Re-announcement
Terms of Reference for Consultancy: Local Government Training & Cross-border Grant Programme Design, May 2007
A. Objective
To support ongoing activities to develop municipal capacity and cross-border co-operation, with the overall aims of community development and conflict prevention, in the GPKT 'micro-region' (the municipalities of Gjilan/Gnjilane in Kosovo, Presevo and Trgoviste in southern Serbia, and Kumanovo in Macedonia) through:
· Design of a training programme for municipal capacity building on partnership project design and proposal writing;
· Design of a cross-border partnership grant programme and related systems; and
· Delivery of the training programme to a pre-selected group of municipal officials from the four GPKT municipalities.
B. Background / Rationale
The ongoing EWI cross-border co-operation project in the GPKT 'micro-region' , comprising four border municipalities in Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia, and three borders. The GPKT Project encompasses: multi-ethnic and cross-border community work in the areas of education, youth, media and women's issues and general civil society
capacity building; cross-border municipal capacity building and collaborative work on economic development across the micro-region; and, advocacy and policy work at local and higher levels to support progress on the ground (for more information please see www.gpkt.org) . This consultancy on municipal capacity building and cross-border partnership grants would combine support to activities promoting municipal partnership initiatives, developing municipal capacity and practical co-operation among the four GPKT municipalities.
C. Consultancy
i. Target group:
The target group for the training programme are municipal officials from the four GPKT municipalities. The total number of participants will be between 10-15. Municipalities will select a core number of participants (around 2-3 per municipality) and would choose which staff they feel would benefit most: i.e. in some cases the primary person responsible for grant writing, in other cases more junior staff whose skills need further development. EWI will encourage municipalities to appoint officials with at least some previous experience and knowledge of PCM, project proposal writing and grants implementation and monitoring. In general however, due to the varying capacities and experiences of the municipalities themselves, aside
from individuals, it is unfortunately inevitable that the training participants will be a mixed group in terms of background and experience of PCM and grant application/ management. The consultant should therefore design a comprehensive and flexible training programme that would provide for some background information and basic level PCM, as well as more advanced knowledge of the topics to be covered by the programme. The training process would also include sharing of experience among the four municipalities on their previous experience of funding applications, and allow space for the more experienced individuals to present their experiences and feel their expertise is valued.
ii. Outputs:
§ Training programme. The number of modules and training days are to be precisely determined by the consultant, depending on the content to be covered. It is however envisaged that the training will be implemented in a series of appx. three workshops, each with a duration of 2-3 days, over a period of appx. 6 weeks. The workshops will focus on developing municipal staff knowledge of the entire project cycle management process, with a heavy focus on building their skills for partnership project proposal design and application / fund-raising, financial management and cross-border grants implementation and monitoring. Practical exercises should focus on using the grant programme designed for EWI (see below) to ensure greatest application of the training process to follow-on activities. Delivery of the training in a local language (in practice Serbian or Macedonian as the most widely understood among the target group, with some consecutive translation as required) would be greatly preferred.
§ Grant programme design. Following the end of the training workshops, EWI will launch a funding programme of cross-border grants for municipal partnership projects. The grant programme should be similar to EU standards in order to have a targeted training programme, and then to provide for subsequent practical experience of grant management and reporting that would entail genuine and relevant practice and experience for all municipalities in developing the skills necessary to apply for the large infrastructure grants available in the future through instruments such as the NNP, IPA, etc. The consultant is therefore required to design a grant programme and mechanism that would meet the above requirements of capacity building
and 'learning by doing', while still avoiding overly complex systems or application / implementation criteria that would be far beyond the current capacities of local municipalities in the target area. The deliverables for the grant programme design would be: criteria and the operating mechanism for partnership project implementation (both bi-lateral and, preferably, multi-lateral) ; narrative and financial application forms and system; proposed selection procedure or criteria; monitoring & evaluation procedure during implementation; and, narrative and financial reporting formats.
iii. Time frame: The total duration of this consultancy assignment would be a maximum of 20 calendar days, during the June-July 2007 period. The training programme and grant application forms should be designed and ready by the end of June; the training delivery will take place July 2007 and a deadline for receipt of cross-border municipal grant proposals is envisaged for September 2007.
v. EWI/GPKT Project Staff input and confirmation of final products: EWI/GPKT staff will provide assistance with initial consultations on background activities, share existing relevant information held by the Project team - beyond this the consultant will be responsible for the work required. EWI/GPKT staff will also review the final products and request any revisions deemed necessary to achieve a requisite level of
quality.
D. Tendering Process
Interested consultants are asked to submit the following documents to Emilija Belogaska, GPKT Municipal & Economic Development Coordinator and Deputy Project Manager, ebelogaska@ewi. info, by 21 May 2007:
- An up to date personal or organisational CV, noting specifically prior experience of work in this sector in this region (if a team of consultants are tendering, please ensure to include up to date CVs of all researchers to be included in the team).
- Preliminary outline of the training programme and key features of the grant programme.
- A time frame and proposed work schedule for the consultancy (design and delivery).
- A budget or financial proposal for the work, separating consultancy fees, field travel and translation costs.
- References for similar work, and any relevant examples of publications/ written work or curricula designed/delivered.
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