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National Consultant on strengthening the organizational management of the Ombudsperson Institution.

Vacancy Number: Pr15/01042

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	02 Aug 2015, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	17 Aug 2015
Reference to the project:	Supporting National Human Rights Institutions as per International Treaty Bodies and UPR Recommendations
Expected Duration of Assignment:	August 2015 – October 2016 (up to 100 working days)
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted online by pressing the "Apply Online" button, no later than 02 August 2015. Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: natalia.voronova@undp.org. UNDP will respond by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.
Supporting Documents: Terms of Reference Individual Consultant Procurement Notice Personal History Form (P11) UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract

Ms. Natalia Voronova.

Background

The Republic of Moldova is a State-Party to the majority UN and CoE human rights treaties. The National Human Rights Action Plan for 2011-2014 contains commitments to protect and advance specific human rights taking into account the recommendations of the UN treaty bodies and a number of UPR recommendations. Related priorities and commitments are established under the UN-Moldova Partnership Framework (UNPF) 2013-2017. Reform of the National Human Rights Institutions is prioritized at the highest level of government. The Ombudsperson Office is one of the two major national human rights institutions in the Republic of Moldova working specifically on the issues of human rights protection and promotion.

In April 2014, the Parliament of the RM passed a new Law on the Peoples Advocate (Ombudsperson). As a result of a number of institutional weaknesses, the Ombudsperson Office remains insufficiently known among the public-at-large, and not sufficiently powerful to act as Moldova’s main human rights institution. Therefore it is in need of institutional capacity building and mainstreaming of human rights based approach into its work, as well as support towards maximization of its impact on human rights and diversity. There is also need for improvement of the human resources management, development of the managerial documents of the Office, continuous improvement of the managerial capacity of the heads of the subdivisions, and strengthening the overall managerial performance of the institution.

The overall objective of the project “Supporting National Human Rights Institutions as per International Treaty Bodies and UPR Recommendations” is to contribute to the effective protection and promotion of human rights, equality and non-discrimination in the Republic of Moldova with particular attention to women, minorities, marginalized and vulnerable groups. The project is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, co-funded and implemented by the UNDP Moldova and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in cooperation with the Ombudsperson Office and Equality Council.

Scope of work

The main objective is to support the strengthening of the organizational capacities and sustainability of the Ombudsperson Office.

The scope of work of the National Consultant will consist in the provision of expertise, advice, substantive support and coordination aimed at strengthening the institutional management and administration, monitoring, planning, delivery and reporting processes of the Ombudsperson Office.

In order to achieve the objectives National Consultant shall perform the following tasks in the following areas:

Supporting management and operations: 

• Develop and carry out annual opinion polls of Ombudsperson Office staff on management within the Ombudsperson Office and carry out their follow up analysis;
• Contribute to development and updates of internal management documents, as well as structure and operations in compliance with the normative framework and best practices in the field, in consultation with Ombudsperson Office administration;

Supporting strategic development: 

• Revise the programme for strategic development of the Ombudsperson Office  2013-2017 in relation to the new law and priorities of the Office;
• Facilitate the development of annual work plans of the Ombudsperson Office for 2015 and 2016;

Supporting human resource management: 

• Work closely with the administration of the Ombudsperson Office to improve its human resources management, revise employment rules and procedures to improve staff gender equality and diversity, and to improve information and premises accessibility for linguistic minorities and persons with disabilities;
• Initiate and facilitate the creation and revision of job descriptions in accordance with identified needs and complexity of tasks;

Supporting capacity building: 

• Assess the professional development and training needs of the administration and management of the Ombudsperson Office and present recommendations on their improvement, and, where applicable, suggest, carry out and organize training activities in line with identified needs;
• Work with the administration of the Ombudsperson Office to ensure and support the strengthening of the managerial and organization capacities, in particular management of risks of the Office through regular training, coaching and consultancy; 

For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference. 

Requirements for experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent (5-year university education) in Management, Public Administration, Human Resources, Human Rights, Social Sciences, or other relevant field;

Years and sphere of experience:

• At least 5 years of experience in carrying out needs analysis, policy/strategy development in/for the public administration;

Competencies:

• Demonstrable strong management skills in planning, monitoring and reporting, as well as human resources management, and a proven record of achieving results;
• Proven experience working in good governance, human rights, transparency, accountability or similar work would be an advantage; 
• Proven knowledge of State institutions in Republic of Moldova, their work modalities and reporting requirements;
• Strong leadership abilities and excellent (diplomatic) communication presentation skills, ability to facilitate discussions;
• Proven experience in drafting studies and reports and strong abilities in designing questionnaires, development of methodology for training needs assessment;
• Experience in mainstreaming minority issues and rights of persons with disabilities would be a strong asset;
• Knowledge of Romanian and Russian languages is a requirement;
• Knowledge of English language would be an asset; 
• Knowledge of one or more additional languages relevant for Moldova, including Bulgarian, Gagauzian, Romani, Ukrainian or sign language is an asset;

Personal qualities:

• 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; 
• Responsibility;
• Creativity;
• Flexibility; and 
• Punctuality.

The UNDP 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:
1. Proposal:
(i) Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work, including a list of assignments and/or analytical documents, reports, methodologies, presentations, capacity building activities, or other task related documents the applicant has elaborated or contributed to;
(ii) Providing a brief methodology (max. 3 pages) on how they will approach and conduct the work.

2. Financial proposal as a lump sum in US Dollars, preferably split per each deliverable. For detailed information on travel requirements, please, refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference;

3. Personal information (as a detailed CV or as a Personal History Form/P11) including records of past experience in similar projects/assignments and concrete outputs obtained, including names and contact details of 3 reference persons.

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 of this lump sum amount (including fees, taxes, travel costs, accommodation costs, communication, and number of anticipated working days).   

Payment will be made based on achieved deliverables, including a final report submitted to the UNDP Moldova Justice and Human Rights Programme Analyst.   

Travel 

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel.  In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources. 

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. 

No travel costs are envisaged under this assignment.