Comunitatea Mea Program Vacancies: Consultancy services Training of trainers on the Internal Managerial Control System

Scope of Work (SoW): Consultancy services – Training of trainers (ToT)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

USAID’s Comunitatea Mea (CM) is an eight-year assistance program to help local governments become more effective, transparent, and accountable to citizens while building local government’s capacity to meet citizens’ needs. CM is USAID’s flagship local government program providing comprehensive assistance to communities, primarily targeting local governments, known as Local Public Authorities (LPAs).

ASSIGNMENT BACKGROUND

One of the objectives of CM is to advise and educate partner communities on improving their public financial management practices. This includes building their capacity to implement MoF standards regulating the Public Financial Internal Control system (PFIC) and public audit, including Internal Managerial Control, with the ultimate goal to strengthen municipal financial management capacities and optimize municipal revenue generation potential following the principles of efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, responsibility, and accountability.

According to the Republic of Moldova-EU Association Agreement, the Republic of Moldova must implement PFIC at the national level including IMCS development as a distinctive component of PFIC. Thus, each LPA and each public organization must implement public financial management and control in line with the overall financial management and control policy documents. The current GOM action plan has shown a strong commitment to IMCS development both for central and local government authorities. To support LPAs’ leadership and LPA staff adapting to these reforms, MoF and CM are designing a program to enhance LPA competencies and skills, particularly in anticipation of the larger size of LPAs following amalgamation and inter-municipal cooperation processes. The proposed assignment will involve assessing challenges and providing ToT support to MoF to support the development of an IMCS trainers’ network on IMCS.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

CM seeks one national consultant to provide a comprehensive capacity-building Program aimed to support MoF in guiding and providing ToT on IMCS for the development of a network of trainers to enhance the professional competencies and abilities of LPAs from the Republic of Moldova.

The consultant will lead the following two work streams:

          I. Training of Trainers’ Program implementation.

The consultant will design and deliver a Training of Trainers (ToT) Program on IMCS approved by MoF with the necessary skills for effective training delivery. The target trainers for the regional IMC network will be selected by a committee that will include representatives of MoF, CM, academia, ToT expert according to a set of the eligibility criteria, based on open announced competition. This includes training a team of target trainers conducting training sessions, facilitating, and monitoring the delivery of the Program, and developing a comprehensive internal final evaluation of the Program.

The curriculum will incorporate the following features:

• Effective design: Developing clear learning objectives, outcomes, and assessment methods to identify specific needs, challenges, and best practices in the administrative, legal, operational, and communication fields relevant to local governance.
• Legal alignment: Ensuring consistency with the relevant legal framework.
• Practical application: Facilitating application through case studies and group activities.
• Technology integration: Suggesting digital tools that can streamline processes.
• Learning principles: Incorporating adult learning principles and interactive methodologies, directing the curriculum’s revision based on stakeholder feedback, ensuring alignment with the Program’s objectives.
  
  ii. Mentoring the target trainers.

The consultant will lead four group mentoring sessions to facilitate an exchange of experiences and address any challenges encountered during the field training sessions. The consultant is responsible for facilitating a final feedback and reflection session to encourage trainers to reflect on their learning journey and articulate their feedback regarding the ToT Program to the MoF. The overarching objective of this activity is to bolster the sustainability of the ToT Program by laying the groundwork for the establishment in the future of a community of practice among the target trainers.

Detailed tasks under each work stream include:

          I. Curriculum-related duties and responsibilities

1. Consultation and research

• Conduct consultations with the CM Program, MoF, and local public authorities’ representatives to determine needs for the curriculum’s content.
• Conduct 1 (one) focus group with target trainers to research their specific needs and current challenges, and best practices in administrative, legal, operational, communication fields.
• Conduct a desk review of relevant legal, operational, and policy documents about the duties and obligations of target trainers including any existing curricula utilized by MoF and CALM.

2. Curriculum revision, and delivery

• Study training materials approved by MoF (trainers’ outline, interactive presentations, and practical learning outline, tailored to the curriculum).
• Develop 1 (one) Program evaluation framework and assessment templates to evaluate the curriculum’s impact on improving the competencies and abilities of target trainers.
• Collect and integrate feedback from CM Program, MoF, and local public authorities’ representatives to refine curriculum content and training materials.
• Deliver the Program mandatory training materials and evaluation framework approved by MoF and submit to CM Program.
  
  II. Training of Trainers’ Program implementation related duties and responsibilities

1. Training Program development and delivery

• Participate in interviews and evaluate candidates’ suitability for Program’ trainers’ roles.
• Train a team of target trainers effectively to deliver the Program by equipping them with the necessary knowledge, skills, resources, providing training on content mastery and facilitation skills.
• Conduct 1 (one) pilot training session to test the Program curriculum, training materials, and Program evaluation framework, and gather feedback from participants to refine the documents.
• Facilitate and monitor the delivery of the Program, ensuring that trainers implement it according to the planned curriculum, and provide ongoing support and guidance.

2. Evaluation and monitoring

• Collect and analyze relevant stakeholders’ feedback from participants and trainers, beneficiaries of the target trainers’ work, also MoF.
• Develop 1 (one) comprehensive internal final evaluation report detailing the Program delivery, evaluation results, and recommendations for continuous improvement of the Program.

3. Trainers mentoring and evaluation

• Conduct Group mentoring sessions to facilitate an exchange of experiences and address any challenges encountered during the field training sessions.
• Conduct 1 (one) final feedback and reflection session to encourage trainers to introspect on their learning journey and articulate their feedback regarding the Program.
• Data-supported recommendations for changes to the role of the network of trainers on IMCS development in local public administration.

Organizational setting: The consultant will work under the overall guidance of CM Program Deputy Chief of Party and direct supervision of the Local Government Finance Manager.

Reporting: The consultant will submit bi-weekly and/ or monthly reports (in the Romanian language) during the entire duration of the assignment.

DELIVERABLES, TIMELINE, AND LEVEL OF EFFORT

The expected level of effort (LOE) for this assignment will be a total of up to 50 (fifty) non-consecutive days. The assignment will take place between August 2024 - August 2025, with the following estimated timelines and LOE breakdown across deliverables:

Please note that the deliverables may be amended based on the outcomes of initial consultations.

DESIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Education

• A master’s degree in economics, public policy, public administration or a related field is required.

Required professional experience and skills

• Extensive experience (min. 3 years) with facilitating, implementing, or building capacity for IMCS and/or internal audit, compliance at the local public authority level.
• Extensive experience (min. 3 years) in the development and delivery of curricula, training programs, training facilitation.
• Demonstrated experience working with local public authorities and understanding the needs and challenges of local governance structures in Moldova.

Language proficiency

• Advanced proficiency level (C1 level in CEFR) in Romanian language.
• Intermediary proficiency level in Russian language.

Software proficiency

• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (such as Office and PowerPoint).
• Basic proficiency in virtual collaboration and conferencing tools (such as Zoom).
• Intermediate Basic proficiency in data collection and analysis tools (such as Google Forms) will be an advantage.

Conflict of interest

• Trainers shall be independent contractors with no conflict of interest with the implementing partners or beneficiary public institutions.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Interested candidates are invited to submit their resumes, indicating their consultancy rate, to the email address: hr-md@irex.org. Please specify Consultancy services/TOT in the subject line of your message. Applications, including all supporting documents, must be submitted either in Romanian or English. The deadline for application submissions is July 8, 2024; Time 18:00 (CET).

Applicants will be selected for an interview on a rolling basis.

IREX will only respond to those applicants selected for an interview.

IREX is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace and inclusive hiring practice.

IREX is an equal-opportunity employer.