Antecedentes

In September 2009, the Legal Sector Master Plan was officially adopted by the Government of Lao PDR. The Master Plan lays out a framework for the country’s first broad-ranging legal reform in order to achieve its ultimate goal of establishing a rule of law state by 2020. It is a comprehensive and candid statement of the current needs of the legal system as well as a series of guiding principles for developing a rule of law state and action plan to achieve this goal. The Plan represents an effort at coordinated legal system development consistent with the guidance of the political report of the 9th Party Congress.

In order to support the implementation of the Master Plan, UNDP, together with other donors, launched a new project (“Support Project for Implementation of the Legal Sector Master Plan”) in January 2014.

As the first attempt towards a programme-based approach in the legal sector of Lao PDR, the SPLSMP is expected to deliver the following 6 key outputs:

• Enhanced capacity, procedures, and standards for legislative development and implementation in Lao PDR
• Improved capacity, structure, and arrangements further improved at legal and judicial institutions for more effective and responsive judicial process;
• More systematic development of legal and judicial professionals enabled through the establishment of a unified judicial training institute;
• Increased public understanding of legal rights and information, and increased participation in the legal system towards full realisation of their rights;
• Lao PDR’s further integration into regional and international communities enabled through adoption, implementation, enforcement, monitoring, and reporting of international legal instruments;
• Enhanced capacity of the Secretariat for more effective coordination in the legal sector and implementation of the LSMP.

As the Project duration goes from January 2014 to December 2016, this consultancy serves as a mid-term evaluation to assess the Project in such areas as efficiency, effectiveness, and relevance at the output level.

Objective

The objectives are (1) to assess the Project's relevance, effectiveness and efficiency and how much progress has been made in achieving the abovementioned outputs during the first 18 months of the project implementation and also (2) to provide evidence-based and forward looking recommendations that are useful for UNDP and stakeholders in adjusting the second half of the Project and for conceptualizing a direction and key elements of the next phase.

Use and Management Response

UNDP evaluation policy, approved by its Executive Board in 2009, requires all independent evaluations to have a management response. According to the policy, UNDP management, in close consultation with Ministry of Justice, SPLSMP, and other stakeholders, will prepare a management response to the recommendations and follow up action points. This plan will note the responsible parties for each follow-up activity, as well as the timeframe by quarter, to allow for clear tracking of progress on the corporate public website, Evaluation Resource Center (erc.undp.org).

Evaluation Ethics

The evaluation must be undertaken in accordance with the UNEG Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation, which are available here: http://www.unevaluation.org/document/download/548

The template for a management response can be seen on page 16 of UNDP’s Evaluation Policy, available here: http://www.uneval.org/document/detail/958

Deberes y responsabilidades

UNDP Lao PDR invites applications from qualified consultants in order to perform the mid-term evaluation of the SPLSMP. This evaluation should assess relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the project. It should assess what works and does not work and why, highlight intended and unintended progress and/or results, and provide strategic lessons to guide decision-makers and inform stakeholders.

The consultant is expected to hold meetings and discussions with government ministries and agencies’ concerned departments and committees as well as other relevant stakeholders in the execution of the mission.

In relation to the above-mentioned aspect, the Evaluator will review, analyze and provide conclusions and recommendations on the following evaluation criteria:

• Effectiveness (e.g. the degree to which the project activities listed in the Project Document and capturing government priorities have  been successfully implemented and desired outputs are being achieved);
• Efficiency (e.g. the approach to project management, including the role of stakeholders and coordination with other development projects in the same area);
• Relevance of the Project activities, results and design in view of (1) justice sector development in Lao PDR, and (2) enabling environment for citizens and civil society organizations’ participation/engagement in decision-making process;
• Data collection and methods should include evaluating the stakeholders’ satisfaction level with the Project’s results/ progress thus far;
• Identifying and evaluating recommendations and lessons learned from the first 18 months implementation for corrective action to further enhance results supported from this project;
• Evaluating changes made to the project to meet the priorities of the justice sector vis a vis the original planned activities
• Identifying and evaluating the level of national ownership catalyzed by the project;
• Evaluating partnership and coordination built by project interventions;
• Evaluating the sustainability basis built into ongoing and planned   project interventions and make recommendations if course alteration is needed;
• Evaluating M&E and risk management framework;
• Providing specific recommendations for further improvement in addressing cross-cutting elements such as gender and human rights dimensions within the project intervention.

Team Composition

This evaluation will be conducted by an international evaluator who will report to the UNDP Assistant Resident Representative under the overall guidance of UNDP Deputy Resident Representative and UNDP Resident Representative. With the support from the Implementing Partner (Ministry of Justice), SPLSMP team, UNDP, and other stakeholders, the international evaluator will be responsible for developing a methodology for the assignment that reflects best practices and encourages the use of participatory and consultative approach as well as delivering the required outputs to meet the objective of the assignment and will work under the overall guidance and supervision of the SPLSMP National Project Director and under the direct supervision of the Head of Governance Unit at UNDP Lao PDR.                                                                     

Evaluation Questions

Although these are to be finalized by the international consultant after the scoping phase, the evaluation should address the following questions among others:

Overall Results and Achievements:

• What has been the progress made towards achievement of the intended outputs (and that these remain aligned to appropriate outcomes)? What are the results achieved?
• What are the reasons for the achievement or non-achievement?
• What are the recommendations in this regard to take corrective actions for the second half of the implementation of the SPLSMP?
• What are the gaps that haven’t been filled by this phase of the SPLSMP?
• What are general indications for the direction that should be considered in moving forward for this Project given the achievement or non-achievement of the intended outputs?

Relevance:

• As the first comprehensive support for implementation of the Legal Sector Master Plan since its adoption in 2009, to what extent was this support to the legal sector of Lao PDR thus far based on clearly identifiable development needs as outlined in the government’s strategies including the Legal Sector Master Plan and National Socio-Economic Development Plan, international obligations and others?
• During the evaluation period, what economic, social or political changes have taken place that affected this Project?
• What opportunities are there to better align the support to the changed context and the needs of the beneficiaries?
• How does the SPLSMP’s work link to other development initiatives, implemented by the UN, other Development Partners, Civil Society Organizations, or government agencies?

Competencias

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.

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.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Masters or equivalent in relevant field of political science, law or another relevant field.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of professional experience in evaluating and monitoring technical cooperation and development activities and projects, especially in South East Asia;
• Relevant professional experience at the national or international level in providing consultancy work related to judicial development preferred.

 Knowledge:

• Strong knowledge of justice sector / development would be an asset;
• Familiarity with the UN(DP) evaluation policy, norms and standards; and
• Knowledge in the use of computers and office software packages and handling of web based monitoring systems.

Language:

• Excellent knowledge of written and spoken English;
• Knowledge of Lao PDR would be an asset.

Requirements for submission of proposals: 

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

• UNDP Lao PDR Country Office website at http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/operations/jobs/ or
• UNDP Jobs at http://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm.

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.

Any request for clarification must be sent in writing to the following e-mail: kazuo.fukuda@undp.org

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.

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.

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