Antecedentes

Despite great efforts and reforms undertaken in the area of decentralization and regional/local development, Albania has still a long way to make in consolidating its institutions, developing the capacities of national, regional and local stakeholders and unleashing further development potentials of multi-layered economic actors for a sustainable, competitive and integrated growth at par with its neighbouring countries.
Since the initial decentralization reforms in early 1990’s several donors have been active and supportive to deepen decentralization, enhance public administration capacities and develop proven and successful models of governance. Increasingly, the need for strategic planning, territorial approaches, vertical and horizontal coordination and partnerships have come to emergence and grown.
As part of the global development context, UNDP has promoted the attainment of Millennium Development Goals at local level, particularly through its Local Governance Programme (LGP) 2002-2005, while the Government of Italy financed a large programme on local economic development, the PASARP (Programme of Activities in Support of Albanian Regions and Prefectures) during 2000 - 2006, in the Albanian regions of Vlora, Durres and Shkodra.
The Western Balkans Programme in Albania (ART GOLD 2)- AID 8611.01.3 has been funded by the Italian Government by means of a contribution to the "ART" Trust Fund of UNDP. The aim of the Programme was to consolidate successful practices and strategies already developed in Albania through UNDP's LGP and UNOPS's PASARP programmes.
Based on the implementation results of ART GOLD 2 Programme as well as its objectives, targets and additional generated expectations and identified niches, the Programme has subsequently received support from UNDP HUB Geneva and the One UN Coherence Fund for expansion and extension. Currently, the Programme’s end implementation date is end of 2012, but further possibilities and prospects for extension are present.
The Programme is composed of three interrelated components, managed distinctly by UNDP Albania, UNOPS and UNDP HUB Geneva. UNDP Albania is responsible for the implementation of the Programme in Albania, while UNOPS is in charge of the international technical assistance and UNDP HUB Geneva provides overall guidance and coordination as well as facilitates partnerships and collaboration with various potential development actors and institutions.
With regard to UNDP Albania’s component oriented towards implementation of activities in the field, the Programme has a three-level focus as follows:
  • At the national level, the Programme helps enhance governmental departments' capacity to support improved governance and development in the regions and municipalities of the country, using decentralized cooperation modalities.
  • At the regional/local level, the Programme assists in strengthening local stakeholders' capacities in planning and managing integrated territorial development. The project operated at different levels to support local administrations in carrying out monitoring processes and in improving planning documents and action plans.
  • At the international level, the Programme has made use of decentralized cooperation modalities to promote the exchange of innovations, experiences and good practices with Southern and Northern Countries. The aim has been to promote Albania and bring its cultural, economic and social reality into an international contest.
ART GOLD 2 Albania is part of UNDP’s ART Initiative, which is intended to promote national co-operation framework programmes for governance and local development in developing countries. As such, the Programme supports the Albanian Government in implementing its national policies and strategies to locally achieve the MDGs through a territorial approach, in particular at the level of regional and municipal administrations, in accordance with the overarching National Strategy for Development and Integration (NSDI), the national Strategy for Decentralization and Local Governance as well as other thematic national development policies and strategies, in particular those of Ministries of Health, Education, Environment and Culture.
 
To achieve these goals, UNDP ART GOLD 2 Albania encourages the participation of different local, national and international actors, promoting the active role of public and private social actors in development processes and creating and supporting innovative partnerships, including European Regions and Local Communities, within a global system of cooperation.
The Albanian Programme focuses its activities in the two Regions prioritized by the Albanian Government, namely Vlora and Shkodra. Through technical assistance, the Programme has been instrumental in the organization of regional strategic planning exercises, including the identification and implementation of strategic projects involving the public, associative and private social actors as well as the local offices and representatives of central institutions, an effort that has been culminating with the formulation of Regional Strategic Planning documents for both Albanian Regions.
 
Main Objectives of ArtGold 2 Programme:
  • Support to the national government in outlining and implementing decentralized and regional development policies to achieve the MDGs and contribute to the implementation of the National Strategy for Development and Integration' goals in a coordinated way and in partnership with various stakeholders.
  • Enhancement of regional and local governments’ and other stakeholders’ capacities, in the selected regions, in local planning, implementation and monitoring processes and provision of support during the implementation of their regional development strategies.
  • Linking and establishment of partnerships among European, Albanian and other regional and local Authorities and communities to set up development interventions aimed at the implementation of local plans and strategies.
  • Support to achieving the MDGs by fostering cultural dialogue and European integration of Albania.
Key Programme Results to Date:
The Programme has commenced in November 2009, following and expanding on its predecessor, the ART GOLD (first phase), which in turn benefited from the experience of UNDP’s Local Governance and UNOPS’s PASARP programmes. In line with the set Programme objectives, the key results achieved to date by the ART GOLD 2 Programme include:
  • Strengthened capacities of Local Economic Development Agencies in Vlora and Shkodra region (AULEDA and TEULEDA) through technical assistance. The LEDAs’ staff is trained on development of business plans, project management, organizational development, creation of new partnerships, etc., focusing on economic activities that benefit the disadvantaged.
  • Fostered economic development by carrying out surveys on agro-food value-chains in both regions, providing guidelines for regional administrations, LEDAs and local producers on how to increase the economic value of 14 typical assets in each region. Together with AULEDA and TEULEDA managed a guarantee fund scheme providing, during 2010- 2012 alone, with 14 bank micro-loans to small family businesses and start-up SMEs up to a total of 1,2 M USD prioritizing the young, women and unprivileged.
  • Enhanced the coordination of development projects on the territory, by providing expert support to regional authorities to carry out two Strategic Planning (SP) processes (one in each region) focusing on the sustainability of tourism. The latter were launched at a national level though the participation of the Albanian Prime Minister and other relevant local and regional partners. In each Programme region ART GOLD 2 has started to implement a number of projects identified within the SP, considered as development priorities and/or development entry points by the County Partnership Councils (CPC).
  • Supported national as well as county level governments of Vlora and Shkodra in designing and implementing project initiatives in line with the relevant government priorities of development
  • Fostered knowledge and innovation through the organization of two key International Conferences on European integration, knowledge, innovations and democratic governance of development and several other county level workshops and forums.
  • Fostered the sharing of knowledge related to good practices by establishing partnerships with the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, universities in both Programme regions and local authorities in setting up pilot Laboratories of Local Human Development, a mixed academic and non-academic local development training programmes. The laboratories involve a combination of fieldwork, academic tutoring, lectures and peer-learning.
  • Increased capacity building through activities at the local and county levels, ensuring that around 100 local government officials are certified in design of project and budget actions with a focus on inter-municipal cooperation on joint socio-economic issues.
  • Initial discussions on new potential partnerships with decentralized cooperation actors are ongoing and linked specifically to the present implementation stage of the Programme.
Key partners of the Programme include the Ministry of Interior as the central level and increasingly the ministries of Health, Education, Labour and Culture. Naturally the Programme has active interaction with regional and local public officials and administrations, the LEDAs as well as other local level stakeholders.
The Programme coordinates its activities and cooperates with other donors most active in the area of local governance and decentralization, including chiefly the Austrian and Swiss Cooperation offices.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Evaluation purpose:
The ART GOLD 2 assistance to Albania has made a long way and delivered several products to date, creating expectations, momentum and response by the counterparts. In this context, the present independent evaluation exercise will serve to fulfill several purposes.
At a first instance, the present evaluation will assess the contribution of ART GOLD 2 in facilitating Albania’s efforts and reforms of its local governance and decentralization agenda.
Of equal importance is the assessment of whether ART GOLD 2 has been able to achieve its overall objectives in supporting national and regional counterparts. In this context, the assessment will also look at the level of achievement of UNDP’s commitment to the human development approach and at whether effectively equality and gender mainstreaming aspects are incorporated in the implementation of Programme.
The other key purpose of the present evaluation is to examine the appropriateness of the form of assistance provided, with a view to draw lessons and make recommendations for improved future assistance to Albania. 
 
Evaluation scope and objectives:
The evaluation team will:
  • assess the relevance of the overall project and the extent to which the development intervention's objectives were achieved;
  • assess the effectiveness, , impact and sustainability of the project;
  • look at the project as a whole, identifying good practices and lessons learned to be used as a knowledge base for developing future technical assistance packages;
  • analyze strategies and implementation modalities so as to provide recommendations to be integrated in the planning process in Albania;
  • review the project sustainability and potential life-long impact on Albania’s social and economic conditions.
  • Finally, the evaluation will review: the initiatives aimed at:
  • the strengthening of decentralized policy and democratic governance with particular regard to integrated local development;
  • supporting central and local governments to coordinate and link Italian and European contributions in supporting integrated local development;
  • implementing local plans and strategies to achieve the MDG at the local level
Suggested Analytical Framework:
The evaluation team can include other aspects in accordance with the purpose of the evaluation and in agreement with the executing agency (UNDP). The key evaluation criteria revolve around the following aspects:
  • Relevance: The evaluation team will assess the degree to which the project takes into account the local context and development problems. The evaluation will review the extent to which the objectives of the project are consistent with beneficiary requirements and needs, and assess whether the approach was coherent with the Country's policies and Poverty Reduction Strategy objectives. The evaluation will also review the extent to which the project design was logical and coherent, and it will assess the link between activities and expected results, and between results and objectives to be achieved.
  • Effectiveness: The evaluation will assess the extent to which the Programme's objectives have been achieved, compared to the overall project purpose. In evaluating effectiveness it is useful to consider: I) if the planning activities are coherent with the overall objectives and project purpose; 2) the analysis of principal factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the objectives.
  • Impact: The evaluation will assess the main impact effectively achieved by the ART GOLD Project in the context of reference. Even if the evaluation exercise is in-itineris, it is suggested to assess the probability that the objectives will be achieved, and if the project is able to reach the intended purpose within its planned conclusion.
  • Sustainability: The evaluation will assess the project capacity to produce and to reproduce benefits over time. In evaluating the project sustainability it is useful to consider to what extent intervention benefits will continue even after the project is concluded and the principal factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the project sustainability.
Outputs and Deliverables:
The evaluation team shall produce the following deliverables through the course of the as­signment:
  • Work plan – within two days of the start of the assignment. The evaluation team will submit the wok plan which will include a detailed approach and methodology and schedule. In par­ticular, the work plan will require a clear approach to data collection and work organization to examine the project in its full scope. The work plan will be evaluated by the project’s Steering Committee for quality and content, upon which clearance to proceed with the full evaluation will be granted.
  • Preliminary findings and draft evaluation report – within 10 days of the start of the assignment, the evaluation team will share a draft report indicating the scope of assessment in key components for validation by the Steering Committee and other stakeholders. The purpose of this report is to demonstrate progress on the assignment and adherence to the TORs, and will identify any evaluation issues that may need further clarification before completion of the in-country mission.
  • Presentation of findings – within 12 days of the start of the assignment a presentation of findings and preliminary recommendations to key stake­holders will be carried out through a workshop. The purpose of this session is to provide opportunity for initial validation and support fur­ther elaboration of the evaluators’ findings and recommendations.
  • Final evaluation report – within 15 days of receiving the consolidated comments from stakeholders, the Evaluation Team will submit a final document that addresses relevant comments and provides comprehensive reporting on all elements of the assignment. This report will be submitted to the ART GOLD 2 Albania Steering Committee for clearance.
  • Summary of the report - a two-page summary of the Project Evaluation Report should be provided in addition to the fully fledged evaluation report.
Evaluation Report Outline:
As a minimum, the Evaluation Report (draft or final) shall include the following components (the exact structure of the report may be influenced by the project components and compo­nents of the Evaluation TOR):
  • Executive Summary
  • Introduction
  • Project outline
  • Methodology
  • Analysis
  • Findings
  • Best Practices and Lessons Learned
  • Recommendations
  • Relevant Annexes, for example: a) List of people interviewed; b) List of acronyms; c) Evaluation work plan and TOR; d) List of key reference documents
Evaluation methodology:
The evaluation will be carried out through the analysis of various sources of information including desk analysis, survey data stemming from the performance monitoring, as well as interviews with governmental counterparts and project partners, direct beneficiaries (more precisely, with people of the Country, and with the partner agencies).
 
Management arrangements, work plan and time frame
  • Desk review  - Review of key project documents - (2 working days)
  • Field visit -The evaluation team visits project sites, interviews stakeholders and beneficiaries and gathers additional information. (Evaluators and Project team) -  (5 working days)
  • Report drafting  - The evaluation team drafts the evaluation report (4 working days)
  • Workshop   - Workshop on the presentation of the draft report – (2 working days)
  • Final report - The evaluation team finalizes the report embedding the comments (2 working days)
It is expected that the evaluation team will conduct consultations and meetings with representatives of the following institutions:
  • UNDP Albania
  • Ministry of Interior
  • Ministry of Tourism, Youth and Culture, Health
  • Select members of the Project Local Working Groups in Vlora and Shkodra
  • Regional Council of VIora
  • Regional Council of Shkodra
  • TEULEDA (Local Agency for Economic Development in Shkodra)
  • AULEDA (Local Agency for Economic Development in Vlora)
Evaluation Principles and Ethics:
The evaluation should be conducted in accordance with the principles laid out in UNDP Eval­uation Policy http://www.undp.org/evaluation/ and the principles outlined in the UNEG ‘Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation” http://www.uneval.org/search/index.jsp?q=ethical+guidelines and the principles outlined in the UNEG ‘Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation.”
Implementation Arrangements:
The Evaluation team will report to An Evaluation Reference Group which will be established and which will encompass representatives from Government, the Italian donor and UNDP.  The Evaluation Reference Group will provide guidance in the development of the work plan and ensure the monitoring of satisfactory completion of eval­uation deliverables. UNDP may provide office space and access to standard office services as needed. The Evaluation Team should provide their own computer and communications equipment.
In consultation with the Evaluation Team Leader and as requested, UNDP personnel will make available all relevant documentation and provide contact information to key project partners and stakeholders, and facilitate contact where needed.

Competencias

  • Knowledge of decentralized cooperation mechanisms and approaches
  • Excellent analytical skills

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:
  • Advanced Post-University Degree in International Development Cooperation, Economics or closely related field of studies.
Experience:s
  • Substantial knowledge in the field of, and 7-10 years of experience with project evaluation in development cooperation contexts
  • Experience in international project evaluation
  • Prior organizational experience in the evaluation of projects executed by UNDP (standalone or as part of an international consortium) an advantage
Language Requirements:
  • Excellent communication and report-writing skills in English
Evaluation Team Composition and Required Qualifications:
A team of previously unrelated experts will undertake the evalu­ation. The team will be composed of international and national consultants. The Team Leader will lead, organize, and supervise the work of the evaluation team, ensuring a division of labour that is commensurate with the skills profiles of the individual team members. He or she will have overall responsibility for the production of deliverables, in particular the evaluation report, and is ultimately accountable for its quality. The Team Leader is also responsible for ensuring adequate consultations with all stakeholders and for reporting to UNDP on progress. The Team Members will provide assistance to the Team Leader for the completion of all tasks mentioned above. They will provide with inputs and contribute to the assessment as well as the formulation of the Evaluation Report. The Team Members will also facilitate the communication and liaising with the project stakeholders.
 
Timeframe for the Evaluation Process:
The Evaluation is expected to start in January 2013 and have an expected total duration of 15 working days. The final work plan will be confirmed by the Evaluation Team and upon submission of a draft work plan for discussion.
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal.
The award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
b) having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
Only the highest ranked candidates who would be found qualified for the job will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation – max. 70 points:
Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation – max. 30 points
 
Applications Process:
Qualified and interested candidates are requested to apply on-line through this site, no later than 03 January 2013

Please submit the following to demonstrate your interest and qualifications by explaining why you are the most suitable for the work:
  • Financial Proposal - specifying a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this announcement. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (number of anticipated working days and any other costs such as per diems, travel and incidental expenditures in Tirana and project sites).
  • Personal History Form for SCs and ICs. Interested individuals must submit their applications online through UNDP Online Recruitment System. Correspondence (either in hard or soft format) will not be considered until the advance stage of the selection process. Applicants are encouraged to fill and sign a P11 Form and submit it on the online application. The P11 Form to be Downloaded here
How to Submit Application - To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:
  • Download and complete the UN Personal History Form (P11) for SCs and ICs;
  • Merge your P11, financial proposals and other relevant documents into a single file The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded;
  • Click on the Job Title;
  • Click “Apply Now” button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and click “Submit Application;”
  • Upload your application; You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.
Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested documents.
UNDP applies a fair and transparent selection process that would take into account both the technical qualification of Individual Consultants as well as their financial proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores. UNDP retains the right to contact references directly. Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.