Republic of Moldova

National Consultant on social assistance decentralization policy development

Vacancy Number: Pr12/00187

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	28 Aug 2012, 16:00 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	04 Sep 2012
Reference to the project:	Joint Integrated Local Development Programme UN Women
Expected Duration of Assignment:	3 months
Submission Instructions: Technical proposal (P-11 form and Cover Letter) together with the Financial proposal should be submitted at the following address: UN House, 131, 31 August 1981 or by email to vacancies-moldova@undp.org no later than 28 August 2012. Any request for clarification must be sent by standard electronic communication to the address anastasia.divinskaya@unwomen.org. UN Women JILDP staff will respond in writing or by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants
Supporting Documents: Terms of Reference Individual Consultant Procurement Notice P11-Un Women UN Conditions of Service-Consultants

Background

UNDP and UN Women in partnership with the Government of Moldova (State Chancellery) are implementing the Joint Integrated Local Development Programme (JILDP) funded by the Government of Sweden. The JILDP was designed to improve the policy framework, as well as to support the administrative systems and procedures focused on efficient transfer of competencies to Local Public Administrations (LPAs), decentralization and promotion of LPAs’ role in decision making. It also helps building the capacity of LPAs to plan, implement and monitor their strategic plans and improve local public service delivery, involving civil society and community efforts and participation. By applying human rights based approach and gender mainstreaming, the programme seeks to secure positive change in areas of human rights, tackling social exclusion and ensuring gender equality.

The main results achieved in the first phase of the programme are:

•             The Parity Commission on Decentralization (PCD) was established to coordinate the Decentralization reform;

•             Sectoral Working Groups of the PCD comprised of representatives of the Central Government, LPAs and civil society were created. These groups will design and oversee the implementation of the decentralisation policy in the respective fields;

•             The National Decentralisation Strategy (NDS) was designed through a participatory process and was approved by the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova on April 5, 2012.

The recently developed NDS is the main policy document in the field of local public administration which provides the general strategic framework and overarching principles, as well as the national mechanisms for decentralisation and ensuring genuine local autonomy in Moldova. At the same time, for a comprehensive and successful implementation of the decentralisation policy, the NDS envisions the development of sectoral policy documents that will design and guide the decentralisation reform in various fields.

In this context, a working group on social assistance decentralization was created under the auspices of the Parity Commission. This working group is hosted by the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family which provides the secretariat and facilitates of the activity of the group, as well as ensures the consistency of the social assistance decentralization policy with the specificity of this field and the Moldovan context. 

Scope of work

The national consultant will assist the international consultant in working group on social assistance decentralisation and the State Chancellery in designing the decentralisation policy document in the field of social assistance based on the principles of gender equality and human-rights based approach. The international consultant will conduct the necessary research and provide any other kind of assistance related to this assignment to the working group on social assistance decentralisation and the State Chancellery, including on the best ways of gender and human rights-based approach mainstreaming. 

 The national consultant will be responsible for assisting the international consultant in developing the sectoral policy document on decentralising social assistance in the Republic of Moldova.

 The overall goal of the policy document on social assistance decentralisation is to justify the strategic options and provide guidance for rights based and gender responsive decentralising social assistance services in the Republic of Moldova.

For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1 - Terms of Reference

Requirements for experience

Academic Background and Experience:

• Master or Doctoral degree in Social Assistance, Public Administration, Public Policy, Public Law or other relevant fields;

• At least 3 years of proven experience of research and analysis in the field of public policies, social assistance policies, public administration and multi-disciplinary studies, decentralization and intergovernmental relations;

• Experience in legislative and policy drafting / analysis (experience of gender and HRBA analysis / drafting of legislation and policies – a very strong asset);

• Good understanding of decentralization reforms, particularly in the area of social assistance in the CEE countries;

• Understanding of Moldovan development context, specifically with regard to Central Public Administration and Local Public Administration sectors reforms;

• Sound knowledge of the relevant public sector reforms currently undertaken at local level by the Moldovan Government;

• Knowledge of gender equality and human rights concerns and best practices particularly related to social assistance, public administration, local public administration and local development;

• Robust analytical skills and writing skills;     

• Fluency in Romanian and Russian (written & oral), English will be a strong asset;

• Proficiency in computer applications (Windows, MS Office, Internet).

Documents to be included

All applicants shall submit the following submission package:

1. P11 form (http://www.unwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/P_11_form_UNwomen.doc);

2. Cover letter, stating their interest in and qualifications for the consultancy;

3. Aggregated financial proposal (“aggregated financial proposal” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of the task).

In order to assist UN Women / JILDP in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days, as required).

 

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