Background

UNDP is the development arm of the United Nations system, with offices in 180 countries. Globally the organization employs 17,000 people and manages a budget of USD 5 billion each year.  
The UNDP office in Skopje employs a team of 65 and currently manages a portfolio of projects in environmental protection, good governance and social inclusion worth USD 15 million per year.
UNDP is currently seeking an experienced International Expert on monitoring of the delivery of local services to assist the project “Improving Municipal Governance” in strengthening the monitoring and evaluation capacities of 81 local-self-government units through effective reporting mechanisms.
The decentralization process that started in 2001 has devolved a wide range of responsibilities from central to local governments. However, many municipalities still struggle to provide adequate services to their constituents. These shortcomings are particularly severe in smaller, rural and remote municipalities, which need assistance in designing and providing services to address the needs of specific groups, particularly women, minorities and vulnerable or marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities.
To address these challenges, the ‘’Improving Municipal Governance” project aims to improve people’s lives by helping municipal governments to secure the funds and develop the skills they need to deliver high-quality public services to residents of local communities. The project intends to do so by: 1) improving the monitoring, design and provision of already decentralized services; 2) helping municipalities undertake new services in line with inclusive local development plans; 3) ensuring that municipalities can secure sufficient revenues to deliver all necessary public services.
Although considerable preparatory work has been undertaken, the Ministry and the municipalities still lack an integrated and nationally-applicable system to evaluate the implementation of the decentralization process as well as the quality of the services provided by the units of local self-government.

Objectives of the assignment

The purpose of the assignment is to improve the monitoring and evaluation of local service delivery through national monitoring and evaluation mechanisms designed for LSGUs. These mechanisms will increase the transparency, accessibility, and quality of service delivery at municipal level.
 

Duties and Responsibilities

The international consultant is expected to work in coordination with the National Monitoring of the Delivery of Local Services Expert (hired earlier in the project) on all tasks listed below (1-5). The international consultant will perform the following tasks in close cooperation and under direct supervision of the UNDP Project Manager and under general guidance of the Democratic Governance Programme Team:

Design a system for evaluating and monitoring the impact of services on the quality of life of citizens at municipal level, with the support of the National Consultant

•  Provide analysis of the ECORYS methodology  prior to the design of the scope/structure of the Quality of Life Reports;
•  Provide modifications to the methodology based on the local context and expand the model, if necessary;
•  Identify quality of life domains/indicators, further discussed and developed with all relevant stakeholders.

Lead the production of a separate Quality of Life report for each local governance unit (LGU) in the country, with the support of the National Consultant

• Study the current Quality of Life methodology and review the Quality of Life indicators from the previous pilot research carried out in 10 LGUs;
• Assist the preparation of the ToR for the Quality of Life survey and provide input to the research design;
• Conduct meetings and interviews with relevant line ministries and agencies in addition to local administration;
• Assist the preparation of the Quality of Life reports for all 81 LGUs including technical guidance to the National Consultant for obtaining data, analysis of data, sustainability plan for regular reporting, identification of gaps and issues affecting the monitoring process and policy recommendations for enforcing monitoring mechanisms at a local level.

Prepare an Integrated Quality of Life Report

• Consolidate the findings on a country level across all seven themes contributing to a quality of life of citizens using the findings from the above separate LGU Quality of Life reports;
• Lead the preparation of an Integrated Quality of Life report for the country including analysis of data, sustainability plan for regular reporting, identification of gaps and issues affecting the monitoring process and policy recommendations for enforcing monitoring mechanisms at a local level.

Provide on-the-job training for the LGU staff on preparing Quality of Life reports

• Review and update the training materials developed by the ECORYS project on preparation of Quality of Life reports;
• Deliver on-the-job training (together with the national consultant) to the LGU monitoring units’ staff on preparation of Quality of Life reports.

Assist classification and integration of data to the info-sharing platform

• Deliver gathered data and provide specialist support to the project team during classification and integration of the data to the information sharing and monitoring platform of the Ministry of Local Self-Government to provide for regular evaluation and monitoring of the impact of services on the quality of life of citizens at municipal level.

Deliverables  

• Detailed Work Plan and Methodology;
• Structure/scope and indicators of Quality of Life reports (Task 1);
• 81 Quality of Life reports for each LGU in the country produced in cooperation with National Consultant and Municipal M&E units (Task 2);
• Integrated Quality of Life report for the country (Task 3);
• On-the-job training to all LGU monitoring units’ staff (Task 4);
• Shared collected data into the Info-sharing Platform of the Ministry of Self-Government (Task 5);

Concise mission report with lessons learned and relevant recommendations.

Duration of assignment

Tentatively, the assignment should be completed in the period from November 2017 to December 2018. The overall duration of the tasks covered by this ToR has been estimated not to exceed 70 days, including desk work, field work and training delivery.

Travel

The consultant is expected to work from home and travel throughout the country and will receive assistance for his/her travel arrangements by the National Consultant. The international consultant is expected to have 5 (10-day) in-country missions. Per diem is paid for overnight stay only. Overnight stay will be reimbursed upon previous approval from UNDP Project Manager at UNDP standard fee.
 

Reporting
No additional formal reporting is foreseen in the course of the assignment apart from that specified in the deliverables. However, the consultant is expected to maintain frequent and regular e-mail and telephone communication with the Project Manager and/or Democratic Governance Programme Team and regularly provide information on the progress of the tasks.

Payment schedule

The payment of the Consultant on this project will be done in seven successive instalments upon completion of each deliverable and providing corresponding time sheets.

• 1st payment (5%) after submitting Deliverable 1;
• 2nd payment (10%) after submitting Deliverable 2;
• 3rd payment (10%) after submitting Deliverable 3;
• 4th payment (15%) after submission of Deliverable 4;
• 5th payment (20%) after submission of Deliverable 5;
• 6th payment (20%) after submission of Deliverable 6;
• 7th payment (20%) after submission of Deliverable 7.

Competencies

• Strong research, analytical, reporting and writing abilities.
• Ability to work under pressure, uses time efficiently. Identifies priority activities and adjusts them as required.
• Conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results.
• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• A Master’s degree in areas related to local-self-government, Law, Public or Business Administration, Economics, or another relevant field is required. A PhD is a strong asset.

Experience:

• At least ten years of relevant practical experience in monitoring and evaluation, policy research and analysis, with a focus on local governance development and decentralization projects;
• At least five years of practical working experience as a consultant and advisor in international context and/or ten years as a management level official in sub-national/local government public administration.

Languages:

• Excellent language proficiency in both written and oral English. Knowledge of Macedonian and other languages spoken in the country will be an asset.

Other required qualifications

•  Record of at least three similar assignments carried out in the field of evaluation and monitoring mechanisms on a local level;
•  Proven expertise and experience in policy analysis and data processing and analysis in the field of local and regional development;
•  Experience in liaising and co-operating with government officials, municipal authorities, academic institutions, NGOs and the private sector;
• Thorough understanding/knowledge of national and local administrative system and the policy context within which government and municipalities operate;
• Experience and knowledge of the country would be an asset;
• Excellent computer literacy (MS Office; Windows).

Application Procedure
Step 1

• Click on the "Apply now" button
• Input your information in the appropriate sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume, and motivation (cover letter). You can type in, or paste your short Resume into the last box.
• Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. On the next page, you will be asked to upload other required documents listed in the step 2.

Step 2
Interested individual consultants must submit the documents/information listed below to demonstrate their qualifications. The system will allow only one attachment. Therefore, please upload all required documents as one file.

•  A short summary (up to 800 words maximum) of their expertise relevant to this assignment, the reasons why they consider themselves the best candidate for this assignment;
•  CV;
• Reference list of relevant work/projects and position held and contact details of the clients;
• All-inclusive* financial offer – specifying a total lump sum in USD for the deliverables specified in the TOR including number of working days and travel to/from the duty station

In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of the offers, the financial offer shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount:

• number of working days per task
• daily fee in USD
• costs of travel from home base to Skopje (five return airplane tickets) by most direct and economical route.
• Living allowance. Living allowance is recognized only for overnight stay in the duty station. Living allowance cannot exceed UN official DSA rate for Skopje of 167 USD

* The term “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, communications, consumables, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Consultant are already factored in the financial proposal.
Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested documents/information.

Evaluation of Offers
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the combined scoring methodology. When using this method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated against below criteria and deemed the most favourable:
Technical Evaluation (70% of total evaluation – maximum 70 points):
Technical criteria/ Points obtainable  Max. 70

• A Master’s degree in areas related to local-self-government, Law, Public or Business Administration, Economics, or another relevant field is required. A PhD is a strong asset.     10
•  At least ten years of relevant practical experience in monitoring and evaluation, policy research and analysis, with a focus on local governance development and decentralization projects.    15
• At least five years of practical working experience as a consultant and advisor in international context and/or ten years as a management level official in sub-national/local government public administration.    15
• At least three similar assignments carried out in the field of evaluation and monitoring mechanisms on a local level.    10
•  Proven expertise and experience in policy analysis and data processing and analysis in the field of local and regional development.    10
• Experience in liaising and co-operating with government officials, municipal authorities, academic institutions, NGOs and the private sector    5
• Thorough understanding/knowledge of national and local administrative system and the policy context within which government and municipalities operate;    5

Only candidates who will obtain at least 49 points and will score at least 70% of the maximum points obtainable for the technical criteria (1-7) will be considered for financial evaluation.

Financial Evaluation (30% of total evaluation – maximum 30 points):

The offer with the lowest price will receive the maximum of 30 points. Other offers with higher prices will receive their respective scores according the following formula:
  

Lowest Bid
               ------------------- x 30
                Proposed Bid

The contract will be awarded to the candidate that will obtain the highest aggregate score based on the technical and financial evaluation.