Comunitatea Mea Program vacancies – Embedded National Consultant – e-LPA Operations Specialist- at the e-Governance Agency for providing support in the piloting and in organizing roll-out of the digitized services

Background

USAID’s Comunitatea Mea (CM) is an eight-year assistance program to help local governments to become more effective, transparent, and accountable to citizens while building local governments’ capacity to meet citizens’ needs.  CM is USAID flagship local government program providing comprehensive assistance to communities, primarily targeting Local Public Authorities (LPAs). Civic groups and local businesses will also benefit from the program as their ability to effectively advocate for their needs. By increasing the capacity of local authorities, including their ability to work inclusively with citizens and civil society, not only services will be improved but checks and balances between the central and local governments will be strengthened, improving the overall system of democratic governance in Moldova.

CM supports local governments to improve quality of and access to municipal services, including administrative services. CM will continue building on its partnership with the e-Governance Agency to support digitization of local government services, local functions and re-engineering of local processes.

Current situation in the sector 

Currently many public service providers still require a plethora of paperwork for each individual Local Public Authority (LPA) to access their services, even electronic services. Main impediments for LPA access to public services are the lack of LPA capacity to coordinate their needs with numerous service providers and the exaggerated complexity and peculiarity of their internal processes. As a consequence, digitization at LPA level takes a lot of time, often involving adjustments to the related legal framework while they still have limited or no possibility to be served online.

To simplify access of LPA to public services and resources, including electronic services provided by state agencies, eGA conceptualized and the Government approved a Local Public Administration Portal – e-APL^[1]. Currently, eGA is developing a single platform that will allow simple and flexible access of LPA representatives to services and resources already provided by Service Providers in digital format, including with the possibility to pay online and / or apply the electronic signature, as appropriate.

Conceptually, e-APL Portal (hereafter the Portal) is hosted in MCloud government platform and integrated with government platform services (MPass, MSign, MPay, MNotify, MLog, MPower, MCabinet, Public Services Portal). All data exchange is done exclusively through MConnect. The solution has a minimal workflow engine that allows development and configuration of the external services and resources exposed by Public Authorities and facilitate LPA prerogatives to consult, list, create, update or remove informational objects in their jurisdiction. On the other side, the solution allows Public Authorities to extend their offering and enable e-APL Administrator to connect e-APL to those resources as they become available. Also, the solution offers reports regarding usage, services availability, number of actions or events and other key performance indicators (KPIs) of the service providers which provide services using the solution.

Note: ^[1] Translation of original Conceptul Portalului Administrației Publice Locale din Republica Moldova (e-APL)

Objectives of the assignment

Provide support to eGA in managing activities related to piloting of the digitalized services and functionalities developed on e-APL Portal and rolling them out at the national level (considering CM partners).

An Individual Consultant – e-APL Operations Specialist – will be hired and embedded in the eGA team to ensure the fulfilment of this objective.

Scope of work 

e-APL Operations Specialist will join eGA team to perform the following tasks listed below.

1. Participate in the development and updating of the Implementation Plan of the e-APL Portal along with the specialists from each mayoralty joining the Portal.
2. Provide guidance and methodological support to the LPA representatives during piloting process and roll out of the Portal.
3. Provide inputs to development of training materials according to the established Training Plan for e-APL users, provide support for training activities, organize initial and post-training evaluations, where appropriate.
4. Offer support to the new e-APL users (mayoralty specialists) in providing digitalized services via e-APL platform, including just-in-time assistance and problem solving.
5. Provide key inputs to eGA communication team about e-APL-related communication & PR materials and support eGA communication efforts during piloting and rolling out phase of the Portal.
6. Organize knowledge sharing sessions among LPAs, to promote e-APL Portal and digitalized services.
7. Organize activities to collect user opinions regarding their experience of using the e-APL Portal, including proposals regarding new functionalities and services to be developed.
8. Measure the key performance indicators related to e-APL piloting, including accessibility and responsiveness of services provided via e-APL and digitalized services, the levels of uptake, operational activity and productivity etc. and together with LPA Portfolio Manager, adapt the piloting and rolling-out plan as needed to achieve the established targets.
9. Contribute to the drafting of progress reports related to e-APL implementation, outlining the main findings and recommendations.

Outputs

The main outputs of the e-APL Operations Specialists include, but are not limited to:

1. e-APL Portal Implementation Plan developed and timely updated;
2. Individual working plan developed and approved with the e-LPA Portfolio Manager (Line Manager);
3. Training plan, training materials and training informative notes developed and continuously updated;
4. e-APL communication and PR materials revised and inputs provided;
5. Progress reports related to e-APL implementation, including recommendations based on collected experiences of the e-APL users, developed and submitted to Line Manager.
6. Roadmap for e-APL Portal (including digitalized services) institutionalization and roll-out at national level, revised and inputs provided.
7. Progress reports related to e-APL implementation drafted and submitted for approval to Line Manager.
8. Quarterly Activity Reports on progress achieved (in English) submitted.

Note: Many of the outputs will not be produced by the e-APL Operation Specialist solely (e.g. key performance indicators, trainings, legal framework), but they are included in this section as it is his/her responsibility to contribute to their drafting and issuance of the final version in high quality.

Timing

This is a one year full-time assignment expected to commence in April 2024 with a three-month trial period.

Institutional arrangements

The Consultant will work under the direct supervision of and report to the LPA Portfolio Manager. In addition, he/she will also report to Comunitatea Mea Objective 1 leader. The Consultant will work in the same team with other Operations Specialists (which will also cover e-APL piloting and implementation activities but are mainly focusing on the Centers for Unified Public Service Delivery), to ensure timely e-APL-core implementation roll-out by March 2025.

Resources

The e-Governance Agency will provide working space, office equipment and communication facilities (including access to the Internet), as well as any other necessary means and support for Consultant to carry out this assignment.

Qualification requirements and evaluation criteria

Mandatory requirements

• Demonstrated experience of working with central and local public administrations (at least 2 years);
• Demonstrated experience in service provision, especially with regards to service quality management public or private (at least 2 years);
• Demonstrated experience in multitasking and contract management;
• Excellent communication skills, written and spoken, in Romanian and Russian;

Preferred requirements

• Experience in project implementation in public or private sectors would be a strong advantage;
• Experience in supervision of contracts for training activities, procurement of goods and works would be a strong asset;
• Knowledge of e-Governance agenda would be a strong asset;
• Knowledge of the English language would be an advantage.

To apply:

Submit CV that includes your consulting rate requirements to: hr-md@irex.org. 

Please include “National Consultant – e-LPA Operations Specialist” in the subject line.

Deadline for applications: April 10, 2024 6:00 PM (Republic of Moldova time)