United Nations Development Programme
1.Job Title:International Consultant for Preparation of the Medium-Term Capacity Development Strategy 2011-2013 Implementation Plan as Part of the South Sudan Development Initiative (SSDI)
2. Type of assignment: SSA
3.Project title: Support to Development Planning and PFM
4. Duration: 60 working days
5. Location & Country: Juba - South Sudan
6. Expected starting date: Monday 2 July 2012
7.Organization Context: UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF 2012 – 13) Outcome 1: Core governance and civil service functions are established and operational.
I. BACKGROUND
After the resounding referendum results of January 2011, the independence celebrations for the Republic of South Sudan (RSS) were held on the 9th of July 2011 upon the expiry of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) period. On the same day, the President of the Republic of South Sudan signed the new Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan. On the 16th July 2011, the RSS became the 193rd member state of the United Nations and on 15th August 2011 the new nation was officially admitted to the African Union as its 54th member state. Consequently, the President of the Republic of South Sudan made some decisive statements about the priorities of Africa’s newest nation and on delivering on the expectations of the people of South Sudan including reaffirmation of his commitment to deliver on the South Sudan Development Plan 2011-2013.
Before independence, in November 2010, the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) had initiated preparations for a South Sudan Development Plan 2011-2013 (SSDP), a three year medium transitional strategy for achieving security, good governance, economic growth and poverty reduction. The interim poverty reduction strategy was to guide the government and development partner resource allocations and development priorities for 2011 and beyond. The final draft of the Plan was submitted to the Council of Ministers on 4th July 2011 and approved as the guiding development framework for public and development partner resources under four main pillars: i) governance; ii) economic development; iii) social and human development; and iv) conflict prevention and security. The SSDP also includes a critical annex on a medium term capacity development strategy in order to support its implementation.
Although the SSDP represents a comprehensive framework of goals, objectives and performance targets, and the allocation of resources to achieve them, it does not go far enough to outline how the various programmes will be turned into concrete implementable projects and programmes. This lacuna in the implementation framework of the SSDP gave rise to the idea of developing what is termed as the South Sudan Development Initiative (SSDI), and its plan of action (i.e. SSDIP).
During the Third Africa Regional Meeting on Development Effectiveness, which took place on 30th September 2011, at the UNECA Conference Hall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a sideline meeting was conducted to find ways and means of supporting the development efforts of the Government of the Republic of South Sudan (GRSS), to move from post-conflict to sustainable development. A consensus was reached by the partnering institutions, namely United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Commission for Africa (UNECA), the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) and the African Capacity Development Trust Fund (ACBF), to work together with the Government of the Republic of South Sudan (GRSS), to formulate and support a medium term development initiative called the South Sudan Development Initiative (SSDI) which will operationalize the SSDP.
As a follow up to the Addis Ababa meeting, a delegation of partnering institutions held a high level policy discourse in Juba, from which a key recommendation was that a technical team of experts from partnering institutions be formed, that will work with the National team of Experts of GRSS, drawn from all Ministries, to prepare a 7-year Strategic Plan based on a ’priority of priorities’ identified from the SSDP, fully costed and programmed for implementation.
A major component of this is the implementation plan of the Medium-Term Capacity Development Strategy (MTCDS) 2011-2013, the formulation of which was assigned to UNDP and ACBF given their mandate and experience. To that effect, UNDP and ACBF have agreed to support the process of the SSDI formulation by procuring the services of a Capacity Development Consultant to develop the implementation plan of the capacity development strategy section of the SSDI. Accordingly, the following terms of reference (TOR) are prepared outlining the purpose, objectives, specific tasks and expected deliverables of the consultancy.
II. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY
Purpose: The purpose of the consultancy, scheduled to be implemented 1 July–31 August 2012, is to provide professional and technical service in establishing mechanisms for the proper implementation of the South Sudan Mid-term Capacity Development Strategy 2011-2013, as part of the SSDI.
Objectives: The specific objectives of the consultancy are to:
(1)Ensure that the MTCDS builds upon the existing capacities of the South Sudanese, including those in the diaspora, recognizing that capacity development is a long-term, iterative and continuous endeavor;
(2)Refocus Capacity Development (CD) efforts in South Sudan from the prioritization of core government functions in the short-term to meeting the medium-term needs for capacity development as prioritized in the SSDP;
(3)Link directly with the development priorities identified at the SSDP sector level. This will entail summarizing CD activities prioritized at sector level as part of a coherent CD action plan to ensure that CD efforts in the medium- to long-term yield tangible results for the people of South Sudan;
(4)Assist in the development of common guidelines, approaches and minimum standards for CD based on best practice, in order to ensure a standardized approach across all sectors in the SSDI, while ensuring that all stakeholders in the SSDI possess a shared understanding of CD as a form of development in and of itself, as opposed to a subsidiary exercise to sector activities;
(5)Identify appropriate capacity development interventions and detailed budget required in line with the context and the CD activities identified, then designing and writing-up the draft Action Planbased on the above information obtained through continuous consultation with all stakeholders, and share findings with UNDP and MLPS&HRD/MOFEP;
(6)Present the draft action plan in a Consultative and Validation Workshop in Juba, South Sudan, to the Government of South Sudan (GRSS) and partner institutions;
(7)With consolidated inputs from the workshop, revise the draft and develop a comprehensive action plan for implementation of the Medium-Term Capacity Development Strategy 2011-2013, covering all the activities that need to be accomplished ensuring the consensus of the partners to its contents.
III. SPECIFIC TASKS TO BE UNDERTAKEN
The specific tasks to be undertaken by the Consultant are described below and shall, among others, include:
(1)Discuss with theUNDP contact persons and the Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Human Resource Development (MLPS&HRD) on the specific requirements, standards, deliverables expected, timeframe and methodology to be used;
(2)Design the methodology and submit to UNDP and MLPS&HRD and agree on the itinerary of the assignment;
(3)Reviewrelevant documents from different sources, conducting discussions by visiting and meeting relevant government and non-government institutions in South Sudan to have an understanding of regional and country contexts, priorities and institutional issues relevant to the CD process in the SSDI;
(4)Ensure proper grasp of the issues contained in the MTCDS 2011-2013 in relation to overall and specific capacity needs, identifying challenges and conceptualizing the best way of packaging an implementation plan to address them;
(5)Building upon on-going MTCDS 2011-2013 implementation initiatives and ideas, assist in the finalization of the Capacity Development Working Group’s (CDWG’s) Terms of Reference and its institutional framework, assigning roles and responsibilities as appropriate;
(6)Facilitate and coordinate the development of Pillar and Sector Capacity Development Strategies as contained in the South Sudan Development Plan 2011-2013, and ensure their alignment with the MTCDS 2011-2013;
(7)Consult UNDP, MLPS&HRDand Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFEP) on the overall design of the implementation plan, to ensure ownership and buy-in, in terms of: relevance, rationale, link to current challenges, costs, realistic goal, objectives, strategies, program scope/components, activities, outputs, and outcomes, required implementation time frames, performance measurement indicators and budget outlays;
(8)Assess and analyze prevailing/foreseen conditions that can negatively affect or positively contribute to the proper implementation of the plan, to determine risks to incorporate in the mechanisms for risk assessment, management and actions for mitigation hence-forth promoting sustainability of the proposed approaches;
(9)Propose ways of developing capacity in South Sudan with a view to ensuring that government and non-government institutions can effectively and efficiently fulfill their responsibility with transparency and accountability; in addition, assist in the identification of longer-term capacity assets and needs that will feed into the development of a long-term public sector capacity development strategy.
(10)Design and write -up the CD Implementation Plandocument addressing all the above issues.
(11)Submit a final Capacity Development Implementation Plan incorporating comments and suggestions given in the workshop, including, but not limited to, the following topics:
(a)Draft document to UNDP and MLPS&HRD based on the agreed standard and format, to be presented in a Workshop;
(b)A final Medium-Term Capacity Development Strategy 2011-2013Implementation Planincorporating comments and suggestions given in the workshop, including, but not limited to, the following topics:
(i)A CD Implementation Plan that will effectively and significantly contribute to addressing sector-specific and cross-cutting capacity challenges to fill the gaps in the medium-term;
(ii)Detailed presentation on the Implementation Plan’s goal, specific objectives and approaches for attaining the objectives with clear and logical linkages to show clear cause-effect flow of the design;
(iii)Program components (broad areas of organizing and categorizing the activities);
(iv)Activities to be implemented to deliver quantitative or qualitative outputs in the short-term and outcomes in the medium- to long-term with strong linkage to sustained high level capacity development;
(v)Clear articulation and presentation of the expected results at output, outcome and impact levels strongly linked to the objectives of the MTCDS.
(vi) A comprehensive framework of the M&E system with elaborate results-chain in the results measurement framework (RMF); and M&E Plan with appropriate indicators matched all identified activities;
(vii)Clear elaboration of sustainability of the proposed approaches and the risks with mitigation measures.
(viii)Clear outline and description of management and implementation arrangements in terms of organization, governance and management; and identification of primary (direct) and secondary beneficiaries ;
(ix)The framework for progress and performance monitoring and evaluation shall be outlined with clearly defined benchmarks and indicators for assessing progress and performance.
IV.REQUIRED INPUTS
Required inputs in terms of human, capital and soft items must be specified, described, justified, itemized and matched to cost as used in drawing-up the budget details as well as the disbursement profile over the 7 year period. This should include formulating recommendations on critical funding gaps for capacity development, not already addressed within the SSDP framework.
V.EXPECTED OUTPUTS
The expected output of the consultancy is submission of a high-quality South Sudan Medium-Term Capacity Development Strategy (2011-2013) Implementation Plan document that will address sector-specific and cross-cutting capacity challenges to fill capacity gaps in the medium-term.
Specific outputs will include:
(1)The South Sudan Capacity Development Working Group’s(an inter-Governmental body to provide strategic guidance and oversight on capacity development efforts within the SSDP framework) Terms of Reference and its institutional framework, with assigned roles and responsibilities as appropriate completed.
(2)A technical body under MoHRD leadership responsible for coordination and implementation of the MTCDS with the Sectoral Ministries, State Governments and international partners, and for providing technical assistance established;
(3)Pillar and Sector Capacity Development Strategies that are aligned with the MTCDS 2011-2013 developed;
(4)A thorough assessment and analysis of prevailing/foreseen conditions that can negatively affect or positively contribute to the proper implementation of the Implementation Plan completed.
(5)Longer-term capacity assets and needs that will feed into the development of a long-term public sector capacity development strategy identified.
(6)Common guidelines, approaches and minimum standards for CD based on best practice that will ensure a standardized approach across all sectors in the SSDI, while ensuring that all stakeholders in the SSDI possess a shared understanding of CD as a form of development in and of itself, as opposed to a subsidiary exercise to sector activities developed.
(7)Detailed action plan and budget for the priority cross-governmental interventions identified as complements to the SSDP in the MTCDS developed.
(8)Recommendations on critical funding gaps for capacity development, not already addressed in the SSDP framework formulated.
(9)A draft MTCDS Implementation Plan to be presented in a Consultative and Validation Workshop in Juba, South Sudan.
(10)Outputs from all aspects set out in III. (11) (b) (i)-(ix) above
(11)A detailed budget will be presented as Annex.
The Consultant shall submit the draft and the final project document in both hard and soft copies to UNDP, MLPS&HRD and MoFEP.
VI. MISSION DATES
The consultancy service will be undertaken for about 60 days on 1 July – 31 August 2012, mainly in the field in Juba, South Sudan. Field visits to other areas of South Sudan can be part of the service as required. It will also include consultation visits to Sectoral Ministries, State Governments and non-government institutions and Aid Agencies in Juba. A draft MTCDS 2011-2013 Implementation Plan document shall be submitted to UNDP and MLPS&HRD before the Consultant presents the findings and the Implementation Plan to a Workshop on a date to be determined. The final report shall be submitted by 31 August 2012 incorporating comments and suggestions from the workshop.
VII. IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING ARRANGEMENTS
UNDP is responsible for the development of the Capacity Development Implementation Plan, and hence recruitment, funding and monitoring of this Consultancy Service. Once recruited and in place in South Sudan, UNDP-South Sudan, through its office in Juba, will lead in facilitating and monitoring of the work of the Consultant. UNDP and MLPS&HRD will review the draft MTCDS Implementation Plan, provide comments, and prepare the Consultative and Validation Workshop in Juba, South Sudan.
VIII. THE CONSULTANT
The mission will be conducted by a professional able to read, write and communicate in English, with advanced post-graduate education in any one of the following disciplines: Economics, Management, Human Resource Development, Social Sciences, Development Economics, international relations, Political Science or equivalent. The consultant shall have extensive knowledge and work experience at an international level in capacity development. Experience in project cycle management (project identification, proposal development and M&E), organizational/institutional strengthening is essential. Working knowledge in South Sudan or in Post-Conflict countries in Africa is a requirement. Familiarity with UNDP mandate/mission, strategic priorities and procedures will be an added advantage.
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