Background

Bangladesh, currently a Least Developed Country (LDC), aims to graduate out of LDC status by 2021, close the remaining MDG gaps, and further open its economy to transition into a Middle Income Country (MIC). In order to achieve the MIC goal, Bangladesh needs to consolidate its already gained achievements and further expand its development targets. While the country has already developed a perspective plan where it detailed out its targets, development financing continues to be a major challenge to Bangladesh’s development goals, since there has been steady trend of budget deficit. Thus, the country needs to ensure its access to a range of diverse sources of development finance.

Against the development targets and financing deficits, Bangladesh is planning to carry out a Development Finance and Aid Assessment (DFAA). The DFAA will help provide a clear understanding on the potential sources of resources needed for its future development initiatives. The DFAA is a comprehensive mapping of past, current and future sources of development finance. It considers domestic and public sources of development finance. On the domestic side public sources are tax and non-tax revenue and private sources are private investment and from philanthropic organizations. On the external side public sources include ODA, climate finance and south-south cooperation (SSC) and private sources such as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), remittances and private borrowing. The DFAA includes an assessment of relevant policies, institutional arrangements, technical systems and tools and human resource capacity to mobilize, manage, deliver, monitor and report on existing and future flows, together with recommendations on the way forward.

The findings and recommendations of the DFAA are primarily expected to inform a Comprehensive Development Finance Strategy for Bangladesh’s Seventh Five Year Plan and more immediately alternative sources of finance for the implementation of the current Sixth Five Year Plan for 2011-15 (SFYP) in the remaining two years (2014-15). It will also inform the Aid Policy which is underway, and the institutional arrangements necessary to implement the Aid Policy.

A team comprising an international consultant (team leader) and 3 experts (Public Finance Specialist, Trade Specialist, Development Cooperation Specialist) will be engaged to steer different aspects of the study but at the same time collaborate with each other’s tasks to draw critical insights and lead the study towards realizing its goals. The team of consultants will work under the direct guidance of ERD Secretary and in close coordination with National Project.

Manager of the Aid Effectiveness Project. While the International Specialist will be the Team Leader, the National Financial Specialist will be the co-lead of the team. A National Trade Specialist will be responsible for the tasks related to trade sector analysis and work as a member in the team.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work:

The DFAA will involve a highly consultative process as managing development finance requires a collective effort from several parts of government, private sector, civil society and a number of development partners. The DFAA will cover six main categories of development finance, namely:

  • Domestic public resources. They include direct and indirect taxation (including mineral and petroleum taxation), non-tax revenues and public-private partnerships;
  • Domestic philanthropy. This category encompasses philanthropic assistance from national companies and high-net worth individuals;
  • Domestic private resources. It comprises of domestic commercial borrowing and private sector corporate social responsibility;
  • External public sources. These are flows provided not purely in the interests of securing returns for the provider but also fully or partially with some developmental or environmental purpose in mind, although profits and other interests of the provider (e.g. commercial or geopolitical) may co-exist. It includes ODA, newer non-ODA flows such as South–South cooperation (SSC), flows which do not meet ODA concessionality requirements but are not at market terms with a clear element of financial subsidy, including other official flows (OOFs), (public) climate finance assistance and disbursement from vertical health funds such as Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) and Global Alliance for Vaccinations and Immunization (GAVI). The DFAA will map existing external public assistance, modalities and approaches;
  • External philanthropic sources. Includes assistance from international foundations and corporations as well as from longer-standing contributors such as INGOs;
  • External private inflows. They either have a clear profit motive, including foreign direct investment inflows, or are largely outside government control, such as workers’ remittances.

Key tasks :

The Public Finance Specialist - Bangladesh will undertake the following key tasks:

Pre-launch preparation to include support international team leader:

  • Provide feedback on proposed methodology;
  • Undertake preliminary desk-based data collection and analysis with a focus on a detailed stakeholder analysis;
  • Provide list of key Bangladesh policy documents and analysis, including arranging translation where necessary, and summarizing the key literature;
  • Provide a draft work plan for implementing the assessment for all components including case studies and a detailed schedule for first mission of the international consultant;
  • Provide an inception report including: preliminary data findings and literature review; draft methodology for implementation of assessment including key.

Expected outputs and deliverables:

The major outputs expected of the Public Finance Specialist – Bangladesh will include the following:

  • Finalized Bangladesh DFAA methodology drawing from the generic DFAA methodology;
  • Final Bangladesh DFAA work plan to be undertaken by the DFAA Team including detailed meeting schedules for in-country missions by the international TA;
  • Fortnightly updates to international team leader on work plan progress in Bangladesh;
  • A draft Development Finance and Aid Assessment report (using Outline in Annex 1) to be submitted in November with a final report in December 2014;
  • DFAA inception and DFAA report validation workshops;
  • Contribute to the DFAA Methodological review and participate at the Asia-Pacific south-south exchange and knowledge sharing on DFAA methodology and implementation of policy, institutional and systems recommendations.

The purpose of the DFAA for Bangladesh is to identify the potential implications of changes in the different sources of development finance in Bangladesh for the pursuit of national development priorities and its transition into MIC status, readiness for LDC graduation and implementation of the Post-2015 development agenda.

In doing so, the DFAA will:

a) Map sources of development finance both domestic and external including aid to Bangladesh, assess and analyse policies, institutional arrangements, technical systems and tools, and human resource capacity to mobilise, manage, deliver, monitor and report on existing and future flows. In doing so, the assessment will focus on the following sector and sources:

Sector

  • Trade (sources of development finance and aid that go towards trade and trade related sectors, how they are mobilized, managed, delivered, monitored and reported).

Domestic sources

  • Public Sources: Government Tax, non-tax, and other income;
  • Private Sources: Private Sector Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR);
  • Public and Private: Alternative sources for financing the Government Budget Deficit.

External sources

  • Public Sources: ODA and its modalities, in particular Aid for Trade and Climate Finance, and South-South Cooperation;
  • Private Sources: Remittances and FDI;
  • Public and Private: Innovative Financing for Development (IFD) that is feasible in the Bangladesh context.

b) Inform the development of Bangladesh’s Aid Policy and the relevant institutional reforms;

c) Provide key findings and recommendations in the DFAA Report to inform discussions at the next high level Bangladesh Development Forum and the formulation of the next five year national development plan.

Within (a) above, the DFAA will analyze the implications of a continued stagnation of domestic taxes (as % of GDP) and declining grant and concessional aid as percentage of GNI on the successful implementation of the SFYP as well as the design of the Seventh Five Year Plan. As part of the assessment of SSC, it will provide a detailed mapping and analysis of past and current SSC in Bangladesh, successes and challenges, comparative advantages, good practices for replication in Bangladesh and other countries as well as identification of Bangladesh’s future demand for SSC. This aspect of the DFAA study will be undertaken as outlined in the DFAA Methodology for Bangladesh. By focusing on trade as a sector and on aid for trade and climate finance as external public flows, the DFAA will provide recommendations on requirements for further mainstreaming aid for trade and climate finance into the national and sub-national development planning and budgeting policies and processes and institutional decision making arrangements.

Competencies

  • Excellent analytical skills; and
  • Ability to synthesize information from a number of sources;
  • Excellent ability to write clearly, insightfully and persuasively in an accessible, journalistic style;
  • Ability to work independently against tight deadlines;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s degree in Economics, Public Financial Management (PFM) or related fields.

Experience:

  • Minimum of seven years of work experience on PFM the field of practice both international and Bangladesh PFM experience needed;
  • More than 7 years of work experience in public financial management and economic development;
  • Proven working experience on fiscal and economic analysis of national budget and excellent knowledge on MTBF;
  • Research and data collection experience with a focus on budgets, expenditure management and ODA;
  • Knowledge of financial flows as part of the Public Private Partnerships; Foreign Direct Investment; commercial and concessional loans; and innovative financing for development instruments;
  • Ability to hold discussion with government senior officials, private sector and development cooperators;
  • Experience working in Bangladesh and South Asia.

Language requirements:

  • Fluency of English and Bangla languages, required.

Institutional arrangement:

  • The Public Finance Specialist – Bangladesh, will report directly to the International Public Finance Expert as DFAA Team Leader and to the Bangladesh ERD Secretary and the Aid Effectiveness National Project Manager.

Duration of the Work

  • The Public Finance Specialist – Bangladesh assignment will be up to a maximum of 45 days during the period commencing on 15 January - 15 May 2015.

Duty station:

  • Home based and required to travel twice to Dhaka, Bangladesh (total of 5-10 days) and if needed, Bangkok, Thailand.

Price proposal and schedule of payments:

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

  • Deliverable 1 First draft Bangladesh trade and development finance case study submitted and to Bangladesh ERD, AP-DEF Secretariat and UNDP satisfaction [XX% of total contract amount];
  • Deliverable 2 [Submission of final trade and private sector case study and required inputs for final DFAA report as necessary and acceptable to AP-DEF Secretariat, Bangladesh ERD and UNDP.]: XX% of total contract amount;
  • Deliverable 3 [Participation at the Asia-Pacific south-south exchange and knowledge sharing on DFAA methodology and implementation of policy, institutional and systems recommendations.]: XX% of total contract amount.

In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Evaluation method and criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the Cumulative analysis. The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%). and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical criteria for evaluation 70% (Maximum 100 points)

  • Criteria 1: Years of work experience in public financial management and economic development with  proven working experience on fiscal and economic analysis of national budget and excellent knowledge on MTBF – Max 30 points;
  • Criteria 2: Research and data collection in related area: PFM, fiscal policy, medium-long term expenditure management, national budget management, climate finance and innovative financing for development - Max 5 Points;
  • Criteria 3: Knowledge of financial flows as part of the Public Private Partnerships; Foreign Direct Investment; commercial and concessional loans; and innovative financing for development instruments - Max 10 points;
  • Criteria 4: Education – Max 20 points;
  • Criteria 5: Excellent analytical skills, synthesize information from multiple sources, writing in journalistic style and fluent in English - written and spoken – Max 10 points;
  • Criteria 6: Experience working in Bangladesh and South Asia and ability to hold discussion with government senior officials, private sector and development cooperators - Max 10 points;
  • Criteria 7: Availability  – Max 15 points.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Shortlisted candidates may be called for an interview which will be used to confirm and/or adjust the technical scores awarded based on documentation submitted.

Documentation required:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

  • Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II;
  • 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;
  • Technical proposal, including a brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
  • Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: National consultants must quote prices in Indian Rupees.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered.

Annexes

 For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to ashley.palmer@undp.org.