Local consultant on Development Finance Assessment (DFA)
Location : Yerevan
Application Deadline : 20-Jan-21 (Midnight New York, USA)
Type of Contract : Individual Contract
Post Level : National Consultant
Languages Required : English Russian
Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)
01-Feb-2021
Duration of Initial Contract : 01 February 2021 - 01 May 2021 (60 consultancy days)
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
Background
After the 'velvet revolution' in Armenia in 2018 30+ new sectoral strategies have been designed, with eight already approved, including the Public Finance Management (PFM) Strategy. And an overall national development strategy - the Armenia Transformation Strategy (ATS) 2050 was launched by the Prime Minster on 21 September 2020. However, the ATS risks remaining a vision rather than becoming a vehicle for change if associated strategies and policies are not properly cost and aligned with integrated financing frameworks.
Armenia registered its first COVID-19 case on 2 March, followed by the declaration of a State of Emergency from April to September, including strict containment measures such as a full national lock-down (in April), school closures, travel bans on foreign citizens from high-risk countries, and imposed fines to those who violate isolation orders during the state of emergency. The health crisis shock of the pandemic and imposed restrictions resulted in business disruption, income loss and income insecurity at household level as well as deterioration of health and social well-being of the population.
In response, the Government developed a National COVID-19 Strategic Management Plan and rolled out 25 support packages to smooth the economic and social effects of COVID-19 with a headline amount of $300 million (2 percent of GDP). The fiscal measures fall into three broad categories:
Severe fighting in and around Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) broke out on 27 September 2020. An agreement on a cessation of hostilities was announced in the joint statement of the President of Azerbaijan, the Prime Minister of Armenia, and the President of the Russian Federation on 9 November. The conflict has left thousands of deceased and wounded servicemen, spurred a displacement crisis from NK to Armenia, added stress on institutions and their capacities to address essential health, social and livelihood needs and triggered political instability.
After the escalation of the conflict in NK the exchange rate started to fluctuate posing foreign exchange risks to macro-economic stability. On December 15, the CBA increased the policy rate by 1 to 5.25 percent and made a declaration that the CBA starts to make transactions in foreign exchange market to safeguard price and financial stability in the country.
Overall, COVID-19 crisis and the escalation of the conflict in NK brings too many risks to political system, economy, social and health care sectors in Armenia. Large increase in military expenses and losses in income of households and businesses should be addressed properly and effectively by the Government of Armenia not to have dangerous effects on the economic situation in near future.
Project overview
The financial landscape for both public and private sources is rapidly changing in Armenia. Armenia is a developing country and there is not one established framework which will address the relevant sources of financing to the right situations or problems. Moreover, COVID-19 crisis and the escalation of the conflict in NK increased the existing problematic issues in financing landscape and created uncertainty and risks for adequate financing policy from the Government. That's why development of a reliable framework is becoming crucial to design new financial instruments and to use different sources of development financing to respond and recover from the compound crisis.
Project Document 'Making Finance work for transformative change in Armenia: UN-locking Finance for Armenia 2030' was agreed by UNDP, UNICEF and WFP. It was agreed with Deputy Prime Minister office and Ministry of Finance of Armenia. According to the document fully-fledged Development Finance Assessment (DFA) should be implemented in line with the Project's proposed INFF roadmap.
In the current situation in Armenia the urgency of using innovative financial instruments and the DFA tool increases to support the Government of Armenia to properly respond to COVID-19 and the conflict in NK and establish DFA framework to finance the agenda of building forward better with greater sustainability, resilience and inclusivity [1].
Development Finance Assessment (DFA)
The DFA is a tool to help countries to shape the inception phase in the process of operationalizing an INFF which will support financing for building back better. [2]
The DFA offers a comprehensive analysis of the public and private financing outlook, financing policies and institutional structures, and opportunities to build a more integrated approach to financing. It is a tool designed to aggregate analysis and build collaboration among actors.
Alongside the new analysis that it undertakes, the DFA draws together information from a wide range of sources and assessments that focus on finance flows or policy areas.
DFA process will be implemented in two phases: Phase
UNDP team should engage with government officials and other national stakeholders to collect relevant data, policy documentation and analysis to perform the preliminary DFA analysis. In this phase the DFA initial analysis will be implemented on policy and financing context to summarize the existing structures, ongoing reforms and arrangements.
A line of meetings and missions will be organized with all the governmental stakeholders and oversight committee to have the project objectives aligned with their views and priorities.
As the results of Phase 1 the UNDP team should come up with agreements on focus of DFA, purpose, scope, oversight structures of DFA and INFF as well as agreement on roles for partners supporting government.
Phase
A series of financing dialogues form the backbone of the DFA process should be organized Under the guidance of the UNDP team. The DFA brings together government officials, private sector and other stakeholders to facilitate discussion on how to operationalise a more integrated approach to financing through an INFF. The DFA facilitates discussions on the challenges and opportunities across public and private financing and aims to build consensus on ways forward.
The outcome of the DFA is an INFF Roadmap which lays out the steps that will be taken subsequently to operationalise an INFF. The INFF Roadmap will be developed under the leadership of the UNDP team and capture the steps agreed through the DFA process about how each of the INFF building blocks will be brought together and operationalised within Armenian context. [3]
In this way the DFA can shape the inception phase of the process of operationalising an INFF in Armenia to support socio-economic recovery that builds back better. It offers a process through which
government can build the buy-in, complete the analysis, and build the consensus that is needed for decisions about how an INFF will support financing for building back better and the steps through which it will be operationalised.
As the results of Phase 2 the UNDP team should come up with agreement of financing dialogues, DFA report and INFF roadmap.
[1] Tim Strawson, Orria Goni, Emily Davis: 'Development assessment guidebook'
[2] DFA Guidebook v3.0
[3] IATF, Integrated national financing frameworks for sustainable development
Duties and Responsibilities
Scope of work: Under the supervision of the Lead INFF expert and working with the UNDP country office and oversight committee, the national expert will support the DFA process, analysis and dialogue leading to the articulation and agreement of an INFF Roadmap for Armenia.
The National expert is responsible for collecting data, policy documents and analysis and for liaising with government officials and other national stakeholders. They will support the Lead expert in completing the process of analysis, consultation and dialogue throughout the DFA in accordance with the approach outlined in the DFA Guidebook.
Duties and responsibilities: The responsibilities of the National expert will include but is not limited to the following activities through each phase of the DFA: Phase
Phase
The substantive analysis that will be carried out throughout the process and used to facilitate discussion through the Financing Dialogues will follow the approach detailed in the DFA Guidebook (version 3.0). It collates and analyses data and information in relation to the four building blocks of an INFF. The key analysis includes: INFF building block 1: assessment and diagnostics
INFF building block 2: financing strategy
INFF building block 3: monitoring and review
INFF building block 4: governance and coordination
INFF Roadmap
Please see the DFA analytical framework and process chapters in DFA Guidebook v3.0 for further details.
The National expert will work under the supervision of the Lead INFF expert, UNDP staff and project colleagues from UNRCO, WFP and UNICEF throughout the assignment period.
[1] Including economic, political, fiscal, financial, climate, environmental, disaster, pandemic or other risks.
[2] Policies to be analysed include those governing public finance (e.g. revenue strategy, annual and medium term budget, public debt strategy, public entity management and development cooperation policy) and private financing (e.g. private investment policies and investment promotion strategy, financial sector development and financial inclusion policies, PPP policy, diaspora engagement).
Expected deliverables
Deliverables/ Outputs
Estimated Duration to Complete (days)
Target Due Dates
Review and Approvals Required
(Indicate designation of person who will review output and confirm acceptance)
Having a dialogue with national counterparts to finalize the list of the most immediate data required for MTEF process and DFA scope
10
20 February
UNDP, in consultation with other agencies
Initial data collection and analysis, bilateral consultations and first financing dialogue
20
01 March
UNDP, in consultation with other agencies
Series of financing dialogues
20
31 March
UNDP, in consultation with other agencies
First draft INFF Roadmap and DFA report
15
20 April
UNDP, in consultation with other agencies
INFF Roadmap and DFA report approved
5
01 May
UNDP, in consultation with other agencies
Payment mode: Payment will be made in the following installments upon completion of the tasks under each output and approval of deliverables by the UNDP country office and International Lead Expert: Output 1 - 20% of total amount Output 2 - 30% of total amount Output 3 - 30% of total amount Output 4 - 20% of total amount
Competencies
Required Skills and Experience
Eduaction
Experience
Language Skills:
INDIVIDUAL CANDIDATES WILL BE EVALUATED BASED ON THE FOLLOWING METHODOLOGY: Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants' technical qualifications, experience and financial proposal.The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as technically responsive/compliant/acceptable to the requirements of the ToR and received the highest cumulative (technical and financial) score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.
Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation - max. 70 points
Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation - max. 30 points.
DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE APPLICATION.
General Conditions of Contract is available here: GENERAL CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT
Note: Please note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents in one single PDF file to attach).
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