TOR – INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT TO UNDERTAKE A RESEARCH AND FACILITATE THE NETWORK MEETING ON NATIONAL PLANNING

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

PROCUREMENT NUMBER : REOI/ APRM/KM/RFNP /01/09/2021

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT TO UNDERTAKE A RESEARCH AND FACILITATE THE NETWORK MEETING ON NATIONAL PLANNING

Assignment               : Research and Facilitate the Network Meeting on National Planning

Type of Contract    : Consultancy Contract

Duty Station            :  Consultant home-based/Office Station

Reporting Division : Head of M&E Coordination

Duration                : One Month

1. BACKGROUND

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is a self-monitoring instrument established in 2003 by Heads of State and Government, to which member states of the African Union voluntarily accede. Its purpose and mandate are outlined in the Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance adopted by African Heads of State and Government at the inaugural Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Durban, South Africa, in 2002.

In September 2017, APRM created a Network on National Planning as a Best Practice with participants from national planning bodies across Africa, at an inaugural meeting in Kampala that was hosted by Uganda’s National Planning Authority. The objective of the Network is to share experiences in national planning as well as commendable practices in that field. The Network is currently chaired by South Africa and Uganda. Participants in the Network   have met in Uganda (Inaugural Meeting, 2017), South Africa (2018) and Kenya (2019).

The current COVID-19 crisis is an important opportunity for Member States to compare their national plans and share experiences in particular on the extent to which national plans had anticipated or foreseen such a crisis, agree on lessons learnt and jointly plan for an African solution to crisis planning in future. Further, the present crisis points to an urgent need for a change in our approach to national planning. Indeed, since its outbreak, millions of people have been affected by COVID-19 and thousands have perished. Member States must include health issues in their national plans in order to move more effectively towards preventing and fighting the pandemic.

Given the importance of the COVID-19 and its effect on National Planning, the APRM planning network was elevated to the ministerial level, to elicit support to the planning of the COVID-19 control process and other shocks and its aftermath. The Continental secretariat asked the member states to submit reports on National planning and its implications on disaster management in the context of Covid-19 crises and aftermath. Among the countries that submitted this report include South Africa. Uganda, Mauritius, Senegal and Rwanda.

In light of these, the APRM intends to recruit an experienced individual consultant to analyse the reports and develop a comprehensive report on National Planning and its Implications on disaster management in the context of covid19 pandemic and its aftermath, for which these Terms of Reference (TORs) are prepared.

2. OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The main objective of the assignment is to analyse the reports submitted by the member states by contents and themes and develop a comprehensive report on National Planning and its Implications on disaster management in the context of covid19 pandemic and its aftermath. It’s also expected that in order to maintain uniform representation across the region, the report will be complemented by information from member states in the Northern and Central Africa.

3. SCOPE OF ASSIGNMENT

The scope of the work covers the responsibility of the national planning consultant to work closely with the relevant APRM Staff to render the following services:

1. Development of comprehensive reports using content analysis methodology and by themes of the reports submitted by member States.
2. Undertake desktop research on the subject to include information from two countries each from North Africa and Central Africa and one country from the West Africa to ensure uniform representation
3. Propose actionable recommendations that will inform the basis of discussion both at the technical level and the Ministerial level meeting.
4. Lead and facilitate the validation of the report and promote discussions at the technical and ministerial network meetings. Specifically, this will entail the following:
5. facilitating and leading discussions of the APRM Network’s Ministerial Conference on National Planning amidst the COVID-19 Crisis and its Aftermath,
6. leading of delegates’ discussions on how to improve resilience based on understanding of inadequate preparations and structures revealed by the COVID-19 crisis, and what have they (planners) have learnt from the pandemic for the purposes of future planning; and
7. lead and promote discussions on ways and means through which national planning processes can be improved in future, including the organisation of regular meetings of the Network for sharing commendable practices and lessons learnt.

Note that the Structure of the Paper submitted by member states on the subject of the assignment is as follow

a) A Brief History of National Planning

A short analytical account of the History of National Planning covering the ‘ideas’ behind planning, organisation of planning (national/decentralised/sectoral under separate slots).

b) National Planning: The Contemporary Situation

Here, the focus is on understanding the institutional structures underpinning national planning, crisis response and disaster preparedness and how they are connected or coordinated. This answers questions such as: where is the National Planning Unit located (independent constitutional body or a department in a Ministry); how is it set up? Does the country have a National Development Plan? What is the main thrust of the Plan and what does the National Plan say about disaster preparedness, resilience, and emergency planning? Which departments/agencies deal with disaster preparedness, crisis response and resilience building and how are they co-ordinated? Indicate budget allocation for disaster preparedness and emergencies over the past five years.

c) COVID-19 and National Planning

• The Impact of COVID-19

The focus here is on the impact of COVID-19 on the country. The paper may include COVID-19 statistics on infections, testing, hospitalisations, and deaths as well as broader issues like the impact on the economy, governance adjustments made, society at large, etc.  Illustrative graphs and tables may be included as deemed appropriate.

• Institutional arrangements for managing COVID-19

Here, the focus is on understanding:

1. What the National Plan said about disaster preparedness and resilience and what strategies are specifically mentioned in the Plan.
2. Whether the National Plan distinguishes between climate- or weather- induced disasters and other health emergencies such as disease pandemics.
3. What institutional structures existed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and what changes were made to these structures as the emergency evolved and why? On this slot, the country paper should highlight the lead agency and its partners and how these were resourced (staff, logistics and training).
4. How was the COVID-19 response financed? What adjustments had to be made and what were the inherent challenges?
5. How did the institutional structures operate at community level and what were the prevailing challenges? How were they co-ordinated? What challenges came up?
6. How well did the Infrastructure, Technology and Communication, as set out in the National Plan, cope with the COVID-19 challenge. Here the interest is in understanding the local infrastructure’s resilience to cope. For example, how did urban water supply systems cope with increased demands for WASHING? How resilient was the technology used for communication? Comment on the resilience of the health infrastructure and its ability to cope with the emergencies.

d) Lessons learnt

What are the five (5) key lessons to highlight and share with other parties? The focus here should be on disaster preparedness (structures and institutions), capacity, knowledge and skills for emergency planning and resilience.

e) The Future

How do the lessons highlighted above change the way such events can be managed in future? The focus here should be on what one has already begun to do differently or what one plans to do in future. How will these changes be incorporated into the National Development Plans? There should also be some comments on the process of learning from COVID-19 experiences at community and national levels. How can these lessons be better reflected in the National Plans?

f) Recommendations

There will be a report in the form of a set of recommendations capturing the best practices that worked in the national or sub-national contexts during the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including the disaster risk management framework. In this regard, one or multiple success stories should be highlighted to illustrate specific aspects of the selected thematic areas considered as strengths during the response that will be presented to the Ministerial Meeting for validation.

4. DELIVERABLES

The consultant will deliver the following specific outputs:

5. REPORTING

The national planning consultant shall report directly to the Project Coordinator and will submit all deliverables as per the ToR.

1. DURATION AND LANGUAGE OF ASSIGNMENT

The duration of the assignment is one (1) month, and the consultant is expected to deliver all the expected outputs.  The Language of the assignment shall be English or French.

1. REMUNERATION /PAYMENT TERMS

The National Planning Consultant will be paid a fixed lump sum in USD upon satisfactory completion of the assignment. Should there be travelling, the APRM Secretariat will also bear costs of a return air ticket (class economy) and provide DSA at standard UN rates for the country.

The DSA will be paid should the assignment require travel to the APRM HQ in Johannesburg, South Africa or another country during the consultancy period, subject to the AU and APRM regulations and restrictions for travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Planning Consultant will be covered under the terms of the APRM business travel insurance policy as underwritten by AIG South Africa Ltd.

A contract will be sent to the selected candidate for his/her signature after he/she has accepted these Terms of Reference.

1. EVALUATION CRITERIA

A minimum of 70% is required for consideration to be appointed

• The minimum technical score shall be 70%. Contract shall be awarded to the consultant with the highest technical score

Interested Consultants may obtain further information through Email: tender[email protected]. during office hours 8.00 -1700hrs. Any clarification to the bid shall be published on APRM Website. Clarification should be sought not less than seven day to the date of closing the bid

9. MODE OF APPLICATION/SUBMISSION

The proposal shall include the financial sum which should be quoted in  as Lump and in USD .All applications should be in writing and accompanied by an up-to-date and detailed Curriculum Vitae with the names and addresses of three referees, ,Nationality , one of whom should be in the context of the last consultancy with information (on her/his education, experience, expertise, skills and former position capability) pertinent to the items described in the paragraph 13.0 related to the evaluation criteria.

Applications from youth, people with disabilities, women and vulnerable groups are encouraged.

SUBMISSION OF BID: Expressions of interest must be submitted by email [email protected] on or before 18^th of October 2021 11.00 hours South Africa time). 

Submissions to be titled: PROCUREMENT NUMBER: REOI/ APRM/KM/RFNP /01/09/2021 “Expression of Interest for: INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT TO UNDERTAKE A RESEARCH AND FACILITATE THE NETWORK MEETING ON NATIONAL PLANNING

The applications should be addressed to:

Procurement office

African Peer Review Mechanism

Private Bag x09, Halfway House, 1685

Physical Address: 230 15^th Street, Randjies Park, 1^st Floor

Midrand, South Africa

Tel: +27 11 256 3400/01/29

Fax: +27 256 3456

E-mail: [email protected]