Request for expressions of interest: design and development of M&E mechanism for RIS3 and industrial policy implementation (3A.3.3.)

11 / 09 / 2019

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
(CONSULTING SERVICES- FIRMS SELECTION)
REPUBLIC OF SERBIA
COMPETITIVENESS AND JOBS PROJECT
Loan No. 8528 YF

Assignment Title: DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF M&E MECHANISM FOR RIS3 AND INDUSTRIAL POLICY IMPLEMENTATION

Reference No.  (as per Procurement Plan): 3A.3.3.

Serbia has received a loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (Bank) in the amount of EUR 89,500,000 to improve the competitiveness and employment toward the cost of the Competitiveness and Jobs Project (Project) and intends to apply part of the proceeds to for consulting services.

The scope of the assignment for consulting services includes:

Background:

Objective: In view of the Project’s main goal to improve Serbia’s competitiveness (including through strengthening investment and enterprise development/export promotion services, developing sector specific action plans, supporting innovative entrepreneurship, and improving labor market), it is noted that more broadly this goal is highly relevant in Serbia’s accession to EU process – in particular in the context of the Chapter 20 (Enterprise and Industrial Policy) negotiations. The sectoral industrial analyses produced under the previous Component 2 (Investment and Export Promotion) of the Project have tackled the four sectors, laying the foundation for development of more concrete measures and addressing another four intensively. The reports indicate that the precondition for developing specialist knowledge and advancing the design and implementation of sectoral policies is a significant improvement in the quality of economic statistics and analytics available to the public.

To continue working on industrial policies, the Project envisions several lines of expert interventions, such as working on the  smart specialization strategy (S3[1]), with a continuous public-private dialogue between the four spheres of a modern, innovative society (the so-called quadruple helix) – academia, government, private sector and civil society; strengthening the M&E functions, research and analytics contributing to and following-up on the horizontal effects of the Project; and strengthening the original expertise on the Project with adequate legal support, to be able to efficiently respond to a need for improved policy and changes in legislation.

The objective of this process is therefore to develop and improve the stakeholder consultation mechanism in order to extract more comprehensive, grass-roots-inspired policy inputs for evidence-based policy development and implementation. This mechanism is designed as a Smart Specialization Strategy preparation process that works via partnerships and bottom-up approach, bringing together local authorities, academia, business spheres and the civil society to identify and exploit a country’s own specific competitive advantages. It will further be used for the development of industrial policy, but also as a monitoring and evaluation tool in RIS3 implementation.

The Development Objective of the Project demands higher quality of the policy in removing obstacles to increased competitiveness and jobs. To that end, the implementation structure of the Project is grounded in horizontal analytics in all of the components, serving the continuous monitoring and evaluation of measures, with an aim of feeding back the evidence into the implementation process and producing a horizontal effect onto policy making. To this end, after the Restructuring of the Project, M&E and analytical expertise on the Project was substantially strengthened by establishment of strong analytical support in service of monitoring and evaluation on the Project components, feeding back the evidence into implementation and facilitating horizontal effects to policy measures. This mechanism is designed to work across all of the remaining three components in a form of an analytical team evenly distributed throughout the components, as well as M&E impact evaluation specialists, who are providing additional support in evaluation of the outcomes and impact, by making sure the results of monitoring of the activities are built back into the process of policy development and implementation.

As it is already recognized by the Government and the Prime Minister’s Office, an M&E system should be regarded as a long-term, as opposed to sporadic effort for a short period or for the duration of a specific project, program, or policy. Sustaining such systems within the Government recognizes the long-term process involved in ensuring utility. The objectives of this assignment are to develop the methodology with the instruments and the appropriate work plan for M&E of the public policies beyond the Project, but highly relevant to its Development Objective, assess the potential for evaluation of each of the processes (subjects of evaluation, target groups, stakeholders, resources needed), design the evaluation mechanism, implementation and reporting. Currently, the central Government does not posses strong capacities in the subject matter, it is necessary to engage services of the local Consulting firm (herein after: the Consultant) for this assignment.

Activities: The scope of work and deliverables for the Consultant includes the following tasks and deliverables: 

Deliverable 1 (to be delivered 2 weeks after the contract signing) – Methodology

Develop the methodology with the instruments and the appropriate work plan for M&E of the public policies relevant to the Project

Deliverable 2 (to be delivered 4 weeks after the contract signing) – Evaluation potential

Assess the potential for evaluation of each of the processes:

  • subjects of evaluation,
  • target groups,
  • stakeholders,
  • resources needed.

Deliverable 3 (to be delivered 8 weeks after the contract signing) – Design

Design the evaluation mechanism

  • Draft of the evaluation mechanism
  • Round of consultations with the stakeholders
  • Final version of the evaluation mechanism

Deliverable 4 (to be delivered 12 weeks after the contract signing) – Implementation: Readiness Assessment

Conducting Readiness Assessment: assess organizational capacity and political willingness to monitor and evaluate its goals, and develop a performance-based framework. Incentives and demands for designing and building a results-based M&E system. Roles and responsibilities and existing structures for assessing performance. How will the M&E system link project, sector and national goals.

Deliverable 5 (to be delivered 16 weeks after the contract signing) – Implementation: Outcomes to monitor and evaluate

Issues to consider in choosing outcomes to monitor and evaluate. Building a participatory consultative

process involving main stakeholders: identify specific stakeholder representatives; identify major concerns of stakeholders; translate problems into statements of possible outcome improvements.

Deliverable 6 (to be delivered 20 weeks after the contract signing) – Implementation: Selecting Key Performance Indicators to monitor outcomes

Translating outcomes into outcome indicators. Identifying proxy indicators. Setting indicators to track progress toward their development goals.

Deliverable 7 (to be delivered 24 weeks after the contract signing) – Implementation: Setting baselines and gathering data on indicators

Establishing baseline data on indicators. Building baseline information. Identifying data sources for indicators. Designing and comparing data collection methods. Data collection.

Deliverable 8 (to be delivered 28 weeks after the contract signing) – Implementation: Planning for improvement – selecting results targets

Definition of targets. The overall performance-based framework (completed matrix of outcomes, indicators, baselines, and targets).

Deliverable 9 (to be delivered 32 weeks after the contract signing) – Implementation: Monitoring for results

Key principles in building the monitoring system. Implementation monitoring and results monitoring (both important in tracking results). Links between implementation monitoring and results monitoring (ownership, management, maintenance). Data quality: reliability, validity and timeliness. Analyzing performance data. Pretesting data collection instruments and procedures.

Deliverable 10 (to be delivered 36 weeks after the contract signing) – Implementation: Using evaluation information to support a results-based management system

Strategy: are the right things being done? Rationale or justification; Clear theory of change.

Operations: are things being done right? Effectiveness in achieving expected outcomes; Efficiency in optimizing resources; Client satisfaction.

Learning: are there better ways? Alternatives; Best practices; Lessons learned.

Deliverable 11 (to be delivered 44 weeks after the contract signing) – Implementation: Reporting the findings

Uses of monitoring and evaluation findings; knowing the audiences and targeting the appropriate information to those audiences; presentation of performance data in clear and understandable form.

Deliverable 12 (to be delivered 52 weeks after the contract signing) – Implementation: Using the findings

Performance findings. Strategies for sharing information.

Deliverable 13 (to be delivered 60 weeks after the contract signing) – Implementation: Sustaining the M&E system

Critical components of sustaining results-based M&E. Possible problems in sustaining results-based M&E. Validating and evaluating M&E systems and information.

Deliverable 14 (to be delivered 65 weeks after the contract signing) – Reporting

Reporting on the M&E mechanism. Reporting on implementation.

Duration: The Consultant is expected to be engaged for a period of 65 weeks with approximately time effort of 325 man days.

The Terms of Reference for this assignment can be found at the following link: https://bit.ly/2lEasSl

The PIU of the PPS now invites eligible Consultants to indicate their interest in providing the services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the services.

The shortlisting criteria are:

The Consultant must possess following qualifications:

  • Be a legal entity
  • At least five (5) years of general experience in project management and implementation.
  • At least five (5) years of specific experience in providing similar services in Western Balkan countries.
  • The Consultant should have capacity to assign a qualified and experienced team that will work on this assignment including at least one Lead Expert, one Senior M&E Expert and two M&E Specialists.
#
Criteria
Weight
1
General experience
20
2
Specific experience relevant to the assignment
50
3
Capacity to assign a qualified and experienced team, including at least one Lead Expert, one Senior M&E Expert and two M&E Specialists*.
30

*The required qualifications and experience of the team is indicated in the Terms of Reference.

Consultants may associate with other firms in the form of a joint venture or a sub consultancy to enhance their qualifications, but should indicate clearly whether the association is in the form of joint venture and/or sub consultancy. In the case of a joint venture, all the partners in the joint venture shall be jointly and severally liable for the entire contract, if selected. 

Expressions of Interest should contain following information:1.Profile of the firm including expertise available for the assignment (CVs are not required on this time); 2. Information on general experience (including in project management and implementation, etc.) 3. Specific expericence for similar services in Western Balkan countries and supportive material indicating qualification and competence of the firm to perform the services.

The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to paragraph 1.9 of the World Bank’s Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits & Grants by World Bank Borrowers January 2011 (Revised July 2014)., setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.

A Consultant will be selected  in accordance with the Selection Based on the Consultants’ Qualifications (CQS) method set out in set out in the Section III of the World Bank’s  Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits & Grants by World Bank Borrowers January 2011 Revised July 2014.

Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours: 9:00 -15.00h

Expressions of interest in English language must be sent in a written form by October 3, 2019 15:00 h, local time, in electronic format to the following e-mail: piu@rsjp.gov.rs (cc: milena.kostadinovic@rsjp.gov.rs, snezana.djordjevic@piu.rsjp.gov.rs) with the exact title of the assignment in the “Subject” of the e-mail.

 

Contact: 

Milena Kostadinovic

Project Implementation Unit

Public Policy Secretariat

10 Vlajkoviceva St

11000 Belgrade

Republic of Serbia

Tel:      +381 11 333 41 19

E-mail:  milena.kostadinovic@rsjp.gov.rs

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2019 0910 REOI 3A.3.3

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