Antecedentes

Upazila Governance Project (UZGP) & Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP):

The platform for local governance in rural Bangladesh is provided by the Union Parishads (UP) and Upazila Parishads (UZPs). The elected local government institutions are responsible for coordinating many aspects of local social and economic development in Bangladesh. For the last decade (based on a pilot UNDP and UNCDF project in Sirajganj district), some UPs have recipients of discretionary fiscal transfers, which they employ for development activities through an open process of citizen involvement. The success of this effort has led to a major scale up of the good practices nationwide by the government, in the form of the Local Government Support Programme (in its second phase), a new project to strengthen Upazila Parishads (UZGP) and a project to develop and pilot the next generation of innovations with Union Parishads (UPGP).

The prime objective of UZGP is to strengthen capacities of local governments and other stakeholders to foster participatory local development service delivery for the MDGs. The key outcome focuses on (a)strengthened Upazila Parishads as more functional, democratic, transparent and accountable institutions; (b) Strengthened Planning and Budgeting system at UZP with MDGs orientation for pro-poor service delivery mechanism; and (c) Strengthened technical capacity of Local Government Division for effective policy review, monitoring, lesson learning and capacity development of LGIs for improved Local Governance.

The Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP) and Upazila Governance Project (UZGP) are a part of the overall programmatic framework for UNDP and UNCDF support to the Government of Bangladesh in the area of Local Governance reforms, supported by the European Union, and the Governments of Switzerland (SDC) and Denmark (DANIDA).

Over view of service delivery context and role of functional assignment Bangladesh:

Bangladesh has impressive achievements in releasing households from poverty, significantly increasing the number of children (particularly girls) attending school, and access to clean water. Child survival has improved rapidly. Bangladesh is among the 16 countries who have received UN recognition for being on track to achieve MDGs. The impressive achievements have been a function of a multi-pronged effort by the Government of Bangladesh and its Non-Governmental partners, with significant support from external development partners.

Leadership for the large scale efforts in the health and education sectors have come from the Government, through the respective sector Ministries. In addition to policy guidance, the leadership has been exercised through preparations of sectoral plans, directing both capital investments as well as operational expenditure, and managing the bulk of staff in these sectors, who work at the central and local levels.

In recent years, a major effort has been initiated to strengthen the role and capacity of local governments, at the Union Parishad and Upazila levels, to contribute to service delivery. Legal provisions to play these roles have been clarified and expanded, and fiscal transfers to local governments have grown in size. This has meant that local governments are increasingly looking to play a meaningful role, alongside centrally designed and funded initiatives, in the health and education sectors, which serve the vast majority of the people.

All the same, recent studies carried out for the LGD suggest that the bulk of services are traditionally managed directly by the central government officials and their field functionaries without systematic involvement of the Union Parishads either in design or implementation process, allowing for a sense of institutional "isolation' and ‘incapacity’ of local governments in providing critical services to the rural poor.

The limited role of the local governments also needs to be viewed in the context of the available capacities at their command, as well as the technical and self-contained nature of major service provision units (schools and health care facilities). On the other hand, there is growing recognition that the supply side efficiency needs to be complemented with beneficiary mobilization (like parent – teacher associations and the like) in order to address crucial gaps, such as school drop-outs and ante-natal care. In other words, there is evidently room for leveraging the comparative advantages of local governments in furthering the effectiveness of service provision. Insights into this important theme are likely to provide a basis for enabling local governments to evolve into effective partners of the central ministries in achieving the country’s targets and the aspirations of local communities.

Rationale for Policy Research:

This policy review is to take place in the context of the effort of the Government of Bangladesh to ensure effective performance of roles assigned to local governance institutions through the Upazila Parishad and Union Parishad Acts, which have broadly defined areas of work to these local governments without clearly specifying the assigned functions. The imperatives to establish and assign functions to LGIs fall into three broad categories: technical, political, and financial. From the technical perspective, the stated priority is to improve efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery and oversight. From the political perspective, the bunch of priorities range from redistributing power from central to local institutions, increasing the autonomy and scope for local leadership, and facilitating the reduction of ethnic and/or regional imbalances. From a fiscal perspective, the main priority of initiatives promoting decentralization is often stated as improving cost efficiency, whereby local institutions have greater accountability to mobilize and manage resources and revenues, as well as functions and expenditure. While the raison d'etre for decentralization and functional assignments often draw strength from political imperatives, and the principle of subsidiarity, the ability of such initiatives to deliver benefits and generate governance results of such efforts depends heavily on the extent to which they actually improve the delivery of services.

The manner in which decentralization and decisions regarding assigning functions to different levels of government (or administration) falls into three broad approaches. The first approach is deconcentration, where specified tasks and responsibilities for outputs and results are transferred from higher level offices (say ministries, departments or national bodies) to other subsidiary offices under their vertical line of control (regional, district, sub-district offices). The second approach is delegation, where selected tasks, and related responsibilities for results and outcomes is transferred by the national bodies to organizations not directly under their control – to regional or local governments, semi-autonomous entities like specialized institutes, and NGOs. The third approach is devolution, where a closely related set of tasks, as well as the authority, responsibility and funds (at least partial) to implement them and achieve the related results and outcomes, are transferred from the national government to local governments. In practice, effective assignment of functions across different tiers of government usually involves all three elements. The assignment of functions is also closely tied to changes in the manner in which the assigned functions are financed, extent of authority to manage the expenditure (and possibly any related revenue), oversight of personnel that come with the functions, and flexibility to borrow or seek additional external grants and assistance.

Several operational issues arise when functional assignments are left at a broad level. While legislation on decentralization seldom has capacity to go beyond specifying intent and guiding principles, it is usually secondary legislation or sectoral regulations that operationalize functional assignments. A major gap, therefore, in the early stages of politically driven decentralization is the absence of formal and clear assignment of functions. The issues closely related to this gap are ambiguity in roles and tasks, overlapping areas of work, and absence of mechanisms to deal with tasks that have to be shared or carried out jointly. Another serious gap that offices assigned with new functions and responsibilities face is in finding adequate resources to discharge the assigned functions effectively and deliver services of significantly better quality that communities often expect. While lags in decisions regarding inter-government transfers constrain the local government institutions that have been assigned new functions and responsibilities, the transferred service delivery machinery also encounter challenges in securing funds for routine work. These issues are further exacerbated by non-availability of personnel that would enable the offices that have been newly assigned some additional functions.

Several international good practices are available in terms of methodologies to analyze complex service delivery functions as well as to implement the functional assignments. The decentralization experiences adopted in the Indian states of West Bengal and Kerala are often discussed in Bangladesh. While the framework for decentralization was provided by amendments to the Constitution in India, the best practices related to functional assignment have primarily been the result of detailed subsequent exercises by state governments, particularly in Kerala.

Technical exercises focused on particular sectors, such as education and health, have been carried out in several countries with the assistance of international development agencies. The key steps in establishing effective functional assignments in relation to services, begins with identifying the functional components that contribute to the service, and as well as identifying the key offices/stakeholders involved in these components. This is followed with a mapping of the current role of each office in implementing the functional components. The third step would be proposals for changes, taking into account the political, technical and financial conditions. The fourth would be consultations among the stakeholders (national bodies and local government) to arrive at a consensus, leading to preparation of regulations and directions.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The projects seek to support the Local Government Division (LGD) to conduct a policy review of the current assignment of functions to Local Governments (Union Parishad and Upazila levels) in delivering of health and education services, and derive recommendations for LGD to provide guidance on functions and expenditure in these sectors, as well as a knowledge base to initiate capacity development in this regard.

Objective of Policy Research:

The objective of the study is to:

Conduct the policy review of the current assignment of functions to Local Governments (Union Parishad and Upazila levels) in delivering of health and education services, and derive recommendations for LGD to provide guidance on functions and expenditure in these sectors, as well as a knowledge base to initiate capacity development.

The International Consultant will lead the assignment, with the support of a national expert team being hired under separate procurement process, to carry out a full-fledged functional review of the role of local governments (Union Parishad and Upazila Parishad levels) in the delivering services related to the health and education sectors, and provide evidence based recommendations to strengthen the performance of these local governments in terms of scope of service delivery functions they should take on, the enabling policy framework to perform the proposed functions, and the manner in which resources should be provided to carry out the functions.

Scope of Policy Research:

The main components of this assignment will include:

• Identifying and proposing a detailed methodology, based on international good practices, for conducting this functional review;
• Review of legal provisions and mandates related to the role of local governments in delivering services in the health and education sectors;
  
• Review of legal provisions and mandates of sector ministries (health and education) that assign roles to different levels in delivering services;
• Comparative analysis of local government role in service delivery with a relevant regional model – say Kerala or West Bengal, in India;
• Prepare an introductory note for LGD’s consultations with health and education ministries;
• Carry out a small set of well-structured field observations and consultations, on the current state and scope of services being delivered to households;
• Explore, reflect and identify areas and options for actions whereby local governments could contribute to improve service effectiveness;
• Prepare a discussion note for LGD’s review of potential proposals for local governments to contribute to improve service effectiveness, gender responsiveness and inclusion, and discussion with sector ministries;
• Recommend the clarified functional assignments for local governments, the enabling policy framework to perform the proposed functions, and the manner in which resources should be provided to carry out the functions.

The policy research will integrate all LGI perspectives and stakeholders through range of research tools. The secondary research tools will be employed to focus on reports of earlier governmental review commission & committees and any similar work of the civil society. The critical research(s) of at least last 5 years, which are complementary to the objectives of the current research, will also be consulted along with the selective work of development partners to Bangladesh.

The primary research tools will be used to bring in operational ground realities and existing legislations in perspective both in terms of challenges and opportunities for the LGS tiers. The stakeholder perspective will also be integrated from Central to all LGIs level focusing existing institutional mandates and delivery mechanism in terms of funds, functions and functionaries to identify gaps and way forward towards the policy reform.

Composition of Research Team:

The International Consultant (IC) will lead the policy research and the nationally selected firm’s team of expert.

The national team will be separately procured through competitive bidding but operationally will have close link to this TOR. The expected operational details and coordination requirements, as elaborated in this section, are to inform prospective IC about the proposed national team composition and working arrangements. IC that will take part in bidding process under the existing TOR will have no role and/or responsibility in connection to hiring of the national team/ firm. The details in this section & TOR are to ensure that the IC is well informed about the expected team dynamics.

There will be 2 separate procurement processes for engaging (a) firm and (b) international consultant. Since hiring of the international consultant and the firm will be done separately, UNDP will follow due process in informing and introducing both the international consultant and the selected firm post completion of the procurement process for instant linkage and coordination.

Research team & Responsibilities: 

International Consultant (to be hired under exiting TOR )

The International Consultant (IC) will lead the policy research. He will be engaged for a period of 6 weeks i.e. 36 working days spread over 15 weeks/3 months. The International Consultant, in close coordination with the firm will be responsible for policy research design, methodology, tools and work planning. The first result of coordination will be an inception report.

The International consultant in coordination with the national firm will be responsible for research design, methodology, tools and work planning. Collectively, they will be translated into an inception report. In parallel to the inception report, IC in close coordination with selected firm/team, will prepare a coordination matrix to implement the research highlighting respective roles, responsibilities and oversight. This matrix will have time bound milestones for both national team and international experts. The matrix will highlight both virtual and in country based input and level of engagement of international consultant along with mode of interaction. The agreed milestones will be linked to the financial delivery. The Project designated focal person will oversee coordination (see institutional arrangement section).

The selected international consultant will be required to have at least 2 visits to Dhaka i.e. at the beginning to ensure design and methodology of research with the research firm and at the end for finalization of analysis, first draft and presentation to key stakeholders. The engaged firm will identify a team lead that will be the interlocutor with the international consultant. 

Firm/Team (separate procurement process & linked TOR)

Under separate TOR services of firm is being procured, through competitive bidding, to support the IC in this assignment.

The selected firm will deploy a team of three experts to undertake the assignment. The team will be sub divided into proposed national team lead and two team members. The team lead is expected to have understanding of the overall objective of study. There will be one Education and Health expert each. In case of proposing a fourth team member the bidder will have to provide justification and utilization of the same. CVs of all team members will be submitted with the technical bid along with their proposed utilization plan. The team will work in close coordination and lead of IC as explained above.

Expected Outputs:

• Desk review literature and prepare initial research design in collaboration with national firm (4 days);
• Meeting with key government officials, UNDP, UZGP-UPGP project staff and national firm to finalize research design, para-meter, processes, working relationships and its approval (4 days);
• Inception Report & Coordination Matrix (4 days);
• Distance support during Roll out of research, field research, data collection, analysis, etc (17 days);
• Draft report & presentation of key findings (7 days).

Impact of Results:

The policy review will primarily provide the LGD, the UZGP and the UPGP with evidence on the current status of involvement of local government bodies in delivering services in the health and education sectors. Recommendations from this review will also enable the LGD to engage in structured dialogue with the health and education ministries, to generate guidelines and directions for local governments to effectively discharge their mandate in relation to these services. It will also serve to improve the effectiveness of interventions implemented directly by these ministries, as well as actions taken up through local governments, in a manner that will enhance cost effectiveness, gender sensitivity and inclusion, and responsiveness to the special needs of the poor. The guidelines will, after due reflection, be generated by LGD, and provided to the Upazilas and Union Parishads, enabling them to clearly identify the additional tasks that they need to carry out, as well as the modus operandi to be adopted in cooperating and collaborating with interventions directly implemented by the sector agencies.

Institutional Arrangement:

The International Consultant will have following institutional arrangements for execution of policy research:

• To lead and guide national team as elaborated in research team section above. The national team lead will be the key interlocutor. The coordination arrangements will be elaborated in the coordination matrix;
• Close coordination with the Project Manager for project based institutional, operational and field support. The Project Manager UZGP will ensure availability of support and cooperation from the National Project Director and Local Government Division of M/o LGRD&C, as required, along with the UNDP and the UNCDF. The Project Manager will be provided the progress of work as per agreed coordination Matrix;
• Maintain technical coordination with UPGP & UZGP’s International Technical Advisors, as required, with Project Manager in loop.

Duration of the Work and Duty Station:

The estimated duration of the study is expected to be 06 weeks with 36 working days i.e. 6 days/week spread over 15 Weeks (3 months).

The principal working location to execute policy research (duty station) will be in Dhaka. However, identified projects locations outside Dhaka will be visited as per work methodology area as required by the assignment.

The selected International Consultant will be required to have at least 2 visits to Dhaka i.e. at the beginning of the assignment to ensure research design & methodology, meet stakeholders and agree on coordination matrix with national firm; and at the end of assignment for finalization of analysis, draft and presentation to key stakeholders.

Final Products/Services:

The IC will be expected to submit following in close coordination with nationally selected firm:

• detailed research methodology & design for the assignment – Inception Reports at the end of 2nd week;
• Coordination Matrix detailing roles & responsibilities, work plan with nationally selected firm at the end of 2nd week
• Introductory note for LGD’s consultations with Health and Education ministries;
• Discussion note for LGD’s review of potential proposals;
  
• Interim Progress report – end of 5th week;
  
• Final report Recommend the clarified functional assignments for local governments, the enabling policy framework to perform the proposed functions, and the manner in which resources should be provided to carry out the functions.

All reports will be shared in 3 hard copies along with Word Format soft copies in CD and through email. In case of any discrepancy the hard copy will be considered as final. The language of communication and reporting will be English. All research tools will be prepared in English and translated into Bangla for field application, as required. The final report will have a certified Bangla translation to be prepared by the national firm.

The cost of reports will be borne by nationally selected firm. IC will ensure quality of reporting and linguistic consistency and standards for English.

Scope of Bid Price and Schedule of Payment:

The Budget of the successful bidder will be fixed, therefore, comprehensive and all inclusive budget should be prepared. The assignment will be time bound and no extension and/or financial addition is expected to be provided. The price should take into account all HR costs and professional fees, travel costs, DSA, subsistence and ancillary expenses.

UNDP shall effect payments, by bank transfer to the successful bidder’s bank account, upon acceptance by UNDP (in consultation with LGD) of the deliverables as specified in the ToR. Payments will be made in tranches based on the following percentages and milestones.

• 1st Payment: 20% of total contract value will be paid after submission of inception report as stipulated in the section “M” of this ToR;
• 2nd Payment: 30% of total contract value will be paid after submission of introductory note for LGD’s consultations with health and education ministries and discussion note for LGD’s review of potential proposals as stipulated in the section “M” of this ToR;
• 3rd Payment: 30% of total contract value will be paid after delivery of interim progress report as stipulated in the section “M” of this ToR;
• 4th Payment: 20% of total contract value will be paid after submission of final report as stipulated in the section “M” of this ToR.

Terms: 

• The selected IC shall prepare and submit the work plans for approval and submit reports as stipulated in the section “M” of this ToR;
• Payment for services of the contractor will be made upon satisfactory certification by the Local Governance (LG) Cluster of UNDP and will be remunerated by the UZGP Project.

Recommended Presentation of Proposal:

The bidders are to submit a comprehensive technical proposal to substantiate its credentials and expertise for appraisal of bids in the below of CV. This includes technical proposal, details of which are listed below.

Technical Bid:

The Technical Proposal must contain a detail description of the process it intends to follow to complete the tasks including a detailed work plan and time schedule for completion/delivery of the assignment. The same will be agreed upon by LG Cluster of UNDP in consultation with the UZGP project in the early stages of the commencement. This section must provide following:

• Understanding of the assignment (Max 2 pages);
• Proposed research design & strategy (Max 2 pages);
• Proposed research tools to be employed in alignment with research methodology (Max 2 Pages);
• Proposed time bound work plan ( 1 Page).

Competencias

Corporate Competencies:

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Functional Competencies:

• Knowledge Management and Learning;
• In-depth knowledge of local governance/ local development issues in general and administrative and fiscal decentralization issues in particular. Specific experience carrying out research/studies on local governance systems in developing countries is desired;
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice on decentralization, performance based grants and local governance;
• Demonstrated experience with capacity building: Good understanding of capacity assessment methodologies; excellent ability to identify capacity building methods;
• Excellent communication skills (written and oral): Sensitivity to and responsiveness to all partners, respectful and constructive relations with host government counterparts, UNDP, UNCDF and project (UPGP and UZGP) staff.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Academic Qualification:

• Master’s Degree in Social Sciences preferably in Political Science, Development Studies and/ or Law.

Experience:

• Have 10 years of comprehensive working experience on research, reviews & evaluations focusing local governance, local government and institutional & legal development. Working experience in South Asia will be an asset;
• Have demonstrated research, review, evaluation experience in social sector especially Service delivery reform, Health and Education for at least last 5 years. A list of work should be enclosed with the bid with title of report and client’s name;
• Having experience of working with government and local government representatives preferably in South Asia. Similar understanding of the local governance system & institutes in Bangladesh will be value addition. Details must be listed;
• Computer literacy is must especially for MS Word applications. The CV must state the level of expertise in the usage of computer and office software packages (MS Words, MS Excel, Power Point etc.).

Language Requirement:

• Fluency in English (Written and Oral).

Evaluation of the Candidate:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

The candidates will be evaluated through Cumulative Analysis method. When using the weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose 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 specific to the solicitation.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70% mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 100 marks): 

Experience and qualifications of the IC (35 marks)

• Related Work Experience of at least 10 years in education, Health & Service delivery reform (5 marks);
• Experience of working with National Governments & local governments for last 5 years (5 marks);
• Experience of working with National Governments & local governments for last 5 years in South Asia (5 marks);
• Experience of working with National Governments & local governments in Bangladesh (5 marks);
• Experience of working with UN & donors (5 marks);
• Computer literate (5 marks);
• Experience of team lead at least 5 assignments (5 marks).
  

Proposed Methodology and work plan (65 marks)

• Understanding of assignment (10 marks);
• Proposed Review Methodology & approach (20 marks);
• Proposed Research tools data collection & analysis (15 marks);
• Proposed work plan & time line (10 marks);
• Proposed use of national team members in line with methodology (10 marks).

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks):

All technically qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provide below. The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula:
p = y (μ/z)
Where:

• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
• y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
• μ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated.