National Consultant to provide expert and methodological support on establishing and running the Open Regulatory Platforms for regulatory review in oblast and city level municipalities, and at the national level (5 platforms)

Background

Micro- small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) provide work for more than 4 million people in Ukraine and generate about 20% of the country’s GDP. The Government of Ukraine has been increasing its efforts to undertake economic reforms and create a business enabling environment for enterprises, strengthen the position of MSMEs in the economy. Business membership organizations (BMOs) – an essential component of the business support infrastructure faces several challenges which are due to weaknesses of the BMO sector and low capacity, sustainability, and maturity of BMOs in terms of service provision strategy alignment and low level of awareness and understanding of existing and/or potential benefits of BMOs among current and potential member businesses.

During the period 2015 – 2018, in cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and with the financial support from Switzerland, UNDP supported BMOs through the “Strengthening SME Business Membership Organizations” project.

Building on the experience and lessons learned, a key focus of the Project Phase II is to ensure the sustainability and scaling-up of the positive results achieved during the First Phase, in particular, enhance growth and competitiveness and strengthen the voice of MSMEs in Ukraine through more professional, demand-driven and client-oriented Business Membership Organizations. The Project aims to expand BMO coverage throughout Ukraine and is expected to positively impact their ability to attract members, promote constructive cooperation with governmental structures, and contribute to policy development leading to MSMEs sector growth.

20 Partner BMOs have been selected as the result of a competitive process based on clear and transparent criteria and will be delivered tailored support to improve their institutional, organizational, financial, as well as communication capacities to represent the interests of the private sector.

In addition to 20 selected partner BMOS, the Project will provide follow-up support to 7 partner BMOs engaged under Project Phase I, which will be additionally trained to serve as hubs or platforms for the cooperation of the wider BMO community, thus spreading further the experience and knowledge obtained in Phase I and contributing to MSME sector consolidation. One of these 7 BMOs has initiated the development of methodology of regulatory review and establishment of the Open Regulatory Platform in Vinnytsia municipality during the Project Phase I.

In the process of decentralization, a substantial part of the powers has been devolved to a local level, including the authority to regulate the economic activity. However, the local authorities have limited capacity to undertake a full-fledged regulatory review to remove harmful or ineffective regulations and/or improve the quality of regulations to improve the business environment.

UNDP has received requests from 4 municipalities and from the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine to assist in the development and launching of the open regulatory platform based on mechanisms of public-private dialogue. To this end, the UNDP is seeking to hire a short-term Consultant to develop and pilot-test a replicable model of the public-private dialogue mechanism for regulatory review in oblast and city level municipalities and at the national level. 4 municipalities and the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine will be the key recipient of UNDP assistance under this assignment, whereas the model, experience, lessons learned, and recommendations will be widely shared with other municipalities and stakeholders.

The incumbent will promote UNDP’s mandate as a gender-responsive organization with zero tolerance to any kind of discriminatory and abusive behaviour, including sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse.

Duties and Responsibilities

2. MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The main objective of the assignment is to assist the city councils (3) and oblast administration (1) in establishing a mechanism for improvement of local regulations affecting SMEs based on participatory dialogue between the public and private sector (the local business community represented by local BMOs), and provide the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine (hereinafter SRSU) with the recommendations on how to establish this mechanism at the national level. The ultimate goal is to kick-start the process of regulatory review which will aim to improve the local business environment for SMEs.

 

3. DESCRIPTION OF RESPONSIBILITIES/SCOPE OF WORK

Under the direct supervision of the Project Manager, the Consultant will work to develop a model of efficient public-private dialogue mechanisms to contribute to the improvement of the local regulatory environment. In particular, the Consultant will:

1. Develop a detailed work plan for the assignment (including a schedule of necessary consultations with stakeholders, trainings and working/public events, etc) based on consultations with the stakeholders;
2. Review the documents provided by UNDP to obtain a better understanding of the project goals and context;
3. Review existing experience in establishing similar platforms/mechanisms (mostly the Regulatory Platform in Vinnytsia from the Project Phase I) to identify lessons learned and best practices that can be applied to the current context of Chernihiv, Melitopol, and Vinnytsia municipalities and Chernihiv Oblast State Administration;
4. Based on the materials from the Project Phase I, develop a clear and efficient methodology (algorithm) for the review of local regulations and pilot test it in Chernihiv city and oblast, Melitopol, and Vinnytsia city municipalities with involvement of the group of experts;
5. Deliver 5 training programs (1 training program for 1 platform; at least 12 hours per 1 training program; 1 training program can be divided into 3 or more training sessions) on regulatory policy and regulatory impact analysis to familiarize the employees of the SRSU, local authorities, and business membership organizations with the suggested methodology of regulatory review;
6. Develop the recommendations for the organizational set-up (model) of the Open Regulatory platform for the city and oblast level municipalities and the national level. The recommendations should describe the general approach to establishing the mechanism, key principles, standing orders of work, possible partnerships, stakeholders, and their potential role in running the participatory process of regulatory review.
7. Participate in at least five working or public events (online and/or offline) to present/discuss the outputs of the assignment. Logistics arrangements for the events will be ensured by UNDP.

To ensure the delivery of the above tasks, the Consultant will:

• Liaise and ensure constant communication/coordination with the UNDP project team regarding all aspects of the assignment;
• Submit all the deliverables for review, comments, and approval to the UNDP project team as requested;
• Hold consultations with the UNDP project team as requested.
• Ensure the mainstreaming of gender equality and women’s empowerment considerations in activities, promote a safe and enabling environment free of any kind of discrimination and abusive behaviour, and use the principles of gender-responsive communications in line with the UNDP corporate standards.

 

4. DELIVERABLES

The Consultant should provide the following deliverables:

	Deliverable	Timeline	Payment Schedule
1.	Detailed work plan for the assignment	5 working days from the contract signature	20% of Contract amount
2.	Developed manuals on methodology (detailed description of the methodology, algorithm of the regulatory review implementation – text, tables and schemes, up to 25 pages per each manual) for the review of regulations (in Ukrainian): Manual for the city level municipality Manual for the oblast level municipality Manual for the national level	By July 31, 2021	20% of Contract amount
3.	5 training programs for 5 platforms on regulatory policy and regulatory impact analysis (Chernihiv city and oblast, Melitopol, and Vinnytsia city municipalities, the SRSU) delivered – up to 25 participants per each training program	By August 31, 2021	50% of Contract amount
4.	Recommendations for the organizational set-up (model) of the Open Regulatory Platform (up to 30 pages in total, in Ukrainian) Recommendations for the city level Recommendations for the oblast level Recommendations for the national level	By September 30, 2021	30% of Contract amount
5.	Participation in five events (sharing experience of establishing the platforms and results)	By November 26, 2021
6.	Final technical report on the assignment (in English, up to 10 pages, including all outputs developed)	By December 10, 2021

 

5. PAYMENT SCHEDULE

UNDP will pay the negotiated amount in tranches according to the following payment schedule:

20% - upon successful completion of the Deliverables 1-2.

50% - upon successful completion of the Deliverables 3.

30% - upon successful completion of the Deliverables 4-6.

The payments will be processed upon the full completion and acceptance of contractual obligations whereupon the Project Manager (Supervisor) signs the certification of acceptance.

 

6. MONITORING/REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

The Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Project Manager and in close cooperation with the Project staff and partner BMOs.

Work-progress reporting/monitoring meetings will be held with the Consultant on a regular basis.

The consultant will interact with UNDP to receive any clarifications and guidance that may be needed. He/she will also receive all necessary informational and logistical support from the Project. The Consultant will duly inform UNDP of any problems, issues or delays arising in the course of implementation of assignment and take necessary steps to address them.

UNDP will be the final authority to control the quality and evaluate the work. The satisfactory completion of each of the deliverables shall be subject to the endorsement of the Project Manager. Each deliverable will be delivered in a draft for comments and feedback before finalization. No reports or documents should be published or distributed to third parties without the approval of UNDP.

All reports and results are to be submitted to the UNDP in electronic form (*.docx, *.xlsx, *.pptx, and *.pdf or other formats accepted by UNDP). The intermediate and Final reports should be submitted in English.

Competencies

• Demonstrate/safeguard ethics and integrity.  
• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
• Self-development, initiative-taking.
• Act as a team player.
• Encourage and participate in open communication in the team, communicate effectively.
• Create synergies through self-control.
• Manage conflict.
• Informed and transparent decision-making

Required Skills and Experience

7. EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS REQUIREMENTS

The consultant should possess the following qualifications:

• At least Master’s/Specialist degree or equivalent in Economics, Finance, International Relations, Management, Law, Social Sciences, Public Administration, Business Administration, Political Science or other relevant area;
• At least 7 years working experience in economic and social development analysis, public policy analysis and research and/or government relations;
• At least 3 years of experience in consulting BMOs on regulatory policy, SME development;
• Proven experience of drafting analytical reports, studies, and/or policy proposals related to regulatory policy, SME development, business enabling environment (at least 2 samples of different type of papers, prepared or co-authored, with proved authorship);
• Working experience with UN funded programmes or other international technical assistance projects would be an asset;
• Fluency in Ukrainian, Russian and working English is required; fluency in English will be an asset.

 

8. DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Applicants shall submit the following documents:

Required
	P11 or CV, including information about past experience in similar projects/assignments and contact details for referees.
	At least 2 samples of different type of papers of report, study and/or policy proposals, related to regulatory policy, SME development, business enabling environment (prepared or co-authored with proved authorship)
	Financial proposal
	Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP

UNDP documents templates can be downloaded from the following link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/297e72t7i3v2969/AADDRyUo2uoNrYjuD8NLmdl0a?dl=0  

Please combine your CV, financial proposal and other necessary information in one PDF file and upload the document when submitting the application. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

 

9. FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

 Lump sum contract

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 instalments 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, a number of anticipated working days per each deliverable, as well as a reference professional daily fee).

Travel costs

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.

Logistics arrangements for the events, where participation of the Consultant is requested by UNDP as per this TOR, to be provided by UNDP and shall not be included in the financial proposal.

 

10. EVALUATION CRITERIA

Technical evaluation – Total 70% (max 70 points)

Criteria A: Educational background – 5 pts max

• Educational background – 5 pts max (At least Master’s / Specialist degree or equivalent in Economics, Finance, International Relations, Management, Law, Social Sciences, Public Administration, Business Administration, Political Science or other relevant area) – 5 pts;

Criteria B: Work experience – 35 points max

• At least 7 years of practical experience in economic and social development analysis, public policy analysis and research and/or government relations – 18 pts max {18 points – 10 years and more; 16 points- 8-9 years; 14 points – 7 years};
• At least 3 years of experience in consulting NGOs/BMOs on regulatory policy, SME development,  – 16 pts max {16 points – 5 years and more; 14 points- 4 years; 13 points – 3 years};
• Previous experience of working with UN agencies or donor-funded programmes would be an asset {1 point – Yes; 0 point – no experience}

Criteria C: Technical Skills – 20 points max

Writing and Analytical skills - 18 points max:

Proven experience of drafting analytical reports, studies, and/or policy proposals related to regulatory policy, SME development, business enabling environment (at least 2 samples of different type of papers, prepared or co-authored, with proved authorship):

{18 pts – the proposed reports or papers are clear, concise but rich in content, demonstrates the expertise of the candidate; proposed presentation of the material is relevant and shows Expert’s understanding of the ultimate need of the exercise; 9 pts – the proposed report or paper is wordy, has some irrelevant or inapplicable pieces of information, and shows a general understanding of the subject. The language is either verbose or not precise enough; one or more elements required is either missing altogether or is mentioned in passing. The text requires some re-working and clarification; 0 pts – provided samples are not relevant and do not demonstrate understanding of the subject and expertise of the applicant. The text contains a lot of grammar mistakes; general norms of the literary language are not observed; incompliance of stylistic, ethical, and communicative norms; the text requires a lot of re-working}.

Language Skills – 2 points max:

Fluency in Ukrainian, Russian and working English is required

{2 points – Ukrainian, Russian and fluent English; 1 point – Ukrainian, Russian and working English}

Criteria D: Interview – 10 points max

Only those candidates obtaining minimum 42 points for Criteria A-C will be shortlisted and invited to the interview. During the interview the applicant will be requested to provide the relevant practical and well-elaborated examples proving their experience as per below criteria:

Criteria 1 – max 3 points:

Relevant examples confirming prior experience and expertise of the candidate in executing similar assignments, including all relevant stages, i.e. example on methodology development – 1 point, delivering training – 1 point, results’ analysis – 1 point, as well as related risks and mitigations measures applied at all stages.

Criteria 2 – max 4 points:

Relevant theoretical expertise and proper vision for its application within the current assignment (including the approach to implementation stages – 1 point, methodology development – 1 point, local regulations review – 1 point, training development – 1 point)

Criteria 3 – max 3 points:

Relevant professional skills for improving the local business climate, understanding of tools and instruments for a) local regulatory policy review - 1 point, b) interaction with governmental actors - 1 point, c) advocacy of small business interests - 1 point, as well as their application for the needs of current assignment.

Maximum available technical score – 70 points.

Evaluation method:

 Cumulative analysis

Contract award shall be made to the incumbent whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) having received the cumulative 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%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70% from the maximum available technical score (49 points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal and will equal to 30. All other price proposals will be evaluated and assigned points, as per below formula:

30 points [max points available for financial part] x [lowest of all evaluated offered prices among responsive offers] / [evaluated price].

The proposal obtaining the overall cumulatively highest score after adding the score of the technical proposal and the financial proposal will be considered as the most compliant offer and will be awarded a contract.

Additional requirements for recommended contractor:

Recommended contractors aged 62 and older shall undergo a full medical examination including x-ray, and obtain medical clearance from the UN-approved doctor prior to taking up their assignment. The medical examination shall be paid by the consultant.

The BSAFE online security training course must be successfully completed prior to commencement of contract.