Antecedentes

 “Modern Parliament for a Modern Armenia” UNDP project is designed to strengthen the National Assembly in its new and fundamentally enhanced role within the governance system in carrying out key functions of law-making, oversight, and representation. With a long-term goal of enhancing the overall effectiveness of the Parliament as a policy-making institution, the project is designed to support the newly elected National Assembly to take the advantage of the modern governance tools and mechanisms that are focusing on improved quality, transparency and inclusiveness of parliamentary operations and enhanced parliamentary capacity for gender-responsive policymaking.

The three components of the project are focused on the areas of Legislative capacity, Legislative transparency, and Legislative responsiveness. To that end, a three-stage strategy will be applied: (i) catalytic stage of needs assessment, strategic agenda-setting, and pilots of the designed approaches, (ii) full-fledged implementation of the strategic agenda, tested approaches and activities, (iii) evaluation of the implementation, policy recommendations, and project closure.

As digital revolution is transforming the world at unprecedented speed, digital technologies proved essential for institutional continuity and demand by people in terms of connecting and exchanging information. The MAP Project recognized the need of a young parliamentary democracy to develop tools for increased accountability and transparency of the NA. Hence, the Project is set to provide technical support to the National Assembly in terms of a roadmap and a strategic vision and approach to digital transformation. Thus, the MAP Project shall develop a technology transfer for remote deliberation system based on assessment results towards identifying new processes as well as designing e-parliament in a team of six consultants for each of the fields.

E-Parliament technologies, knowledge and standards will be designed to capture the NA business processes and embodies the values of collaboration, inclusiveness, participation and openness to the people.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The consultant will act under the overall supervision of UNDP MAP Project CTA to address the issues crisis planning, namely develop a concept and solutions for an e- Parliament system tailored for the NA needs and a Strategy for Digital Transformation of the NA of Armenia.

LOT 1

1. Digital Transformation Assessment

• Conduct an assessment of the existing technical capabilities for digitalization of internal processes   and   develop   a strategy on “digital transformation” for the NA based on the UNDP Functional Analysis of IT and interview of relevant counterparts. Look into the particular:

  • The changing needs of the parliamentary environment: Digital technology is a critical enabler for parliamentary business, so we must be ready to adapt and quickly respond to its changing needs. It is critical that information can be accessed readily whether in the office or on the move, and flexibly whether using computers or mobile devices. The technology must make work easier, be reliable and add value.

  • Evolving technology: Constantly evolving consumer technology and the breadth of developing business technology challenges us to complement the traditional secure internal ICT services we provide. We must adapt to facilitate access to this technology either as part of our internal services or through partnering with external or ‘shadow’ ICT offerings with the appropriate risk assessment and education.

  • Assess the utilization of the e-Government management systems by the NA including the Mulberry, e-Draft. Reveal the issues regarding the use and the special needs for the lawmakers
  • Examine the maturity of cloud computing services compels us to evaluate their merits and where they may enable rapid deployment, support interoperability and reduce business continuity risk. Identify the legal and security requirements toward using the cloud technologies for collecting, processing and storing sensitive and personal information.
  • Define an agreed understanding of digital direction and priorities in support of the Parliament’s business toward smart, confident use of technology and information to drive improvements.
  • Capture driving modernization inputs to establish the Parliament as an exemplar of good governance, excellent financial management and accountability.

2. E-parliament

• Provide advisory services to CTA on ICT related issues during the meetings NA
• Preparing inputs for Terms of References for e-parliament and website redesign of NA based on inputs/need from NA and needs of the E-parliament.
• Prepare TOR for contracting a company to develop e-parliament system:
  • Preparing e-parliament action plan.
  • Logical design and action plan
  • Requirement analysis
  • Technology, hosting and maintenance requirements
• Prepare and deliver trainings to the NA on e-parliament

• Draft legislative amendments to adapt to the technical preconditions for digital transformation and e-parliament introduction, based on the global best practice
• Develop frames to incorporate e-deliberation, e-voting, e-participation, transparency and oversight in general.
• Review and proposed new modalities for parliament governance, workforce and lawmakers capacity building, communication in social media, and parliament administrative reform.
• Purpose new avenue for having artificial intelligence connected with collective intelligence, and innovation framework.

LOT 2

1. Digital Transformation Assessment

• Develop the Roadmap to outline the investments and initiatives to implement the strategy, and align with the annual budget planning process and capital works program divided through the following inputs:
  • People, workforce and culture roadmap will be designed to guide the evolution of our digital workforce (focus also on the development of digital skills of the people)
  • Information management roadmap to guide the way information will be collected, stored, managed, secured, preserved and shared throughout its lifecycle
  • Digital publishing and content roadmap to guide improvements to the Parliament’s digital publishing and content delivery environments
  • Core parliamentary business systems roadmap to guide modernisation of specialist systems supporting the operations of Parliament
  • Corporate systems roadmap to provide a plan for the evolution of systems that support the broad range of enabling services provided by the parliamentary departments
  • Infrastructure and supporting technology roadmaps to enable enhanced management of the existing technology asset portfolio and plan for changes to infrastructure, networks and devices.

2. E-parliament

• Review of rules of procedure (ROP): Review the ROP and propose measures in line with the UNDP supported technology transformation planning.
• Prepare a comparative analysis of different practices in using the e-parliament systems.

• Design processes for developing an e-parliament system in the NA
  • E-parliament shall be define to encompass, inter alia, aspects of e-legislation, e-voting, e-petitioning and e-consultation, and can make for better information and improved management of communication with members, staff and administration and for contacts with citizens.
  • Data management system Digital systems are well-established tools for the creation, editing and archiving of documents, and the legislative environment is no exception. Digital methods and their underlying processes now allow parliaments to create systems that underpin the legislative, representative and oversight work of parliaments.
  • Define E-voting e-participation, e-deliberation processes and develop the functional requirements

Expected deliverables:    

Payment mode:

Payment will be conducted in the following instalments upon completion of the tasks under each output and approval of deliverables by UNDP MAP Project:    

In case of the mission visit, an addition to the consultancy fee the expert will be paid the cost of economy class round trip ticket, terminal and visa (if needed) expenses, as well as DSA during in country missions according to the established UNDP rates and procedures.    

Competencias

• Deep knowledge of current issues about the latest issued regarding the innovations and transformation of parliaments and technology
• Excellent research and analytical skills, including experience in designing survey instruments and analysing survey data
• Cultural and political awareness, diplomatic skills, ability to adapt and ability to work independently and take responsibility for delivering results;
• Demonstrated practical knowledge and experience in the field of parliamentary assistance;
• Ability to write clearly and concisely in English for print and online publications
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities skills;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Outstanding communication, project management and organizational skills;
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
• Positive, constructive attitude to work;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Capacity to interact with senior officials and elected Members and credibly influence senior decision makers;
• Effective and timely delivery of agreed outputs in a high-pressure work environment.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education: 

• Advanced University degree or equivalent in Public Policy / Public Administration, Information Technology, Business Administration or another relevant field

Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience in working with parliaments on various studies related to innovation and technology
• Experience in digitalisation transformation ;
• Experience in working on global platforms on e-parliament, professional papers on digital parliaments.
• First-hand experience of working with parliaments to make use of technology to support core parliamentary functions Successful experience in planning and leading large-scale research projects
• Previous experience working with UNDP, IPU and or OGP platforms is an asset.
• Published journal articles or contribution/input into global reports on parliaments and technology is an asset

Languages:  

• Proficiency in the English language is required.

INDIVIDUAL CANDIDATES WILL BE EVALUATED BASED ON THE FOLLOWING METHODOLOGY:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants' technical qualifications, experience and financial proposal.The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as technically responsive/compliant/acceptable to the requirements of the ToR and received the highest cumulative (technical and financial) score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation - max. 70 points

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation - max. 30 points.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE APPLICATION.

• Financial Proposal and Availability form: OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP ( total lump-sum option is applicable for this assignment)
• CV shall include Education/Qualification, Processional Certification, Employment Records /Experience

General Conditions of Contract is available here: GENERAL CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT

Note: Please note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents in one single PDF file to attach).