UNDP Jobs - 102608- Consultant to Provide Support in E-Services Develo

Consultant to Provide Support in E-Services Development

Location :

Podgorica, MONTENEGRO

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

15-Nov-2021

Application Deadline :

04-Nov-21 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

15 November 2021 - 31 October 2022

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

160 consultancy days

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. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The establishment of a more functional public administration represents one of the challenges of the European integration process in Montenegro, since it directly influences the capability of governments to provide public services and stimulate competitiveness and growth. Digital transformation is high on the Government's agenda and Montenegro is aiming to rapidly deploy cost-effective, secure and citizen-centric e-services and coordinate implementation of ICT policies. The country achieved considerable progress during last ten years in terms of improving legislative and strategic framework for development of digitalized state, while significant investments happened in digital infrastructure. However, it is evident that the progress was slow as country didn’t take full advantage of the digital transformation potential thus ensuring efficient and transparent state administration. The COVID-19 has showcased the value of digital governance, and the need to accelerate the transition. It pointed out the necessity of digital services and made it evident that the digitalization of public administration requires the consolidation of all existing services, their improvement, strengthening capacities and efficiency, openness, and promptness in meeting the requirements of different types of stakeholders as well as strengthening of coordination of service providers. Due to the social distancing measures and travel restrictions imposed by the Government of Montenegro, both citizens and businesses are experiencing difficulties in accessing public services and receiving timely information regarding their requests. The Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media has therefore urged to deploy effective digital technologies and electronic services to facilitate access to vital public services. Also, a lot of research, analysis and assessment is being done on the impact of digital transformation, as well as on the key benefits and limitations arising from this process, especially considering adaptability of public administration to this system. Considering capacities of the Ministry it is very difficult to follow, analyse, consolidate, and monitor all recommendations and key findings in order to more effectively implement the digitalization policies that will lead to the creation of an efficient, transparent and accessible service delivery.

UNDP Montenegro supports the Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media in the process of assessing the digital governance framework, but also in the process of developing complex software systems and provision on new electronic services. Given the available capacities of the Ministry, as well as the extensive workload in the upcoming period due to additional numerous connecting of new registries to the Government Service Bus (GSB)/JISERP, development of new e-services, the short deadlines according to the Government annual work plan, as well as the extensive analysis that arrives on a daily basis, it is extremely difficult to follow up the process, analyse recommendations and key findings and apply them to create an efficient and accountable public administration available to citizens and businesses. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure additional capacities to provide support to the Ministry on a daily level, to consolidate the findings and results and provide support in their application in practice. It is necessary to define strategic priorities and goals in digital governance in Montenegro as well as further strategic directions based on current data and to raise the awareness of the institutions on the key findings and recommendations arising from these analyses, to ensure better infrastructure, human capital in place and the continuity in the efficient provision of public services to citizens and businesses.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the assignment:

The objective of the assignment is to support digital governance and e-services development, in order to improve the regulatory framework, strengthen human and infrastructural capacities and improve service-delivery of public administration. Consultant should work closely with the consultant responsible for acceleration of digital governance and strengthening interoperability of electronic registers in public administration in Montenegro. The consultant should support the coordination of responsible teams composed of representatives of the Ministry and vendors in the part of activities for which he/she is in charge, identify key challenges and gaps, collect key findings and recommendations, analyse data, consolidate analysis and assessments, support Ministry in the improvement of regulatory framework and evidence-based policy making, work on building human capacities and infrastructure, especially in providing a basis for further improvement in the provision of e-services, institutions resilience and adaptability, as well as efficiency and transparency of public administration. It is necessary to ensure that key findings and recommendations from the assessment, analysis and reports, are incorporated into key policy and planning documents, discussed at the highest level of the Government and Ministries in line with the Government annual work plan and communicated with key stakeholders in the process of strengthening the digital governance in public administration. Consultant should also provide support in ensuringthe efficient implementation of the ‘Digital Governance Acceleration’ and `E-services and digital infrastructure as COVID-19 response measure` projects.

Job content:

Under the supervision of the UNDP Programme and Project Manager, in consultation with the State Secretary and in coordination with the operational team of the Ministry and consultant responsible for acceleration of digital governance and strengthening interoperability of electronic registers, the consultant will perform the following tasks:

Get acquainted with the project activities, operational team and work plan
Prepare a methodology and action plan, with clearly specified timeframe and responsibilities of the Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media operational team
Support the operational team of the Ministry responsible for the implementation of project activities and ensure intensive communication with implementing partners and other beneficiaries
Support a desk analysis of the project documentation, assessments, analyses, reports and policy framework and identification of all gaps and challenges in the improvement of eDMS and e-services development
Provide recommendations and evidence-based inputs for the improvement of e-services development, considering all results that should be delivered in this process
Support strengthening of utilization of eDSM platform among Government institutions and analyse requests received from eDMS users, to improve business processes and increase the number of connected public institutions
Support the process of strengthening institutional capacity of Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media (human and infrastructure) but also support strengthening coordination capacities with other responsible government institutions to ensure improvement of eDMS and development of e-services
Provide inputs for the development of systematic cooperation mechanism between the Government and other stakeholders in the digital transformation process (including citizens, private sector, civil society and academia)
Support organization of training courses for the representatives of the government responsible for the improvement of eDMS and development of e-services
Implement activities in coordination with other consultants engaged to support Ministry in the digital transformation process
Prepare monthly reports on deliverables according to this assignment
Prepare the Final report on undertaken activities to the UNDP Programme and Project Manager. It should contain sufficient details and information that would allow for the appraisal of the effectiveness to date of the assignment’s activities.

The expected results: Under the supervision of the UNDP Programme and Project Manager, in consultation with the State Secretary and in coordination with the operational team of the Ministry and consultant responsible for acceleration of digital governance and strengthening interoperability of electronic registers, the consultant is expected to deliver the following results:

Methodology and action plan, with clearly specified timeframe and responsibilities
Inputs for the database that will serve Government in improving regulative framework and evidence-based policy making, building human capacities and infrastructure, institutions resilience and adaptability, as well as efficiency and transparency of public administration in digital governance, improvement of eDMS and development of e-services
Consolidated report on key findings and recommendations for the improvement of digital governance, eDMS and e-service-delivery, according to the priorities reflected in the Government annual work plan and other strategic priority documents
Proposed and implemented measures to improve eDMS and e-services and analysed requests received from final users, in order to ensure efficient electronic exchange of documents, develop human-cantered e-services and increase number of services on the highest level of maturity
Prepared recommendations and inputs for the organization of training courses for the representatives of the government responsible for the improvement of eDMS and development of e-services
Short briefs from meetings with implementation partners including key recommendations, identified responsibilities and activities in implementation of exact tasks
Reports on deliverables according to this assignment
The Final Report on undertaken activities.

Timing and reporting: The local consultant will be engaged under individual contract, 160 days during the period November 15, 2021 – October 31, 2022. The consultant will work under direct supervision of UNDP Programme and Project Manager, in consultation with the State Secretary and in coordination with the operational team of the Ministry and consultant responsible for acceleration of digital governance and strengthening interoperability of electronic registers. The consultant will be responsible to prepare the Final report to the UNDP Project Manager, and it should contain sufficient details and information that would allow for the appraisal of the effectiveness to date of the assignment’s activities.

Time duration and travel: The local consultant will be engaged under individual contract, 160 days during the period November 15, 2021 – October 31, 2022. The consultant should be based in Podgorica and no travel is envisaged.

Competencies

Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UN/UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Excellent communication skills, facility in working with teams and capacity to compose clear and readable narrative reports;
Demonstrates ability to manage complexities and work under pressure, as well as conflict resolution skills;
Excellent organizational and time management skills;
Knowledge Management and Learning;
Shares knowledge and experience;
Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
Ability to perform a variety of standard tasks related to Results Management, including collecting of documentation, data entering, preparation of revisions, filling, provision of information;
Ability to provide input to business processes re-engineering, implementation of new systems;
Excellent inter-personal and communication skills;
Ability to work independently and in a team.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in social science

Experience:

Minimum five years of working experience in the relevant field
Excellent knowledge of the public administration system in Montenegro
Proven project experience in working with Government will be considered an advantage
Knowledge regarding trends in digital governance and digital transformation in Montenegro
Experience in team leadership, coordination and management
Experience in collecting, analysing and processing data, conducting assessments and preparation of extensive reports
Experience in strengthening of human capacities, providing trainings and non-academic educational courses

Language:

Fluency in Montenegrin language
Excellent command of spoken and written English language.

Criteria for selection:

Combined Scoring method will be used. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: (i) responsive, compliant, acceptable, and (ii) 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% (Background and education 10%; Relevant previous experience 20%; Substantial knowledge/Required competencies 30%; Required language 10%);
Financial criteria weight - 30%.

Only offerors obtaining a minimum 490 points for technical criteria will be considered for the financial evaluation. For more information on procurement methodology for Individual Contractors, please refer to Procurement Notice.

Application procedure:

Interested applicants are requested to submit their applications by November 4, 2021 by using the Apply now button. The application should contain CV or P11 that can be downloaded at https://www.me.undp.org/content/montenegro/en/home/jobs.html. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file.

Only the short-listed applicants will be contacted and requested to submit a letter of interest including a price quotation indicating the lump sum (in EUR) requested for the work envisaged in the section "Description of Responsibilities".