Development of a User’s Guide and a Note on Measuring and Assessing the Law, Justice and Security Sectors.

The Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) is responsible for articulating UNDP’s development policy, using evidence gathered through country applications, regional experiences and global interactions. BDP has a key role to play in helping Country Offices (CO) to accelerate human development by supporting them in the design and implementation of programmes and projects that effectively contribute to the national-level policies and results. UNDP’s work in democratic governance is reinforced by its presence on the ground in 176 countries and territories and its global partnerships with democratic governance institutions. The Democratic Governance Group (DGG), which is part of BDP, tracks governance policy, promotes knowledge networks, and contributes to shaping the global dialogue on governance. The work of DGG focuses on fostering inclusive participation, strengthening responsive governing institutions, and promoting democratic principles. Driven by demand, and working through the Regional Bureaux and the Regional Service Centres (RSC), DGG provides the tools, analysis and capacities that Country Offices need to make a real difference in UNDP’s practice areas. UNDP supports rule of law (RoL) initiatives that promote access to justice, justice and security institutional development, security sector governance and legal empowerment of the poor. UNDP, through its RoL teams in DGG, the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR), regional bureaux and country teams, provides strategic technical and programmatic support to states which are engaged in reform and development of justice and security in order to strengthen the rule of law, including through amendment of a constitutional and legal framework, reform of justice and security service providers, development of accountability and oversight mechanisms, and transitional justice processes. This may take the form of legal empowerment and legal assistance to address key rights and claims, such as land and property rights, employment and economic empowerment. It also includes a focus on community or partnership policing to mitigate the fear of crime and increase education and economic options for young people. UNDP takes a balanced and sustainable approach that marries bottom-up demand with strategic national capacity building and reform planning at the institutional level. The aim is to increase people’s legal protection, opportunities and choices so that they are empowered to defend themselves and improve their lives. The focus is often on the poor and marginalized groups, with an emphasis on women’s access to justice and empowerment. This work is undertaken in developing countries facing an array of challenges, including conflict, extreme poverty, democratic transition and economic and political fragility. The Oslo Governance Centre (OGC) is a unit of the DGG. It was established in 2002 as a centre of excellence designed to provide support to the practical and operational work of UNDP in assisting partner countries in developing more democratic and effective forms of governance for sustainable peace and development. Over the past years the OGC has been following different streams of work on political economy analysis and conducting consultations at headquarters, regional and country levels in order to develop an approach on political economy analysis that is suitable to UNDP and its mandate as a multilateral inter-governmental organization. This approach is known as Institutional and Context Analysis (ICA), a term that refers to analyses that focus on political and institutional factors as well as processes concerning the use of national and external resources in a given setting, and how these have an impact on the implementation of UNDP programmes and policy advice. ICA is detailed in a Guidance Note to help UNDP staff understand the political and institutional context in which they operate in a manner that is suited to the needs and mandate of the organization. Against this background, UNDP will be developing a series of knowledge products that incorporate Political Economy Analysis in order to provide guidance on how to conduct integrated institutional and context analysis and assessment in specific areas related to democratic governance, such as Rule of Law, Justice and Security. In addition, UNDP will produce a User’s Guide on measuring and assessing Rule of Law, Justice and Security as part of a series of User’s Guides focused on measurement in related fields. The two products are intended to provide practitioners with both a generic guide, based on evidence of practice ongoing in a series of locations, and a framework for conducting more specific assessments. Both products respond first to a demand to improve the extent to which development impact in this sector is measured, both through programming and by national partners, as well as to a growing demand for development programming grounded in needs and capacities assessments which take into account the political and power dynamics implicated in strengthening the rule of law and improving access to justice, and can serve to better evaluate impact of assistance. They should also be linked to the rising demand for strategic planning and sector-wide approaches in the law and justice area. The User’s Guide will form the foundation and link directly to the Note using political economy perspectives to assess needs and capacities.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the Assignment: UNDP is seeking a consultant to develop two closely related knowledge products: A User’s Guide to Measuring and Assessing Rule of Law, Justice and Security; A Note on conducting institutional and context analyses in the area of rule of law, justice and security. The Guide and the Note will reinforce and complement one another, forming a logical and practical set of information for UNDP staff working in this sector. The purpose of the User’s Guide is to provide practical guidance to improve the way that UNDP assesses and measures development impact through its programming in this sector and through developing the capacity of national partners. The Note will form a set with the User’s Guide to deepen UNDP staff’s knowledge of rule of law, justice and security programming on assessing the institutional, political, and capacity-related issues with respect to the delivery of justice and security. Both the User’s Guide and the Note will also be available for the development partners (as relevant). The User’s Guide will be based on an extensive mapping of the experiences and good practice in measuring rule of law, justice and security in UNDP Country Offices, which provides much of the raw material for the Guide. The consultant will utilise this evidence, as well as the recommendations the mapping has set out, to introduce and elucidate guidance. The User’s Guide’s structure and contents will be based on other Guides in the series including A User’s Guide to Measuring Corruption/Local Governance/Public Administration Performance. As such the consultant will pull together the existing mapping, source guide and recommendations and shape these by adding an introductory section and guidance based on the evidence. As such it should include the following: Introduction: What is rule of law? Universal priorities for rule of law, justice and security? Why assess and measure rule of law, justice and security? Why programming good practice should include assessment, baseline creation and measurement? Understanding the value of measuring impact; Ensuring the ownership and participation of national actors in measurement; Why use indicators and what kinds? (linked to the source guide of indicators); Using assessments to strengthen downward and upward accountability. Guidance: How to conduct effective assessments in this sector (addressing some of the reasons why they are not currently being done); Building baselines to ensure impact monitoring; Establishing M&E systems; Building in HRBA principles; Ensuring national ownership and participation; Sharing lessons learned (successes and failures). The Note will build on, and be consistent with the approach explained in the UNDP Guidance Note to Institutional and Context Analysis, providing detailed guidance on issues of special significance when designing, applying and using an ICA in the areas of rule of law and justice. The Note should include the following: Guiding questions to identify formal and informal legislation/rules and institutions of special relevance in this sector; Guidance on how to conduct a mapping of relevant formal and informal actors and a stakeholder analysis in order to identify the relative power and incentives of each actor to influence change in sector; Guidance on how to assess the capacities and related needs of relevant actors, including self-assessment methodologies; Guidance on how to analyse findings and operationalize them, including the identification of risks and entry points for programming, as well as an assessment of the potential for positive (“transformational”) change, based on the analysis. Guidance on data collection and validation methodologies. In addition, both the Guide and the Note should include the following: Table of contents; Executive summary; Introduction; Bibliography; Relevant annexes that orient staff to the area and point to additional resources on or related to the topic. Scope of the Assignment, Activities and Deliverables: The key outputs of the assignment a User’s Guide of approx. 40-60 pages (for which the main bulk of the content will have been provided through the aforementioned analysis) and a Note of approx. 30-40 pages, both in MS Word, including bibliography and annexes. The following deliverables are expected: Draft outline of the User’s Guide (1-2 pages) – by March, 19th; Draft v1 of the Guide – by May, 1st; Draft v2 of the Guide - by June, 15th; Final draft - by August, 1st; Draft outline of the Note (1-2 pages) – by August, 17th; Draft v1 of the Note - by September, 24th; Draft v2 of the Note - by October, 19th; Final draft - by November, 2nd. The consultant will be supervised by the DGG Rule of Law, Justice and Security Policy Advisor and the OGC Democratic Governance Analysis and Learning Advisor. The BCPR focal point for measurement in the Rule of Law, Justice and Security team will also provide input and advice. UNDP will provide guidance and feedback at all stages of the process. As previously described the User’s Guide will use the results of a mapping that has collated examples of good practice and lessons learned from UNDP Country Offices that have set baselines or undertaken assessments, surveys and studies in this sector. The consultant will also draw on existing UNDP and external knowledge resources and methodologies on needs and capacities assessments (Practice Notes etc.), and other key materials. The Note will build on the Guide’s generic approach to set out how to use a political economy perspective to assess needs and capacities. Both products will use existing definitions for terminology related to rule of law, access to justice, security and legal empowerment of the poor while recognizing that variations in approaches exist. Scope should be given for additional interviews with key UNDP staff and experts in order to shape the draft outline and ensure that appropriate resources are collected. The Note and Guide will be subject to a rigorous internal peer review process.

Competencies

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standards; Displays cultural, gender, religion, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability; Ability to work in a team; Ability to structure a task in terms of the analytic/investigative process and to produce a well-structured output; Strong interpersonal skills, communication and diplomatic skills; Openness to change and ability to receive / integrate feedback; Ability to work under pressure and stressful situations; Ability to lead the formulation and implementation of projects; Good understanding of UNDP programming modalities.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Masters in a relevant discipline, such as Law, Political Science, International Affairs, or Development Studies. PhD an asset. Experience: At least 7 years of proving relevant work experience, with a minimum of 5 years of experience in carrying out assignments of an analytical nature for bilateral and multilateral donors; Significant experience in rule of law and justice programming processes; Experience in planning processes (e.g. UNDAF, PCNA, PRSP, etc) and UNDP analytical frameworks is an asset; Extensive experience applying qualitative and quantitative methods of social research; Experience with the drafting of user-friendly knowledge products such as books, articles, research papers, toolkits, guides, methodologies, analytical documents, policy papers and notes, project and program documents, baseline studies, desk reviews, comparative studies, etc. is an asset; IT literacy. Language Requirements: Fluency in spoken and written English is a must.

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.

Development of a User’s Guide and a Note on Measuring and Assessing the Law, Justice and Security Sectors.