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National Strategic Advisor on IT systems (EDMITE).

Vacancy Number: Pr20/02067

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	21 Aug 2020, 16:30 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	28 Aug 2020, 16:30 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	04 Sep 2020, 16:30 (GMT+2:00)
Starting date:	01 Sep 2020
Reference to the project:	Enhancing Democracy in Moldova through Inclusive and Transparent Elections
Expected Duration of Assignment:	September 2020 – December 2021
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. Eva Bounegru.

Background

Electoral support and capacity development are part of UNDP’s democratic governance assistance worldwide, through which UNDP helps nations build democratic frameworks to improve representation, accountability and transparency for the benefit of citizens.

UNDP has a long-standing partnership with the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) and the Center for Continuous Electoral Training (CCET) aiming at advancing the democratic electoral processes in Moldova by consolidating the transparency and efficiency of elections’ management, modernization of electoral IT solutions and enhancing the inclusiveness and participation of voters. This partnership, which spans over 10 years, resulted in the establishment of strong professional institutions, development of a modern State Automated Information System “Elections” (SAISE), the enhancement of the State Register of Voters’ accuracy and the design and implementation of effective long-term civic and voter education instruments.

Throughout the last electoral cycles, CEC and CCET demonstrated a high level of capacity in adjusting the electoral system to the mixed electoral system in a very short period of time and organizing the 2019 Parliamentary Elections and General Local Elections. Despite the challenges and persistent financial limitations faced by the institutions, due to the continuous UNDP’s support, the CEC and the CCET delivered “well-administered elections” as attested by OSCE/ODIHR Observation Missions.

Since 2017, the Project "Enhancing democracy in Moldova through inclusive and transparent elections” supports the Central Electoral Commission to enhance the transparency and inclusiveness of the electoral process in Moldova by ensuring a more independent and credible electoral administration and better informed and pro-active citizens.

Building on the sustainable results achieved during its first phase of implementation (2017 – 2020), the objectives of the current Project phase (2020 – 2023) are:

• Enhance the inclusiveness of the electoral process by increasing the functional and technical capacities of the State Automated Information System “Elections” (SAISE);
• Enhance the political participation of citizens by setting up and implementing the voters’ information and civic education programmes;
• Strengthen the capacity for effective and coherent oversight and monitoring on political party financing;
• Improve the legal and regulatory framework to respond to the EOM recommendations.

Since 2014, UNDP’s support for the CEC informational ecosystem was aimed at enhancing IT structures and processes, particularly of the Commission’s core informational platform for elections management - SAISE. During each election, the CEC and UNDP have come up with new useful tools for voters and electoral officials, but also for a smooth running of the electoral process. The long-term strategic IT expertise, provided by the Project, contributed to the expansion of the SAISE, currently a complex system with multiple modules responsible for most electoral processes, ranging from the pre-registration of voters, operation of the polling stations and aggregation of election results (13 in total).

In its current phase (2020 – 2023), the Project shall continue its strategic support to the CEC for further modernizing its IT governance and electoral administration, leading to a complete IT architecture, sustainable across all electoral cycles. Adhering to the CEC Strategic Development Plan for 2020 – 2023 and the SAISE Development Roadmap, the Project shall focus its interventions on the conceptualization, piloting and implementation of IT solutions for increased SAISE cybersecurity, automation of polling stations’ activity and development of an electoral data warehouse as a hub for transparency in elections.

Scope of work

UNDP intends to contract an experienced National Strategic Advisor on IT systems (hereinafter “the Consultant”) to support the Central Electoral Commission in the implementation of the SAISE Development Roadmap as to facilitate a complete IT architecture that is sustainable across all electoral cycles and fully compliant with international standards. More specifically, the Consultant is expected to conceptualize the development of new IT solutions for electoral management and provide strategic IT advisory to the CEC and Project teams.

Namely, the Consultant shall have the following responsibilities:

1. Provide strategic IT advisory on new opportunities and concepts for the enhancement of the CEC’s IT-based electoral management;
2. Provide expertise and support in the conceptualization of new SAISE modules, functionalities and applications;
3. Revise and develop technical specifications documents required for the implementation of the SAISE Development Roadmap for 2020 – 2023;
4. Ensure support for the procurement evaluation process(es) related to the IT services required for the implementation of the SAISE Development Roadmap for 2020 – 2023, their supervision and final evaluation;
5. Provide support in the implementation of the SAISE Development Roadmap for 2020-2023 throughout the assignment period.

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

Requirements for experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Master’s degree or higher in information technologies / system analysis or another relevant field.

Experience:

• At least seven (7) years of progressively responsible experience related to the analysis, planning, design, development and implementation of information systems;
• At least six (6) technical specifications documents developed for governmental IT systems (examples should be explicitly detailed in his/her CV);
• At least five (5) business analysis documents developed for governmental IT systems (examples should be explicitly detailed in his/her CV);
• At least two (2) strategic IT planning documents/ roadmaps developed in the past 4 (four) years (examples should be explicitly detailed in his/her CV);
• Specific experience in building ICT infrastructure, proven through the design of at least 5 information systems (the information systems in the designing of which the applicant was involved should be detailed explicitly in his/her CV);
• Proven experience in the analysis, planning, design, development and implementation of IT electoral management systems will be a strong advantage;
• Previous professional experience in working with the Central Electoral Commission will be an advantage.

• Previous professional experience in working with international organizations, including UN Agencies, will be an advantage.

Competencies:

• Familiarity with the electoral IT and policy framework;
• Excellent analytical and presentation skills;
• Demonstrated interpersonal and diplomatic skills, as well as the ability to communicate effectively with all stakeholders and to present ideas clearly;
• Understanding of the web/software accessibility issues and ways to insure web/software accessibility for persons with different type of disabilities and linguistic minorities;

• Knowledge of Romanian and English (verbal and written) is a must. Knowledge of Russian will be considered as an advantage.

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, flexibility and punctuality, ability to meet deadlines and prioritize multiple tasks.

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:

• Offeror's Letter confirming interest and availability;
• Technical proposal (incl. brief description of experience, approach and methodology for the completion of the assignment);
• Financial proposal (in USD) specifying a total lump sum requested for the assignment specified in the Terms of Reference;

Duly completed and signed Personal History Form (P11), personal CV and at least 3 references.

Financial proposal

The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of the lump sum amount (daily rate and number of anticipated working days).

Travel

Travel is not envisaged in the framework of the current assignment.