The Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme (PLGSP) is the national flagship programme of the Government of Nepal (GoN) to build institutional, organizational and individual capacity at all levels of government, with special focus on the provincial and local levels. The ultimate goal of the Programme is to attain functional, sustainable, inclusive and accountable provincial and local governance. The Programme aims to contribute to delivery of quality services at provincial and local levels, promote local development and enhance economic prosperity. The Programme will achieve 14 outputs under the following three outcomes:

• Government institutions and inter-governmental mechanisms at all levels are fully functioning in support of federal governance as per the Constitution;
• Provincial and local governments have efficient, effective, inclusive and accountable institutions; and
• Elected representatives and civil servants at provincial and local governments have the capacity and serve citizens to their satisfaction.

The PLGSP serves as an umbrella programme of the Government in providing capacity development support to the provincial and local governments. As such, the Programme will establish a common framework for coordination and coherence of all governance-related programmes at the provincial and local levels and accommodate other donor-funded programmes. Thus, the PLGSP will provide a coherent approach to capacity development under the federal system.

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA) is the executive agency of the Programme. The seven provincial governments, the 753 local governments, the restructured Local Development Training Academy (LDTA) and seven provincial-level training centres (Provincial Centres for Good Governance) are the implementing agencies of the Programme. The Programme is supported by international development partners, namely, the Department for International Development (DfID) of the United Kingdom, the European Union (EU), the Government of Norway, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the United Nations.

MoFAGA is partnering with UNDP to support the implementation of the Programme through Technical Assistance (TA). A key priority of the TA is recruitment of TA staff, their capacity building and knowledge enhancement including orientation and continuous backstopping support in coordination with the Programme Management so that they deliver on the intended outputs.

The province governments have a major role to play in facilitating and implementing the Programme, benefitting both province and local governments. All provincial governments have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with MOFAGA to be a part of the Programme implementation. To support the provincial governments in the implementation of the Programme, a Provincial Programme Implementation Unit (PPIU) has been established in the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers (OCMCM).

Likewise, the Programme envisages that all provincial governments will establish training centers, proposed as the Provincial Centers for Good Governance (PCGGs), with the role of serving the capacity development needs of the local governments in the provinces as well as the provincial governments themselves.  In relation to the Programme, PCGGs will function as the capacity development service provider to the provincial and local governments. 

The output 12 of the PLGSP is dedicated to the establishment and operation of an Innovative Partnership Fund. The core objective of this fund will be three-prong: 1) to promote innovative approaches to governance with the focus on strengthening downward accountability, transparency, participation, gender and social inclusion; 2) to establish relationships between the local governments and the PGs in the spirit of cooperative  federalism; and 3) to bring in innovations in service delivery particular on local economic development. The key results to be achieved under the output 12 includes: a) Innovative Partnership Fund (IPF) established under OCMCM, b) IPF operationalized to incentivize innovation, and c) vertical cooperation established between PGs and LGs.

In this context, a number of technical assistance personnel will be deployed by the Programme to support the implementation of the PLGSP activities. This Terms of Reference (ToR) describes the functions, responsibilities and expected results of the Innovative Partnership Fund Expert to be stationed at PPIUs, as well as qualifications/experience, competencies and selection criteria required for the incumbent.

Functions / Key Results Expected

Overall responsibilities of the assignment are to:

1. Support the establishment of PPF board and operationalization of the Fund to enable provincial and local governments strategize, plan, execute and manage IPF activities as envisaged in the PLGSP programme document;
2. Provide capacity building support to promote innovative approaches to governance with a focus on strengthening downward accountability, transparency and participation;
3. Support the establishing of coordination between local governments and provincial governments in the spirit of cooperative federalism;
4. Ensure strengthening gender and social inclusion through the adaptation of innovation practices;
5. Technical Backstopping and capacity building for IPF; and
6. Perform any other tasks assigned by the concerned authorities.

1. Support the establishment of PPF board and operationalization of the Fund to enable provincial and local governments strategize, plan, execute and manage IPF activities as envisaged in the PLGSP programme document:

• Obtain and disseminate updates from the Programme Coordination Unit (PCU) on the GoN policies, norms, standards and guidelines related to IFP;
• Facilitate Provincial Coordination Committee (PCC) to develop supplementary guidelines for the operationalization of the Fund at provincial level (as required);
• Support to develop institutional mechanisms specific to IPF; instruments or procedures required for IPF mobilization; identification of IPF projects; and financial investment modalities;
• Work closely with PPIU team and PCC/OCMCM for the implementation of operational guidelines of IPF which will be developed by MoFAGA;
• Identify capacity development needs for the establishment of the Fund as a special purpose vehicle to the Province Government in the areas of governance, service delivery, and economic development; 
• Support to set up and strengthen institutional mechanisms to implement IPF interventions;
• Facilitate PLGs on the IPF procedure, including the institutional provisions in terms of structure, roles and responsibilities and democratic decision-making process of functional committees;
• Facilitate PCC/OCMCM in exchanging innovative ideas following the criteria of the prescribed guidelines;
• Facilitate the exchange of knowledge for strengthening of LG services in partnership of more than one local government along with provincial government and non-governmental partners; and
• Contribute to strategize, design, execute, monitor, and replicate innovations to strengthen federal-provincial and local concurrent functions.

2. Provide capacity building support to promote innovative approaches to governance with a focus on strengthening downward accountability, transparency and participation:

• Support the identification of capacity development needs and building capacity of PLGs in the area of financing innovation, funding modality, fund operational mechanism, fund accessing modality, fund flow mechanism, and financial reporting mechanism;
• Build capacity of local governments to develop innovate plan/project and support them to submit the innovative ideas for accessing fund;
• Facilitate collecting demand from different LGs as per the procurement plan and implementation calendars reflected in the Provincial Annual Strategic Implementation Plan (PASIP);
• Support periodical reviews of overall PLGSP/PCGG progress, including monitoring, learning, and reporting on activities implemented along with the support through the IPF;
• Ensure that the IPF is utilized to contribute to downward accountability, transparency and participation; and
• Support local governments to promote innovative approaches for socio-economic recovery, as well as preparedness and response mechanisms to future possible crises.

3. Support the establishing of coordination between local governments and provincial governments in the spirit of cooperative federalism:

• Support to establishing a common understanding of the purpose of the Fund in the context of cooperative federalism through use of the communication tools;
• Facilitate adopting an innovative co-funding and shared service approach to strengthen collaboration, coordination, and cooperation among the three tiers of governments;
• Assist ensuring proper documentation of the evaluation process following the set criteria and support to supervise/ monitor the grant implementation activities;
• Support documenting performance of PLGs and disseminate cross-learning by organizing the innovation marketplace at the provincial level;  
• Facilitate securing a substantive contribution of participating provincial and local government through the use of the matching fund to the implementation of innovative schemes; 
• Support PGs for monitoring, reporting and documentation of the projects to be funded through the IPF; and
• Bring innovations in service delivery particularly in local economic development.

4. Ensure strengthening gender and social inclusion through the adaptation of innovation practices:

• Facilitate the implementation of IPF guidelines ensuring GESI responsive eligibility/selection criteria of schemes;
• Ensure the mainstreaming of GESI in the development and implementation of all IPF activities;
• Support preparation and dissemination of knowledge products and good practices of GESI-responsive innovation funding; and
• Ensure that GESI is mainstreamed effectively in the implementation of innovative schemes.

5. Technical Backstopping and capacity building for IPF:

• Prepare the project appraisal guideline using capital budgeting tools like IRR, NPV, Profitability index, Cost benefit ratio etc;
• Support to prepare the model feasibility and pre-feasibility report for IPF activities;
• Support to prepare Annual procurement plan and master procurement plan for IPF projects;
• Support the LGs to prepare procurement related documents such as bidding document, RFP, Cost estimate etc for IPF Projects;
• Support the LGs introduce social accountability measures like public auditing, public hearing, hoarding board etc for IPF projects;
• Support the LGs prepare quarterly and annual progress report;
• Support and capacitate the LGs to prepare IEE/EIA/EPM for IPF Projects;
• Support and capacitate the LGs to prepare the project bank for innovative projects;
• Develop socio-economic appraisal tools for IPF Activities;
• Develop training modules for IPF related activities;
• Prepare the provincial level integrated progress report on IPF;
• Support to build the capacity of procurement management on IPF; and
• Support the LGs to develop programmatic framework for IPF projects.

6. Perform any other tasks assigned by the concerned authorities.

Impact of Results:

• Programme outputs are achieved within the given resources and time with high quality standards; and
• Innovation and partnership fund is operational and transparently supporting local government innovative practice.

Corporate Competencies: 

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the GoN and UN values and ethical standards;
• Serves and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the GoN and UNDP; 
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Excellent inter-personal skills; 
• Clear and upfront communication skills;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
• Collaborates effectively in a team environment; 
• Organized and good with following-up on pending issues; meets deadlines;
• Promotes learning and knowledge management/sharing; 
• Focuses on delivering results by taking calculated-risks and problem-solving approach; and
• Fair and transparent decision making; regularly shares information with team members.

Functional Competencies:  

• Promotes sharing of knowledge and experience, and actively works towards continued learning and development on personal level as well as for supervisees;
• Good practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues;
• Ability to go beyond established procedures and models, propose new and innovate approaches which expand the range of projects;
• Demonstrates strong numerical and analytical skills;
• Has experience working with Monitoring and Evaluation tools;
• Experience in developing business plans for financial institutions including energy enterprises;
• Experience in coordination, technical assistance and advisory support top government and private institutions;
• Experienced in delivering training and other needed capacity/ institutional building support to a wide range of stakeholders including financial institutions;
• Demonstrates excellent organizational and administrative skills;
• Identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audiences for advocating GoN and UNDP’s mandate;
• Analyzes and selects materials for strengthening strategic alliances with partners and stakeholders;
• Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of a professional discipline or technical speciality relating to the position;
• Possesses basic knowledge of organizational policies and procedures relating to the position and applies them consistently in work tasks;
• Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
• Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances relevant to Government of Nepal and UNDP’s mandate and strategic agenda;
• Assesses project performance to identify success factors and incorporates best practices into project work;
• Monitors specific stages of projects/programme implementation;
• Researches linkages across programme activities to identify critical points of integration; and
• Oversees and documents the process of strategy formulation for programmes at Project level.

Technical Competencies:

• Knowledge and skills on preparing Procurement related document such as bid document, request for proposal (RFP), letter of intent, financial and technical proposal, cost estimate etc;
• Knowledge and skills on preparing annual procurement plan and master procurement plan;
• Competency on feasibility study, pre-feasibility study;
• Skills on preparing EIA/IEE/EMP;
• Knowledge and skills on project appraisal applying NPV, IRR, cost benefit ratio;
• Knowledge and skill on socio-economic appraisal of the project;
• Knowledge and skill on project design, development and management;
• Knowledge and skill on ebidding system or e-procurement;
• Knowledge and skill on rate analysis;
• Knowledge and skill on public procurement laws;
• Knowledge and skills on user committee and social accountability measures like public auditing, public hearing;
• Skills on data analysis using excel and stata/Eviews/spss; and
• Skills on Autocad will be an advantage.

Education:

• Master’s degree in Economic or Public Finance or Management or Development Studies or Engineering or any other related field with Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering/Architect Engineering.

Experience:

• At least three years of experience for Master’s Degree and five years for Bachelor’s Degree in the field of public administration, governance, business administration, public finance management or similar fund management;
• At least 3 years of working experience on procurement management;
• Hands-on skills in data management using statistical tools and software;
• Experience of working with government or public organization in the area of procurement management;
• Demonstrated skills of preparing quality reports and other knowledge products;
• Sound understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their implications for local governance would be an advantage;
• Experience of working in government, UN and/or other international agencies will be an added advantage; 
• Good understanding of applications for data management and project monitoring;
• Skills and knowledge on project management; and
• Experience of working with local government will be advantage.

Language requirements:

• Fluency in English and Nepali, both written and oral, at professional level is essential;and
• Knowledge of any of the local languages will be an added advantage.