UNDP Jobs - 45979- International Planning and Budgeting Specialist

International Planning and Budgeting Specialist

Location :

Home-based with travel to Indonesia

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

15-May-2014

Application Deadline :

01-May-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

9 months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

9 months

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

Indonesia issued Presidential Regulation No. 61/2011 stipulating the National Action Plan on Greenhouse Gases Emissions Reduction (RAN-GRK) in 2011. This Regulation elaborates on Indonesia’s commitment to make voluntary reduction to its Greenhouse Gases Emissions by 26% against a business-as-usual scenario using domestic resources, and reaching up to 41% with international support by the year 2020. The RAN-GRK specfies Indonesia’s action plan to mitigate climate change by setting emissions reduction targets per sector to be implemented by 5 priority sectors contributing to Indonesia’s emissions.

As an input to the preparations for the implementation of Regulation on RAN-GRK, a Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR) was undertaken, covering fiscal year of 2009 – 2011, with a focus on reviewing public expenditures related to climate change in the forestry and energy sectors. The outcome of the CPEIR was the development of Indonesia’s Mitigation Fiscal Framework (MFF) which was adopted in 2012. The CPEIR study is to be regarded as an input to a longer term policy dialogue and development on climate finance in Indonesia.

Background

Since the development of the MFF, the Government of Indonesia (GoI) has been striving to achieve a transition from the current brown economy to green economy development pathways. To realise this, it is crucial to integrate the principles of green economy into the processes of policy decision making, namely planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation, and audit. As a next step from the MFF, The Green Finance for Development (GFD) project has been requested by the Ministry of Finance to focus on the greening of the budgeting process. The project targets three thematic areas: climate change mitigation, adaptation/disaster risk reduction and biodiversity.

The overall objective of the project is to strengthen the capacities of the Government of Indonesia to green their budgeting drilling down to sub-national level. The project provides an overarching chapeau to accommodate three separate, yet highly complementary regional/global projects: the Poverty and Environment Initiative (PEI); Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN); and Strengthening the Governance of Climate Finance to Benefit the Poor and Vulnerable (Governance for Climate Finance) funded by SIDA. The project builds on the MFF prepared by the Fiscal Policy Agency of the Ministry of Finance. One of the activities recommended by the MFF was to develop a climate budget tagging and scoring system. This recommendation has been responded through a policy study known as Low Emission Budget Tagging and Scoring System (LESS) has been supported by UNEP and PEI and will be further developed and rolled out by the Green Finance for Development project through national and provincial level pilots.

In parallel to the RAN-GRK which states the national mitigation action plan, the Government of Indonesia has recently launched in February 2014 the RAN API which sets out adaptation action plan for the country. In anticipation of this, the GFD through the SIDA component is planning to conduct a CPEIR with a focus on adaptation expenditure in Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) province. The selection of NTT province is based on the two main reasons, namely, NTT as one of most climate vulnerable provinces and the presence of ongoing UNDP-GEF funded Strategic Planning and Action to strengthen climate resilience of Rural Communities (SPARC) Programme. One of the SPARC Programme outputs is to enhancing institutional capacity at the provincial and district levels for facilitating more effective adaptation planning and budgeting. The complementarity in the overall objectives of SPARC and GFD will thus offer an opportunity for synergy and partnership.

The CPEIR for adaptation expenditure - overseen by Bappeda and in cooperation with the Fiscal Policy Agency (FPA) of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) will analyze both expenditures and fiscal instruments, will help the provincial and district governments and parliaments to better understand and plan climate finance for adaptation actions, make climate investments more apparent, and better define roles and responsibilities of relevant institutes with regard to climate finance for adaptation.

In addition, the findings and recommendations from the CPEIR will directly feed into the design of SPARC activities in the subsequent years (2015 onwards). Such activities will include facilitation of cross-sectoral, inter-institutional dialogues at the provincial-level and identification and implementation of priority adaptation actions in support of meeting the overall development objectives of the provincial and sectoral development plans.

Duties and Responsibilities

This assignment is part of the regional programme on strengthening governance of Climate change finance to benefit the poor and vulnerable in Asia-Pacific to support UNDP Indonesia country office and Indonesia government, as one of the programme’s focused countries, to conduct a gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIR.

The gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIR for adaptation actions in NTT, as with previous study on mitigation, will be specific to the province and is intended to assist the development of a better understanding of:

The formulation and coherence of the climate change strategies and policies and whether they address the gender and poverty dimensions of climate change;
The roles and mandates of the institutions involved in climate actions, poverty reduction and gender mainstreaming;
The processes of resource allocation and effectiveness monitoring for climate, poverty reduction and gender equality, related activities;
The interface between NTT local government and various national and international funding sources;
The identification of climate, poverty reduction and gender equality actions, their allocations, actual expenditures and the sources of these funds;
The identification of climate actions/expenditures co-benefits in terms of gender equality and poverty reduction;
The progression of finance through treasury mechanisms to the delivery of services and actions;
The processes of scrutinizing, monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of all climate expenditures and their co-benefits regardless of their sources;
The ongoing process on how to roll out the RAN API in an efficient and effective manner for NTT.

The CPEIR for adaptation actions will contribute to the overall development objectives of NTT to strategically allocate resources and manage finance in order to achieve its adaptation commitments in a manner that is gender responsive and beneficial for the poor and vulnerable.

Scope of Work

The gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIR has the following scope of work:

To conduct CPEIR at the provincial level and in 2 selected districts (Sabu Raijua, Manggarai or East Sumba) as pilot for analyzing the public financing framework for adaptation actions, poverty reduction and gender equality at the community level;
To provide baseline information and analyses at sub-national level on key climate financing issues with regard to existing policies, institutional arrangement, the planning and budgeting cycle, and non-public sector involvement;
To provide recommendations to ongoing process on how to finance, implement and monitor RAN API in an efficient and effective manner for NTT;
Develop recommendations for a climate financing plan to address gender responsive and poverty sensitive climate change adaptation priority issues at subnational level. This could be in the form of a climate fiscal framework (required investments, potential sources of finance, fiscal instruments, delivery mechanisms, and accountability framework).

Methodology and Approach

The above mentioned objectives will be achieved by using the “Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR)” methodology developed by the UNDP in consultation with the Word Bank, ADB and the OECD. The methodology will be adjusted to the country (in this case sub-national - NTT) specific focus and needs. It will build on the experiences in Cambodia that have recently updated and refined the CPEIR methodology with support from UNDP. It will also and for the first time, adopt a “co-benefits” approach by mainstreaming into its analysis the gender and poverty dimensions of the climate change policies, institutions and actions it reviews.

The gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIR approach includes:

Policy, institutional and budgetary analysis at national and provincial levels

The CPEIR takes forward several of the issues identified in national climate change strategies and plans and analyses the climate relevant policies, institutions and budgets. The analysis should also adopt a “co-benefits” approach and analyze how the policies, institutions and budgets are impacting poverty reduction and gender equality. Care should be taken by the CPEIR team in this case to reflect national perspectives in the gap analyses to properly contextualize the sub-national issues. For example, the CPEIR should provide recommendations to the ongoing process on how to finance, implement and monitor RAN API in an efficient and effective manner for NTT;

Reviewing the institutional arrangements, accountability and coordination mechanisms for climate change

This will include reviewing some of the provincial policies that directly or indirectly relate to Climate Change, particularly in relation to the RAN GRK, RAD GRK and RAN API. As the CPEIR’s focus is one on Adaptation, it should develop recommendations for a climate financing plan to address gender responsive and poverty sensitive climate change adaptation priority issues at subnational level. This could be in the form of a climate fiscal framework (required investments, potential sources of finance, fiscal instruments, delivery mechanisms, and accountability framework). It will also include examining the impact of other legislation that have a direct impact on the delivery of climate change related activities, such as legislation relating to key sectors and policy documents addressing poverty reduction and gender equality such as “the National Strategy to Accelerate Gender Mainstreaming through Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting”. While there has been significant progress in establishing the necessary institutional arrangements to deal with climate change, limited coordination has constrained strategic resource allocation and efficient climate finance management. The CPEIR will examine the current institutional arrangements to identify where improvements could be made to ensure the setup of institutional mechanisms that will allow the efficient delivery of gender responsive, poverty sensitive climate adaptation public goods and services. In reviewing the institutional arrangements, the team will also explore underlying political economy issues that impact the status quo as well future scenarios that may emerge post CPEIR. The CPEIR should identify institutional opportunities and bottlenecks at the sub national level: The assessment will then analyze the various institutional and organizational opportunities and bottlenecks that are currently in place that either facilitate the effective delivery of climate change related activities and finance. As part of this, there will be an analysis undertaken to unravel the complex relationship between the central government, sector ministries and the provincial/local government for the delivery of gender responsive, poverty sensitive climate finance. This comparison is necessary to highlight any overlaps in roles and responsibilities, gaps in capacity and responsiveness to community needs;

Budget allocation and actual expenditure

The gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIR will review the public financial management systems for planning, allocating, procuring, spending tracking, gender responsive, poverty sensitive climate related expenditures. It will also review any existing monitoring and evaluating system to measure the effectiveness of climate related expenditures and their co-benefits in terms of poverty reduction and gender equality in NTT. This will involve reviewing the integration of climate change, poverty and gender objectives within the resource allocation process including as part of budget planning and implementation. The gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIR team will attempt to undertake trend and composition analysis on both budgeted and actual expenditures.

In addition to the activities identified above, specific focus will be placed at the provincial level and two district level analysis to examining the following issues:

Identifying the sources of funds and treasury / transfer mechanisms from central government to provincial and district level: There is a need to have a clear understanding about the sources of funds, allocation mechanisms and funds transfer mechanisms from the national to the sub national level. The gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIR will identify all current modalities such as the general grant via Government Treasury, donor funding to NGOs, and existing national funds available to provincial government (if any). This should consider both allocation mechanisms and transfer of funds. In doing this, the analysis will look at all institutions at the provincial level who are involved in the delivery of climate, poverty and gender related activities, including: line departments, local governments, CSOs, both national and international;
Conducting District level case studies: To complement the financial analysis, a case study may be undertaken to provide illustrations of how climate finance is being delivered. The case studies should take into account the poverty and gender dimensions of climate finance. The intention with the case study is to capture the diverse nature of the district levels within the province and the varying levels of capacities of key stakeholders.

Classifying climate change expenditures

The absence of a national definition and a consensus internationally, on what constitutes a body of climate, or climate change, expenditure constrains stakeholders in tracking resources allocated for financing climate actions. The gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIR will propose an inclusive methodology to define climate change expenditure that is appropriate in the NTT context, reflecting both adaptation and mitigation related expenditures. The classification methodology should also allow for the identification of poverty reduction and gender equality co-benefits resulting from these climate expenditures. At the same time, there should also be a space for local institutions and practitioners to influence how central government classifies ‘gender responsive and poverty sensitive climate change’ and ‘gender responsive and poverty sensitive climate expenditure’, based on local experiences as well as international practices. Such a classification may be used to inform future national climate policy and plans’, ensuring it is aligned with local planning and budgeting processes. The assignment requires a careful review of planning, budgeting expenditure records and accounts that relate to climate change, poverty reduction and gender equality at local levels and also an assessment of the governance and capacity of institutions in managing gender responsive, poverty sensitive climate finance. The methodological approach requires that the gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIR team works inter-actively with the government agencies and other stakeholders to identify the scope of the exercise, priority sectors for in-depth analysis, how to address cross cutting issues such as the poverty reduction and gender equality dimensions of climate finance and a detailed work plan at the inception of the exercise. Given the newness of methodologies in the area of gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIRs and the importance of building national capacities, international experience shows that a combination of international and national expertise is important. An initial inception mission will be used for international expertise to train the national technical assistance team and to facilitate consultations over priority focus sectors for the duration of the exercise, as well as well as to ensure an appropriate launch of the gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIR through the Fiscal Policy Agency, Ministry of Finance in cooperation with the Ministry of Planning (Bappenas). The consultant will also support regional meetings sharing Indonesia’s experiences.

During the process of review, government staff members will be actively involved in the implementation of the gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIR and provided with learning sessions on the issues and methods through focus group discussions with the gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIR consultancy team.

The expected outputs from this assignment:

Gender Responsive, Poverty Sensitive CPEIR Report

The gender responsive, poverty sensitive CPEIR report will be conducted at the NTT provincial and in 2 districts level as pilot (either Manggarai/Sabu Rai Jua/ East Sumba district) and is expected to provide:

A review of existing policies and regulatory frameworks on climate change at national and provincial levels.
A review of key sectoral plans and linkages to the climate change as stated in the RAN-API;
A review of how climate change and sectoral plans through a poverty reduction and gender equality lens.
A review of any other issue relevant to climate change in the NTT context;
An identification of gaps in the 4 steps above and recommendations to address them.
A review of existing institutional arrangements to address climate change at national and provincial levels and between them;
A review of the allocation of climate change business between public institutions at national and provincial levels and between them;
A review of the capacities of institutions and institutional arrangements to address climate change at national and provincial levels and between them;
A review of the existing coordination mechanisms at national and provincial levels and between them;
A review of all the institutions and mechanisms reviewed above through a poverty reduction and gender lens.
An identification of gaps in the 4 steps above and recommendations to address them;
An analysis illustrating how gender responsive, poverty sensitive climate finance is mainstreamed into the annual budget cycle and medium term fiscal framework. This includes reviewing the annual and medium term planning, budget formulation, budget execution, tracking, monitoring and evaluation phases of the cycle and their responsiveness to gender responsive, poverty sensitive climate finance. Reforms necessary to strengthen the country systems and their ability to attract additional domestic and foreign funding should be highlighted.
A review of on and off-budget domestic inter-governmental transfer mechanisms and how they could be strengthened;
A methodology to define gender responsive, poverty sensitive climate finance;
A classification and measurement of domestic expenditures according to their climate, gender and poverty relevance based on the definitions developed in the previous step;
A review of foreign financed funding mechanisms (on and off budget) to provincial government and NGOs and classification and measurement according to the methodology developed above if possible;
District level case studies will enhance the analysis and should be included as annexes to the full report. The case studies address, but not limited to: 1) The review of financing structure for implementation of climate adaptation activities. 2) The review of existing fiscal measures, incentives and Public Private Partnerships. 3) A financing Plan for expenditures to meet the sub-national climate adaptation targets. 4) Recommendations for next steps.
Lesson learning document and dissemination strategies for other Indonesian provinces;
Lesson learning document and dissemination strategies for regional south-south exchanges.

Provision of monitoring and control

UNDP Indonesia in close collaboration with the Fiscal Policy Agency of the Ministry of Finance will provide guidance to the Consultant as part of the broad consultancy team. The SPARC programme team in Kupang will provide facilitation to the CPEIR consultation team including facilitating consultations with key stakeholders in NTT. The team of consultants to be recruited will report to UNDP Programme manager and to the FPA of the Finance Ministry as per their individual Terms of References.

UNDP CO will hire a team of three technical consultants in consultation with the FPA, and will provide quality assurance over the implementation of the CPEIR, and will support organizing the inception workshop, mid-term workshop and final workshop.

UNDP APRC will also provide overall support, quality assurance and guidance to the consultants, ensuring they have access to the latest data, information and experiences on CPEIR methodology development and implementation elsewhere.

Documents to be included when submitting proposal

Interested individual consultant must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate your qualifications:

Proposal: Brief motivation letter (not more than one page) indicating why the applicant thinks is an outstanding candidate for the job including a methodology on how applicant will approach and complete the assignment;
Financial proposal: The financial proposal must indicate lump sum professional fee in USD;
Personal CV and/or P.11 including past experience in similar projects and the name and contact details of 3 references.

The contract will be based on lump sum amount

The financial proposal will specify the lump sum professional fee in USD and payments will be made to the Individual Consultant based on the number of days worked and upon completion of the deliverables.

The contractor is expected to travel to Indonesia. In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Contract Duration

9 months (May 2014 - January 2015).

Duty Station

The assignment will be undertaken in Indonesia. The consultant will be working in part-time and home-based basis with travel to various districts in Indonesia.

Competencies

Demonstrated strategic technical and intellectual skills in the substantive area;
Demonstrated leadership, facilitaiton and coordination skills, ability to manage technical team and long-term strategic partnership;
Demonstrated entrepreneurial abilities and ability to work in an independent manner;
Demonstrated ability to work in team with strong communicaiton skills
Demonstrated ability to work under pressure and time constraint; and
Excellent written and oral communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s Degree in Economics, Finance, Environment, Social Science or other related field

Experience:

Minimum 5 years of experience in economics of adaptation, climate change policy, institutional arrangements, accountability and coordination mechanisms for climate change adaptation and Public financial management ;
Familiarity with government planning systems and institutional roles;
Ability to interact with senior government officials;

Language requirement:

Fluency in both English and Bahasa is desirable

Evaluation:

The award of 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 pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the socilitation.

Technical Creteria weight: 70%

Experience related to services: 30 points
Written test/proosal and interview result: 30 points
Expertise and availability: 40 points

Financial Proposal weight: 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 350 technical points would be considered for the Financial Evaluaiton.