International Consultant/Advisor in Policy and Planning (PPA)

In December 2020, the Government officially submitted the Program for years 2021-2024, titled “For Building the European State”, for the newly elected Parliament’s approval, which has been revised in February 2021, immediately upon appointment of the new Prime Minister. Chapter 4 of this Program, titled “Public Administration”, stipulates, “Professional, conscientious, functional public administration system will form the basis for effective implementation of the Government… Continued reform of Public Administration and enhancing cooperation with international partners in this area remains a priority for this Government.” Further, the chapter outlines the priorities of policy planning and coordination, continued reform of civil service, promotion of transparency and accountability, de-concentration and decentralisation, development of service delivery and e-governance, and enhancement of cyber-security as key priority areas. The Program states that these priorities will be further expanded upon in the new Public Administration Reform Strategy 2021-2025. All of these priorities and their wording reflect the elements developed in collaboration with the UNDP PAR project during the first phase of implementation, while some elements, especially in policy planning and coordination, as well as service delivery, can be considered as directly impacted by the UNDP PAR project (Government Program 2021 – 2024 “For Building the European State”, February 2021). 

In 2016 UNDP Georgia rolled out the multi-year project “Supporting Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Georgia” (PAR Project), funded by the UK Government.  The project addressed a complementary but distinct set of specific, predetermined needs in three crucial areas of the ongoing Public Administration Reform (PAR) – Policy Development and Cooperation; Civil Service and Human Resource Management, and Service Delivery, as stipulated by the PAR Reform Roadmap 2020.

The PAR Project helped Georgia make significant transformations in how civil service is structured and opened the way for the meaningful transformation in how it works.

The comprehensive legislative and regulatory changes that the project has supported made important advances towards a unified, professional corps of civil servants, which mostly enjoy the same protections and live their professional lives under rather similar regulations – which was not the case before. Important steps were made in promoting the notion that a well-planned and executed policymaking process is the core function of the civil service. The newly adopted regulatory guidance by the AoG makes significant headway in establishing the framework for uniform policy development processes across the government agencies and for embedding the public participation component into this process.

The PAR project contributed expertise to enhancing human resources management standards during civil service reform.

In the service provision area, the project supported an important headway in laying down the methodological guidelines for designing and delivering new or existing (including electronic) services.

The project approached Civil Society Organizations’ (CSOs) participation in PAR creatively – by mixing the application of research, monitoring and participatory roles. This helped amalgamate a critical mass of CSOs with expertise built around various aspects of the PAR, creating the springboard for further qualitative expansion.

UNDP PAR completed in March 2021, and the new phase of the project was initiated in May 2021. The ‘Supporting Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Georgia – Phase 2’ (hereinafter referred to as PAR-2), funded by the UK Government, builds on successes and lessons learned during the previous iteration of the UNDP’s ‘Supporting Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Georgia’ project and transforms its focus to supporting already achieved institutional changes, prioritising the effective, transparent and participatory operation of the policy cycle through a set of targeted interventions and reinforcing Gender and Social Inclusion perspectives in the planned activities.

UNDP’s PAR-2 project will continue addressing needs in three crucial areas – 1) Policy Planning and Coordination; 2) Civil Service and Human Resource Management and 3) Public Service Delivery, while the measures will be taken to synchronise the interventions with the new PAR strategy. Compared to its previous iteration, the project will be more focused on creating effective processes that give real-life, operational meaning to the new laws and rules.

A stronger emphasis will be made on equipping the target state agencies and implementing partners with the capabilities to apply gender lens and align their practices to GESI objectives across the PAR pillars identified above. The elements of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion will be streamlined under each of the project target areas.

The main objective of the consultancy is to :

• Advising on the overall coherence and relevance of the assistance provided through the PAR-2 project by regular analysis of the project implementation context;
• Advising the project team on the evolution of risks, their potential impact on underlying assumptions, providing guidance and feedback on fulfilment of indicators in the annual implementation planning cycle, to ensure alignment with planned impact and outcome, while maintaining a GESI perspective;
• Support project team in ensuring alignment of the project Theory of Change with the strategic goals and objectives of the project’s donor agency;
• Facilitating annual and ongoing assessment of the implementation context by:
  • Facilitating workshops and discussions with key PAR stakeholders on implementation context;
  • Participating and providing substantive contribution to Annual PAR board meetings;
  • Devising and implementing the system of regular reporting on implementation context;
  • Liaising with international development partners and key PAR experts to share the analysis of the implementation environment.
• Routinely reviewing and analysing the ongoing activity, progress reports, development of additional surveys and interviews as necessary to contribute to the impact-level analysis of the progress.
• Assisting the project team in harnessing a high-quality and high impact consultancy to support the various outputs of the project by:
• Providing advice and support in drafting the consultancy ToRs in the field of policy development, service delivery, civil service reform, etc.;
• Offering pre-deployment briefings and substantive feedback to recruited individuals and institutional consultants engaged through the project as necessary.
• Providing support to the Project team, as required, in:
  • Designing solutions in response to the needs identified in three targeted PAR areas: policy planning and coordination, civil service reform and public service delivery by tailoring international best practice to the local context;  
  • Ongoing advice and guidance to the relevant GoG counterparts and project team under three key project outcomes, as presented above. More specifically:
    • Support in identification of capacity building needs of the partner agencies to better address the tasks and responsibilities as envisaged by the ongoing Civil Service Reform;
    • Contribute to the development of small grants scheme that will be made available to NGOs and Academia to contribute policy papers and analysis.
• Reviewing and providing substantive feedback on the project reports and public relations deliverables;
• Contribute to drafting Briefs and Talking Points for UNDP management on relevant topics requiring high-level advocacy efforts on behalf of the project and UNDP Georgia;
• Perform other relevant tasks as required.

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Understanding of the mandate and the role of UNDP would be an asset;
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Functional competencies:

• Strong communication and analytical skills;
• Demonstrated skills in drafting reports;
• Ability to work under pressure with several tasks and various deadlines;
• Actively generates creative, practical approaches and solutions to overcome challenging situations;
• Excellent writing, presentation/public speaking skills;
• A pro-active approach to problem-solving;
• Computer literacy.

Leadership and Self-Management skills:

• Builds strong relationships with the working group and with the project partners; focuses on impact and results for the project partners and responds positively to feedback;
• Cooperates with the working group effectively and demonstrates strong conflict resolution skills;
• Consistently approaches work with energy, positivity and a constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates strong influencing and facilitation skills;
• Remains calm, in control and good humoured under pressure;
• Demonstrates openness to change, new ideas, and ability to manage ambiguity;
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
• Demonstrates ability to transfer knowledge and competencies;
• Is able to work independently and manage competing priorities.

All documents shall be developed in English.

Deliverables:

15% of the total fee  Deliverable 1. Review of the Project related PAR Reports, Position Papers/Strategic and operational advice to the relevant project staff, Review of the Project Partner Reports/Deliverables, Contribution to UNDP-internal Reporting in Quarter III, 2021;

Project-related debriefings

• to the donors
• UN/UNDP leadership
• incoming project advisors

Substantive contribution to and review of the project reports;

Contribution to the talking point and briefs for high-level, strategic meetings and events in Quarter III, 2021.

30% of the total fee  Deliverable 2. Support in producing Biannual Project Update, Participate in Midterm Review of the M&E Indicators.

15% of the total fee  Deliverable 3.  Review of the Project related PAR Reports, Position Papers/Strategic and operational advice to the relevant project staff, Review of the Project Partner Reports/Deliverables Contribution to UNDP-internal Reporting in Quarter IV, 2021;

Project-related debriefings

• to the donors
• UN/UNDP leadership
• incoming project advisors

Substantive contribution to and review of the project monitoring reports;

Contribution to the talking point and briefs for high-level, strategic meetings and events in Quarter IV, 2021.

15% of the total fee  Deliverable 4. Review of the Project related PAR Reports, Position Papers/Strategic and operational advice to the relevant project staff, Review of the Project Partner Reports/Deliverables Contribution to UNDP-internal Reporting in Quarter I, 2022;

Project-related debriefings

• to the donors
• UN/UNDP leadership
• incoming project advisors

Substantive contribution to and review of the project monitoring reports;

Contribution to the talking point and briefs for high-level, strategic meetings and events in Quarter I, 2022.

25% of the total fee  Deliverable 5 and 6. Support in producing Annual Project Report, substantive contribution to annual PAR board meeting, participate in Annual Review of the M&E Indicators and Implementation Context Analysis (ICA)

• Regular study of the news, partner and third-party reports
• Meetings with counterparts
• Meetings with stakeholders
• Meetings with UNDP Senior Staff
• Workshops (as needed) for drafting the ICA

Contribution to Annual Draft and Final Reports  

Management Arrangements:

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the PAR-2 Project Manager with the overall guidance from the UNDP Democratic Governance Team Leader.Briefing and debriefing with the UNDP country office management in the beginning and by the end of the in-country mission will be arranged. Prior to the mission, UNDP will develop the meeting agenda jointly with the consultant.

Education:

• At least Master’s degree in Public Administration, Public Policy, Political Science, Management or related Social Science field (minimum requirement) – 10 Points.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of demonstrated experience in development programming, planning, monitoring, evaluating and implementing public administration and civil service reforms or elements of the reforms (minimum requirement) – 9 Points.
• At least 10 years of experience in working on issues related to governance and public administration, preferably with a human rights-based and gender and social inclusion sensitive approach (minimum requirement) – 9 Points.
• Previous professional experience in working with donor and international organisations minimum requirement – 5 Points.
• Knowledge of the regional and particularly Georgian context and developments in the field of public administration reform – 3 Points
• Familiarity with the European principles for public administration – 2 Points.
• Experience with the UN organization is an asset – 2 Points.

Evaluation:

Offerors will be evaluated against a combination of technical and financial criteria provided in the below table. Technical criteria consist of a desk review and an interview. Maximum obtainable score is 100, out of which the total score for technical criteria equals to 70 points (70%) and for financial criteria 30 (30%). Technical criteria compose of desk review (40 points) and interview (30 points). Offerors not meeting any of minimum technical qualification requirements will be automatically excluded from the list of candidates for further technical evaluation. Offerors that do not meet Minimum Qualification Criteria will be automatically rejected, while the rest will form up the long list. Offerors obtaining minimum 28 points as a result of the desk review (criteria 1, 2, 3 and 4) will be short listed and invited for an interview. Offerors obtaining minimum of 21 points (70%) as a result of the interview (i.e. minimum of 49 points in the technical criteria) will be considered qualified and requested to provide financial proposal for the assignment.

Financial Proposal:

Lump sum contracts. 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.