Evaluation of the Parliamentary Support Project

The Assembly of the Republic (AR) is the highest legislative, parliamentary, and monitoring body in Mozambique, holding the prerogative of approving constitutional laws, approving the electoral law and laws guiding referenda, suspending the constitution in case of emergencies, deliberating the programme of the government, deliberating the economic and social plan as well as the state budget including its execution, approving the state budget, ratifying decrees coming from the council of ministers, defining principles of tax and fiscal policies as well as foreign and security policies. Mozambique is perceived as one of Africa’s most successful stories of post-conflict reconstruction, economic recovery, democratization and stability. Multiparty and peaceful elections were held for the first time in December 1994. On October 28, 2009, the fourth multiparty Presidential and Legislative elections were conducted simultaneously with the first elections for nine newly created Provincial Assemblies. Nevertheless, 15 years after the first multi-party elections, parliamentarians recognize that they still need to adjust to post-conflict, multi-party parliamentary culture and develop greater awareness of their oversight role of government. In addition, the institution’s capacity to initiate legislation remains embryonic. Moreover, the capacity of parliamentary staff to effectively support parliamentarians’ activities remains limited. So do modern infrastructures such as online connectivity, online access to proceedings, availability of adequate software and hardware. In 2003, the AR carried out a Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis. The analysis identified a number of challenges facing the AR, including the following: Institutional weakness in the field of executive oversight; lack of resources; young and inexperienced staff with insufficient training and corresponding human resource management skills; no means of publicizing activities on the political platform (AR “journal” or “bulletin”); tendency of other state entities to decrease the role of the AR as the legislative, controlling, and supervisory body of the country etc. These challenges were later re-confirmed by an independent consultancy report commissioned by the UNDP as well as by a DFID commissioned study. Based on these observations, and with the experience of working with the Parliament of Mozambique during two prior periods, a capacity development project was developed in close cooperation with the institution. As per this, a project document was developed and serves as the basis for the current project that spans the period until the end of 2011. The envisaged outputs for this project include, among other issues, the need to support the institution to become stronger by addressing the following five principle areas: Establishing project management support and monitoring and evaluation structures; Enabling the AR to carry out effective oversight of the budget cycle; Further integrate the AR into the approval and oversight process for major national development programmes; Significantly strengthen the AR’s ability to communicate with the public and civil society through improved use of the media and civil society dialogue mechanisms; Strengthening of parliamentary oversight has been identified as a major outcome of the new 2012-2015 United Nations Assistance Framework (UNDAF) in Mozambique, and the related UNDP Country Program Document (CPD). With this objective in mind, and to better support the progress so far, it is necessary to evaluate the outgoing project to take stock of the progress made to date in the above mentioned areas. This evaluation is intended to serve as a bridge between the current and a potential new agreement on support to capacity development of the Mozambican parliament. It should serve, ultimately, to enable the UNDP and the Assembleia da Republica, as Executing Agent, to agree on a mutually acceptable, evidence-based, rationale and framework for continued programme funding, by providing an indicator-based analysis of the range, importance and sustainability of results realized in the previous phase, and the factors that enabled or impeded them.

Duties and Responsibilities

In order to achieve the objectives, the tasks of the evaluator will include but will not be necessarily limited to the following: Identify and analyze the sector environment at the time of project design (PRODOC) and the current one (strengths, weaknesses and challenges) to assess its relevance in each moment; Assess the adequacy and relevance of activities and actions related to the project; Assess the adequacy of resources (human, financial and material) allocated to the project for the achievement of the established objectives; Analyze the objectives, results, indicators, targets and intervention instruments and assess their relevance within the prevailing sector environment; Identify the lessons learnt from the project implementation; Assess the effectiveness and efficiency of implementation modality and project staffing; Examine to what extent national ownership of the project has been ensured during the project implementation; Assess the level of national and international stakeholder involvement and its contribution to the results of the project; Gather qualitative and quantitative data on the results achieved so far and assess their contribution to the strengthening of the Parliament in Mozambique, taking into account the defined project M & E framework; Assess to what extent the project is managed in relation to best practice in the field of parliamentary support; and Provide recommendations for the improvement of the project performance and areas of UNDP’s future interventions.

Competencies

The overall purpose of the evaluation is to assess the performance and achievements of the Parliamentary Support Project in relation to the aforementioned aimed outputs. The evaluation findings will be used to guarantee that the project will reach its goal before the end of the project lifetime in 2011 as a basis for further interventions by the UNDP in the field of parliamentary assistance, particularly in the light of developing the new UNDAF and Country Programme. The evaluation will also address how the program has sought to incorporate a human rights-based approach as well as to what extent gender has been mainstreamed in project activities. In order to achieve the above purposes, the evaluation will be conducted with the following specific objectives: Assess the effectiveness, relevance, efficiency and sustainability of the support project and the results achieved; Assess the impact of training activities funded by the project; Assess the relevance and adequacy of the capacity development work related to central stakeholders in the project .i.e. the Parliamentary budget support functions as well as the capacity development efforts by the Secretary-General’s office; Assess the adequacy and effectiveness of technical support provided to the project in terms of enhancing the Parliamentary capacity of the budget oversight issues; Assess the effectiveness of the project institutional arrangement as well as the implementation modality, including the UN coordinated approach to support the Parliament in light of the Delivering as One framework; Assess potential avenues for future interventions in the field of parliamentary support as well as potential partners and strategies; Evaluate whether the project has addressed a gender perspective and the human rights-based approach; Provide an analysis of facilitating and constraining factors of the project; Present recommendations and lessons learned from the implantation of the project and measures to ensure permanent impact on the functioning of the AR; Suggest the profile of technical support which would be required for the new project to be supposed by UNDP, including the need for developing capacities of newly established Provincial Assemblies.

Required Skills and Experience

Profile of the Team Leader: M.A. in the Social sciences. (Ph.D. would be preferable); At least 10 years of relevant experience, out of which at least 7 in the area of governance; particularly in the areas of strengthening the capacity of Parliaments; Substantial experience with participatory monitoring and evaluation preferably in Africa and Mozambique; Proven experience in project formulation and evaluation; Proven knowledge of the Parliamentary support or related fields, preferably in Mozambique; Familiarity with the functioning of the government institutions in Africa and Mozambique; Strong communication and interpersonal skills; Good understanding of mainstreaming of cross cutting issues; Full proficiency in English and Portuguese; Excellent writing skills and proven ability to produce quality documents at speed; and Proven team leading experience. Profile of the Consultant M.A. degree and at least 5 years of relevant experience, of which 3 in the area of governance; Working experience in /or with Government institutions; Familiarity with the governance sector in Mozambique; Ability to facilitate contacts with all prior mentioned stakeholders; Ability to work as a team member; Excellent writing skills and proven ability to produce quality documents at speed; and Fluency in English and Portuguese.

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.

Evaluation of the Parliamentary Support Project