Background

The 2008 Constitution and the 2015 National Ceasefire Agreement marked the beginning of the decentralization process in Myanmar and the 2015 Myanmar general election has paved the way for Myanmar’s first civilian government. As the democratic transition in Myanmar progresses, pressures on government at all levels to effectively address the needs of the population, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, have become greater. This presents challenges to a government with limited experience and capacity, which faces low levels of public trust, and which still has limited experience engaging constructively with the public and being responsive and transparent. So far, the democratic transition has focused on the Union level, but further progress requires a shift in focus to break down silos at the Union level and enhance governance at the subnational level.

At subnational level, the state/region governments are responsible for formulating development visions and five-year strategic plans as well as annual development plans. The annual plans are based on the annual townships plan prepared between August and October and submitted to the state/region early November. The loosely connected township departments (hereunder, the township administration) are the very starting points in Myanmar’s system for formulating annual development plans and providing public services. Enhancing capacities of the state/region governments and the township administrations to develop annual plans in an inclusive and participatory manner and to deliver public services is a crucial step towards Myanmar’s democratic transition and decentralization process, and furthermore its achievement of the SDGs.

The Bago region government and the Mon state government have entered partnerships with UNDP, through the Township Local Governance Project (TDLG), to strengthen their capacities in inclusive and participatory planning and in accountable service delivery by experiencing fiscal decentralization trough a discretionary Township Development Grant provided by UNDP following  an  agreed  expenditure needs formula based allocation. Since 2016, UNDP has provided technical trainings to the participating townships, primarily targeting the Township Plan Implementation Committees(TPICs), Village/Ward Tract Administrators (V/WTAs), Hluttaw members and civil society representatives, to enhance their capacities to develop the annual township plan in a democratic manner following the guidance provided in the Grant Manual including good planning principles such as use of data, leave no one behind, policy coherence, among  others1.

In Mon State, out of TDLG’s ten target townships, three townships are under mixed-administration and ethnic armed organizations (EAO) play important roles in local governance and service delivery. In order to ensure that the TDLG project is designed in a conflict sensitive manner and adaptive to the local contexts where EAOs are key stakeholders, UNDP engaged an international conflict sensitivity advisor to provide advisory services to Mon State Government and Karen National Union (KNU), and conduct conflict sensitivity analysis. As a result, in December 2018, UNDP organized an initial engagement workshop with the KNU in Mon State. The initial engagement workshop was well received by the KNU and KNU has requested UNDP to provide more capacity development support to enhance their interactions with the Mon State Government and township administrations on public service delivery. Specifically, KNU requested UNDP to provide capacity development support starting from the upcoming meeting between KNU and Township Plan Implementation Committee (TPIC) scheduled in January 2018, followed by series of activities in early January.

Against the above background, UNDP wishes to engage with an experienced conflict sensitivity advisor to provide conflict sensitivity advisory services to UNDP, KNU and Mon State Government as well as its Townships to ensure that international best practices to ‘do no harm’ and conflict prevention are applied, and that the results of the TDLG project make indirect contributions to peace building process in Myanmar.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will be responsible for providing technical and administrative support to the project’s activities related to engaging with Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) and to some extent Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).  S/he will report directly the Senior Technical Specialist in Mon State, who will provide overall guidance and direction on the assignment. The incumbent will be required to operate in challenging environments and demonstrate his/her ability in dealing with sensitive issues and building effective partnerships in support of the project’s outputs and strategic objectives. They scope of work for this assignment will include:

• Support in designing, planning and implementing of key activities of the project’s annual work plan as it relates to Output 2 (strengthening civil society engagement and social accountability in township planning) and Output 3  (strengthen engagement with EAOs) in  Mon State. Close  coordination  with the project’s technical teams including CTA, Senior Technical Specialists, Township Governance Officers and consultants will be required;
• Serve as the key interlocutor with EAOs, Oxfam and CSO partners, ensuring regular streams of communication, information sharing and coordination vis-a-vis other project outputs are effectively carried out;
• Establish, maintain and build strategic partnerships with EAOs, CSOs and other related stakeholders, ensuring the project’s support to advancing key relationships and engagements with these actors are pursued in a conflict-sensitive and inclusive manner;
• Prepare and contribute to project reports, knowledge products and other documentation on Output 2 and Output 3 of the project;
• Lead/participate in project monitoring missions
• Manage and coordinate preparations for workshops, trainings and other events including preparation of activity budgets, booking of venues, transport and other administrative and logistical support.
• Any other support as may be required

Competencies

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

Duration of Work:

Number of working days: 6 months (132 working days) from contract signing date

Administrative and Logistical Arrangements:

• There is no international travel assumed for this ToR, given that the ToR is looking for experts who are already based in Myanmar.
• UNDP will book and arrange in-country travels.
• When missions outside the specified duty stations are agreed between UNDP and the expert, UNDP will arrange and cover the transportation.
• UNDP will arrange translator(s) and interpreter(s) if and when required.

Consultant Presence Required on Duty Station/UNDP Premises:

(   ) PARTIAL                   (  ) INTERMITTENT             ( x ) FULL TIME 

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

Master’s degree in development studies, peace and conflict, international relations, public administration or related field.

Experience:

• Minimum 3 years of relevant experience. 5 years of relevant experience with a Bachelor’s  degree
• At least 2 years of experience working with EAOs and civil society organizations
• Prior experience with local governance project is desirable
• Previous experience with facilitating dialogue, building networks and other partnerships

Language:

• Excellent written and oral English is required
• Fluency in Myanmar and Karen languages is a must