Background

Background - General

UNDP, the global development network for the United Nations system, is present in over 170 countries and territories and is uniquely equipped to help developing countries build sustainable capacity and support achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To this end, UNDP offers a wide range of solutions to global, regional, and national development challenges through a comprehensive knowledge network, expert practitioners, and focused / strategic areas of support.

The Effective Development Cooperation (EDC) Team, under the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS), is the institutional anchor of UNDP’s work on effective development cooperation, focusing on the comparative advantages of UNDP in strengthening country capacities and systems to manage and coordinate development cooperation and finance coherently and facilitating peer-learning, and knowledge sharing as tools for capacity development.

The EDC team also team supports the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) as part of the UNDP-OECD Joint Support Team, which includes facilitating global policy dialogue and mutual learning on effective development cooperation as well as leading country support to the implementation and monitoring of effective development cooperation principles. In addition, the team coordinates the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Secretariat, providing advisory and administrative services to the Chair, Vice Chair, and 68 member states and organizations. Support to both these initiatives draw on UNDP’s track record of undertaking cross-UNDP initiatives and global processes on transparency, mutual accountability, and national ownership of development cooperation.

The EDC team aims to strengthen UNDP’s strategic support in the effective development cooperation arena in context of evolving development finance and cooperation landscape in close collaboration with UNDP Regional Service Centers, UNDP Country Offices, as well as with program countries and other partners. Collaboration with program countries in deepening policy, analytical, and knowledge bases on managing development cooperation effectively; the customization of program and project outputs to effectively support countries’ responses to managing increasingly complex forms of development cooperation; and facilitating and strengthening knowledge exchange platforms and peer-learning are all key to the team’s work.

Background – Support Area

The more integrated and comprehensive framework provided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) coupled with greater diversification of development finance requires stronger government leadership in managing development planning processes and mobilization / utilization of all potential sources of development finance. In order to exploit all potential sources of financing effectively and align flows with country priorities, governments will need to develop a more comprehensive Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF). Within this context, UNDP is currently strengthening its Development Finance Assessments (DFAs), which were developed by the UNDP Regional Service Center in Bangkok. DFAs provide a tool to map different finance flows and identify policy and institutional reforms that strengthen the links between finance and sustainable development. As such, the objective of DFAs is to provide programme countries across regions with a basis to develop INFFs and undertake associated institutional and policy reforms to manage development finance and cooperation coherently and effectively.  

Availability of and access to information is critical for fiscal finance planning and management of development resources. In this context, developing countries need to have timely, reliable and comprehensive information on development finance for strategic planning and budgeting and ultimately achieve national sustainable development goals.

UNDP in the past decades has supported programme countries establishing and strengthening an information management system to collect and monitor information on planned or budgeted aid flows as well as information on disbursement and expenditure of these flows, often known as an Aid Information Management System (AIMS). Such systems have played an important role in supporting programme country governments’ decision-making on the allocation of resources by providing an overall picture of aid flows, often disaggregated by sector, programme, and executing agencies among others, and arranged according to customizable criteria. In turn, AIMS can also help identify funding gaps; directly support Public Financial Management by interfacing with the national budget preparation process; and assist in multi-year programming through providing a clear picture of pledges and commitments juxtaposed against future needs.

In light of the rapidly evolving development cooperation and finance landscape changing and building on UNDP’s support on Development Finance Assessment (DFA), there is a need to strengthen the functionality of information management systems to support programme countries to manage complex development finance and resources flows more coherently. Expanding the scope of management information systems and strengthening their alignment with country systems will support institutional and policy reforms that allow governments to better articulate the link between development results and resources in the context of sustainable development. To do so, it is proposed to explore:

• How existing information management systems can be expanded or better coordinated to capture a wider range of external finance flows, including public and private sources; and
• How such systems can be strengthened to enable a more direct integration of data into Public Financial Management Systems / Public Financial Management Information Systems (PFMS / PFMIS), among others, to support the country’s preparation of fiscal plans and budgets.

Global efforts for strengthening transparency and availability of management information on development cooperation such as the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) have also led to availability of critical mass of data available globally. However, at the same time, global availability of IATI data has not yet fully translated into availability of timely and comprehensive information to support country’s development plan and budget preparation and execution. In order to support use of IATI data at the country level, there is a need to strengthen the functionality of existing information management systems at the country level to automatically exchange development cooperation data.  In addition, government bodies responsible for managing external resources in many countries struggle to get more comprehensive information on funding from some emerging partners, when such information could be extracted from debt management records in the case of loans.

To this end, the proposed consultancy will seek to produce a guidance note based on existing practices for strengthening the functionality of data systems which can enable the tracking of finance for development and monitoring of the links between finance and development results. The guidance note will include specific recommendations regarding the role of AIMS in this context. In particular, the consultancy will draw on good practice and country examples that have:

• Established oordinated mechanisms to track different external and domestic finance flows and monitor the impacts of this finance on sustainable development;
• National databases for particular finance flows such as Aid Information Management Systems, Debt management records, Foreign Direct Investment datasets, Remittance records, etc.;
• Institutional arrangements that allow for a cross-ministerial / multi-stakeholder decision making based on aggregated data on finance for development;
• Taken forward innovations that support international best practice on data – for example integrating IATI data into their AIMS or integrating data from debt management records into their AIMs; and / or aligning their AIMS with PFMS to enable a more direct integration of data on external finance into the fiscal planning and budgeting processes.

In addition, on the basis of mapping of existing practice, the proposed consultant will also provide targeted scoping support in a country where a DFA was undertaken and efforts are ongoing to strengthen information management systems as a follow-up to the DFA. Such scoping support will inform the finalization of the guidance note.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The Consultant will take stock of lessons learned at the country level in strengthening existing data management systems on financing for development and the role of AIMS through a thorough desk review and a series of structured interviews with in-country stakeholders in 4-5 developing countries (TBC). Findings from this exercise will feed into a scoping / testing mission in a developing country (TBC) and outcomes from both exercises will form a guidance note / needs assessment product on the strengthening of data management for financing for development and the role of AIMS. This draft guidance note will be used as one of the key documents for a country-level workshop on AIMS in early 2016 (TBC) and will also help to inform topics for consideration as future UNDP policy products.

Deliverables

Product 1: Summary of best practices and bottlenecks in establishing data management systems that support decision making over finance for development, and the role of AIMS in this context capturing  alignment with country systems and integration of IATI data (maximum 7 pages):

• Based on a thorough desk review and structured interviews with in-country stakeholders in 4-5 developing countries (TBC), the summary will aid to identify issues and inform changes needed for existing information management systems, such as AIMS and others, to be allow for coordinated decision making on finance for development, and to advance AIMS integration with country systems and integrate IATI data;
• The summary should aim to encompass Development Finance Assessment mappings as available, focusing on opportunities for coordination / integration of existing data systems used to track finance for development and the potential for stronger links with the SDG monitoring process. It should also include a focus on the role of aid data systems (financial, technology, and knowledge transfer) and how these can effectively support systems tracking all flows in light of the FfD agenda;
• The summary is envisaged to inform a draft guidance note on strengthening management information systems for development finance;

Criteria used in selecting countries for Product 1 will be as follows:

• Recent integration of AIMS with PFMS, debt management, or other country systems;
• Recent integration of IATI data into the country’s AIMS;
• Existence of a mechanism for tracking beyond-aid resources in a country’s AIMS or other development cooperation data system; and / or
• Mechanism to link tracking of finance with monitoring of results.

Product 2: Scoping / testing of draft guidance in a developing country (TBC) and preliminary guidance note (maximum 12 pages):

• The Consultant, in collaboration with the Global Policy Adviser – EDC / DIG / BPPS and colleagues in the relevant UNDP Regional Service Center, will select a developing country in which to undertake a scoping / exploration mission to test draft guidance Product 1 (themes and technical aspects to be agreed with the Global Policy Adviser);
• The outcomes from this exercise will form a preliminary guidance note on best practices and bottlenecks the role of AIMS in supporting overall country data management systems for financing for development and IATI data in light of the need to capture beyond-aid resources (maximum 12 pages),

Criteria used in selecting the country for product 2 will be:

• Prior undertaking of a DFA, with clear interest in strengthening management information systems would be preferable.

Product 3: Final guidance note and presentation:

• The Consultant will prepare a Final Guidance Note (maximum 25 pages) on strengthening management information systems in capturing finance for development in light of the SDGs;
• The consultant will also prepare 3-5 slide presentation on the draft guidance note to inform the preparation of a workshop on strengthening management information systems in capturing finance for development in light of the SDGs (winter / spring, 2016 – TBC).

Selection Process:

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: a) responsive / compliant / acceptable, and b) having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation as highlighted below.

All applicants will be initially screened against the minimum requirements as specified in the Terms of Reference. These long-listed candidates will then be invited for an interview and further evaluated against the following criteria:

• General knowledge / experience with development planning, management, or finance (20 points);
• Country-level experience working with AIMS or other aid management platforms (20 points);
• Familiarity with the development cooperation landscape and the evolving SDG agenda and monitoring framework (20 points);
• Experience researching and writing guidance notes or other policy products (5 points); and
• Experience undertaking structured interviews (5 points).

Those candidates who score more than 70% of possible points (49+ points) in the interview process will be asked to submit a financial proposal using the form available at: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=45780.

In order for the hiring unit to compare financial proposals, the financial proposal should be all-inclusive and include a breakdown. The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel related expenses, communications, utilities, consumables, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Consultant are already factored into the financial proposal.

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposals:

p = y (µ/z), where:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;

z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

UNDP is applies a fair and transparent selection process that takes into account both the technical qualification of Individual Consultants as well as their price proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores, with a 70-30 technical / financial ranking.

Payment Schedule:

Payment will be linked to specific deliverables as below and will be produced after the submission of a UNDP Certification of Payment.

• Product 1: Summary of best practices / bottlenecks (35% of total fee) - Due 15 January 2016;
• Product 2: Draft analytical product / preliminary guidance note based on scoping mission to one developing country (35% of total fee) - Due 29 February 2016;
• Product 3: Final guidance note and presentation (30% of total fee) - Due 31 March 2016.

Competencies

Functional/Technical:

• Communicates effectively at all levels of the organization.
• Demonstrates sensitivity, tact and acumen.
• Excellent client orientation and interpersonal skills.
• Capable of working in a highly pressured environment with extreme deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously.
• Able to handle a large volume of logistical details, accurately and thoroughly, with great attention to detail.
• Manages complexity.
• An excellent team player, projecting a positive image and ready to take on a wide range of tasks to create an enabling environment for the supervisor, focusing on results for the client and responds positively to feedback.
• Able to research, analyze and draft well and is able to present convincingly.
• Excellent computer skills, including frequent use of Excel and PowerPoint;
• Willingly shares knowledge and experience and makes contributions to UNDP practice areas (e.g., documented knowledge, community of practice building initiatives).

Corporate:

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

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Masters degree or comparable advanced training in international development, finance, political science, economics, business administration, or other related fields.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of relevant experience at the national / international level working with public financial management systems and management of external finance resources;
• Hands-on experience in the design and implementation of AIMS, including integration with IATI data is preferable;
• Substantive exposure to and understanding of inter alia development at large including the formation of the SDGs and the forthcoming monitoring framework;
• Impeccable interview, research, analysis, and writing skills; experience writing for international / multi-stakeholder audiences is an asset;
• Prior experience with the United Nations or other international organizations is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Proficiency in written and spoken English;
• High proficiency in French is desirable;
• Good working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.