Republic of Moldova

National Consultant for peer review and monitoring of community mobilization for empowerment within JILDP program interventions at the local level (UN Women / JILDP)

Vacancy Number: Pr13/00351

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	31 Jul 2013, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	05 Aug 2013, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	12 Aug 2013
Reference to the project:	Joint Integrated Local Development Programme
Expected Duration of Assignment:	27 months
Submission Instructions: Technical proposal together with the financial proposal should be submitted on-line no later than 31 July 2013. Any request for clarification must be sent by standard electronic communication to the address veaceslav.balan@unwomen.org. Please notice that this address is for information requests only, please do not send or copy your application package to this address. 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 UN Women General Conditions of Individual Contract UN Women Personal History Form (P11)

Background

Since 2010 the Government of Moldova (State Chancellery) in partnership with the UNDP and UN Women has been implementing the “Joint Integrated Local Development Programme” (JILDP), funded by the Government of Sweden, and lately by the Government of Denmark. The JILDP was designed to support the Government in improving the policy and legal framework as mandated by the National Decentralization Strategy to ensure local autonomy, availability of resources, and more effective local management for better and equitable service provision, as well as to improving the capacity of Local Public Authorities (LPAs) to deliver efficient, equitable and accessible local public services, to facilitate sustainable development and foster social inclusion. It also assists in building the capacity of LPAs to plan, implement and monitor their strategic plans and improve local public service delivery, engaging women and men from local community groups, including most vulnerable. The program is applying Human Rights Based Approach, Gender Mainstreaming and Women’s Empowerment as guiding conceptual approaches and instruments to its work and interventions, seeking to ensure positive and measurable change in the areas of human rights, gender equality and social inclusion.

Starting with 2013, a new phase of JILDP is being implemented with the financial support from Danish Government. The interventions at the local level (30 target localities) will aim at developing models of operational local governments - ‘champions of change’ - by providing support to implement changes in the operation and structure of local governments in line with the changes brought by the National Decentralization Strategy. JILDP will assist LPAs in improving their capacity and operations, will support target communities and local authorities to provide quality and equitable public services to achieve sustainable human-centred and gender-responsive economic and social development in the main areas affected by the Decentralization strategy.

In order to efficiently implement the designed systems and procedures, the Programme will work to consolidate the LPA’s capacities in the above-mentioned areas along three dimensions: i) improvement of individual professional capacities through training of municipal officials and local administration staff in cooperation with the Academy of Public Administration and CALM; ii) strengthening of institutional capacity, through the introduction of improved methods and organizational arrangements for delivery of quality services and managing municipal public resources and iii) building-up systemic capacity for effective inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) and intergovernmental relations between local authorities and the central level authorities and administration. Within the JILDP UN Women plays a key role in ensuring gender mainstreaming of the policy and planning documents developed with Programme’s support at central and local levels, and in facilitating women’s empowerment.   

To facilitate effective implementation of the above-mentioned interventions in the 30 target localities UN Women’s JILDP hired 5 national consultants (community facilitators) to perform community facilitation in the field, as per the description below. There are 5 teams altogether and each team is comprised of two consultants, one hired by UNDP, with specific tasks to focus on capacity building of duty-bearers (LPAs), and one hired by UN Women, assigned to focus on community mobilization and empowerment of rights-holders, in the same community to achieve common results.

Under the current ToR JILDP is seeking a peer review and monitoring consultant to ensure the tracking of progress in implementation of the JILDP community interventions, and to provide the community facilitators with an expert peer feedback on the process, and thus to improve the quality of the local interventions of the program.

Scope of work

Under direct supervision and guidance of the Programme Analyst UN Women/JILDP, the selected national consultant will be responsible for ensuring the tracking of progress in implementation of the JILDP community interventions, and providing the community facilitators with an expert peer feedback on the process, as per the Community Mobilization for Empowerment Guide methodology.

The ultimate goal of the assignment is contribute to improvement of the quality and accessibility of local governance and public service delivery, to develop and empower the target communities in terms of their pro-active engagement into local decision-making and local development, and to advance the local human rights and gender equality situation with focus on women and vulnerable groups.

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

Requirements for experience

Academic Qualifications:

• At least a University degree in Development Studies, Public Administration, Public Policy, Law, Social Protection/Assistance, or other relevant fields;

Experience:

• At least 5 years of proven experience of community development work with local public authorities and local community groups or women and men from vulnerable groups;
• At least 1 year of proved experience in monitoring, evaluation and peer review activities;
• Previous experience in development assistance or related work for an international and/or donor organization, preferably a UN entity.

Competencies:

• Sound understanding of Moldovan development context, specifically with regard to Local Public Administration / decentralization reforms;
• Sound understanding of human rights and gender equality concepts/approach to development, knowledge of major human rights and gender equality concerns, particularly at the local level;
• Advanced communication, presentation and training skills, particularly with regard to difficult or challenging human rights / gender equality issues.

Language requirement:

• Fluency in both, written and oral Romanian and English. Knowledge of Russian is an advantage;
• Working knowledge of one or more additional languages relevant for Moldova, including Bulgarian, Gagauzian, Romani, Ukrainian or sign language is an asset.

Computer skills:

• Experience in usage of computer, Internet, and office software (MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).

Documents to be included

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Duly filled Personal History Form (PHF11)/CV;
• Letter of Interest (justifying compliance with the qualification requirements);
• Financial proposal

Financial proposal

The financial proposal shall be structured around the specific tasks and key deliverables described in the Terms of Reference. The all-inclusive / aggregated financial offer shall include a consolidated amount of all financial claims related to performance of the assignment, including fees, travel and other additional costs, etc. It is each applicant’s responsibility to make a calculation of all relevant fees, costs and claims, and to submit the final aggregated financial offer along with the application package.

Payments shall be made based on delivery of the services specified in the ToR and in accordance with the procedures described in the Remuneration section of the ToR.

In order to assist UN Women JILDP 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, as required).

 

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