Background

The first One Door Service Center (ODSC) was started as a pilot in Saysetha District of Vientiane Capital in 2006 with the support of the Public Administration and Civil Service Authority (Ministry of Home Affairs in present) with technical and financial support from GPAR SBSD (Governance and Public Administration Reform Support for Better Service Delivery). The success of the pilot ODSC at Saysetha district served as an ODSC Model to set up other ODS Centers in other districts in Vientiane Capital. In 2007, the Prime Minister issued an Agreement No. 86/PM, dated 3rd August 2007 directing the establishment of One Door Service in Public Administrations.  Since then, many ODSCs were established. Currently there are 31 ODSCs across the country of which 16 are at the provincial level, 15 are at the district level. Services provided in the ODSCs include administrative, land management, public security, tourism and cultural, sport, commercial and public works.

Project Context

The Governance and Public Administration Reform: “Strengthening Capacity and Service Delivery of Local Administrations (GPAR SCSD)” project was formulated under the National GPAR Programme from 2012-2015 with the objective “to ensure increase capacity in the local administrations leading to better delivery of services which improve the lives of the poor, especially in rural areas of Lao PDR”. Although the One Door Service Centre (ODSCs) mechanism has generated improvements in public administration, during last few years, some sectors have scaled down or withdrawn their service(s) from some ODSCs.  Challenges remain around the lack of a true understanding of the importance of the services provided though the ODSCs,  unclear regulations on fees, revenue, budget allocation, and poorly trained staff with limited service orientation, amongst others.

The Prime Minister issued the Ordinance No. 09/PM dated 28th January 2013 on Expanding ODS Implementation across country. In order to ensure that the expansion of the ODSC is implemented in a more coherent, effective and efficient manner, it is desirable to now conduct an in-depth analysis of the issues affecting the operation or implementation of ODSCs and to assist Ministry of Home Affairs to formulate an appropriate action plan that will help inform future actions on the ODS development, expansion and cooperation between sectors to ensure the success of public administration improvement.

Objective of the Assignment

  • To conduct an analysis of implementation and operations of ODCS, identifying strength and weak points, and core issues that affect the operation of ODSCs. This should include a brief analysis of the ODCS enabling factors that influence environment (at central and local level), a review of legal instruments, resources and systems that are supporting ODCSs, as well as the administrative and/or simplification processes that have taken place in relevant administrations;
  • To formulate a framework and an action plan that will inform and guide the government and the ODCSs in developing/review policies, regulations and/or undertaking a change management process in the ODCS and/or relevant administrations; and
  • To provide technical support to MoHA and or concerned sectors (as necessary) to implement the proposed recommendations in the ODSC Action Plan.

Duties and Responsibilities

To achieve overall objectives, the analysis shall include the following:

Compile information and conduct a desk review of relevant Government documents, reports, etc, from various Government sources on the objectives, status and problem/issues related to the implementation of ODSC, as well as interview key stakeholders, including ODSC clients to obtain an updated and in-depth understanding of the situation.

  • Analyze the current situation of ODSC implementation, the strengths and weaknesses of existing ODSCs,   core issues, the key institutions or stakeholders responsible for various aspects of service provision, key capacity development constraints; current efforts/policy by the Government to address these, overall vision in of ODSC in Laos, the mission that ODS should carry out and the target to be achieved in each period of time. (SWOT Analysis may be used as a tool to assess the existing situation to inform the development an effective Action Plan.)

Prepare a draft of framework and proposed Action Plan for the improvement, development and expansion of ODS Centers in Lao P.D.R.

In the development of a good Action Plan, information and insights on comparative regional and international best practice experiences with innovations that maybe adapted to Lao P.D.R context should be studied. The Action Plan shall have the following sections:

  •  Identify time-bound  activities or interventions that need to be implemented over a period of time and classified as short, medium, or long term;
  • Performance indicators, targets and baselines that will be the basis for monitoring progress towards the achievement of target outputs;
  •  estimate cost of such interventions (where possible) and in view of sustainability;
  •  Proposed institutional and management arrangement for monitoring the performance of existing ODSCs and coordinating the establishment new ODS centers.  
  • The stock take results and Action Plan proposal will be presented in a consultation workshop, comprising of key stakeholders (Government agencies, private sector, CSO, development partners, etc.). After receiving feedback and comments, the revised version of Action Plan should be sent to decision makers (by MOHA) for further comments and approval as the final step.

Deliverables:

  • This is a 20 working day in total – 18 days in Lao PDR and 2 working days home based. The consultant is expected to deliver:

Deliverable 1: Inception report outlining the proposed analytical approach for conducting assessment process, and how the Consultant will implement the ToR.

Deliverable 2: An initial report containing analysis of the current situation on the implementation of ODSC in Lao PDR, a proposed framework and ODS Action Plan in views of improving the operations and efficiency of the ODSCs and their sustainability.

Deliverable 3: Lead consultation meetings (at least 2 meetings) on proposed framework and Action Plan to generate comments and suggestions from participants to help inform the needs for future Action Plan. Report on the outputs of the meetings.

Deliverable 4: The Final analysis paper, framework and Action Plan that leads to sustainable implementation submission incorporating comments from UNDP, MoHA and other stakeholders.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

  • Strong leadership, communication and interpersonal skills;
  • Excellent organizational skills;
  • Demonstrated ability to work in a team (strong task management and team leading competencies);
  • Ability to work under pressure and in a politically sensitive environment;
  • Demonstrated cultural sensitiveness and sound judgment.

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: 

  • Masters Degree in Public Administration/Management, Business Management, Development Studies, Rural Development or related fields, or exceptionally strong relevant experience in lieu

Experienece:

  • At least 7 years of work experience in development and public administration, service delivery, and organizational development. Previous experience on business process reengineering – applying innovation ideas, One Door Service/One Stop Service Centres or similar models in developing country context will be highly desirable;
  • Work experience in collecting, synthesizing, analyzing, and presenting information from sub-national level service delivery units and communities, drafting strategic plan on public administration; and results-based performance indicators;
  • Work experience with the Lao PDR government administration at the national and sub-national levels. Relevant international work experience in the region, or similar country context to Lao, would be highly desirable.

Language: 

  • Fluency in both written report and spoken English;
  • Strong oral and written communication skills use of simple and clear language.

All interested and qualified candidates should apply on-line using the following links: 

In order to make submission please read the attached relevant documents which are also avalable on our web-site at http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/operations/jobs/: 

  • TOR (Annex I);
  •  Individual Contract & General Terms and Conditions (Annex II);
  • Offeror’s Letter to UNDP (Annex III);
  • Reimbursable Loan Agreement (for a consultant assigned by a firm) & General Conditions (Annex IV).

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals: 

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

Technical Proposal as per Annex III “Offeror’s Letter to UNDP”

  • Explaining why you are the most suitable for the work;
  • Providing a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work including the work schedule for the delivery of outputs/deliverable;
  • CV including past experience in similar project and contact reference of at least 3 references for whom you have rendered preferably the similar service.

Financial proposal:

  • Detailed financial proposal: Lump sum offer with clear cost breakdown against each deliverable.

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. 

Instructions for on-line submissions:

  • Step 1: Please prepare all required documents electronically;
  • Step 2: Combine all documents in ONE SINGLE FILE (preferably in PDF however Word format can be also accepted) and upload to the UNDP Jobs using the links above; 
  • Step 3: After that you will receive an auto reply from the UNDP jobs if your offer is received successfully.

Incomplete proposals or proposals received after the deadline will be rejected.

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

  • Project’s background;
  • Scope of work and Responsibilities;
  • Timeframe for the work;
  • Deliverables.

Requirements for Experience and Qualifications

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 50 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: viengmala.phomsengsavanh@undp.org or thilaphong.oudomesine@uncdf.org and CC to phadthakone.sophavilay@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.