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 10th EDF A envelope in support, among others, of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI), Parliaments, Parliamentarians and Civil Society Organizations in Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau, 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 10th 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.

Description of the assignment

A Gender responsive budgeting (GRB) is an indispensable element in the process of mainstreaming the gender perspective, as recommended in the Beijing Conference (1995). This process considers the intervention of different actors in their different stages; from the moment of conceptualization of policies to evaluation, through programme design, development of plans and budgets, design of the implementation methodology, etc.

GRB is national planning and budgeting that contributes to the advancement in the field of gender equality and the effective enforcement of the rights of women planning. It involves the identification and thinking on the need to bridge gender gaps in sectorial and local government policies, plans and budgets interventions. It also aims to examine the differential impact on men and women of policies to increase income and allocation of internal resources and Official Development Assistance.

In 2010, the ICIEG (Cabo Verdean Institute for Gender Equality and Gender Equity) with the support of UN Women initiated a process of making a diagnosis of the situation in Cabo Verde regarding the promotion of gender equity in planning and in the national budget. This assessment identified the shortcomings in government’s formulation of strategies, planning and budgeting models and resulted in the development of an Action Plan for the implementation of a Gender responsive budgeting and Planning Programme (PGRB), involving various government sectors, parliament and organized civil society.

Taking into account the critical role of Parliament to approve the state budget and oversee its implementation, one of the strategies adopted was to further work with the National Parliament, in particular with the Network of Women Parliamentarians.

In this context a UNDP project funded by the European Union to support electoral cycles in the PALOP and Timor-Leste (ACP Portuguese Speaking Countries), Pro PALOP-TL, developed this specific component in partnership with the UN-Women Office in Cabo Verde, which ensured the methodological and conceptual orientation of actions and in the implementation of the following three major activities:

  • The Training Workshop on "Gender and women's empowerment", which was attended by representatives of the Network of Women Parliamentarians of Mozambique (4), Portugal (2), São Tomé and Príncipe (4) and Cabo Verde (16). The workshop allowed deep discussions, peer learning and exchanges of experiences resulting  in drafting of national PGRBs and the role of parliaments in this area (Sep / Oct 2012);
  • A one-day awareness / training workshop delivered to MPs with the aim to increase knowledge and sensitivity and Cabo Verde parliamentarians on PGRB, to stimulate the application of gender analysis to greater efficiency and effectiveness in resource allocation and budget decisions (Nov 2012). 30 MPs attended the workshop, were informed and got acquainted with the main data and gender indicators in Cabo Verde, and how these indicators are used in planning and budgeting exercises; reflected on the different stages of planning and budgeting and the roles of the different stakeholders in the process, identifying potential opportunities to promote gender equality within the budget cycle; got to know the key tools and proposals for Parliament to work with PGRB, as well as case studies, good practices and practical examples developed in other countries;
  • A study visit by the Network of Women Parliamentarians of Cabo Verde to Brazil Senate to get to know the experience of the Women's Caucus in the Brazilian Senate regarding the action and follow-up of the latest in PGRB (Nov 2013).

In order to further developed and enhance the process and work carried out by UNDP and UN Women with the Network of Women Parliamentarians and Parliament in general, also considering the need to effectively setup and implement a Gender-sensitive Monitoring and Evaluation System targeting public expenditures and accounts, the UNDP project funded by the European Union for Strengthening Technical and Functional Skills of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs), National Parliaments and Civil Society for the control of public finances in the PALOPs and Timor-Leste (TL-Pro PALOPs IAS) is recruiting an senior expert to support parliament, Network of Women Parliamentarians and all relevant stakeholders design a public expenditures and accounts Gender-sensitive Monitoring and Evaluation System.

Objective of the assignment

The deliverables provided by the Expert in Gender and Parliament Budget and Expenditure oversight (Gender Expert) will allow the project to strengthen the capacity of Cabo Verde’s Network of Women Parliamentarians and Parliament to develop an efficient Gender responsive budget, public expenditures and accounts monitoring and evaluation system of activities and budget public expenditure. In line with the provisions set in the Project Document and Contribution Agreement signed between the European Union and UNDP in Cape Verde.

For detailed information, please refer to the Terms of Reference available in the following websites:

Duties and Responsibilities

The gender specialist will support national partners, particularly the Network of Women Parliamentarians to:

Understand and apply the concepts, methodologies and practices related with gender budgeting and control of public expenditure.

Conduct state budget analysis with a special focus on the analysis of costs and the differential impact on women and men, through:

  • Inclusive analysis of national budgeting process involving women parliamentarians and other relevant actors in Cabo Verde;
  • Analysis of 2015 Executive Budget Proposal to prepare Women MPs for the budget discussion schedule for October 2014;
  • Capacity development of men and women MPs to influence 2015 Budget process in order to include gender sensitive approach
  • Design of a Monitoring and Evaluation System with performance indicators on gender, and evaluation of the budget implementation.

Considering the Legislature calendar and timetable for the Annual State Budget process, the consultant shall provide the necessary technical support to the Network of Women Parliamentarians in gender analysis using the 2015 Executive Budget Proposal and prepare them for the EBP discussion in Parliament. This will include working with the beneficiaries on the principles Gender responsive budgeting and current gender disparities and gaps, as well as national priorities in line with the most recent and updated country reports on the issue.

Aimed at strengthening the capacity of women MPs and allies, the consultant will facilitate training in Gender Sensitive Budgeting, which will also represent a preparatory work for more effective Gender streamline in the 2016 Budget process. Simultaneously, this training will develop critical baselines for inclusive mechanisms for monitoring public expenditure which will involve different stakeholders (e.g. the civil society organizations, particularly women's organizations) and a set of performance indicators on gender to be identified as part of this system.

The consultant will support in development of an awareness and advocacy plan for the adoption and institutionalization of gender sensitive budgets (legislative and institutional dimensions). This support will target the Network of Women MPs along with other legislative committees, in particular the budget committee and the gender committee. It will also involve the leaders of the political party legislative groups.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The Gender Expert will have to produce clear measurable deliverables as follows:

Deliverable 1:

  • Prepare a work plan for the consultancy within five days after beginning the assignment.

Deliverable 2:

  • Develop an Advocacy Plan and the Partnership Strategy putting forward analysis and creation of messages and strategies for the process.

Deliverable 3:

  • Conduct a gender analysis on the 2015 Executive Budget Proposal State Budget and support relevant beneficiaries organizing an information journey to socialize the methodology and the results of the analysis report produced by the Network of Women Parliamentarians and Partners.

Deliverable 4:

  • Develop the conceptualization and facilitate working sessions to support the Network of Women Parliamentarians in the discussions of the 2015 Executive Budget Proposal, taking into account the gender budget analysis.

Deliverable 5:

  • Conduct a workshop to raise awareness of MPs and government staff in the field of gender sensitive budgeting.

Deliverable 6:

  • Conduct a training on Gender Sensitive Budgeting, addressed the MPs of the Network of Women Parliamentarians, the MPs of the Budget and Gender Committees, and other relevant Committees and Parliament Staff.

Deliverable 7:

  • Develop a draft proposal for a monitoring and evaluation system of the gender dimension in the State Public Expenditure, integrating a minimum set of gender performance indicators.

Institutional Arrangements

The Gender Expert will work under the direct supervision of the Pro PALOP/TL SAI UNDP Programme Manager. He/she will be required to work in Cabo Verde in order to support and advice the Parliamentarian Women Network, other project stakeholders beneficiaries and UNDP Country Office in particular, with regards to the activities targeting Gender mainstream in Parliament budget and expenditure oversight.

The consultancy will take place in Praia, in the island of Santiago, Cape Verde. A working group will be formed including: Rede das Mulheres Parlamentares de Cabo Verde, ICIEG, civil society organizations (particularly women's organizations), UNDP and UN Women.

UNDP Country Office in Cape Verde will provide the necessary logistic support and office facilities to carry out the assignment. He/she will have access to office space, internet access and phone provided by UNDP Country Office in Cabo Verde during his/her missions.

Methodology

The Individual Contractor (IC) will determine the most appropriate methodology. In terms of methodology, the actions will be developed through analysis of evidences of disparities and inequality of budget allocations and expenditure.

This will also involve a fair amount of training and sensitization/advocacy strategies, all contributing for the following results:

  • National Parliament has increasingly acknowledged the importance of GRB;
  • National budget process in Cabo Verde reflects gender equality principles (in discussion for approval of the national budget for 2015 and in the process of national budget for 2016);
  • A proposal for gender monitoring and evaluation system of the national budget expenditure is proposed and in place

Report Requirements:

  • 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

Core Competencies:

  • 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.

Functional Competencies:

  • 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:

  • Advanced degree in statistics and information management, social sciences, economics, governance or related fields.

Experience:

  • Minimum 7 years of “relevant” work experience in planning initiatives for Women Empowerment and gender mainstreaming in policies, programs and projects;
  • Practical experience in budgeting analysis from a gender perspective and in facilitating processes of Gender Responsive Budgeting;
  • Extensive experience in terms of strategic planning and elaboration of documents such as reports, plans, programs and guides with a gender focus;
  • Proven experience in the statistical data analysis;
  • Proven facilitation skills (workshops, training courses, etc.) and work experience with governments, parliamentarians and civil society organizations.

Language:

  • Knowledge of Portuguese and/ or Spanish is an asset as well as the knowledge of the country’s context in terms of gender.

Application Procedure

Important note: Interested consultants is strongly advised to read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/index.cfm  for more detail about the terms of references, instructions to offeror, and documents to be included when submitting offer.

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

  • Offeror’s letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) assignment and Final all-inclusive price proposal with breakdown of costs as per UNDP template, which can be downloaded at http://www.un.cv/anuncios.php
  • Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
  • Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment;
  • Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided.  If an Offer or is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offer or must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

Note for Interested Candidates above the age of 62: UNDP regulations require, at their own cost, to undergo a full medical examination including x-rays. Medical evaluation documentation does not need to be submitted with the other requested documents listed above, but will be requested should the candidate be chosen.

Proposals must include all four documents. Proposals not meeting this requirement will be rejected.

Evaluation Process:

The contract will be awarded to the candidate who received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria.

Technical Criteria weight: 70% + Financial Criteria weight: 30%. Individual consultants will be evaluated based on Cumulative analysis.

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract shall 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.

Technical Criteria weight: 70%.

Financial Criteria weight: 30%.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) of the total obtainable technical points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation. The Technical proposal submitted and the pre-determined questions to be asked during the interview would be in line with the below Criteria.

Technical – 70%

Criteria A (Candidate profile): Minimum 7 years of “relevant” work experience in planning initiatives for Women Empowerment and gender mainstreaming in policies, programs and projects; practical experience in budgeting analysis from a gender perspective and in facilitating processes of Gender Responsive Budgeting; proven experience in providing advisory services in the area of gender equality; extensive experience in terms of strategic planning and elaboration of documents such as reports, plans, programs and guides with a gender focus. 30 Points.

Criteria B (Candidate profile): Advanced degree in statistics and information management, social sciences, economics, governance or related fields; knowledge of Portuguese and/ or Spanish is an asset as well as the knowledge of the country’s context in terms of gender. 10 Points

Criteria C (Candidate profile): Proven experience in the statistical data analysis; Proven facilitation skills (workshops, training courses,…) and work experience with governments, parliamentarians and civil society organizations. 10 Points.

Criteria D (Methodological Proposal):

  • Knowledge and applied understanding of advisory services to national parliaments and women’s groups on developing capacities to understand and to apply concepts, methodologies and practices related with gender budgeting and control of public expenditure;
  • Reference to the scope requested in  the procurement note; adequacy of the proposed methodology with the objectives of the consultancy; detailed methodology, including the timeline of the consultancy. 40 Points;
  • Criteria E (Methodological Proposal): quality insurance of deliverables (M&E mechanisms and criteria). 10 Points

Financial Proposal – 30%

The financial score for the financial proposal will be calculated in the following manner:

Sf = 100 x Fm/F, in which Sf is the financial score, Fm is the lowest price and F the price of the proposal under consideration.

(Total Financial Maximum points = 30 points).

Total Score

The technical score attained at by each proposal will be used in determining the Total score as follows:

  • The weights given to the technical and financial proposals are: T= 0.7, F=0.3;
  • The Total score will be calculated by formula:TS = St x 0.7 + Sf x 0.3;
  • TS - Is the total score of the proposal under consideration?
  • St - is technical score of the proposal under consideration.

Sf - is financial score of the proposal under consideration.

Interested candidates are strongly advised to read the Procurement Notice for Individual Consultants and its related documents, which are available in the following websites:

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