Social Development Consultant for Brcko District BiH Development Strategy

Background

NOTE: Signed Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability - http://www.ba.undp.org/content/dam/bosnia_and_herzegovina/docs/Operations/Jobs/Offerors%20Letter%20to%20UNDP%20Confirming%20Interest%20and%20Availability.docx Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability.docx - to be sent to e-mail ba.shared.hr@undp.org with Subject: Job ID 90361.

The consultancy will take place within the third phase of the Integrated Local Development Project (ILDP), a joint project of the Government of Switzerland and UNDP. For nearly 10 years, the Project has been working in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to systematise strategic planning and development management at sub-national levels in the country. Since its launch in 2008, the ILDP has been progressively growing, both in terms of scope of work, as well as conceptual approaches applied to advance strategic planning in the BiH.

The ILDP supported the participatory creation of a standardised development planning methodology that was successfully applied in more than 60 municipalities and all 10 cantons. Following adoption of their development strategies, the ILDP partners received support in preparing and adopting three-year strategy implementation plans and annual development reports. Currently, the ILDP supports the entity of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in preparing its 2021-2027 development strategy.  In addition to harmonising development planning in the country, the ILDP paved the way for the newly adopted and emerging development planning and management regulatory frameworks in both entities.

In December 2019, the Government of Brcko District BiH (Brcko District) and the ILDP agreed that the ILDP will additionally support the design of Brcko District Integrated Development Strategy. From the Brcko District side, the main coordination role is assigned to the Brcko District Government’ Department for Business Development, Sport and Culture (the Department), supported by the relevant strategic planning body under the Brcko District Government’ Secretariat. The ILDP, in close coordination with the Department, will be responsible for overall coordination and facilitation of the engaged consultants, while the Department will be responsible for ensuring participation of all relevant parties, inclusion of vulnerable groups and public transparency in the entire process. Aiming to ensure vertical and horizontal coordination and support to the process, the Government will establish the Development Board.

Within its support package, the ILDP will assist Brcko District BiH to prepare its development strategy in line with the standardised approach and the mutually agreed Project Document for the Strategy Preparation from February 2019 that prescribes the methodological approach for the planning processes (the Project Document and the Methodology will be shared with the engaged consultant).

In that respect, a Social Development Consultant for Brcko District BiH Development Strategy will be engaged to provide expert and technical support in the process of design of the Development Strategy of Brcko District.

Duties and Responsibilities

As a part of the team of consultants, and under the direct guidance by the Team Leader and the ILDP, the Consultant is obliged to contribute to design of relevant parts of the Brcko District Development Strategy document, via data collection and analysis, meetings facilitation, drafting and re-drafting of relevant parts of the document, in line with the methodical approach defined in the Project Document.

More specifically, the Consultant will be expected to perform the following tasks:

Task 1: Collect, analyse and interpret data related to social development and draft the relevant parts of the socio-economic analysis and the overall strategic platform document from the social development perspective

Based on the best practices and agreed approach, and in close cooperation with the rest of the expert’s team, the Consultant will collect relevant qualitative and quantitative data, conduct data analysis so as to identify the current situation, key problems, development potentials, trends and projections in the domain of social  development (including but not limited to education systems, culture and sport, health and social protection, civil society and vulnerable groups, security, etc.). These will be reflected in draft socio-economic analysis, which will serve as a basis for the overall strategic planning process, specifically focusing to the social development. In preparing the relevant parts of socio-economic analysis, the Consultant will conduct additional minimum two focus group meetings with relevant stakeholders to obtain qualitative data required for the analysis.

Also, in preparing the relevant parts of socio-economic analysis, the Consultant will closely work with the Brcko District Government representatives and other consultants, as well as with the Development Board members, to ensure that all relevant data is collected, obtain feedback and validate findings before moving on to the next stage of the process. Once finalized, the draft analysis will be discussed in detail and validated at a workshop(s) with the Development Board. It is important to note that the Consultant should pre-draft all relevant key parts of the document and will be responsible for improving the document and overall quality assurance of sections related to social development, based on inputs by the Team Leader, the Department, and the ILDP. The Consultant in this regard will closely coordinate with the Team Leader.

The Consultant will co-facilitate at least two workshops with the Development Board and/or other relevant stakeholders that will result in identification of relevant strategic focuses and priorities.

Task 1 is expected to be completed by mid of May 2020 with estimated level of effort of 15 days.

Task 2: Support the design of Programming part of the Strategy from social development perspective

Within this task, the Consultant is expected to ensure a high-quality process and technical support to the Development Board and relevant stakeholders in the area of social development in the programming stage of the process. This entails provision of guidance and advice in defining priorities, measures and key projects for achieving strategic development goals identified within the strategic platform phase, along with their indicators. The task also entails drafting, improving and, if and when required, re-drafting of relevant segments of the programming part of the Strategy based on inputs and validation by the Department, ILDP and the Development Board.

Concretely, the support will include:

• Oversight and facilitation of definition of focuses and priorities for social development;
• Oversight and facilitation of definition of key projects and measures in areas of social development, including indicators, financial perspective and compatibly with relevant higher planning frameworks (SDGs Framework);
• Provide concrete expert inputs and draft relevant parts from the monitoring, evaluation and reporting plan, including development indicators from the viewpoint of social development;
• Provide support in preparation of the first 3-year Action plan.

The Consultant will, together with the other consultants, facilitate at least two workshops that will enable creation of the programming part of the development strategy document, including all elements that are relevant for social development sphere. Focus will be placed on ensuring linkages and coherence between measures and projects with relevant priorities and goals.

In this regard, the Consultant will closely coordinate and collaborate with other consultants engaged in the planning process, under the direct guidance by the Team Leader and supervision by the ILDP.

It is envisaged that this task will be delivered in the period May – September 2020 and the level of effort will not exceed 15 expert days.

Organizational issues

It is important to note that the entire process of strategic planning will be supported by a team of consultants, where each broader sector, if relevant (economic, environmental protection and infrastructural development) will be supported by relevant consultants. The Team Leader, the Department and the ILDP will be responsible for the overall coordination and quality assurance of the process and products from the viewpoint of the content.

Sectoral consultants will facilitate the planning process and draft specific sectoral segments of the document, while the Team Leader will be responsible for compiling the inputs and ensuring overall coherence and quality of the strategy document. Under the direct guidance of the Team Leader, consultants engaged for specific sectors will be required to closely work together, agree on practical modalities of work, division of responsibilities as well as coordination and communication channels.

All management and methodological issues will be closely coordinated and monitored by the ILDP. The organization and logistics of workshops delivery will be carried out by the Department.

The entire service will be delivered in the languages of BiH peoples.  

Deliverables/outputs

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism;
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional competencies:

• Strong interpersonal skills, communication and diplomatic skills, ability to work in a team;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to work under pressure and stressful situations;
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities;
• Excellent public speaking and presentation skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications/Education:

• University degree in social sciences, or other relevant field.
• Advanced degree will be considered as an asset.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of progressive experience in design of development documents and projects at local, regional or other sub-national levels;
• Experience in delivery of technical assistance to public sector beneficiaries, preferably in the area of strategic planning;
• Specific experience in the standardized development planning methodologies application in BiH;
• Proven communication and advocacy skills, and ability to work in an environment requiring liaison and collaboration with multiple actors including government representatives and other stakeholders;
• Ability to work as a team player in a complex working environment.

Languages Requirements:

• Fluency in languages of peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in English;

Longlisting/Shortlisting Criteria

Qualifications as stated in the ToR

Technical Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, andb) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

• * Technical Criteria weight-70%
• * Financial Criteria weight- 30%

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

• Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references;
• Proposal:
  • Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work; or sample of previous document/strategy/paper done by the consultant;
  •  Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work;

Please scan all above mentioned documents and upload as one attachment only online through this website.

Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.