| Overview : Pacific Islands countries (PICs) boast “big ocean” economies, with young and mobile populations and highly resilient and adaptative societies. Past and recent investments have however fallen short of developing diverse economies offering inclusive services and opportunities, resilient to external shocks and the increasing pace of climate disasters. While the scale of Pacific economies does not allow them to respond to all these challenges alone, public investment and revenues would gain from empowered officials accountable to keep basic service delivery and development priorities in mind while driving fiscal decisions. The “Accountable Public Finances to serve Pacific people – Vaka Pasifika” project (hereafter Vaka Pasifika project) targets documented challenges in the oversight and accountability of public finance in the Pacific. It aims at providing a platform for Pacific experts, decision-makers and thinkers to design tailored solutions. These solutions can then be supported by the project through funding and technical assistance. The project also provides opportunities for civil society and the media to better understand and engage with public finance cycles and for governments (central/local) to consult and engage with citizens on the budget. The Vaka Pasifika project is funded by the European Union until 2026. The project builds on the results of the “Strengthening Public Finance Management and Governance in the Pacific” (PFM) project implemented between 2018 and 2022. The biggest output produced by SAIs are their audit reports, but across the Pacific there remain considerable challenges regarding how such audit reports are actually actioned. The parliamentary recommendations emerging from the audits reviews as well as recommendations formulated by SAIs in their reports demand a response by the concerned department, ideally with an action plan and solving of the highlighted issue. Government Follow-up on audit reports recommendations is one of the most poorly rated PEFA indicator throughout the region (PI28 sub-indicator). Similar observation can be made of the other oversight and accountability institutions, some have mandate to impose fines or sanction, or even refer matter to the judiciary yet beyond these actions they often struggle to follow-up on report’s recommendations. Starting from this specific challenges, the focus of this consultancy is to come up with a proposal on how best can recommendations from SAIs and other accountability and oversight agencies be supported to improve PFM standards and results for Pacific populations. Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications to the link provided . - Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability for the duration of the assignment using the template provided in Annex II.
- CV indicating all experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
- Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II (in USD)
- One-pager (500words max) perspective on effectiveness of recommendation tracking/follow-up tools and systems for SAIs.
Note: Successful individual will be required to provide proof of medical insurance coverage before commencement of contract for the duration of the assignment. Incomplete, joint proposals and proposals sent to the wrong mailing address will not be accepted and only candidates for whom there is further interest will be contacted. Individuals interested in this consultancy should apply and will be reviewed based on their own individual capacity. The successful individual may sign an Individual Contract with UNDP or request his/her employer to sign a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) on their behalf by indicating this in the Offerors letter to Confirming Interest and Availability using Annex II. Annexes Kindly follow the link to apply online : https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm | 
