Background

Public administration reform has been a priority activity of the Government of Lao PDR from the early 90’s. The GPAR Programme, established in 1997, has been implemented through projects at the national and provincial levels. The focal point for public administration reform is now the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA). Given the wide scope of governance reforms, related activities have been taken up in several ministries and offices of the Government, which include the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Planning and Investment. The GPAR Programme provides leadership and guidance for governance reforms and directly supports the high level Leading Committee on Governance, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister.

The Government of Lao PDR through its Governance and Public Administration Reform programme (GPAR) has made steady and significant progress over the years in developing the foundation for an effective, accountable and responsive public administration.  The current national GPAR programme began in 2012 and is scheduled to be completed by December 2015. To help inform and guide stakeholder decision-making on the current achievements against planned outcomes and to develop a concept for further discussion and development for the potential continuation of the programme, the Government, with the assistance of UNDP/UNCDF, and other development partners, will undertaking an assignment in Quarter 4 of 2014.  This assignment has three main deliverables to be addressed by the Team: (i) Assess the progress, impact and sustainability towards expected outcomes in the current GPAR Programme, with evaluation of the two core GPAR projects; GPAR NGPS and GPAR SCSD, including (ii) the District Development Fund (DDF), and (iii) develop Concept for GPAR 2016-2020. The 4 person Team will be comprised of a Team leader (international), Team Member (international), Team Member (Lao National) and Regional Team Member.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Team Leader, the Team Member is expected to provide an evaluation discipline, methodology/approach and perspective with global insights about the governance and public administration reform. S/he will contribute to achieve the common goals through the following duties and responsibilities:

  • Provide an evaluation discipline and perspective with global insights about governance, public administration reform;
  • Methodically document, review and frame approach and questions for the assessment and concept development;
  • Ensure use of best practice evaluation, assessment and Concept design methodologies in conducting the mission, ensuring approach, findings and recommendations arefirmly grounded;
  • Support the mission team with the review of the DDF, including the positioning, approach and practices adopted in the context of government reforms for sub-national administration and vis-à-vis government policy and other directly relevant initiatives.
  • Support with the review of the purpose and impacts of DDF on local poverty reduction, government policies, capacity development, local development, and governance and public administration reform in Lao PDR.
  • Assist with Identifying key strengths, weaknesses and opportunities relating to DDF;
  • In coordination with the Team Leader, assist in holding consultations and interviews with relevant stakeholders and strategic partners: the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning and Investment and a selection of other services ministries (e.g. Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment), a selection of Line offices in a number of provinces and districts, UNDP, UNCDF, EU, ADB, WB, SDC, RoK, GD of Luxembourg,  and other development partners, (Lao) civil society organizations, mass organizations, international NGOs;
  • Advise and assist with data collection and data analysis;
  • In coordination with the Team Leader, identify possible capacity development/enhancement issues;
  • Methodically identify and analyse the GPAR results, achievements and constraints;
  • Assist to facilitate an internal workshop or focus group discussion about the lessons learnedand on the future concept development;
  • Contribute and assist with the national debriefing for programme stakeholders in Lao PDR;
  • Ensure quality control in the drafting and finalization of the assessment report and concept development report.

The team member is accountable for the team leader on delivering the common goals. S/he will also work closely with the rest of the team members: national consultant and the regional gender expert to ensure high quality products.

Competencies

Functional competencies:

  • Shares knowledge and experience;
  • Plan and prioritizes work activities to meet organizational goals;
  • Builds and sustains relationships with key constituents (international/external/bilateral/ multilateral/public/private/civil society).
  • Conceptualizes and analyzes problems to identify key issues, underlying problems, and how they relate;
  • Demonstrates excellent and effective written and oral communication skills;
  • Demonstrate respect to knowledge and culture and religion in a multidisciplinary working environment;
  • Applies the required depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise to meet job demands;
  • Uses information technology effectively as a tools and resource;
  • Demonstrated flexibility and adaptability in taking on this type of consultancy.

Corporate Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards; 
  •  Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP; 
  •  Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
  • Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualification:

  • Master’s Degree in Economics, International Relations, Development Studies, Public Administration or related field.

Experience:

  • 10 years of experience inevaluation,with a focus in governance, public administration reform and Service Delivery and/or Local Governance);
  • Substantive experience with the evaluation of multi-donor supported programmes with multiple levels of government (national, local e.g. province, district);
  • Thorough understanding of key elements of results-based programme management;
  • Strong capacity for data collection and analysis, as well as report writing;
  • Ability to assess the effectiveness and sustainability of programme structure and implementation modalities
  • Knowledge of UNDP mandates and programmes, especially in the area of public administration reform and deconcentrated governance.
  • In-depth knowledge and experience in working with sub-national public expenditure management and intergovernmental fiscal framework, or public financial management in an international development setting is desirable.
  • Good experience in capacity building and institutional strengthening. (Experience at the level of local government or local administrations would be desirable);
  • Sound knowledge and understanding of gender sensitivity and social inclusion;
  • Experience in South East Asia – experience in Lao PDR is considered as an asset;
  • Proven success in working collaboratively with a number of different stakeholders.

Language:

  • Fluency in both written and spoken English;
  • Strong oral and written communication skills - use of simple and clear language;
  • Proven success in working collaboratively with a number of different stakeholders.

Requirements for submission of proposals: 

All interested and qualified candidates should apply on-line using the following links: 

In order to make submission please read the attached relevant documents which are also avalable 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.

Financial proposal:

  • Detailed financial proposal: Lump sum offer with clear cost breakdown against each deliverable.

Note: The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days). All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. UNDP accept travel costs not exceeding of an economy class air ticket. 

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 however Word format can be also accepted) and upload to the UNDP Jobs using the links above; 
  • Step 3: After that you will receive an auto reply from the UNDP jobs if your offer is received successfully.

Incomplete proposals or proposals received after the deadline will be rejected.

Please kindly refer to the Terms of Reference Annex I for detailed information on:

  • Project’s background;
  • Scope of work and Responsibilities;
  • Timeframe for the work;
  • Deliverables;
  • Requirements for Experience and Qualifications.

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 50 points in the technical rating would be considered for the financial evaluation.

Note:

  Any request for clarification must be sent in writing to the following e-mail: viengmala.phomsengsavanh@undp.org; thilaphong.oudomsine@uncdf.org.

UNDP Lao PDR will respond in writing by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants.

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.la.undp.org/lao_pdr/en/home.html.