Consultant for Assessment of Capacity of People's Councils and Mass Organizations and of Engagement Forms between them with Citizens

Support for responsive accountable local governance in nghe an province, Vietnam (ralg) - vie1505011

TERMS OF REFERENCE

CONSULTANT FOR ASSESSMENT OF capacity of PEOPLE’s COUNCILS AND MASS ORGANIZATIONS and of ENGAGEMENT FORMS BETWEEN them WITH CITIZENS

Duty Station: Vinh city and 3 targeted districts of Quy Chau, Quy Hop and Cua Lo

Duration of consultancy: 10.5 working days

Deadline for Application:30 June 2017

Starting Date:In July 2017

1. Back ground

The project of Support for Responsive, Accountable Local Governance [hereafter project] in Nghe An province funded by Belgian government has an implementation duration of 25 months, starting from May 2017. The general objective of the project is to accelerate social and economic development in Nghe An province through more responsive, transparent and accountable local governance. The specific objective is to improve citizen-government interaction leading to improved service delivery and increased citizen satisfaction. Belgium’s government contribution to the project is EUR 1,000,000. The Vietnamese contribution for Nghe An is equivalent to EUR 150,000.

The project design is based on a thorough analysis of the national and specific provincial context with regard to government-citizen interactions at policy and operational level. The project’s overall theory of change results in its two main strategic areas: (i) increasing citizen feedback and engagement on policies and local government performance at all levels; and (ii) increasing local government capacities, at all levels, to access, analyse and utilize feedback.

The project assists the local government in achieving five outcomes:

• Improved capacity of local government at all levels to disseminate information in a citizen-friendly manner.

• Improved capacity of People’s Councils and Mass Organizations, and specifically PIBs and CISBs to facilitate and promote improved two-way communication between citizens and government at all levels.

• Improved capacity of local government at all levels to collect, analyse and utilize citizen feedback in a transparent and deliberative fashion for more responsive and accountable local governance and improved service delivery.

• Improved capacity for local government at all levels to identify, plan, coordinate and oversee public administrative reform in response to engagement with citizens and socio-political organizations.

• The exchange and effective utilization of innovations, lessons learned and good practices with regard to citizen-government interactions; is promoted at provincial and national level.

The arrangements for dissemination of information to citizens and citizen engagement, and the manner in which public servants tend to implement them, often result in the dissemination of information which is difficult for citizens to understand and is perceived to be of questionable relevance. Further, citizens often consider arrangements for engagement with government to be rather rigid and formalistic and not oriented towards the promotion of sustained two-way dialogue.

According to Oxfarm-UNDP (2015), despite a large legal and organizational framework for consultations with citizens, the implementation of legal rights to participation often lags behind the letter of the law. The Grassroots Democracy Ordinance mentions that citizens’ consultation meetings should take place regularly. People’s Councils also organize regular meetings with their constituencies. However, it appears that those meetings are usually a one-way communication channel from the authorities to the citizens, but hardly organized in a way to facilitate citizens’ involvement. In addition, much participation in meetings is seen as superficial and nominal.While participation in decision-making does exist, it often focuses more on implementing what has already been decided, thereby removing the impact but also with time, the interests of the citizens to take part in such exercises.

Mass Organizations including the VFF, WU, the Youth Union and others have an important and expanding role to play in facilitating dialogue between government and citizens. Their capacity to implement their role is varied and limited in the context of their national to sub-commune levels mandate and the technical skills and competencies required. As a result, the effectiveness of Mass Organizations in fulfilling their envisioned role as key brokers and facilitators of citizen-government dialogue and collaboration is limited.

With an objective of improving capacity of People’s Councils (PCcs) and Mass Organizations to facilitate and promote improved two-way communication between citizens and government at all levels, the project is looking for a consultant to conduct assessment on i) current forms of engagement between PCcs and mass organizations with citizens, and ii) capacities of PCcs and mass organizations. Details of activities are as follows:

Activity 2.2.1: Assess strengths and weaknesses of current forms of engagement between PCcs and mass organizations with citizens

4 meetings will be conducted for questionnaires, interviews and discussion of current forms of engagement between PCcs and mass organizations with citizens. Consultant/s will facilitate the activity.

Participants are leaders or representatives of:

- provincial PCc

- PCs of targeted districts

- PCs of target communes

- VFFs and mass organizations at all levels

Activity 2.2.3:Assess capacities of PCcs and mass organizations and mobilize technical assistance for the strengthening of capacities in such areas as conflict resolution, consensus building, community facilitation and mobilization and advocacy

2. Objectives of the assignment

The consultant will: (i)conduct an assessment of strengths and weaknesses of current forms of engagement between PCcs and mass organizations with citizens; and (ii) do a capacity assessment of PCcs and mass organizations.

To this end, the consultancy will carry out the following tasks:

• Reviewand assess the strengths and weaknesses of current communication methods and forms of engagement between PCcs and mass organizations with citizens;

• Identify prioritiesfor citizen engagement on the basis of two-way government-citizen at district and commune levels;

• Develop communication strategies for the provincial, district and commune levels which link organizations with issues and objectives;

• Conduct an assessment of capacities of PCcs and mass organizations in such areas as conflict resolution, consensus building, community facilitation and mobilization and advocacy, etc.

• Develop a specific technical assistance plan for supporting PCcs and mass organizations

3. Deliverables

• Draft Assessment Reports are in MS Word and are presented in both Vietnamese and English.They are to be presented to key local stakeholdersand the PMU during a workshop. The feedback and recommendations of the workshop is to be used to finalize the assessment reports.

• Power point Presentation on preliminary findings for stakeholders.

• Final Assessment Reports, including an Executive Summary, clearly articulated recommendation section, and annexes as required (MS Word and in both Vietnamese and English).

4. Timeline of the consultancy

Timeline for activities

5. Qualifications / requirements

• University in policy communication, communication and public policy, public administrative reform or related field

• At least 7 years of relevant field-based experience in the fields of policy communication and public administrative reform

• In-depth knowledge and understanding of policy communication in Vietnam especially in the context of Nghe An province

• Experience in developing communication strategies for communicating public policies

• Experience in providing training services for government departments on disseminating information of government policies, procedures and programs.

7. Contact

Expressions of Interest, including an achievement-oriented CVand a letter highlighting in particular the required competencies and experiences should be sent directly to the PMU of RALG project in Nghe An province via email: ralg.[email protected] [1] by 30 June 2017.