UNDP Jobs - 54145- International Consultant on concept of Treaties El

International Consultant on concept of Treaties Electronic Database

Location :

Home-based and one field trip to Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

10-Mar-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

15 days (IC contract, part-time) during April - May, 2015

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

15 days (IC contract, part-time) during April - May, 2015

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

Project Title/Department: Support to the Enhancement of Lawmaking, Rulemaking and Regulatory Impact Assessment.

Support to the Enhancement of Lawmaking, Rulemaking and Regulatory Impact Assessment (the Project) focuses on the development of public policy and legislation. Overall goal of the project is to strengthen national capacity for public policy development through sustainable increase in the quality of public policy content, introduction of tools for evidence-based policy making (RIA, anti-corruption expertise), and contribution to the overall public policy agenda by promoting multi stakeholders involvement in public policy development and law drafting processes.

Generally, the legislation of Uzbekistan is bound by the international law. Particularly, the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan recognizes priority of admitted international law regulations. This principle is paid a great attention in law-making and rule-making processes. It can be found in the Laws of the Republic of Uzbekistan On basic principles of foreign political activities, On treaties and in the Concept of foreign political activities of the Republic of Uzbekistan (2012) as well as in the most of other acts of legislation.

At the same time, the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan On treaties provides that there are 3 kinds of them: interstate, intergovernmental and interagency treaties. While Vienna convention on the Law of Treaties (1969) says that treaty is an international agreement concluded between States in written form and governed by international law, in other words such international agreements can be concluded by subjects of international law. Obviously, the Government and other public organs are not subjects of international law. Therefore the status of intergovernmental and interagency treaties in the legislation of Uzbekistan is unclear from the international law viewpoint.

As per various estimations, Uzbekistan has signed around 5000 treaties, which include inter-governmental and inter-agency treaties and agreements. Increasing number of treaties encourages acceleration and simplification of cooperation among public authorities in drafting and implementing treaties. Introduction of modern technologies can be helpful in classification and monitoring of treaties, increase the quality of public policy content and grant access to various stakeholders besides public authorities.

Accordingly the Project places high emphasis on supporting creation of a Treaties Electronic Database (TED) aimed to provide public access to texts of treaties of the Republic of Uzbekistan. At the same time such database will lighten monitoring of obligations under treaties of the country and provide the up to date information on each of them.

In this regard, the RIA Project intends to recruit International Consultant who will work up requirements specification for creation of TED in close collaboration with respective government agencies. This process requires in-depth knowledge of treaties electronic databases functioning, development of instructions that must be envisaged in creating TED. Therefore, the International Consultant will work under direct supervision of Project Manager and in close consultation with Task Manager on Regulatory Policy, the IMCL and be responsible for the following duties:

Duties and Responsibilities

Key tasks and responsibilities:

Conducts a five day mission in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, including meetings with key stakeholders to identify and assess the needs for TED.

Develops proposals on the structure of TED based on needs assessment, including:

Analysis of existing databases of both MFA and www.lex.uz as well as the best international practices in treaty databases;
Options for interaction of MFA database and www.lex.uz to enhance their operability and provide access to treaties’ texts by different stakeholders.

Works up requirements specification for creation of TED in Uzbekistan, including:

Detailed concept of TED, based on optimum solution regarding MFA database and www.lex.uz interaction;
Technical aspects, including upgrade of existing database of MFA;
Other related issues on interoperability, data collection and sharing, online monitoring of treaties’ implementation etc.

Conducts debriefing for key stakeholders on the proposed TED structure and solutions with a glance at the best foreign practices.

Reviews the existing treaty implementation and monitoring mechanism in Uzbekistan and identify the best foreign practices in this areas

Proposes inter-agency access/sharing mechanism for TED on regular and systemic reporting of the implementation progress of international treaties

Proposes options for public level access and government level access to TED for use of treaty collection and monitoring results for educational, scientific, policy making, open data and other related purposes

Provides RIA Project and GGU with recommendations to government on use of TED for pre-accession/pre-ratification period prior to joining any new international treaties.

Defines internationally acceptable solutions on awareness raising of government civil servants on international treaties, implementation and monitoring process

Duration of assignment:

Total working days: 15 days;
Field trip to Uzbekistan - 5 days in Tashkent.

Desk review – 10 days (home-based).

Deliverables:

Output No.1:

Brief report on the structure of TED.

Due date: April 20, 2015

Output No.2:

Requirements specification for creation of TED in Uzbekistan.
Final report with proposed solutions.

Due date: May 5, 2015.

Competencies

Strong communication skills;
Client-orientation, ability to work in a team;
Initiative, analytical judgement;
Ability to work under pressure, ethics and honesty;
Ability to use ICT as a tool and resource.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

University Degree in Law, Public Policy, Public Administration, International Law, International Relations, Political Science, Computer science, IT Business Administration and similar is required;

Experience:

At least 5 years of experience in the field of software engineering, programming, research or teaching in the field of public databases creation or other related field;
Experience in research work on treaties databases for government or non-government organization would be an advantage;
Knowledge in publicly shared government databases is an asset.

Language Requirements:

Fluent English;
Knowledge of Russian is an asset.

Documents to be Included when submitting the proposals:

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

Proposal:

Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work and providing proposal with samples of previous work results;
P-11 form and Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability.

Applicants are required to fill and sign a P11 Form and Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and submit it to the online application

Abovementioned documents can be obtained at http://www.uz.undp.org/content/dam/uzbekistan/docs/Operations/Jobs/PH_form.doc

Application process:

To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

Download and complete the UN Personal History Form (P11);
Merge your P11 and Proposal into a single file;
Click on the Job Title;
Click “Apply Now” button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and click “Submit Application”;
Upload your P11 form instead of CV.

You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

Note:

Only shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide a financial proposal.

Financial Proposal

Lump sum contracts

This is a lump sum contract. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount. ). 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).

The payment will be made in two installments to be issued upon completion and submission of Performance Evaluation Form (PEF) on the works performed as indicated in the terms of reference:

First instalment of 30% will be paid after the successful submission and successful evaluation of the Output No.1: April 20, 2015
The final instalment of 70% will be paid after the submission and successful evaluation of the Output No. 2: May 5, 2015

Travel:

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP does 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 case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Evaluation

The individual consultants will be evaluated based on the Cumulative analysis methodology.

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable;
Having received the highest score out of the 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 49 points for the Technical Criteria will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.