Background

UNDP’s democratic governance practice focuses on fostering inclusive participation, strengthening responsive governing institutions, and promoting democratic principles.

The project was formulated under the economic governance sub-area of the 2008-2013 10th EDF for the PALOP & TL, which allocates EUR 33.1 million to supporting governance initiative projects in PALOP & TL countries. This project is formulated on the basis a EU-UNDP partnership allocating 6.4 million Euros in support of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI), Parliaments, Parliamentarians &Civil Society Organizations in the PALOP and Timor-Leste in the domain of external control of public expenditure and accounts. This project aims at promoting economic governance in the PALOP and TL strengthening technical and functional skills of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs), National Parliaments and Civil Society in the six beneficiary countries. The project is fully funded by the European Union through the 10^th EDF A envelope in support, among others, of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI), Parliaments, Parliamentarians and Civil Society Organizations in Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau[1], Mozambique, São Tomé and Principe (PALOP Countries) and Timor-Leste.

The project is consistent with PALOP partner countries’ national strategies for poverty reduction and national development plans, with UNDP Country Programmes and Development Frameworks, and the 2008-2013 10^th EDF for the PALOP & TL. These policies and strategies are adapted to the specificities and priorities of each country, but converge to promote good governance as an important support for development and economic growth. This is achieved, in particular, through the strengthening of capacities in (i) legislative and oversight functions of the State, (ii) the management system of public finances, including internal and external control, (iii) support services to Parliament and (iv) State’s accountability.

The multi-country intervention logic of this project aims to intensify the PALOP and Timor-Leste dialogue, drawing on the holistic approach to democratic governance. A special emphasis placed on joint, transversal, south-south and peer-to-peer capacity-building within the selected areas of economic governance, namely external control, audit and oversight capacities of the public finances.

The project will use training actions as a tool to enhance skills and credentials of stakeholders for controlling public finances while establishing eLearning platforms in Portuguese ensuring means of durable access to existing database and information in Portuguese. The project will also contribute to establishing a first time multi-country CSO PALOP-TL platform showcasing lessons and progress made by civil society organisations’ within the PALOP/CPLP Open Budget Initiative. Other activities aiming to promote sustainability will complement and support the OSAI CPLP multi-country plan and promote cooperation with the Training Institute for Financial and Economic Management in Portuguese Language (IGEF), involving this institution in training and capacity building activities at transnational level (joint learning involving actors from all beneficiary countries).

Improved access to information (in terms of availability of information, quality of the information available) is a pre-condition for effective public oversight and therefore to achieve the project’s key outputs. In the long run, the project impact will depend on the success of its exit strategy and sustainability of its actions and activities. It is critical that the project beneficiaries develop synergies and dynamics that will still be there after the end of the project. This will be best done through capacity development of human resources within national institutions. Such capacity development needs to target professional skills and enhancement/development of in-house training capacities in the field of external control of public accounts and finances, in particular CAs in the PALOP and Timor-Leste.

The overall objective is to promote economic governance in the PALOP and Timor-Leste (TL) strengthening technical and functional skills of SAIs, Parliaments, Parliamentarians and Civil Society (including media).

The specific objective is to improve the effectiveness of external political, judicial and civilian control of public finances in the PALOP and TL for a more efficient use of public resources. SAIs play an important role to prevent mismanagement and corruption. Therefore, whenever possible, the project will also help strengthen the links between SAIs and other oversight agencies, in particular anti-corruption and procurement agencies.

This project will directly address good governance and democracy strengthening the accountability system with external and independent control of public finances standing as the specific objective. As part of the action, responding to the right of citizens to information, and cross cuttingly supporting the promotion of gender equity in public spending will yield transformational results to be sustained beyond the project life cycle (among others, training and sensitization activities on gender equality addressed to Parliaments and CSOs). UNDP will associate UN Women units at country office level in designing the AWPs and training activities. ICT platforms and solutions will play a central role in this strategy and will be transversal to the action (among others, use of videoconference and IT tools). Environmental issues will be taken into consideration in specific activities when appropriate and consistent with partner countries’ national strategies and priorities, such as the strengthening of oversight capacities in the natural resource extraction domain in Mozambique.

The project foresees two results directly contributing to the specific objective:

• SAIs’ control and audit capacities over public finances in the PALOP and TL are strengthened in a context of joint learning;
• Parliaments and Civil Society oversight capacities over public finances are developed for an informed analysis of public finances in the PALOP and TL in a context of joint learning.

The strategy defined by the project takes into account the different contexts of the six beneficiary countries and the multi-country PALOP and TL cooperation intervention logic. The strategy will seek to improve political, judicial and civilian control and oversight of government action and public accounts through actions benefiting SAIs, Parliaments and CSOs.

The action plan includes multi-country activities fostering the south-south PALOP-TL cooperation (face-to-face and eLearning training, workshops, study trips and peer learning initiatives) and national activities aimed at addressing specificities of each beneficiary country (training, organizational changes, drafting of manuals, capacity development, etc.).

The implementation of the foreseen activities during the three-year project’s duration period will be articulated on the basis of annual work plans. Project start-up will have an initial phase of a maximum of four months from the signature of the Contribution Agreement with UNDP. In this inception phase annual work plans will be developed in a participatory manner and approved for each country, identifying accurately the pivotal countries and triggers of a change dynamics supporting the project’s sustainability strategy.

Duties and Responsibilities

The senior SAI advisor will work under the direct supervision of the Pro PALOP-TL Project Manager in Cape Verde. The senior SAI advisor will support the UNDP Country Offices (CO) in Cape Verde, the other PALOP and Timor-Leste to implement the project’s SAI activities in all beneficiary countries and ensure that project objectives towards SAI strengthening and capacity development are reached.

• The senior SAI advisor will provide advice on the overall project strategy to enhance SAI capacities and promote more efficient external control of public finances and expenditures in the beneficiary countries. He/she will provide deliverables allowing to revise the country AWPs for strengthening SAI and external control of public expenditures, to report on project results in each beneficiary countries and globally, to follow up of the design and delivery of trainings/capacity development/peer learning initiatives, and to keep updated the control of the project quality criteria, results and indicators. The senior advisor will ensure the inclusion of gender considerations in his/her work with parliament;
• He/she will support the PM to strengthen the linkages between the three groups of beneficiaries (Courts of Auditors, national parliaments and CSOs) and, on the basis of the country support, further strengthened the indicators and quality criteria by moving from activity based indicators (n. of trainings, n. of participants, etc) to concrete achievements based indicators (what happened to the people trained? Were they able to put in practice what they have learnt? How?).

The senior SAI advisor will have to produce clear measurable deliverables as follows:

• Prepare a work-plan for the consultancy within five days after beginning the assignment;
• Propose specific actions, actions results, targets and indicators regarding SAI strengthening and control of public accounts and expenditure (project’s result 1) to update/revise all project AWPs in all beneficiary countries before starting of implementing year 2 and 3;
• Proofread 6 beneficiary country quarterly narrative DEX/DIM reports (72 reports within a period of 3 years) with regards to the project’s first result aiming to strengthen SAI and external control of Public accounts and expenditures;
• Proofread 6 semi-annual narrative progress reports with regards to the project’s first result aiming to strengthen SAI and external control of Public accounts and expenditures;
• Proofread 3 annual narrative progress reports with regards to the project’s first result aiming to strengthen SAI and external control of Public accounts and expenditures;
• Follow up and evaluate SAI trainings in the beneficiary countries (minimum of 3 per year) by developing tools and mechanisms with impact in organizational learning and Knowledge Sharing;
• Update the quality criteria and indicators for all project actions (in year 2 and 3) targeting SAI and external control of public expenditures and accounts;
• Develop an Advocacy Plan with Advancing Policy Oriented Agenda putting forward analysis and creation of messages and strategies for the project;
• Develop a Partnerships Strategy aiming at Identifying and building partnerships;

Produce In-depth knowledge of the Subject-matter products, namely:

• One (1) Strategic Note in line with UNDP Practice on the project results and achievements by the end of the assignment;
• Three (3) Guidance Notes in line with UNDP Practice covering 3 specific areas within external control of public expenditures and accounts and the work of SAI in the PALOP and Timor-Leste;
• Up to twenty four (24) Issue Briefs in line with UNDP Practice covering the quarterly activities progress reports in all beneficiary countries.

Additionally, the senior SAI advisor will support the PM on the following matters:

• Promoting Visibility for UNDP-EU partnership within the scope of the project and at corporate level supporting UNDP’s Capacity to develop innovative and creative approaches;
• Provision of technical expertise based on conceptual innovation and development of innovative and creative approaches. 

Methodology:

The Individual Contractor (IC) will determine the most appropriate methodology. He/she will have access to office space, internet access and phone provided by UNDP Country Offices in Cape Verde and in all UNDP Country Offices in the beneficiary countries during his/her missions.

• Before each payment, the IC will produce a progress report on his/her work;
• Before the final payment, the IC will produce a final report compiling all his/her deliverables.

Competencies

The senior SAI advisor is expected to have core competencies allowing him/her to support the PM:

• Promoting Ethics and Integrity/Creating Organizational Precedents;
• Building support and political acumen;
• Building staff competence, Creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Building and promoting effective teams;
• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
• Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNDP & setting standards;
• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
• Fair and transparent decision making;
• calculated risk-taking.

Contributing to positive outcomes for the client in a client based approach that:

• Anticipates client needs;
• Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
• Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective;
• Keeps the client informed of problems or delays in the provision of services;
• Uses discretion and flexibility in interpreting rules in order to meet client needs and achieve organizational goals more effectively;
• Solicits feedback on service provision and quality.
• Strong interpersonal and written and oral communication skills;
• Ability to work well in multi-disciplinary teams.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• 10 years Experience as an advisor/senior professional with supreme audit institutions and courts of auditors; 
• Knowledge and applied understanding of advisory services to national, district and local governments on developing capacities to improve auditing processes;
• Experience in project management providing  conceptualization, implementation, and results-based monitoring, preferably on good governance projects;
• Experience in development cooperation, preferably in the context of ACP Portuguese Speaking Countries (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé e Príncipe and Timor-Leste);
• Experience in public finance sector;
• Knowledge of the workings of supreme audit institutions and experience with international bodies of the audit institutions (e.g. INTOSAI);
• Experience in the management of UNDP projects is an asset;
• Previous working experience in a supreme audit institution is an asset.

Language:

• Professional proficiency in Portuguese is required and English is an asset;

N.B.

Applications through UNDP jobs will not be accepted, only to the procurement.cv@cv.jo.un.org email address.