Background

Lack of territorial access to the sea and remoteness from major growth poles and markets often translate into high transport and transit costs for landlocked developing countries (LLDCs). As a result, the delivery costs of imports are higher, exports less competitive, and attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) more difficult. Thus, landlockedness hinders full participation in international trade and minimises comparative advantage.

In addition to their geographical disadvantage, LLDCs suffer additional border crossings, cumbersome and costly transit procedures, inefficient logistics systems, weak institutions and poor infrastructure. These additional costs and obstacles have a tremendous trade-reducing effect that puts these countries at a disadvantage in fully harnessing their potentials to support their sustainable development efforts.

A recent study by the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS) revealed that LLDCs’ trade was just 61 per cent of the trade volume of coastal countries and their transport costs 45 per cent higher than a representative coastal economy in 2010.

The close linkage between transit transport, international trade and economic growth has led landlocked and transit developing countries to take an increasingly active role in multilateral, regional and bilateral discussions and negotiations.

The UN-OHRLLS has emphasised the need to support the strengthening of South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation for diversifying trade opportunities, and increasing additional FDI flows for sustainable development of LLDCs. UN Agencies and other international organisations such as WTO, the World Bank, WCO and the Regional Development Banks can help mitigate the constraining effects of landlockedness, by providing more targeted technical assistance to LLDCs and supporting the strengthening of the negotiating capacities of LLDCs and their ability to implement trade facilitation measures, and thereby ensure their effective participation in the  negotiations of multilateral trade agreements.

The WTO aims towards helping LLDCs exercise their rights of WTO membership and fully participate in multilateral trade negotiations and assisting least developed countries to integrate into the Multilateral trading system, benefit from progressive liberalisation of world trade and participate fully in the negotiating processes.

The LLDCs can use on going trade negotiations at the WTO as important entry points to defend their interests. Twenty-two of the 32 LLDCs are members of the WTO, while the rest are negotiating the accession. Concerted group actions have been demonstrated as the foundation of successful negotiation strategies at the WTO.

Existing trade agreements of WTO contain provisions on trade facilitation, freedom of transit and transparency and simplification of transit trade regulations as well as loose commitments from developed countries to support developing countries and particularly least developed countries for adopting standards and procedures prescribed by international conventions and WTO agreements.

As well, the Article IV of GATS on Increasing Participation of Developing Countries indicated the strengthening of their domestic services capacity and its efficiency and competitiveness, inter alia through access to technology on a commercial basis; and the improvement of their access to distribution channels and information networks.

The LLDCs can strengthen their bargaining position in the negotiation of transit and trade agreements by demonstrating the value of the transit business provided to the neighbours, taking into account not only the direct costs involved, but also income generated through additional multiplier effects.

However, and in addition to the constraints imposed by their landlockedness, the LLDCs are constrained by their lack of experience of effectively negotiating and bargaining at multilateral trade negotiations to overcome the negative effects of being without sea access. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the Assignment

The objective of the assignment is to develop a handbook on trade negotiations that will assist trade negotiators and practitioners in Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) to better understand current provisions in multilateral trade agreements, thus enhance the bargaining position of landlocked countries and the LLDC group in on-going and future negotiations of multilateral agreements.

Rationale for the Assignment

There is an urgent need for LLDCs to strengthen their effective participation in multilateral trade negotiations. As a pre-requisite, LLDCs must have a better understanding of their interests and of the relevant provisions in trade agreements, such as trade facilitation, freedom of transit, transparency and simplification of transit trade regulations.

Scope of Work

The handbook is expected to provide LLDCs with sound knowledge on participating in multilateral trade negotiations successfully by building on the understanding of the existent multilateral agreements, enhancing connectivity for strengthening their negotiating capacities, both individually and as a block, and efficiently taking advantage of the specific articles on supports and provisions by development partners and international key organisations for LLDCs and LDCs in the existing agreements.

The handbook will review all relevant multilateral trade agreements and related articles of the respective resolutions on LLDC issues and provide LLDCs with recommendations on effectively participating in multilateral trade negotiations and using the articles of existing multilateral agreements efficiently for negotiations.

The handbook will provide practical guidance on the areas identified in the Asunción Platform for Doha Development Agenda 2005, the Bali Ministerial Declaration 2013 and the Ministerial Communiqué adopted at the 12th Annual Meeting of the Group of LLDCs held in New York in 2013.

In particular, the production process will focus on trade facilitation issues and cover the following activities:

• The identification of key aspects and constraints faced by LLDCs in the area of international trade and trade facilitation that can be addressed through multilateral negotiations;
• A review of WTO agreements and current negotiations processes in order to familiarize and introduce international standard;
• An assessment of existing handbooks or guides designed for international trade agreement negotiation;
• An interactive set of discussions with LLDCs representatives and senior experts to derive priority areas and needs of capacity building for negotiation.

The handbook will feature thematic modules that provide a summary of on-going multilateral trade negotiations, identification and explanation of the specific provisions/features and key issues relevant for LLDCs, and recommendations for designing LLDC country or group propositions.

The handbook will be based on review of existing literature, qualitative and quantitative analysis and interviews with trade negotiators, WTO, UN staff and other experts on the topic. Further details are provided in the Annex.

Key Tasks

The Expert/Consultant will undertake the following activities:

Desk research

• Evaluate the latest developments in the fields of trade facilitation negotiations
• Review relevant bilateral, regional and multilateral agreements
• Survey relevant LLDC and other stakeholders

Consultations

• Interview Geneva-based LLDC negotiators and relevant officers in WTO, UNCTAD, etc.
• Interview relevant WCO and other trade facilitation and LLDC experts

Writing

• Prepare the first draft of the handbook(in succinct, high-quality English)
• Share the draft with selected peer reviewers and other stakeholders
• Revise the draft version based on the comments received
• Prepare the final version

Deliverables:

The four deliverables and the respective timelines are as follows:

Deliverables / Estimated Duration to Complete / Target Due Dates   

• A detailed work plan and an annotated outline of the handbook - 2nd week from contract signing - 14th of Nov' 2014; 
• Interim progress report - 6th week from contract signing - 12th of Dec' 2014;           
• Draft version of the handbook - 8th week from contract signing - 26th of Dec' 2014;                                                               
• Final version of the handbook  - 12th week from contract signing - 23rd of Jan, 2015.         

The handbook is expected to be a practical reference tool for LLDC trade negotiators and practitioners. In addition, international organizations, academia, non-governmental organizations and the donor community may also find it useful, including for use in capacity-building efforts.

The expected length of the handbook is approximately 80-100 pages. The handbook is to be submitted in electronic format (MS Word). The data used in the handbook should be submitted in MS-Excel format.

Institutional Setting and Reporting Mechanism

The International Consultant will be contracted by UNDP Mongolia and will report to the Team Leader of Human Development and MDG Unit, UNDP Mongolia on administrative matters.

On substantive issues the international consultant will report to the Interim Director of the International Think Tank for LLDCs (ITT-LLDCs).

The present ToR may be subject to modification, without changing the overall objective and the scope of work, on the basis of mutual consultations. 

Duration of the Assignment

The consultant will be contracted for three (3) months during 5 Nov’14 – 31 January’15 with 1 mission to Mongolia for 1 week.

Duty Station

The consultant may work from anywhere in his/her convenience. During assignment, however, consultant should study Mongolian case for 1 week in Mongolia and visit ITT for LLDCs, tentatively, 5-9 January, 2015.

Application procedure

Qualified and interested candidates are requested to apply on-line using this site www.jobs.undp.org.

Due to limitation in uploading several documents, applicants are advised to compile all documents into a single attachment and upload the attachment while applying on line.

Recommended presentation of offer 

• Application cover letter indicating why the applicant considers him/herself suitable for the assignment;
• Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability (template can be downloaded from UNDP Mongolia website);
• Latest personal CV, including past experience from similar projects (P11Personal History form - shall be required for the selected contractor);
• At least 3 (three) professional references of people familiar with the applicant’s work who can be contacted in case the applicant is short-listed;
• A technical proposal for your work outlining how the applicant will undertake the assignment to achieve the objective, which should include an approach, work planning and timeline;
• Financial Proposal with a breakdown of consultancy fee and all travel-related costs that are expected to be incurred.

Note: While preparing your financial offer, kindly note that the standard for all travel authorized by UNDP for individual subscribers is economy class and the UN’s Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) rates USD213 for Ulaanbaatar and USD92 for the country side, which should provide indication of the cost of living in a duty station/destination. Individuals on this contract are not UN staff and are therefore not entitled to DSAs. All living allowances required to perform the demands of the ToR must be incorporated in the financial proposal.   

Kindly note that incomplete submission of the required documents will be excluded from further consideration.

Payment Method

The UNDP standard method of payment is the output-based lump-sum scheme and the payment will be made upon satisfactory completion of deliverables in upto 3 installments tentatively scheduled as follows:

• 1st installment - 20%: Upon submission of Annotated outline of “Multilateral Trade Negotiations and LLDCs: A Handbook for Negotiators and Practitioners” for approval by ITT for LLDCs and UNDP - within 2 weeks upon signing of the contract;
• 2nd installment - 30%: Upon submission of draft handbook - within 8 weeks; and 
• 3rd installment - 50%: Upon submission of final handbook - within 12 weeks from the contract signing.

The payment will be processed within thirty (30) days from the date UNDP’s written acceptance (i.e., not mere receipt) of the quality of the outputs.

Criteria for selection of the best offer 

Selection criteria is Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted a max. of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%.

As for the technical evaluation, the following aspects will be considered:  
Description/Obtainable Points

• Background and Education: 10 points;
• Relevant Work Experience:  50 points;
• Proposed Work Approach and Plan: 40 points.

Total  - 100 points 

The applicant receiving the highest combined score that has slo accepted UNDP's general terms and conditions will be awarded the contract.

For further questions and clarifications, please contact UNDP Mongolia at bids.mn@undp.org.

It is highly recommended to visit UNDP Mongolia website for detailed Terms of reference and other forms.

http://www.mn.undp.org/content/mongolia/en/home/operations/procurement.html.                               

Competencies

• Strong proven capacity in research, data collection and analysis;
• Good facilitation and communication skills;
• Ability to plan, prioritize and deliver a variety of tasks on time;
• Ability to provide constructive coaching and feedback for others;
• Ability to liaise with a myriad of stakeholders and partners, including government, civil society, international organizations and grassroots organizations;
• Ability to plan for and produce quality results in meeting established goals;
• Excellent analytical and writing skills, with a proven ability to focus on practical outputs;
• Good relevant ability and skills on trade negotiations in trade facilitation agreements.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent in a relevant field.

Experience of at least 3 years in:

• Relevant experience in trade negotiations, including trade facilitation negotiations;
• Good understanding of LLDC issues;
• Relevant experience in trade facilitation, and administrative and customs reform desirable;
• Sufficient hands-on experience in trade development and negotiations to be able to develop practical recommendations, guidelines and negotiating tools.

Language:

• Excellent English writing capability.