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National Consultant to make a feasibility study on establishing constituency offices for Members of Parliament in MoldovaVacancy Number: Pr12/00191
Background
The “Support to Parliamentary Development in Moldova” Project aims to enhance parliamentary capacity in carrying out its core functions, thus contributing to viable democracy and open society in Moldova. The project adopts a comprehensive, long-term approach to parliamentary development including strengthening of the legislatures law-making, representation and oversight roles. While elections are the most common mechanism linking citizens and their government, they are occasional and citizen participation is generally limited to casting a vote. The representatives in single member district systems, where constituents vote directly for a single representative, must be responsive to constituents if they want to remain in office. In party-list systems, as existing in Moldova, elected representatives have a primary loyalty to their party leaders. There is limited motivation to provide constituent services because they are not as likely to directly affect election outcomes as in single member district systems. Hence, constituency relations in Moldova are rather weak and mainly based on receiving occasional feedback from citizens and civil society. This is, however, not only caused by the voting system, in which parliamentarians do not formally represent a certain area of the country, but there are also other explanations such as lack of infrastructure. Inadequate, inaccessible facilities for MPs to meet with constituents act as constraints on relations between MPs and their constituents. Sporadic relations with constituencies weaken accountability of Parliament and Parliamentarians to the citizens. Information about the work of the Parliament and the MPs is limited and fails to reach many of the rural areas where a majority of Moldova’s most vulnerable population lives. This poor communication flow can only widen the existing perception of social, economic and other disparities between urban (in particular the capital city Chisinau) and rural areas. As a result, the Parliament runs the risk of being perceived as isolated from the realities of life in Moldova’s villages and small towns, since citizens are not always aware of Parliament’s work. In order to bring MPs closer to the constituents establishing Constituency Offices where MPs or their staff can meet with citizens, handle constituent problems, meet with local citizen groups and learn about local concerns and issues to raise in the Parliament is considered. The solution proposed for the Moldovan Parliament is to establish initially 3 Constituency Offices in regions, which will be used by representatives from all political parties and also act as a 'hub' for information and education on parliamentary/democracy issues. Such offices would bring the Parliament closer to the citizens, for who it will become easier to establish direct contact with MPs. In this context, the UNDP Parliament Project is seeking to hire a national consultant who will support the international consultant in making a feasibility study on establishing constituency offices for Members of Parliament in Moldova, using examples from other European countries with similar electoral systems.
Scope of work
The expected output for the national consultant’s assignment is to support the international consultant to make a feasibility study on establishing constituency offices for Members of Parliament in Moldova, assess the existing parliament-constituency relationship and suggest better mechanism aimed at strengthening parliamentarians' accountability vis-à-vis their constituents. This mechanism should enable the electorate to assess the effectiveness of MPs in representing their aspirations in the public decision-making processes, as well as their ability to explain the importance of decisions made and laws adopted by Parliament. For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference. Requirements for experience
Academic Qualifications: Experience: Competencies: Documents to be included
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:
Financial proposal
The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days). All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should 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 case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.
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