National Consultant to support 9th NSEDP implementation arrangement (Costing and Financing) in Lao PDR

Contract

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

Background

Lao PDR is at an important stage of its national development planning process. The 9th NSEDP which guides policymaking and development actions for the next 5 years has recently been approved the new National Assembly during its first ordinary session March 2021. The implementation of the 9th NSEDP has now taking place and it is dominated by the challenges associated with the Covid-19 recovery, budget constraints, sustainability, climate change and the green growth agenda, quality and inclusive growth, human capital, infrastructure development, digitalization, the transition from Least Developed Country status and progress towards the SDGs. To help address various challenges which have great implications for 9th NSEDP implementation, MPI formally requested support and strategic coordination from the UN Resident Coordinator (UNRCO) around the development of implementation arrangements (M&E, costing and financing) for the 9th NSEDP and the next steps throughout the first half of 2021. The overarching objective of work on financing, costing, and M&E is to help ensure that the policy priorities set out in the 9th NSEDP can be translated into practical actions and investments over the next five years. Other overarching cross-cutting objectives are to: • Reinforce the 9th NSEDP as a guiding document for the next five years, which will further strengthen technical and financial engagement from a wide range of stakeholders supporting the work of the Government of Lao PDR in development planning (development partners, NGOs, CSOs, private sector). An important number of key development partners are working on their own strategic prioritization and seek to align themselves to Lao PDR’s nationally owned priorities. • Improve coordination between stakeholders. Rationalizing support to the implementation arrangements should lead to synergies between development partners and between projects working on financing/costing issues and M&E. Additionally, improving linkages, coordination and collaboration between the planning and financing functions in government on the one hand, and between development partners and government priorities in the other hand, should be key objectives in the current context. • Improve evidence-based policy making, through prioritization of policy objectives, better data collection and access, streamlined processes for projects and policies, including monitoring and evaluation, whose results should feed into future national, regional, and sectoral development planning. On the top of support provided to the preparation of the 9th NSEDP through the current UNDP’s support to MPI and MOFA relating to NSEDP, SDG and LDC graduation, UNDP is the technical lead agency supporting two of the three workstreams for the 9th NSEDP implementation (financing and costing under the ongoing SDG Joint Programme which is being implemented together with UNFPA and UNCDF).1 These workstreams will need to be finalized a few months before the Round Table Meeting to be organized toward the end of 2021. This will allow the Government more time to prepare for highlighting resource envelop and strategic position on development finance during the Round Table Meeting in order to gain support for the 9th NSEDP implementation. Recent progress on these two work streams (financing and costing): • Methodology and concept for both costing and financing have been finalized. • Multi-stakeholder engagement structure has been formed. • Inception reports have been drafted with initial data sets. • Key indicators and targets for costing have been finalized with consultations with all government ministries.

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF WORK: Under the supervision of UNDP Lao PDR and close coordination with UNRC, the consultant will work closely with the international consultants for costing and financing to lead the support to the Ministry of Planning and Investment to carry out the Development Finance Assessment (DFA) and costing process for the 9th NSEDP. The Consultant will be responsible for three main areas of work including: 1. Support for the International consultants on multi-stakeholder engagement 2. Communication and common understanding across government and development partners 3. Capacity building and training RESPONSIBILITIES: The Consultant will provide support to drive the process under the guidance of the oversight team led by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and UNDP country office including but not limited to the following activities throughout the various phases of the financing and costing processes: 1 Multi-stakeholder engagement • Work with international costing and financing experts, and key stakeholders to identify the data gap and ensure the completion of DFA, costing and financing strategy; The 9th NSEDP M&E framework has currently been finalised with technical support from UNICEF under strategic ordination of the UNRCO. UNDP also provided technical support to M&E workstream as it has direct implications for financing and costing workstreams. • Support function of multistakeholder taskforce to ensure full engagement of all parties concerned; • Work with MPI, MOF, BOL and key national and international stakeholders on actions for better link between planning and budgeting, ensuring that the data required by the experts are provided by the government sources; • Support in drafting of corresponding to line ministries, agenda and concept note of the consultation workshops; • Consolidate comments/recommendations/suggestions to ensure the operationalization of the 9th NSEDP implementation arrangements. 2 Communication and common understanding across partners • Act as conduit of information between the experts and national counterparts to Ensure common understanding across national stakeholders on data collection, analysis and reporting; • Identify bottlenecks and issues and provide corrective actions in order to support the completion of DFA, costing and financing strategy; and • Support the dialogue process in all meetings/workshops/consultations on the outcome of costing and financing strategy to ensure that appropriate actions are to be implemented. • Support preparation of the launch of the costing/financing report. 3 Capacity building and training • Provide technical inputs for training/workshops on various issues relating to DFA, costing and financing strategy; • Work with MPI and UNDP on follow up actions for greater linkage between planning and budgeting; and • Organise follow up trainings and workshops for implementation of the costing and financing strategy of the 9th NSEDP

Competencies

• Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity. • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment. • Self-development, initiative-taking. • Acting as a team player and facilitating teamwork. • Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively • Creating synergies through self-control. • Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member. • Informed and transparent decision making

Required Skills and Experience

EDUCATION: • A minimum master’s degree in the field of Economic Development, Public Policy, Public Administration, Finance and Development and other related fields. EXPERIENCE: • At least 10 years of experience in national planning, effective development cooperation, M&E, and other related fields. • Research experience in the areas related to public finance, budget review and public expenditure review are required. • Experience in country level work rooted in public policy reforms in close collaboration with government. • Excellent writing skills required, as demonstrated by previous research/analytical reports on relevant topics. • Ability to lead consultations with senior government officials required. • Sound grasp of substantive policy issues in the public finance field. • Excellent knowledge of data collection, analysis and statistics tool are essential. • Advanced quantitative skills and experience with related data analysis tools are an advantage. • A specific experience in implementing monitoring and evaluation instruments is mandatory. • Demonstrated ability to engage in strategic analysis, and sectoral analysis. LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS: • Fluency in English (written and spoken), and an ability to summarize and present information.

GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTS:

https://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/procurement.html

Recommended Presentation of Offer

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualification:

1. Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex III
2. Personal CV or P11 Form, indicating all experience from similar projects as well as personal information including age.
3. Financial proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided, as per template provided in Annex III

OFFEROR’S LETTER Price proposal could be quoted in LAK or US Dollar.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered.

INSTRUCTIONS TO APPLY

Instructions for on-line submissions

Step 1: Please prepare all required documents electronically;

Step 2: Combine all documents in ONE SINGLE FILE (preferably in PDF, but Word format can be also accepted) and upload it to the UNDP Jobs links

Step 3: After that you will receive an auto reply from the UNDP jobs if your offer is received successfully.

Relevant Documents for Individual Contract

IC contract template & IC General Terms and Conditions _ Annex II

Female candidates and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

For more information, please visit our website under the link below

https://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/jobs.html

CONFIDENTIALITY AND PROPRIETARY INTERESTS:

The Individual Consultant shall not either during the term or after termination of the assignment, disclose any proprietary or confidential information related to the consultancy service without prior written consent. Proprietary interests on all materials and documents prepared by the consultants under the assignment shall become and remain properties of UNDP.