Institutional Reengineering of the Directorate of Industrial Property, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Kingdom of Bahrain

The Kingdom of Bahrain's economy is well equipped and competitive in several respects, including low taxation, openness to global trade, and financial market development. The government has focused on diversifying the economy in non-oil sectors, and the country is currently leading trade negotiations in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to increase levels of freedom in business, monetary and financial areas. UNDP is implementing the Programme titled as Support to Enhancing Institutional Capacity for Global Economic Environment and Governance. This Programme aims at enhancing the institutional and technical capacities in order to improve the efficiency of the economic governance system, targeting the primary stakeholder, The Ministry of Industry and Commerce, followed by the private sector and other line institutions. The activities will support the creation of adequate national capacities for effective trade policy administration. Following are the expected results of this Programme: Enhanced Negotiation, application and implementation of World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Development Agenda (DDA), Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Trade Policy Review outcomes; Institutionalizing of procedures under World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) agreements for Intellectual Property systems of registration are consistent with national objectives and international requirements; Strengthened capacity of Bahrain in the implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement. The main beneficiary for the result ‘ii’ is the Directorate of Industrial Property, housed in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. The Directorate of Industrial Property is in the process of re-engineering its structure so that it is better equipped to enforce increasing international legislation that regulate IP, as well as establish systems of registration of IP under the obligations of WTO-TRIPS. By providing institutional support in terms of administration and registration identifying best practices and improving awareness, this will result in improved procedures under WTO TRIPS and WIPO agreements for IP systems of registration and implementation, consistent with national objectives and international requirements.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main objective of this assignment is to do the reengineering of the Directorate of Industrial Property, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Bahrain. The Directorate has been exposed to enhanced workload, new areas of IP and methods of registration (such as PCT filing for patents), thus the existing structure and workflow may not suffice to keep up with this rapidly changing responsibility scenario, especially keeping in context the bilateral and multilateral obligations through FTAs, WIPO conventions and WTO obligations. Outputs: Activities and scope: The consultant is expected to conduct comprehensive gap assessment for the Directorate of IP and comparative analysis with similarly placed national IP offices. An analysis would also be required to map out the best practices as a global benchmark for institutional structure and workflows. The consultant is expected to sit with the Directorate of IP and study, in detail, the current procedures and design new ones keeping in view the workload, potential of growth in workload, institutional and human resources. The proposed institutional and workflow designs must be tailored to meet the objectives of the Directorate of IP, Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the overall economic policy of the Kingdom of Bahrain. Deliverables: The consultant will be responsible for delivering the following: Organizational assessment of the IP Directorate; Developing the best practices guidelines for investigating imitations, infringements and unfair competition; and provide guidelines on promoting IP based entrepreneurship in Bahrain Designing the optimal institutional structure (based on global best practices benchmark) and workflow for the Directorate of IP; Designing the workflow processes and procedures for registration of IPRs, receiving complaints in the field of trademarks, Madrid Protocol, patents, including PCT, and utility models, industrial designs, integrated circuits and plant varieties.

Competencies

A good understanding of international and regional treaty obligations for intellectual property; for the GCC and Bahrain in particular. The candidate should have considerable practical experience and exposure to the structure and functioning of intellectual property offices in different countries. The work experience in, or for, the World Intellectual Property Organization, Regional and national intellectual property offices and similar organizations would be treated favorably; Experience of similar work in Gulf region would be a distinct advantage; The candidate must be fluent in English. A good working knowledge of Arabic would be considered an advantage. The consultant should demonstrate integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards; and Display cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability Proposal: Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work (if applicable) Financial proposal Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references Financial Proposal: The applicants should quote their expected lump sum fee, including all costs such as per diem, for working days. The selected consultants would be paid the agreed fees on all-inclusive basis; therefore, no other costs such as accommodation, insurance, local travel, health, would be paid separately. Travel: All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources. In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. Evaluation: The proposals would undergo the cumulative analysis, as per table given below, with 70% weightage to the technical criteria and 30% to the financial aspect. In this methodology, the maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion. A suggested formula is as follows: p = y (μ/z) Where: p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal μ = price of the lowest priced proposal z = price of the proposal being evaluated The proposal obtaining the overall highest score after adding the score of the technical proposal and the financial proposal is the proposal that offers best value for money.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: A Masters or similar degree in disciplines related to Organizational Management, Public Policy/Administration, Law, Economics, and International Relations. PhD in related areas is desirable. Experience: The candidate must have at least 10 years of experience working in the related areas of intellectual property management, institutional structuring, and reforms in public sector, organizational structure, and workflow designs.

Institutional Reengineering of the Directorate of Industrial Property, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Kingdom of Bahrain