Call for

selection of one (1) senior expert to provide support to the international expert for Public Finance Management Curriculum Development Needs Assessment

1. Project Background

USAID/ North Macedonia Strengthening Resource Mobilization Activity is a five-year contract (started January 2021) which works with North Macedonia’s local governments to measurably increase municipal own-source resources and external funds and increase their budget execution rate in compliance with the Government of North Macedonia’s (GoNM) budgeting and reporting requirements. The Project has been working with the local governments, the GoNM, and the key stakeholders to: 1) enhance the quality of municipal tax and fee collection systems; 2) increase Local Government Units (LGUs)’ capacity to access external resources from the national government or international organizations’ funds and/or capital markets and banks; 3) improve LGUs’ ability to plan, manage and implement public sector revenues in compliance with Government of North Macedonia’s regulations; and 4) enhance the decentralization process.

The senior expert will provide support to the international expert under the:

Objective 3: Local Governments’ Budget Execution Rate Increased

- Activity 3.4.1: Explore opportunities with local universities/training providers to establish/update curricula in budgeting based on EU/US PFM.

2. Objective and Scope of Engagement

The Project works with potential knowledge providers to establish or update curricula in budgeting. Discussion is ongoing for opportunities to collaborate on this activity with different stakeholders.

The objective of this assignment is to support the international expert hired to undertake a needs assessment of the potential for establishing/updating curricula on budgeting based on EU and US public finance management processes. 

To provide support in achieving the above objective and results, the expert will implement the following tasks:

- Get acquainted with the results from the first year of the Project.

- Collect and provide information on the current situation with the PFM curricula in the country available in Albanian language (types of providers, number of existing courses/curricula, content, goals of the existing courses etc.) to share with the international expert,

- Identify, schedule and accompany the international expert to meetings with key stakeholders (training providers, ministries, local governments, donors, universities, other relevant actors).

- Support the international expert in developing the final needs assessment document with recommendations.

3. Deliverables

• • Short report on the current situation with the PFM curricula in the country,
• • Schedule of meetings with key stakeholders,
• • Final written needs assessment document with recommendations.

The expert will have an intermediate reporting obligation to SRMA Objective 3 Lead and will submit the deliverable(s) as developed.

Deliverables should be in English with the consultant available to respond to first round of comments and final round of request for format change of the written document.

The Consultant engagement will support fulfilling of the following indicators:

- Number of municipal employees trained/mentored.

4. Period of execution of activities

The engagement will be executed in the period May – July 2022. 

The overall consultancy engagement will include 5 days:

Deliverable 1 – 1 day

Deliverable 2 – 1 day

Deliverable 3 – 3 days

5. Criteria and qualifications

– Academic qualifications:

• University degree in the relevant area (public policy, economics, law, public finance management, etc.). Master’s degree or PhD will be considered as an advantage.

Professional experience:

• At least ten (10) years of professional experience in public policy issues and local governments.
• Еxperience in conducting analyses and research.

– Language:

• Excellent knowledge (oral and written) of Macedonian and English language.
• Knowledge of Albanian will be considered an asset.

– Other criteria

• Proven ability to work with tight schedule and delivering the services within the given time frame;
• Public servants are not eligible.

Intellectual property: All works created under this assignment, 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.

6. Application procedure

In order to be considered the interested applicant needs to submit the following documents in English:

- Cover letter,

- CV with 2 references,

- Proposed gross daily rate in USD inclusive of all costs.  

The requested documents should be submitted on the following e-mail address: [најави се за да го видиш е-маилот] , no later than 23th of May 2022 by 12:00 PM.

Incomplete applications will not be considered for evaluation.