National-Municipal Finance Assessments Replication Methodology-LBN-CO- IC-65-23

Consultant Finance & Economy Elections & Governance

Contract

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Background

The impact of the Syrian Crisis on Lebanon has reached an unprecedented scale in the history of complex, displacement-driven emergencies. In April 2012, thirty-two thousand eight hundred (32,800) Syrian refugees were registered or awaiting registration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Lebanon. By October 2018, the Government of Lebanon estimated that the country was hosting an estimated one million and a half (1.5) million displaced Syrians, a quarter of the total Lebanese population.[1]

The consequences of the Syrian crisis have placed tremendous pressure on Lebanon's services and resources, particularly at the decentralized level. Municipalities face challenges in providing adequate housing, ensuring quality public services, and creating jobs for both host communities and displaced/refugee populations. Furthermore, localities with the highest concentration of displaced people from Syria, including all large cities of Lebanon and their suburbs, consistently suffer from heightened insecurity, higher levels of tensions and more exposure to violence than other areas in Lebanon.[2]

The above situation is further exacerbated by the current economic, political and health crisis. Lebanon is facing one of the gravest economic downturns since the end of the civil war in the early 1990s. The World Bank estimates that in 2021 real GDP contracted by 10.5 percent, on the back of a 21.4 percent contraction in 2020. In fact, Lebanon’s GDP plummeted from close to US$52 billion in 2019 to an estimated US$21.8 billion in 2021 marking a 58.1 percent contraction: the highest contraction in a list of one hundred ninety-three (193) countries. In parallel, GDP per capita is estimated to have fallen by around 42.6 percent in dollar terms in the 2017-2021 period.[3] Subject to extraordinarily high uncertainty, the World Bank also projected real GDP to contract by a further 6.5 percent in 2022 under the assumptions of continued inadequate macro policy responses and a minimum level of stability on the political and security scenes. Public debt is expected to stand at 180.6 percentof the gross domestic product in 2021 and 272.0 in 2022.[4] According to UNESCWA, in 2021 more than three-quarter of the Lebanese people lived in multi-dimensional poverty (82.0 percent), up from 42.0 percent in 2019 and 34 percent of the population was affected by extreme multi-dimensional poverty.[5]Amid economic uncertainty and an extremely protracted crisis, challenges continue to deepen for many displaced, refugees, and Lebanese who face long-term poverty. Lebanese, displaced, and refugees are all witnessing the acceleration of long-standing inequalities.Furthermore, in the absence of a comprehensive economic and social response and recovery plan at the national level, competition for shrinking job opportunities and dwindling resources and services have significantly exacerbated the tensions originally triggered by the Syrian crisis at the local level but also led increasingly to intro Lebanese tensions.[6]

The ‘Municipal Empowerment and Resilience Project’ (MERP) is a joint initiative by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat). The project is implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities (MoIM) and is funded by the European Union (EU) through EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis, the ‘Madad Fund’.

The project aims to strengthen the long-term resilience of subnational authorities in Lebanon as well as host communities, refugees and displaced persons affected by the Syrian Crisis. To achieve this, the Project engages in a three-pronged approach: MERP aims to 1. strengthen processes, procedures and practices to enable municipalities and Union of Municipalities (UoMs) to deliver effective and efficient services in a transparent and accountable manner; 2. empower municipalities and UoMs to facilitate local economic development (LED) and to deliver basic services that address the needs of both host and refugee populations, and; 3. support communities to engage in municipal processes and procedures to ensure that municipalities UoMs are responsive to their needs. These objectives include efforts to support the government of Lebanon at national level to strengthen the enabling environment for local governments i.e., municipalities and UoMs, and to better respond to the needs of communities.

The project’s geographic areas of intervention are the Urban Community Al Fayhaa (UCF), the Federation of Municipalities of the Northern, Coastal and Central Matn (FNCCM), and the UoM of Tyre (UoM Tyre) with a total of ninety-two (92) partner municipalities (see table 1, below).

Table 1 MERP Geographical Focus Area

District

# of Municipalities in the district

Targeted UoM

# of municipalities in the UoM

Tripoli

4 (Qalamoun, Mina, Beddaoui, and Tripoli)

Urban Community Al Fayhaa (UCF)

4 (Qalamoun, Mina, Tripoli, and Beddaoui)

Matn

54

Federation of Municipalities of the Northern, Coastal and Central Matn (FNCCM)

33

Tyre

62

Union of Municipalities of Tyre (UoM Tyre)

55

Under the component “strengthen processes, procedures and practices to enable municipalities and Union of Municipalities (UoMs) to deliver effective and efficient services in a transparent and accountable manner” MERP has conducted municipal finance assessments (MFAs) of its two partner unions UCF and UoM Tyre as well as and nine (9) partner municipalities, namely: Al Boustan, Alma El Chaab, Beddawi, Bikfaya-Mhaydseh, Deir Qanoun El Nahr, Nabay, Qana, Tayr Debba and Tyre.

The main objective of the assessments was to generate localized evidence on i. the quality of municipal public finance systems, ii. municipal fiscal performance iii. municipal administrative and institutional capacities supporting municipal finance management. The assessment reviewed four main components:

1. Institutional framework assessment, including human resources, management, system and procedures, best practices, bookkeeping and documentation, and transparency
2. Information technology assessment
3. Socio-economic assessment
4. Financial assessment comprising financial management (budget credibility and reporting), financial capabilities (revenue, expenditure, reserve funds, asset management), debt assessment, legal assessment, financial recommendations, and an over-all performance rating sheet.

2. Purpose and objectives

[1] Government of Lebanon and the United Nations, Lebanese crisis response plan 2017-2020 (2019 Update), Beirut, (https://www.unhcr.org/lb/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2019/04/LCRP-EN-2019.pdf), Accessed December 2019

[2] The 251-vulnerability map identifies the most vulnerable localities in Lebanon. They host 87 per cent of the displaced from Syria, and 67 per cent deprived Lebanese. A Lebanese crisis response plan 2017-2020 (2019 Update)

[3] Lebanon Economic Monitor, World Bank, Fall 2021.

[4] Lebanon Economic Monitor, Spring 2022, World Bank.

[5] Multidimensional Poverty in Lebanon 2019-2021, UNESCWA Policy Brief No 2/2021.

[6] Lebanese Crisis Response Plan, Social Stability Sector Strategy, May 2022.

Duties and Responsibilities

The below tasks are expected from the consultant:

Task one:

Inception report

• Desk review of the eleven (11) municipal finance assessments conducted by MERP throughout 2020 and 2021 including nine (9) municipal assessments and 2 UoM MFAs; the final policy report; other municipal/sub-national public finance assessments such as sub-national PEFA and assessments conducted in Lebanon and in other countries as necessary; municipal finance legislation and the new public procurement law, etc.
• Conduct stakeholder interviews with the nine (9) municipalities and two (2) UoMs that underwent the reviews as well as MERP staff to identify lessons-learned
• Develop a draft outline of the replication methodology and ‘how to’ guide
• Incorporate the above in a draft inception report for MERP review and comments
• The consultant is to submit a final inception report incorporating MERP/UNDP/UN-Habitat feedback

Expected output: Inception report consisting of minimum 10 pages detailing the purpose and objectives of this assignment, lessons-learned, draft outlines, and list of annexes, as well as a final work-plan.

Task two:

Development of a first then final replication methodology

• Develop the MFA methodology, including objectives, data collection plan, data collection tools: surveys, focus group discussions (FGDs) etc., and the reporting tools. The methodology should take into consideration the socio-economic and financial crisis, and the readiness of the assessed entities to apply the recently issued procurement law (244/2021). The methodology should cover the main assessment components, such as:

• Profiles of the municipalities/UoMs (village/town/city/UoM), to help understand the socio-economic and political framework in which they operate

• The institutional framework (human resources, systems and procedures, responsiveness to residents and transparency)
• Information technology assessment
• Socio-economic assessment
• Financial assessment (financial management, budgeting, revenues, expenditure, and financial capabilities) with a focus on revenues, expenditures/use of funds, and the financial viability/adequacy of the institutions

• Readiness and needs of the municipalities/UoMs to apply the recently issued procurement law (law 244/2021), i.e. to what extent the system and process is aligned with the lately issued procured law.

• Based on the points mentioned above, draft a first then a final MFAs replication methodology report integrating MERP’s and the two managing organizations’ comments (UNDP and UN Habitat)

Expected output: Submit a first then a final draft of the methodology the above-mentioned components, and discuss main findings and conclusions in an internal meeting/workshop with MERP

Task three

Development of accompanying ‘How to Guide’

(first draft, then a final draft)

• Develop a step-by-step ‘How to’ guide to implement the developed methodology from beginning to end. The ‘how to’ guide should clearly articulate the purpose and objectives of each step (Why, What, Who, Where and How) and should include standardized terms of reference for a MFA consultant, check lists, planning tools, assessment tools and stakeholder maps, risk/mitigation plan, budget, work plan, training plan etc. Each step should present the analytical methods along with case studies and examples to show how the methods are applied

Expected output: Submit a first then a final draft of the full “How to Guide” as per the above requirements, after integrating MERP’s and the two managing organizations’ comments (UNDP and UN Habitat). A municipal finance glossary is also required.

Competencies

Fluency in English and Arabic is required.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• A Minimum of a Master’s degree in accounting, economics, public finance, or statistics, or similar field.

Experience

• At least seven years of work experience in public/municipal finance and administration.
• Proven experience in conducting and/or managing assessments in public administration/public finance and/or local governance/decentralization
• Excellent writing skills with demonstrated experience in report writing/the development of guidance documents/’how to guides’
• Experience in conducting public/municipal finance studies or assessments is highly desirable
• Experience in the Lebanese municipal context is highly desirable
• Experience with UN or international donor project(s) on public finance projects is highly desirable
• Proficiency in English and Arabic.

Language

Fluency in English and Arabic is required.

Ethics

The consultant must safeguard the rights and confidentiality of information providers, interviewees, and stakeholders through measures to ensure compliance with legal and other relevant codes governing collection of data and reporting on data. The consultant must also ensure security of collected information before and after the assignment and protocols to ensure anonymity and confidentiality of sources of information where that is expected. The information knowledge and data gathered must also be solely used for the purpose of this assignment and not for other uses with the express authorization of UNDP and partners. The consultant will need to sign the pledge of ethical conduct before starting the consultancy. Civil servants in service will NOT be considered for this consultancy.

Note :

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1. P11/CV
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