DAI is seeking highly qualified candidates for the following position:

Municipal Assessment and Gap Analysis Consultant

Project: USAID/ West Bank and Gaza (WBG) Accountable Local Governance Activity

Expected Start Date: ASAP

Level of Effort: Consultancy – Short Term Technical Assistance (STTA) for a 20-day LoE over 3 Months

Location: Ramallah, Palestine

Project Background

USAID/ West Bank and Gaza (WBG) Accountable Local Governance (ALG) Activity is a four-year, four months project that aims to improve the delivery of essential public services and to promote inclusive and accountable governance. The Activity interventions will improve service delivery, enhance the effectiveness of municipal operations, strengthen local government unit (LGU) fiscal management, and build resilience to shocks and stressors. The Activity will strengthen municipal responsiveness to citizens’ priorities and concerns, enhance civic engagement in local governance with a focus on under-represented and marginalized groups, and help connect LGUs, civil society, and other institutions to improve service delivery and enhance accountable governance. 

Purpose

ALG is seeking applications from qualified individual consultants to support the assessment and gap analysis of the performance of public service delivery systems, social accountability mechanisms and municipal operations and to identify and/or validate strategic investment and public service priorities. The results of the assessment will provide ALG with an analysis and identified priority actions to better support municipalities by responding to their immediate needs while strengthening the foundation for resilient longer-term service delivery improvements and citizens accountability.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

The selected consultants will conduct an evidence-based assessment of up to 10 LGUs within the West Bank. The assessment will measure performance of public service delivery systems, social accountability mechanisms and municipal operations and identify and validate municipal priorities for strategic investments and public services. The selected consultants will be responsible for the following four tasks:

1. Complete Training in Assessment Methodology. ALG is responsible for providing the assessment tool and training for the selected consultants. The assessment will measure the performance of public service delivery systems, social accountability mechanisms, and municipal operations and identify and/or validate strategic investment and public service priorities for 10 LGUs within the West Bank. The following are illustrative examples of data to be collected under the assessment:

• Service Delivery and Project Management: procurement, engineering and public works, operations and maintenance, solid waste management, water services, municipal crisis preparedness, and geographic information systems.
• Governance and Strategic Planning: urban and land-use planning, transportation planning, capital improvement planning, resiliency planning, and private sector participation in service delivery.
• Revenue Generation and Financial Management: budgeting, expenditure systems, financial planning systems, revenue collection and cost recovery systems, business registration and licensing, and local economic development.
• Public-Private Partnership (PPP): Opportunities for PPP, including investment capacity and opportunities, the status of PPP committees and LED councils, institutional capacity, relationships with the private sector, available assets and resources, and relevant bylaws and regulations.
• Capacity Development and Administrative Reform: asset management, standard operating procedures, citizen service centers, learning hubs, and human resource management.
• Governance and Community Outreach: communications, crisis communications, coordination with civil society organizations, gender, and youth.
• Municipal Priorities: municipal priorities for essential services, emergency support, and strategic public investments to address immediate challenges stemming from the conflict that include low-hanging fruit and quick win opportunities for improving operational efficiency and revenue generation with clear justification and a cost-benefit analysis.

It is important to note that the results from this assessment will establish a baseline of municipal performance and priorities, which will be used to establish a trend analysis over the ALG program period.

2. Conduct assessment as per approved design and methodology. The selected consultants will be responsible for the implementation of the assessment, which includes collecting field information, collecting data according to the agreed methodology, and providing results for review and approval by ALG.

3. Document Collection. The selected consultants will be responsible for collecting supporting documentation from the LGUs that support the findings of the assessment. Examples of these documents include municipal financial statements, development plans, project documents, manuals for HR, Operations and Maintenance, and service delivery systems, and organizational policies that govern administrative activities.

4. Data analysis and final report. The selected consultants will be responsible for digitizing all data and submit all copies of the finalized assessment to ALG. The data should be appropriately classified and stored to enable future data manipulation and analysis and should be submitted in easily accessible format. Prior to the digitization of the data, ALG will provide the selected consultants with the report format and outline for submitting the data analysis. The selected consultants must submit a draft report per LGU for feedback from ALG prior to submitting the final report. The selected consultants are expected to provide expert services to ALG to implement a high-quality assessment using best practices in data collection and reporting.

The selected consultants will be responsible for providing all the necessary logistical (including transportation) and management supervision during the implementation of the assessment and will report the incidents that have occurred to the representative of ALG, who will also carry out the quality control of the process of collecting them. Assessments will be considered complete upon submission of all required items.