Training and Development Specialist

The purpose of the Iraq Governance Performance and Accountability (IGPA) project is to advance effective, accountable, and transparent governance in Iraq. This USAID effort, implemented by DAI, will work with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) at the national and provincial level to better respond to citizen needs by supporting reform initiatives and Iraqi change agents on inclusive governance and public-sector transparency, accountability, and economy. “Reform initiatives” includes support to improve service delivery functions, public financial management, and open government initiatives. IGPA will support the KRG through four (4) objectives:

1. Enhance KRG service delivery capacity

2. Improve public financial management

3. Strengthen monitoring and oversight of service delivery and public expenditure

4. Support Iraqi change agents (cross-cutting objective)

IGPA also supports the fulfillment of the US Government’s commitment toward decentralization as a means toward achieving the above objectives, particularly the enhancement of the responsiveness of public services to citizens’ needs and the improvement of transparency and accountability in the use of public resources.

Background

IGPA aims to improve public financial management at the provincial level primarily by building capacity of the KRI provincial finance and accounting units in specific areas such as budgeting, financial reporting, cash management, accounting and internal auditing. This will require a comprehensive training and development program to be developed and implemented for targeted staff in KRI provincial finance and accounting units. The local PFM Training and Development specialist is being engaged to assist and support an international Training and Development specialist to prepare the PFM training and development program. The training and development program will then be implemented by the local training specialists in collaboration with the IGPA PFM embedded advisors and Ministry of Finance and Economy (MOFE) staff to ensure training modules are in accordance with MOFE rules and regulations and conducted in the relevant local language (Kurdish). 

The IGPA/Takamul project recognizes the importance of the accounting and finance departments of KRI ministries and provincial bodies in promoting decentralization and improving service deliver by strengthening public financial management at the provincial level. 
Short-term technical assistance (STTA) is needed to develop a comprehensive training and development program for building capacity of the KRI provincial finance and accounting units in Erbil, Sulaimaniya, Dahuk, and Halabja. The comprehensive training and development program will build on the basic PFM training program delivered by IGPA/Takamul in Year 2 focused primarily on budgeting and financial management topics. The training and development program will focus on intermediate and advanced courses in PFM specialized areas with follow up on-the-job training and mentoring and coaching through the 2 IGPA 

PFM Embedded Advisors in Erbil and Sulaimaniya. The follow up, continuous on-the-job training through the PFM advisors embedded in the Erbil and Sulaimaniya finance and accounting units with assistance to Dahuk and Halabja units will help to ensure sustainability of the training and development program implemented in Year 3 and thereafter. 

This scope of work describes delivering provincial financial and accounting unit staff PFM training and follow up capacity and development activities to reinforce the knowledge and skills in specialized PFM areas learned. The local PFM Training and Development Specialist will report to the PFM Team Lead and support the international Training and Development Specialist in the effective development and implementation of a comprehensive PFM training and development program. The training and development specialist team may also be supported by international STTA PFM experts who are providing PFM advisory support to various KRG or GOI Federal institutions. 

Objective:
This scope of work is for the following activities:

1. Support the development of a comprehensive PFM training program with intermediate and advanced modules for KRI provincial finance and accounting units.

2. Participate in a train-the-trainer program to be trained with the KRI PFM Embedded Advisors to deliver the training modules.

3. Serve as a trainer to implement the PFM training program for the four KRI provincial financial and accounting units.

Specific Tasks of the specialist

Under this Scope of Work, the training and development specialist shall contribute to performing, but not be limited to, the following specific tasks:

• Contribute to the development of a comprehensive PFM training program with intermediate and advanced modules. The local PFM Training and Development Specialist will assist the international Training and Development specialist to develop a comprehensive PFM training program with intermediate and advanced modules in PFM specialized areas for the finance and accounting units in the four KRI provinces. The topics can include internal audit and internal controls, cash management, accounting cycle and records for government and unified accounting systems, payroll accounting procedures, risk management to strengthen the budgeting and financial management process and procedures. The local Training and Development Specialist will assist the international Training and Development Specialist to develop the training materials to include: instructor’s manual, PowerPoint presentations, case studies, working group exercises adapted for the local context. Two training and development programs will be developed for the 15 non-KRI provinces and the KRI provincial financial and accounting units to address the specific needs of the different units. The training program will ultimately be transferred to local training institutes for which IGPA/Takamul has entered into arrangements for capacity and development of those institutions to institutionalize the training delivered by IGPA

• Participate in a train-the-trainer program to be trained with the PFM Embedded Advisors to deliver the training modules. The local PFM training and development specialist will participate with the local PFM Embedded Advisors to deliver the KRI provincial training program for the targeted participants from the finance and accounting units. For specific courses, the MOFE staff can participate to assist with

• Serve as a trainer to implement the PFM training program for AFADs and decentralized directorates in the 4 KRI provincial financial and accounting units. The PFM embedded advisors, local training specialist and SMEs will then deliver the training program to the target participants in the KRI provincial financial and accounting units. The trainers will receive coaching, guidance and training support from international expatriates for effective delivery of the training. The international training and development specialist will provide continuous feedback and lessons learned for the trainers as the training courses are delivered. The local training and development specialist will be responsible for working to adapt and adjust the training delivery accordingly based on the continuous feedback. The materials may be revised and adjusted based on the initial delivery of training modules and feedback and lessons learned from the participants and the international and local training and development specialists.