Call for Consultancy - Terms of Reference
Consultancy, Research Jobs
Job Description
Open Government Partnership (OGP) monitoring in Zimbabwe’s public procurement processes: The Case of the Mining Sector
Deadline: 17 May 2023
1.0 Background
A public interest Organisation which seeks to promote environmental justice, sustainable and equitable use of natural resources, democracy and good governance in the natural resources and environment sector is seeking the services of a Consultant to assess the public procurement systems in Zimbabwe, map corruption risks in public spending as it relates to the mining sector and develop recommendations to influence Zimbabwe to join Open Government Partnership (OGP) as a concrete step for government to entrench open contracting.
Open Government Partnership (OGP) provides a platform for governments to adopt open contracting policies focused on disclosure, participation, and oversight throughout the entire procurement chain. The combination of these activities helps governments save money, fight corruption, and expand the number of participating businesses, particularly small and women-owned businesses. Accountable and transparent procurement, including with citizen monitoring, is a fundamental policy reform for anti-corruption and success of Post-COVID Recovery. In the extractives sector, there is a growing recognition that extractive companies need to engage, build partnerships, and co-create services with communities and stakeholders to improve public procurement and provision of services. Deals in the oil, gas, and mining sectors are worth billions of dollars but they often do not translate into human development and economic opportunity for citizens. Worse, there is abundant evidence that human development goes backward. Oil, gas and mining contracts used to be state secrets in many countries, and their publication was absolutely forbidden. There was no systematic guidance for ensuring transparency in allocating and managing the rights to explore and exploit natural resources. But things have changed. The last decade has seen a global effort to shine a light on how extractive industries operate, through multi-stakeholder initiatives such as Publish What You Pay (PWYP), the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and Open Government Partnership to be able to follow the money from resource extraction into government budgets and public spending.
Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Zimbabwe began the open governance platform debate in 2020 by examining the OGP's guiding principles. To help civil society and community-based organisations comprehend the OGP concept and how they may utilize it to influence its processes within their countries. Whilst Zimbabwe is not yet a member of the OGP, there remain a need to assess the compatibility of Zimbabwean public procurement processes as they relate to the mining sector with the Open Government Principles to ascertain whether a case for Zimbabwe’s joining can be made. It is against this background that an organisation is looking for a consultant to assess the public procurement systems in Zimbabwe mapping corruption risks in public spending as it relates to the mining sector.
Duties and Responsibilities
2.0 Consultancy Objectives
The consultancy objectives are to.
• Assess the public procurement systems in Zimbabwe and map corruption risks in public spending as it relates to the mining sector.
• Draw recommendations for CSOs, Parliament and citizens to push and influence Zimbabwe to join OGP as a concrete step for government to entrench open contracting.
3.0 Key Deliverables
Working closely with the Organization, the following deliverables are expected from the Consultant within three weeks of engagement:
• Produce a report on procurement systems in Zimbabwe.
• Develop a corruption risk map on public spending.
• Presentation of the research to Civil Society Organizations, policy makers and government.
Qualifications and Experience
4.0 Applicant requirements
- Suitable applicants should have the following:
• A minimum qualification of a master’s degree in social sciences or relevant field
• At least 5 years and above experience on extractive sector issues
How to Apply
5.0 To apply.
Interested individuals/Consultancy companies with demonstrable experience of conducting similar work are encouraged to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) which should not be more than 3 pages. The EOI must detail applicant’s understanding of the TORs, proposed methodology, cost application, a summary of applicant’s skills and experience, relevant to in carrying out similar work or assignments, sample of previous work and applicant’s Curriculum Vitae, with names of three referees and their contact details (email and phone). Applications which do not contain meet the above documents will be regarded as incomplete and will not be considered. Applications must be addressed to procurementzw@gmail.com by the 17th of May 2023. The title of the consultancy should be clearly stated in the email subject and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
