The Strengthening Efficiency and Access to Justice in Moldova Project is seeking for a National Consultant to support the in-depth assessment of the official Crime and Justice Statistics of the Republic of Moldova.

The expected output for the National Consultant’s assignment is to support the UNDP International Consultant by providing substantive and administrative support, in the process of carrying out the assessment of compliance of crime and justice statistics area in line with the international standards in the field, in particular of the Manual for the Development of a system of Criminal Justice Statistics developed by the UN as a general framework for the development of a national system of crime and justice statistics.

The Consultant is also expected to contribute alongside the UNDP International Consultant in designing a Roadmap of actions and measures necessary to further comply with the above listed and other standards belonging to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, as well as to approximate to EU Statistical Requirements Compendium.

The assignment will be conducted in close cooperation with the National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova (NBS) and main data providers, building on the previous and on-going activities undertaken by NBS, and closely observing the provisions of the Law on Official Statistics, Annual Statistical Work Programme, Statistical Strategy, RM-EU Association Agreement (title IV, chapter 6, art. 41-46) and other national and sector policy and regulatory documents and in compliance with international standards in statistics and relevant best practices of other countries.

In order to achieve the stated objective, the Consultant will have the following responsibilities:

1. Prepare an Inception Report containing the description of the scope of inputs and support to be provided and workplan for the accomplishment of the current assignment. The Inception Report shall be coordinated with the UNDP International Consultant as to ensure the interconnection of the two assignments;
2. Provide substantive inputs to the UNDP International Consultant in the process of desk review of the national regulatory framework covering the assessed area and facilitation of the consultation process (including both meetings related to the assessment and survey below described as well as consultations organised throughout the assignment to validate findings and recommendations);
   • Identify and submit to the international Consultant the list and copies of the relevant national legal framework, existing guidelines/manuals and reports detailing current practices and methodologies on national statistics;
   • Provide translation of short excerpts from the national regulatory framework covering the assessed area;
   • Draft list of relevant key stakeholders (state institutions and CSOs, etc) to be engaged in the consultation process, including facilitate organisation and conduct the meetings, focus-groups and/or in-depth interviews with relevant counterparts and stakeholders with regard to the topics of the statistical fields covered by the current assignment and that of the UNDP International Consultant. The consultation process will also include in its the scope identifying potential gaps in relation to users’ needs as well as users’ views and feedback to the data producers in relation to strengthening the statistical outputs and make them more easily available, with the bellow listed stakeholders, but not limited to:

• National Bureau of Statistics: top management, head and staff of concerned division of the NBS;
• Central public authorities and other relevant entities related to crime and justice sector (justice chain) which collect and provide data for official statistics disseminated by NBS or which are using data for their institutional purposes:
  • crime statistics - General Prosecutor’s Office, Ministry of Internal Affairs and subordinate authorities such as the Information Technology Service, General Police Inspectorate;
  • justice statistics - Ministry of Justice and its subordinate authorities such as the National Administration of Penitentiaries and the Court Administration Agency, Superior Council of Magistracy, Supreme Court of Justice, Courts of Appeal and first instance Courts, National Legal Aid Council, and any other institutions identified in close consultation with NBS);
• Civil Society Organizations acting as watchdogs in the justice sector area;
• Other stakeholders identified at the desk review and methodology preparation phases, mainly as users of crime and justice statistics.

1. Provide analytical and administrative support in the process of conducting the independent assessment for individual stakeholders which are producers and users of crime and justice statistics via application of self-assessment tools as well as the survey designed to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes of the crime and justice statistics. The National Consultant shall also contribute to development of the Outline of the results of the consultation meetings and interviews, preliminary findings of the self-assessment and survey of data providers/producers and data users. In this regard the following tasks shall be carried out, but not limited to:
   • Provide inputs in drafting the questionnaires to be used in conducting the assessment of the current statistics reporting practices;
   • Facilitate the process of conducting the independent assessment and dissemination of the survey tools, as well as collecting data;
   • Contribute to the analysis of the collected information and provide substantive inputs in the context of development of the Outline of the results of the consultation meetings and interviews, preliminary findings of the self-assessment and survey of data providers/producers and data users;
   • Provide support to the UNDP International Consultant in organizing and facilitating participatory workshops to present and validate the findings included in the Outline of the results of the consultation.
2. Based on the findings of the assessment, provide support to the UNDP International Consultant in shaping the recommendations and advise aiming to align the national crime and justice statistics to the international standards;
3. Provide substantive support to the UNDP International Consultant in the process of developing the Report on the Comprehensive Assessment of the crime and justice statistics addressing the current status and the degree of their harmonization/ conformity with the UN and EU standards and methodologies and identifying the gaps and the weaknesses per each statistical subdomain, and the crime and justice statistics domain as a whole. The support shall include, but is not limited to:
   • Provide necessary references and legal grounds to substantiate the findings of the comprehensive assessment;
   • Provide necessary references and legal grounds to substantiate the recommendations and solutions targeted at addressing the weakness, gaps and issues identified as part of the assessment;
   • Provide support to proof reading of the Report on the Comprehensive Assessment, as to ensure compliance with the specialised language and national regulatory framework covering the assessed area;
   • Support organisation and facilitate discussions and consultations with the relevant stakeholders, when necessary, in relation to validating and or clearing the findings and recommendation in the Report.
4. Provide substantive support to the UNDP International Consultant in the process of developing the Roadmap containing specific solutions/actions for further approximation to UN (including UNODC) standards and EU statistical standards, through provision of necessary references and legal grounds to substantiate the findings and ensure compliance with the national context and regulatory framework;
5. Provide upon necessity ad-hoc translation of legislative documents relevant for the activity of the UNDP International Consultant as well as interpretation during meeting and interviews, as well as coordinate with the A2J Project Team engagement of any such specialised services;
6. Provide throughout the assignment administrative support related to organisation and conduct of meetings, interviews, survey, validation workshops, presentations with the stakeholders, including other support necessary for preparation of the UNDP International Consultant missions to the Republic of Moldova.

For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference by following the link https://sc.undp.md/jobdetails/2254/

Proposals should be submitted online by pressing the "Apply Online" button, no later than 13 July 2021.

Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: victoria.muntean@undp.org.