UNDP Jobs - 82923- National Consultant for Drafting Subordinate Legis

National Consultant for Drafting Subordinate Legislation Deriving from the Law on International Development Cooperation and Sending Humanitarian Aid

Location :

Home-based and Podgorica, MONTENEGRO

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

17-Feb-2020

Application Deadline :

27-Jan-19 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

17 February 2019 - 31 March 2019

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

20 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

Chapter 30 on external relations which includes development policy and humanitarian aid was opened on 30 March 2015. The Montenegrin Government adopted an Action plan in October 2016 aimed at further alignment of legislation with the acquis communautaire and strengthening institutional and administrative capacities in this field. According to the plan, the adoption of the Law on Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid is set as one of the main priorities. Following a two-phase wide consultative process of preparation with all the key stakeholders, the Government adopted the Draft Law on International Development Cooperation and Sending Humanitarian Aid on March 15th, 2018. The Law was approved by the Parliament of Montenegro on April 27th. Chapter 30 - External relations, was provisionally closed at the ninth meeting of the Accession Conference with Montenegro at ministerial level that was held in Luxembourg in June 2017. However, the EU underlined that it would devote particular attention to „monitoring all specific issues mentioned in its common position” and that “will, if necessary, return to this chapter at an appropriate moment.” The Law is partially harmonized with the EU acquis – Council Regulation (EC) no.1257/96 from June 20th 1996 on humanitarian aid, the new European Consensus on Development (2017), while full harmonization will be achived through the adoption of secondary legislation.

Montenegro has long been a recipient of Official Development Assistance (ODA). However, as a part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, Montenegro was isolated from the international community during the 1990s and received international humanitarian aid in this period. Also, until 1998, the European Commission provided Montenegro with humanitarian assistance, support for democratization and independent media. By 2000, donor support consisted mainly of humanitarian assistance and emergency reconstruction of infrastructure.

From 2000 onwards, donor support moved towards the provision of development assistance to build institutional capacities in support of European integration process. Through the CARDS program (Community assistance for reconstruction, development and stabilization, an instrument of technical and financial assistance that is intended to support the stabilization process and the association of Western Balkan Countries), Montenegro received 60.8 million EUR in the period from 2001 to 2004. In the period from 2013 until 2015, Montenegro was number 10 of ODA recipients in Europe and received 317 million USD, with an average distribution of 106 million USD per year.

It should be noted that apart from non-existence of legislative framework, the issue of records keeping in this field is prominent. There is no unified database and publicly available data of development cooperation and humanitarian assistance that Montenegro received by bilateral and multilateral donors.

The main donors are EU Institutions, with a contribution of about 88.34 million USD (2014-2015 average); the second Germany, with about 27.47 million USD, followed by the United Arab Emirates, with contributions of 7.82 million USD, and Turkey with 4.64 million USD. Other ODA Donors are: United States (2.73 million USD), OSCE (2.31 million USD), Slovenia (1.63 million USD), Norway (1.24 million USD), United Kingdom (1.19 million USD) and UNICEF (0.97 million USD).

Regarding the distribution of ODA by sector, economic infrastructure and services receive about 34% of ODA, education receives little more than 8% of ODA, production about 0.6%, multisector about 1%, less than 2% is destined to action relating to debt and about 2% to Other and unallocated/unspecified. The main recipient sector is “Other Social Sector”, with 52% of ODA.

On the other hand, since the restoration of independence in 2006, Montenegro has implemented certain forms of international development cooperation and provided international humanitarian aid to other countries. However, no centralized records have been maintained on these activities, and in 2010 the responsibility for the implementation and monitoring of this policy was given to MFA. Bearing in mind the international orientation of Montenegro and clearly defined expectations of the European Union (EU) in the negotiation process, in this area, Montenegro has both the need and the obligation to define its own development policy, develop an adequate legislative and strategic framework, and determine the mechanisms for coordination, planning, implementation, recording, monitoring and financing of international development cooperation and providing international humanitarian aid.

In light of the abovementioned, it is clear that Montenegro’s EU membership will require many efforts toward strengthening the capacities of the country in various areas, inclusive of international development cooperation, especially having in mind Montenegro’s shift from being only recipient to becoming also a donor-country. The overall aim of these reforms will be to contribute to global sustainable development and realization of SDGs through the provision of material and non-material resources to countries in need. This is a very complex and demanding task and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in charge of leading the process. This is the reason why the support to MFA in the field of secondary legislation will be at the focus of this process.

In light of the fact that, apart from being recipient country, Montenegro will also become a donor country in the field of international development cooperation, the position of the country in the international arena will be changed to a significant extent. Given that the purpose of the provision of official development assistance and humanitarian aid sending is the contribution to the increased human rights and fundamental freedoms observance globally, as well as the contribution toward reducing inequalities and poverty among the countries in need, Montenegro will have a chance to contribute to the global peace and security in this manner.

In Montenegro, most of the institutions are or have a potential to become actors in the area of development policy. The need for inclusive sustainable development partnerships, as outlined in the Agenda 2030, is well reflected in the newly adopted Law on International Development Cooperation and Sending Humanitarian Aid. Article 9 of the Law prescribes that international development cooperation shall be carried out by the state bodies, state administration bodies, local self-government and local government bodies, public institutions, legal entities with public authority and other entities within their respective competencies or activities. Also, other entities within the framework of the sustainable development partnership (companies and entrepreneurs, non-governmental and other domestic and international organizations, other departments and institutions, citizens and other interested parties) may also participate in the implementation of international development cooperation.

In terms of humanitarian aid policy, the key actors include: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Red Cross of Montenegro, the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare (Office for Refugees) and the Ministry of Interior – Directorate for Emergency Management (Direction for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid). Montenegro engages in humanitarian aid on an ad-hoc basis since 2006 by the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, and later by the MFA. The newly adopted Law opens the possibilities for the same set of actors as defined under Article 9 to be involved in the humanitarian policy as well (Article 11).

Articles 9, 11 and 12 of the Law also prescribe an obligation of adopting bylaws on Rules of Procedure on provision of development cooperation by Montenegro, Rules of Procedure on sending humanitarian aid by Montenegro, Rules of Procedure on data collection, methodology and national data base on provided development cooperation and humanitarian aid by Montenegro within one year from the date of entry into force of the abovementioned Law.

Although Montenegro has a dual role in the field of development cooperation and humanitarian aid, still being a recipient, but also simultaneously providing development and humanitarian assistance, there are no centralized records about either of those flows. For example, the Montenegrin government provided humanitarian aid to the countries in the region such as Macedonia, Serbia and Albania that were affected by floods in the period from 2014 to 2017. Additionally, Montenegro was an ad-hoc humanitarian aid donor for Haiti (earthquake in 2010), but also “Syria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Palestine in the period from 2008 to 2013”. More recently, Montenegro provided EUR 10,000 to Mexico after the devastating earthquakes in September 2017 and in April 2018 EUR 10.000 to Yemen in support to the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan.

It should be also noted that there are no statistics on the Montenegrin development cooperation. Within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a Directorate General for Economic and Cultural Cooperation (DGECC) has been established with the key task to implement development and humanitarian aid policy. The mandate of DGECC is to establish the legal framework, but also to collect data on provided aid and prepare the methodology of calculating its value. Upon consultations with the relevant stakeholders on methodology of data collection, the Ministry initiated the development of a comprehensive database on development cooperation and humanitarian aid in 2016. The database would track both the incoming donor assistance and Montenegro’s allocations for development cooperation and humanitarian assistance. The first advanced version of the database was expected to be prepared by November 2016, but this database has not yet been created, due to the lack of a software tool. Montenegro formalized its membership to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) on May 31st 2018, whose main goal is to increase transparency of international development cooperation and humanitarian aid. The main focus of the IATI is the implementation of IATI standards – the format and framework for publishing data on activities in the field of development cooperation. Also, Montenegro confirmed participation in Global Participation for Effective Development Cooperation Monitoring round 2018 in November 2018 which represents an important mechanism for creation of our administrative capacities and reporting system, but nothing was done for now in these two initiatives.

In light of the abovementioned, it should be noted that the establishment of normative framework and database, along with strengthening administrative capacities within the MFA will contribute to the fulfilment of preconditions for Montenegro’s transition to a donor country

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the assignment:

Drafting of the bylaws deriving from the Law on international development cooperation and sending humanitarian aid adopted by Parliament of Montenegro on 27 April 2018.

These bylaws are as follows:

Rules of Procedure on provision of development cooperation by Montenegro
Rules of Procedure on sending humanitarian aid by Montenegro
Rules of Procedure on national data base on development cooperation and humanitarian aid

Job content:
Under the supervision of the UNDP Project Manager, the National Consultant is expected to deliver the following services:

Based on Montenegro’s commitments related to negotiation Chapter 30, the best comparative practices, interviews with relevant interlocutors from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro and members of the Inter-sectorial working group on development cooperation and humanitarian aid, as well as national legal framework, the Consultant is obliged to prepare three draft bylaws related to:

Rules of procedure related to provision of development cooperation to the partner country that will regulate: terms and conditions for eligibility of programs, projects and activities; proceedings to be completed in order to prepare Government’s Decision on provision of development cooperation; entitities in charge in proceedings' implementation with focus on horizontal coordination of different Governmental entities; reporting on provided assistance and other topics relevant for provision of development cooperation with clear identification of duties and reponsibilities. Particular attention is to be paid on proceeedings related to the provision of development cooperation by business sector, enterpreneurs, NGOs, other domestic and international organisations, as well as other entitites, citizents and interested parties.
Rules of procedure related to sending humanitarian aid that will regulate: terms and conditions for identification of humanitarian priorities, proceedings to be completed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior Affairs – Department in charge of protection and rescue activities and Red Cross of Montenegro in order to prepare Government’s Decision on sending humanitarian aid, entitities in charge of proceedings' implementation with focus on horizontal coordination of different Governmental entities, reporting on provided assistance and other topics relevant for sending humanitarian aid with clear identification of duties and reponsibilities. Particular attention is to be paid on proceeedings related to provision of humanitarian aid by business sector, enterpreneurs, NGOs other domestic and international organisations, as well as other entitites, citizens and interested parties.
Rules of procedure on development cooperation and humanitarian aid national database that will regulate: terms and conditions for data collection of provided development cooperation and sent humanitarian aid by Montenegro, entities obliged to perform reporting, entitites in charge of data collection and maintenance of national data base. Particular forcus is to be placed on IATI standards, OECD/DAC requests for reporting as well as EU DEVFIN data collection standards. This bylaw should enable clear legal basis for establishment of national data base that will provide inputs for reporting to IATA and OECD/DAC. 2. After the review and inputs from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro, the Consultant will finalize and fine-tune the aforementioned bylaws.

The expected results:
Under the supervision of the UNDP hiring Manager, the National Consultant is expected to deliver the following results:

Three Bylaws related to provision of development cooperation, sending humanitarian aid and national data base on development cooperation and humanitarian aid.

Timing and reporting:
The Consultant is expected to work home-based during the period of 20 days starting from mid-February until the end of March 2019.
The Consultant shall report regularly to the UNDP Project Manager of “Strengthening the Capacities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro” project, jointly implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro and UNDP.

Time duration and travel:
National Consultant will be engaged under Individual Contract, for the total of 20 consultancy days in the period from 15th February until the 31st March 2019, pursuant to agreed plan with UNDP.

Delivery

Research and interviews with the relevant stakeholders (end of February 2019)
Drafting of the bylaws (20 March 2019)
Finalization and fine-turning of three bylaws (end of March 2019)

Competencies

Demonstrates integrity by modeling 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;
Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
Demonstrates ability to manage complexities and work under pressure, as well as conflict resolution skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

University degree in Law, advanced university degree (MA/PhD) would be considered as advantage;

Experience:

Working experience for at least 5 years in legal department in government sector or other;
Proven experience in drafting of legal and strategic documents, such as bylaws, rulebooks, strategies, etc.;
Detailed acquaintance with the Law on development cooperation and humanitarian aid of Montenegro, the manner of its functioning;
Detailed knowledge about the manner of the implementation of the projects financed from the EU funds and other donor funds in general;
Experience in working in Montenegro and in the region;
Experience in the work with the national authorities would be considered as an advantage;

Language:

Fluency in local language;
Excellent knowledge of written and spoken English language is an asset, but is not a requirement.

Other:

Proven ability to think strategically, express ideas clearly and concisely, work both independently and in a team, demonstrate self-confidence combined with sensitivity to gender and different cultures and traditions;

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 inidividual 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 January 27, 2019 by using the Apply now button. The application should contain CV or P11 that can be downloaded at http://www.me.undp.org/content/montenegro/en/home/operations/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".