Background

The African Platform for Development Effectiveness:

The African Platform for Development Effectiveness (APDev) is a physical and virtual community of policy makers and development practitioners promoting a more effective development in Africa, through consultation and coordination of policy initiatives. APDev focuses on three fields of consultation: Financing for Development, Capacity Development and South-South Cooperation. The Platform is coordinated by NEPAD, under the custodianship of the AU. It fosters an African voice in the construction of the new global development cooperation architecture and promotes African ownership of the development processes on the continent.

APDev has been mandated by the African Heads of State to form the primary regional repository for information, networking, and learning on Financing for Development, Capacity Development and South-South collaboration in Africa. It was therefore the key platform for the African preparation for the recently held Mexico High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC).

Mutual accountability (MA) in development cooperation is a principle by which development partners are held accountable by recipient countries for their commitments and governments are held accountable for development results by citizens and by donors. Complementary to accountability relations between governments and citizens, parliament and civil society, there are the accountability relations between donors and recipient countries. The ultimate goal of stronger accountability mechanisms is to strengthen relationships of trust between development actors, allowing for more effective development cooperation. Solid results in development initiatives can only be achieved when all stakeholders are held responsible for their contribution.

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) and the follow up Accra Agenda for Action define mutual accountability as one of the 5 key pillars of effective aid. Accountability and transparent delivery of development cooperation are critical to improve the quality and effectiveness in achieving more sustainable and impactful results. The Busan Declaration reiterates this principle and stresses the need to “agree on frameworks based on national needs and priorities for monitoring progress and promoting mutual accountability”.

 The Independent Evaluation of the Paris Declaration 2011 (phase II) states that “perhaps the most important overall finding on the implementation of the principles has been the clear and almost universal failure to advance on making direct mutual accountability more transparent, balanced and effective. This gap is a critical obstacle to taking aid partnerships to a more mature level, and calls for specific measures to try to overcome the real difficulties and breaking out of this dead-end”. Among key factors cited in the evaluation to explain why so few direct mechanisms of mutual accountability have evolved despite the specific policy-level commitment to do so, the report cites the lack of a generally accepted framework for defining and measuring mutual accountability in aid.

Concerned by the limited progress in the past 5 years in Africa in strengthening mutual accountability systems at country level, Switzerland and Tanzania, together with Ireland, UNDP and UNDESA, organized a number of sub regional workshops on Mutual Accountability in 2011, in Dar es Salaam, Accra and Maputo[1]. One of the key recommendations that came out of those workshops was the need for regional institutions to contextualize and regionalize mutual accountability standards. African countries thus indicated the need to elaborate an African Mutual Accountability Standard.

Some of the conclusions that came out of the 2011 African Mutual Accountability Workshops were:

• MA is a global concept but with contextual application. ‘One size does not fit all’. It is therefore important to understand and apply MA principles in a manner that will optimize the local environment. Locally established accountability processes must be used and strengthened;
• MA implies the ability to accept only support that will strengthen the ownership and priorities of a receiving country. There is a need to exercise stronger partner country ownership and leadership;
• Regional organizations such as NEPAD should be custodians of mutual accountability on the continent. The importance of creating a regional and global mechanism to oversee compliance was repeatedly highlighted;
• Therefore, participants came to the conclusion that MA ownership in Africa requires the establishment of MA standards by African countries.

Following up on this appeal, the Africa Platform for Development Effectiveness (APDev), through a multi-agency partnership, is developing an African standard for mutual accountability frameworks, building on the conclusions of existing research, surveys and case studies on this topic and on further consultations with African governments.

APDev’s aim for these standards is to:

• Reach a collective and shared in-depth understanding and pan-African agreement on what mutual accountability at the country level requires in Africa;
• Provide an assessment framework for mutual accountability systems, drawing on African experiences and from mechanisms such as the APRM as basis;
• Facilitate the development of capacities for mutual accountability in Africa, supporting countries to reach the agreed standards and share experiences on successful cases;
• Advocate internationally on the contextual specifics of mutual accountability in Africa and what African countries need from their international partners in this regard.

[1] Subregional workshop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on 24-25 January 2011 and in Accra, Ghana on 7-8 April 2011, Study visit and seminar in Maputo, Mozambique, 16-20 May 2011

Duties and Responsibilities

Building on the Concept Note on African mutual accountability standards developed under phase I of this project, AU/Nepad Capacity Development Strategic Framework, Africa Action Plan on Development Effectiveness, AU/NEPAD Domestic Resource Mobilization Study, and Further consultations with African stakeholders to be held through missions, electronic and telephonic communication, workshops and country pilot exercises, The consultant will be expected to develop, in continuous dialogue with the APDev team, the following deliverables:

• A capacity assessment tool which will serve to evaluate institutional capacity strengths and growth opportunities for Mutual Accountability (MA) in the field of Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) focusing most particularly on illicit transfers/financial flows, as well as, the Domestic Private sector (Agro-processing and extractive industries). This tool should consider institutional capacities for MA, as reflected through established systems and processes that serve to facilitate and ensure effective domestic accountability, as well as, in relation to external partners;
• A guidance note on requisite MA institutional architecture including key system and process capacities. These guidelines will emanate from region-wide consultations – with a general and several country-specific baselines used as basis in order to strengthen the ability of countries to improve their domestic systems of MA;
• Roll-out and Implementation of Plan towards strengthening capacities for mutual accountability in African countries.

Target audience will be development practitioners and government officials across the African continent.

 Specific Outputs and Deliverables:

Under the leadership of NEPAD, with support of UNDP and working closely with the relevant Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the consultant will be expected to support the NEPAD Agency and UNDP in the implementation of the Africa Action Plan, generally, and specifically with a focus on:

• Development of a capacity assessment tool on MA in the field of DRM focusing most particularly on illicit transfers/financial flows, as well as, the Domestic Private sector (Agro-processing and extractive industries). This tool should consider MA systems and process capacities that are in place to ensure accountability domestically as well as in relation to external partners;
• Organizing electronic consultations on the draft concept note, guidance notes and related key documentation on the African mutual accountability standards.
• Testing and adapting a draft assessment tool based on findings obtained through pilot exercises and consultations with the APDev team;
• Lead on arrangements for country consultations and work-shops in 5-7 countries;
• Roll out a finalized assessment tool in 5 – 7 participating countries;
• Preparation of country specific guidance notes on MA institutional architecture and capacities including recommendations for development partner alignment. This will not only strengthen domestic governance processes, but also ensure more transparent and accountable governance between developed and developing countries for development effectiveness in Africa;
• Drafting consolidated findings based on the country consultations in order to establish a baseline for institutional capacities and propose roadmap for implementation.
• Adapt the final knowledge product according to the recommendations of an APDev/NEPAD/UNDP reference group.
• Ensure the engagement of relevant African stakeholders;
• Arrange final stakeholder validation workshop to present findings and make final amendments;
• Prepare final knowledge products for publication;
• Supporting all operational and reporting requirements related to the execution of the project.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling 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 favoritisms;
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional Competencies

• Good knowledge of capacity development approaches and understanding of the key strategies, tools and case studies;
• Excellent analytical and qualitative skills, with evidence of having undertaken similar assignments;
• Good knowledge of the international and regional aid and development effectiveness agenda;
• Understanding of the concepts of domestic and mutual accountability as well as of the African Union Transformative agenda and NEPAD’s Capacity Development Strategic Framework;
• Understanding of African culture and diversity;
• Basic knowledge of NEPAD as a development programme of the African Union;
• Basic knowledge of UNDP and its approach to Capacity Development.

Required Skills and Experience

• A Master’s Degree in Social Science, Political Science, Development Studies, International Relations, Economics or any other relevant field.

• A minimum 10 years of experience in the field of development and capacity development;
• Experience in the field of Domestic Resource Mobilization and in post-conflict countries is an asset;
• Knowledge and experience in the field of Domestic Resource Mobilization and in post-conflict countries is an asset

• Proven and demonstrated effective oral and written communication skills in English or French;
• Good Knowledge of Portuguese or other languages is an asset.

Application Instruction:

• Follow the link: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=16620;
• Download the procurement notice and TOR;
• Submit the following documents as per the TOR and instructions given within the procurement notice.

• Technical Proposal (pdf):
• Financial Proposal (pdf):
• CV including the full addresses of at least three references.

• Failing to submit any one of the documents stated above will automatically disqualify the candidate from further consideration of evaluation;
• A candidate applying only by uploading CV to this job site will not be considered.