Background

In a context of prevailing limited access to public services, the National Governance and Public Administration Reform Programme (NGPAR) has enhanced inclusive service delivery and local development via strengthening public administrations, fostering inclusive dialogue, and collaboration between citizens and state for more effective, transparent, accountable and responsive service delivery.

The lessons from the NGPAR indicate that the reform mechanisms it promotes can have a significant and scalable contribution to enhancing inclusive service delivery and local development. NGPAR emphasises strengthening and financing district authorities, it has emerged as a strong platform to deepen the engagement between communities and the local authorities, and to continue to move towards fiscal decentralisation and self-reliant local development.

NGPAR Phase 4, the Governance for Inclusive Development Project (GIDP) focuses on support to the devolution process (administrative and fiscal decentralization) for inclusive and sustainable development. GIDP supports the government to strengthen its public administration’s ability to achieve the goals of better service delivery, promote wider governance improvements and increase citizens’ systematic engagement, especially at the local levels where basic services are coordinated, planned, tracked and reported.

Main Objective of GIDP is: “local institutions are able to increase the coverage of basic services and include citizens’ feedback in the planning cycle for services provision by 2021”. To pursue the set objective, the project adopts three main components:

  • Targeted local administrations are able to develop and finance the implementation of cross-sectoral work plans based on community priorities.
  • Accountability framework applied at the district level to capture and use citizens’ feedback on provision of basic services.
  • Enhanced multi-stakeholder governance processes (GSWG and its SSWGs) promoting dialogue and feeding into good governance related policies including the delivery of basic services.

The first component leverages the successful District Development Fund (DDF) model for the provision of discretionary, performance-based, district block grant financing for socio-economic infrastructure.

Rationale for the assessment:

Based on the report and recommendations of the consultancy mission in February-March 2018,  the GIDP supported and facilitated the government to  introduce and institutionalize via a Ministry Instruction a set of standard operating procedures that upgraded the DDF. The significant upgrades to the DDF reflected the current situation in relation to the decentralization reform process, the promulgation of new legislation related to sub national administration and public budgets and the present health status of the public finances as highlighted within the IMF Article IV reports (2017, 2018). The significant modifcactons to the DDF 1.0 included (i) government co-financing, (ii) a move to a more demand-driven approach, based on SDG localization strategies, taking into account governance factors such as (i) the change of the national budget law and its sub national implications, (ii) the introduction of elected councils at provincial levels, ie change in government architecture,  that have introduced a new and positive impetus to the D&D process and (iii) improved capacity and motivation of individual sub-national administrations developed through the previous NGPAR interventions, (iv) introduced targeting capability  to promote inclusiveness (e.g. poor households, ethnicity, gender, remoteness) and provides an official government fiscal transfer mechanism to accelerate identified lagging SDGs. Furthermore, DDF is now functioning as an on budget government expenditure fully aligned with government planning systems and is fully managed and implemented through national and sub national government offices and by national and sub national civil servants. Thus, the DDF 2.0 provides a model that is specifically designed to be scalable and sustainable by government in the future, without the need for externally managed and financed parallel systems. In this context the DDF 2.0 applies the principles of; (i) the Paris Development Accord, (ii) the Istanbul Plan of Action and (iii) the Addis Abba Action Agenda for Financing Development.  

Since June 2018, the newly upgraded DDF process has been partly piloted through the first cycle. The Project Board recently made the decision to have a forward-looking Technical Assessment of the newly upgraded DDF system and process to assure its fit for purpose. In the Project Board’s view, it is essential that the Assessment takes place as soon as possible so that any process or systems options of recommendations that offer  improvements can be considered and agreed before release of the next cycle of the DDF (the second cycle 2019-2020). 

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will act as leader of the assessment consultancy team and will participate in the management of all aspects of assessment work. In particular, the consultant will:

  • Manage the entire assessment process including planning, managing and implementing the review and assessment of the newly upgraded DDF process in line with UNDP-UNCDF’s requirements;
  • Lead and supervise the assessment team comprising of a national consultant;
  • Document, review and frame appropriate approach and questions for the assessment;
  • Discuss and prepare a mission plan based on the allocated timeframe;
  • Lead the assessment on assessment of the system and processes of the DDF upgrade using the the performance of the first round of the implementation of the upgraded DDF as a reference point;
  • Undertake an interview and consultation with concerned stakeholders including government officials, development partners and beneficiaries to gather feedback and insights;
  • Present findings and recommendations and assessment evidence to management and Governing Bodies to further adjust the DDF systems and process;
  • Ensure the effective and efficient use of assessment resources, timely implementation of assessment process and submission of reports according to deadlines, ensuring standards and processes for assessment integrity and credibility;
  • Perform other related duties and assignments as and when required.

Of all the above, what are the viable options and recommendations the consultancy team would recommend?

Competencies

·         Demonstrated strong knowledge on public administration and public finance systems

·         Excellent analytical skills and ability to synthesize research and reach empirically based conclusions on related subject

·         Proven knowledge of inter-governmental fiscal transfer system and local government grants mechanisms;

·         Solid knowledge and understanding of public expenditure management reform practices that include sub national level reform initiatives for capital investments involving; planning and budgeting, allocation of funds, budget execution, capital investments, financial management reporting and, performance assessment;

·         An understanding of political economy and context of decentralization processes at various stages in developing countries;

·         Excellent English writing, analytical and reporting skills;

·         Ability to manage workload with minimum supervision and collaborate with a wide range of colleagues and partners;

·         Excellent interpersonal skills, including ability to work with a wide range of actors in a multi-cultural context.

·         Familiarity with the UNDP-UNCDF monitoring & evaluation processes and systems.

 

Required Skills and Experience

Education

  • Advanced Degree (Masters or equivalent) in public administration, public finance, or related fields.

Experience

  • Minimum 5 years of relevant experience covering one or more of the following areas of work;  Public Administration Reform, Decentralization,  Sub National Governance and Public Financial Management in developing countries;
  • Proven track record or working experiences with local governance and local development finance systems that incorporates fiscal decentralization in Southeast Asia, GMS country experiences considered an advantage;
  • Proven track record of providing advisory on local government budget support, grants and fund management, performance-based grant allocation and the design of discretionary grant facilities for sub-national governments;
  • Illustrated professional capacity (5 years) of national and sub national capital investment participatory planning, budgeting, (public expenditure and financial management);
  • Sound understanding of political-economy context in Lao PDR;
  • Experience working in multi-culture and diverse environmental settings;
  • Previous work experience with UNCDF or UNDP considered an advantage.

Languages

  • Fluency of English language is required
  • Knowledge of Lao would be an asset
  • Good communication skills; gender sensitivity and willingness/flexibility to respond to client’s needs.