Historique

Poverty reduction and alleviation is one of the priority objectives of the National Social Protection Strategy 2015-2020. This strategy reflects the commitments of the Albanian Government in the field of Social Protection aiming to provide quality public services to every Albanian citizen regardless of their income, origin, age, gender, ethnicity, education, sexual orientation, cultural identity, political and religious beliefs. There are three policies  underlying this strategy that aim to provide protection and social reintegration for people and families affected by poverty, as well as individuals in vulnerable situations: (i) Poverty reduction and alleviation, (ii) Improvement of the quality of life of persons with disabilities; (iii) Development of social care services. One of the cross cutting elements of the three policies is the link to be established between the cash payment programme and social care services which should play a key role in improving the quality of life of individuals, families and communities in need, as well as their empowerment and reintegration into the economic and social life.  
The Law no. 57/2019 “On social assistance in the Republic of Albania” has conditioned the eligibility of social assistance with the registration of adult family members at the Employment Offices, and their inclusion in vocational training courses, as defined by the employment legislation. Also, the refusal of the appropriate job offer by the employment offices is the reason for their exemption of up to 1 year from the benefit of social assistance. This law in article 12 "payment of social assistance", stipulates that the social assistance is limited in time: "The time limitation of the social assistance is made according to the provisions of the decision of the Council of Ministers." For the adult family members receiving social assistance, empowerment and exit from the assistance scheme is linked with their reintegration into the labour market.
The new model of social assistance that has been implemented in Albania since 2018, aims to improve targeting of poor families or individuals, increase transparency and efficiency of the programme, as well as foster links to integrated services. To address this goal, the strategy prioritises the establishment of a social care package targeting social assistance beneficiaries. In May 2018, the Government of Albania (GoA) signed an additional loan agreement with the World Bank, on the Social Assistance Modernisation Project (SAMP) committing about 11 million USD in support of improving the equity and efficiency of social assistance programmes. While the main focus of the additional loan is the reform of DA, one of the goals is to promote the social inclusion of existing NE beneficiaries during the transition period of exiting the cash assistance programme. Specifically, the additional financing will support the drafting of an exit strategy and an Action Plan for NE beneficiaries based on innovative models and international experience. The additional financing will support the development of a graduation strategy for NE beneficiaries once they reach the five-year duration limit of the benefit (as mandated by law). For the period July - August 2019 provide 60,262 households and 1,777 individuals benefiting social assistance, as well as 3,363 households receiving assistance through the 6% fund (SSS).
In 2018, the National Employment Service and the State Social Services signed a Memorandum of Understanding, setting a foundation for closer collaboration with regards to the transition/activation of social assistance beneficiaries to the labour market. The focus of this collaboration has been the support of all former beneficiaries of social assistance following the rollout of the new scheme. More specifically, NES set the transition of beneficiaries and former beneficiaries of social assistance as a priority for 2018. By the end of 2018, over 4000 beneficiaries of social assistance (current and former) transitioned into jobs through NES services (intermediation and active labour market programmes).
The approval of the Employment Promotion Law in 2019 marked an important step forward towards the employment of people with disabilities, with the establishment of a dedicated Social Employment Fund for the employment and training of Persons with Disabilities (PwD). The Ministry of Finance and Economy is currently working on drafting the operational procedures for the Fund. Furthermore, the new Law on Social Assistance (no. 57, date 18.07.2019) allowed for PwD to retain their disability payments regardless of the duration of their employment (limited to 4 years in the previous law).
Recently (2019), the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MoFE) has developed a protocol for cooperation with the State Social Services. The protocol is now an integral part of a joint ministerial order signed by the Minister of Finance and Economy and the Minister of health and Social protection.
The ministerial order, (no. 624, date 20.08.2019), approved the operational plan (2019-2020) on the employment of the economic assistance beneficiaries at employment age. The order tasks the State Social Service, National Agency for Employment and Skills and their regional and local offices for the implementation of this plan. The guiding principles of this operational plan are equality and social justice, empowerment and sustainable employment for the category in focus. The aim of this operational plan is to establish a referral mechanism supporting harmonised services for each member in active employment age from the households benefiting from economic assistance. The mechanism will orient all economic assistance beneficiaries towards the labour market. Priority will be given to those in their last eligible year in the economic assistance. The mechanism will include work protocols for each position in the system with referral responsibility, gathering and exchanging information in real time between institutions as well as establishing a database for services provided to the referred persons.
Currently there is no active referral or back referral between NAES and SSS and coordination does not go beyond cross checking of databases. The cooperation between NAES and SSS and NE beneficiaries is being considered as a priority category by the employment service. Yet only 10% of the previous NE beneficiaries have approached the employment offices. The agreement with the SSS was to encourage and refer the NE beneficiaries to employment services, yet this requires a better cooperation with the municipalities, highlighting the need for operational referral mechanisms in place that ensure cross institutional cooperation. The operational protocol should be a starting point in strengthening this cooperation and a bases to design the mechanisms for its implementation.
Addressing the current gap of integrated services for the socio-economic empowerment of vulnerable individuals and families, it is necessary to identify possible directions leading to interaction between the existing systems and address the employability of cash assistance beneficiaries in the labour market.

Inclusive Labour Market Solutions in the Western Balkans (ILMS) is a UNDP regional initiative, with the overall objective to make national and local labour markets more inclusive. The project seeks to ensure that labour market institutions at the national and local levels have capacities to design and implement, in partnership with the private sector and the civil society, inclusive policies and programme for those individuals at risk of social and labour market exclusion. In Albania, the ILMS II will contribute to the implementation of the roadmaps for integrated service provision, which have been developed through regional peer-level discussions and subsequent national dialogues with national and local level stakeholders.

Devoirs et responsabilités

2.    Scope of the assignment

This assignment aims at mapping out the current models of employment service provision to vulnerable unemployed jobseekers, by non-public providers.  This consultancy will generate an understanding of the existing models utilized to integrate vulnerable communities to the labour market and how their needs are addressed through the existing programmes and practices  at community level.

3.    Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the UNDP Programme Specialist and Programme coordinator and in close collaboration with the national institutions, the consultant is expected to contribute to the following tasks:
•    Conduct a desk review with the aim to identify the existing non-public providers of integrated social and employment services, the vulnerable groups they treat, the geographical location, donors who fund these initiatives. The desk review will support the process of identifying the stakeholders and institutions which will be consulted. At the same time, the desk review will support the process of drafting the inception report and designing the methodology for the assignment.
•    Conduct field work to meet with all the selected providers.
•    Prepare a database and a report with information about all the identified non-public providers, and a detailed explanation of the model they have developed, the nature of services offered, the target group, the operation aspects of the implementation, the collaboration with employers etc.
•    Organize a workshop discussion with the national institutions to discuss the models and identify potential models for upscaling, targeted to specific vulnerable groups.
•    Support the working group of the National Agency for Employment and Skills to outline the models, based on the specific target groups, and package the model as a form of employment promotion programme.
•    Prepare all the necessary operational material which will ease the implementation of the selected models.
•    Prepare a final report for the assignment.

Deliverables
1.    Inception report on the methodology, the workplan and agreeing with the national stakeholders and UNDP on the deliverables of the services provided.
2.    Draft report on the existing non-public providers, models, target groups, operational aspects, collaboration with employers etc.
3.    Draft report of the selected models to be tested by the National Agency for Employment and Skills, as part of integrated case management, which links social and employment services.
4.    Final report of the assignment.

Compétences

Corporate Competencies:

-    Demonstrating integrity by modelling 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;
-    Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Core Competencies:

-    Planning & Organizing – Develops clear goals in line with agreed strategies, identifies priorities, foresees risks and makes allowances accordingly;
-    Leadership;
-    Empowering others to translate vision in results;
-    Managing performances – make sure that roles, responsibilities, and reporting lines are clear, regularly discuss performance and provide feedback and coaching to staff;
-    Judgment/Decision Making – identify key issues in a complex situation, propose a course of actions or make a recommendation based on all available information.

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education
•    Masters’ degree (or equivalent) in a relevant field (such as Social Policy) or in a general field (Law, Business Administration, Economics, Social Sciences),
Experience
•    Minimum 5 years’ experience in working with employment and social service policy design in Albania;
•    Proven solid experience in conducting assessments, review, mapping exercises, evaluation reports in the field of employment or social services;
•    Proven knowledge of the Albanian civil society organisations.
Language requirement:
•    Excellent communication and report-writing skills in English

Evaluation Procedure
UNDP applies a fair and transparent selection process that would consider both the technical qualification of Individual Consultants as well as their financial proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate whose offer:
•    Is deemed technically responsive / compliant / acceptable (only technically responsive applications / candidates will be considered for the financial evaluation)
•    And has obtained the highest combined technical and financial scores.

Technical Criteria - 50% of total evaluation – max 50 points
Criteria A: Masters’ degree (or equivalent) in a relevant field (such as Social Policy) or in a general field (Law, Business Administration, Economics, Social Sciences),  – max 10 points
Criteria B:  Minimum 5 years’ experience in working with employment and social service policy design in Albania – max 10 points
Criteria C: Proven solid experience in conducting assessments, review, mapping exercises, evaluation reports in the field of employment or social services – max 10 points
Criteria D: Proven knowledge of the Albanian civil society organisations  – max 10 points
Criteria E:  Full working knowledge of English and report-writing skills – max 10 points
Technical proposal – 20% of the total evaluation – max 20 points
Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation – max 30 points

Application Procedure 

Interested applicants are advised to carefully study all sections of this ToRs and ensure that they meet the general requirements as well as specific qualifications described. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials. 

The application should contain: 

• Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application. 
• Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability-please fill in the attached form. Download Here (kindly use FireFox Browser)
• Filled P11 form including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees, please upload the P11 instead of your CV. Download Here (kindly use FireFox Browser)

• Financial Proposal in ALL*- specifying a total lump sum in Albanian Lek for the tasks specified in this announcement. The attached template may be used - Download Here (kindly use FireFox Browser) Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant during the contract period (e.g. fee and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services). 

• Copy of Diplomas and copy of Passport. 
• Technical proposal – specifying the methodology which the consultant will employ to conduct this assignment.

*Kindly note that Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal are two separate documents and should be both part of your application. 

How to Submit the Application: 

To submit your application online, please follow the steps below: 

• Download and complete the UN Personal History Form (P11) for Service Contracts (SCs) and Individual Contracts (ICs); 
• Merge your UN Personal History Form (P11) for Service Contracts (SCs) and Individual Contracts (ICs), Financial Proposal Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and cover letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded; 
• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement); 
• Click “Apply Now” button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click “Submit Application;” 
• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above); 

• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system. 

Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process. 

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.