International Consultant (HRM Assessment, development of HR related policies, standard operating procedures and deliver training)UNDP Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Integrity Openness Nat

Consultant

Contract

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Background

UNDP Global Mission Statement:

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network, a

n organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP is on the ground in 166 countries, working with national counterparts on their own solutions to global and national development challenges.

UNDP Afghanistan Mission Statement:

UNDP supports stabilization, State-building, governance and development priorities in Afghanistan. UNDP support, in partnership with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIROA), the United Nations system, the donor community and other development stakeholders, has contributed to institutional development efforts leading to positive impact on the lives of Afghan citizens. Over the years UNDP support has spanned such milestone efforts as the adoption of the Constitution; Presidential, Parliamentary and Provincial Council elections; institutional development through capacity-building to the legislative, the judicial and executive arms of the State, Ministries, Government agencies and commissions at the national and sub-national levels. UNDP has played a role in the management of the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan (LOTFA), which supports the Government in developing and maintaining the national police force and in efforts to stabilize the internal security environment. Major demobilization, disarmament and rehabilitation and area-based livelihoods and reconstruction programmes have taken place nationwide. UNDP Programmes in Afghanistan have benefited from the very active support of donors. UNDP Afghanistan is committed to the highest standards of transparency and accountability and works in close coordination with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN system to maximize the impact of its development efforts on the ground.

Organizational context:

UNDP Afghanistan’s Governance for Peace (G4P) Programme Unit supports the Afghan Government in implementing its strategies for Governance, Rule of Law, developing its institutional capacity and providing services to the Afghan population. This includes supporting the implementation of the Afghanistan National Strategy for Combatting Corruption.

Following the successful implementation of the Project Initiation Plan (PIP) for Anti-Corruption “Development Plan for a Nation-Wide Anti-Corruption Project”, implemented from January 2018 to June 2019, UNDP is now managing and delivering the Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Integrity Openness National (ACTION) Project. The ACTION project contributes directly to the targets of the broader Governance, Rule of Law and Human Security portfolio and works in close coordination with other projects in this pillar and other development actors.

ACTION programmatic engagement includes technical support to the Anti-Corruption Justice Centre (ACJC). The ACJC has been established by Presidential Decree No. 53, dated 30 June 2016 in order to enhance the fight against major corruption crimes through achieving a more efficient way to expedite, integrate and co-ordinate detection, investigation, prosecution and implementation of court decisions. The jurisdiction of the ACJC is focused on the most serious crimes of corruption either by the amount involved or by the rank of the state official alleged offender.

The ACJC is a joint centre which includes:

• Major Crimes Taskforce – Reports to Ministry of Interior
• General Prosecution Directorate – Reporting to Attorney General’s Office
• Primary and Appeal Courts – Assigned by the Supreme Court

• Executive Directorate – Reports to the Attorney General’s Office

  These functions are collocated within a secure facility in order to insulate them from political and other pressures as they detect, investigate, prosecute and adjudicate cases.

  The ACTION Project overall objectives are:

• Increased public trust in Rule of Law in Afghanistan, improved transparency, accountability and integrity, and better restoration of the social contract between the Afghan state and its citizens, especially vulnerable groups, including women;
• Assist in the Restoration of the Afghan Social Contract: One of the main objectives of this project to facilitate collective action against corruption, and work towards a corruption-free environment. Corruption damages the social fabric and contributes to a vicious cycle of poverty and conflict. Raising awareness among all actors that everyone is collectively responsible for systemic corruption, and that everyone needs to work together to address it and creating options for collaborative engagement can contribute to a restoration of the social contract between citizen and state.

• Improve Development Effectiveness: This project will also help to achieve the broader objective of tackling corruption to improve development effectiveness. Corruption within Rule of Law institutions affects reforms across the sector. Improvements to processes that improve transparency and accountability are likely to have additional positive effects, such as improved accessibility and affordability for citizens, but also less wastage of resources, and improved aid effectiveness for donors.

  The ACTION Project includes the following output:

  “The Anti-Corruption Justice Centre has Improved Technical and Operational Capacities to Effectively Adjudicate Corruption Cases”

  By the end of the project period, police, prosecutors and judges co-located at the Anti-Corruption Justice Centre (ACJC) will receive measurable improvements to their technical capacities and ability to investigate violations. ACJC administrative and management staff will be better able to provide core office functions and the organization will have a dedicated and sustainable training unit to support further internal improvements. In addition, by the end of this project, critical equipment and logistics gaps will have been filled, in support of sustainable long-term ACJC operations.

  between July 2019 and October 2019, a strategic need assessment of the ACJC was conducted to assist in increasing the capacity to investigate, prosecute, adjudicate and administrate cases under the jurisdiction of the ACJC. The need assessment identified criminal justice needs; administrative and logistics needs; security and infrastructure needs; communication needs; and policy and legislative needs. Included within the criminal justice related needs, the assessment identified the need to develop investigative-interview capacities and capabilities.

  Organizational context of the position:

  Under the overall supervision of the Chief, Governance for Peace (G4P) Unit, under the direct supervision of the Project Manager for ACTION and in close collaboration with the Programme Management Specialist on Anti-Corruption, the Individual Consultant will be responsible for conducting a Human resource management assessment of the ACJC, (I) propose and deliver HRM training for the ACJC staff.

The Individual Consultant will undertake close consultations with the senior management of the ACJC and with the Attorney General Office. Simultaneously, the Individual Consultant will undertake close consultations with the international community supporting the ACJC, for professional delivery of this assignment

Duties and Responsibilities

Background of the assignment:

The issue of transparency in the recruitment of administrative staff, prosecutors and judges is regularly put forward. One of the regularly expressed concerns is relating to the respect of the vetting process. The issue has been well documented, with one example being 2019 SIGAR reporting, which perceived “ACJC staff having numerous corrupt and incompetent personnel” as one of the reasons for insufficient progress to investigate and prosecute corruption[1] and a number of external stakeholders directly linking a reluctance to support ACJC (and MCTF) to vetting related concerns.

While there are no documented ACJC policies or operating-procedures in respect of vetting, certain processes are in existence and are described within a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Resolute Support (RS) and ACJC. The ACJC should implement a vetting policy (or operating procedure in respect of the existing MoU), including an implementation plan and compliance regime. To this end, UNDP suggest to provide technical support in respect of the development of policies and operating procedures and will coordinate with the Major Crime Tasks Force and the Counter Narcotic Justice Center to ensure standardization of the vetting procedures.

Another key identified issue is that there are no specific ACJC Terms of Reference (ToR) which provide a job description for ACJC staff. TOR’s for each role, which describe not only the role but also the minimum requirements in respect of qualifications and experience would not only assist with transparency in respect of recruitment, but also would assist with identifying ongoing training needs. Therefore, UNDP suggests to work with the ACJC to develop/revise TOR for the different positions, starting with the administrative staff and, upon positive reception of the reform, expanding to the prosecutors and judges.

Associated with the issue of the lack of TOR is the inexistence of comprehensive ACJC corporate training record. In addition to ensuring that training delivers greatest impact (e.g. avoiding duplication), personal training profiles in conjunction with the individuals ToR would assist in addressing some of the concerns highlighted by numerous stakeholders regarding the selection of participants for trainings. UNDP therefore suggest to support the ACJC in introducing and maintaining a corporate record of all training delivered to ACJC staff including a personal training record for every individual.

Finally, interlinked with the TORs and personal training record issue is the absence of performance based annual appraisal processes. While the AGO office has recently introduced national performance-based appraisal processes for prosecutors with most ACJC prosecutors appraised during August 2019, no evidence were found for the existence and practice of annual appraisal processes for the rest of the ACJC staff. Yet, this reform is essential to ensure transparent recruitment processes and internal promotion. Pillar 3 (Replacing Patronage with Merit) of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy highlights the need for “clear terms of reference” and “better defined job standards”, the importance of “Investing in careers” thereby incentivizing upright behavior, and of “Raising the bar for performance” thus making it easier to manage poor performance. UNDP would like to engage with the ACJC to assist them in putting in place performance based annual appraisal processes.

Objective of the assignment:

The objective of the assignment is to undertake an assessment of existing HR practices and suggest recommendations for improvement. The consultant will also support ACJC in implementing some of the recommendations.

Specific tasks of the assignment are the following:

• to undertake a human resource management assessment;
• to work with ACJC in developing/reviewing and revising HRM policy and develop standard operating procedures;
• to support ACJC to implement the newly designed HRM policy and standard;
• to deliver related trainings.

Technical requirement:

Deliverables:

Deliverable 1: Inception Report (20%)

Within one week of starting the assignment, the international consultant will submit a detailed inception report with approach and methodology of the assignment and work plan.

Deliverable 2: (30%)

Within two weeks of joining the assignment, the international consultant will visit ACJC, other stakeholders and prepare a HRM Needs Assessment Report. The findings of the report will be presented in a workshop to relevant staff of ACJC and AGO before submitting the final report.

Deliverable 3: Implementation and training report (30%)

The consultant will support ACJC in implementing some of the recommendations including HR policy and standard operating procedures. In addition, the consultant will deliver a human resource management training for 15 administrative staff of the ACJC.

Deliver 4: End of assignment and training report (20%)

The consultant will prepare an end of assignment report recommending additional issues which can be addressed by the project in future.

Payment Modality:

Payments under the contract shall be delivery-based and the payment will be upon receipt, acceptance and approval of deliverables as per ToR’s specific milestones indicated above and shall be deemed delivered upon the approval of the Project Manager of ACTION project.

Institutional Arrangements:

The International Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Head of Governance for Peace Unit, and report to the Project Management of ACTION project. The International Consultant will also need to work in close collaboration with staff from the UNDP Governance for Peace unit, M&E team, as well as other units within the UNDP Country Office.

The G4P unit will provide office space and internet facility, logistical and other support service including transport and security applicable to UNDP international personnel. The consultant however is expected to bring his/her own laptop and mobile phone and meet local communications costs (G4P Unit will provide a local pre-paid SIM card). Costs to arrange meetings, workshops, travel costs to and DSA during field visits (if any), etc. shall be covered by the ROLHS Unit.

The consultant will be hold to the highest level of confidentiality regarding the information he may encounter on pending cases at the ACJC.

Duration of the Work:

The performance under the contract shall take place over total contract duration 30 days over eight months, excluding joining and repatriation travel days.

Duty Station

The consultancy will combine in-country work (20 days) at the duty station with home-based work (4 days) to develop the deliverables. The Individual Consultant is expected to spend most of his working time in Kabul within the premise of the ACJC or in consultations with partners, while reporting regularly at UNDP G4P Unit (UNOCA), security conditions permitting. The contractor will follow the working hours and weekends as applicable to UNDP CO staff. Contractor’s movement for meetings and consultations shall be coordinated by the UNDP G4P Unit. The contractor is at all times required to observe UNDP security rules and regulations

Competencies

Core competencies:

• Promotes ethics and integrity and creates organizational precedents;
• Builds support and political acumen;
• Builds staff competence and creates an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Builds and promotes effective teams;
• Creates and promotes environment for open communications;
• Leverages conflict in the interest of UNDP and sets standards;
• Shares knowledge across the organization and builds a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.

Functional Competencies:

Job knowledge/technical expertise:

• Possesses expert knowledge of advance concepts in primary discipline, a broad knowledge of related disciplines and in-depth knowledge of relevant organizational policies and procedures;
• Applies knowledge to support the Project´s objectives and to further the mandate of UNDP;
• Keeps abreast of new developments in the area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself;
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
• Demonstrates expert knowledge of the current programme guidelines and project management tools and manages the use of these regularly in work assignments.

Conceptual innovation in the provision of technical expertise:

• Conducts programme assessment to improve development of models and methodologies;
• Designs policy models to support comprehensive interventions linking UNDP´s policy objectives to programme delivery and capacity development objectives;
• Ensures that the design of policies are appropriate to country social and development context;
• Demonstrates the ability to engage development partners at all levels in conceptual and methodological innovation that is pertinent to the context.

Advancing a policy-oriented agenda:

• Advocates for inclusion of UNDP´s focus areas in the public policy agenda;
• Brings visibility and sensitizes decision makers to relevant emerging issues;
• Builds consensus concerning UNDP´s strategic agenda with partners on joint initiatives;
• Leverage UNDP´s multidisciplinary expertise to influence policies and programmes;
• Demonstrates political/cultural acumen in proposing technical sound, fact-based solutions/approaches;
• Dialogues with national counterparts and other stakeholders to strengthen advocacy efforts, incorporating country, regional and global perspectives;
• Demonstrates cultural sensitivity, political savvy and intellectual capacity in handling; disagreements in order to promote and position UNDP in complex environments.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• The candidate should have an accredited Master degree , PhD is preferreddegree in business administration, public administration, general management and or/leadership.
• Strong knowledge on security plans design and management
• Experience working with security consultancy and security contingency design for NGO humanitarian programs working in conflict areas
• Have good experience on facilitating training on security
• Demonstrated professional leadership and ability to coordinate a team of professionals
• Strong communication skills, demonstrated ability of making effective presentations to diverse audiences.

Required experience:

• Minimum of ten (10) years of progressive experience in developing human resource management manual policy development HRM training curriculum and HR training delivery
• Earlier experience of working in post conflict countries or in Afghanistan is desirable;
• Earlier experience of delivering security related training is required;
• Experience in working at the country level in a post- conflict environment is a requirement;
• Experience working in multi-cultural environment is desired.
• Strong communication skills both written and verbal, excellent report writing and organizational skills;
• Good computer literacy – MS office applications, web-based management information systems.

Language:

Excellent written and oral English skills is a necessary requirement

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal. The consultant shall then submit a price proposal when requested by UNDP, in accordance with the below:

1. Daily Fee – The contractor shall propose a daily fee which should be inclusive of his/her professional fee, local communication cost and insurance (inclusive of medical health and medical evacuation and etc). The number of days for which the daily fee shall be payable under the contract is up to 30 days working days;
2. DSA/Living Allowance – The Consultant shall be separately paid the Living allowance/DSA as per applicable UNDP rate for stay in Kabul and travel to other locations as per actual number of nights spent in Kabul or other locations. Deductions from DSA shall be made as per applicable UNDP policy when accommodation and other facilities are provided by UNDP. An estimated provision in this regard shall be included in the contract. The consultant need not quote for DSA in Financial Proposal.
3. Accommodation in Kabul - The Consultants are NOT allowed to stay in a place of their choice other than the UNDSS approved places in Kabul, Afghanistan. UNDP will provide accommodation to the Consultant for the duration of the stay in Afghanistan in UNDSS approved places. Deductions in this regard shall be made from DSA payment as per applicable UNDP Policy.
4. Travel & Visa – The contractor shall propose an estimated lump-sum for home-kabul-home travel (economy most direct route) and Afghanistan visa expenses.
5. The total professional fee shall be converted into a lump-sum contract and payments under the contract shall be made on submission and acceptance of deliverables under the contract in accordance with the schedule of payment linked with deliverables and at the end of assignment.

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:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable and having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight 70%

* Financial Criteria weight 30%

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

Financial Evaluation.

Technical Proposal (70marks)

• Technical Approach & Methodology (25 marks) – This explains the understanding of the objectives of the assignment, approach to the services, methodology for carrying out the activities and obtaining the expected output, and the degree of detail of such output. The Applicant should also explain the methodologies proposed to adopt and highlight the compatibility of those methodologies with the proposed approach;
• Work Plan (20 marks) – The Applicant should propose the main activities of the assignment, their content and duration, phasing and interrelations, milestones (including interim approvals by the Client), and delivery dates. The proposed work plan should be consistent with the technical approach and methodology, showing understanding of the TOR and ability to translate them into a feasible working plan.

Qualification and Experience (40 marks) [evaluation of CVs for shortlisting]

• General Qualification (10 marks);
• Experience relevant to the assignment (15 marks).

Documents to be included when submitting proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• Personal CV, indicating all experience from similar projects.
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable candidate for the assignment;
• A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment and work plan as indicated above.

Incomplete application will not be considered, it will be disqualified automatically.

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Added 3 years ago - Updated 3 years ago - Source: jobs.undp.org