Antecedentes

This assignment is designed within the framework of Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) Country pilot. The objective of GPEDC country pilot is to support increased effectiveness at country level and to demonstrate the positive impact of effective development cooperation on the achievement of national, regional and global development goals. As a global, multi-stakeholder platform providing support at country level, the GPEDC can connect local realities with global policy. The lessons learned from the pilots will be used to inform dialogue and decisions at the global level. The design of the country pilots will vary from country to country, depending on context. Uganda is among the countries selected for the country pilot.

Uganda’s Vision 2040 articulates the long-term development plan for the country. This is supported by medium-term National Development Plans covering five-year periods. The current National Development Plan (NDPII) covers the 2015/2016 to 2019/2020 period and stipulates the Government’s strategic direction, development priorities and implementation strategies.

These documents envisage the transition of Uganda to a Middle-Income Country (MIC). It is recognized that while domestic resource mobilization remains the most viable source of sustainable financing for development, official development assistance (ODA),[1] will continue to play a key role in full alignment with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA). Furthermore, the NDPII expects that 42 percent of resources for its implementation to come from the private sector. The important role of the private sector for implementation of the NDPII has resulted in the development of a Private Sector Development Strategy (2017).

With the Adoption of the 2030 Agenda, development cooperation has entered a new era. Understanding that effective development co-operation, including strengthened partnerships, remain important in supporting Uganda’s long-term development progress. Uganda’s Partnership Policy, approved in 2013, sets out principles for the management of the relationship between the Government and development partners, within the context of the national development plans. To support the policy, the Government and development partners have agreed on a framework for joint dialogue, which includes instruments of the Partnership Policy, including a high-level National Partnership Forum (NPF), a technical NPF and engagement through Sector Working Groups (SWGs). In addition, the Private sector and CSO provide the necessary structures to engage on development issues with the government and partners.

In Uganda, efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) necessitated putting up a mechanism for coordination, which is well laid out in the SDG Coordination framework? approved by the Cabinet under the Office of the Prime Minister, who is also the coordinator of the national partnership platforms. Against the background of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has recently elaborated a preliminary development cooperation policy.

Despite these institutional arrangements, development co-operation in Uganda still faces challenges that are often linked to inclusiveness and effectiveness. The existing structures offer platforms that most often include ‘traditional’ donors, while the involvement of new partners such as south-south development cooperation providers, private sector and CSOs could be enhanced. Similarly, the government and development partners face some challenges in relation to the effectiveness of development cooperation such as the use of country systems, transparency and accountability, aid fragmentation and result orientation. To strengthening development cooperation in Uganda, the Government of Uganda and its Development Partners agreed to undertake a comprehensive and independent review of current development cooperation and partnership architecture with the view to identify implementable solutions within the framework of the country pilot for the Global Partnership for effective development Cooperation.

The review will i) inform the draft development co-operation policy and (ii) contribute to strengthening existing development co-operation mechanisms by improving inclusiveness of diverse development co-operation actors while also identifying potentials to enhance development effectiveness.

Objectives:

The review will analyze the key issues affecting development cooperation in Uganda focusing on the global partnership principles: country ownership, accountability, result orientation and assess the inclusiveness of the current cooperation architecture. It will contribute to developing implementable solutions within short, medium and long-term period. The assessment shall provide evidence-based conclusions and recommendations, which can inform e.g. the NDPII mid-term review and the partnership dialogue.

Considering the above, UNDP on behalf of Government of Uganda seeks to contract one International Consultant to serve as team leader for the task by working with one National Consultant. The consultancy will build on the country concept note for the pilot initiative in Uganda within the overall context of the GPEDC working session on enhanced support to effective development at country level (WS 1) and the agreed common reference framework for implementation and reporting in the respective pilot countries.

[1] In 2016, Uganda received 1.6 billion USD in the form of ODA.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The main scope of this review is to (1) identify key recommendations to strengthen existing framework for development partnership, dialogue and architecture that is fit for Uganda’s changing context taking into account other countries best practice; (2) provide a set of recommendations and proposal in the following three areas: strengthening dialogue mechanisms focused on the principles of effective development cooperation; capacity development and institutional building; and identify potential inputs for further alignment of national policies with the principles of effective development cooperation.

Specifically, the review will:

• assess the current state of country implementation of development effectiveness principles, commitments, and actions (if relevant) for effective development cooperation, based on the national results of the Global Partnership Monitoring for Uganda;
• review policy dialogue and coordination mechanisms for development cooperation and partnership currently in place and assess the extent to which the current mechanisms and structure is delivering the intended results;
• explore the development cooperation effectiveness challenges that require sustained dialogue in Uganda. The assessment will identify the key issues. The following are identified as priority areas among others based on the country monitoring reports: understanding the underlying factors that led to the shift away from use of country system and budget support to other modalities such as project support; transparency and predictability of development assistance; strengthening accountability systems issues related to results frameworks and monitoring systems[1]. The review will explore the potential to assess these areas through “comprehensive approaches”;
• building upon the above, assess the role of division of labor (DoL) exercise within the changing development cooperation architecture in Uganda, identify factors that are hindering progress in the implementation of the recommendations following the previous work on DoL and propose a way forward to undertake a DoL exercise;
• building upon recent work on sector coordination which has led to a production of a report with recommendations, identify the most viable and effective interventions for enhanced coordination to include in the country pilot study;
• explore the growing influence of new partners in development cooperation and identify options for fully integrating them into development coordination mechanisms. Furthermore, map existing coordination in development and humanitarian space; SDG coordination with the view to provide solutions in line with the new way of working and creating harmonized and streamlined system;
• identify best practices and approaches to building an inclusive partnership for a strong and efficient development dialogue with a focus on DoL and on strengthening sector coordination. The review can be informed by the recommendations from other pilot countries. The recommendations will guide continuous engagement of government and local development partner groups to identify medium and long-term solutions;
• provide recommendations for facilitating a dialogue between the Government of Uganda, Development Partners, civil society organisations, private sector, parliament and other stakeholders aimed at effective development cooperation based on best practices and country context. Workshops will be conducted in accordance with the methodology of the other pilot country case studies under the auspice of the GPEDC and be inclusive for all relevant stakeholder mentioned above. The objective is to contribute to the lessons learnt from the other country pilots in the work stream on country level implementation of the Global Partnership.

[1] According to the 2016 Global Partnership Monitoring report, only 46% of development co-operation interventions included country-led results and 35% used country-monitoring systems in 2015.

Competencias

• Demonstrated ability to contextualize research problems and solutions to Uganda’s context;
• Excellent skills in written and oral communication in English are a must;
• Ability to work under minimum supervision and meet timelines;
• Motivated to contribute towards development;
• Good interpersonal, networking and communication skills;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Fair and impartial treatment of all people.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Master’s degree in international development, political science, economics or related disciplines.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of relevant professional experience on development planning, development cooperation, aid effectiveness;
• Recognized expertise in report writing and reviewing development partnership, aid/development cooperation policies and track record in supporting governments in putting in place policy dialogue and development partnership and coordination;
• Relevant experience in undertaking reviews of development partners coordination mechanism, including development partners coordination group, sector working groups, etc;
• Experience in designing and conducting qualitative work;
• Familiarity with development planning and coordination process and mechanisms;
• Excellent report writing and presentation skills;
• Being knowledgeable about the importance of the effectiveness principles in country level implementation as well as current developments in the region with regard to donor-recipient partnerships and financing environment, global frameworks and Agenda 2030.

Language:

• Excellent knowledge of English, including writing and oral skills.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

1. The financial proposal should be presented as a Lump Sum Amount –representative of payments closely linked to deliverables. Payments will be scheduled as per TORs.

Methodology:

It is proposed that the review may be undertaken in the following key steps:

• Inception: Conference call/meeting with a review team (or an individual) to discuss overall objective, scope and expected outputs;
• Desk review and development of guiding questions for stakeholder interviews: desk review work will be undertaken based on review of all relevant documents (national, regional and international), results of mutual accountability survey, results of 2016 Global Partnership monitoring (country profile) among others. The country result of UN DCF’s mutual accountability survey is not publicly available, thus if Uganda took part in the survey in 2017 and can make their survey response available, this will also form an important evidence base for analysis. Uganda’s analysis of private sector engagement (work stream 4) will also provide inputs to the review of partnership that aims at expanding partnership and an associated inclusive architecture. Use other available literature and data including from Aid Management system;
• Information/data collection through in-depth interviews with Government, Development Partners and other stakeholders collect relevant data. This phase aims at collecting as much information as possible on current progress, challenges, and the factors underlying challenges of existing development partnership architecture, through interviews and/or group discussions.
• Draft report/presentation of the preliminary findings: draft the report and prepare presentation to share with stakeholders in preparation for the country validation workshop.
• Validation workshop: preparing and undertaking the facilitation workshop on draft report with all stakeholders including the outcome of the consultation with a multi-stakeholder group on perceptions and ideas for the pilot approach.
• Final report: finalise the country report including a session on the country report on the review and the outcome of the consultation related to the perception of the country pilot, (preliminary) results of the pilot exercise and relevant country experiences. The final country report will input to the closing cross-country workshop for all pilot countries and for the compendium of good practices.

The International Consultant will serve as team leader for the task by working with one National Consultant. The consultancy will build on the country concept note for the pilot initiative in Uganda within the overall context of the GPEDC working session on enhanced support to effective development at country level (WS 1) and the agreed common reference framework for implementation and reporting in the respective pilot countries.

The following deliverables are to be accomplished by the independent review team (or a consultant):

• An inception report detailing the proposed work program, strategy, methodology, timetable and expected outcome of the assignment. Following the initial call on the understanding go the assignment, the inception report should include the agreed arrangement for the local and international staff roles and division of labour;
• A draft review report of development cooperation and partnerships review and presentation on initial findings and recommendations. The international consultant will be responsible for submitting the draft review report and ensuring quality;
• A final review report on the review that outlines a set of recommendations and proposal for strengthening and establishing effective dialogue, capacity development and institutional building, and expanding partnerships. The final report should incorporate all comments and suggestions by stakeholders following the iterative process to be suggested at the inception stage. The international consultant will be responsible for the submission of the final review report;
• Country report. This report will not only contain the full final review report but also a suggestion to GEPEC for inclusion in the compendium of best practices.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The Consultants are expected to deliver as detailed in section D in the TORs.

Institutional Arrangement:

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MFPED) jointly with UNDP shall supervise the task. The Ministry of Finance will reach out to the Local Development Partners Group (LDPG) to technically support the process. During the critical stages of the process, the task team will interact with critical partners to get feedback.

Duration of the Work and Duty Station:

The task is envisaged to take 35 days for international expert.? It is envisaged that the work of the consultants will take place between September 2018 and February 2019. The country report has to be submitted by January 2019.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:

Selection of best offers will be made based on the following:

Individual Consultants will be evaluated based on Cumulative Analysis as per the following scenario:

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. In this regard, the respective weight of the proposals are:

• Technical Criteria weight is 70%;
• Financial Criteria weight is 30%;

Submission of Application:

The candidate is required to submit an electronic application directly uploaded on the UNDP jobs website with all the requirements as listed here below. Annexes and further information may be downloaded on http://procurement-notices.undp.org no.49777.

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document to this website - http://jobs.undp.org no. 81036.

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II);
• Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

Technical proposal:

• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
• A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment;
• Financial proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (Annex II);
• Annexes 1 and II - may be downloaded from the UNDP Procurement Notices Website -http://procurement-notices.undp.org/ For further clarifications, please contact; janet.anyango@undp.org; moses.lutwama@undp.org;

Interested applicants should submit applications through uploading of all their required documentation in one single pdf document on this website only.