educational training, or relevant field is required.
At least 1 project experience in providing support to youth through mentoring, coaching, or facilitating access to resources is required.
Previous experience in planning or implementing youth events is an asset.
Previous working experience on business management in venture capital or investment companies is an asset.

Language:

Good command of English and Chinese, written and oral.

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates commitment to the UN’s mission, vision, and values.

Functional Competencies:

Demonstrates sound judgment, diplomacy, and sensitivity to confidential matters.
Demonstrated initiative, tact, and high sense of responsibility and discretion.
Ability to work under pressure with minimum supervision and on-distance.
Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure.
Participate effectively in team-based, information sharing environment, collaborating, and cooperating with others.
Innovative forward thinking, good coordination and organizational skills, teamwork.

I. Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Interested candidates must submit financial proposal in Lump Sum Amount linked to each deliverable, including professional fee, living allowance, travel cost and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the Contractor in completing the assignment. The total contract amount will be fixed, regardless of changes in the cost components, or extension of the herein specified duration. Please refer below for payment terms for travel expense, local transportation expense, air/train ticket expense and consultancy fee.

Accommodation, Food and Miscellaneous Expense

Expected accommodation cost, food cost and miscellaneous cost shall be quoted in total amount. The total expense should not exceed the prevailing UN’s Daily Subsistence Allowance rate (213 USD per day for Shenzhen and 237 USD per day for Beijing).The UN’s Daily Subsistence Allowance rate is provided only for reference to the Contractor. The total expense shall be quoted in financial proposal with maximum expectation and will be reimbursed based on actual duration and location of the travel, with boarding pass/ train ticket. In case daily accommodation, breakfast, lunch and dinner is provided by event host, 50%, 6%, 12% and 12% percentage of quoted daily total expense shall be deducted respectively for reimbursement. In case the Contractor is based at the travel city, the accommodation, food, and miscellaneous expense for that city shall not be quoted and shall NOT be reimbursed.

Local Transportation Expense

The local transportation expense should be in lump sum amount for local transportation from/to hotel/home from/to airport/train station. The local transportation expense should not exceed the prevailing UN’s Terminal rate (47 USD per local transportation from/to hotel/home from/to airport/train station). The UN’s Terminal rate is provided only for reference to the Contractor. The local transportation cost shall be quoted in financial proposal with maximum expectation and will be reimbursed based on actual expense on invoice. In case each local transportation (from/to hotel/home from/to airport/train station) is provided by event host, the local transportation shall be deducted for reimbursement. In case the Contractor is based at the travel city, the local transportation expense for that city shall not be quoted and shall NOT be reimbursed.

Air ticket/train ticket cost

The Contractor shall include the expected air ticket / train ticket cost in financial quotation in maximum. The air ticket / train ticket will be reimbursed based on the actual cost, based on purchasing invoice. In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the Contractor wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

Consultancy fee

Consultancy fee will be made only upon UNDP's acceptance of the work performed. The payment will be made within thirty (30) days, after receipt of invoice and certification of acceptance of work issued by UNDP, as per below percentages:

First installment (30%): upon satisfactory completion of the deliverable 1.
Second installment (35%): upon satisfactory completion of the deliverable 2.
Third installment (35%): upon satisfactory completion of the deliverable 3 and 4.

Required Skills and Experience

J. Recommended Presentation of Offer

Interested candidates are requested to submit the following documents:

· Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP.

· Personal CV or P11, indicating all experience from similar projects.

· Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology on how they will approach and complete the assignment.

· Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

K. Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

Evaluating offers will be based on Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted at 70% and combined with the price offer which will be weighted at 30%. The award of the contract shall be made to the candidate whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%), and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation. Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The shortlisted candidates may be contacted, and the successful candidate will be notified.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (70 points):

Bachelor’s Degree in business management, economics, marketing, development, international relations, or related fields. (10 points)
At least 3 years working experience in innovation, entrepreneurship, business strategy, business management, educational training, or relevant field. (20 points)
At least 1 project experience in providing support to youth through mentoring, coaching, or facilitating access to resources. (20 points)
Previous experience in planning or implementing youth events. (5 points)
Working experience on business management in venture capital or investment companies. (5 points)
Methodology and approach to assignment. (10 points)