USAID’s Strengthening Resource Mobilization Activity

Consultant’s Terms of Reference

 

Introducing New Sources of Funding for Municipalities:

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs)

Consultant name: the consultant to be selected through public tender

1. Introduction/Background

The USAID’s Strengthening Resource Mobilization Activity’s (hereafter: the USAID Project) Objective 2 has its primary goal to strengthen the skills of and instill confidence in local self-government units (LSGUs) to identify, obtain and successfully manage external funding, in addition to building capacities of the municipal employees to identify and apply for grant opportunities. The Project will explore the possibility of introduction of additional ways of financing of LSGUs services/initiatives like public private partnerships (PPP), bank loans, municipal bonds, etc. where appropriate.

The Consultant will be engaged to contribute to the implementation of the following activity as per the USAID Project’s Year 1 Work Plan:

Objective 2: Greater Amounts of External Funding Accessed:

Activity 2.2.1. Explore possibilities for introducing new sources of funding, such as from PPPs, banks, municipal bonds, etc.

The provision of consultant’s services will be part of the USAID Project’s technical assistance (TA) tailor-made packages provided to the first cohort municipalities (total of 16 municipalities). The consultant shall take a due attention to the fact that the TA packages are tailor made with specifically designed activities in order to address concrete issues for each municipality.

1. Objective and Scope of the engagement

The objective of this assignment is to enable the first cohort of LSGUs to be well informed about using the public private partnership as an additional source of external funding. The current existing practices of LSGUs will be analyzed and factors for success and existing legal, organizational, or capacity challenges will be identified. Thus, the USAID Project will contribute to better understanding of the current legal and regulatory framework for introduction of PPPs as well as how to use the previous experience and lessons learned while considering the introduction of PPPs in the future. The USAID Project will assist those partner municipalities that show a particular interest to engage in possible introduction of PPPs by provision of mentoring services throughout the identification process.

In order to achieve the above objectives and results, the consultant will, under the direction of the USAID Project team, implement the following tasks:  

• Analyze the legal framework and the opportunities and challenges pertaining to introduction of PPPs by LSGUs for provision of services or building public infrastructure.
• Analyze of the LSGUs PPPs practices to date in the country and the region, identifying factors for success, problems, constraints and issues and provision of proposed solutions to address those. Where appropriate, the consultant may also present concrete recommendations for enhancing the current legislative framework, thus enabling the USAID Project to further discuss such options with the relevant policy makers.
• Identify additional PPP opportunities for the LSGUs in the country (based on international/regional experience) within their competencies (e.g., energy efficiency, green economy, social services, public transport, digitalization services, etc.).
• Based on the above listed analysis, design and conduct an information/training session with peer to peer exchange elements for the representatives of the first cohort municipalities on the PPPs framework and opportunities.
• Follow up mentoring to selected LSGUs with particular interest and commitment to identify and to design the process of establishment of PPP. 

The consultant will report directly to the USAID Project’s Objective 2 Component Lead. The deliverables should be developed jointly with all engaged consultants (if applicable) and the USAID Project team, as well as LSGU’s representatives.

1. Outputs and deliverables

The consultant will provide the following outputs and deliverables:

1. Analysis of the legal framework and the opportunities and challenges pertaining to introduction of PPPs by LSGUs.
2. Analysis of the PPPs practices to date in the country and the region with outlined factors for success, challenges and possible solutions.
3. Report on additional PPP opportunities for the LSGUs in the country (based on international/regional experience) within their competencies.
4. Prepared materials and delivery of an information session/training on the PPPs framework and practices for the partner LSGUs representatives.
5. Mentoring services to identify and to design the process of establishment of PPP to interested and committed partner LSGUs.  

Period of execution of activities

The engagement will be implemented in the period November 2021 – June 2022. The overall consultancy engagement will include up to 25 workdays (15 days for task 1-4 and up 10 days for task 5 based on demand).

The remuneration will be based on the tender procedure as well as negotiation and procurement procedures as prescribed by the contractor and will be determined as part of the consultancy contract.

1. Qualifications

Academic qualifications:

• Master’s degree in economics, law, public administration, or another related field.

Professional experience:

• Professional experience in working in or with central and local authorities with a focus on introduction of PPPs at local level.
• Previous experience in assessment of existing PPP practices at local level in the country and the region.
• Previous experience in assisting LSGUs in the country to establish PPP for provision of services/infrastructure.

Language:

• Excellent knowledge of English and Macedonian language (knowledge of Albanian language is considered as an asset).

Other criteria:

• Research, analytical and mentoring skills
• Presentation skills
• Good communication skills

Intellectual property: All works created under this aassignment, including creations, inventions, ideas, designs, copyrightable materials, trademarks, and other technology and rights, shall be works made for hire. The consultant is not allowed to publish any part of the deliverables.

It is envisaged that only (individual) consultants, will be eligible to apply and to be contracted to perform the activities listed in this SoW.

1. Application procedure

To be considered, the interested applicant needs to submit the following documents:

• Cover letter,
• CV,
• Comparable reference list with similar assignments with contact details of 2 references,
• The proposed gross daily rate in USD is inclusive of all costs.

The requested application documents should be submitted to the following e-mail address: [најави се за да го видиш е-маилот] no later than October 25, by 03:00 PM.

Incomplete applications will not be considered for evaluation.