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National consultant to undertake the capacity assessment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova in the field of sectorial diplomacy (economic, energy, climate change diplomacy).

Vacancy Number: Pr22/02394

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	18 Feb 2022, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Service Contract
Starting date:	25 Feb 2022
Reference to the project:	Democratic Governance
Expected Duration of Assignment:	30 working days
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted online, by pressing the "Apply Online" button, no later than 18.02.2022. Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: olesea.perean@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: TOR MFA_capacity development Procurement Notice - MFA capacity development OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP CONFIRMING INTEREST AND AVAILABILITY FOR THE INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTOR (IC) ASSIGNMENT UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract

Ms. Olesea Perean.

Background

The mission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (MFAEI) is to ensure the implementation of the foreign policy of the Republic of Moldova in line with national interests, including monitoring and coordination of the European integration process of the country, in accordance with the legislation in force and the activity program of the Government.

To accomplish its mission, in the context of the purpose of the present ToR, several functions of the Ministry should be underscored:

1. The Ministry participates in the elaboration, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of national and sectoral public policy documents. It ensures on behalf of the state or the Government the internal and external representation in its field of activity (foreign affairs and European Integration).
2. The Ministry collaborates with other institutions in the development, substantiation, and implementation of the economic and commercial development policy of the Republic of Moldova.
3. The Ministry initiates and participates in negotiations for the conclusion of international treaties and exercises control over the execution of the legislation regarding the conclusion international treaties.
4. The Ministry submits to the Government proposals regarding the initiation of negotiations and on conclusion of international treaties.

The foreign service in the Republic of Moldova is focused mainly on representation of the country at the international level. However, the political and economic complexities that currently dominate the international relations as well as the emerging issues that must be dealt with from foreign relations point of view put a great deal of pressure on the MFAEI.

With a view to enhance the institutional capacity of the MFAEI, UNDP Moldova will deploy a rapid technical assistance under its existing programmes to support MFAEI in acquiring enhanced capacities in line with its mandate and the Programe of the Government.

The overall objective of the Initiation Plan is to support the MFAEI in to-be-prioritized areas within institutional strengthening and capacity development such as sectorial diplomacy skills as well as digitalization of internal processes and services offered to end-users.

The Initiation Plan will ensure an efficient and continuous communication and collaboration platform with the MFAEI and relevant stakeholders with the purpose of strengthening the capacities of the MFAEI and subordinated institutions and mobilizing additional resources, including financial.

As part of the scoping discussions, it was agreed that one of the areas that the Ministry needs to develop its capacities is the sectorial diplomacy. As potential subsectors in which the capacities have to be developed are the economic diplomacy, energy related diplomacy as well as climate change sector.

Scope of work

The general objective of the assignment is to assess the capacities and existing institutional and functional challenges and opportunities of the MFAEI in the field of sectorial diplomacy skills and to develop a capacity development roadmap. To effectively support the capacity development process, it is required to identify what key capacities already exist and what additional capacities may be needed to reach the objectives. For the purpose of this assignment, a capacity assessment is an analysis of desired capacities against existing capacities which generates an understanding of capacity assets and needs that can serve as input for formulating a capacity development response that addresses those capacities that could be strengthened and optimizes existing capacities that are already strong and well founded.

The assessment will use the enabling environment and the organizational level as points of entry for the capacity assessment.

The assessment of the sectorial diplomacy skills will be done across 4 core capacity issues that empirical evidence suggests being the most commonly encountered across sectors and levels of capacity:

• institutional arrangements;
• leadership;
• knowledge;

The assessment will also look at the functional and technical capacities of the Ministry in the area of sectorial diplomacy skills. In particular, the following functional capacities are key:

• engage stakeholders;
• assess a situation and define a vision and mandate;
• formulate policies and strategies;
• budget, manage and implement; and

Various technical capacities may also need to be assessed, depending on the situation.

The Consultant will propose a more elaborate methodology, applying a participatory and inclusive approach for this assignment. The methodology shall describe and attach all instruments/tools to be used for conducting the capacity assessment, as well as indicate the proposed outline of the assessment report. 

Based on the results and recommendations of the processes above, it is expected that the Consultant will develop a Project Proposal (using the UNDP template for project documents) that will focus on prioritized areas of institutional strengthening and capacity development, including enhancement of institutional capacities in prioritized critical areas of sectorial diplomacy (economic, environment, and energy), provision of technical assistance in digitalization  of selected internal and external environments to the MFAEI, as well as potential other areas based on consultations with MFAEI and other relevant stakeholders. The new Project Document will be jointly used for resource mobilization and building of new deep partnerships to consolidate the capacities of the MFAEI.

Requirements for experience

Qualifications and Experience:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent (5-year university education) in foreign affairs, economics, social sciences, law, or related areas.
• At least 5 years of working experience in the field of institutional strengthening of public authorities.
• Experience in being a member or/and managing a high-level strategic team.
• Proven experience (at least three assignments) in conducting institutional capacity assessments, functional analysis or program evaluations.
• Previous senior level experience in development assistance or related work for a donor organization, in particular governmental institutions, NGO or private sector / consulting firm is required.
• Additional training and certification in strategies, capacity assessments and/or functional analyses design and development is an asset.

Skills and Competencies:

• Proven capacity to produce roadmaps, transformation agendas, reports and analyses in English;
• Consistently ensures timeliness and quality of work;
• Innovative and creative thinking;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Excellent interpersonal and team work skills;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Ability to facilitate group processes, including when tensions arise.

Language:

• Fluency in oral and written English, Romanian and Russian.

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. Please mention in CV if you belong to the group(s) under-represented in the UN Moldova and/or the area of assignment.

Documents to be included

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/ information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• CV, including information about past experience in similar assignments and contact details for at least 3 referees;
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
• Offeror's Letter confirming Interest and Availability with financial proposal (in USD, specifying the total lump sum amount). Financial proposal template prepared in compliance with the template in Annex 2.

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).