EAO Engagement Specialist, Township Democratic Local Governance Project

The 2008 Constitution and the 2015 National Ceasefire Agreement marked the beginning of the decentralization process in Myanmar and the 2015 Myanmar general election has paved the way for Myanmar’s first civilian government. As the democratic transition in Myanmar progresses, pressures on government at all levels to effectively address the needs of the population, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, have become greater. This presents challenges to a government with limited experience and capacity, which faces low levels of public trust, and which still has limited experience engaging constructively with the public and being responsive and transparent. So far, the democratic transition has focused on the Union level, but further progress requires a shift in focus to break down silos at the Union level and enhance governance at the subnational level.

At subnational level, the state/region governments are responsible for formulating development visions and five-year strategic plans as well as annual development plans. The annual plans are based on the annual townships plan prepared between August and October and submitted to the state/region early November. The loosely connected township departments (hereunder, the township administration) are the very starting points in Myanmar’s system for formulating annual development plans and providing public services. Enhancing capacities of the state/region governments and the township administrations to develop annual plans in an inclusive and participatory manner and to deliver public services is a crucial step towards Myanmar’s democratic transition and decentralization process, and furthermore its achievement of the SDGs.

The Bago region government and the Mon state government have entered partnerships with UNDP, through the Township Local Governance Project (TDLG), to strengthen their capacities in inclusive and participatory planning and in accountable service delivery by experiencing fiscal decentralization  trough  a  discretionary  Township  Development  Grant  provided  by  UNDP following an agreed expenditure needs formula based allocation. Since 2016, UNDP has provided technical trainings to the participating townships, primarily targeting the Township Plan Implementation              Committees(TPICs), Village/Ward             Tract      Administrators (V/WTAs), Hluttaw members and civil society representatives, to enhance their capacities to develop the annual township plan in a democratic manner following the guidance provided in the Grant Manual including good planning principles such as use of data, leave no one behind, policy coherence, among others1

In Mon State, out of TDLG’s ten target townships, three townships are under mixed- administration and ethnic armed organizations (EAO) play important roles in local governance and service delivery. In order to ensure that the TDLG project is designed in a conflict sensitive manner and adaptive to the local contexts where EAOs are key  stakeholders, UNDP  engaged  an international conflict sensitivity advisor to provide advisory services to Mon State Government and Karen National Union (KNU), and conduct conflict sensitivity analysis. As a result, in December 2018, UNDP organized an initial engagement workshop with the KNU in Mon State. The initial engagement workshop was well received by the KNU and KNU has requested UNDP to provide more capacity development support to enhance their interactions with the Mon State Government and township administrations on public service delivery. Specifically, KNU requested UNDP to provide capacity development support starting from the upcoming meeting between KNU and Township Plan Implementation Committee (TPIC) scheduled in January 2018, followed by series of activities in early January.

In view of the above, UNDP wishes to engage an experienced National Consultant to provide technical support in TDLG activities focused on strengthening engagement of EAOs in participatory township planning processes. The National Consultant will provide technical support and advisory services to UNDP, as well as key statekeholders at the State and Township levels in line with the principles of inclusion, conflict sensitivity and ‘do no harm’

For detailed information, please see Terms of Reference at  https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=73925

For detailed information, please see Terms of Reference at  https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=73925

For detailed information, please see Terms of Reference at  https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=73925