Specialist on Monitoring and Evaluation for Governance and Reform - Yangon with travel to Nay Pyi Taw

UNDP’s Country Programme for Myanmar (2013-2015) substantially changed the way that UNDP operates in Myanmar, moving UNDP away from a long-standing programme focused on the Human Development Index and community-level service provision, to a programme focused predominantly on governance. This move, which was facilitated by the easing of international sanctions on Myanmar, has entailed a re-orientation in UNDP’s organizational structure, staffing and programme approaches, as well as requiring the building of new relationships of trust with both government and development partners in Myanmar.UNDP’s Democratic Governance programme is one of three programmes, or ‘pillars’, which exist under the broader UNDP Country Programme.

The Democratic Governance programme, or ‘Pillar 3’, has four areas of focus, each of which is managed by a technical lead, and implemented by a team of staff and technical advisors:

Development Effectiveness: Strengthened capacity of national institutions for socio-economic policy-making, planning and development effectiveness with broad stakeholder participation (including women, people with disabilities and HIV/AIDS);Parliamentary Strengthening: Parliament at Union levels and selected state/ region levels perform their functions;Access to Justice and Rule of Law: Justice Institutions and legal framework improved to ensure Rule of Law and Access to Justice for all with a specific focus on marginalized groups;Public Administration Responsiveness: Strengthened capacity for service delivery and improved responsiveness of the public administration reforms.UNDP’s programme, along with other international programmes emerging on a similar timeframe, represented a new step in international support to enhance democratic governance and rule of law in Myanmar, through direct engagement with the government. The historical trajectory of governance in Myanmar, and the lack of international support has had implications for the availability of data on democratic governance, and the ability of UNDP and other partners to monitor change and the impact of support to governance reform today- although much has changed in recent years, existing systems for data collection and data management in government remain weak, and access to information about the democratic governance situation, limited. UNDP has conducted in-depth preliminary analysis on the overall situation of democratic governance, as well as technical and political economy assessments in specific areas over the past two years, however further efforts are needed to pull together realistic indicators and credible baselines and targets, and improve the ability of UNDP’s team to monitor progress.The current programme is set to finish in December 2015, however it will likely be extended until December 2017, necessitating and allowing for steps to be taken to review and improve indicators, baselines and targets.The specialist will work closely with staff in the wider Pillar 3 team, especially output leads and technical advisors, under the supervision of the Democratic Governance Team Leader. The specialist will also consult with the Country Office staff member responsible for Country-Office wide M&E, and also consult closely with development partners who support UNDP’s Pillar 3 programme.

The specialist will be based in Yangon, with travel to the capital Nay Pyi Taw. The detail assignments are as follows:

Assess existing documents and procedures in use by the team for Monitoring and Evaluations, and team capacity:

Assess and briefly outline the strengths and weaknesses of existing documents, procedures and team capacity, for effective M&E of governance programme.

Review and revise indicators currently in use by Pillar 3, proposing new or improved indicators which meet high standards:

Review the current Results and Resources Framework;Review comments on the Results and Resources Framework which have already been submitted by donors;Review sub-indicators/criteria in use by institutions producing world-wide governance indicators;Propose SMART indicators which can adequately capture programme results and process, and realistically be measured.Review and revise baselines and targets for improved indicators:Review existing research papers, analysis documents, available government data (with support from the team) and other sources of information, to clarify which baselines may be secured on the basis of existing information;Set out/input the baselines which are available from existing information;Propose realistic targets for indicators where baseline information is available, and other indicators where possiblePropose a plan for securing baselines which are not available which includes an indicative budget, timeframe and resources required;Further develop the plan into a draft Terms of Reference for institutional or individual contract, if applicable.Propose and develop measures to pro-actively monitor indicators:Prepare options for monitoring approaches which could be appropriate for the team;Advise on the design of tools to implement agreed monitoring approaches- for example, help design a survey, clarify basic methodology and help staff understand how to implement it;Support the team in discussions with government and development partners about implementing new monitoring measures.Articulate the theory of change which ties together outcome, output, results, activities, and associated indicators, as well as risks and assumptions:Produce a risk matrix, in consultation with the team, and document the assumptions behind UNDP’s programming;Draft text for a theory of change, including diagrams where appropriate.Build capacity in the UNDP team to improve M&E for Pillar 3:Advise the team in preparing updated plans for monitoring, and for evaluation; Outline measures to improve team capacity to implement M&E;Advise the team in their discussions with government counterparts about updated approaches to M&E;Hold discussions with donors about updated approaches to M&E;Prepare a summary document about the changes and justifications for changes made to the Results and Resources Framework and associated plans for Monitoring, for presentation to counterparts at UNDP’s Pillar or Output Boards (formal programme steering mechanisms) and if necessary separately to donors;Prepare an Issues Brief, using UNDP’s format, on monitoring reforms.Expected Outputs and DeliverablesThis contract is deliverables based, and estimated timeframes for completion are estimates only.The estimated deliverables are below, however the final deliverables will be negotiated on the basis of a workplan with the Team Leader.
The specialist will be reporting to the Democratic Governance Team Leader, and provide brief updates to the Team Leader, copying programme specialists, on activities and progress every other week, or as requested. Time for review of the successful completion of agreed deliverables is 14 days.The specialist will consult with the Country Office staff member responsible for Country-Office wide M&E, and also consult closely with programme specialists for each output; in conjunction with Pillar 3 staff, they will liaise with development partners and government.Administrative support (e.g. printing) and interpretation when needed will be provided.The consultant will be responsible for organizing travel to and from Myanmar and for accommodation and transport in Yangon. UNDP will provide support in booking accommodation in Nay Pyi Taw and transport in Nay Pyi Taw, although the Consultant will be responsible for covering the cost of accommodation. UNDP will plan and organize all transportation between Nay Pyi Taw and Yangon.UNDP will provide support for visa application, but the consultant will bear all costs for collecting the visa at embassy of choice.For more detail visit following links: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=17236
http://www.mm.undp.org/content/myanmar/en/home/operations/procurement.htmlMasters degree in a relevant field (i.e. Public Administration, Political Science, International Relations and related areas) or a Bachelors Degree with 2 years of additional experience.A minimum of 10 years of experience in international development practice, with experience in governance-related areas for candidates with a Masters degree is required (12 years for candidates with a Bachelors degree);Experience in governance research or assessments, or monitoring of governance programmes, preferably in contexts of transition, is required;Demonstrated knowledge and experience in a variety of methodologies and approaches to research, or monitoring and evaluation, in contexts of transition is required;Familiarity with UNDP, Australian, UK, Japanese, Danish and Finnish government’s procedures and requirements for M&E of partner development programmes would be an asset;Previous experience in Myanmar or the region would be an asset.

Language:

Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.