UNDP Jobs - 25005- NATIONAL CONSULTANCY: DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL DEVELOP

NATIONAL CONSULTANCY: DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL DEVELOPMENT OUTLOOK FOR THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA

Location :

Kampala, UGANDA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

24-Aug-2011

Application Deadline :

17-Aug-11 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

60 days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

60 days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The least developed countries (LDCs) of the world face tremendous challenges as well as real opportunities. Many of the key factors influencing their development dynamics - both positive and negative - are ‘localised’, and are thus best understood and addressed at sub-national levels. The Millennium Development Goals Report (2010) and the UNCDF Global Forum on Local Development Report (2010) both revealed that ten years into the global campaign to reduce extreme poverty in its many dimensions within the framework of the MDGs, undeniable progress has been made and tremendous gains registered in terms of poverty reduction and better access to basic services for millions of people around the world. While many countries are on track to meet some if not all the MDGs, the progress remains unevenly spread across countries.

The participants at the Global Forum on Local Development 2010, noted and achieved consensus on a number of areas. They noted that (a) the MDGs need to be accelerated and localized, if to be achieved sustainably by2015 (b) neither central nor sub-national tiers of government on their own can achieve the MDG targets by 2015 and (c) the sub-national tiers of government including local authorities can play catalytic roles in the MDG localization and acceleration of efforts and achievements. In addition, a key outcome of the Global Forum on Local Development, 2010 was a concrete action agenda on how the sub-national tiers of government can be strengthened and supported to contribute to acceleration of MDG achievements towards the 2015 timeline. This imperative position was born out of the realisation that sub-national tiers of government, particularly local governments, are present and accessible to the communities they serve, they are closest to the people and thus have comparative advantage in local level planning and implementation management in a flexible, representative and responsive manner. Local governments are appropriately located to understand the diversity and complexity of local ecosystems and community realities, including the needs for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women and can thus contribute immensely towards peace, stability and state building.

A rising challenge to local development has also been wrought by global warming and its concomitant imperative to manage climate change and increased variability. Climate change generates challenges in two distinct areas that necessitate taking measures in the policy, institutional, systems and processes arenas at global, national and local levels and focus on mitigating against the fundamental drivers of climate change on one and adapting to climate change on the other hand – that is, adjusting to the problem and mitigating the phenomenon.

To date, climate change interventions have largely placed emphasis on top-down policy and programmatic interventions at the global and national levels. These interventions have hitherto focused on how to foster mitigation and adaptation measures. Gradually consensus has been built that incorporates local level and gender compliant planning and management processes and builds national capacities for supporting adaptive responses to climate change and other crises of non-local origin - like the global financial, economic and food crises - on the back of systems, processes and tools that reduce household and/or community vulnerability - or enhance community resilience to climate change and other non-local challenges –- as to improve livelihoods, reduce poverty and sustainably achieve the MDG and longer term targets.

Key national and global stakeholders recognise Africa’s local governments as pivotal partners in implementing climate change and crisis prevention action and to build and develop a just and pro-poor framing of the global responses to climate change and other crises, particularly with respect to the mobilisation and disbursement of national and global resources for capital investments at local government level . This calls for programming frameworks that focus on building strong and capable local governments as the key strategic entry points and partners of choice in piloting scalable, sustainable and locally-owned capital investment and inclusive financing solutions that enhance adaptive capacity and build resilient communities able to cope with and recover from gradual climate change and increased variability resulting in increased and enhanced weather and environmental shocks and stresses as well as shocks and stresses caused by other non-local phenomenon.

However, whereas approaches that bring the ‘local perspective’ may not provide the only solution to the economic, social and environmental challenges in the LDCs, they certainly are part of the solution. Progress towards achievement of the MDGs is often concentrated in specific regions and dependent on local circumstances. The LDCs themselves possess significant unexploited potential and their strongest assets are often localized in places where poverty and exclusion are the greatest. Local responses are therefore critical to achieving sustainable local development.

The 2010 MDGs progress report for Uganda shows that there is good reason to celebrate many achievements because about 7 of the18 MDG targets have been achieved or are on track. But the report also shows that there is cause for concern. Progress on 8 targets has been too slow or stagnant, especially so in respect of maternal health. There have been reversals in the HIV-Aids related targets. In some cases, improvements in national averages mask variability in progress and with it geographical inequalities among and within the various regions of the country as well as socioeconomic inequalities among and within communities, including gender inequalities among regions and within communities and households. In response, there is renewed emphasis in the context of extant national development frameworks on infrastructure development as a critical driver of local economic growth, employment creation, enhancing service delivery and the attainment of the MDGs. Local development is also increasingly being recognized as a tool to galvanise action at the local level and help ensure that the benefits of the development process in Uganda are shared more equally and that concerted action is taken to accelerate progress towards the MDGs by 2015 and beyond.

From the foregoing, it is becoming increasingly clear that a strong and new policy approach is either emerging or required to support sustainable local development in many LDCs. This approach should build on local knowledge to tailor public policy that is responsive to specific circumstances anchored in a logic that attacks exclusion traps via deliberate, place and rights-based strategies and harnesses endogenous potential and opportunities for economic diversification, poverty reduction and sustainable local development. The approach also challenges development partners to build from the bottom-up, by enabling and complementing the efforts people make to reduce their own vulnerability and poverty, to enhance their resilience and capacity to cope with and recover from adversity while the national level provides top-down protection and investment. This approach constitutes the generative nexus of top-down and bottom-up processes that need to be strengthened and applied in order to reduce poverty, contribute to acceleration efforts to achieve the 2015 MDG targets and engender sustainable local development.

In this context, Uganda has deemed it necessary to develop Local Development Outlook (LDO) as a basis for undertaking the following interventions in support of a national agenda for local development:

Creating space for piloting new methodologies that can provide national and local policymakers and development partners with comprehensive analyses of local development trends
Adding value to evidence-based rethinking of policies, institutions and processes that recognize and strengthen the role of local governments and local institutions as key to facilitating sustainable local development practice
Rigorous review of options to accelerate local development based on international good practices.

The Local Development Outlook should be more than a situation analysis of the state on local development in Uganda in 2011 alone. It is aimed as well to provide an analytic toolbox that can be used for strategy development and monitoring of local development on continual basis.

The Government, through the Ministry of Local Government is therefore seeking the services of a consultant to assist in developing this country outlook.

Duties and Responsibilities

Purpose or specific objectives of assignment

The specific objective of this assignment is to develop a Local Development Outlook for Uganda as a repository of stylised and analytical information and knowledge on local development approaches, policies, practices and outcomes in the country. Specifically, the Local Development Outlook will cover the following components:-

Review current situation and trends in Local Development

This component will focus on the key points in relation to the national and sub-national socio-economic, technical, financial, political and demographic characteristics and trends as well as the state of the environment and environmental challenges faced by the country. This disaggregated profile should be gender disaggregated as far as feasible depending on the availability of gender disaggregated data, and inter alia, address issues of rural –urban population balance, sectoral capital investment, access to services, migration trends, potential for local development, and the general vulnerability and/or resilience of communities to environmental and climate change and variability, including indications about inequalities at local and community levels.

Assessment of Local Development Practice

This component should focus on the review of extant policies, institutions, processes and systems to address local social and economic development issues identified in 2.1. The review should also articulate the policy and governance challenges at different levels within the country, the range of policy reforms undertaken in governance, their potential in terms of significantly transforming the way Government interacts with citizens and responds to their needs, the definition of roles and responsibilities of and access to and control over resources by different spheres of government, non-state actors, including different segments within the private sector, communities and its respective members. It also entails an evaluation of the impact of policy and programmatic interventions, including a wide range of approaches and modalities, on local development outcomes.

Recommending options for optimizing Local Development

In the light of the challenges identified in the context of the review of local development as a process and outcome, emerging development modalities, like rights-based approaches to development, and development objectives, mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, post conflict economic recovery, building inclusive finance, etc. and drawing from good practices elsewhere and the potential identified countrywide; this component should articulate a national local development agenda anchored in a range of policy reforms, new institutional settings, more effective systems and appropriate programme designs and implementation modalities that seek to accelerate progress towards balanced, diversified, equitable, accountable and sustainable local development in the country. The component should also provide guidance on the necessary vision and facilitate sustainable flows of investments into both rural and urban communities in support of poverty reduction and progressively lead to the realization of the MDGs and higher targets beyond 2015.

Institutionalization of Local Development Outlook:

This is aimed at developing a toolkit that can be used for strategy development and monitoring of Local Development; in principle the cost-efficient production of a Local Development Outlook on a regular basis.

Duties and responsibilities of the consultant

Develop a shared understanding of the nature , scope and purpose of the assignment with the Ministry of Local Government and its stakeholders as a necessary point of departure in undertaking this assignment.
Develop an effective methodology to collect, collate, analyse and review all relevant information and - as much as possible gender disaggregated- data required to adequately respond to the specific requirements of the assignment as detailed in section 2 of the ToRs
Develop and present the road map – Inception Report- for undertaking the assignment within the planned timeframe and budget ceiling, to the Ministry three weeks after the signing of the performance contract;
Collect, collate, analyse and review all relevant material and data required, including identification of national and international case studies, good practices and conducting interviews in order to generate concrete recommendations as an adequate response to the specific requirements of the assignment as detailed in section 2 of the ToRs
Develop an annotated outline and table of contents of the Local Development Outlook 2011 and share them with the Ministry team for approval and suggestions
Draft and share the text of the Local Development Outlook 2011 for comments, inputs and direction from the Ministry team
Prepare for and present the draft text of the Local Development Outlook 2011 at a national validation workshop and integrate comments or additional suggestions from stakeholder participants into the final draft
Review, organize and consolidate the chapters and narrative of the Local Development Outlook 2011 with a view to ensure clarity and continuity of thought and argument of core themes, internal consistency and general readability and accessibility of an editable document and submit the same to the Ministry team and a broad readership
Based on the methodology and process followed to produce the Local Development Outlook 2011, develop an M&E toolkit for strategy development and monitoring of local development to facilitate the production of Local Development Outlooks on a regular basis in the future
Ensure that the technical duties and responsibilities of the assignment are effectively managed to achieve its objectives and generate the expected deliverables within time and budget.

The consultant is expected to start the assignment by early August 2011, draft outputs are expected by early October and the final outputs in November 2011.

Reporting Arrangements

The consultant shall report to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government through the Director for Local Government Administration for the day to day activities in relation to this assignment. He will also report and update a steering committee that will be set up for this assignment on a monthly basis.

Competencies

Excellent drafting and writing skills as well as strong analytical aptitude, communication and presentation skills are required
Good interpersonal skills and gender-sensitive
Understanding of national development discourse in a developing country context generally (social, economic, political and environmental, etc.) and Uganda in particular is essential
Computer and internet expertise is mandatory
Very good knowledge of different survey technologies
Good statistical and geo-statistical knowledge, understanding and being able to explain and visualize diversity and inequalities
Be an effective advocate of and able to articulate an agenda for social and economic change
Should demonstrate leadership, interdisciplinary team working and coordinating skills
Should respond positively to critical feedback and differing points of view
Proficiency in written and spoken English.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master Degree, preferably in development economics, development studies, public policy, and /or other relevant socioeconomic sciences
Ideally the assignment should be taken on by one individual, who may rely on institutional support of a well-established research & development institutions, if required.
Education and experience in gender studies and/or environmental sciences is considered an advantage

Experience:

Minimum ten years experience working in international development on issues related to policy research and development and management in relation to regional and urban planning, local development, development planning and sustainable development
Very good understanding of issues related to poverty, social, economic, and environmental development, decentralization, local government, local economic development, governance and accountability
Very strong research & development record, including with baseline and geographical surveying, gender-sensitive, interdisciplinary and multi-scale analyses as well as policy research and evidence-based policy development.
Strong track-record in technical, policy-and development-oriented publications
Experience with gender analyses
Experience with spatio-temporal analyses and GIS will be considered as advantage.

Application Procedure

The applicants are required to submit an application and proposals, which include the following:

Technical Proposal:

Letter of Expression of Interest
Explanation as to why they consider themselves suitable for the assignment
Brief methodology on the approach and implementation of the assignment (4 pages maximal).

Personal CV(s):

Highlighting past experience in similar projects
Work references - contact details (e-mail addresses) of referees.

Financial Proposal

Please submit a financial proposal indicating consultancy fees in Ugandan Shillings, lump sum fee or unit price together with any other expenses related to the assignment.