Consultant – Parliament Technical Support (3 Consultants)

The Fiji Parliament Support Project (FPSP) – Phase 2 is a four-year project running from 2017 – 2020 and builds on the progress made during Phase 1 of the project and is being implemented by UNDP. The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the transition to democracy and strengthen the rule of law in Fiji. Specifically, it aims to ensure that systems and processes are in place to provide for a parliament that can effectively undertake its legislative, oversight and representative role. FPSP Phase 2 has 3 specific outputs:

• Output 1: Committees have enhanced capabilities to undertake their legislative and oversight functions, including skills to ensure that the SDGs and development issues are mainstreamed across Parliament’s work, including gender mainstreaming.
• Output 2: MPs, including women MPs, and staff have increased capacities and improved professionalism to fulfil their obligations, benefitting from exposure to other parliaments through south-south triangular cooperation.
• Output 3: Parliamentary outreach and citizen engagement have expanded to include traditionally excluded groups, such as women and youth, and reach remote areas.

In line with Output 2, specifically Activity 2.3: Support to the organization and management of Parliament and parliamentary bodies, UNDP will be supporting the Parliament to produce high quality Official Report of Proceedings (Hansard) which will be prepared under the direction of the Secretary-General. The report must be as nearly as possible verbatim.

Scope of Work

Hansard is an edited verbatim record of what is said in Parliament.  It also includes records of votes and written ministerial statements. Members’ words are recorded by Hansard reporters and then edited to remove repetitions and obvious mistakes but without taking away from the meaning the report is published daily covering the preceding day and is followed by a bound final version.

Before it is bound, the verbatim notes need to be indexed for easy reference purpose according to the names of the MPs, items of discussion on the Order paper and the subject of debate

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The key outputs for the consultants are as follows:  

Parliament Sitting

• Editing of Stints for the Hansard Report during the Parliament sitting week
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• Ensuring that scripts are grammatically correct before sending to the editors for editing;
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• Editing transcripts of Parliamentary meetings as they are produced by the Reporters;
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• checking definitions, spellings, quotation, and references, to ensure and confirm the accuracy of the report; and
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• assist reporters with any difficulties in terms of hearing words mispronounced by Members of Parliament

Institutional Arrangement

• The consultant will report to the Editor of Debates, Fijian Parliament;

• The consultants will also provide to UNDP, through the Effective Governance Deputy Team Leader, a summary of activities during the consultancy period;

• All reports and documents relating to the assignment will be submitted to the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji.

   

  Duration of the Work

• 45 working days between March and December 2021 (As per Fiji Parliament Sitting Calendar)  

Duty Station

Parliament of Fiji, Suva.

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities 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;
• Comprehensiveness knowledge of Hansard reporting and writing.
• Proficiency in the use of office IT applications and internet in conducting research;
• Outstanding communication, project management and organizational skills;
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
• Positive, constructive attitude to work;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Educational Qualifications:

• Secondary school education with over 10 years relevant experience in Hansard or

• Graduate qualification in law, political science, legislative studies or related subject;

• Ability to meet deadlines and excellent English writing and communication.

Experience

• A minimum of 10 years’ experience working with or for parliaments;

• Proven track record of providing support in Hansard reporting and editing services to Parliament Speaker’s and senior Parliament staff.

• Good representational and liaison skills;

• Demonstrated capacity to work in a team environment, including consulting with members of the management team to resolve issues and other problems as required; and

• Demonstrated ability work effectively within strictdeadlines.

• Knowledge of Hansard reporting and editing would be an asset.

Language requirements

• Fluency of English language is required;

 Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be a fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables and as per below percentages:

• Deliverable 1: Upon acceptance by the Fiji Parliament and UNDP of the Report on the completion of the tasks per Parliament sitting in March 2021 (5 days): 11%

• Deliverable 2: Upon acceptance by the Fiji Parliament and UNDP of the Report on the completion of the tasks per Parliament sitting in April 2021 (5 days): 11%

• Deliverable 3: Upon acceptance by the Fiji Parliament and UNDP of the Report on the completion of the tasks per Parliament sitting in May 2021 (10 days): 23%

• Deliverable 4: Upon acceptance by the Fiji Parliament and UNDP of the Report on the completion of the tasks per Parliament sitting in June 2021 (5 days): 11%

• Deliverable 5: Upon acceptance by the Fiji Parliament and UNDP of the Report on the completion of the tasks per Parliament sitting in July 2021 (5 days): 11%

• Deliverable 6: Upon acceptance by the Fiji Parliament and UNDP of the Report on the completion of the tasks per Parliament sitting in August 2021 (5 days): 11%

• Deliverable 7: Upon acceptance by the Fiji Parliament and UNDP of the Report on the completion of the tasks per Parliament sitting in September 2021(5 days): 11%

• Deliverable 8: Upon acceptance by the Fiji Parliament and UNDP of the Report on the completion of the tasks per Parliament sitting in November-December 2021(5 days): 11%

In general, UNDP shall not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%). and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points)

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Documentation required

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

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal Form using the template provided in Annex II (Financial Proposal in FJD)

• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

• Technical proposal, including a) a brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment.

   

Incomplete, joint proposals and proposals sent to the wrong mailing address will not be accepted and only candidates for whom there is further interest will be contacted.

Individuals interested in this consultancy should apply and will be reviewed based on their own individual capacity. The successful individual may sign an Individual Contract with UNDP or request his/her employer to sign a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) on their behalf by indicating this in the Offerors letter to Confirming Interest and Availability using Annex II.

Annexes

• Annex I – Individual IC General Terms and Conditions

• Annex II – Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability for the Individual IC, including Financial Proposal Template

Proposal Submission

• All applications must be clearly marked with the title of the consultancy (Consultant – Parliament Technical Support) with reference (PN/FJI/025/21) and submitted via UN Job shop by 17 March 2021.
• Note: UNDP Jobs only supports single document upload hence ensure that the proposal is consolidated and submitted as one single document.
• For further information concerning this Terms of Reference, please contact UNDP Pacific Office by email: [email protected]

Women applicants are encouraged to apply