Parliamentary Budget Data Analyst

UNDP Pacific Office (PO) in Fiji serves 10 countries directly. It serves in the following three areas:

1. Effective Governance

2. Inclusive Growth

3. Resilience and Sustainable Development

The UNDP PO in Fiji also coordinates regional initiatives and policy advice in 15 countries covered by the three UNDP offices in the region (Fiji, Samoa and Papua New Guinea).

The UNDP PO programme is guided by the Sub-Regional Programme Document (SRPD) (2018 – 2022) for the Pacific Island Countries and Territories. The SRPD outlines a programme strategy aligned with the vision of the Pacific Leaders, contributes to the achievement of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and forms part of the UN Pacific Strategy 2018-2022.

In the Effective Governance area, UNDP PO is supporting a variety of initiatives in the Pacific to promote peaceful, just and inclusive society (SDG16) through the following programme areas:

1. Strengthening anti-corruption institutions and systems, supporting the implementation of United Supports access to justice for impoverished and vulnerable groups through empowering people to access legal rights and services;

2. HIV and Health;

3. Enhancing inclusive political processes and institution. This includes supporting efforts related to constitutional reform processes, enhancing the credibility, transparency and effectiveness and sustainability of electoral institution and processes, parliamentary development and the advancement of women’s equal participation.

In the area of parliamentary development, the UNDP PO has been working with 15 Pacific parliaments over several years to strengthen their capacities to undertake their core functions of oversight, lawmaking and representation. The UNDP PO is currently implementing the following parliament projects:

• Fiji Parliament Support Project Phase II, 2017 – 2020 funded by the Governments of Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the UK;

• Strengthening Legislatures in the Pacific (SLIP) Project, 2018 – 2020 funded by the Government of Japan;

• Pacific Parliamentary Effectiveness Initiative Phase II (PPEI-II), 2019-2023, funded by the Government of New Zealand;

UNDP’s Parliamentary Budget Analysis Support in the Pacific

As small parliaments, almost all Pacific parliaments have limited secretarial resources available to support their core functions of legislation, oversight, and representation. This is also true for parliaments’ capacity in research and data analysis, especially important in the course of the approval of national budgets. In large parliaments, often, a ‘budget office’ supports fiscal and budget policy analysis by providing independent and high-quality research on the budget and fiscal policies. No such budget office exists in the Pacific Parliaments, albeit many of them have a few researchers each who are required to provide variety of support to parliamentarians, including on the budget matters. In most cases, it means that members of the Pacific parliaments vote on the budget without having adequate independent analysis of the budget. To bridge this gap, the UNDP’s Pacific Office started the innovative practice of “Floating Budget Offices” (FBOs).

The FBOs bring together researchers from different Pacific parliaments to support a host national parliament in producing independent analysis of the budget and fiscal policies during the approval of national budget from the parliament. The overseas researchers work with the research team of the national parliament to go through budget, produced budget analysis briefs per ministry and then present the same before the members of the parliaments. Some parliaments have also presented the analysis to the civil society organizations. With the pandemic restricting travel, the FBOs now operate virtually.  

While the innovation has helped address a critical need, some problems remain within the process. Often the budget approval process lasts between three to seven days. And in many cases, budget documents are only made available on the day of their introduction in the parliaments. It means that researchers have to race against the time and work around the clock to fulfill their job. While so far researchers have delivered successfully, they face many challenges due to manual nature of entire exercise, e.g. the potential for errors and hence, the need for several layers of quality assurance.  

To address these problems, UNDP has been considering automating the budget analysis process which in turn can fast-track the analysis process and reduce chances of errors. Such a process will also help develop a repository of parliamentary budget data sets across the Pacific countries. Thereby, it can allow researchers more time to further improve the quality of the briefings on the budget and dig deeper into the budget documents and produce different types of analysis (e.g. thematic analysis or time series and cross-country analysis).

In this regard, UNDP is looking for hiring the services of a Budget Data Analyst to review the existing work of FBO, suggest solutions for the improvements in the process and help pilot the suggested solutions.

Scope of Work

Under the overall supervision of UNDP Pacific Office’s Portfolio lead for Parliamentary Development and in coordination with the Parliamentary Development Specialists, the Parliamentary Budget Data Analyst will perform following functions:

• Review the existing budget analysis practices and documentation (Excel sheets, budget briefings and presentations); also hold meetings with UNDP team and parliamentary researchers from select parliaments.

• Based on the review of the existing budget analysis practices and documentation and meetings/interviews, suggest solutions for automating and improving the budget analysis process.

• Support in undertaking the pilot of agreed solutions together with the UNDP and relevant parliament teams, this will entail, but not limited to:

  • Developing the revised data entry sheets to help create ‘tidy’ data sets for budget analysis.

  • Developing automated budget analysis (through scripts, pivot tables or related tools/techniques/programming) based on the data sets.

  • Developing revised templates for budget briefs.

  • Training researchers in using the proposed new tools and templates.

  • Training researchers in improving the data visualization for the budget briefs.

  • Based on the pilot, finalizing the new proposed tools and templates with documentation on ‘how to use them’ for replication with other parliaments.

• Under the supervision and general coordination of the UNDP Parliament team, collaborate with developers and IT specialists to identify options for web platforms / data visualization solutions.

• Perform any other tasks that fit within the overall scope of and purpose of this assignment

Institutional Arrangement

All reports and documents relating to the assignment will be submitted to the UNDP’s Parliamentary Development Portfolio team at the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji.

Duration of the Work

The envisaged duration for the consultancy is 20 working days (Between March to May 2021) working from home and with travel to the selected Pacific Island countries, as possible and required. The days are based on deliverables and may be adjusted as per the actual work undertaken or any changes to the scope of the work based on discussions with the host government.

Duty Station

The consultant will be homebased. When required and if the situation allows, the consultant will undertake mission (s) to the countries to fulfill the requirements of this TOR. The consultant will prepare the mission TOR beforehand, in consultation with the host country and or UNDP Country office.

Travels related to this assignment

• For all travels undertaken through this consultancy, UNDP will purchase air tickets for the consultant based on the most direct route and cost-effective route as per UNDP Travel Guideline.
• UNDP will also provide Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) to the consultant for the duration of his/her stay at the respective duty station at UN approved DSA rates.

Supervision/Reporting

• When expressly required by UNDP, the consultant will liaise with counterparts in the host parliaments and will keep UNDP’s Parliamentary team in loop.
• The consultant will report directly to the UNDP’s Parliamentary Development Specialists at the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji. S/he will report on a regular basis on the advancement of the assignment to the Parliamentary Development Specialists;
• The consultant will provide brief summary reports of activities undertaken and advice provided at the end of the consultancy period, for administrative and payment purposes; and
• All reports and documents relating to the assignment will be submitted to Parliamentary Development portfolio team at the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji.

• Good representational and liaison skills;

• Excellent interpersonal, intercultural, communication and networking with a demonstrated ability to build and maintain professional relationships;

• Ability to meet deadlines and;

• Excellent English writing and communication skills.

• University degree in public finance management, data science/analytics, political science, law or related fields field.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of experience contributing to parliamentary or public finance management projects.

• 2-3 three year of experience in national budget analysis, using sound data analysis/science tools and techniques, will be a strong asset.

• Experience of working directly with parliaments will be preferred.

• Knowledge and understanding of parliamentary development and democratic institution’s development processes and budget processes is an asset.

• Advance data science / analysis skill and experience in Microsoft Excel, with sound knowledge of R / Python (or similar data science language), is required.

• Experience of work in the Pacific region and in a development, context is a strong asset;

• Excellent oral and written skills; excellent drafting, formulation, reporting skills;

• Accuracy and professionalism in document production and editing;

• Excellent interpersonal skills; culturally and socially sensitive; ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with a range of partners, including politicians, parliamentarians and other government officials

• Ability to work and adapt professionally and effectively in a challenging environment; ability to work effectively in a multicultural team of international and national personnel;

• Self-motivated, ability to work with minimum supervision; ability to work with tight deadlines;

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 fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

Evaluation Method and Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on 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)

Criteria 1: University degree in public finance management, data science/analytics, political science, law or related fields field (15%)

Criteria 2: At least 7 years of experience contributing to parliamentary or public finance management projects. (15%)

Criteria 3: 2-3 three year of experience in national budget analysis, using sound data analysis/science tools and techniques, will be a strong asset (10%)

Criteria 4: Experience of working directly with parliaments will be preferred. Knowledge and understanding of parliamentary development and democratic institution’s development processes and budget processes is an asset. (15%)

Criteria 5: Advance data science / analysis skill and experience in Microsoft Excel, with sound knowledge of R / Python (or similar data science language), is required (15%)

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. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
• Personal CV, indicating all experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
• Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II in Fijian Dollar (USD).

Note: Successful individual will be required to provide proof of medical insurance coverage before commencement of contract for the duration of 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

Above annexes can be obtained from UNDP website via link: https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=76497

Proposal Submission

• All applications must be clearly marked with the title of the consultancy (Parliamentary Budget Data Analyst) with reference (PN/FJI/020/21)and submitted via UN Job shop by 1 April 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