International Consultant for Developing a Report on the role of Civic Advisory and Scientific Bodies in Parliamentary Committees

“Modern Parliament for a Modern Armenia UNDP” (MAP) Project is designed to strengthen the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia (NA) in its new and fundamentally enhanced role within the governance system in carrying out its key functions – legislation, oversight, and representation. With a long-term goal of enhancing the overall effectiveness of the NA as a policy-making institution, the Project is designed to support the NA in taking advantage of modern governance tools and mechanisms with a focus on improved operational quality, transparency, and inclusiveness of parliament and enhanced parliamentary capacity for gender-responsive policymaking.

The Project has a three-stage approach in addressing the enhancement of capacity, transparency, and responsiveness:

1. a catalytic stage of a needs assessment, strategic agenda-setting, and piloting of designed approaches
2.  full-fledged implementation of the strategic agenda, tested approaches and activities
3.  evaluation of the implementation, policy recommendations, and Project closure.

The Project is planned for the period of four years (2019-2022) within the term of the NA’s 7th and 8th Convocations. The Project is being implemented through a basket fund model. UNDP is directly implementing the Project with the National Assembly where part of the activities was implemented with the support of the Responsible Parties (Oxygen, ICHD and WFD). 

UNDP MAP Project is supporting the NA to enhance its role and functions in law-making, policymaking, and oversight, in particular:

• Enhancing capacity in law-making, policymaking, and oversight
• Increasing the transparency and inclusiveness of the legislature
• Responding to the needs of constituents and strengthening interaction with them.

The MAP Project is providing a support to the Standing Committees of the National Assembly and the Research and Training Centre in building its research and analytical capacities towards a truly transformative parliament.

Advisory and scientific bodies attached to committees are a new practice with growing interest in a fast-developing world with proliferation of legislative work aimed at providing another layer of independent research and information.

The MAP project will conduct this scanning overview in order to initiate a dialogue on the  the potential and applicability of such bodies in the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.

In the second stage of this process, a review of the national legislative framework with potential recommendations will be done in line with the demand-driven approach.

Purpose: To develop a report on civic and scientific advisory bodies in parliaments.

Objective: To strengthen the legislative and oversight functions of the National Assembly.

The consultant will act under the overall supervision of UNDP MAP Project CTA. The International Consultant will develop a report on international good practice in establishing civic and scientific advisory bodies in parliaments and the pertaining legislative framework.

To achieve the stated objective, the consultant will have the following responsibilities:

• Prepare a detailed work plan for the assignment.
• Develop a Report on the role of Civic Advisory and Scientific Bodies in the work of parliaments, elaborating on the following:
  1. Type of organisations that provide expert advise
  2. Experience of various national parliaments (7 case studies: The European Parliament, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia if applicable, global examples of best practice shall also be considered with similar legal system). The selection of countries shall be agreed with the UNDP MAP and NA.
  3. Recommendations of international organisations for advisory processes, including OECD.
  4. Common features of advisory bodies established by parliaments.
  5. Recruitment of experts and conflict of interest.

• Make a presentation of the final report to the National Assembly of the RA.
• Implementation of a desk review.
• Carry out comparative analysis of advisory and scientific bodies settings to scan future development programming opportunities.

Provide full report of international comparative analysis, summary and conclusion, recommendations, and concept.

Expected deliverables:   

The payment will be made in one installment upon successful completion of the tasks, submission and duly acceptance of the deliverables by the UNDP country office and project team.  

• Good writing skills with demonstrated ability to conduct landscaping and comparative analysis
• Good interview building skills
• Excellent communication and networking abilities
• Cultural and political awareness, diplomatic skills, ability to adapt and ability to work independently and take responsibility for delivering results;
• Excellent research, analytical, reporting and writing skills;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Capacity to interact with senior officials and elected Members and credibly influence senior decision makers;
• Effective and timely delivery of agreed outputs in a high-pressure work environment.

Education:

• MA in Development Studies, Public Policy, Law, or similar.

Experience and competencies: 

• Experience in comparative analysis, research, assessment on the implementation of the international standards
• At least 8 years of relevant professional experience
• Knowledge of and working experience with Parliament or Government sector
• Good understanding and proved knowledge of Parliamentary work, knowledge of Armenian setting is an asset

Language Skills:

• Fluency in English language is required

CANDIDATES WILL BE EVALUATED BASED ON THE FOLLOWING METHODOLOGY:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ technical qualifications, experience and financial proposal.The contract will be awarded to the candidate whose offer has been evaluated and determined as technically responsive/compliant/acceptable to the requirements of the ToR and received the highest cumulative (technical and financial) score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

Technical Criteria – 70% of total evaluation – max. 70 points

Financial Criteria – 30% of total evaluation – max. 30 points.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE APPLICATION.

• Financial Proposal and Availability form: OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP (A total lump sum  option is applicable for this assignment)
• CV shall include Education/Qualification, Processional Certification, Employment Records /Experience

General Conditions of Contract is available here: GENERAL CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT

Note: Please note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents that should be included in the application in one single PDF file and upload it).