IC-037-21- Support to the Government of Iraq for the Implementation and Monitoring of SDGs ‘Financial Gap Analysis of Agenda 2030 and SDGs’

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as outlined in the 2030 Agenda will require actors across public and private sectors to work together at scale. Channeling global financial flows towards Sustainable Development is imperative to achieving the 2030 Agenda. Understanding the scale and types of investment needed to achieve the SDGs are a key foundation on which governments can build effective SDG financing strategies.

UNDP-Iraq has been supporting the Government of Iraq on the implementation and monitoring of the SDGs targets and indicators at both national and sub-national levels. This initiative comes at a particular junction where the National Development Plan (NDP 2018-2022) of Iraq acknowledges that Iraq is faced with various institutional, economic, social, and environmental challenges, which cannot be addressed through a business-as-usual approach and demands effective integration (horizontal as well as vertical) and coordination. Thus, the Government of Iraq, with support from multiple development partners, has engaged in developing new strategies and plans to meet the challenges of transitioning from a crisis context to a sustainable development context.

The NDP (2018-2022) and the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) have been significantly aligned with the SDGs targets and indicators with the support of UNDP-Iraq and other UN Agencies – as a national framework for the SDGs. The Government has also engaged in developing the Iraq Vision 2030 that identifies and addresses medium and long-term strategic development priorities and goals. Iraq Vision 2030 encapsulates an ambitious governance agenda to achieve sustainable human development and sustain peace. This includes upholding the rule of law and access to justice, fostering integrity, transparency, and fighting corruption, but also improving administrative decentralization, promoting effective public participation in decision-making, enhancing the values of citizenship and reducing inequality, promoting a culture of tolerance and community peace, as well as values of achievement, initiative, and volunteerism.

Iraq continues to face a ignificantly worsened economic outlook through the ‘twin shocks; First oil process experienced a historically unprecedented fall in early 2020. Second, starting from March 2020, the Government imposed a range of restrictions on economic and social activities in a bid to control the spread of COVID-19. While these restrictions are key to staunching infection, they have substantially reduced activity across the economy, far beyond the oil sectors.

This said, Iraq is in a position now to identify and analyze the SDGs financial gap assessment for the next decade of action of sustainability. Besides the Iraq’s SDGs data gap assessment report, developed recently by the Central Statistics Organization with the support of UNDP-Iraq, the SDGs financial gap assessment will contribute to ensuring better actions for the implementation and monitoring of the SDGs.

In carrying out the assignment, the International Consultant is required to employ a collaborative approach in ensuring that inputs are obtained from the Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Finance and integrated throughout the drafting process in consultation with UNDP Iraq.

In completing the scope of work, the consultant is expected to closely coordinate with the Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Finance, National Planning Commission and relevant Ministries, UNDP Iraq. The consultant is expected to participate in meeting and discussion with relevant stakeholders, Department of Finance, planning and if needed organize a national level workshop for inputs and feed back into the draft financial gap analysis of Agenda 2030.

Therefore, the Consultant will develop the following specific activities:

• Develop and present the methodological approach to SDG costing in consultation with counter partners. As a result, develop a detailed work plan to be reviewed/endorsed by UNDP and submitted to government stakeholders.
• Undertake desk Review relevant to SDGs and strategic documents and surveys – to depict the national and sub-national context in term of financing mechanisms existing in the country (opportunities and challenges).
• Formulate and describe the outlines for the country’s SDGs financial gap assessment report in consultation with the Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Finance, and UNDP-Iraq.
• Draft the SDGs financial gap assessment based on the agreed outlines of the report – including a benchmarking or best practice from other similar economies.
• Facilitate national wide consultation sessions on the draft financial gap analysis, justify the national priority areas with the financial gap assessment with a clear outline and the development process.
• Draft the Financial Gap analysis report and make necessary revisions based on inputs from Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Finance, National Planning Commission, and UNDP experts – taking into consideration of the financial crisis and challenges imposed by the pandemic (COVID 19) impact on socio economic situation, and post conflict environment in Iraq.
• Facilitate validation sessions on the first draft of the assessment report at both national and local levels with multi-stakeholders including academia, NGOs, local governments, women and youth groups.
• Organize and facilitate capacity strengthening workshops on SDGs financial instruments and tools to be adopted by the country for better implementation and monitoring of the SDGs in Iraq. This will be based on the SDGs financial gap assessment findings.
• Revise, finalize and obtain approval on the final version of the Financial Gap Assessment report – considering all the feedbacks from MOP and UNDP.

Functional Competencies:

• Knowledge of and extensive experience of working in the focus areas indicated in the TOR.
• Proven competency in the production of analytical reports in quantitative and qualitative research methods is required.
• Excellent knowledge of the UN system and its work in the area of sustainable development, financial management, economic market study and the intergovernmental processes related to the 2030 Agenda.
• Excellent analytical and writing skills,
• Excellent communication skills.
• Results-driven, ability to work under pressure and to meet required deadlines.
• Good understanding and practice of capacity development.
• Cultural sensitivity.
• Diplomatic skills.

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
• 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 favoritism
• Ability to work with a multi-cultural and diverse team

Education

• Advanced university degree in Finance, Economics, Statistics, development studies, or other related fields.

Work experience

• At least 10 years of relevant experience working on Financial Management, development of strategic plans and sustainable development reports with strong financial analyses
• Has experience of working with UN or governments on developing strategies and case studies, financial analysis, financial assessments, economic financial planning
• Previous working experience in developing SDGs reports, national planning, costing and needs assessments
• Experience in managing multi-stakeholder engagement, coordination with ministries, national planning commission, UN and International agencies, economic sector, private and public sectors, and stakeholders.
• Experience facilitating stakeholder workshops and training sessions.  

Language requirement

• Excellent written and spoken in English, Arabic is a plus.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

The application should contain below mandatory documents:

• The technical proposal should also contain personal CV (Mandatory) , indicating education background/professional qualifications, all experience, furthermore, providing duly filled the form of  Letter of Confirming Interest and Availability (Mandatory) whereby includes financial Proposal (Mandatory) that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per deliverables mentioned in this TOR, in addition to  the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

The detailed terms of reference and the Letter of Confirming Interest and Availability form are available in the following link with mentioned Job Title above  : https://procurement-notices.undp.org/

Please note you can upload only one document in the online application, therefore combine the CV, and the Letter of Confirmation and Availability as one pdf and upload it accordingly.moreover, please note that failure to submit required mandatory documents by UNDP will lead to rejection of your offer.