Project ID - 0011524

National Consultant to support the formulation of a Project document for the Pilot Mauritius/Port Louis for the digital Transformation Tool Estonia-UNDP Cooperation on Digital Transformation as Sustainable Development Pathway

Backround

New technologies are transforming economies and societies across the globe, shaping a future that is irrevocably digital, increasingly connected and on constant hyperdrive. Convergence of technologies continue to disrupt the way we do business, shifting whole industries, redefining institutions and people’s engagement with them, and changing how we live overall.

The pathway towards sustainable development recognizes the important role of technology, and many efforts leverage this role as discreet or significant elements of priorities in specific sectors (e.g., adoption of information and communications technologies/ICTs to improve education outcomes, modernization of public systems and processes to improve delivery of key public services, automation in industries to cut costs and improve efficiencies, smart systems to improve city operations, online portals to strengthen government engagement with people, Artificial Intelligence to harness and manage data, connectivity to boost entrepreneurship and competitiveness, etc.).

More is needed however to fully leverage the digital revolution for the advancement of the SDGs as a whole, to not only harness the potential of digital technologies to achieve select sectoral priorities but to leverage digital transformation itself as a pathway to sustainable development.

For developing countries that deal with concurrent priorities in the midst of significant constraints, laying out this pathway is a serious challenge in itself. It is in this context that the Estonia-UNDP Cooperation for Digital Transformation as Sustainable Development Pathway was launched in September 2018 and prioritizes efforts that address specifically these needs.

The Cooperation prioritized the development of a tool for analyzing countries’ digital landscape in the frame of SDG implementation. The tool would help governments and stakeholders bridge the gaps in alignment with the SDGs. It would help governments and stakeholders to understand better their country’s digital capacities and gaps as they relate to achievement of the SDGs, to identify bottlenecks that impede digital transformation, to propose solutions to address these bottlenecks, and to lay out a roadmap not only for applying ICTs in specific SDG efforts but for transforming a country’s digital landscape overall to advance its sustainable development priorities. The tool can assist the identification of digital initiatives that could be brought to scale and could help build a local ecosystem that is fundamental to digital transformation. The tool will be adopted for cities, as a component of UNDP’s support for sustainable urban development or city-level SDG implementation.

To ensure the development of the tool according to established goals, including its relevance to contexts where it is envisaged to be of most help and impact, the Cooperation will pilot this tool in Mauritius. 

UNDP Country Office of Mauritius has engaged with the Team in Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) managing the Cooperation and its work stream on the tool and e-Governance Academy of Estonia who fielded a mission as from 21-28 July 2019.Moving forward, the UNDP Country Office of Mauritius is soliciting the services of a National Consultant to draft a project document. She/he will work under the general direction of the Head of Socio-Economic Development Unit (SEDU)/UNDP Mauritius, ensuring coordination of processes with relevant Ministries of Mauritius (on appropriate delegation).

Scope of Work
Under the direct guidance and supervision of the Head of SEDU,  

• The scope of work will include desk review of documentation shared by UNDP Mauritius and in-country stakeholders’ consultations to guide the formulation of the project document.
• A validation workshop will be facilitated by the consultants to present the proposed strategy and key actions. To finalize the project document, she/ he will need to take into comments and feedback received from the stakeholders during the workshop and through written contributions.
• Perform other official duties and special assignments which may be required

Duration of the Work
This assignment is for duration of 50 days worked starting on 29  October 2019 and ending on or before 31 December 2019.

Duty Station
The Consultant will be based in Mauritius and meetings/workshops will be held in Port Louis.

Deliverables
Following consultations with relevant stakeholders, the Consultant will be expected to work mainly on the deliverables:

1. An inception report detailing the understanding/interpretation of the TOR; the methodology for carrying out the assignment in Mauritius;
2. Draft Project Document;
3. Support in appraising document with stakeholders and finalize project document

Submission
Applications should be sent through email:[email protected] on or before 17 October 2019, Thursday- Midnight, New York time (GMT+4 Mauritius time)

Annexes
Annex A - Letter of confirmation of interest and availability and Submission of financial proposal
Annex B - Model Contact IC
Annex C - UNDP GCC IC
Annex D - P11
Terms of Reference