| Overview : [Re-advertise] UNDP is seeking for 02 national consultants on developing a guiding document for reviewing and assessing quality of legal aid. The EU Justice and Legal Empowerment Programme (EU JULE), implemented by UNDP and UNICEF together with relevant State agencies, is designed to strengthen the rule of law through a more reliable, trusted and better accessed justice system, and specifically to increase access to justice for women, children and those groups which face the greatest obstacles in using the justice system to invoke their rights, including ethnic minorities and poor people. The objectives of the programme are to be achieved through a number of interventions, including increased public awareness and understanding of rights and how to invoke those rights according to principles enshrined in Vietnamese law, mechanisms and procedures for how to use the law, and options for seeking legal advice, assistance and representation. Understanding that unequal access to legal information can impede people in accessing public services, employment opportunities, and public institutions, the program is prioritizing support to increase information on rights, access to justice and rights protection, in particular for women, children, ethnic minorities and the poor. Under the EU JULE, support is provided to implement the Law on Legal Aid and the Legal Aid Reform Project for the period 2020 - 2025. The United Nations Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems (UNPG) provide that “States should consider the provision of legal aid their duty and responsibility. To that end, they should consider, where appropriate, enacting specific legislation and regulations and ensure that a comprehensive legal aid system is in place that is accessible, effective, sustainable and credible. States should allocate the necessary human and financial resources to the legal aid system.” In Viet Nam, the legal aid system was established by Decision No. 734/TTg dated September 6, 1997 of the Prime Minister. According to this Decision, the system of the State legal aid providing organizations includes the National Legal Aid Agency under the Ministry of Justice and State legal aid centers under the local Departments of Justice in the provinces. The first Legal Aid Law was promulgated in 2006. After 10 years of implementation, the 2006 Legal Aid Law exposed many gaps and was replaced by the 2017 Legal Aid Law, which came into effect on 1st January 2018. According to the 2017 Legal Aid Law, legal aid providing organizations include State legal aid centers and Legal aid participating organizations (registered legal aid providers and contracted legal aid providers). Currently, there are 63 State legal aid centers in 63 provinces and cities, and 195 legal aid organizations. There are nearly 4000 legal aid providers. The new Legal Aid Law expanded the scope of legal aid beneficiaries from 6 groups to 14 groups. It led the number of legal aid beneficiaries to increase. One of the key targets of the 2017 Legal Aid Law is to improve the quality of legal aid services to better ensure rights and interests of legal aid beneficiaries. Based on the 2017 Legal Aid Law, the Circular 12/2018/TT-BTP dated 28 August 2018 of the Ministry of Justice provides key content on quality management of legal aid cases. However, in order to implement the Law and the Circular, there is a need to develop a more detailed guiding document for reviewing and assessing quality of legal aid. Procurement Notice with enclosed TOR and evaluation criteria are in the attached files. Interested offerors are invited to submit CVs, financial proposals and other information following guidance in the Procurement Notice to: Procurement Unit UNDP Viet Nam 304 Kim Ma, Ha Noi, Viet Nam Tel: (+84 24) 38500100 Direct: (+84 24) 38500195 Email: luu.thi.trang@undp.org with notification by email (without attachment) to: procurement.vn@undp.org that the bidder has submitted proposal. UNDP will not be responsible for the missing of proposal if the bidder does not send notification email to above address. Deadline for submission: 23.59, EXTENDED TO 13 October 2019 (Hanoi time) | 
