UNDP Jobs - 73368- International Consultant to support Ministry of La

International Consultant to support Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population of Turkmenistan in improving the national legislation in the field of labour and employment

Location :

Ashgabat, TURKMENISTAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

15-Aug-2017

Application Deadline :

24-Jul-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

21 working days

Languages Required :

English Russian

Expected Duration of Assignment :

21 working days, until end of 2017

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

The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population of Turkmenistan was established in 2011. Currently, the Ministry pursues the state policies in the areas of social security, pensions, labour relations, employment, labour protection, improvement of conditions of work, health and safety in the workplace and other labour related issues.

In 2015, the Government of Turkmenistan approved its Program on modernization of the employment services and creation of new jobs for 2015-2020. The Program sets forth the task of creation of favourable conditions for the people seeking jobs and promoting employment in all sectors of economy, underlining that is primary responsibility of the state and the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population of Turkmenistan. This will require efforts in many areas including improvements in legislation, developing new labour and employment programs and mechanisms, learning best international practices, and developing methodologies to research the needs of the fast-changing employment market.

The Partnership Framework for Development signed by the United Nations and the Government of Turkmenistan for 2016-2020, identify that the country’s economic growth must create more inclusive and high quality jobs for those who are unemployed or underemployed. Another concern is to increase employment opportunities for young graduates, especially from foreign universities, returning to Turkmenistan. In this regard, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection needs to: (1) deepen the understanding of the structure and composition of the labour market, (2) strengthen the evidence-base for labour market policies, including training and education, and (3) Build a technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system that provides learners with the skills and competencies required by a diversifying economy.

In September 2016, Turkmenistan adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 148 targets and 194 indicators, including targets and indicators of Goal 8 to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all and committed to their implementation. Also, in October 2016 the Government of Turkmenistan adopted the National Action Plan to fulfil the rights of people with disabilities to work and employment for 2017-2021.

The project is designed to support towards achievement of the goas and objectives set forth in the national development programmes and action plans in the area of labour and employment. In addition, the project will support collecting the baseline and the progress data on the indicators within the mandate of the MOLSPT. The experts engaged in the project will be assigned relevant tasks and will provide necessary methodological support.

The project aims to support the Ministry in planning and implementing the labour and employment policies and strategies, and includes the following three components:

Component 1: Improving legislative basis in the area of labour and employment. The Government ratified several ILO conventions including Worst Forms of Child Labour, Forced Labour, Minimum Age, UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and others. The country is seeking to continue modernizing legislation and bringing it to the best international practices. Under this component, UNDP will assist in bringing international and national expertise to modernize laws, regulations, and train MOLSPT employees on different labour and employment related systems.

Component 2: Modernizing the current labour safety system. The function of monitoring the safety and standards is currently performed by a separate national agency. The Government of Turkmenistan is considering to transfer this function to MOLSPT. Within the framework of this component, the project will review the current system of labour safety in Turkmenistan and provide recommendations for its improvement in accordance with international standards, including proposals on institutional structure and legislative basis. The project will focus on development of standards to establish labour conditions for people with disabilities, who work at enterprises and organizations of any form of ownership. It is planned to organize a number of trainings to strengthen institutional and staff capacity of the Ministry in the area of labour safety and work health.

Component 3: Strengthening the national capacity to regulate labour market and employment. In May 2015, the Government of Turkmenistan adopted the Program on modernization of the employment services and creation of new jobs for 2015-2020 and Action Plan. Under this component, the project will carry out activities aimed at improving mechanisms to regulate labour market, including institutional and legal mechanisms. Specifically, the project will prepare recommendations for modernization of information and communication technologies system in the area of employment and develop technical specifications to develop/procure software for public employment service. In addition, based on international best practice, the project will prepare recommendations for improvement functions of the public employment service and corresponding employment fund in Turkmenistan. Also, the project will support strengthening the capacity of the Ministry in the area labour market regulation and preparation of the relevant forecasts of the labour market demand and supply. Specifically, the project plans to develop methodology to study the labour market with a view of the national economic development context and to organize trainings on estimation and forecasting labour market dynamic, and to prepare national employment programmes.

The project will engage international and national consultants who will assist the ministry in developing concepts, recommendations, options for systems, and methodologies for research. Under particular components, the project will conduct trainings for the personnel and provide support in organizing study visits abroad to learn the best practices in certain areas of labour and employment relations. The project will actively seek cooperation with the experts from other UN agencies, including International Labour Organization (ILO).

Duties and Responsibilities

To achieve abovementioned objective of the project, UNDP is looking for International Consultant who will provide expertise and develop recommendations to address the need of alining the national legislation, institutional structure in accordance with the international legal instruments in the area of labour and employment.

Under supervision of the Project Manager and in a very close cooperation with the Project Specialist, the International Consultant (IC) will have the objective to provide expertise and recommendations in improvement of the national legislation under the Component 1 of the project. To achive the objective, the International Consultant will carry out the following actions:

Desk-review and analysis of the existing laws and regulations in the area of labour and employment (rights, social guarantees and preferences to different categories of people, insurance, compensations, employment, IT and any other issuses related to the labour and employment) vs. obligations of Turkmenistan in the area of human rights, UN Conventions, ILO requlations and international standards, as well as the institutional structure and governance of the system;
Prepare recommendations on improvement of the existing legal and regulatory framework in the area of labour and employment;
Conduct consultations with the relevant Departments of the MOLSPT, line ministries and governmental institutions, civil societies and etc. dealing with the labour and employment, identifying the gaps in the labour and employment legistation, legal and regulatory documents of Turkmenistan;
Provide assistance to the National Consultant in development proposals/recomendations on revision of the existing legislation/legal/regulatory documents in the field of labour and employment of Turkmenistan; to prepare proposals to the Action Plan on development of the strategy in the field of labour and employment in Turkmenistan;
Prepare final report with attached proposals/recomendations developed.

Deliverables and timeframe:

Deliverable 1 prepared through actions 1 and 2 above:

Desk-review report of the existing laws and regulations in the area of labour and employment vs. obligations of Turkmenistan in the area of human rights and UN Conventions;

Draft recommendations to improve the existing legal/regulatory framework of Turkmenistan in the area of labour and employment;

Location: home-based

Number of days: 10 days (August-September 2017)

Deliverable 2 prepared through actions 3 and 4 above:

Finalized recommendations/proposals to improve the existing legislation/regulatory documents in the area of labour and employment and the final proposals to the Action Plan on development of strategy in the area of labour and employment in Turkmenistan;

Mission report summarizing the outcomes of the mission (developed documents attached).

Location: mission to Turkmenistan during 7 working days.

Number of days: 7 working days (October-November 2017).

Deliverable 3 prepared through action 5:

Final report summarizing the outcomes of the assignement with all developed documents attached.

Location: home-based.

Number of days: 4 days (November 2017).

Payment conditions:

This is an installment-based contract that should cover the costs of consultancy required to produce the above deliverables. The final schedule of payments will be agreed upon in the beginning of consultancy.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrate integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals od UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favouritism;
Fulfills obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional Competecies:

Knowledge of and extensive experience working with UN human rights mechanisms;
Excellent communicational skills;
Results driven, ability to work under pressure and to meet required deadlines;
Good understanding and practice of capacity development;
Cultural sensitivity;
Diplomatic skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced university degree in the field of legislation or in related field with particular focus on labour and employment legislation.

Experience:

At least 7 years working experience in the areas of labour and employment legislation/regulations;
Experienced in revision and analising the legal and regulatory documents in the field of labour and employment;
Experienced in development of new legislation/laws in the area of labour and employment;
Extended knowledge of the UN Conventions/Regulatory documents in the field of human rights, Worst Forms of Child Labour, Forced Labour, Minimum Age, UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and others;
Knowledge and experience of work in the CIS or Central Asia is an advantage.

Language requirements:

Excellent written and spoken Russian; English is an asset.

Submission of applications:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

All experts applying for theis position are required to provide:

Brief (1-2 pages) description of the methodology for the assignment;
Financial proposal with references to (1) the dailyh rate for the assignment and within the timing scale indicated in the present TOR, and (2) any other expenses (including transportation costs, accommodation costs, the possibility of vaccination and etc.). template of the form can be found at: http://www.tm.undp.org/content/turkmenistan/en/home/operations/jobs. The UNDP will enter into an Individual Contract based on a lump sum amounts. The financial proposal shall represent adetailed, justified and “all inclusive” amount. In order to assist UNDP in the comparison of the financial proposals, the financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sumamount, including: a daily fee for the tasks and an estimated duration as specified in this announcement, travel (to and from the missions), per diems, any other possible costs (including vaccinations, dwelling, communication and etc.);
Cover letter explaining why they are the most suitable candidate for the assignment;
Filled P11 form including past experience in similar projects and contact details for referees (blank form can be downloaded from http://europeandcis.undp.org/files/hrforms/P11_modified_for_SCs_and_ICs.doc.

Evaluation of proposals:

Individual Consultants will be evaluated based on the combined scoring methodology. When using this method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/?ompliant and

Having received the highest score – out of 100 points

Out of the maximum score, the score for technical criteria equals 70% - maximum 70 points, and for financial criteria 30% - maximum 30 points.

The technical evaluation will take into account the following as per the scoring provided:

Education in the area of legislation or other relevant field – 30 pts;
Relevant working experience in the areas of legislation in the field of labour and employment – 25 pts;
Methodology – 15 pt;
Knowledge and experience of work in the CIS or Central Asia – 10 pts;
Fluency in Russian – 15 pts;
Knowledge of English – 5 pts.

Financial proposal – 30% of total evaluation - max 30 pts.

Additional requirements for recommended contractor:

Recommended contractors aged 62 and older, and if the travel is required, shall undergo a full medical examination including x-ray, and obtain medical clearance from the UN-approved doctor prior to taking up their assignment. The medical examination is to be cleared by the UN physicians, and shall be paid by the consultant.