Background

United Nations Capital Development Fund and its Local Development Finance Practice Area

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 48 least developed countries.  It creates new opportunities for poor people and their communities by investing its seed capital and technical assistance to test new modalities of public and private financing for local development.

These investments are designed to leverage financial flows from the private sector, national governments and developments partners, for maximum impact towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

The goal of local development is to improve the quality of life of citizens at the grassroots level.  The concept goes beyond local governance and decentralized provision of services to the spatial, institutional and economic linkages required for comprehensive development. It addresses the spectrum of shelter and housing, food security, education and health, infrastructure, aesthetic, resilient environment, citizen empowerment and representation, and fulfilling and rewarding economic activity.

Brief history of the Local Development Programme Approach

UNCDF has been working on local development since the early 1990s. The first programmes were based on the premise that capital investments in LDCs are effective in reducing poverty and promoting inclusive growth if they are planned and executed locally. These Local Development Programmes (LDPs) included local development funds (LDFs) that designed and tested the provision of investment capital through local government institutions, the planning of investments with local stakeholders and the execution of investments by local contractors.

In response to demand from LDC governments, from around 2005 onwards UNCDF began to develop the LDF in new directions.
The first was through the introduction of performance-based grants, the introduction of performance budgeting and the fine-tuning of the minimum conditions required for the flows of local development funding from central to local governments. 

The second was to follow the initial provision of basic infrastructure and services with the stimulation of local economic development and in addition addressing weaknesses in local economies that prevented them from participating fully in economic growth. This meant for example seeking to support strategic investments that had backwards and forwards linkages with local impact along the value chain and/or leveraging investment in the public sector with private sector support. These programmes sought to build an enabling environment for local economic development at the regulatory level and also supported strategic individual investments, often public/private partnerships.

A third innovation wave was through top up grants for climate change, thematic grants for specific targeted investments such as food security and gender and grants for joint initiatives from different local authorities with pull-funding mechanisms. The Practice has also innovated by putting in place cross-border financial mechanisms for local authorities.

Looking more closely at the UNCDF’s Local Development approach:  UNCDF support to public finance reform at the local level is based on a strong and recognized methodology that can be summarized by the following elements:

Direct Budget Support to local governments through the Local Development Fund:  In 30 countries and in very different contexts, UNCDF has piloted investment programs and provided investment funds, grants and technical support to local governments enabling them to provide infrastructure and basic services and to promote local economic development. Our technical support has been focused on planning, budgeting, implementing process, monitor and performance based reporting within local governments.

Making the case to support the fiscal decentralization process at national level:  The programs UNCDF pilots at the local level inform national policies and help to design national mechanisms for financing local governments. A key element of this support is the ability to design and test fiscal transfer systems by transferring resources to central government, but earmarked for local government. This means that local governments receive the funds through national systems - enabling the testing of innovations within the system, and not as parallel or standalone funding.

Increase the volume of funds for public investments at local level: The approach above has enabled governments to channel increasing amounts of resources to the local level. Where domestic resources are insufficient UNCDF helps also to make the national system attractive for donors. This creates trust and confidence in local and national institutions to channel more resources for local investment purposes.

Theory of change:  In summary, the LDF Practice Area (LDFP) works with local governments, local administrations and local investors as strategic partners of choice. LDFP develops and strengthens local public financial management institutions often through the application of seed capital to test new mechanisms and systems. This promotes the mobilisation, allocation, investment of capital to the local level, with local accountability. In this way LDFP catalyses additional capital flows to responsive institutions. This leads to sustainable, inclusive and equitable local development.

Duties and Responsibilities

In line with the requirements of its Evaluation Policy which mandates at least one thematic evaluation per year[1], and in support of a recent re-orientation of the Local Development Finance Practice Area in line with its objectives set out under the 2014 – 2017 Strategic Framework[2], UNCDF is seeking to commission an external assessment of the relevance and performance of its local development programmes over the period 2005 – 2014.

The overall objective of this evaluation is to assess the extent to which UNCDF was successful over the period 2005 – 2014 in in contributing to the improved functioning of local development finance systems in the Least Developed Countries in which it intervened.

In addition, the evaluation should attempt to:

• Validate and - where appropriate - propose adjustments to the proposed LDF instrument under the 2014 – 2017 Strategic Framework and in line with commitments made under the 2014 – 2017 LDFP Business Plan;
• Validate and eventually adjust UNCDF’s positioning in the broader aid architecture in view of the requirements of the post-2015 development agenda and specifically the roles and responsibilities of UN agencies to implement decisions taken from the Financing for Development process;
• The evaluation should cover a period of ten years during which more than 80 programmes and projects were implemented in 34 Least Developed Countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. One of the tasks of the team during the inception phase will be to propose a sampling strategy of these programmes with a view of ensuring representative data gathering and analysis. A list of projects and programmes underway during this period will be provided later.

Audience and timing

As a flagship thematic evaluation under UNCDF’s 2014- 2015 Evaluation Plan, the primary audience for this evaluation is UNCDF and its main stakeholders: both LDC governments and main development partners.

Timeline Key Dates

Inception Phase                                                                   August – September 2015  
Desk Review and Country Visit phase                                 October – December 2015
First draft report:                                                                   January, 2016
Final report:                                                                          February, 2016                           

Evaluation deliverables and timeframe

The main evaluation deliverables, all in English, include:

A short inception report (maximum 30 pages), summarizing the approach and methodology the evaluators will adopt in conducting the evaluation, and incorporating:

• A validated results framework for a typical UNCDF Local Development programme conducted between 2005 – 2014, including the expected direct results of the Funds themselves in the sectors in which they intervened as well as the indirect results in the broader economic and institutional systems in which UNCDF programmes intervened;
• A proposed evaluation matrix that organizes the evaluation questions and sub-questions by evaluation criterion as well as the accompanying judgement criteria and data sources;
• In support of this, a data toolkit presenting the different data collection tools developed during the inception phase incorporating both primary and secondary data suitable for generating both qualitative and quantitative data to support both the desk review and country visit phases of the evaluation (e.g for qualitative data: interview guides, focus group discussion guide, direct observation forms, questionnaires for consultations stakeholders, etc; for quantitative, relevant templates to assess change in basic financial and operational performance of the local governments supported and the broader systems in which they have intervened);
• Proposed work plan for the evaluation, including countries to be visited and overall level of effort. 

A report presenting the main findings from the preliminary desk review of the sampled projects according to the tools developed above which will also be one of the annexes of the final report.

Country Reports from each of five countries visited (maximum 25 pages) to be included as one of the annexes of the final report.

A draft evaluation report outlining clear evidence-based conclusions and findings, following closely the structure and logic of the Evaluation Matrix, and including focused, actionable recommendations (SMART), and a clear, stand-alone Executive Summary (maximum 50 pages, excluding annexes). Length: maximum 50 pages excluding annexes. A template will be provided by the Evaluation Unit at the start of the inception phase.

Power Point Presentation for HQ debriefing/round table discussion, including innovative approaches to communication evaluation findings.

A final evaluation report incorporating comments received from all partners.

Responsibilities (in addition to all other generic responsibilities and expected deliverables outlined in this TOR):

• Support to the Team Leader in designing the evaluation methodology and contributing to the inception report;
• Actively participating in the desk review extracting key findings from a sample of LDF programmes over the preceding 10 years;
• Participating and then leading country visits to validate findings from the desk review stage including interviews of all key stakeholders (local governments, beneficiaries of Local Development Fund, broader government and development partner counterparts investments) and visits to ongoing and completed UNCDF projects;
• Contributing to the collection, analysis and aggregation of data emerging from the different lines of evidence during the desk review and country visits;
• Participating in the write up phase of the evaluation with a view to synthesizing and aggregrating the results from the different data sources in the form of a draft evaluation report;
• Participating in the presentation of the draft evaluation findings and recommendations in the final workshop/debriefing and then the rewriting of the report integrating where necessary the various comments received from different partners

Breakdown of consultancy days

Inception Phase (10 days); Desk Review and Country Visit Phase (40 days – 20+20); Write Up Phase (10 days); Total: 60 days

http://web.undp.org/evaluation/documents/evaluation-policy.pdf

The last LDFP Business plan and Indicators and Results Framework has introduced changes in the UNCDF approach to local development finance: it has defined new Outcome and Output indicators that are more aligned with UNCDF capital mandate and focus on wealth creation at the local level : Fixed capital formation and local fiscal space increase are the two main UNCDF outcomes.

http://www.uncdf.org/sites/default/files/final_tor_ldfp_thematic_evaluation_july_31_final.pdf.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty.

Functional Competencies:

• Independent and flexible;
• Ability to work under pressure in a challenging and complex environment;
• Excellent communication skills;
• Creative and result-oriented; and
• Client-oriented;
• Demonstrated fluency in written and spoken English;
• Strong analytical and time management skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s in Economics, Finance, Business or Public Administration or related field. Academic specialisation in public finance is an asset.

Experience:

• A minimum of 15 years of professional experience in local development and public finance, the majority of which in developing countries
• Strong knowledge of Public Finance and related areas of expertise:  public financial management, sub-national PEFA, Local Public Sector, etc.
• Experience of local economic development in developing countries at the local level
• Successful track record in M&E
• Experience of policy advocacy, communication and knowledge management with international financial institutions in particular the World Bank in the area of local development, decentralization, local accountability and partnerships with development agencies.

Languages:

• English (strong written and spoken);
• French (strong written and spoken).

General profile:

• Substantive knowledge of approaches to introducing and supporting local development finance initiatives in the least developed countries. Knowledge of the UNCDF LDF approach and experience of working in the countries where UNCDF has intervened in recent years is considered an asset;
• Experience in designing, implementing and/or internationally-funded projects supporting decentralization and local development in developing countries;
• Proven ability to use participatory evaluation methods and in applying qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods to assess programme results at individual, institutional, sector and policy level.

Application and evaluation

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

• Personal CV;
• Three page statement of suitability;
• Financial Proposals (will be requested from shortlisted candidates only).

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Screening:

• Master’s in Economics, Finance, Business or Public Administration or related field. Academic specialisation in public finance is an asset;

Experience: 

• A minimum of 15 years of professional experience in local development and public finance, the majority of which in developing countries.

Shortlisting by Desk Review:

• Education/Qualification (20 points);
• Relevant Experience(40 points);
• Language (Fluency in English and French is required) (10 points);
• Statement of suitability (30 points).

Up to 5 candidates who score the highest in the desk review and also meet the minimum threshold to pass (70 points) will be invited for a skype interview.

The shortlisted candidates will be invited for a skype interview and evaluated against the following criteria:

• Relevant experience;
• Topic/sector knowledge;
• Team work and management skills.

The shortlisted candidates will be rated on both technical and financial submissions, providing a weight of 70% to the technical offer and 30% to the financial offer.

Final Evaluation

The Final evaluation will combine the scores of desk review, interview and financial proposal with the following weights assigned to each:

• Desk Review (25%) + Interview (45%);
• Financial Proposal (30%).

Important notice:

Application Submission Process:

The application is a two-step process. Failing to comply with the submission process may result in disqualifying the applications:

Step 1: Interested individual consultants must include the following documents when submitting the applications in UNDP job shop (Please note that only 1 (one) file can be uploaded therefore please include all docs in one file).

• Personal CV;
• Three page statement of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment.

Step 2: Submission of Financial Proposal (Financial Proposals will be requested from shortlisted candidates only).

Application Evaluation Process

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis methodology (weighted scoring method), where the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria – 70% of total evaluation – max 100 points.

Financial Criteria – 30% of total evaluation – max. 30 points.

Only candidates scoring 49 points (70%) or higher from the review of education, experience, languages will be considered for financial evaluation.

Financial score shall be computed as a ration of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal of those technically qualified.

UNCDF retains the right to contact references directly.

Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.