Background

The Civil Service Academy (CSA) was established in 2008 and started operating in March 2009. According to its Statute, the role of the Academy is to provide advanced training to the civil/public servants at both national and sub-national levels and improve their knowledge and skills. The Academy has until now trained over 1000 civil/public servants and has organized its work about two- and three-month part-time courses and two-year full-time course. The attendees are local and central government officials, although the central government officials are more widely represented.

The Academy has been collaborating with the UNDP almost since its establishment. In 2010 a joint project ‘Enhancing the System of Civil Service in Turkmenistan’ was implemented. Capacity building of the staff of the Academy was strengthened and some new programmes in e-learning were introduced. In 2017, a new three-year project with the Government cost-sharing was launched. The objective of the current project is to strengthen the CSA so that it plays a stronger role in the public service development in Turkmenistan. Under this project, UNDP has been providing assistance to the Academy in the following:

  • Development of the strategic visioning and development plans of the Academy
  • Updating existing/developing new curricula for the Academy
  • Establishing links with similar public management schools and other public service resources
  • Strengthening of the educational and informational system of the Academy
  • Piloting master courses on digital management, cyber security, and digital economy

The development priorities for the Academy are to become a key center for the continuous professional development of civil servants and employees of local governments, heads of state and local governments, and managerial personnel to ensure the growth of management quality in Turkmenistan. The main tasks of the Academy are to prepare competitive and adaptive management personnel for the state, public and private sectors in order to solve the problem of innovative development of society; the implementation of applied research and development in the socio-economic and humanitarian spheres. To support implementation of the Concept for development of digital education system and the Concept for development of digital economy in Turkmenistan for 2019-2025, the Academy was tasked by the Government of Turkmenistan to conduct special executive courses on digital economy for the ministers and deputy ministers. With UNDP support, within the current joint project, the Academy in cooperation with the Public Administration Academy of the Republic of Belarus, is planning to launch a pilot phase of its first master’s degree course on digital public administration for 20 senior and mid-level managers from the key ministries and government institutions. In addition, the Concept of development of digital education in Turkmenistan envisages  transformation of the education sector by introducing innovative and digital technologies in teaching and learning process to ensure  provision of high-quality education services that meet national and international standards, and create more opportunities for life-long and continuing professional development.

In a view of the country’s ambition to develop digital economy, the Academy strives to become an intellectual digital platform for professional development of civil servants that trains, expand opportunities and develop professional civil servants with digital thinking for smart government. It also aims to reengineer the Academy’s business processes and establish new academic programmes in digital public administration, big data, cybersecurity, blockchains, social networks, smart cities, etc.  

In this regard, UNDP plans to hire an International Consultant, to develop a new project document. Upon preliminary discussion with the management of the Academy the focus area of the new project will be transforming the Academy into a digital platform for professional development of civil servants.

Duties and Responsibilities

The objective of the consultancy is to develop a full-sized three-year project document that aims to transform the Academy into the digital education platform for civil servants and professionals. The project components will include but not limited to the following: i) developing new academic and training programmes in digitalization area; ii) establishing students’ virtual workplace; iii) launching interactive study room by using virtual and augmented reality technologies for solving situational cases; iv) creating a center of digital education for online open courses; vi) introducing new teaching methods of analysis, including big data for better managerial decision-making; vii) providing digital support programmes for the Academy’s staff; viii) introducing paper free document flow within the Academy; ix) strengthening regional partnership with public service schools, etc.

Scope of work

In particular, the International Consultant will carry out following activities under the project:

  1. Desk review of the Project Document for 2016-2019, project progress reports, existing project materials;
  2. Conduct consultations with the Academy and relevant stakeholders to identify key lessons learnt, gaps and opportunities from the current project (2016-2019);
  3. Develop a Project Document, the template can be found here https://popp.undp.org/UNDP_POPP_DOCUMENT_LIBRARY/Public/Project%20Document%20Template%20-%20Updated%202018.doc

The Project Document should include the following sections:

  • Situation analysis with description of barriers for public administration reform;
  • description the development challenge that the project seeks to address and how it is relevant to the national development priorities;
  • using the concept of Theory of Change, describe the approach and strategy that has been selected to address the development challenge;
  • definition of the project outcomes and outputs associated with these outcomes;
  • elaboration of activities for each project component;
  • explanation of social, economic and financial sustainability of proposed project activities;
  • The Gender Marker measures how much a project invests in gender equality and women’s empowerment.
  • analysis of the cost-effectiveness of demonstration projects and the project on the whole;
  • project M&E plan, including a set of indicators;
  • Project Results Framework defining indicators, baseline conditions, targets, means of verification, and risks for the project on the whole and for each intended project outcome;
  • Prepare project annual Workplans with detailed project activities and actions and expected inputs.

Deliverables and timeframe

Deliverable 1

  • An inception report detailing the understanding/interpretation of the TOR and the methodology of carrying out the assignment in Turkmenistan with concerned stakeholders.
  • Completion of five-day mission to Turkmenistan, including conducted consultations with national partners and a one-day workshop at the end of the mission to present the draft project document to stakeholders and UNDP.

Location: Home based, 6-day mission to Turkmenistan.

Number of days: 10 days.

Deliverable 2

 A final project document according to UNDP templates and guidelines

Location: homebased.

Number of days: 10 days.

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.

Payment will be released in two installments: 1st installment: 40% (for deliverable 1), 2nd installment 60% (for Deliverable 2) upon timely submission of respective deliverables and their acceptance by UNDP Turkmenistan.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies

  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional Competencies

  • In depth knowledge and trends of digital learning in education;
  • Excellent interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills;
  • Result-oriented to meet the needs of client;
  • Excellent leadership, self-management, communications and presentation skills;
  • Good analytical and writing skills;
  • Computer literacy and ability to use modern technology and social media as a tool in every-day work;
  • Ability to share knowledge and experience;

Required Skills and Experience

Qualification requirements:

Education:

  • University degree in the field of e-Governance, education, public administration.

Working experience in digital transformation of educational institutions, reform in transforming traditional education methods to digital education; knowledge of innovation programs how to bring digital transformation to education of public civil service.

Languages:

  • Good knowledge of written and spoken Russian;
  • Good knowledge of English.

The assignment will be a combination of in-country and out-of-country work. 

The consultant should undertake one mission to Turkmenistan. He/She will report to UNDP CO Turkmenistan. The payment will be a lump-sum payment inclusive of consultancy fee, DSAs for 6 in-country full consultancy days, and one round-trip ticket and concomitant terminal expenses. Interested candidates, along with their technical proposal, will have to submit their financial proposal by taking into account one travel to Turkmenistan and showing in their financial proposals breakdown of financial expenses for consultancy fee, DSA (currently, DSA for Ashgabat stands at 249 USD per day),  round-trip tickets and concomitant terminal expenses. The dates for this mission will be agreed upon between the consultant and UNDP-Turkmenistan.

Submission of applications:

Interested candidates must submit the following documents (information) to demonstrate their qualifications:

Cover letter of the applicant to the UNDP confirming the interest and readiness of the Individual Consultant to take the assignment, including his/her financial proposal. The financial proposal shall include payment amount for consulting services, administrative expenses (if necessary), transportation costs and/or any other expenses, which candidates considers necessary for completion of the assignment. The financial proposal shall include lump sum amount of remuneration in US dollars for the whole scope of work. Template of the form can be found at:  https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tm.undp.org%2Fcontent%2Fturkmenistan%2Fen%2Fhome%2Fprocurement.html&data=02%7C01%7Cdavid.berman%40undp.org%7C69e9d8142ea447d1fffb08d6fed5c2ad%7Cb3e5db5e2944483799f57488ace54319%7C0%7C0%7C636976591380225336&sdata=F9N9f%2FL1a5f%2FXp%2F9IB1kzFxFXUCmStRWz8QtefECluo%3D&reserved=0

Resume (curriculum vitae) including working experience on drafting and assessment of laws, bylaws and standards; Filled P11 from, which can be found at: https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tm.undp.org%2Fcontent%2Fturkmenistan%2Fen%2Fhome%2Fprocurement.html&data=02%7C01%7Cdavid.berman%40undp.org%7C69e9d8142ea447d1fffb08d6fed5c2ad%7Cb3e5db5e2944483799f57488ace54319%7C0%7C0%7C636976591380225336&sdata=F9N9f%2FL1a5f%2FXp%2F9IB1kzFxFXUCmStRWz8QtefECluo%3D&reserved=0

Evaluation of proposals:

The consultant will be selected based on the combined scoring methodology and using the following criteria: 

  1. The technical part of the proposal – 70%;
  • Education – 15 points
  • Professional working experience in the relevant field – 25 points
  • Working experience with e-education projects – 20 points
  • Good understanding of strategic management/planning issues and working experience in the CIS – 20 points
  •  Knowledge of Russian language – 10points
  • Knowledge of English language – 10 points

2. The financial part of the proposal – 30%

Additional requirements for recommended contractor:

Recommended contractors aged 65 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.