UNDP Jobs - 67520- Developing Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for

Developing Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the Democratic Governance Sector

Location :

Lilongwe, MALAWI

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

18-Aug-2016

Application Deadline :

04-Aug-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

28 working days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

28 working days

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

In 2008, the Government of Malawi introduced the sector working groups as a means of enhancing the execution of the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) and the Development Assistance Strategy. Sector-Wide Approach was adopted as the ‘best fit’ to eliminate duplication and fragmentation of effort, enhance synergy, and reduce transaction costs. The Democratic Governance Sector (DGS) is among the 16 Sector Working Groups defined in the MGDS II. Through a rigorous and consultative process involving Government institutions, Development partners and Civil Society Organisations, the Sector Policy Framework Paper and the five-year Sector Strategy were produced and approved by Cabinet in 2012 to guide the long term aspirations and operations of the Democratic Governance Sector Working Group.

The Democratic Governance Sector Strategy seeks to strengthen the democratic character of Malawi’s processes to achieve the country’s stated development priorities and outcomes specified in the MGDS II. To achieve this, the DGS identifies the following as the cornerstones and key result areas: a) Effective democratic governance sector institutions; b) Strengthened rule of law, improved access to justice, public safety and security; c) Improved promotion and protection of human rights; d) Free and credible elections; e) Transparent, accountable and responsive democratic governance sector institutions and; f) More effective independent and representative legislature.

Prior to the launching of the two policy documents, capacity assessments were conducted in 2010 by the Sector. These led to serious revelations about the fragility in democratic governance institutions. The shortfalls ranged from low citizen participation, weak legal frameworks, low compliance with international and constitutional mandates, human resources that are insufficient and/or inadequate and outdated infrastructure. However, ccentral to these challenges was the lack of capacity and ability of sector institutions to manage data to inform policy making across most of the sector institutions. This defeats the spirit of the sector strategy that recognizes M&E as an integral component that is meant to enable the sector to make informed decisions which are built on reliable, realistic and nationally owned data, supported by credible administrative and survey based data.

In order to close the foregoing M&E gaps and to be able to consistently track implementation progress and attainment of the outcomes of the strategy, Democratic Governance Sector Working Group through its Secretariat (Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs) intends to develop a Sector Monitoring and Evaluation Framework. It is envisaged that the framework will guide all stakeholders in the Sector in undertaking their designated M&E roles as well as provide a harmonized approach in systematic data collection, analysis, interpretation, utilization and dissemination of information related to the Sector. In so doing, the Sector M&E Framework will facilitate the transition from monitoring and evaluation of the individual Key Result Areas of the Strategy into a wider national assessment of the democratic governance in the country.

Duties and Responsibilities

Responsibilities and main activities and processes:

Specifically, the Consultant will do the following;
Conduct consultation meetings with DG-Sector member institutions and identify priority areas requiring M&E intervention;
Assess individual institutional M&E status to inform the overarching Sector M&E framework;
Apply the theories of change to validate or define relevant, achievable results and appropriate indicators to monitor their achievement and related assumptions and risks;
As part of “3” Identify and develop SMART and gender sensitive indicators that:
Cover all DG-Institutions;
Measure short-term and long-term targets;
Measure output, outcome and impact level performance;
Track annual work plans and budget expenditure at the sectoral level.
Develop an M&E and reporting plan for the DG Sector. The plan will take into account need to generate and analyse data where appropriate;
Cover all crosscutting issues for ease of alignment of the individual institution’s M&E plans to the Sector Plan;
Provide recommendation on potential structure and focus of the framework;
Prepare final M&E Framework;
Develop a resource mobilisation tool for the M&E Framework plan implementation.

Competencies

Strong analytical, reporting and communication skills;
Monitoring and Evaluation skills;
Good facilitation skills
Excellent command of oral and written English.

Required Skills and Experience

The assignment will be undertaken by an individual with the following education, experience and skills set:

Education:

Advanced University degree (PhD, Masters or equivalent) preferably in Political Science, International Studies, Law, Development Studies or any other related field.

Experience:

Demonstrate minimum of 5 years experience and references of having undertaken similar assignments;
In-depth knowledge and understanding of issues of Governance in Malawi;
A strong background in monitoring and evaluation;
Experience in gender mainstreaming in development planning and implementation.

Language:

Fluent in English.

Scope of Work:

The overall objective of the consultancy will be to develop “A Monitoring and Evaluation Framework” for the Democratic Governance Sector in Malawi. The consultant will be expected to work closely with all Sector Institutions, Civil Society Organizations and Development Partners. The Consultant will engage all institutions as grouped in their Technical Working Groups.

Consultant will pay particular attention to the national M&E strategy and the Democratic Governance Strategy as well as the ongoing Government’s Public Sector Reform agenda to develop a robust M&E framework for the Sector.

The consultancy will validate or define achievable results and indicators together with related assumptions and risks for the sector.
Gender equality and women empowerment is a key programming principles embraced by the sector. Hence, the consultancy is expected to pay attention to requirements for effective mainstreaming of gender in the monitoring and evaluation framework.

The Consultant shall develop a framework that will include organizational wide and cross-cutting issues that will enhance both internal and external accountability and transparency of DGS institutions.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

Inception report outlining Consultant’s understanding of the assignment, plan and details of activities to be carried with proposed methodology and delivery dates, 7 days.
Detailed draft M&E Framework highlighting institutional M&E status, key priority areas requiring M&E intervention, short-term and long-term targets and outcomes and the proposed implementation plan, 14 days.
Report for the validation workshops, 2 days.
A final M&E Framework and an implementation plan (An electronic Copy and a hard copy), 5 days.

Total Number of Working Days, 28 days.

Institutional Arrangement:

Working under the purview of the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, the Consultancy shall be under the overall supervision and direction of the Solicitor General and Secretary of Justice. The quality of work and certification of satisfactory delivery of the outputs shall be provided by the Solicitor General and Secretary of Justice.

To ensure coherence, a Reference Group composed of Convenors and Co-Convenors of the Thematic Technical Working Groups shall be established to provide quality assurance on a regular basis. Progress Reports shall be provided to the Reference Group on a weekly basis or as shall be agreed upon at the Inception Phase. The Consultant shall provide Progress Report to the Solicitor General and Secretary for Justice every after two weeks or as shall be agreed upon at the Inception Phase.

Duration of the Work:

The consultancy is expected to take maximum 28 days (read twenty-eight days) effective upon signing of contract. The Inception Phase is expected to last maximum 7 (seven) days; the Consultation and Phase a maximum of 14 (fourteen) days and Finalization Phase 7 (seven) days. The Target start date for this assignment is 21 August 2016 and completed by 30 September 2016.

Duty Station:

The Assignment shall be based in Lilongwe with minimal travel to other locations where governance institutions are domiciled

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer.
Evaluation:

The Consultant will be evaluated based on the qualifications and the years of experience, as outlined in the qualifications/requirements section of the ToR. In addition, the Consultant will also be evaluated on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis: When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the 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;

Technical Criteria weight: 70%.

Financial Criteria weight: 30%.

The award of the contract shall be made to the 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 ToR.

Selection Criteria:

Technical Evaluation: 70% of total evaluation (maximum 70 points):
Criteria A: Education (maximum 10 points);
Criteria B: Experience (maximum 40 points, as per section on experience and skills);
Criteria C: Technical Proposal (maximum 20 points).

Final selection: Only the candidate with the highest ranked will be selected.

Note:
Only the highest ranked candidates who have obtained a minimum of 49 points (70%) on the technical evaluation will be considered for the financial evaluation.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals.

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications by 3rd August, 2016, before 5 pm online, where Procurement Notice is advertised: https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm or if any difficulties to the following email address: procurement.mw@undp.org.

Technical Proposal:

Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work;
Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work;

Financial Proposal:

Personal CV (P11 Form) including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references;

Proposals must include all three documents (combined) uploaded in the online system as one document for the first email and can be separated if you use the second email address. Proposals not meeting this requirement will be rejected.