Local Governance Expert Mid Level

Local Governance Expert (7 positions), Level : SB 4/Peg 4

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Background

The Constitution of Nepal turned Nepal into a federal state with three levels of government with the intent of transforming the country from a centralized unitary state into a federal country and to ensure economic equality, prosperity and social justice. The Constitution marks a fundamental paradigm shift in the system, structure and functioning of sub-national governance in Nepal. The move from a unitary to a federal structure of governance requires massive reorientation of the institutions, systems, work cultures and styles of functioning.
 
The Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme (PLGSP) is the national flagship programme of the Government of Nepal (GoN) to build institutional, organizational and individual capacity at all levels of government, with special focus on the provincial and local levels. The ultimate goal of the Programme is to attain functional, sustainable, inclusive and accountable provincial and local governance. The Programme aims to contribute to delivery of quality services at provincial and local levels, promote better local infrastructure and enhance economic prosperity. The Programme will achieve 14 outputs under the following three outcomes:

• Government institutions and inter-governmental mechanisms at all levels are fully functioning in support of federal governance as per the Constitution;
• Provincial and local governments have efficient, effective, inclusive and accountable institutions; and
• Elected representatives and civil servants at provincial and local governments have the capacity and serve citizens to their satisfaction.

The PLGSP serves as an umbrella programme of the Government in providing capacity development support to the provincial and local governments. As such, the Programme will establish a common framework for coordination and coherence of all governance-related programmes at the provincial and local levels and accommodate other donor-funded programmes. Thus, the PLGSP will provide a coherent approach to capacity development under the federal system.
 
The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA) is the executive agency of the Programme. The seven provincial governments, the 753 local governments, the restructured Local Development Training Academy (LDTA) and seven provincial-level training centres (Provincial Centres for Good Governance) are the implementing agencies of the Programme. The Programme is supported by international development partners, namely, the Department for International Development (DfID) of the United Kingdom, the European Union (EU), the Government of Norway, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the United Nations.

MoFAGA is partnering with UNDP to support the implementation of the Programme through Technical Assistance (TA). A key priority of the TA is recruitment of TA staff, their capacity building and knowledge enhancement including orientation and continuous backstopping support in coordination with the Programme Management.

The province governments have a major role to facilitate and implement the Programme, benefitting both province and local governments. All the province governments have entered into the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with MOFAGA to be a part of the Programme implementation. To support the provincial governments in the implementation of the Programme, a Provincial Programme Implementation Unit (PPIU) will be established in the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers (OCMCM). Under the guidance of the Programme Coordination Committees (PCCs), which are the governance body of the Programme at the provincial level headed by the Chief Ministers, and in coordination with the Programme Coordination Unit (PCU), the PPIUs will serve the secretariat of the Programme at the provincial level and will be the link between the provincial governments and the PCU at the federal level, the central secretariat of the Programme.

Likewise, all province governments will establish their training centres, proposed as the Provincial Centre for Good Governance (PCGGs) through legal frameworks passed by respective provinces (in line with the standard set by the federal government) with the role of serving the capacity development needs of the local governments in the province as well as the province government.  In relation to the Programme, PCGGs will function as the capacity development service provider to the provincial and local governments. To this end, PCGGs will be responsible for delivering trainings, orientations and other capacity development activities to provincial and local government representatives as well as staff. In addition, the PCGGs will also work as a coordinator for all training providers in the public sector within the province to avoid duplication and overlaps. Each PCGG is supposed be headed by an Executive Director or equivalent as the Chief Executive Officer of the Center. 
 
Against this background, a number of technical assistance personnel will be deployed by the Programme to support the PCGGs in discharging their roles. This Terms of Reference (ToR) describes the objectives of the position of the Local Governance Expert, the position’s scope of work, expected results/deliverables, and qualifications/ experience required of the Local Governance Expert of the PPIUs.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall responsibilities of the assignment are to: 
1. Provide technical advice and guidance to the provincial and local governments on governance issues including the relevant regulatory frameworks;
2. Directly contribute the achievement of

a. Output 8 of PLGSP: Modernized LGs have strong administrative systems, and accountable PFM systems; 

b. Output 9: LG systems enable horizontal and vertical accountability to all citizens;

c. Output 11: LG systems enable citizen engagement and inclusive participation;

3. Lead the planning of the PLGSP activities for PCGG and facilitate the implementation of the approved plans;
4.  Serve as the team leader of the Technical Assistant Project (TAP) personnel at PCGG  and support the Provincial Programme Manager (PPM) and the Provincial Programme Director (PPD) in delivering their roles;
5. Perform any other tasks assigned by the concerned authorities.
 

1. Provide technical advice and guidance to the provincial and local governments on governance issues including the relevant regulatory framework;

• Keep oneself informed of and lead the analysis of central, provincial and local governance initiatives undertaken by relevant authorities, especially in terms of how they relate to the processes implemented by the Programme; 
• Provide backstopping support and technical guidance to the Director of the PCGG with respect to local and provincial governance issues;
• From local and provincial governance viewpoint, provide on-going support and interact with relevant counterparts  in public discussions, joint initiatives, advocacy for policy and legal drafting/revision of municipal/higher government level frameworks, etc. and
• Interact effectively with and provide necessary advice and supports to field level Project team.

2. Directly contribute to the implementation of the activities related to the Output 8 of PLGSP: Modernized LGs have strong administrative systems, and accountable PFM systems; of Output 9: LG systems enable horizontal and vertical accountability to all citizens, and of Output 11: LG systems enable citizen engagement and inclusive participation,

• Provide necessary support to provincial and local governments regarding the realization of the Programme outputs;
• Monitor and analyse the trends in the local governments in the province to the implementation to the outputs;
• Obtain updates from the PCU on the Government of Nepal policies, guidelines, models, templates, standards, and norms related to law making, budgeting, planning, public financial management, information technology etc.;
• Coordinate with the Province Government through the PPIU to translate them to the provincial context, as applicable;
• Ensure that the deliverables that are customized to the provincial context or developed at the province level meet minimum national standards;
• Prepare high quality Terms of Reference for consultants and resource persons and develop and maintain roster of experts and resource persons;
• Mobilize the resources to provide backstopping support to the local governments incoordination with the concerned units in PCGG;
• Mobilize support from Infrastructure Development Expert, Curriculum Development Expert and GESI Expert towards delivering the outputs.

3. Lead the planning of the PLGSP activities for PCGG and facilitate the implementation of the approved plans.

• Lead the preparation of the PPIU Annual Strategic Implementation Plan (ASIP) and trimester workplan of the PCGG based on the Programme Document (ProgDoc), M and E and Learning Framework of the Programme, and the guideline provided by the PCU;
• Facilitate the implementation of the ASIP under the guidance of the Executive Director of the PCGG;
• Collect inputs for the workplan based on the Local Institutional Self-Assessment (LISA), wherever applicable, and coordinate with PPIU as well as well hold consultation with local government representatives and local government associations in preparing the plans;
• Provide inputs to the Monitoring and Reporting Expert in PPIU to prepare provincial level provincial monitoring framework and consolidated (PPIU and PCGG) progress reports to be forwarded to the PCU;
• Prepare and maintain issues/risks logs in implementation of the ASIP of the PCGG and regularly update the PCGG Board and Provincial Technical Assistance Consultation Committee (PTACC) on the same.

4. Serve as the team leader of the Technical Assistant Project (TAP) personnel and support the ED of the PCGG in delivering their management roles,

• Under the guidance of the ED, mobilize, coordinate and facilitate the functioning of the TA personnel;
• Meet regularly with technical specialists and experts of the PPIU and PCGG to brief them on progress and review any issues with regard to capacity development;
• Identify capacity development needs of the TA staff and communicate to the Local Governance cum Legal Expert to provide capacity development support to the TA personnel.

5. Ensure strengthening gender and social inclusion work through project interventions

• Provide advice and direction on strategic and policy issues to strengthen gender & social inclusion initiatives in the programme plan and implementation strategy;
• Facilitate in creating an environment to address GESI issues;  
• Ensure gender and inclusion issues are substantially incorporated in policy notes and briefs where ever possible;
• Liaise with CO Gender Specialist as per the need for effective implementation of the GESI strategy and other guiding tools.

Impact of Results:

• Delivering the responsibilities of the position will be critical for PLGSP improving local government’s accountability, transparency and effectiveness. The work is also essential for the flow of information and the coordination of the Programme’s activities with related initiatives at the province level;  
• Project output are achieved within the given resources and time with high quality standards;
• Project results and achievements are well documented and disseminated;
• Effective coordination and collaborations are established for effective implementation of the project.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the Government of Nepal and UN values and ethical standards;
• Serves and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the Government of Nepal and UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Excellent inter-personal skills;
• Clear and upfront communication skills;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
• Collaborates effectively in a team environment;
• Organized and good with following-up on pending issues; meets deadlines;
• Promotes learning and knowledge management/sharing;
• Focuses on delivering results by taking calculated-risks and problem-solving approach;
• Fair and transparent decision making; regularly shares information with team members.

Functional Competencies: 

• Promotes sharing of knowledge and experience, and actively works towards continued learning and development on personal level as well as for supervisees;
• Good practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues;
• Ability to go beyond established procedures and models, propose new approaches which expand the range of projects;
• Demonstrates strong numerical and analytical skills;
• Has experience working with Monitoring and Evaluation tools;
• Experience in developing business plans for financial institutions including energy enterprises;
• Experience in coordination, technical assistance and advisory support top government and private institutions;
• Experienced in delivering training and other needed capacity/ institutional building support to a wide range of stakeholders including financial institutions;
• Demonstrates excellent organizational and administrative skills;
• Identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audiences for advocating GoN and UNDP’s mandate;
• Analyzes and selects materials for strengthening strategic alliances with partners and stakeholders;
• Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of a professional discipline or technical specialty relating to the position;
• Possesses basic knowledge of organizational policies and procedures relating to the position and applies them consistently in work tasks;
• Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
• Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances relevant to Government of Nepal and UNDP’s mandate and strategic agenda;
• Assesses project performance to identify success factors and incorporates best practices into project work;
• Monitors specific stages of projects/programme implementation;
• Researches linkages across programme activities to identify critical points of integration;
• Oversees and documents the process of strategy formulation for programmes at Project level.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree in Social Science, Governance, Law, Public Administration or any other related disciplines

Experience:

• At least six years of experience in working in development and governance;
• Three years of working experience in the area of local governance, be this in Government (at federal or sub-national level) or with well recognized national institution and/or international agency;
• Experience of project management, implementation and monitoring;
• Demonstrated social skills of coordinating with different stakeholders and facilitating discussions;
• Demonstrated skills on preparing quality reports and other knowledge products;
• Experience of working in government, UN and international agencies will be added value.

Language requirements:

• Fluency in English and Nepali, both written and oral, at professional level are essential;
• Knowledge about any of the local languages will be an added advantage