Republic of Moldova

National Consultant to support the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Moldova on the assessment of the current institutional and legal framework for SMEs

Vacancy Number: Pr12/00217

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	15 Oct 2012, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	28 Oct 2012, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	11 Nov 2012, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	31 Oct 2012
Reference to the project:	Transitional Capacity Support for the Public Administration of Moldova
Expected Duration of Assignment:	6 months
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted on-line or by email to vacancies-moldova@undp.org, no later than 15 October 2012. Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: marin.eladi@undp.org and/or silvia.apostol@undp.org. Please notice that this address is for information requests only, please do not send or copy your application package to this address.   Please notice that, in line with TCS Project rules, which guard against subtracting capacity from the civil service, current civil servants are barred from applying for this position. The former civil servants are eligible to apply not earlier than in a year after the separation from civil service.
Supporting Documents: Terms of Reference Individual Consultant Procurement Notice Personal History Form (P11) UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract

Background

The project “Transitional Capacity Support for the Public Administration of Moldova” (TCS) was designed upon the request of the Government of Moldova to enhance capacities of the Moldovan Central Public Administration in order to accelerate the reform process and achieve Moldova’s short and medium term development goals. The project seeks to address urgent short-term capacity needs of the public administration, through provision of Capacity building consultants (CBC), at a time when Moldovan central government institutions face serious financial and human resources gaps. In addition to helping the Government pursue critical reform priorities, the intervention is designed to catalyze the on-going implementation of central public administration reform. It is coordinated and managed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and State Chancellery of Moldova and will complement on-going work by other donors.

The Moldovan diaspora and non-governmental sector, including the private and civil society sectors, would be the main source for such consultants, who can be employed on an open competitive basis for a defined period. CBC would be engaged and their TORs defined in a way that would protect the integrity of the civil service work to strengthen its intrinsic capacity. The project needs to guard against subtracting capacity from the civil service. In most cases, the sub-projects will be composed of national consultants – professionals who provide advice, coaching, and skills that are not expected to be performed on a permanent basis by the civil service.

Provided the important role of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the generation of new jobs and new income sources, the Government Programme „European Integration:  Freedom, Democracy, and Welfare 2011-2014”  highlights the importance of the development of the SMEs  sector in Moldova, in line with the EU standards and requirements. As part of Moldova’s commitments within the Eastern partnership, the process of alignment of Moldova’s SMEs policies with the ones of the EU (the Small Business Act for Europe) has already been launched. The early stages of implementation have highlighted the fact that Moldova, in comparison to other countries of the EU, lacks a clear vision and policy with regard to the development of family enterprises. For instance, in the EU there are around 17 million registered family enterprises, which constitute 75% of the overall number of companies in the EU. Therefore, the Government of Moldova is keen to foster the development of family type SMEs as part of its broader SME development policy.  

Family Businesses constitute a substantial part of the existing European companies and have a significant role to play in the strength and dynamism of the European economy. The Small Business Act already highlighted the role of family business and the need to exploit their full potential. The European Commission has undertaken some specific actions to study the need for and the shape of possible future policy initiatives in favour of family business, especially small and medium enterprises. The Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission has carried out specific activities on the family business sector.
Family businesses benefit from all the policies and actions undertaken by the Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry.

National governments should consider adopting measures to create a more favourable environment for family businesses, for example in areas of taxation, company law, and the educational system. There should also be a specific family business contact point in national administrations. The successful operation of family SMEs requires a series of special legal provisions, as for instance the procedure for transfer of ownership through inheritance rights.  However, these provisions are currently missing from Moldova’s existing institutional and legal framework.

In this context, the Ministry of Economy (MoE), which has a leading role in the development of the SMEs policies in Moldova in line with the EU standards and requirements, has requested the support of a national consultant to assess the current institutional and legal framework for SMEs with the elaboration of the required institutional and legislative changes and amendments, in the family owned enterprises area, in line with the EU requirements

Scope of work

The main scope of the assignment is to assess the current institutional framework for SMEs and the elaboration of the required institutional and legislative changes and amendments, in line with the existing EU policies and best practices in the family owned enterprises area.
In order to achieve this objective the consultant will undertake the following responsibilities:
•    Analyze the existing institutional framework guiding the operation of various forms of SMEs in Moldova (patent, individual companies and others);  
•    Analyze the best practices of elaboration of a respective framework in other countries, in particular the EU Member States; focus should be placed on the operation of family enterprises;
•    Evaluate the feasibility of changing the patent organizational system with family businesses and finding out the advantages and disadvantages; the evaluation should be based on existing Government policy making methodologies (Elaboration of the Preliminary Regulatory Impact Analysis);
•    Elaborate a Report (policy paper) regarding the need of developing a fully fledged system of family businesses in Moldova; the Report should include a further Plan of Action, including required activities, responsible parties and timing;
•    Support the elaboration of respective draft policy papers and legal documents (including a draft law regarding the family businesses, if/as required), taking into consideration the success stories of EU Member States;
•    Provide support with the consultations with Ministries, civil society, donor community and other parts/stakeholders, in line with Government’s requirements for consultation/participation of policy documents.

Requirements for experience

I. Academic Qualifications:
•    University degree in Economics, Law, Public Administration or other related field;   

II. Years of experience:
•    Minimum 3 years of experience in economic, public service or legal advisory field;

III. Competencies:
•    Relevant working experience in the area of policy elaboration (Preferably SMEs), impact analysis, strategic policy elaboration or other related field;
•    Experience in working with Governmental institutions would be considered an advantage;
•    Experience in elaboration of economic strategic documents/policies, related to EU and/or national field;
•    Knowledge in drafting technical documentations and normative acts, reports, qualitative and quantitative policy elaboration, including impact analysis;
•    Competencies in consulting, research, cost effectiveness analysis;
•    Fluency in Romanian and English (Knowledge of Russian will be an asset);
•    Computer proficiency, including knowledge of MS Office products (Word, Excel, Power Point).

Documents to be included

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:
1. Proposal: explaining why they are the most suitable for the work requirements (please provide brief information on each of the above qualifications, item by item);
2. Financial proposal;
3. Personal CV (or Personal History P11 Form) including past experience in similar projects and contact details (phone number and e-mail address) for at least 3 references;
4. Examples of written work (e.g. reports; documents; analysis etc).

Financial proposal

The financial proposal shall in USD and specify a total amount (including fees, taxes, mobile phone costs etc). 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.  

 

Disclaimer In case of discrepancies between the text published on the website and the contents of the supporting documents, the provisions, instructions and conditions included in the supporting documents (published as Adobe Portable Document Format files) shall prevail. In case of discrepancies between the English version and the Romanian and/or Russian versions of text, documents or other content published on this webpage, the English version shall prevail.

Notice UNDP, as a matter of practice, does not charge any application, processing or training fee at any stage of the recruitment process. If you have any questions as to vacancy announcements you may have received, please refer to this website. UNDP is currently aware of fictitious vacancy announcements that are being circulated through the internet, the purpose of which is to get people to register for a training and send in a fee. If you believe that you have received such a notice, please forward it, and any other related information you have received, to scamalert@undp.org. Since logos, emblems, names and addresses can be easily copied or reproduced, you are advised to take particular care in applying for vacancies, including undertaking all appropriate measures to protect against the unauthorised use of any personal information you may have provided as a result of the scam.