Background

The 2030 Agenda: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit, presents an ambitious, complex and interconnected vision for sustained and inclusive economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection, fostering peaceful, just, and inclusive societies. Realizing this vision will require mobilizing and effectively utilizing a diverse range of public and private resources. The Addis Ababa Action Agenda, which outlines a framework for financing the 2030 Agenda, calls for integrated approaches to finance that are driven at the national level. 

Strategic development documents (development policies): Armenia Transformation Strategy 2050 (ATS 2050) and about 20 new sectorial strategic documents have been designed since 2018, with the Public Finance Management (PFM) Strategy being approved in 2019. In addition to that there are many other strategic documents which have been designed before 2018 and are still in force. These documents are not always aligned with Government Programme, with each other or with budget programs. Misalignments result in improper design, implementation, and financing of the strategic documents. That’s why, to ensure full effectiveness, the strategies and associated action plans need to be properly analyzed, costed, and aligned with budget programs and integrated financing strategies.

SDGs: Alignment of country development strategies with SDGs and budgeting for SDGs are important for long-term sustainable development of the country. Their reform paths and solutions vary in their nature and can be applied in isolation or need an orchestrated effort throughout the whole Agenda-2030 timeframe. The alignment of development strategies of Armenia (both ATS and sectorial strategies) with SDGs makes possible for country systems produce SDG related information, including the priorities, targets, progress in achievement of the goals and, most importantly, a wide range of stakeholders play an active role in SDG-related policy and budget formulation, monitoring, reporting and accountability. 

Project overview: Building on the ongoing reforms in the country, the current development of sectoral strategies and the adaptation of an Economic Response Plan to compound crisis in the country, the GoA is committed to translate the vision of the 2030 Agenda into national development strategies, plans and programmes. In line with this objective, the joint UNDP/UNICEF/WFP project “Making Finance Work for Transformative Change in Armenia: Unlocking Finance for Armenia 2030” has been designed to:

1. help the GoA create clear links between policies, planning and budgeting processes; and
2. deploy innovative and evidence-driven mechanisms to leverage partnerships and multiple sources of finance towards three priority areas in Armenia – climate change, food security and human capital.

This will include measures that can help the GoA develop capacities to reinforce its financing framework as a whole, discover new financing options that can support investments for development strategies and sectors that disproportionately benefit vulnerable groups, and strengthen medium and long-term planning by better aligning investment opportunities with longer-term Megagoals/the SDGs. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Work closely with PFM expert, SDG National Expert, Ministries, UN RCO UNDP, UNICEF and WFP to review all sectoral development strategies with focusing on their policy framework, alignment with national and other sectoral development strategies/goals, and alignment with SDGs, budget planning and budget performance framework. In particular:

• Study and evaluation of development strategies (, sectorial and transversal) and the latest adopted Government program: inventory and mapping of existing policy framework (sector/subsector, strategic documents, strategic goals/subgoals, measures/actions, outcomes/results, etc).
• Evaluation of development strategies and the latest adopted Government program’s alignment with SDGs, their targets and indicators (if any), making recommendations on possible alignments.
• Study general compliance of all development strategies with methodological requirements set out by the Government, study their alignment and cross-cutting links between SDGs, draft ATS (if available) and existing development strategies/goals.
• Study the alignment/link of development strategies and the Government program  with 2022 budget programs/measures and design separate map for each strategy identifying alignments of strategic goals/subgoals with the SDGs, their targets and indicators (if any) and budget framework (budget programs (program objectives, outcome indicators) and program measures).
• Identifying the gaps between development policies, budget programs/measures and Government program and making recommendations for filling the gaps.
• Analyze policy-budget links and develop recommendations to better link policies with budgets.

• Support the team of international & local experts in the design and implementation of a Development Finance Assessment and development of the design of an INFF roadmap for Armenia to increase the understanding of the country’s strategic development policies.
• Support the team of local experts in organizing at least 1 workshop for Ministries and governmental authorities on SDGs-policy-budget alignments (particularly: in implementation of sessions).
• Draft reports of findings from the study for social, economic, public/territorial administration and other sectors, which should include mapping and analysis of SDGs-existing policies-budget programs/measures alignments, identifying the gaps and making recommendations to fill the gaps

The National expert will be responsible for the following key deliverables/Outputs:

Payment Mode

Payment will be made in the following installments upon completion of the tasks under each output and approval of deliverables by the UNDP country office and PFM Expert:  

• Output 1 – 30% of total amount
• Output 2 – 20% of total amount
• Output 3 – 30% of total amount
• Output 4 - 20% of total amount

All outputs will be quality reviewed and approved by UNDP.

Competencies

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

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent intercultural, moderation, facilitation and negotiation skills;
• Builds strong relationships with stakeholders, focuses on impact and result and responds positively to feedback;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
• Ability to lead effectively, mentoring as well as conflict resolution skills
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
• Proven networking, teambuilding, organizational and communication skills

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced academic degree in public finance, economics, or equivalent discipline.

Experience:

• At least of 7 years of working experience in the development projects or public finance management at country level,
• Proven experience in policy analysis and public financial management, and advisory role to senior government stakeholders
• Research experience in the areas of development finance, public finance and budget review are required.
• Solid knowledge of UN Sustainable Goals, public finance, development finance.
• Demonstrated ability to engage in strategic analysis, and in-depth sectoral analysis.
• Excellent writing skills required, as demonstrated by previous high-quality research/analytical reports on relevant topics.
• Ability to lead consultations with senior government officials from ministries of finance, line ministries and relevant government institutions required.

Language:

• Fluency in Armenian and English languages

CANDIDATES WILL BE EVALUATED BASED ON THE FOLLOWING METHODOLOGY:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants' technical qualifications, experience and financial proposal.The contract will be awarded to the candidate whose offer has been evaluated and determined as technically responsive/compliant/acceptable to the requirements of the ToR and received the highest cumulative (technical and financial) score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation - max. 70 points

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation - max. 30 points.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE APPLICATION.

• Financial Proposal and Availability form: OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP (A total lump sum  option is applicable for this assignment)
• CV shall include Education/Qualification, Processional Certification, Employment Records /Experience

General Conditions of Contract is available here: GENERAL CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT

Note: Please note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents that should be included in the application in one single PDF file and upload it).