Background

The Government of Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Bougainville Government have developed a Joint Bougainville Weapons Disposal Plan in 2017, through coordination and collaboration with the National Government’s Department of Prime Minister and National Executive Council, the National Coordination Office for Bougainville Affairs (NCOBA) and the Autonomous Bougainville Government’s Department of Referendum Veteran Affairs and Peace (DRVP), now Department of Peace Agreement Implementation. The United Nations through UNDP has been requested by both governments to provide technical expertise in the planning and preparatory activities that should be in place to support the weapons disposal plan. 

Weapons disposal is one of three key pillars of the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA). Significant progress has been made in 2018 on implementing the two other pillars of the BPA. During the Special Joint Supervisory Board meeting held on the 11-12 October in Port Moresby major milestones were achieved by its co-chairs of the Joint Supervisory Body, the PNG Prime Minister O’Neill and ABGs President Dr. John Momis.  Significant matters agreed on to progress the Bougainville Referendum preparation include the wording of the Question to be put on the ballot paper and the PNG Government’s commit to provide funding support to the process.   Progressing implementation to the Joint Bougainville Weapons Disposal Plan is critical.

The UN is implementing three projects in Bougainville all related to supporting a peaceful, informed and inclusive referendum. Of the three projects, the Peacebuilding Fund has two projects in Bougainville. One is the Gender Youth Promotion Initiative, which supports the empowerment of women, youth and people living with disabilities to have active roles in the referendum and to make an informed choice. The other Peacebuilding Project, Sustaining Peace in Bougainville, is providing support to political dialogue between the two governments, conducting Peace Agreement awareness, and assisting the two governments in the implementation of the weapons disposal plan. The third project is providing support to the Bougainville Referendum Commission (BRC).

This consultancy is to support activities under the Sustaining Peace in Bougainville project.  This project addresses three priority areas:

• Continued political dialogue between the two Governments and the two Parliaments ensures decisions around BPA implementation and referendum are progressed jointly
• Awareness Increased dialogue and awareness on the BPA, the referendum and post-referendum issues, ensuring that both the population in and outside of Bougainville is informed and feels included in the process.
• Weapons disposal is progressed as per the BPA through a joint ABG-GoPNG process whilst supporting factional unification and solutions to security concerns of outlier communities     

Each outcome is one joint UN project, with multiple agencies contributing according to their mandate and technical expertise available. A PBF Secretariat administered by UNDP has been established to support the coordination with the national and autonomous Governments, and to ensure monitoring and evaluation of results.

 The consultant is required to work with the Government of Papua New Guinea, the Autonomous Bougainville Government and other stakeholders to implement the weapons disposal plan through technical meetings with stakeholders and the communities to agree on an implementation modality. As well as support UNDP achieve project activities under the weapons disposal outcome.

UNDP now seeks the services of a Weapon Disposal Expert to provide technical support and advice to key milestones in the joint weapons disposal plan, strategy and parties to facilitate implementation of related JSB resolutions and UNDP PBF project activities.

Objectives

The objectives of this consultancy are:

1. Facilitate dialogue with ABG and factions
2. Ongoing support to the Weapons Disposal Secretariat, and coordination of referendum ready declaration implementation process
3. Consolidate WD Implementation to meet necessary revised regional declaration deadlines

 These will be done through:

1. Full and immediate functioning of the Joint Secretariat on weapons disposal;
2. Support to the Department of Community Government and Bougainville House of Representatives (BHOR) on achieving the Weapons Disposal part of the Referendum Readiness checklists
3. Support and monitoring of the Northern, Central and Southern Region constituencies to meet their weapons disposal deadline and referendum ready declarations;
4. Comprehensive engagement of the major outlier groups not signatory to the Bougainville Peace Agreement;
5. Identify Communities for community development projects to reintegrate ex-combatants that will catalyze further efforts in weapons disposal;
6. Support to outlier factions to sign and implement an MoU or declaration of intent to participate in implementation of peace process;
7. The active engagement and encouragement of women and youth in the weapons disposal process

Duties and Responsibilities

Under direct supervision of the Project Manager and in coordination with the Peace and Development Adviser and the UN Liaison Officer, who is the overall convener for the PBF, the Expert will work with officials from the two governments and other key stakeholders to deliver support as described below.

Deliverables

1. Full and immediate functioning of the Joint Secretariat on Weapons Disposal;
2. Support to the Department of Community Government and BHOR on achieving the weapons disposal part of the Referendum Readiness checklists
3. Support and monitoring of the Northern, Central and South Region constituencies to meet their weapons disposal deadline and referendum ready declarations;
4. Comprehensive engagement of the major outlier groups not signatory to the BPA to engage in the weapons disposal process.
5. Identification of Communities to receive development projects that will reintegrate ex-combatants as well as further weapons disposal process
6. Organization and training of local EOD teams deployable for pre and post referendum activities
7. Build the capacity of relevant stakeholders on weapons disposal processes
8. Support to the Communications team to develop communication material on weapons disposal

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards.
• Able to be deployed rapidly and remain available for future assignments, as required.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills
• Knowledge of institutional mandates, policies and guidelines pertaining to Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) and knowledge of the institutions of the UN system is desirable.
• Expertise in country/area of assignment is desirable; local language

Required Skills and Experience

• Minimum Diploma in Political Science, Peace and Development Studies, Conflict mitigation or related field.
• A proven track record on implementing and working on weapons disposal projects in post-conflict areas.
• At least 10 years of progressive experience in international affairs, such as peacekeeping, peace-building or development programmes and operations at headquarters an/or in the field with specific focus on disarmament, demobilization, reintegration, small arms control, conflict/post-conflict crisis management, and/or economic recovery.
• Experience in programme planning and management is desirable.
• Knowledge of institutional mandates, policies and guidelines pertaining to Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) and knowledge of the institutions of the UN system is desirable.

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Submission Instructions

This process is managed through the UNDP online eTendering system. Proposals may be submitted on or before the deadline indicated by UNDP in the e-tendering system. Proposals must be submitted in the online e-tendering system in the following link: https://etendering.partneragencies.org  using your username and password. If you have not registered in the system before, you can register now by logging in using:

Username: event.guest
Password: why2change

and follow the registration steps as specified in the e-tendering instruction manual or access it through this link: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/operations/procurement/business/procurement-notices/resources/

Please be guided by the instructions provided in this document above while preparing your submission.

Incomplete proposals and failure to comply with proposal submission instruction may not be considered or may result in disqualification of proposal.

Completed proposals should be submitted using E-tendering, no later than 18th December 2018.

For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to Tirnesh Prasad on procurement.pg@undp.org 

UNDP looks forward to receiving your Proposal and thank you in advance for your interest in UNDP procurement opportunities.