Overview : BACKGROUND The Government of Palau strongly recognizes the challenges and the need to strengthen capacities at local State Government level, especially since the government recognized the importance of Agenda 2030 and the need to localize the SDGs, in a phased approach with central government agencies remaining at the core of planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring of service delivery. In early 2016, Palau Government requested technical assistance from UNDP to conduct a local governance needs assessment. UNDP conducted an assessment mission in February 2016 to gauge the current local government systems, capacity and needs to form a basis for local governance programming. The assessment outlined a number of challenges at local level and the current substantive fiscal policy, human resource and financial capacity gap at local government level to effectively progress towards sustainable development at local levels. The Palau Local Governance Strengthening Project was launched in early October 2016 to provide support to the Government of Palau and State Governments in four states to strengthen capacities at both national and sub-national levels based on the capacity issues identified in the initial assessment conducted in February 2016. The Project has three key outputs: Output 1: Four States (Executive and Legislative branches) have enhanced capacities to plan and manage public resources to deliver basic services to their constituencies Output 2: The Ministry of State (Bureau of Domestic Affairs) has enhanced capacities to support State governments and facilitates relations and operations between central administrations, the Senate, the House of Delegates and State governments. Output 3: Local residents from 4 States, including youth and women, have increased understanding of central and local governments’ roles and responsibilities and participate more actively in local decision making and oversight. Hence, the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji is looking to recruit a Local Governance Specialist – Consultant to provide lead technical advice and capacity development support under the Palau Governance Strengthening Project in relation to the 3 outputs of the project. The Consultant is expected to provide technical advice and lead the design and implement training programmes under the Project for the Bureau of Domestic Affairs (BDA) and pilot State Governments under the Project in the process of strengthening their core structures, functions and legal and policy frameworks. The consultant is further expected to provide technical support and advice in creating an enabling environment for building partnerships with relevant authorities and to support gender mainstreaming. SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES The Consultant is expected to work closely with the Project Manager/Governance Analyst based at UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji to support the following activities. Consultant is expected to provide timesheets to ascertain work completed and time utilized for payments on a monthly invoicing: Provision of general technical policy advice and implementation support (including development of TORs and other papers as requested) to the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji for the Palau Local Governance Strengthening Project, including resource mobilization support for Project expansion. Technical advice and development of training programmes, brochures/manuals, mission TOR and training reports to conduct the following capacity building activities: Workshop for Governor’s Office Staff on their roles, functions and creating spaces for knowledge sharing between State Governments. National forum between States and the Senate and House of Delegates to meet and advocate for common concerns and challenges at State levels. Deliver on the job-coaching for BDA Staff based on a prior preliminary needs assessment. Undertake feasibility study to provide recommendations to create a mobile app system or related innovation tools for citizen participation and SDG awareness. Prepare mission TOR and conduct in-country mission to support the development of SOPs, workplans and staff development/career plans for BDA; Programme developed and public engagement forum facilitated for pilot State Governments for citizen engagement. Location:
The Consultant is expected to be based in his or her home country and undertake mission to Palau based on the plan outlined under the deliverables above. WORKING ARRANGEMENTS Institutional Arrangement The Consultant will be directly supervised by the UNDP Governance Analyst based in Fiji. He/She is expected to provide updates on a regular basis to ensure the completion of deliverables as identified in this Consultancy exercise. Supervision and Reporting The Adviser will provide to UNDP brief summary reports of activities undertaken and advice provided every 20 working days during the consultancy period, for administrative and payment purposes; All reports and documents relating to the assignment will be submitted to the UNDP Pacific Office based in Fiji. At the end of each mission in a country, the consultant is expected to debrief with UNDP and provide a brief summary report of work undertaken in-country. A debrief can be undertaken via skype, teleconference or on email. Duty Station The Consultant will be based in his or her home station and will be required to undertake in-country missions to Palau and will conduct regular skype and teleconferences with the UNDP Governance Analyst based in Fiji and with the Director at the Bureau of Domestic Affairs based in Palau as and when required. Resources Provided
- The adviser will be home based and will be required to travel to Palau on the needs and requests of UNDP;
- UNDP will purchase air tickets for the Consultant based on the most direct route and cost effective route as per UNDP Travel Guideline.
- UNDP will also provide Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) to the Consultant for the duration of his/her stay at the respective duty station at UN approved DSA rates.
- In undertaking the assignment, UNDP will provide some logistical support to the consultant when in duty station. The type and the nature of logistical support to be provided by UNDP will be determined once an event or activity has been agreed.
REQUIREMENTS FOR EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS The consultant should have: At least 7-10 years or more of extensive professional experience in provision of high-level technical policy advisory, institutional strengthening and implementation support for local or sub-national level governance support projects. Experience in working with UNDP or UNDP related governance projects will be considered a strong advantage. University degree or advanced university studies in management and public administration; accounting; finance; social sciences; law; and governance or related field. Excellent writing, planning, research, communication and reporting skills. Knowledge on sub-national planning, research, state governance, public financial management, development and governance issues in the Asia-Pacific context is preferable. Demonstrated ability to write clearly and concisely, initiative, diligence at work, sound judgment and ability to perform well in a multi-cultural environment. Fluency in English, excellent oral and written communication skills and outstanding interpersonal skills.
DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document: Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II). Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references. Technical proposal: Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment 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 (Annex II)
Evaluation Method and Criteria: Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis methodology. The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and b) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation: Technical Criteria 70% (as indicated above in Experience and Qualifications section) and Financial Criteria 30%. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation. Technical Criteria – Maximum 70 points Criteria 1 - University degree or advanced university studies in management and public administration; accounting; finance; social sciences; law; and governance or related field. 10% Criteria 2 - At least 7-10 years or more of extensive professional experience in provision of high-level technical policy advisory, institutional strengthening and implementation support for local or sub-national level governance support projects.20% Criteria 3 - Experience in working with UNDP or UNDP related governance projects will be considered a strong advantage. 5% Criteria 4 - Excellent writing, planning, research, communication and reporting skills. 10% Criteria 5 - Knowledge on sub-national planning, research, state governance, public financial management, development and governance issues in the Asia-Pacific context is preferable. 15% Criteria 6 - Demonstrated ability to write clearly and concisely, initiative, diligence at work, sound judgment and ability to perform well in a multi-cultural environment. 10%
Annexes Proposal Submission All applications must be clearly marked with the title of the consultancy and submitted by 5.00pm, 16th June, 2017 (Fiji Time) electronically to procurement.fj@undp.org. For further information concerning this Terms of Reference, please contact Mohammed Mozeem, Governance Analyst, UNDP Pacific Office on email mohammed.mozeem@undp.org. Incomplete applications will not be considered, and only candidates for whom there is further interest will be contacted. |