UNDP Jobs - 45601- International Consultant

International Consultant - to Conduct Evaluation of Promoting Access to Justice and Human Rights in Bangladesh Project

Location :

Dhaka, BANGLADESH

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

22-Apr-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

25 working days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

This project is an integral part of cooperation between the Government of Bangladesh and UNDP in the area of democratic governance, human rights and access to justice. Keeping in mind the overall development objectives of all UN Projects working in the justice sector as set out in the United Nations Development Framework, this project aims to strengthen the Justice and Human Rights Institutions to better serve and protect human rights of all citizens including women and vulnerable groups. Implemented by the Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, this project commenced in July 2007 and continued till June 2010 focusing on two main components:

Access to Justice; and
Human Rights

Providing support to a process initiated by the government to establish a Human Rights Commission was one of the major successes amongst others. Successful implementation of the Project led to two years extension till June 2012. The extended phase focused on three components:

Building the strategic management capacity of the Ministry to improve service delivery;
Improved access to legal aid; and
Improved administration of justice through legal and policy reforms including strengthened ADR mechanism.

Recognizing that a policy and legal reform process is a continuous endeavor, the project was further extended for another two years until June 2014 to strengthen the institutional capacity to undertake prioritized, inclusive and higher quality legislative reform and to provide advice on international treaties, conventions and international legal affairs.

The project period was supposed to be ended on 30 June 2014. But some of the key ongoing activities are visualized to remain unfinished within June 2014. Therefore UNDP and the project management have agreed a no-cost extension of the Project for 6 (six) months from July-December 2014.

An evaluation is now required to provide an independent analysis of the project’s achievements. Furthermore, recommendations will be needed to help provide options for how UNDP might continue to support the LPAD in the long term.

Duties and Responsibilities

Purpose of the Evaluation:

The main purpose of the evaluation is to assess the outputs/results achieved by the A2J Project and explore any future scope and opportunity for further actions to be taken by LPAD to ensure quality legislative reform and develop new laws for the vulnerable community and people of the country and improved access to justice and human rights and governance.

Specific Objectives:

Evaluate the performance (targets-achievements and effectiveness) of the Promoting Access to Justice & Human Rights in Bangladesh (2007-2014) Project; and
Based on the findings of the evaluation, prepare a rationale and recommendations for possible future UNDP support to LPAD.

Scope of Work:

The International Consultant (IC) is expected to provide an independent evaluation/assessment of the performance of the A2J Project. The scope of the evaluation will include the period 2007 -2014. The IC will use UNDP guidelines for evaluations and seek the views of national partners, UNDP, other development partners and stakeholders involved in justice delivery system.

The IC will work with a national consultant and will lead the drafting of the evaluation report and other related documents, with input from the national consultant.

The output will be an evaluation report (not more than 25 pages), which outlines progress against planned outputs as well as any unplanned activities, which contributed to achieve designed outputs. In addition, the IC will recommend strategies to implement unimplemented activities, if any. The report will include a series of recommendations regarding potential areas of future collaboration with the LPAD. To undertake and achieve this output, the consultant will:

Review all relevant reports and project documents;
Discuss/consult with LPAD officials and other stakeholders;
Review the strategic plan of LPAD if it is available at that time;
Discuss with project staff and UNDP officials; and
Conduct key informant interviews (KIIs) with the Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, senior officials of LPAD, Chief Technical Advisor, A2J Project and UNDP senior management. and;

The IC will also produce a separate and basic draft results framework, including outcomes, outputs, activities and indicators to guide any future initiatives. The work will be based in Dhaka.

Methodologies:

In order to achieve the objectives of this evaluation, the IC will propose a set of methodologies to get information about project outputs against each of the targets and its sustainability. The IC should explore the future actions that LPAD can undertake to improve the administration of timely, affordable, and accessible justice in Bangladesh. Therefore, the IC should or may use the following methods for this evaluation:

Documents Review: The IC will review project documents, annual reports and lessons learned reports to know the project results and outputs achieved during the period 2007-2014.
Discussion/Consultation: The IC will meet project staff and staff of LPAD separately to explore the outputs/results achieved by the project during the period covered. In these discussions, the consultant will also collect evidence of the changes created within the LPAD and outside due to project interventions.
Interview: The IC will meet the Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, senior officials of LPAD, Chief Technical Advisor, A2J Project and UNDP senior management to discuss any policy and strategic issues relating to the ongoing project implementation and future course of actions.
Focus Group Discussion: The IC will conduct Focus Group Discussions with other stakeholders involved in justice delivery system to assess the application of amended or reformed laws and how people are getting benefits out of it. The IC will also explore the area where law reform or amendment is further necessary. In addition to these, the IC will focus on capacity building of LPAD and other stakeholders to ensure access to justice for all and administration of timely, affordable and accessible justice for poor and vulnerable community groups.
Debriefing Session: Before submitting the final report, the IC will present the key findings and recommendations in a debriefing session. Officials from LPAD, UNDP, project and selected persons from other stakeholders will attend this session.

Expected deliverables/outputs:

Action plan (day 3);
Draft Evaluation Report (end week 2)
Final Evaluation report and basic results framework for future initiatives/project (end of contract)

Evaluation Team Composition:

The IC will report to the Chief Technical Adviser (CTA), A2J Project. The CTA will be responsible for review / evaluate the performance and approve the deliverables/outputs.

A national consultant will work with the International Consultant (IC) as a team member. The role of the IC will be to plan and design evaluation tools, review project documents, conduct interviews and write report.

Timeframe and Deadlines:

The evaluation will take 25 working days, including submission of detailed action plan, desk review, interviews, consultations and analysis (15 days), drafting (7 days) and presentation, discussion of findings and finalization of the report (3 days). The IC will make a presentation at least 2 days before departing Dhaka. The presentation will be arranged by the A2J Project.

Task and Required Days:

Submission of detailed action plan (2 days);
Desk Review/Documents Review (3 days);
Meeting, Consultation, Interview with Stakeholders (10 days);
Preparation of Draft Reprt (07 days);
Debriefing and Finalization of Evaluation Report (03 days).

Inputs:

UNDP will provide office space (no computer) and in-country transport. UNDP will also arrange various meetings, consultations, and interviews and ensure access to key officials as mentioned in proposed methodologies.

In addition to this, UNDP will bear the cost of arranging consultation meetings, FGD, debriefing session and other events as required.

Competencies

Encourages knowledge Sharing and Learning;
Disseminates specialized knowledge and experience;
Demonstrates knowledge on Bangladesh legal and justice system;
Ability to work under pressure in a challenging and complex environment;
Responds positively to feedback and differing points of view.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

A Master’s Degree in Law or relevant Social Science;
Significant demonstrated experience in the evaluation of justice projects will be considered in lieu of a Master’s Degree in Law.

Experience:

At least seven years professional experience in access to justice programming, with demonstrated experience leading at least 2 previous evaluations of justice projects;
Demonstrated knowledge on Bangladesh legal and justice system would be an asset;
Previous experience working with UNDP would be an advantage.

Language:

Excellent written and oral communication skills in English.

Evaluation of the Candidates:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis: The candidates will be evaluated through Cumulative Analysis method. When using the weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will 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.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for Financial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks)

A Master’s Degree in law or relevant social science. Significant demonstrated experience in the evaluation of justice projects will be considered in lieu of a Master’s Degree (10 marks);
At least seven years professional experience in access to justice programming, with demonstrated experience leading at least 2 previous evaluations of justice projects (15 marks);
Demonstrated knowledge on Bangladesh legal and justice system would be an asset (10 marks);
Previous experience working with UNDP would be an advantage (5 marks);
Proposed methodology to carry out the assignment (20 marks);
Action plan (5 marks);
Risk mitigation plan (5 marks).

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks)

All technical yqualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below. The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula:
p = y (μ/z)
where:
p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated
y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal
μ = price of the lowest priced proposal
z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

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

Technical Proposal:

Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work within 2 pages;
Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work -not more than 5 pages;
If feasible, a copy of previous political economy/drivers of change work.

Personal P-11 form

Iincluding past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references.