Background

The unicameral National Assembly (NA) of Lao PDR was established in 1991 and has six (6) portfolio committees in addition to the Standing Committee: Committees on Law, Economics/Planning/Finance, Social and Cultural Affairs, Ethnic Affairs, National Defense and Security, and Foreign Affairs.  The NA has four (4) more organs which are also called committees, but they do not have the same functions as the six (6) committees mentioned above. These four (4) working bodies are set by the Standing Committee and not by the plenary session: (1) Female Members Committee of the National Assembly (or Women’s Parliamentarian Caucus); (2) Constituency Affairs Committee; (3) Inter-Parliamentary Committee; and (4) the Secretariat Committee. At the last NA election in April 2011, the new 7th Legislature was established with 68% of the parliamentarians newly elected.

 The NAs 7th Legislature has an ambitious legislation programme for 2011-2015 and has already achieved significant accomplishments. As the current 7th Legislature will come to an end in May of next year and a new set of NA members will be facing many challenges, including the improvement of its capacity level, the need to focus on some measures to enact various legislations in order to be a competitive growing nation under the context of the ASEAN integration.

 Moreover, as an important ongoing process, the 7th Legislature has been working on the constitutional reforms in the Lao PDR in order to establish local councils which - among other duties - require changes in the Constitution, the electoral system, the Law on the National Assembly and the Law on Local Councils. The year 2016 is the elections for the 8th Legislature which will surely bring important changes in the lives of the Lao People and the political and constitutional structure of the country

 With this backdrop, the NA is still facing insufficient data, background information, and research studies for relevant issues, a shortage of specialized staff as well as lack of effective systems for assessing and monitoring the results of budget allocations and spending, which calls for further improvement of the NA’s institutional capacity. The NA also needs to strengthen and implement its critical mandate to represent the people, advocate for improvement in the quality of life, and articulate the needs of the people.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the National Project Director and UNDP Governance Unit Chief, the consultant is responsible to:

  • Provide technical and sectoral advice and guidance to the National Assembly, its Committees and Departments in pursuance of the project objectives;
  • Provide intellectual leadership in the area of parliamentary development, by delivering political, institutional and policy advice on all aspects of parliamentary capacity building, and by guiding the  development and implementation of project strategies and implementation modalities;
  • Establish links between national development goals, UNDP priorities and existing policy statements of the Lao PDR Government and the international community;
  • Ensure the incorporation of best practices and lessons learned on parliamentary development worldwide;
  • Identify and access external technical expertise whenever feasible and necessary in the form of trainers and consultants;
  • Support the management, coordination, and implementation of project activities and also supervises other technical advisors and consultants attached to the project;
  • Assure that the quality of implementation (e.g., technical assistance, training, manuals) fulfills the standard requirement of UNDP;
  • Provide advice and facilitate knowledge-building in the field of parliamentary development;
  • Build strategic partnerships and develop joint dialogue initiatives on parliamentary development issue as relevant to the project;
  • Provide technical advice on project planning, quality assurance, monitoring and evaluation, coordination and knowledge generation and sharing;
  • Develop concept notes, research papers and guidelines relevant to the multi-faceted research needs of the NA, its Committees and various staffs of NA departments;
  • Prepare various training materials concerning legislative research, the preparation and submission of legislative briefs and background materials and other relevant materials that may be useful by various NA departments in order to perform a timely and effective support service system;
  • Provide  training  modules and programs for the induction programme of newly elected members of the NA of the 8th Legislature  and their senior staffs on the mechanics and dynamics of legislations, such as: the history of the NA; composition of the NA; qualifications of members; constitutional duties and functions; privileges and immunities of members; the parliamentary rules and procedures; the oversight power of NA; its budgetary; and its constitutional role as an independent but co-equal branch of government;
  • Conduct various seminars and training programmes for the NA, its Committees and staffs in various NA Departments on various parliamentary research methods, legislative analysis and review of laws, bill drafting, preparation of research reports, legislative briefs and other relevant legislative materials;
  • Prepare periodic reports for UNDP regarding relevant materials involving the NA activities in order that UNDP can be updated on its current or potential support to the NA;
  • Being an active liaison with UNDP’s Global Programme for Parliamentary Strengthening, managed by the Democratic Governance Group at the UNDP Bureau of Development Policy;
  • Maintain a sound understanding of government, parliamentary and political processes in Lao PDR; and
  • Advice the National Assembly and UNDP in identifying and designing projects and initiatives related to parliamentary development.

 The consultant is also responsible for liaison with UNDP’s iKNOW Politics Programme, IPU, and other agencies and initiatives for parliamentary development. In coordination with the Team Leader and Programme Officer of the UNDP Governance Unit, the consultant will also have responsibility for liaison with the donor community in Laos on technical issues relating to the project.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

  • Shares knowledge and experience;
  • Plan and prioritizes work activities to meet organizational goals;
  • Builds and sustains relationships with key constituents (international/external/bilateral/ multilateral/public/private/civil society);
  • Conceptualizes and analyzes problems to identify key issues, underlying problems, and how they relate;
  • Demonstrates excellent and effective written and oral communication skills;
  • Demonstrate respect to knowledge and culture and religion in a multidisciplinary working environment;
  • Applies the required depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise to meet job demands;
  • Uses information technology effectively as a tools and resource;
  • Demonstrated flexibility and adaptability in taking on this type of consultancy.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  •  Master’s degree in Law (especially Public Law), Political Science, Public Administration, or related relevant fields.

Experience:

  • Minimum of 10 years of providing technical advice to senior officials at the parliamentary setting in the development context;
  • Strong knowledge and background on legislative research, law-drafting and technical expertise to provide professional and sound legislative advise on major legislative issues and concerns;
  • In-depth knowledge of planning and realizing of parliamentary strengthening projects, particularly UNDP project in support to parliaments;
  • Familiarity with project management cycle, especially under UNDP context;
  • A prolific writer and researcher having demonstrated in writing concept notes, parliamentary researches and preparing vital legislative documents, such as legislative briefs and background legislative materials;
  • Knowledge of gender and practical experience of gender mainstreaming in the activities of elected bodies;
  • Demonstrated flexibility, adaptability and understanding in taking on consultancy for development projects;
  • Initiative and ability to organize his/her work independently, but also to work as part of a team;
  • Proven ability to deliver quality output working under tight deadlines.

Language:

  • Excellent command of written and spoken English, including excellent drafting and presentation skills;
  • Knowledge of Lao language (spoken and/or written) an advantage.

Requirements for submission of proposals:

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

 In order to make submission please read the attached relevant documents:

  • TOR (Annex I);
  • Individual Contract & General Terms and Conditions (Annex II);
  • Offeror's lette to UNDP confirming interest and availability (Annex III).

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

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

  • Technical and Financial Proposal as per Annex III “Offeror's lette to UNDP confirming interest and availability";
  • Explaining why you are the most suitable for the work;
  • Providing a brief methodology on how you 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 services;

 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.

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 the above set of weighted technical and financial criteria.

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.

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: kazuo.fukuda@undp.org or lao.procurement@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