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EU4MD/ Two (2) Consultants for capacity building of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) for pro-active involvement in local development initiatives.

Vacancy Number: Pr21/02230

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	31 May 2021, 16:00 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	07 Jun 2021, 16:00 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	25 Jun 2021
Reference to the project:	EU4Moldova: Focal regions
Expected Duration of Assignment:	June – December 2021, up to 28 working days - Consultant 1 Team-leader; up to 24 working days - Consultant 2.
Submission Instructions: Description of the assignment:    2 (two) consultants for capacity building of Civil Society     Organizations (CSOs) for pro-active involvement in local development initiatives: 1 (one) Consultant specialized in strategic planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of local development strategies (Consultant 1/Team-leader) 1 (one) Consultant specialized in the development of organizational capacities of the associative sector (Consultant 2). Project name: EU4Moldova: Focal Regions Programme (EU-funded) Period of assignment/services: June – December 2021, estimated volume of work: up to 28 working days - Consultant 1 Team-leader; up to 24 working days - Consultant 2. Proposals should be submitted online by pressing the "Apply Now" button no later than 31 May 2021. Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: victoria.josan@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: Termeni de referinta Terms of Reference Anunț de procurare de consultanță individuală Individual Consultant Procurement Notice OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP CONFIRMING INTEREST AND AVAILABILITY FOR THE INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTOR (IC) ASSIGNMENT Scrisoarea ofertantului catre PNUD confirmind interesul si disponibilitatea UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract

Ms. Victoria Josan.

Background

Pentru detalii în limba română, regăsiți Termenii de referință și Anunțul de procurare de consultanță individuală anexate la prezentul anunț (la capitolul "Supporting Documents" mai sus).

În cazul unor divergențe între versiuni lingvistice, prevalează textul în limba engleză. 

Pentru clarificări nu ezitați să ne scrieți la următoarea adresă electronică: victoria.josan@undp.org

The EU4Moldova: Focal regions Programme (further Programme) is based on the European Commission Implementing Decision on the Annual Action Program 2018 in favour 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 smart, green, 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 the urban-rural divide and regional disparities, stimulate economic growth and job creation, refurbish and upgrade targeted social and technical infrastructure in selected focal regions (smaller towns and villages) while taking into account climate change and gender perspective in 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 pilot focal regions.
3. To create employment opportunities for men and women in the focal regions and improve the attractiveness of the pilot 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 Program 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.

Scope of work

The overall objective of the Consultants lies in conceptualizing, organizing and carrying out a set of actions to develop the capacities of CSOs in the focal regions to be actively involved in the process of elaboration, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of local development strategies, as well as to strengthen the "watchdog“ role of CSOs, requesting responsibility and evaluating the quality of services provided by LPA.

To ensure adequate achievement of the objective and implementation of all planned activities, the Programme is seeking for 2 (two) qualified and experienced consultants to provide technical assistance and expertise to strengthen the capacity of civil society groups and organizations for proactive involvement in development initiatives in the focal regions of Cahul and Ungheni, including:

• Position 1 - 1 (one) Consultant specialized in strategic planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of local development strategies.
• Position 2 -1 (one) Consultant specialized in the development of institutional capacities of the associative sector.

Important Note: The potential applicants shall clearly indicate the position they are applying for. The candidates may apply for one or for both of these positions, which will be clearly stipulated in the application letter, with the possibility to be selected for only 1 position.

The Consultants will work in a team based on a comprehensive tailor-made methodology, which should be determined at the inception phase of activities and which will be approved by the Program.

For the current assignment,

• The Consultant 1, specialized in strategic planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of local development strategies, will have the role of Team leader and will plan and coordinate the whole team’s activity, and will be responsible for presentation and overall quality of all the deliverables under this assignment in line with the agreed timeframe and methodology.
• The Consultant 2, specialized in the development of institutional/organizational capacities of the associative sector, will assist the Team leader in carrying out all training and assistance activities and will cover issues related to the institutional development of non-governmental organizations.

In addition to the tasks, activities mentioned further the Consultant 1/Team leader, will be responsible for coordination and consistency of produced reports, including:

• Set up a common work plan and the methodology for the team, in consultation with and assisted by the Consultant 2.
• Distribute the tasks among the Consultant 1 and 2 and observe/monitor the execution.
• Ensure a common approach to the tasks of assignment.
• Ensure guidance throughout the stages of assignment on actions, structure & content of products to be developed.
• Coordinate and participate in the process of consultation with the Programme’s key partners, relevant stakeholders to validate the produced outputs, to collect and consider their feedback and recommendations for improvement.
• Develop, with the contribution of Consultant 2 the synthesis report on the main outputs of assignment.

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 Position 1 - Consultant specialized in strategic planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of local development strategies:

Academic Qualifications:

• University degree in law, public administration, political science, sociology or other relevant field.

Years of experience:

• At least 5 years of practical experience in the fields related to local development (strategic planning, participatory monitoring and evaluation of local development strategies, local public administration,.
• At least 3 contracts similar to this contract in terms of scope and tasks addressed (evidence: the list of the last 3 development projects in which the Consultant has been involved in the last 5 years, including the Consultant role, must be presented together with the application dossier).
• At least 5 years of work experience with the relevant multi-stakeholder local development and strategic planning (evidence: list of relevant institutions the Consultant has been cooperating with, including the topic and year must be presented together with the application package).
• Experience in facilitation, coaching, mentoring and/or delivering trainings in the field of strategic planning and local development, monitoring and participatory evaluation of strategies (evidence: the list of the last 3 trainings facilitated in the mentioned field must be presented together with the application package).
• Experience of working with UN agencies and/or international organizations, and/or European/donor funded development projects/ programmes will be considered a strong asset.
• Relevant experience in lobbying and advocacy, sustainable and inclusive development, economic resilience will be considered a strong asset.

Competencies:

• 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, adapt to different environments (cultural, economic, political and social);
• Ability to achieve results and deadlines in a timely manner, maintaining a high standard throughout;
• Knowledge and skills of operating MS Office, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Excellent command of written and spoken Romanian and Russian are required. Knowledge of English is an asset.

The following qualification criteria shall be applied for the selection of the Position 2 - Consultant specialized in the development of institutional capacities of the associative sector.

Academic Qualifications:

• University degree in law, public administration, political science, sociology or other relevant field.

Years of experience:

• At least 5 years of practical experience in the fields related to development of the associative sector (strategic planning, institutional development of CSOs, organizational management, participatory development process.
• At least 3 contracts similar to this contract in terms of scope and tasks addressed (evidence: the list of the last 3 development projects in which the Consultant has been involved in the last 5 years, including the Consultant role, must be presented together with the application dossier).
• At least 5 years of work experience with the relevant multi-stakeholder local development and strategic planning (evidence: list of relevant institutions the Consultant has been cooperating with, including the topic and year must be presented together with the application package).
• Experience in facilitation, coaching, mentoring and/or delivering trainings in the field of strategic planning, participatory local development, institutional development of the associative sector, cooperation of CSOs with public and private sectors (evidence: the list of the last 3 trainings facilitated in the mentioned field must be presented together with the application package).
• Experience of working with UN agencies and/or international organizations, and/or European/donor funded development projects/ programmes will be considered a strong asset.
• Relevant experience in lobbying and advocacy, sustainable and inclusive development, economic resilience will be considered a strong asset.

Competencies:

• 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, adapt to different environments (cultural, economic, political and social);
• Ability to achieve results and deadlines in a timely manner, maintaining a high standard throughout;
• Knowledge and skills of operating MS Office, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Excellent command of written and spoken Romanian and Russian are required. Knowledge of English is an asset.

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 individual consultants 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. The candidates may apply for one or for both of these positions (Consultant 1 and/or Consultant 2), which will be clearly stipulated in the application letter.

2. CV including records on past experience in similar projects/assignments and concrete outputs obtained.

3. Referring to experience requirement indicated in point 3 above (scored in point 6 below) the following evidence must be presented together with the application package:

• list of the last 3 development projects in which the Consultant has been involved in the last 5 years, including the Consultant role;
• list of relevant institutions the Consultant has been cooperating with, including the topic and year;
• list of the last 3 trainings facilitated in the mentioned field.

4. 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. 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

This is a home-based assignment. All travel expenses (if conditions permit) to/from duty station (Cahul and Ungheni) are in the consultants’ responsibility, the transportation costs shall be included in the consolidated financial offer (at least 6 travel-days for the accomplishment of Task V).