The establishment of strong institutions and capacities at all levels to ensure the delivery and quality of public services has been at the focus of the government and political agenda of Timor-Leste since its independence restored in 2002. Significant progress has been made towards enhancing the process of governance and public service delivery through improved efficiency, accountability, and transparency ever since. At the same time, a lot of challenges and opportunities lie ahead. 

The Constitution of Timor-Leste envisages that the State will be territorially organized in a decentralized manner and the local units will have a status of corporate bodies vested with representative organs and their organization, competence, functioning and composition of the organs will be defined by law. In this regard, since the independence of the country, administrative decentralization has been considered a useful tool to promote national identity, territorial cohesion, and socio-economic development.

An initial policy towards administrative decentralization was laid out in early 2006. However, the process could not take momentum due to several political and administrative reasons. Nearly ten years ago, a new impulse to this process was given with the new administrative division of the country followed by the Implementation Strategy of the Administrative Decentralization and the Setting up of the Representative Bodies of the Local Power in Timor-Leste which envisages a gradual but progressive decentralization. Recently, the Government has reaffirmed its commitment to decentralization through Government Resolution N.º 45/2020 (Implementation of Administrative Decentralization Strategy and Installation of Representative Organs of Local Government) and aims at developing and approving the necessary legal framework for the implementation of the decentralization process.

In order to meet its commitment and building on the past experiences, the Government of Timor-Leste has been working on revising the legal framework on decentralization. The Ministry of State Administration (MSA), as the nodal agency on decentralization, has been leading this exercise. To support the Government in general and the MSA in particular in their decentralization endeavor, UNDP Timor-Leste has been partnering with the Ministry. In 2021, UNDP Timor-Leste launched the project “Strengthening Integral Local Development by Building the Capacities of the Municipal Authorities in Timor-Leste”, in partnership with the MSA.

Capitalizing on its long-standing experience in supporting decentralization in Timor-Leste and other countries, UNDP supports the Ministry to enhance its capacities to strengthen the legal, policy and institutional framework for administrative decentralization. In this regard, UNDP facilitates the MSA’s efforts to identify gaps, harmonize the legal, policy and institutional framework, including amendment of the existing laws, and build capacities of the local authorities. UNDP hires a team of national and international advisors to provide the technical assistance to the MSA on this matter. These Terms of Reference (ToR) describe the duties, responsibilities, competencies, qualifications of an International Human Resource (HR) Advisor.

Under overall guidance by the MSA National Director for Human Resources, under direct supervision of the Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) and the Project Manager, the incumbent’s main responsibility shall be to advise the Minister and concerned MSA officials on human-resources aspect of administrative decentralization in Timor-Leste. 

• Review and analyze the national HR Agenda for public service in the context of ongoing administrative decentralization in Timor-Leste.
• Review the existing HR function, systems, policies, procedures, structures, processes of municipalities;
• Provide support to the Training Advisor in developing a strategy to ensure effectiveness and efficiency of training programs.
• Support the MSA to ensure the HR policies and procedures are institutionalized or codified in accordance with the legal framework;
• Support the National Directorate of Human Resource of MSA in assisting Municipalities to identify, map and assess HR capacities and needs of Municipal Civil Servants in line with the municipal services requirement.
• Support Municipalities to reinforce their capacity through development of the HR Plans;
• Conduct mapping of personnel to be deployed to the municipalities  in the context of ongoing administrative decentralization reform;
• Prepare reports on the identification and mapping of local staff in 12 municipalities;
• Provide technical advice to MSA in drafting decree laws as well as policies and strategies regarding human resource management, including those on change management, by municipalities in the context of the administrative decentralization;
• Provide advice on labor-management relations (LMR), complex staffing issues, and amendment of or compliance with the national labor laws.
• Review and suggest improvements to staff rules and regulations including but not limited to recruitment (with sourcing techniques), talent management, learning and development (L&D) strategy, succession planning, contract administration, performance management, motivation programs, collective bargaining, sexual harassment, progressive discipline, grievance procedures, compensation packages, pay classification and the like in the municipalities;
• Ensure that gender and youth considerations are dully addressed and mainstreamed in the human resource management policies and strategies by the municipalities;

Introduce the Knowledge Management System (KMS) with the MSA and municipalities to help them capture and maintain the institutional memory, succession, and continuity of organizational knowledge between generations of staff with regard to attrition, retirement, and staff turnover.

Expected Deliverables and Payment Schedule

Institutional Arrangement
 

The incumbent shall be contracted under UNDP terms of contract and work under direct supervision of the Chief Technical Advisor and the National Project Manager (NPA). S/he shall closely collaborate with the International Training Advisor.
 

DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT

The duration of the assignment 80 working days over a period of six months from January to June 2023.

DUTY STATION OF ASSIGNMENT

Dili, Timor-Leste.

Travel:

The incumbent is expected to travel to the municipalities from time to time.

Core Competencies:

• Integrity and professionalism: demonstrated expertise in the area of speciality and ability to apply good judgment; high degree of autonomy, personal initiative and ability to take ownership; willingness to accept wide responsibilities and ability to work independently under established procedures in a politically sensitive environment, while exercising discretion, impartiality and neutrality; ability to manage information objectively, accurately and confidentially; responsive and client-oriented.
• Accountability: mature and responsible; ability to operate in compliance with organizational rules and regulations.
• Commitment to continuous learning: initiative and willingness to learn new skills and stay abreast of new developments in the area of expertise; ability to adapt to changes in the work environment.
• Planning and organizing effective organizational and problem-solving skills and ability to manage a large volume of work in an efficient and timely manner; ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor (own) work; ability to work under pressure, with conflicting deadlines, and to handle multiple concurrent projects/activities.
• Teamwork and respect for diversity: the ability to operate effectively across organizational boundaries; ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and harmonious working relations in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity and gender;
• Communication: proven interpersonal skills; good spoken and written communication skills, including the ability to prepare clear and concise reports; ability to conduct presentations, articulate options and positions concisely; ability to make and defend recommendations; ability to communicate and empathize with staff (including national staff), military personnel, volunteers, counterparts and local interlocutors coming from very diverse backgrounds; ability to maintain composure and remain helpful towards the staff, but objective, without showing personal interest; capacity to transfer information and knowledge to a wide range of different target groups;

• Flexibility, adaptability, and ability and willingness to operate independently in austere, remote, and potentially hazardous environments for protracted periods, involving physical hardship and little comfort, and including possible extensive travel within the area of operations; willingness to transfer to other duty stations within area of operations as may be necessary;

SCOPE OF PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

Lump Sum Contract

The financial proposal must be expressed in the form of a LUMP SUM amount that is all-inclusive of all costs, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per the template provided. The amount should be inclusive of professional fees, insurance, communication etc.

Schedule of payments

Per deliverable/s upon submission of its completion deliverables report and accepted by Project Manager, each deliverable as per the timeline mentioned in section C (expected outputs and deliverables).

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. Previous sample strategies, training programs, modules or other portfolio materials/products relevant to the TOR;
   2. A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment and work plan.
       

EVALUATION METHOD AND CRITERIA

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:

1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
2. 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.