National Consultant – Senior Consultant for Policy Research Unit

Background

The Government of Albania is strongly committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It has established strategic decision-making mechanisms – such as the Inter-ministerial Committee and Inter-institutional Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – and has integrated the SDGs into the national policy framework, including the National Strategy for Development and Integration 2015-2020 (NSDI) and the EU integration agenda.

Monitoring of progress in meeting the SDGs has been recorded through a Baseline Report (2017) and a Voluntary National Review (2018). Furthermore, the Ministry of Finance and Economy, with the support of UN, has prepared two consequent analyses of the state budget versus the SDGs, namely SDG Budget Analysis 2015-2017 and SDG Budget Analysis 2015-2019.

The Prime Minister’s Office former Department for Development and Good Governance has led the preparation of interim targets across the government for the achievement of the SDGs. The national statistical agency, INSTAT, is tracking SDG achievement on annual basis. The interim targets and the other ongoing processes will feed into the preparation of the new NSDI 2022-2030.

However, despite the strong commitment, challenges in meeting sustainable development targets remain. The country still experiences socio-economic challenges and (growing) inequality, which were further aggravated by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, as well as adverse natural events, such as the November 2019 earthquake, and climate change.

In this context, the Sustainable Development Agenda becomes even more urgent. Nevertheless, efforts to estimate the cost of meeting the SDGs and to identify financing options are often inadequate. The UN Joint Programme “Strategic Policy Options for SDG financing” aims to support to SDG financing in Albania. Working in close collaboration with the Government of Albania, the programme seeks to expand institutional capacities at the national and local level for developing feasible solutions and identifying fiscal space to progressively increase SDG-related spending in Albania and integrate these in the national budgetary framework.

The programme intends to bring about such change through solid evidence on the costs on non-investment on SDGs, through credible analysis and data on fiscal space, through the creation of tools for financing policies and regularly measuring the impact, and through strengthening the capacities of the SDG financing institutions, enabling a continuous national dialogue on SDG financing in Albania.

In this regard, the Ministry of Finance and Economy (MoFE) is positioned as a key actor and partner. MoFE’s policies on regional socio-economic convergence; the improvement of the business and entrepreneurship climate; vocational education and training; decent employment and social security; and public financial management (including the preparation and execution of the budget, public internal financial control, managing the internal and external public debt, integrating fiscal and monetary policies) have direct implications for SDG financing and achievement.

Policy Research Unit

To support its policy making functions, MoFE is seeking to establish a Policy Research Unit (PRU) within its structure. The unit’s mission will be to conduct research and analyses, thus enabling the Ministry to respond to the dynamic changes Albania faces domestically, as well as in the global arena.

Globally, we are observing very significant progress in the digitization of processes, major effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, as well as evolving international trade relations, particularly in the wake of the war in Ukraine. At the same time, domestically, Albania is facing demographic changes and an aging population, while striving to consolidate the productivity drivers of its economy. In the medium- to long-term, it will be essential to ensure a healthy fiscal system and sustainable economic system that caters to every citizen.

It is only through a data-driven and evidence-informed approach to policymaking that MoFE will be able to design policies that achieve sound fiscal management and support sustainable growth and stable livelihoods, while responding to external circumstances. This understanding gave impetus to the creation of PRU as a dedicated unit for studying issues from a broader and in-depth perspective and proposing relevant policy measures.

PRU will investigate and analyse trends in the local, regional, and international environment; conduct macroeconomic analyses; and contribute to monitoring and evaluation of actions for improved fiscal management and economic development, with the underlying aim of providing informed and actionable policy recommendations.

In addition to its research functions, PRU will also be responsible for supporting all MoFE staff in articulating their needs for research and evidence, as well as liaising with external partners, including relevant line ministries, academia and civil society, and international organizations, such as the World Bank, IMF, UN, etc. Special consideration will be given to the cooperation with domestic institutions that collect data and provide analyses on the sector, such as INSTAT and the Bank of Albania.

The “Strategic Policy Options for SDG financing” Joint Programme will support PRU’s inception period, until December 2022. Operationally, it will sit in the Minister’s Cabinet, under the supervision of the Director of Cabinet and/or designated Minister Adviser(s).

Duties and Responsibilities

The PRU team is currently composed of 2 national junior consultants, which have been engaged in late 2021. The team has already produced some of the unit’s expected deliverables including timely analyses on developments affecting the fiscal space for financing sustainable development.

UNDP is looking to engage 1 national senior consultant to further support the team. The consultant is expected to:

Lead and coordinate the PRU team, ensuring that remaining planned results are delivered in a timely manner and at the appropriate quality;
Guide the team in implementing the work and research plan in fulfilment of the assignment deliverables (listed in section 4) addressing the needs for:
Economic and financial data collection and analysis, in the formats and periodicity that are coherent with the policy making stage they will contribute to,
Contributing to monitoring and evaluation exercises and impact analyses of MoFE’s policies.
Monitoring SDG-related budgetary spending,
Monitoring trends and macro-economic developments,
Producing periodic short briefs (snapshots) for the Minister’s Cabinet,
Producing thematic, in-depth analyses,
Encouraging and supporting the team in using innovative tools for data analysis, visualization, and presentation;
If/when necessary, act as a contact person for and collaborate with the external team contracted by the programme for drafting the Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF);
Conduct other duties and responsibilities that the direct supervisor might deem necessary.

Deliverables

Currently, the PRU team has already completed the following:

Drafted a work plan that outlines deliverables, communication, coordination and reporting mechanisms,
Established a standardized metadata framework that will guide all data collection efforts,
Collated some of the public data (economic and fiscal) that is relevant to the work of MoFE, ensuring that it is organized as per the above-mentioned metadata specifications,
Produced internal briefs and short analyses in support of MoFE’s work.

The consultant is expected to contribute to the following tasks:

Deliverable

Tasks

Timeline

1

Support the continued data collation efforts based on the standardized metadata framework, taking into account plans for establishing a data system/platform to be developed at a later stage.

Data should be collated from various sectors and sources, thus also requiring coordination with relevant line ministries, under the broader guidance of MoFE.

This task will be performed throughout the duration of the assignment

2

months after the start of the contract

2

Support the inception phase of the establishment of the Labour Market Observatory (LMO) – a data collection, analysis, and visualization platform being developed by UNDP’s Skills Development for Employment Programme (SD4E), addressing data and reporting needs for the labour market and related policies. The work done on LMO will serve as a basis for developing a broader system/platform for MoFE.

3

As a team, jointly produce briefs and analyses on topics including, but not limited to:

SDG-related budgetary spending,
An analysis of loans and their impact on social economic development, assessing institutional bottlenecks for the delivery of loans and providing action points for improvements,
New and innovative sources of financing for the achievement of SDGs, possibly through the use micro-simulation techniques (work on this Deliverable is expected to be guided by the findings of the INFF),
The application of innovative financial outreach research tools such as behavioural insights / systems thinking / foresight / sensemaking for enhancing policy design, as well as SDG financing, and/or
Other research topics that might emerge, based on the requests and guidance of MoFE.

4

months after the start of the contract

4

Support the presentation and dissemination of PRU’s work to other actors; support to the launch and dissemination of the Labour Market Observatory (as advised and under the lead of MoFE); support the preparation of related communication materials

6

months after the start of the contract

Duration and reporting

The consultant shall conduct this work over a period of 6 months, during July to December 2022, for a total of 60 working days.

Beyond the daily reporting to the designated MoFE staff, the consultant will also report to the UNDP Project Officer in charge of the programme’s coordination. The Project Officer will provide support and guidance if/as necessary, to that extent that is possible within the scope of the programme.

Payment Schedule:

Instalment 1 - 30% upon confirmation by the Certifying Officer of satisfactory delivery of Deliverable 1 and 2, indicative date: 2 months after the start of the contract;
Instalment 2 – 40% upon confirmation by the Certifying Officer of satisfactory delivery of Deliverable 3, indicative date: 4 months after the start of the contract;
Instalment 3 - 30% upon confirmation by the Certifying Officer of satisfactory delivery of Deliverable 4, indicative date: 6 months after the start of the contract.

Competencies

Core Competencies and Critical Success Factors:

Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity;
Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgement;
Self-development, initiative-taking;
Act as a team player and facilitate team work;
Communicate effectively, facilitate and encourage open communication in the team;
Creating synergies through self-control;
Managing conflict;
Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others;
Informed and transparent decision-making.

Functional Competencies:

Strong leadership and team management skills;
Good knowledge and expertise of data collection techniques and tools, and familiarity with economic and financial analysis, and policy-making processes;
Strong communication and drafting skills (written, spoken, composing, presentation);
Good skills in analysis of economic development, budgeting education and training, and/or labour market and skills development policies, and system monitoring for reform process;.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications

Graduate degree in (public) finance, public administration, policy analysis, statistics, econometrics, economics, social sciences, or other relevant field;
A doctoral degree in the above-mentioned fields will be considered an asset.

Work Experience

At least 5 years of experience in projects and/or research related to governance systems (at central and local level), institutional frameworks and cross-institutional coordination in Albania;
Previous professional experience in issues related to public finance;
Previous experience in data collection and analyses, statistics, and policy-oriented research is desirable;
Demonstrable ability to deliver high-quality results within strict deadlines;
Analytical judgment, results-orientated, and efficiency in a multi-tasking environment.

Language

Full working knowledge of Albanian and English is essential.

Evaluation Procedure

UNDP applies a fair and transparent selection process that would consider both the technical qualification of Individual Consultants as well as their financial proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate whose offer:

Is deemed technically responsive / compliant / acceptable (only technically responsive applications / candidates will be considered for the financial evaluation)
And has obtained the highest combined technical and financial scores.