Background

Candidates who previously applied need not apply again.

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

The Mission team will hold meetings and discussions with concerned Government of Lao PDR leadership, ministries and supporting staff, Programme beneficiaries, stakeholders and counterparts, in the execution of the mission. 

Oversee and conduct the GPAR assessment and projects evaluation, applying the general evaluation criteria of relevance,efficiency, effectiveness, likely impact, and including:

  • Compare the achievements at the output and outcome level and gaps of intended results with actual delivery
  • Identify lessons learned and best practices (that can be considered or explored in the context of the Concept note on the possible future of a GPAR programme beyond 2015);
  • Assess the stakeholders’ level of satisfaction with the Programme’s results;
  • Assess the sustainability of implemented activities and interventions in the medium and longer term;
  • Assess whether adopting a different approach and/or using alternative delivery mechanisms could be more sustainable and/or cost effective; and
  • Assess if the organizational structure, managerial support and coordination mechanisms effectively support the delivery of the Programme; and
  • Assess if the programme has effective monitoring mechanisms in place to measure progress towards results, and any;
  • Assess how well does the Programme coordinate and harmonize its work with other partners (including government actors and development actors), and recommendations in this regard;
  • Assess the likelihood that the benefits from the Programme will be maintained for a reasonably long period of time after the end of the current Programme; and
  • Incorporate the findings from the strategic review of the District Development Fund (DDF) into the GPAR Assessment and Concept note;
  • How relevant is the GPAR programme to the National Development priorities and the achievement of the MDGs, and recommendations;
  • Identify the lessons learned from the shift from the project-based approach to a programme-based approach under NGPAR 2011-2015, and recommendations in this regard;
  • Assuming the evaluators’ recommendation is to continue the programme, the team will then be asked in a Phase II of the exercise to develop a draft concept paper for GPAR 2016 – 2020. Using the lessons emerging from the assessment, to devise a Concept note which outlines approach/strategy, for a possiblenew phase of the current GPAR programme beyond 2015;
  • Present the initial findings of the Assessment and proposed future direction (Concept note)to key stakeholders;
  • Submit a first draft of the assessment Report and the Concept note for review, which reflects the feedback given by stakeholders;
  • Revise on the basis of comments received, and submit the Final draft AssessmentReport and simultaneously revise the final draft Concept Note to accurately reflect comments and inputs received.

It is expected that the mission Team will liaise with the Sam Sang secretariat and that the assignment will take into account any emerging results of the national evaluation of the Sam Sang pilot, which is anticipated during the latter part of 2014

In conducting the Assessment and Concept note development, the mission should consider the country’s context and the cultural and socio-political dynamics including thematic areas like poverty reduction, corruption, climate change, gender equality and ethnic diversity and decentralization.

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;
  • Strong ability for data collection and analysis, as well as report writing;
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills.

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 level qualification in Public Administration, Finance/MBA, Local Development, Economics or Management/Organisational Science, or very strong directly relevant experience in lieu.

Experience:

  • At least 5 year’s work experience in the application of participatory assessment techniques and methodologies, or conducting local development assessment at the programme, project, institution and or sub-national levels;
  • In-depth knowledge and experience in working with Government and Development Partners at the country level on either aid effectiveness, local development, sub-national public expenditure management and intergovernmental fiscal framework, or public financial management;
  • Substantive knowledge of governance issues together with work experience and knowledge of the overall political, policy environment, governance challenges and capacity development context of the Lao PDR;
  • Sound knowledge and understanding of gender sensitivity and social inclusion.

Languages:

  • Fluency in Lao and English, in speaking and writing, with at least 2 years of interpretation experience;

Other:

  • Full time availability for the in-country Mission duration (35 working days).

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.