Re-advertisement-Lead Consultant for Urban Public Space and Land Management for Equitable Growth in Uganda

Background

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is a UN organization with a capital mandate (unique in the UN System) focused on reducing poverty and inequality first and foremost in the least developed countries (“LDC”s).  UNCDF develops and tests out financial models which mobilize and recycle domestic resources to meet local needs and which raise investor confidence in these local economies so that they can become centres of growth. UNCDF works with local governments, promoting financial and fiscal accountability to its citizens through local development funds, performance-based grant systems, structured project finance, and by strengthening local revenue streams. It also supports accountable planning, budgeting, and decision-making at the local level, recognizing the importance of having decisions about resources being made locally, and those resources being spent or invested locally.

UNCDF in partnership with the Cities Alliance, the global partnership for poverty reduction and the promotion of cities in sustainable development with a representative global membership of over 30 full and associate members is implementing the Joint Work Proramme on Equitable Economic Growth in Cities in Uganda. The JWP on Equitable Economic Growth in Cities (2016-2020) focuses on supporting equitable access to public goods and services by all citizens and formal and informal businesses in cities. It works with development partners to produce global knowledge, facilitate policy dialogues and support city-level diagnostics and policy recommendations. The goal is to support growth trajectories increasingly characterised by equity, inclusion and environmental sustainability.

UNCDF is specifically responsible for implementation of JWP Component 3: The Campaign Cities Initiative. The main objective is to assist two municipal governments in Uganda, the municipalities of Gulu and Mbale, to develop well-researched and evidence-based policy recommendations on how to improve the delivery of municipal public goods and service that contribute to equitable economic growth. Also, the project will facilitate UNCDF and other JWP members to support the promotion of equitable access to public goods and services in the selected Ugandan cities, based on local needs, capacities and priorities.

During a 24-month local support initiative, the two Ugandan municipalities will be assisted in producing a number of outputs, such as an Institutional Enabling Environment Report, a Local Assessment Report, and city-level evidence-based policy briefs and recommendations. Two themes were identified through a participatory and consultative process for Local Assessment Reports in Gulu and Mbale – Public Space and Land Management, and Local Economic Development. Local Assessment Reports are intended to provide detailed information about a particular public service, its scope, delivery mechanisms and recommendations about service improvements required to promote equitable economic growth. A Local Assessment Report contains a situation analysis and mapping of the city economy in terms of factors, systems and structures related to the provision of and access to public goods, resulting in a clearly documented evidence base. It is the key input to inform city-level evidence-based policy briefs and recommendations to specify policy, legal and regulatory actions to be employed by municipal authorities to implement the LAR recommendations.

Objectives of the Consultancy:

For the process of urbanization to take place rapidly and efficiently, proper land use is critically important to ensuring that these areas drive growth in productivity and productive employment. The economic benefits of urban growth come from exploiting economies of scale; from agglomeration effects; and from effective substitution between land and non-land inputs. One of the most important pillars of an efficient city is appropriate land use, which in turn is determined by land policies and institutions that support urban efficiency. Increasing the density of economic activities is one of the key features of successful urbanization, enabled by using land for higher value activities over time.

As Ugandan towns strive to foster equitable and inclusive economic growth, the challenges of ensuring proper public space and land management become more pronounced. Effective urban land management is required to promote urban regeneration and development of new industrial and commercial districts, investments to upgrade and expand critical infrastructure systems, programs to enhance and protect the environment, and initiatives to upgrade social overhead capital (housing, education, healthcare). Inadequate urban land management is a key challenge to the private sector’s engagement with developing the town by providing businesses and residents with shops, offices, factories and housing. Municipal governments, with their democratic mandate, play a triple role with respect to effective urban land management:

• as regulators in charge of the open space and land management framework at the local level through development plans, physical and land use plans, zoning regulations by-laws and ordinances; the regulatory function also includes enforcement of the applicable regulations;
• as users of land under their direct administration, including open space, directly responsible for effective use and maintenance of land and associated natural resources including land acquisition, rent or sale to third parties;
• as developers implementing, directly or in partnership with third parties, land development projects including changing landforms for a purpose such as housing or industrial development; subdivision of real estate into lots as well as real estate development.

The New Urban Development Agenda (2016) stresses the need to take advantage of the opportunities of urbanization as an engine of sustained and inclusive economic growth, social and cultural development, and environmental protection, and of its potential contributions to the achievement of transformative and sustainable development. Specifically, it calls for the development of urban spatial frameworks that support sustainable management and use of natural resources and land, appropriate compactness and density, polycentrism, and mixed uses, through infill or planned urban extension strategies as applicable, to trigger economies of scale and agglomeration, strengthen food system planning, enhance resource efficiency, urban resilience, and environmental sustainability. The New Urban Agenda explicitly promotes safe, inclusive, accessible, green, and quality public spaces as drivers of social and economic development, sustainably leveraging their potential to generate increased social and economic value, including property value, and to facilitate business, public and private investments, and livelihood opportunities for all. 

Hence, UNCDF seeks to engage a Lead Consultant to prepare a Local Assessment Report on Public Space and Land Management in Gulu and Mbale and perform other relevant activities associated with this output. The objective of the LAR is to establish a reliable evidence base with respect to the public space and land management in the target municipalities from the perspective of public service delivery that fosters equitable economic growth. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work and methodology:

The Lead Consultant will work in close collaboration with the relevant municipal authorities and Municipal Development Forums, Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ministry of Local Government, Urban Authorities Association of Uganda and other relevant government and non-government stakeholders as well as with the JWP members in Uganda (Cities Alliance, DFID, World Bank and GIZ).

The Lead Consultant for Urban Public Space and Land Management will lead a team that includes a Consultant for Urban Public Space and Land Management working under the guidance of the Lead Consultant and will undertake the tasks described below. The tasks and expected outputs are designed to be produced through a team effort of the two consultants. The exact division of labour should be agreed between the consultants and endorsed by the UNCDF focal point. The general suggested division of labour across the tasks and outputs is as following:

• Lead Consultant: overall responsibility for the delivery of all outputs; quality control across outputs; general methodological issues for the consultancy and research methodology and design of the validation workshops; final editing of the Local Assessment Reports and presentation materials; contacts and liaison with the partners and parties concerned; briefings and presentations to MoLHUD, MoLG, municipal authorities and the JWP Sounding Board;
• Consultant: specific inputs to the research methodology; management of the field research including data collection, entry and processing; inputs to the draft and final versions of the Local Assessment Reports and presentation materials as well as other outputs as agreed with the Lead Consultant.   

Develop a methodology for a situation analysis that allows collection of reliable and relevant data to identify the key challenges and opportunities for public space and land management to promote equitable economic growth in towns using the following guidelines:

• The methodology should combine quantitative and qualitative methods, including for example a review of administrative data and official statistics, extant research, mini-surveys, key informant and focus groups interviews, etc;
• The methodology should combine the private sector perspective with that of the public sector directly responsible for public space and land management to identify the gaps and opportunities that improved land and public space management may produce to promote equitable economic growth;
• The methodology should provide as much gender disaggregated data as possible and incorporate gender-sensitive analysis throughout to take stock of the adequacy and access levels to public space and land for private sector development along gender lines;
• Special attention should be given to the public space and land issues in underdeveloped areas of the municipality, particularly slums;
• The methodology should be adapted to the specific characteristics and needs of the municipality where it is applied;
• The methodology should be aligned, to the extent possible, with the methodology for producing a Local Assessment Report on local economic development to ensure complementarities between the two LARs.  

The methodology may cover the following areas affecting public space and land management to the extent that municipal authorities may, directly or indirectly, produce an influence in such areas:

Regulation and enforcement: 

• Adequacy and completeness of the existing land management framework at the town level (Land Use Regulation) within the national context (Uganda National Land Policy), including gender aspects and provisions for public-private partnerships for land and public space management;
• Alignment of the town land management framework with the broader development agenda as formulated in development plans
• Capacity of the municipal administration, including town/division Land Committees and District Land Board, to plan, regulate and enforce land regulations based on the quality/completeness of the relevant planning and implementation frameworks, procedures and data;
• Clarity in the division of labour between the District Land Board and town land committee;
• Public participation in land planning and regulation; public awareness about land regulations and guidelines.

Use and maintenance:

• Adequacy and completeness of the public land registry, including land value;
• Effectiveness and efficiency of public land use, percentage of idle/unused land and the ability of each division to have open spaces duly maintained;
• Public access to local development plans, official data and information on the existing and planned land use and land availability; 
• Ease of access for private sector entities to land and public spaces, including the gender aspect and transaction costs involved;
• Municipal capacity to capture land value and establish linkages between land-based finance and services provided to land users.

Land development:

• Access to information about the town's demographic and economic projections and its land and property market so that developers and investors are well informed about urban development trends;
• Capacity of the municipality to prepare participatory, inclusive urban plans that prioritize the poor and marginalized groups
• Availability of incentives to enable land development by the private sector to match the changing requirements of households and businesses;
• Capacity of the municipal administration to prepare and implement land development projects using public or private finance;
• Opportunities for housing finance for disadvantaged groups, particularly slum dwellers, through saving groups and mechanisms;
• Transparency in the decisions on allocation of public land for private and/or mixed use, including establishment of industrial parks. 

. Conduct field research for the Local Assessment Report on Public Space and Land Management in two municipalities:

• Engage relevant local actors (e.g., MDF members, associations, government officials, etc.) in the finalization and refinement of the methodology to ensure its adaptation to local conditions;
• Develop a work plan for the field research and conduct gender-sensitive quantitative surveys, gender-balanced interviews and focus groups and other activities as per the agreed methodology and work plan;
• Suggest in the work plan specific roles for relevant local actors in the provision and collection of relevant data (e.g., MDF members, associations, government officials, local colleges and schools, etc.) and ensure their engagement as agreed;
• Manage collection of data for the public space and land management mapping and complete the processing and analysis of raw data.

Validate and present the results:

• Design the structure of the Local Assessment Report and present the key findings from the mapping exercise, conclusions and recommendations, in the agreed format for both municipalities.  The conclusions and recommendations should clearly identify;
• Gaps in the delivery of public space and land management, particularly along local growth paths, that impede equitable economic growth;
• Specific challenges in accessing pubic space and land by different social and economic urban strata, including how access to these are also divided along gender lines;
• Opportunities, priority areas of improvement and key actions to encourage equitable economic growth through improved public space and land management that may be undertaken by (a) government agencies, particularly municipal and district authorities; (b) professional associations; (c) business entities and civil society organizations;   
• Simplified benefit analysis to establish likely economic gains (benefits) from implementing those priority improvements in terms of local economic growth, personal incomes and other relevant economic indicators.      
• Prepare PP presentations and handout materials for discussions of the Sounding Board to validate the findings;
• Contribute to the design of two gender-balanced City Review Workshops and relevant presentation materials to present and validate the Local Assessment Reports;
• Present the Local Assessment Report to the City Review Workshop and facilitate discussions thereof.  
• Consolidate comments and suggestions from the stakeholders and prepare the final Local Assessment Report for dissemination via Ugandan government partners, JWP partners and others.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates commitment to the UN’s mission, vision and values;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability; and
• Ability to maintain effective rapport with different kinds of people.

Functional Competencies:

• Demonstrated adequate technical experience and know-how to undertake the necessary baseline surveys and assessment work;
• Ability to lead research teams, coordinate and work in multifaceted and cross-cutting environments;
• Profound understanding of the urbanization challenges in Africa and in Uganda in particular in the context of urban land management.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

• Master’s degree in land use planning, urban development, geography, economics environmental science or a related field.

Years of experience:

• At least 10 years of proven relevant work experience in land use planning and management including the regulatory, institutional and enforcement aspects, particularly at the local level;
• Substantial experience in development research and policy analysis related to land space planning and management, particularly in the urban context;
• Significant experience in writing/editing reports for large organizations, especially within the UN system.

Language requirements:

Fluency in written and spoken English.

Price proposal and schedule of payments:

A lump sum payment, in seven tranches, shall be made upon successful completion and certification of work done as indicated in this Terms of Reference. Payment is based on the consultant submitting detailed reports or other deliverables against the agreed work plan, as agreed in the inception report, and a final report at the completion of the assignment.

Upon completion of the following deliverables: 20%

• Inception report describing the consultant's response to the TOR;
• Research methodology;
• Workplan of the consultancy.

Upon completion of the following deliverables: 30%

• Workplan fo rht field research;
• Raw data from the field research in excel format or other format as agreed.

Upon completion of the following deliverables: 50%

• Draft local assessment reports fro two municipalities and presentation materials for the cirty review workshops on key findings, conclusions and recommendations;
• Proposals for the city review workshops in two munipalities to present and validate the local assessment reports;
• debriefing session with the Sounding Board Group and presentations to the city review worshops;
• final local assessment reports for two munipalities and presentation materials summarising and explaing the main findings and recommendations in a comprehensible and easy format.

Work arrangements:

Institutional Arrangement:

The Lead Consultant will work as part of a team including a Consultant for Urban Public Space and Management under the guidance of the UNCDF focal point for JWP in Uganda and with the secondary guidance from the Global Manager, Municipal Investment Finance Programme. Regular meetings with the UNCDF focal point and with relevant senior officials from MoLHUD, MoLG and UAAU will be undertaken to monitor progress and address any issues or concerns.

Duration of the Work:

Deliverables are to be provided over a 3-month period, in line with agreed workplan.

Duty Station:

• Kampala, with field travel as required.

Submission of Application:

The candidate is required to submit an electronic application directly uploaded on the UNDP jobs website with all the requirements as listed here below. Annexes and further information may be downloaded on http://procurement-notices.undp.org/. (Reference #39810).

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document to this website - http://jobs.undp.org (Ref no.73870).

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II);
• Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

Technical proposal:

• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
• A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment;
• Financial proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (Annex II);
• Annexes 1 and II - may be downloaded from the UNDP Procurement Notices Website -http://procurement-notices.undp.org/ - under reference #39810. For further clarifications, please contact; janet.anyango@undp.org; moses.lutwama@undp.org;

Interested applicants should submit applications through uploading of all their required documentation in one single pdf document on this website only.