Fellowship design – Accountability/Oversight

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National Consultant contracts.

Background

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.

For this reason, the “Accountable Public Finances to serve Pacific people – Vaka Pasifika” project (hereafter Vaka Pasifika project) builds on the results of the “Strengthening Public Finance Management and Governance in the Pacific” (PFM) project implemented between 2018 and 2022. The proposed overarching goal of this project is to strengthen the governance mechanisms enabling Pacific countries to deliver public services that are better calibrated to meet specific needs of the people. Its specific focus will be to ensure scarce Pacific resources are better managed and the resource base available for achieving national development goals will be increased. To achieve this goal, PIC economies require stable and reliable institutions implementing the right mix of creativity and rigor informed by ground reality. The Project will contribute to this vision by (a) supporting oversight institutions and decision makers to define and implement their priorities through leadership and institutional capacity strengthening and (b) enhancing responsiveness of service delivery and public finance management by developing institutional mechanisms for engagement and openness and strengthening civil society capacity.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

Working under the supervision of the Vaka Pasifika Project Manager, the consultant will facilitate the design process of the Vaka Pasifika fellowship. More specifically, s/he will:

• Conduct the background research on previously successful/unsuccessful leadership and capacity programmes in the Pacific and accountability and oversight programmes globally
• Design and implement a methodology for the design process which should: a) aims at ensuring the fellowship takes into account lessons learnt from the Pacific and globally b) focuses on framing and contributing to the following problem “how can PFM delivers basic services and the achievement of the SDGs in the Pacific?” c)
• Based on methodology facilitate a series of workshops/consultation/events with relevant target groups including but not limited to intended audience of the fellowship and potential though leaders;
• Identify and start building a team to drive the fellowship programme (leading + participating)

Deliverables

Indicative days/due date

1. Methodology + initial desk-based research: the report (expected 10pages max) will have two main parts the first part describing the methodology should include a timeline + outline of all consulation sessions. The second part on past experience review should look into structure, participants and facilitators of past programmes.

10days by 15 September 2022

1. Fellowship concept note: the concept note should detail a) approach, proposed resources, timeline for the fellowship implementation, preparation/implementation/follow-up and community building plan; b) detailed workplan for year 1; c) monitoring and evaluation plan; 3) insights and recommendations based on the design process. All activities linked to the implementation of the methodology will be lead by the consultant in consultation and with the support of the Vaka Pasifika team.

20days by 30 October 2022

1. Documentation: the consultant will be expected to “work out loud” and document the design process. This will be a separate report/communication piece (or series of communication pieces such as blogs) as well as participate in dissemination events and facilitate a training for the Fellowship team on the fellowship methodology.

5days by 30 February 2023

Duty Station

The consultant will be homebased and will be carried out virtually on the Pacific Timezone. No travel is anticipated for the duration of the contract. If the methodology design requires travel for workshops then travel will be covered on an ad hoc basis (see payment schedule below)

Institutional Arrangement

The Consultant will report to the Vaka Pasifika PFM Manager and liaise as appropriate and with prior clearance with project partners.

Duration of the Work

A total of 35 working days between August 2022 and February 2023.

Competencies

• Good representational and liaison skills;
• Excellent interpersonal, intercultural, communication and networking with a demonstrated ability to build and maintain professional relationships;
• Ability to meet deadlines and;
• Excellent English writing and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Requirement for Qualifications & Experience

• A bachelor’s degree in political science, Public Administration or related field. A master’s degree in the mentioned subjects will be preferred.

Experience:

• 15years of experience engaging at the senior or strategic level with project development or implementation in the Pacific
• Proven experience with at least one of the following approaches: thinking and working politically, doing development differently, localization reflections, adaptative development, systemic design or related inquiries and reflection streams in development;
• Experience as a facilitator and lead designer in the Pacific;
• Experience drafting publication or reports, either academic or grey literature.

Payment Schedule (if required):

Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

Deliverable

Amount (USD)

Submission of assignment report with evidence of complete deliverables 1 as per TOR. Report to be endorsed by UNDP focal point before payment.

20%

Submission of assignment report with evidence of complete deliverables 2 as per TOR. Report to be endorsed by UNDP focal point before payment.

60%

Submission of assignment report with evidence of complete deliverables 2 as per TOR. Report to be endorsed by UNDP focal point before payment.

20%

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology Cumulative analysis

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 set of weighted technical criteria (70%). and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)

Criteria 1. Relevance of education (political, social science, development)

5points

Criteria 2. Relevance of experience in the development sector

20 points

Criteria 3. Experience with preferred approach for the fellowship

20 points

Criteria 4. Experience with facilitation and writing reports in English

25 points

UNDP may interview the technically qualified candidates as a means to validate the technical evaluation.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Documentation required

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)
• Proposal on approach and methodology (2-pages max).

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

• Annex I - Individual IC General Terms and Conditions
• Annex II – Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability for the Individual IC, including Financial Proposal Template
• For further information concerning this Terms of Reference, please contact UNDP Pacific Office by email: procurement.fj@undp.org.

Women applicants are encouraged to apply