International Consultant - Development of Guidelines on Child-friendly Housing Projects and Recommendations for the Public and Private Sector in the Dominican Republic at UNICEF

Job Number: 508532
Location: Dominican Republic
Work Type: Consultancy

Background

• Recognizing the need for explicit guidance about what it means for business to respect and support children’s rights, in March 2012 the UN Global Compact, Save the Children and UNICEF released the Children’s Rights and Business Principles (CRBP).
• Building on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the CRBP identify a comprehensive range of actions that companies should take to respect and support children’s rights in the workplace, marketplace and the community.
• UNICEF has developed a range of tools to assist companies in these efforts by offering practical guidance on how to respect and support children’s rights.
• The tools provide information on ways to draft and implement appropriate policies, conduct impact assessments, integrate programmes and systems based on assessment findings, and monitor and report on children’s rights.
• Back in 2012, the State of the World’s Children annual flagship report focused on urban children, highlighting their specific threats and needs. Considering this as a starting point, UNICEF has prioritized and evidenced the need for advocacy and to give support to child-responsive urban planning and infrastructure development, to assure urban settings are child friendly.
• While urban planning and affordable housing policy are a government-led responsibility, UNICEF has identified that the construction sector often develops social housing projects, which have the scale of a neighborhood and include medium and large-scale infrastructure.
• To this date, there is little guidance on how companies consider and address children’s needs in the planning, design, and development of housing projects in the Latin America and Caribbean region.
• Thus, UNICEF is interested in hiring International Consultant services to develop guidelines on child-friendly housing projects in the Dominican Republic. This work will provide important policy recommendations for private companies, as well as national and local government (municipalities) in the Dominican Republic.

Overall Purpose of the Assignment

• To develop a set of strategic guidelines on child-friendly social housing based on best practices throughout Latin America, and taking into consideration the Dominican Republic context (including urban planning process, social housing policies and other relevant elements).
• The specific product of this assignment is a document with clear and concrete recommendations for the public and private sector on how to provide child-friendly social housing projects in the Dominican Republic, and specifically recommendations to improve the impact of  the Pablo Mella condominium in children’s rights..
• The results will also provide UNICEF the tools to engage governments and private developers in the Dominican Republic with a coherent framework to propose child-friendly social housing projects and neighborhoods.

General Objectives

• The general objective is to develop clear guidelines on how to develop child-friendly housing projects in the Dominican Republic, which can be of relevant use to both the public and the private sector.
• Although recommendations are meant to be broad, there will be a practical case study on Condominium Pablo Mella (a condominium located at Km 18 of the Duarte highway in the city of Santo Domingo.
• This new community will have 9,000 apartments, but currently only 2,100 units have been turned in. The construction of several social services within this condominium is planned).

Specific Objectives

• Carry out a desk review and identify best practices within Latin America on child-friendly housing projects developed by the public and/or private sectors.
• Study how the urban planning process and relevant issues concerning the development of housing projects is developed in the Dominican Republic.
• Identify and propose a set of guidelines (practices and benchmarks) to take into consideration by public institutions and private companies on how to develop child-friendly housing projects that adequately address the rights of children and guarantee their wellbeing.
• Based on the proposed guidelines, identify the measures and specific recommendations for the pilot in Pablo Mella,
• To build evidence based recommendations to ensure effectiveness and relevance of future UNICEF activities and guidance material for governments on social housing and neighborhood development in line with children’s rights, and for better engagements with the private real estate and construction sector.

Activities and Expected Results

• The selected international consultant will work with a local consultant based in the Dominican Republic.
• The local consultant will be selected by UNICEF Dominican Republic jointly with the international consultant, from the best consultants previously chosen by a local selection process.
• The local consultant will support the international consultant on the organization of the local meetings and interviews with stakeholders, on the request of access required to undertake data gathering, on the implementation of the survey and data collection, providing valuable logistical, methodological and technical expertise.
• As such, it is expected that both the international and the local consultants will work together in close collaboration.
• The local consultant will be paid solely by UNICEF.

Location and Expected Travel

• The International Consultant does not need to be based in Dominican Republic, but should expect travelling to Santo Domingo for having interviews with stakeholder and meetings with various central and local government institutions that oversee planning, social housing and other relevant fields, as well as construction sector representatives, civil society organizations, and other relevant stakeholders, such as the academia, and for monitoring data collection.
• The local consultant will be based in Dominican Republic

Contract Duration

• Upon signing the contract, three months.
• The deadline for the delivery of all final products to UNICEF is 28 February 2018.

Payments and Schedule

• It is expected that these services will cost a maximum of US $35,000.00. The consultancy payments shall be made in the following way:
• 5% following the approval of the work plan and design of the methodology to be used (1 week after contract signature).
• 20% following the approval of desktop analysis on good practices, the preliminary guidelines and the design of the survey to be implemented in Pablo Mella condominium (1 month after contract signature).
• 30% following the approval of the first draft of recommendations for Pablo Mella condominium (2 months after contract signature).
• 40% after final approval of the two final reports (3 months after contract signature).

Performance Indicators

• Performance of the work will be evaluated based on the following indicators:
• Completion of the tasks/activities established in the terms of reference.
• Compliance with the established delivery deadlines.
• Work quality (accuracy, understanding and demonstration of high work standards with UNICEF and the counterparts involved).

UNICEF reserves the right to cancel the contract and/or withhold all or a portion of the payment if the policies and regulations on confidentiality, ethics and processes of UNICEF and its counterparts are not obeyed, the performance is unsatisfactory or the work / deliverables they are incomplete, they are not delivered or delivered after the established deadlines.

Contract Supervisor

• The consultant will report to the UNICEF Dominican Republic Country Office.

Other Conditions:

• The Contractor must respect the impartiality and independence of UNICEF and the United Nations and in connection with this contract must neither seek nor accept instructions from anyone other than UNICEF. 
• During the term of this contract the Contractor must refrain from any conduct that would adversely reflect on UNICEF or the United Nations and must not engage in any activity that is incompatible with the administrative instructions and policies and procedures of UNICEF. 
• The Contractor must exercise the utmost discretion in all matters relating to this contract.

Requirements and Qualifications
Academic Background:

• Candidate should hold an Advanced Degree in Architecture, Engineering, Sustainable Housing or Urban Planning, or related field.

Experience:

• 8-10 years of practical experience in urban planning (including government and/or international organization work) advising planning, integrated urban upgrading and housing projects, and influencing related policies.
• Direct experience in the design and implementation of child-friendly projects within the urban and/or housing sectors will be a plus.
• Applicant must have a proven record of excellent writing and analytical skills, and be fluent in Spanish. Fluency in English will be a plus.

Competencies:

• Communication, Level 3
• Working with People, Level 3
• Drive for Results, Level 3
• Analyzing, Level 3
• Deciding and Initiating Action, Level 3
• Persuading and Influencing, Level 2

Selection and Evaluation Criteria and Points

• Professional qualifications (education, experience, competencies) - 40
• Technical proposal - 40
• Financial proposal (will only be considered for applicants that pass the professional and technical evaluation.) - 20
• Total Score: 100