MiDL - National Consultant to support the consolidation of Hometowns Associations in Moldova
Vacancy Number: Pr18/01685
Contacts:
Ms. Oxana Maciuca.
oxana.maciuca@undp.org
Background
The Government of Moldova explicitly acknowledges its commitment to link migration and development at the local level. Institutions at all government levels are becoming increasingly aware that migration is one of development factors; this is especially true for emigrees and their potential support to the home communities to local essential service improvement (water, sanitation, education, health and social services), skill and knowledge transfer and income generating opportunities.
Given the stringent need to further advance with the implementation of the Decentralization Strategy and embedding migration aspects into development processes, the State Chancellery together with United Nations Development Programme have designed a new Programme phase of the Integrated Migration and Local Development Programme. The project, funded by the Swiss Government, is designed to support Central Public Authorities (CPAs) and LPAs to develop and implement strategic policies, methodologies and procedures related to temporary, permanent and circular migration and link them to local development processes, which will enable further design and implementation of joint service improvement and income-generating initiatives, ensuring equal access for women, children, young people the elderly, the disabled, and other population groups in selected localities. Thus, as seen above, integrating migration into local development requires a systematic, tangible and programmatic approach. The current project is proposed on the basis of the results achieved during the implementation of 3 phases of JILDP (2007-2015).
The Overall Objective of the Programme is Communities affected by migration benefit from improved essential local services, namely water and sanitation, health, social and education services, and have access to income-generating opportunities, including improved employment reintegration support for returnees.
During the first 2 years of implementation (2015-2017) the project proved that the diaspora can contribute a lot back to their places of origin: it is now more engaged in home communities development through 25 Home Town Associations (HTAs), providing already over 4 mln. Lei to local development projects.
A unique model of engaging migrants in the development of their home communities was successfully developed and tested. Centered around HTAs, local public administration with improved migration management capacities, and their permanent interaction, it proved to work well in all Moldovan regions, including Gagauzia and the Security Zone, covering 6% of the country territory and about 200,000 inhabitants.
Specific background
Starting with August 2015, 25 communities from Republic of Moldova have been assisted to acknowledge and effectively mainstream migration into local development, through (1) improving their institutional set-up, by designation and capacitation of specialized local migration and development (M&D) staff; (2) engaging local migrants’ communities at all stages of local planning and prioritization processes, fully mainstreaming migration-related aspects into local socioeconomic development strategies; (3) increasing the transparency and accountability of local authorities in relation with migrants, by developing online transmission systems and dedicated ‘YouTube’ channels for each locality, thus building mutual trust and confidence; (4) establishing 25 Home Town associations; (5) use crowdfunding tools aimed at ensuring and facilitating large-scale financial contributions from migrant communities, for 23 local public service upgrading projects, initiated as result of the galvanized partnerships between the LPAs and the Moldovan diaspora.
For the implementation of the second project sub-phase, additional 15 communities from uncovered rayons, and one additional from ATU Gagauzia, were selected to benefit from MiDL assistance, thus ensuring a better territorial representation and scaling up of the HTA model, thus the total number of assisted communities reaching to 40 LPAs. Therefore, the project will reach out to almost every rayon in Moldova where at least one Home Town Association will be created as a model of migrant community involvement in local development, increasing the scaling up potential and dissemination opportunities in a larger number of communities.
Scope of work
The overall objective of the assignment of the National Consultant (hereinafter Consultant) is to provide methodological support and guidance to the project team for supporting the establishment (building on the capacity of existent) of up to 38 Territorial HTAs and develop their capacities in participating in the design, co-financing, implementation and monitoring of local development initiatives from their home communities.
The Consultant will contribute to the successful achievement of the Outcome2 (Output 2.2) Migrants, together with local public authorities have the capacities, models and skills to create and manage innovative support mechanisms and Home Towns Associations at district/town/community levels for knowledge and skills transfer, local services improvement and income-generating activities.
Under this Output, the project will support the MiDL team to support 38 target LPAs to strengthen already created Hometown Associations (HTAs) and consolidate the framework of cooperation between migrants and LPAs, which will lead to the implementation of successful local joint initiatives and a sustainable local economic development.
For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference.
Requirements for experience
The following qualification criteria shall be applied for the selection of the consultant:
Education:
- University Degree in social sciences, public administration, law or related areas.
Experience:
- At least 3 years of professional working experience in the areas of development, monitoring and evaluation, projects implementation. Concrete experience of work on migration and development is an asset;
- Proven experience of work in public administration, NGOs, other relevant fields;
- Proven experience in developing in developing and delivering training programs for CPAs, LPAs, NGOs, etc.;
- Previous experience in development assistance or related work for a donor organization, consulting company, or NGO.
Competences:
- Demonstrated capacity of team-orientation work, excellent planning and organizational skills;
- Strong, research, communications and writing skills;
- Fluency in Romanian and Russian, English will be considered an advantage;
- Sensitivity and respect for human rights and gender equality;
- Ability to achieve results and deadlines in a timely manner, maintaining a high standard throughout
- Proven commitment to the core values of the United Nations, in particular, respecting differences of culture, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, language, age, HIV status, disability, and sexual orientation, or other status.
The United Nations in Moldova is committed to workforce diversity. Women, persons with disabilities, Roma and other ethnic or religious minorities, persons living with HIV, as well as refugees and other non-citizens legally entitled to work in the Republic of Moldova, are particularly encouraged to apply.
Documents to be included
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:
- Proposal:
a. explaining how the applicant responds to each of the qualification requirements and why he/she is the most suitable for the work (particularly providing details on the previously implemented similar projects and assignments and previous experience in the fields related to this consultancy as described in the terms of reference);
- Personal information (Personal History Form/P11) including records of past experience in similar projects/assignments and concrete outputs obtained with the three references;
- Financial proposal in (USD, specifying a total lump sum amount) as described below;
- Offeror's Letter confirming Interest and Availability.
The United Nations Development Programme in Moldova is committed to workforce diversity. Women, persons with disabilities, Roma and other ethnic or religious minorities, persons living with HIV, as well as refugees and other non-citizens legally entitled to work in the Republic of Moldova, are particularly encouraged to apply.
Financial proposal
The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown (fee per day * days) of this lump sum amount (including fee, taxes, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).
Travel
All envisaged travel costs in the Republic of Moldova will be covered by the project.
