Having finished my sabatical year as a Google sponsored fellow at the
Reuters Digital Vision Fellowship at Stanford, I now face once again
sustainability and funding issues. I have also noticed that most of
my colleagues have being fatally infected with the social
entrepreneurship bug and are looking for funding for their endeavors
and projects, so I thought it would be a good idea to share some info
on consulting opportunities as an option to follow our paths while we
apply to or receive additional grants or fellowships.

Being a consultant, you have the opportunity of working for short (or
clearly defined) periods of time on real projects in your field of
interest with large and small organizations and with a team of
professionals, stakeholders and interesting people, further enhancing
your experience, research, contacts, understanding of the things
involved in successful implementation of projects and you even get paid for it.

Most of my colleagues have enough "vision, understanding and
expertise" of the issues involved in many ICT4Dev projects not just
to apply but to be damn good consultants leading or being part of a
team in those projects.

If you're tired of reading already, you may now skip to the bottom of
this message and explore the links for consulting opportunities and
projects with International Organizations.

Some facts and clarifications on consulting..

1. A consultant is a freelance individual who's required to wear a
suit every now and then and who offers his brain and skills for hire
(we prefer to call it vision, understanding and expertise in our
proposals). ;-)

2. You don't need to be an NGO or a company or corporation to land a
consulting opportunity.
    * The requirements of each consulting opportunity are listed in
each Request for Proposal (RFP) and even the evaluation and
qualification methods and indicators.

3. You don't need to be a resident of the country the project takes place on.
    * You will be required most likely to move there, though, or at
least do a couple of field visits.

4. A consulting job is not a "job" in the traditional working-hours/days sense.
    * You are hired to achieve and present a set of deliverables in a
specific time-frame.
    * You are sometimes given an office and it's good practice to
your consulting-related activities there, but that's about it.
    * But as long as you meet the progress expectations and work on
your deliverables (and the activities they require) you don't have to
punch in or out at specific time.
    * Some consulting projects require a number of hours, but that's
rather rare.

5. A consultant does not have to be good with computers or have IT skills.
    * Most consulting projects are for field research, strategy
definition, project formulation, etc. and are separate from the
actual implementation of the project.
    * The "understanding" of the roles of ICT achieved in the RDVP is
more than enough to qualify you as an ICT4Dev consultant.
    * Even implementation projects require a consultant with "vision,
understanding and expertise".

6. Be aware that there are no health benefits or insurance involved
with consulting contracts.

A word of advice though, apply only to projects that really appeal to
you and that are of your interest, for the quality of your
deliverables will be tightly related to the amount of effort, heart
and soul you put into the project. I've seen many consultants hand
over perfectly acceptable deliverables and get paid for a job where
their involvement made actually no difference and for which they feel
not proud of, from which they did not grow or had any benefit other
than the money they collected.

Where to look for International Development Consulting Opportunities

As you can see from the list of options and alternatives listed
below, landing a consulting job can be a consulting job itself ;-),
that's why most of these jobs are taken mostly by consultants, and
not necessarily by those best fit for them, such as yourself. ;-)

* dgMarket: The Development Gateway Market
A service of the World Bank and its Development Gateway. It lists
"tenders and consulting opportunities worldwide". The main page gives
you access to all projects by sector. But by using the "Notice
Search" feature on the left bar and selecting "Consulting Only" you
will see Consulting opportunities in the Region or Country of your
preference (leave the first field blank to see more
opportunities).Note: Even though this service requires a paid
subscription to access detailed info on any opportunity, once you
find an opportunity that interests you, you can directly contact the
buyer, which is usually listed.
http://www.dgmarket.com/

* World Bank's Requests for Expressions of Interest for Consulting
Work "Occasionally, the World Bank hires consulting firms to support
its development work. These opportunities are posted on at:"
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/PROJECTS/PROCUREMENT/...

* InterAmerican Development Bank Project Gateway:
You can search by Sector (Health, Education, etc.), Country and Status.
Note: Once a project is approved it can take years until it's
actually implemented or the bid takes place. The Implementation
Status in the IADB actually includes the bidding process where
consultants are evaluated and hired.
http://www.iadb.org/projects/index.cfm

* Asian Development Bank
Note: Although I'm not sure if this applies to consulting, "Bidders
for contracts and offering services for projects financed by ADB must
be nationals of ADB's Member Countries." , which includes India,
China and Pakistan.
http://www.adb.org/Documents/ADBBO/CSRN/default.asp

* United Nations Inter-Agency Procurement Services Office
Gives you access to opportunities across most UN major offices.
http://www.iapso.org/supplying/procurement-notices.asp

* United Nations Development Program Procurement Offices
Additional opportunities are listed on each country's local office web site
http://stone.undp.org/system/procure/default.cfm

* United Nations Volunteers
The UNVs are professionals who, despite the "volunteer" label, are
paid (not for their services but for their living and transportation
expenses) and work in the many areas of interest of the United Nations.
http://www.unv.org/volunteers/unvvacs/index.htm

* Caribbean Development Bank
Not much there, but one never knows...
http://www.caribank.org/

* North American Development Bank
Yep, fellows, there is a Development Bank for all the poor countries
of North America... Curious enough theirs is the worst method for
posting opportunities on-line... embedded in the PDF version of their
news report.
http://www.nadb.org/Reports/NADB_News/english/nadbank_news_frame.htm

* African Development Bank
It's a huge continent and you may even get to see the lions and
giraffes in person...
http://www.afdb.org/portal/page?_pageid=313,167869&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

* Black Sea Trade and Development Bank
http://www.bstdb.org
Database of Consultants: http://www.bstdb.org/dataconsult.htm

* European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Yes, we all know, Europe just went through a devastating war 60 years
ago and needs to be reconstructed. ;-)
http://www.ebrd.org/oppor/procure/index.htm

* International Fund for Agricultural Development
Job, Internship and Procurement Opportunities:
http://www.ifad.org/job/index.htm
Grants: http://www.ifad.org/operations/grants/index.htm

These two are mostly for consulting firms not consultants...

* UN Procurement Service
http://www.un.org/Depts/ptd

* Doing Business with the United Nations System of Organizations
http://unbiz.un.int/

Most of the sites listed above are combined or included in the United
Nations Development Business subscription service which is available
on-line and as a printed publication for US$550 at http://www.devbusiness.com

Cheers and happy consulting...

Ps: I hope that I read this note myself and take the time to navigate
those sites and apply to the opportunities listed there... ;-)>
        
Carlos Miranda Levy
Reuters Digital Vision Fellow at Stanford University
CIVILA - Ciudades Virtuales Latinas
www.civila.com - www.educar.org - www.BibliotecasVirtuales.com
Nearby Mon Aug 29 11:35:26 2005