UNDP Jobs - 51025- National Consultant to Develop a Website for Minis

National Consultant to Develop a Website for Ministry of Justice in Lao PDR

Location :

Vientiane, LAO PDR

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

21-Nov-2014

Application Deadline :

14-Nov-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

35 Working Days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

35 Working Days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

In September 2009, the Legal Sector Master Plan was officially adopted by the Government of Lao PDR. The Master Plan lays out a framework for the country’s first broad-ranging legal reform in order to achieve its ultimate goal of establishing a rule of law state by 2020. It is a comprehensive and candid statement of the current needs of the legal system as well as a series of guiding principles for developing a rule of law state and action plan to achieve this goal. The Plan represents an effort at coordinated legal system development consistent with the guidance of the political report of the 9th Party Congress.

In order to support the implementation of the Master Plan, UNDP, together with other donors, launched a new project (“Support Project for Implementation of the Legal Sector Master Plan”) in January 2014. As the first attempt towards a programme-based approach in the legal sector of Lao PDR, the SPLSMP is expected to deliver the following 6 key outputs:

Enhanced capacity, procedures, and standards for legislative development and implementation in Lao PDR;
Improved capacity, structure, and arrangements further improved at legal and judicial institutions for more effective and responsive judicial process;
More systematic development of legal and judicial professionals enabled through the establishment of a unified judicial training institute;
Increased public understanding of legal rights and information, and increased participation in the legal system towards full realisation of their rights;
Lao PDR’s further integration into regional and international communities enabled through adoption, implementation, enforcement, monitoring, and reporting of international legal instruments;
Enhanced capacity of the Secretariat for more effective coordination in the legal sector and implementation of the LSMP.

Information Management in the Legal Sector

At present the information management in the legal sector has been rather sporadic; each ministry and agency has their own websites, containing different information and do not serve as a hub where all legal information can be been compiled. In terms of legal dissemination to the public, there is a predominant focus on circulating a compilation of laws without much interpretation support, resulting in most of the public not being able to fully understand their legal rights.

Given this background, UNDP and the Government tentatively agreed on development of such a hub in an attempt to centralize legal information, to increase people access legal information. It is envisaged the website will be developed under the patronage of the Ministry of Justice.

This website is expected to achieve two objectives:

1. Act as a hub to disseminate information related to the legal sector targeting both public and legal professionals including government officials;
2. To link with People’s Supreme Court, Supreme People’s Prosecutor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Public Security, National Assembly, Lao Bar Association, and other relevant web.

In this context, an expert will be hired to develop the MoJ website with the objective of achieving the following results.

Expected Results

The expert is expected to explore similar global practices and identify the most suited model/ structure for Lao PDR. Among many other practices around the globe, LegiFrance (www.legifrance.gouv.fr) or Service-Public (http://www.service-public.fr/) have emerged as potential models from which lessons can be drawn.

More specifically the expert is expected to:

Advise government officials on expected results for establishing a MoJ website;
Developing an assessment of the current situation as well as a roadmap for establishing a MoJ website and articulate the scope, scale, and size of the website;
Discuss possibility of using the MOJ website as a repository to all laws and include it as part of the website;
Act as resource person to train for administrative staffs on the website such as when the website has trouble shoot and manage/maintain the website;
Develop a guide manual detailing the operations, maintenance and trouble shooting of the website;
Provide support to the OSPP and PSC on a need basis to improve their websites to include case records and other relevant information;
Develop a database of tracking system to collect user information as an integral part of the website;
Develop some design options and create the website;
Create and develop other necessary system.

Duties and Responsibilities

The primary inputs of the consultant will be produced in close cooperation with all the concerned ministries and agencies (Ministry of Justice, Office of Supreme People’s Prosecutor, Supreme Court, Ministry of Public Security, etc.), LSMP Pillar 4 (led by Ministry of Justice) and the Program Manager, Chief Technical Advisor, the Legal Specialist, and Project Coordinator of the LSMP Secretariat for a period of up to 35 working days.

The consultant is also expected to work closely with other development partners (such as UN agencies, EU, France, etc.) and apply participatory methods to this work. It will be important for the consultant to obtain appropriate feedback and involvement, and general agreement from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), members of the judiciary, offices of the Public Prosecutor, and other identified stakeholders.

Expected Deliverables and Timeframe (35 Working Days)

The detail deliverables are outlined below:

Desk Review (1 Day):

The consultant will be expected to familiarize himself/herself with relevant literature for this work, including but not limited to:

7th National Socio-Economic Development Plan;
Legal Sector Master Plan;
SPLSMP project document;
Access to Justice Report;
Websites managed by relevant ministries and agencies (including the National Assembly).

Deliverable 1:

Prepare mission schedule and work plan;
Develop and design Website Roadmap for Ministry of Justice (6 Days)
Consult key stakeholders and confirm the scope, scale, and size of the website (3 days);
Consolidate all the inputs from the stakeholders;
Prepare a draft assessment and roadmap;
Present the main findings and tentative recommendations.

Deliverable 2:

Draft assessment and roadmap.

First Payment (30%)

Upon receiving both deliverables described above:

Design and develop existing website for People’s Supreme Court, Supreme People’s Prosecutors, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Lao Bar Association (6 days);
Meet with relevant technical staff of the above mentioned department and plan the design of the website;
Discuss with relevant stake holders on support needed to improve human resource with the relevant department;
Hold focus group discussions with the local communities to understand the extent of information required by locals on different legal issues.

Deliverables 3:

Final roadmap;
Draft outline of the website including the tracking system;
Draft outline of the training for Administrative Staffs on the website.

Note

UNDP and Lao PDR reserve the right to comment on the report before finalizing.

Second Payment (30%)

Upon receiving all deliverables described in Section C:

Complete the MOJ website, and develop/design a guidebook on operations , maintenance and trouble shooting of the website and conduct a five day training (22 days);
Detailed meeting with relevant stake holders;
Preparation of the five day training for Administrative Staffs on the website (at least two days allocated for practical training).

Deliverables 4:

Complete and operationalize the website;
Five day training for Administrative Staffs on the website delivered;
Final website design;
Final draft of the guide book printable version.

Note

UNDP and Lao PDR reserve the right to comment on the report before finalizing it.

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;
Demonstrated flexibility, adaptability and understanding in taking on consultancy for development projects;
Demonstrated knowledge of similar one-stop website models, including but not limited to the LegiFrance (www.legifrance.gouv.fr) or Service-Public (http://www.service-public.fr/);
Initiative and ability to organize his/her work independently, but also to work as part of a team;
Proven ability to deliver quality output working under tight deadlines.

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

Education:

Advanced university degree in IT or related relevant fields.

Experience:

At least 7 years of experience in computer science;
Extensive experience in formulating, designing, programming and maintaining a website with a comprehensive database; preferably in legal-related fields;
Extensive experience in working with governments and institutions;
Experience with various computer methodologies and approaches.

Languages:

Excellent command of written and spoken English.

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 website:

TOR (Annex I)
Individual Contract & General Terms and Conditions (Annex II);
Offeror's letter to UNDO confirming interst and availability(Annex III)

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

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

Technical and Financial Proposal as per Annex III “ Offeror's letter to UNDP confirming interest and avialability”

Explaining why you are the most suitable for the work:

Providing a brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work including the work schedule for the delivery of outputs/deliverables;
CV including past experience in similar project and contact reference of at least 3 references for whom you have rendered preferably the similar services.

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.

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

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

Evaluation of Proposals

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on cumulative analysis and in line with the following evaluation criteria:

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 70 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: kazuo.fukuda@undp.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