Background

The Government of Malawi, through the Department of Economic Planning and Development (EPD), has been implementing its medium term strategy through the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy, designed to attain Malawi’s medium-term aspirations as set out in the policy document Vision 2020. The second Malawi Growth and Development Strategy, known as MGDS II, covers the period of five years from 2011 until 2016 and follows the previous five-year MGDS from 2006 until 2011. The objective of MGDS II is to achieve poverty reduction through sustainable economic growth and infrastructure development and contribute towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

MGDS II identifies six broad thematic areas and nine key priority areas. The selection of the key priority areas is aimed at sustaining and accelerating economic growth within the available resources.  The success of the MGDS II was premised on an efficient and effective implementation, well-defined institutional frameworks, appropriate dialogue and delivery mechanisms such as Sector Working Groups (SWGs), strengthened alignment of plans and budgets of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and well-functioning monitoring, evaluation and reporting systems.

As MGDS II is due to expire in June 2016, the Government has started preparations for developing a successor Strategy for the period 2016-2021. The roadmap for the formulation of the MGDS II successor strategy is in place and it is expected that the development of the strategy will be completed and launched by the end of the 2015/16 financial year.

Under this background, the Government of Malawi with support from the UNDP and the EU through the Strengthening Development Effectiveness and Accountability Program (DEAP) would like to engage the services of an international consultant to review and analyze the MGDS II, and make proposals for possible priority areas for the next national development strategy as outlined in this Terms of Reference.

The consultant will collaborate closely with the national consultant for the review.

Duties and Responsibilities

The scope of work can be broken down into three main phases namely: review, assessment and analysis. A detailed description of the tasks to be completed in each phase is given below:

Review phase

Review of the design of MGDS II:

• Assess the appropriateness of the indicator framework and the costing of the MGDS II;
• Evaluate the relevance of priority areas;
• Suggest improvements in the design of the next development strategy.

Review of the structural organization behind MGDS II:

Assess the institutional framework in the development planning process;

• Identify any weaknesses in coordination of relevant stakeholders;
• Identify any capacity constraints;
• Suggest solutions to identified challenges.

Assessment phase

Assessment of the effectiveness of the MGDS II:

• Determine the extent to which the strategies and outcomes set out in MGDS II have been implemented and achieved;
• Assess the impact of the strategies and interventions used in achieving desirable results;
• Identify strengths, challenges and bottlenecks in the implementation of the national development strategy;
• Assess the Monitoring and Evaluation framework used in the implementation of MGDS II;
• Develop recommendations for improving the implementation of the current national development strategy;
• Assess the alignment of the MGDS II with the regional and global development agenda;
• Assess whether the national development strategies were formulated in such a way as to achieve the long term aspirations as stipulated in the Vision 2020;
• Review the role of development partners in implementing development strategies.

Analysis phase

Recommendations for priority areas for the next strategic plan:

• Conduct a stakeholder analysis and mapping;
• Undertake a detailed situational analysis of the current development landscape in Malawi and outlook for the future and identify potential opportunities. The analysis should consider Malawi’s role in the evolving nature of the regional and international development agenda
• Recommend concrete priority areas in which Malawi can invest in in order to achieve significant poverty reduction and sustainable economic growth; and
• Identify and document issues which are of strategic importance and more long term in nature and require further analysis in the context of the review of Vision 2020.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Demonstrate integrity by modelling the UN's values and ethical standards;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

• Good knowledge of the Malawian economy and its development policies;
• Good knowledge of current policy developments and goals around the post-2015 agenda;
• Excellent analytical and reporting skills on socio-economic issues;
• Excellent communication and writing skills;
• Excellence knowledge of Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint;
• Good understanding of human rights programming;
• Good understanding of mainstreaming environmental sustainability;
• Good understanding of mainstreaming cross-cutting issues such as gender, disability, HIV and AIDs;
• Good understanding of Results Based Management (RBM) principles. Ability to grasp the contents and relevance of the preliminary key documents;
• Demonstrates sound judgement and analytical skills;
• Ability to build sustainable partnerships with nation.

Management and Leadership

• Focuses on impact and results;
• Establishes priorities, schedules and activities to ensure optimum use of time and resources;
• Capacity to gather and synthesize comprehensive information;
• Evaluates information accurately;
• Approaches work with a positive and constructive attitude.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• At least a Master’s Degree or equivalent in economics, strategic planning, development studies, or related fields. A PhD would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• At least ten years of professional work experience in development studies at national or international level. Experience must relate to analysing documents, drafting, editing and finalization of situation analysis, strategic planning documents and reports;
• Demonstrate experience in doing similar work locally and/or internationally.

Language:

• Fluent in English.

Note:

Detailed Terms of Reference can be accessed from http://www.mw.undp.org/content/malawi/en/home/operations/procurement/

Document to be included when submitting the proposal.

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

Proposal:

• Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work
• Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work

Financial proposal expressed as a Lump sum for 40 working days (inclusive of all cost)

Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references and P11.

Lump sum contracts:

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).

Travel:

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station.  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 award of the contract shall be made to the consultant who has received the highest score out of pre-determined technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical criteria weight – 70 %

Financial criteria weight – 30 % 

• Criteria A:  Educational background - maximum points 10;
• Criteria B:  At least ten years of professional work experience in development studies at national or international level. Experience must relate to analyzing documents, drafting, editing and finalization of situation analysis, strategic planning documents and reports maximum points 20;
• Criteria C: International and national experience maximum points 20; 
• Criteria D: Technical proposal, methodology and approach maximum points 20;
• Financial maximum points 30.

Combined score maximum points 100.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points in the Technical Evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

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 - 100 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.