UNDP Jobs - 86785- 2019/UNDP-MMR/PN/060,National Expert for Mid Term

2019/UNDP-MMR/PN/060,National Expert for Mid Term Review of Township Democratic Local Governance (TDLG) Project

Location :

Home based and Yangon with field travel, MYANMAR

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Sep-2019

Application Deadline :

19-Aug-19 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

September 2019 - November 2019

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

29 Fee days

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

Since the adoption of the new constitution in 2008, Myanmar is on a path towards greater political, administrative and fiscal decentralization. Central to this process is the shift of decision-making power and budgets from the union level to the subnational level. State/Region governments and State/Region parliaments have been established, with their own budgets, their own decision-making power and their own accountability mechanisms, including checks and balances. However, the township administrations have so far been largely left out of this decentralization process.

In Myanmar the public services are largely delivered through township level administration where people interact with public service providers but the township administrations have little, if any, influence over budget decisions. This situation hinders township officials from effectively addressing local needs, discourages public participation in planning and decision-making processes, and sustains a local governance structure with weak accountability and transparency.

About the Project: Township Democratic Local Governance Project (TDLG) addresses the institutional challenges in Myanmar’s local governance structures, emphasizing planning at the township level as one entry point in trying to make local governments more inclusive and responsive to people’s needs. The project is designed along four work streams to strengthen the capacities of township administrations to meet local needs for public services; to facilitate information sharing and meaningful participation by the public in planning processes; to facilitate township administrations engaging with Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) on service delivery coordination (and involve them in township planning processes); to foster participation of civil society in local governance/ township planning ; and to utilize lessons learned by the project to advocate for policy change.

TDLG Project document was signed in November 2017 with the expected completion date of the first phase in December 2020.

The primary beneficiaries of the project are men and women of target townships in Bago Region and Mon State. The ultimate beneficiaries are the population of Myanmar as the project aims to develop systems of good local governance and fiscal decentralization to the lowest administrative level.

TLDG works with government institutions at all levels ((Union, State/Regions (S/R) and township)) and applies the introduced democratic (local) governance systems and processes, while recognizing the general population, as well as non-State actors. TDLG therefore provides a feedback loop through information, consultation, civic engagement and civil society forums, whereby the township administrations can practice and learn to be more transparent and participatory providing concrete opportunities for an expanded range of local actors through Ward/Village Tract Administrators (W/VTAs), 10 house hold leaders, and Hluttaw (parliament) members (as their elected representatives), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and EAOs together with township administrations to engage in inclusive processes that may generate learning and inspire wider democratic transition initiatives beyond the scope of this project. Another essential part of the project is to address issues of inclusiveness, particularly with regards to women in official local governance structures and their ability to engage in and inform planning processes—thereby providing them voice and participation. To this end, the project started working with the INGO Oxfam to strengthen CSO’s participation and strengthen women’s leadership skills for their meaningful participation in township planning process in Mon State.

TDLG is using local development grants as an incentive to enhance institutional change, test fiscal decentralization and develop local governance systems. TDLG covers 10 townships in Mon State and 5 in Bago Region. Apart from Mon State and Bago Region, TDLG also covers 5 townships in Rakhine State through the Rakhine Area-Based Programme (RABP).

The TDLG Project Document includes provisions for conducting a mid-term and final project evaluations. To comply with the Project Document’s requirements, this mid-term evaluation is initiated to determine the relevance and fulfillment of objectives, developmental efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability” of TDLG activities in Bago Region and Mon State.

Total budget: As per the Project Document, the total budget of TDLG for Bago region and Mon State is about USD 19 million for the period of November 2017 – December 2020. The project structure is composed of an international Chief Technical Advisor, international Project Manager, international UNV responsible for M&E, as well as a national Project Management Analyst, Project Associate and 2 drivers. The project staff in Bago and Mon comprise 2 Senior Technical Specialists and 15 Township Governance Officers.

Key partners: As per the Project Document, the project is primarily focusing on sub-national governance, particularly at the level of township administrators. The key partner is the Government of Myanmar. At the State/Region level, the primary partners are the state/region governments, the Township Planning and Implementation Committees (TPIC) represented by different government departments. Others include W/VTAs, representatives of Parliament, EAOs, CSOs, as well as Oxfam and SDC, DFID and other donors.

Observed changes in the Project:

The TDLG project has been working with the General Administration Department (GAD) as a key partner since the beginning of the project. An important decision was taken by the Government in early 2019 to move GAD from the Ministry of Home Affairs to the newly established Ministry of the Office of the Union Government. This move might have implications for further decentralization reforms. It is foreseen that the GAD will play a greater role in drafting new policies affecting union and sub national administrative reform in the future. Currently there are no known changes in GAD’s mandate.

Additionally, a recent development is the decision of Bago Region government to allocate 57% of its regional budget to townships prior to the start of FY 2018/2019 annual planning process. The funds will be allocated through a need-based allocation formula, which is an approach that is based on the successful partnership between the Government and the TDLG project that also uses a need-based allocation formula.

Finally, despite the fact that township level has so far been largely left out of the decentralization process, important initiatives have been taken to increase information to citizens about public affairs such as the publication of the Citizen Budget that explains the governments budget cycle at both Union and State/Region level and is used by Government to enhance transparency and accountability. Citizens budgets are now developed in almost all states and regions and the TDLG is supporting governments in their dissemination of the Citizens budget to the public.

Key challenges: The project faced some challenges in implementing project activities such as problems with filling the Project Manager position and frequent rotations within the Government requiring continuity of capacity development support provided by the project. Systemic engagement of formal structures such as TPICs was also found critical for more sustainable development outcomes.

The political context and national level dialogue on peace process have had an impact on local level in terms of how sub-national administrations perceive and how EAOs react to it. Further restrictions from Union government have made the project’s engagement with EAOs even more challenging. These restrictions have slowed down the interventions requested by the EAOs, particularly facilitation of township level meetings between the EAOs and township officials from the respective departments.

Identifying best practices for engagement of CSOs in participatory planning processes at the sub-national level has also been a challenge. Different partnership arrangements with regards to CSO engagement were sought and put in place in Bago Region and Mon State and more learning is required to explore the most feasible option for CSO engagement. UNDP’s partnership with Oxfam, which is emphasizing the role of Civil society’s engagement with township administrations on social accountability, is specifically designed to create entry points and constructive spaces for township administrations and local CSOs and interest-based groups, including women’s groups, to amplify local issues in the planning process and testing social accountability tools to strengthen the social contract between the government and citizens.

Cross-cutting issues: According to UNDP Programme and Project Management policies “all programming applies the core principles of human rights, gender equality, resilience and sustainability, and leaving no one behind. Social and environmental sustainability are systematically integrated. Potential harm to people and the environment is avoided wherever possible, and otherwise minimized, mitigated and managed”.

As such women’s participation in the township planning process is an essential area of work where the project applies two-pronged approach to integrate gender equality into planning processes and to support women to utilize the enabling environment to advocate for women’s concerns. The project uses a systematic participatory planning methodology and all township plans were prepared in line with the principles of good local governance (inclusivity, participation, cross-sectoral analysis, while using data and statistics). In addition, the planning process also covers the level of elected representatives (10 household leaders) to improve the gender balance amongst people’s representatives in selection of projects.

In the TDLG project, a conflict sensitive approach is applied through engagement with government, partners, civil society, community leaders to improve prospects for non-discrimination, fulfilment of human rights and to promote principles of equality and inclusion.

A large component of TDLG involves the implementation of infrastructure projects. Even in stable environments, infrastructure projects may cause disagreements and even tensions if area-specific matters and the needs of diverse groups are not duly considered at the planning stage. Conflict sensitivity considerations are not just important in relation to immediate project implementation but equally the impact of the project on community relationships. Infrastructure plans should ensure that clear roles, capacity, and resources will be in place for longer term maintenance of these infrastructures.

Linkage with the partner Government’s strategies and priorities: The TDLG project is guided by the principles of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on strengthening of institutions, including use of data, inclusive participation, policy coherence, leave no one behind, human-rights based approach, and conflict sensitivity, among others, and promotes the achievement of the SDGs at the local level. TDLG specifically contributes to SDG 16 on peaceful communities and just, responsible and accountable institutions.

TDLG also contributes to the Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan (2018-2030) - MSDP:

Goal 1: “Peace, National Reconciliation, Security and Good Governance” through the Strategy 1.4: “Enhance good governance, institutional performance and improve the efficiency of administrative decision making at all levels” and Strategy 1.5: “Increase the ability of all people to engage with the government”
Goal 2: “Economic Stability and strengthened macroeconomic management” through the Strategy 2.4: Strengthened Public Financial Management to support stability and the efficient allocation of public resources.

TDLG contributes to the following outcome of the UNDP Strategic Plan (2018-2021): “Citizen Expectations for voice, development, the rule of law and accountability are met by stronger systems of democratic governance” and the following Outputs of UNDP’s Country Programme Document (2018 – 2022) - CPD:

CPD Output 1.1: Effective public institution enabled to develop and implement evidence-based policies and systems that respond to the needs of the people
CPD Output 1.2: Institutions at union and subnational levels enabled to develop effective systems and procedures for performing their representative and oversight functions.

Duties and Responsibilities

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Competencies

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Required Skills and Experience

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