Background
UNDP Afghanistan Mission Statement:
UNDP supports stabilization, state-building, governance and development priorities in Afghanistan. UNDP support, in partnership with the Government, the United Nations system, the donor community and other development stakeholders, has contributed to institutional development efforts leading to positive impact on the lives of Afghan citizens. Over the years, UNDP support has spanned such milestone efforts as the adoption of the Constitution; Presidential, Parliamentary and Provincial Council elections; institutional development through capacity-building to the legislative, the judicial and executive arms of the state, and key ministries, Government agencies and commissions at the national and subnational levels. UNDP has played a key role in the management of the Law and Order Trust Fund, which supports the Government in developing and maintaining the national police force and in efforts to stabilize the internal security environment. Major demobilization, disarmament and rehabilitation and area-based livelihoods and reconstruction programmes have taken place nationwide. UNDP Programmes in Afghanistan have benefited from the very active support of donors. UNDP Afghanistan is committed to the highest standards of transparency and accountability and works in close coordination with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN system as a whole to maximize the impact of its development efforts on the ground.
Organizational context:
The UN Electoral Support Project (UNESP) is the international community’s programming vehicle to support the next elections in Afghanistan, including the parliamentary and district council elections announced by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) for 20 October 2018. The project has two overall objectives – 1) to build the capacity of the Afghan electoral institutions (the Independent Elections Commission and the Electoral Complaints Commission) to implement elections in line with the national electoral legal framework and Afghanistan’s international commitments; 2) to allow a programming mechanism for the international community to partially finance the elections as per the request of the Government of Afghanistan. The project follows previous UN projects in support of the Afghan electoral process, most notably the Enhancing Legal and Electoral Capacity for Tomorrow (ELECT) projects, from 2006-2011 (ELECT I) and 2012-2015 (ELECT II), and the UNDP Project Initiation Plan that is in place since July 2015 – October 2017. The UNESP places the UN’s electoral support to Afghanistan directly under the political and supervisory oversight of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and reflects the growing sustainability of the Afghan electoral process, as evidenced by the Government of Afghanistan’s financial commitment to both electoral institutions, and the provision of significant in-kind support to the implementation of elections. The Project Board, under the overall political guidance of the UNAMA Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Political, will be co-chaired by UNAMA DSRSG for Political and the Chairpersons of the IEC and ECC or their delegates. It will be comprised of all key stakeholders to oversee and approve UNESP’s budget, annual work plans and policy in support of the Afghan electoral institutions. Project implementation support will be provided by the UNDP Country Office, reporting, on fiduciary and operational matters, to the UNAMA Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Development/ UN Resident Coordinator/ UNDP Resident Representative through the UNDP Country Director.
Along with support to both electoral institutions, UNESP will also support Afghan civil society’s civic and voter education and observation efforts to enhance the quality and quantity of participation in the electoral process. Overall, the project will have three outputs: (i) administration of credible elections is facilitated by the meeting of key IEC structural and planning milestones; (ii) credible electoral dispute resolution is provided by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) (iii) public outreach (along with support to civil society) to encourage citizen engagement in the electoral process. (iv) a polling center specific voter list for the upcoming elections is produced by the IEC. (v) the IEC and ECC provide credible administration of and electoral dispute resolution for the Wolesi Jirga and District Council elections, respectively. Mainstreaming of gender throughout the project is evident in key output indicators related to women’s participation in all three project outputs, reflecting the importance that UNESP places on increasing the position of women in Afghan electoral and political life. The project also aims at supporting the EMBs in strengthening integrity of the electoral process by enhancing accountability of responsible actors and supporting the implementation of electoral fraud mitigation mechanisms. Assisting the EMBs to implement measures to increase public confidence in election and democracy will be mainstreamed through the electoral assistance provided.
Duties and Responsibilities
Scope of Work and Deliverables:
Under the overall guidance of the, Chief Electoral Advisor, DCEA/ Project Manager and the direct supervision of UNESP Project Operations Manager, the Finance Support Advisor, will work in close collaboration with the Project Operations Manager and the Project Finance and Administration Specialist to successfully deliver operational services for UNESP and Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
The International Consultant in providing support to the Project Operations Manager, will be directly responsible in supervising of daily activities in the preparing and verification of payment documentation for the Polling Staff training allowances of IEC, guiding the Finance Associates in ensuring compliance with UN Financial Regulations and Rules and UNDP Programme and Operations Policies and Procedures.
The International Consultant, Finance Support Advisor is responsible for the following Activities:
Reviews and clears all financial payment requests for polling staff trainings allowances that are prepared by the Finance Associates based on the data submitted by IEC
- Ensures that all the submitted Polling staff training Payment requests have all the necessary support documents and are submitted in the required format
Maintains and updates the payment schedules and retrieves the financial information in a format as required by the Country Office Finance Unit
Ensures that computations and calculations are accurate per individual payee accordingly
Reconciles any discrepancies or errors identified in the payment schedules and helps the Finance Associates in identifying the cause and resolving it
Reports any troubling discoveries or suspicion entries and seeks help from UNESP Finance and Administration Specialist for a follow up with IEC to get clarification and/or corrections.
As part of the Project Operations team, works in collaboration with Operations Manager and the Finance and Administration Specialist in ensuring timely disbursement of payments by CO to the relevant beneficiaries
- Shares the Synthesis of lessons learnt and best practices from the exercise of processing the Polling staff payments for a possible reference use in future for similar activities
Other support on operational issues;
- When requested by Project Operations Manager, the International Consultant represents UNESP project in other engagements within the Country Office for smooth and unified flow of the UNDP Country Office Operations
- Performs other tasks, duties and responsibilities required for the successful implementation of the Project.
Expected Outputs and Deliverables:
The International Consultant, Finance Support Advisor will:
Deliverable 1: (first month)
Provide daily update report on the progress of verification and payments process to the Project Operations Manager in an agreed format for onward transmission to other stakeholders;
Produce a monthly report with summaries clearly indicating the work that has been completed in the previous thirty days and the status of the pending work and way forward;
Submit daily ad-hoc reports to help the Project Management in the day to day decision making for the Project.
Deliverable 2: (second month)
Provide daily update report on the progress of verification and payments process to the Project Operations Manager in an agreed format for onward transmission to other stakeholders;
Produce a monthly report with summaries clearly indicating the work that has been completed in the previous thirty days and the status of the pending work and way forward;
Submit daily ad-hoc reports to help the Project Management in the day to day decision making for the Project.
Deliverable 3: (third month)
Provide daily update report on the progress of verification and payments process to the Project Operations Manager in an agreed format for onward transmission to other stakeholders;
Produce a monthly report with summaries clearly indicating the work that has been completed in the previous thirty days and the status of the pending work and way forward;
Submit daily ad-hoc reports to help the Project Management in the day to day decision making for the Project.
Deliverable 4: (fourth month)
Provide daily update report on the progress of verification and payments process to the Project Operations Manager in an agreed format for onward transmission to other stakeholders;
Produce a monthly report with summaries clearly indicating the work that has been completed in the previous thirty days and the status of the pending work and way forward;
Submit daily ad-hoc reports to help the Project Management in the day to day decision making for the Project.
Deliverable 5: (fifth month)
Provide daily update report on the progress of verification and payments process to the Project Operations Manager in an agreed format for onward transmission to other stakeholders;
Produce a monthly report with summaries clearly indicating the work that has been completed in the previous thirty days and the status of the pending work and way forward;
Submit daily ad-hoc reports to help the Project Management in the day to day decision making for the Project.
Deliverable 6: (sixth month)
Prepare and submit a final report of the lessons learnt at the end of the exercise.
Schedule of Payment:
Payments shall be done monthly based on actual days worked, upon verification of completion of specific reports and approval by the consultant’s supervisor and a timesheet according to UNDP procurement formats for individual contractors.
Institutional Arrangements:
The UNDP project will provide office space, IT equipment (mobile phone, sim card & laptop) as well as security equipment (Handheld Radio, PPE) and office transportation;
- Accommodation will be arranged by UNESP free of charge to the Consultant;
- The Consultant will be based in Kabul, Afghanistan;
- All airfares (one Round Trip ) and travel related costs including visa charges will be borne by the project.
Duration of the Work:
6 months with maximum of 132 working days maximum.
Duty Station:
Kabul, Afghanistan
Competencies
Client Orientation:
Anticipates client needs;
Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective;
Solicits feedback on service provision and quality.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
Advanced university degree (Master’s) in Finance/Accounting, Business Administration, Public Administration and Supply Chain Management, or a professional accounting qualification from an internationally recognized institute, or a bachelor’s degree in the above fields with additional years of experience (7 years).
Experience:
With Master’s degree 5 years of progressive work experience at professional level in Finance and Administration Management, Operations Management and relevant field, with bachelor’s degree 7 years of progressive work experience;
Relevant experience in providing financial management advisory services and/or managing staff and operational systems;
Work experience with UNDP or UN system will be highly advantageous;
Previous work experience in Administration, Human Resources and knowledge of UNDP rules and regulations;
Experience in handling of web-based management systems/knowledge of ATLAS, ERP;
Experience of IPSAS and/or IFRS is required for external candidates;
Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, Access etc.);
Language Requirements
Fluency in written and spoken English is required;
Knowledge of Dari or Pashto Languages is an asset.
Building Partnerships
Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build alliances;
Identifies needs and interventions for capacity building of counterparts, clients and potential partners;
Displays initiative, sets challenging outputs for him/herself and willingly accepts new work assignments.
Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing
Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
Participates in the development of mechanisms, including identifying new approaches to promote individual and organizational learning and knowledge sharing using formal and informal methodologies.
Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise
Understands advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines (financial resources management);
Continues to seek new and improved methods and systems for accomplishing the work of the unit;
Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally;
Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments.
Continually looking for ways to enhance financial performance in the office.
Promoting Organizational Change and Development
Performs appropriate work analysis and assists in redesign to establish clear standards for implementation.
Design and Implementation of Management Systems
Makes recommendations regarding operation of systems within organizational units;
Identifies and recommends remedial measures to address problems in systems design or implementation.
Client Orientation
Anticipates client needs;
Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective;
Solicits feedback on service provision and quality.
Promoting Accountability and Results-Based Management
Provides inputs to the development of organizational standards for accountability.
Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:
The contractor shall submit a price proposal as below:
Daily Fee – The consultant shall propose a daily fee, which should be inclusive of her/his professional fee, local communication costs and insurance (inclusive of medical health insurance and evacuation). The professional daily fee, all inclusive of the above elements, shall be paid upon submission of timesheet. The number of working days for which the daily fee shall be payable under the contract is 132 working days’ maximum;
Accommodation - UNDP/UNESP will provide accommodation free of charge to the Consultant;
Payment: Payments shall be done monthly based on actual days worked, upon verification of completion of specific reports and approval by the consultant’s supervisor and a timesheet according to UNDP procurement formats for individual contractors.
Evaluation Method and Criteria
The International Consultant 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:
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%.
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
Technical Criteria 70 points:
Qualification and Experience (70 marks) [evaluation of CV for shortlisting]:
Relevant education (20 marks);
Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:
Duly accomplished Confirmation of Interest and Submission of Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II); as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
Personal CV indicating all past experience from similar projects.
Experience of working for projects funded by UNDP (25 marks);
Relevant work experience related to the assignment (25 marks).