UNDP Jobs - 71369- Consultant for Development of a Guidance Note for

Consultant for Development of a Guidance Note for National Budget Analysis

Location :

Bangkok, THAILAND

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

10-Apr-2017

Application Deadline :

05-Apr-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

10 April 2017- 30 June 2017 (Subject to be changed as appropriate)

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

UNDP BRH supports the Asia Pacific regional countries to improve the governance of multiple cross-cutting issues such as the climate change finance, poverty, gender, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity in various forms, including by conducting CPEIRs, introducing cross-sector dimensions into the national and sub-national budget systems, as well as by facilitating regional knowledge sharing and capacity building. UNDP is also facilitating Government Cost Sharing practices to enhance the leverage for development finance.

Budgeting for SDGs is one of the key and primary initiatives to help governments in Asia-Pacific to enable their national policy and budget systems for effective governance of Sustainable Development Goals. Budgeting for SDGs initiative aims at assisting developing countries in integrating cross-cutting sectors and topics into budgeting processes. In some cases such as climate change, poverty and gender traditional budget cycle does not adequately and explicitly capture those areas as those are allocated across other government functions (e.g. education, health). UNDP will assist countries in filling that gap by introducing unique tools that will present the cross-cutting sectors in the budget formulation and reporting stages in consolidated formats.

The efforts on SDG governance will be more effective if recipient governments cooperate with UNDP both on policy formulation & implementation and financing for these SDG initiatives. Government Cost Sharing (GCS) is key in merging the efforts at their very core so UNDP capacity and experience joins up with national systems and implementation mechanisms on the ground.

Finally, a comprehensive understanding of all development finance flows as per the Development Finance Assessment (DFA) methodology, sources and priority areas will complement the overall efforts of governments and UNDP in achieving societal goals and SDGs in a most effective and efficient manner.

An individual consultant (the Consultant) will be engaged in assisting UNDP to identify gaps and opportunities in above areas by developing a Guidance Note for National Budget Analysis to help national and local governments in Asia Pacific region to administer development reforms, programmes and projects. The Consultant will be responsible for facilitating the knowledge sharing, setting the agenda and facilitation of the Government Cost-Sharing initiative with the UNDP Country Offices (CO), as well as facilitating government-to-government (G2G) meetings on this subject, including presentation during a G2G symposium identified by UNDP.

This position requires a mix of technical knowledge and practical experience in key areas of government cost sharing, development finance and budgeting for SDGs.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the Assignment:

The objective of the assignment is to assist UNDP in facilitating GCS initiative and support UNDP interventions in Asia-Pacific region in complementing areas of:

Government Cost Sharing (GCS): facilitating more cost-sharing by the national and local governments while implementing UNDP programmes and projects.
Budgeting for SDGs (BSDG): assisting governments in integrating cross-cutting issues into budget processes.
Development Finance Assessment (DFA): assisting governments in comprehensive understanding and facilitation of development finance flows.

Scope of Work:

The scope of work for this assignment includes:

Preparation of a methodology/guidance for National Budget Analysis

Agree the implementation approach and deadlines with UNDP.
Prepare step-by-step approach for UNDP Country Offices on how to conduct a national budget analysis as an initiation step for government co-financing modality, addressing the following issues (list is not exhaustive):
- Analysis of a Structure of the national/regional/local budgets and responsibilities of government agencies
- Identifying the existing bottlenecks related to expenditure of government funds, including potential niches for UNDP intervention
- Analysis of audit and financial reporting systems and practices the government funds
- Existing practices of Government financing of projects together with international organisations (if any).
- Identifying key areas and typology of information critical for effective GCS (including private sector, macroeconomic and other types of analysis required by/for the governments in making decisions on government cost sharing).
- Recommendations on approaching Ministry of Finance on domestic resource mobilisation to the governments.
Identify process/capacity gaps, opportunities and expertise required for UNDP in assisting governments in delivering the GCS, budgeting for SDGs and DFA implementation.
- Analysis of gaps and opportunities for UNDP to support follow up actions and implement recommendations from DFAs, including in areas spanning various types of finance (public/private; domestic/international) and components of an Integrated National Financing Framework
Enhance the skills and capacity requirements (see annex) aligned with the Guidance Note for National Budget Analysis, and including for DFA implementation and follow up
Facilitate discussions with UNDP COs through seminar/webinar sessions (live sessions, presentations, etc) on the Guidance Note for National Budget Analysis
It is expected that the consultant will make the presentation of the guidance note at the expert meeting with the respective government counterparts from the Asia-Pacific countries in May 2017. The place and time of the meeting is to be determined.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

The expected outputs from this assignment are

Inception Report with the methodology and detailed work plan agreed with the UNDP: By 1st Week after contract signed.
Draft Guidance Note for National Budget Analysis: By 4th week after contract signed.
Stakeholder consultations on the Draft Guidance Note (2 Webinars with COs and 1 presentation during a G2G symposium): By 5th week after contract signed.
Final Guidance Note for National Budget Analysis with Recommendations for UNDP CO on facilitation of GCS: By 7th week after contract signed.
Final report: By 8th week after contract signed.

Institutional Arrangement:

The Consultant will work under the supervision of the BRH’s Governance, Climate Finance and Development Effectiveness advisor working across BRH teams.

Duration of the Work: 10 April 2017- 30 June 2017 (Subject to be changed as appropriate).

Duty Station: Home- based with travel to Asia- Pacific region.

Competencies

Ability to work with multi-country teams
Strong analytical skills, communication, writing, and networking abilities;
Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
Ability to plan, organize, implement, and report on work;
Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
Positive, constructive attitude to work;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced degree in public administration, public finance, public policy, or related areas.

Experience:

At least 15 years of professional experience, of which at least 10 years of experience of international consulting in development areas
Proven experience in policy analysis, public financial management, and advisory role to senior government stakeholders.
Practical experience in working with Ministries of Finance, Planning, and Local Government in budgeting areas is an advantage.
Experience with climate change finance, biodiversity, disaster risk management, poverty and gender issues is an advantage
Experiences of working in Asia-Pacific is an advantage.

Language:

Excellent English communication skills, both written and oral is required.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

The contract will be based on Lump Sum Amount

The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

Deliverable 1- Inception Report with the methodology and detailed work plan agreed with the UNDP : 10% of total contract amount
Deliverable 2- Draft Guidance Note for National Budget Analysis: 40% of total contract amount
Deliverable 3- Stakeholder consultations on the Draft Guidance Note (2 Webinars with COs and 1 presentation during a G2G symposium): 20% of total contract amount
Deliverable 4- Final Guidance Note for National Budget Analysis with Recommendations for UNDP CO on facilitation of GCS: 10% of total contract amount
Deliverable 5- Final report: 20% of total contract amount.

In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Evaluation Method and Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology;

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall 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 set of weighted technical criteria (70%). and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)

Criteria 1: Relevance of the Education – Max 10 points
Criteria 2: Experience on researching, reporting, writing and editing manuscripts of UN and other international development partners – Max 10 Points
Criteria 3: Experience in policy analysis, public financial management, and advisory role to senior government stakeholders – Max 20 points
Criteria 4: Relevance of knowledge and experience with climate change finance, biodiversity, disaster risk management, poverty and gender issues – Max 20 points
Criteria 5: Experience in working with ministries of finance, planning, and local governments in Asia-Pacific region – Max 10 points

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Documentation required:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
Technical proposal, including a) a brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment; and b) a methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment.
Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex 2. Note: National consultants must quote prices in United States Dollars (USD).

Incomplete proposals may not be considered.

Please click on the link below to download required documents:

http://procurement-notices-admin.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=36516