Background
The first One Door Service Center (ODSC) was started as a pilot in Saysetha District of Vientiane Capital in 2006 with the support of the Public Administration and Civil Service Authority (Ministry of Home Affairs in present) with technical and financial support from GPAR SBSD (Governance and Public Administration Reform Support for Better Service Delivery). The success of the pilot ODSC at Saysetha district served as an ODSC Model to set up other ODS Centers in other districts in Vientiane Capital. In 2007, the Prime Minister issued an Agreement No. 86/PM, dated 3rd August 2007directing the establishment of One Door Service in Public Administrations. Since then, many ODSCs were established. Currently there are 17 ODSCs across the country of which 5 are at the provincial level, 11 are at the district level, and 1 ODSC at ministerial level. Services provided in the ODSCs include administrative, land management, public security, tourism and cultural, sport, commercial and public works.
The “Strengthening Capacity and Service Delivery of Local Administrations (GPAR SCSD)” project was formulated under the NGPAR from 2012-2015 with the objective “to ensure increase capacity in the local administration leading to better delivery of services which improve the lives of the poor, especially in rural areas of Lao PDR”. Although the One Door Service Centre mechanism has generated improvement in public administration and built trust for the people, during last few years some sectors have withdrawn their service(s) from some ODSCs. This has generated negative impacts on public administration. The most important causes are that many sectors still not understand and are aware of the importance of the services provided though the ODSC; there is no regulation on the fees, revenue, budget allocation; staffs were not well trained and have limited service orientation, etc.
The Prime Minister issued the Ordinance No. 09/PM dated 28th January 2013 on Expanding ODS Implementation across country. In order to ensure that the expansion of the ODSC is implemented in a more coherent, effective and efficient manner, it is necessary to conduct an in-depth analysis of the issues affecting the operation or implementation of ODSCs to address the issues and formulate an appropriate action plan that will help inform future actions on the ODS development, expansion and cooperation between sectors to ensure the success of public administration improvement.
Objective of the Consultancy
The objectives of the consultancy are to (1) conduct an analysis of the good points and weak points and issues that affect the operation of ODSCs; (2) formulate an action plan that will inform and guide the government in developing policies, regulations, administrative improvement and more effective management in the delivery of services under the ODSC.
Duties and Responsibilities
Scope of Work
To achieve overall objectives, the Consultancy shall be undertaken in following works:
- (1) Review information from relevant documents, reports, etc, from various government’s sources on the status and problem/issues related to the implementation of ODSC as well field survey at existing ODSCS as well as interview key stakeholders to obtain an updated and in-depth analysis of the situation;
- (2) Prepare the study framework and discuss with MoHA and GPAR SCSD; and, (3) prepare the inception report. - SWOT Analysis will be used as a tool to assess the existing situation to inform the development an Action Plan.
In the development of an Action Plan, the Consultant will draw information and insights on comparative international good practice experiences that maybe adapted to Lao P.D.R context.
The Action Plan shall have the following sections:
- (1) an analysis of the current situation of ODSC implementation, the good points and weak points of existing ODSCs, issues, the key institutions or stakeholders responsible for various aspects of service provision, key capacity development constraints; current efforts/policy by the Government to address these, overall vision in of ODSC in Laos, the mission that ODS should carry out and the target to be achieved in each period of time;
- (2) A proposed framework that describes the strategy for addressing the various capacity development constraints and key interrelationships or linkages among the various components of the proposed action plan including the drivers of change;
- (3) An action plan that: (i) identifies time bound activities or interventions that need to be implemented over a period of time and classified accordingly as to whether they are short, medium, and long term). (ii) Performance indicators and targets that will be the basis for monitoring progress towards the achievement of target outputs; (iii) estimate cost of such interventions (as feasible);
- (4) Proposed institutional and management arrangement for monitoring the performance of existing ODSCs and coordinating the establishment new ODS centers, development of policies and, regulations; and oversight of implementation, including draft Terms of Reference of the proposed oversight body.
The consultant will prepare and present in two consultation workshops on ODSC action plan.
During the Review Meeting on ODSC, the consultant will present ODSC status and the draft of the
proposed Action Plan. After receiving feedback and comments, the consultant will undertake the necessary revision. A revised version of the draft Action Plan will be presented to MoHA decision makers for further comments and approval to be incorporated in the final version of the Action Plan.
Deliverable Outputs:
The consultant is expected to produce outputs as described below:
- Framework of the study that will discussed with MoHA and GPAR SCSD, and, Inception Report that describe issues of ODS before study;
- The initial draft of the report containing analysis of the current situation on the implementation of ODSC in Lao P.D.R, and, proposed framework of ODS Action Plan to be discussed and agreed with MoHA prior to the development of the detailed action plan;
- The consultant will design and lead the meeting on ODS Action Plan that will be used as a forum to generate comments and suggestions from participations to help inform the needs for future Action Plan, and, report on the output of the workshop;
- The consultant will lead the meeting to present the draft of final proposed Action Plan for MoHA, GPAR SCSD, and representative from concerned stakeholders. The meeting will serve as a forum to generate comments and suggestions to improve the final version. The result of the meeting will be reported.
- The Final ODS Action Plan will be submitted after revision.
Implementation and Reporting Arrangement:
- The consultant will work closely and report to a steering committee composed of DoLA, DPAD, and NGPAR from MoHA. The steering committee will provide overall guidance and direction to the Consultant;
- All reports will be submitted to NGPAR and copied to DoLA and DPAD;
- NGPAR will provide the financial support during the consultancy;
- TCA and Coordinators from NGPAR Secretariat will provide some technical support for the
Consultant.
Competencies
Functional competencies:
- Provide helpful feedback and advice;
- Plan and produces quality results, apply depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise to meet job demands;
- Generate innovative, practical solution to challenging situation;
- Conceptualizes and analyzes problems to identify key issues, underlying problems, and how they relate;
- Demonstrates excellent and effective written and oral communication skills;
- Uses information technology effectively as a tools and resource;
Corporate Competencies:
- Demonstrates leadership, team building and coordinating skills;
- Demonstrates commitment to human development principles and values;
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
- Shares knowledge and experience;
- Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
- Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
- Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Master Degree in Public Administration, Business Management, Development Studies, Rural Development or related fields, or exceptionally strong relevant experience in lieu of a Masters degree.
Experience:
- At least 10 year work experience in development and public administration, service delivery, and organizational development. Previous experience on business process reengineering, One Door Service/One Stop Service Centers or similar models in developing country context will be highly desirable;
- Work experience in collecting, synthesizing, analyzing, and presenting information from sub-national level service delivery units and communities, drafting strategic plan on public administration; and results-based performance indicators;
- Work experience with the Lao PDR governments at the national and sub-national levels;
International work experience in other developing country context would be highly desirable;
Language:
- Fluency in both written and spoken in Lao and English;
- Strong oral and written communication skills.
Requirements for submission of proposals:
All interested and qualified candidates should apply on-line using the following links:- UNDP Lao PDR Country Office website at http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/operations/jobs/ or
- UNDP Jobs at http://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm;In order to make submission please read the attached relevant documents which are also available on our web-site at http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/operations/jobs/;
- TOR (Annex I);
- Individual Contract & General Terms and Conditions (Annex II);
- Offeror’s Letter to UNDP (Annex III);
- Reimbursable Loan Agreement (for a consultant assigned by a firm) & General Conditions (Annex IV).
Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:
- Technical Proposal as per Annex III “Offeror’s Letter to UNDP”;
- Explaining why you are the most suitable for the work;
- Providing a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work including the work schedule for the delivery of outputs/deliverable;
- CV including past experience in similar project and contact reference of at least 3 references for whom you have rendered preferably the similar service.
Cumulative analysis:
The award of the contract will be made to a consultant who 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:
- Technical Criteria weight; [0.7];
- Financial Criteria weight; [0.3].
Only a consultant obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical rating would be considered for the financial evaluation.
For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1- Terms of Reference (TOR). TOR and General Terms and Conditions for Individual Consultants can be also downloaded at http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/operations/jobs/.
Note:
Any request for clarification must be sent in writing to the following e-mail:ngpar@moha.gov.la and CC to baythone.lovanxay@moha.gov.la ; khampasong.xayavong@uncdf.org
The copies of the response will be also placed on our web-site at:
- http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/operations/jobs/ and linked to the current Procurement Notice;
- All interested candidates are encouraged to visit the above web-site for updates;
- Please note that only short-listed candidates will be notified;
- Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply;
- For more detailed information about UNDP Lao PDR please visit our website at http://www.undplao.org.