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EU4MD/ International Consultant for Local Development Strategies Implementation Processes.

Vacancy Number: Pr20/02040

Location:	home-based
Application Deadline:	29 Jun 2020, 16:00 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	20 Jul 2020
Reference to the project:	EU4Moldova: Focal regions
Expected Duration of Assignment:	July – November 2020, up to 30 working days
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted online by pressing the "Apply Now". Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: liliana.caterov@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 OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP CONFIRMING INTEREST AND AVAILABILITY FOR THE INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTOR (IC) ASSIGNMENT UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract

Ms. Liliana Caterov.

Background

The EU4Moldova: focal regions Programme (further Programme) is based on the European Commission Implementing Decision on the Annual Action Programme 2018 in favor of the Republic of Moldova and is funded by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme.

The overall objective of the five-year Programme is to strengthen the economic, territorial and social cohesion in the Republic of Moldova through facilitating smart, inclusive, sustainable and integrated socio-economic development as well as improving the standards of living of the citizens in the focal regions: Cahul and Ungheni.

To this end, this Programme will address also the urban-rural divide and regional disparities, stimulate economic growth and job creation, refurbish and upgrade some social and technical infrastructure in selected areas (smaller towns and villages) while taking into account climate change and a gender perspective in all the activities of the Programme.

Specific objectives:

1. To strengthen transparency, accountability of local public authorities and people’s participation in local governance processes in the focal regions.
2. To improve citizens' access to quality public services and utilities in the focal regions.
3. To create employment opportunities for men, women and youth in the focal regions and improve the attractiveness of the focal regions for investors and entrepreneurs.
4. To promote the smart specialization of the economy of the focal regions through the development of the clustering and value chain approach in key economic sectors.

The Programme objectives will be achieved through measures targeted at: (i) capacity building to support the implementation and monitoring of local economic development plans; (ii) civil society engagement in local planning, governance processes and basic social service delivery; (iii) provision of investment funding in support of the creation and/or development of social and technical infrastructure which, combined with the outcomes from interventions (i) and (ii) above, will have an immediate, visible and tangible impact on employment creation, the standard of living of the population in the focal regions.

Specific context

 The administrative-territorial units (raions, urban and rural communities) from both focal regions have numerous strategic documents, which include complex analyzes of the current development situation and set out objectives, directions, priorities and action plans for their future development. Among these we find, local socio-economic development strategies, master plans, development plans, programs, concepts, etc.[1] For example, the local development process of Ungheni municipality is guided by the provisions of:

• Strategy of socio-economic development of Ungheni municipality for 2019 – 2025[2];
• The General Urban Plan of the Ungheni town - Strategic development regulations, 2016-2030[3];
• Socio-economic development strategy of Ungheni municipality 2014 - 2020 (updated strategy with measures on migration);
• Sustainable Tourism Development Strategy & Action Plan of Ungheni municipality;
• Urban Revitalization Program of Ungheni municipality for 2019 – 2021[4];
• Ungheni Sustainable Energy Action Plan;
• Disaster Risk Management Strategy in Ungheni;
• Development of the Water Supply and Sewerage Sector in Ungheni municipality for the period 2018 - 2025 (Component of the Socio-economic Development Strategy of the Socio-economic Strategy of Ungheni municipality);
• Local economic development plan of Ungheni municipality 2019 – 2020;
• Local Environmental Action Plan 2016 – 2020;
• The capital investment plan of Ungheni municipality for the years 2020 – 2024.

Similar documents are developed and approved for Cahul municipality:

• Socio-economic development strategy 2019 - 2025 (updated within the My Community Program and approved by the Municipal Council on May 30, 2019)[5];
• The General Urban Plan (Master Plan) 2016 - 2020[6];
• The Zonal Urban Plan of the rest and leisure area or. Cahul approved in 2005[7];
• Youth and sports development strategy 2014 - 2020;
• Capital investment plan (in the process of approval);
• Local economic development plan (in the process of approval by the Council);
• The Dendrological project for the revitalization of the veterans' park in Cahul, approved in 2019.

Strategic development documents are developed and approved at the level of each rural community. Moreover, local communities from both focal regions do not exist in a vacuum of development, but in a system of policies of development. This system includes district, regional and national, including sectoral national development policies. Both at the district level[8] and at the level of development regions[9], several strategic development documents are approved and are being implemented. For example, Sectoral Development Plans have been developed at the level of the Development Regions, where accentuation is put on service regionalization of water and sanitation or solid waste management. Nevertheless, the focal regions lack integrated strategic documents which would link the needs of the villages with the urban economic pole. More than that, communities that are part of the focal regions[10] do not have a “synchronized agenda” for development - that is why it is of utmost importance that all communities are part of the process of development and participate together in this process.

However, the biggest difficulties are related to the implementation of strategic documents or the implementation process is still lacking behind.

• Strategic development documents are usually developed with the support of different programs, so that there is no synergy and harmonization between them. There are cases when some actions are fought with others.
• In the absence of own financial resources, the strategic documents are implemented no more than 30-40%. The proposed objectives are insufficiently linked to the actual available and potential resources and are usually not accompanied by precise budgetary availability.
• Existing strategies are not yet constant guidance documents and do not yet create coherence in the work of the authorities;
• Many development actors and stakeholders are not involved in implementing the strategies.
• Strategies are usually not supported by a political commitment from local councils. The local councilors participate in the elaboration of the strategies insignificantly, and a firm commitment of Local councils for the implementation of the strategy is missing. In the vast majority of cases, the strategies are activity guidance documents for mayors.
• Although, in practice, each strategic development document has established and well-defined structures responsible for the implementation and coordination of the activities of all those responsible for implementation, as a rule, after the approval of the strategies these structures practically do not work. Moreover, even, strategic development documents have established an evaluation and updating mechanism, these mechanisms do not work and the reporting on how to implement the strategies is uncertain.

The Component 1 of the Programme aims to ensure that the focal regions governance for socio-economic development is organized in the most effective way and responds better to the needs of the population and private sector. In this regard, the local public administrations from Cahul and Ungheni municipalities will be capacitated and supported to improve their capacity to pursue implementation of approved strategies and plans, to strengthen cooperation of urban zones with their rural proximity area and to enhance the economic role of ‘regional growth poles’. For this purpose, the capacity of local authorities will be strengthened to engage in participatory processes as well as to plan, implement and monitor the local socio-development strategies and other local development programs and plans.

[1] All strategic documents will be presented for analysis once the service contract is signed.

[2] http://ungheni.md/strategii-si-programe/

[3] http://ungheni.md/825-2/

[4] http://ungheni.md/strategii-si-programe/

[5] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kYoa5aH8VI1LFtjum4WdX6S13RAQ8zQS/view

[6] http://www.primariacahul.md/index.php/informatii-publice/planul-urbanistic

[7] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jrRuwTNE9N0AhI7HKLKMqjxo1tG6AIKa/view

[8] http://www.crungheni.md/planificarea-strategica-si-situatie-socio-economica/strategiile/; http://cahul.md/programul-de-dezvoltare-a-raionului/

[9] http://www.serviciilocale.md/pageview.php?l=ro&idc=94&id=694&t=/Cadru-legal-institutional-i-strategic/Dezvoltare-regionala/Programe-Regionale-Sectoriale/

[10] The term “Focal region” is used to define the broader area of Cahul municipality (35 thousand inhabitants) and Ungheni municipality (32 thousand inhabitants), comprising adjacent rural communities (to be further defined). The current assignment will cover all administrative-territorial units from Cahul and Ungheni districts, including district authorities. This means that the selected consultant together with the team of local consultants will analyze the Chapters "Implementation, monitoring and evaluation of strategies" of Cahul and Ungheni districts as well as all local communities that have such strategic documents and are in the implementation period or period implementation expires in 2020.

Scope of work

The overall objective of the International Consultant for Local Development Strategies’ Implementation Processes assignment (hereinafter Consultant) is to provide methodological guidance and technical expertise to local government representatives and other stakeholders and to improve the capacity of local administrators to pursue implementation of already approved strategies and plans. In this regard, the Consultant is expected to deliver the following activities:

• Support the Programme to undertake the preparatory activities for defining the approach and methodology of assessment local capacities of development strategies’ implementation processes;
• Support the process of conducting assessment the challenges and bottlenecks related to the implementation of existing approved local and rayon development strategies and plans and identify practical solutions to address them;
• Support the training needs assessment, organize and provide capacity building activities to enhance competency, skills, knowledge of implementation local development strategies and plans;
• Support the activities of organizing and setting up of functional local participatory institutional framework responsible for implementation, M&E of the approved local development strategies and plans;
• Provide expertise and technical assistance to find practical solutions in increasing the effectiveness and impact in implementation of local development strategies and plans.

For detailed information, please refer to annexed Terms of Reference.

Requirements for experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree (or equivalent) in law, public administration, political science, sociology or other relevant fields.

Years of experience:

• At least 10 years of practical experience in the field of local development (strategic planning, local public administration, Monitoring and Evaluation of public policies, working with public and/or private actors);
• At least 5 years of international experience in the field of local development;
• Advanced experience related to implementing Participatory implementation, monitoring and Evaluation of public policies (at least 2 projects/assignments);
• Advanced experience in conducting capacity assessment of LPAs and training needs assessment;
• Experience in European/East-European countries in the area of assignment will be a strong advantage;
• Experience in facilitation, coaching, mentoring and/or delivering trainings in the field of strategic planning, participatory monitoring and evaluation;
• Experience of work with international organizations/projects, including UN and/or European ones will be an advantage;
• Knowledge of local development context in transition countries;
• Knowledge of public participatory mainstreaming tools into strategic local development will be an asset;
• Knowledge of the development context of Moldova will be an asset.

Competencies:

• Knowledge and skills of MS Office, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint;
• Excellent language proficiency in both written and oral English;
• Knowledge of Romanian and/or Russian language will be an asset.

Personal Qualities and other requirements:

• Demonstrated capacity of team-orientation work, excellent planning and organizational skills;
• Good interpersonal skills, solid judgment/decision making, initiative and creativity;
• Ability to analyze, plan, communicate effectively organize and meet expected results;
• 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 Development Programme in Moldova is committed to workforce diversity. Women and men, persons with different types of disabilities, LGBT, Roma and other ethnic, linguistic 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 individuals must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

1. Proposal explaining how applicant responds to each of the qualification requirements and why he/she is the most suitable for the work;
2. CV including records on past experience in similar projects/assignments and concrete outputs obtained.
3. Financial proposal - in USD, specifying a total lump sum amount and the number of anticipated working days, incorporated in the Offeror’s Letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) assignment.

Financial proposal

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount. The payment for services will be made post factum on a lump-sum deliverables basis, as per contract, after the work has been accepted by the Programme Manager. No travel is envisaged under this assignment. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of offers, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including fee per day, mobile phone costs, number of anticipated working days, etc.).

Travel

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.

Individual contractor who is over 62 years of age will be required, prior to contract signature, to undergo full medical examination and obtain medical clearance from an UN-approved doctor or his/her own preferred physician. The medical examination shall be issued and submitted to UNDP Moldova upon request.