Antecedentes

1) BACKGROUND

The Strategic Development Plan (SDP) of Timor-Leste (2010-30) envisages to develop an e-government, where citizens can interact directly with government and get better services using information technology. It recognizes that the current information technology systems and internet access available to the civil service is inadequate for effective management and quality service provision which greatly impedes whole-of-government links, coordination and information flow. Over the years, the country has advanced a lot in the development of ICT infrastructure and its usage both in public and private sectors.

Only recently, the Government of Timor-Leste has come up with Timor Digital 2032 (Timor-Leste’s Ten Year Digital and ICT Development Strategy) with a vision of digital government that is simple, transparent, and easily accessible to all, one where the government is not only present on mobile phones and computers but everywhere, at the Sucos (villages), schools and clinics and fosters civil participation in public policy. The strategy aims to achieve this by ensuring digital and ICTs serve as a mechanism for delivering public services and enhanced access to markets, personal development and job opportunities to those who otherwise would be excluded.  Furthermore, through digitization the government seeks to empower its citizens to participate in public policy, adding and generating value for themselves and the Timorese Society.

The Strategy has five strategic digital pillars which include: governance, inclusive economy, health, education, and agriculture.  Inclusion and accessibility participation, interoperability, data protection and privacy are the principles of the Strategy. The Strategy has identified five enabling pillars: Digital and ICT Skills, legislation and policy, ICT Infrastructure, proximity and affordability, and national working group for digital transformation.  The policy document has come up with 24 goals to be achieved over the period of ten years.

In recent years, some municipalities have prepared their strategic development plans for their overall development; however, they have not been able to fully integrate the e-government into the plans. There is no dedicated unit and human resource for information and communication technology (ICT) at the Municipality level. The municipalities fully rely on the Central Government entities for any ICT support. At the same time, a significant amount of investment has been done in the ICT sector in the municipalities without any strategic vision.

As part of the government’s commitment to implementing decentralization reform, the President of the Republic has promulgated two critical pieces of legislation: Law on Local Power and Administrative Decentralization and Municipal Election Law. The Government of Timor-Leste is getting ready to table Municipal Finance Bill in the National Parliament. All of these combined, the Government of Timor-Leste is embarking on a massive decentralization reform. As the decentralization reform progresses, Timor-Leste’s municipalities acquire more responsibilities and independence regarding service delivery and public finance management roles. In this background, the Project plans to develop an e-government strategy for the municipalities to support e-government development at local level.

This terms of reference (TOR) defines scope of work, expected outputs/deliverable, key qualifications etc. of a firm/company to support the Project and the MSA in development of e-government strategy for municipalities in Timor-Leste.

Deberes y responsabilidades

2) OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT AND SCOPE OF WORK

The objective of the assignment is to develop an e-government strategy of the municipalities in Timor-Leste.

Scope of the work

• Review the documents related to the local governance, decentralization, municipal roles and responsibilities, state of e-government, information and communication technology infrastructure, including the SDP, Timor Digital 2032, and municipal strategic plans
• Review and conduct gap analysis of strategic, Institutional and Legal Framework required for E-government implementation in Timor Leste
• Conduct the e-readiness assessment of the municipalities that includes assessment of e-government inventory, digital landscape and gap analysis
• Take stock of ongoing and future e-government initiatives at the national and local levels
• Consult with government, municipal officials, TIC-Timor, and UNDP to seek guidance, information, and feedback
• Visit the municipalities to assess the situation and have firsthand information regarding the state of municipal governance, and e-government readiness, including the hardware and software infrastructure
• Identify opportunities, constraints and challenges in relation to e-governance as well as various cases where digital public goods can be used at the municipal level
• Organize workshops, key informant interviews and focus group discussions.
• Draft and finalize the government strategy of the municipalities also in the light of international best practices and standards and recommend required capacity building roadmap
• Make a presentation to TIC Timor, Government, municipalities, UNDP, and other stakeholders

3.      EXPECTED DELIVERABLES AND PAYMENT SCHEDULE

4.      INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT

The selected firm will work under the supervision of the National Project Manager (NPM) and Chief Technical Adviser (CTA) on Decentralization and Local Development. The project will support the selected bidder in organizing meetings with the stakeholders and will provide logistical support during the field visits to the municipalities.

The consultant is expected to travel to Timor-Leste once after submitting an inception report and spend 50% of her/his time in Timor-Leste, including travel to the municipalities. The project will provide logistical support including office space and field missions to the municipalities outside Dili. S/he is supposed to work with a national consultant hired by UNDP and should work as the team leader.

5.      DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT

60 working days over a period of three months

6.      DUTY STATION

Homebased and Dili, Timor-leste

 30 days homebased and 20days in Dili

Competencias

-

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

7. REQUIRED COMPETENCIES

Education

• Master’s degree in public administration, business management, economics, political science, governance, or related field

Work Experience

• At least 8-10 years of experience in e-governance/digital government strategy development
• Experience in facilitating inclusive policy dialogue and stakeholder engagement on issues relating to government digitalization
• Experience in advising governments (national and sub-national) on best practices in relation to e-government initiatives
• Strong understanding of program/project management relating to digital government and digital service delivery
• Technical knowledge of related institutional, policy/regulatory, infrastructure and technical frameworks
• Experience in working in developing countries, particularly in Timor-Leste, will be an added advantage

Language: Proficient in written and oral English while working knowledge of Tetum and Portuguese will be an added advantage

8. SCOPE OF PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

Lump Sum Contract

The financial proposal must be expressed in the form of an "all-inclusive" lump-sum amount, supported by breakdown of costs as per template provided. The term "all inclusive" implies all cost (professional fees, travel costs (one roundtrip with economy most direct route, living allowances etc.). Under the lump sum approach, the contract price is fixed, regardless of changes in cost components. For duty travels, and other costs required to perform the demands of the TOR must be incorporated in the financial proposal.

Schedule of Payment

The payment will be made based on the deliverables. The selected consultant must submit documents as per the deliverables which must be duly approved and serve as the basis for the payment of fees. The consultant will be expected to produce the deliverables within the agreed timeline under Section D of this TOR to be reviewed and approved as specified in the TOR.

9. RECOMMENDED PRESENTATION OF OFFER

Individual consultants interested in the assignment must submit the following documents to demonstrate their qualification in one single PDF document:

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (the template to be downloaded from the procurement notice link).
2. Personal CV or P11 indicating all past experiences from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (2) professional references (to be downloaded from the procurement notice link).
3. Financial Proposal: that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (the template to be downloaded from the procurement notice link).
4. Technical Proposal:
   1. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
   2. A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment and work plan as indicated above.

10. CRITERIA OF SELECTION

Individual consultant will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

• The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
  • Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
  • Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation

* Technical Criteria weight 70%

* Financial Criteria weight 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation (70%)

Qualification, Experience and Technical Proposal (70 marks):

1. General Qualification (15 marks);
2. Experience relevant to the assignment (35 marks);
3. Technical Proposal: Brief methodology and workplan on how the consultant will approach and complete the work (20 marks).

Financial Evaluation (30%):

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

p = y (µ/z), where

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

• Annex 1 - IC Contract Template (for information);

• Annex 2 -  Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (to be completed at later stage upon request by UNDP);
• Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions (for information);
• Annex 4 – RLA Template (if consultant wishes to be recruited through an employer) - (for information).

Incomplete applications will not be considered and will be disqualified automatically.