Background
The Activating Village Courts in Bangladesh (AVCB) Project managed by UNDP, and funded by the European Union (EU), commenced in 2009 as a pilot project, targeting 351 Unions to activate Village Courts effectively as a local dispute resolution mechanism. The project was implemented by the Local Government Division (LGD) of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (MoLGRD&C). Following the success of the Activating Village Courts in Bangladesh (AVCB) project (2009 - 2015), the GoB and the European Union (EU) have agreed in 2015 to launch the Activating Village Courts in Bangladesh Phase II Project (2016 – 2019). The overall objective of the AVCB II project is to contribute to improving access to justice for disadvantaged and marginalized groups in Bangladesh. The project will provide support to the local level justice system through activating village courts in estimated 1,080 Unions of Bangladesh.
During different training, workshop and consultation, there were general queries on the technicalities of the Act, Rules and operation of the village court as well which was duly addressed. At the same time, the members of District Training Pool (DTP) received queries from the participants of field level trainings which were also addressed. Within this context, to provide clear and uniform clarification of these queries instantly to the frontline actors as a capacity development intervention, a learning aid namely “Frequently Ask Questions on Village Court” is crucially important to develop. The Individual Consultant will develop and finalize the FAQ in compliance with the Village Courts Act of 2006, Village Courts (Amendment) Act of 2013 and Village Courts Rules 2016. In this process, respective stakeholders as well mass people will be aware on overall Village Court process through this FAQ.
Objectives of the Assignment:
Against the backdrop outlined above, the objective of the assignment is to develop a learning aid on Village Court for the purpose so that they are:
- In compliance with the Village Courts Act of 2006 (amended in 2013) and Village Courts Rules 2016;
- In compliance with legal procedure and practice of Village court.
Duties and Responsibilities
Scope of Work
Under the guidance and direct supervision of the National Project Coordinator (NPC), AVCBII project of UNDP, the consultant will undertake the following duties and responsibilities.
- Review existing primary documents, materials, publications on Village Courts
- Consultation with the respective stakeholders
- Compile and develop a draft document
- Submission of draft document and incorporate feedback
- Consultation with UNDP colleagues when required
- Complete the work within the agreed timeline and submit the final document in both soft and hard copy.
Expected Outputs and Deliverables
| Deliverables/ Outputs | Estimated Duration to Complete | Target Due Dates *indicative | Review and Approvals Required (designation of person) |
| Draft document namely “Frequently Ask Questions on Village Court” is prepared and delivered by the assigned timeline. | 14 Days | 4 weeks from contract signing | Contact Administrator (National Project Coordinator-AVCBII) |
| Final document namely “Frequently Ask Questions on Village Court” is prepared and delivered by the assigned timeline. | 7 Days | 6 weeks from contract signing | Contact Administrator (National Project Coordinator-AVCBII) |
*The Consultant will also closely work with and provide regular updates to the Program Specialist/Senior Capacity Development Officer and concerned Programme Unit as directed by the NPC.
Inputs (UNDP and Consultant)
AVCBII project of UNDP will provide office space to the consultant for the assignment but s/he is required to arrange his/her own laptop. The project will provide support to visit different fields as and when required.
Duration and duty Station
The assignment will be for 21 working days over the period of 2 months period from 12th October to 11 December 2017 and primarily be carried out in the AVCBII office, Dhaka. Besides this, s/he will visit different fields as per requirement for consultation with different stakeholders.
Competencies
Corporate Competencies:
- Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards (human rights, peace, understanding between peoples and nations, tolerance, integrity, respect, results in orientation (UNDP core ethics) impartiality;
- Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
Functional Competencies
- Demonstrate openness to change, flexibility and ability to manage complexities;
- Settlement planning upgrading and poverty knowledge (especially in urban context);
- Proven ability to write good quality writing (in both Bangla and English language);
- Proven networking and communication skills.
Language requirements
S/he must have excellent skills in written and spoken English and capacity to provide high-quality analytical inputs in a professional and timely manner.
Required Skills and Experience
Educational Qualifications:
Minimum Master’s degree in Law.
Experience
- 10 years of relevant experience in the area of justice and human rights
- Previous experience of working with government machinery/department, UN organization, national or international rights based/development organizations /institutions on development of justice delivery system/ social justice and human rights, act amendment process, drafting policy papers, work on community based integration intervention etc. is essential
- Previous experience of developing policy documents related with local government, justice system, and human rights will get preference
- Familiarity with the country’s overall justice needs, quasi-formal justice system, restorative justice and local governance structure will be an added value.
- Practical experience of working with UN organization for Village Courts Act/Rules and relationship with concern ministry/department relevant with local justice services, social protection, human rights will get preference.
Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments
The consultants will be required to submit a financial proposal. The financial/price proposal should consist of lump sum figure all-inclusive, where the consultant will include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the ToR. The lump sum proposal will include professional remuneration/ fee, costs for local travel from residence to office within assignment location and back at home, petty expenses in connection with communications, logistics/stationeries etc. The Consultant should have his/her own laptop for undertaking the task. Please note, the copy rights of all the documents/deliverables will belong to UNDP and would not be allowed to print/publish externally with his/her name during/after the assignment period. Transport cost and DSA for the movement outside of Dhaka but within Bangladesh will be borne by the project as per UNDP rules. In the case of unforeseen travel, payment of travel costs, including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and the consultant, prior to travel.
Deliverables and outputs
1st installemt payment - 60% of the total contract value - will be made upon drafting conent of FAQ on Village Court after completion of 14 working days of work and once accepted and certified by the Contract Administrator;
Final intsallment payment - 40% of the reamining contract value - will be made upon final drafting of FAQ on Village Court after completion of 7 working days and once accepted and certified by the Contract Administrator.
Evaluation Method and Criteria
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.
Cumulative analysis:
- The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/ evaluation 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 Evaluation Criteria for Evaluation (Total 70 marks):
- Educational background and overall length of working experience (marks 20);
- Relevant experience of working with government machinery/department, UN organization, national or international rights-based/ development organizations/institutions on development of justice system/social justice/Village Courts Act/Rules/ human rights, act amendment, rules drafting, establishing inter-agency collaborations etc. (marks 15);
- Methodology to approach and complete the assignment (marks 10);
- Professional training on legal matters/human rights/social development and participation in the national/international seminars/workshop in similar areas (marks 15);
- Good understanding of justice system (of Bangladesh) and justice seeking behavior of people especially at the grassroots (marks 5);
- Experience specially on Village Courts (marks 5).
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks)
All technical qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below.
The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula:
p = y (µ/
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.
Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents will not be considered for further evaluation.
- Personal CV or P11, 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; P11 can be downloaded from the link below: http://www.bd.undp.org/content/bangladesh/en/home/operations/jobs/
- Technical proposal, including a) a brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment; b) a brief methodology, on how you will approach and complete the assignment, including a tentative table of contents for the final report; and c) a list of similar assignment with topic/name of the assignment, duration, role of consultant and organization/project
- Financial Proposal: Financial Proposal has to be submitted through a standard interest and availability template which can be downloaded from the link below:
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