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STTA Senior Budget Specialist-Baghdad

Posted over 2 years ago by DAI
Location Baghdad Job Type Contract
Salary Sector NGO

STTA Senior Budget Specialist
90 working days
Baghdad Iraq
Nov 9, 2021
Nov 22, 2021

 

I. Introduction

The purpose of the Iraq Governance Performance and Accountability (IGPA/Takamul) project is to advance effective, accountable, and transparent governance in Iraq. This USAID effort, implemented by DAI, is working with the Government of Iraq (GOI) at all levels 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 include support to improve service delivery functions, public financial management, and open government initiatives. IGPA/Takamul will support the GOI and the citizens of Iraq in forming partnerships and collaborative efforts to solve problems jointly. IGPA/Takamul has four (4) objectives:

1. Enhance GOI 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)

Objective 2 is implementing key PFM reforms in support of the GOI’s White Paper Initiatives to improve the country’s economic and financial state. These include budget reform initiatives that involve program budget implementation over a three - five-year period (White Paper Initiative # 6 – Program Budget) and increasing the transparency of the national budget (White Paper Initiative #1 – Public Budget). Objective 2 has four Year 5&6 workplan activities dedicated to addressing these reforms:

  • Activity 2.4.1 Provide technical support to Ministry of Finance on program budgeting implementation
  • Activity 2.4.2 Increase budget transparency Ministry of Finance
  • Activities 2.4.6, 2.4.8 Multiyear investments budgeting for GOI/KRG with Ministry with Planning in coordination with MOF

II. Background

Program Budget Implementation:

The GOI has committed to transitioning to the program budget under the Government’s White Paper Initiative 6. There is still limited understanding of the benefits of program budgeting across the MOF, MOP, national, provincial entities and limited capacity to transition from line item to program budgeting in Iraq. Additionally, the GOI current budget cycle is not aligned with program budgeting principals.

For Year 5&6, under workplan activity 2.4.1 the Project is providing technical support to the MOF budget and accounting directorates to update the roadmap prepared in 2019 with more details on transitioning from line-item to program budgeting and to prepare a handbook for line ministries and provincial directorates on how to implement program budgeting in Iraq. The Project will seek MOF approval for the handbook and buy-in to roll out the handbook across the government at the national and provincial level. The Project will also support the MOF to conduct program budgeting workshops for MOF and MOP staff, line ministries and provincial directorate staff. This activity will be implemented with the MOF in coordination with MOP under Activity 2.4.6, 2.4.8 for related investment budget aspects of program budgeting and to promote a unified, integrated approach to program budgeting implementation at the national and provincial level.

Increase Budget Transparency

Under Article 50 Chapter 10 of the Federal Financial Administration Law No. 6 of 2019 (PFM Law), the MOF is responsible for increasing transparency and accountability by publishing national budget data, information, documents, and reports in a timely and regular manner and by making this information available on the MOF and other government websites. The MOF Budget, Economic, Accounting and IT Departments would be mainly responsible for ensuring that the required budget and financial information is uploaded to the MOF website including the COR-approved annual budget, monthly federal budget execution reports, preliminary financial data for four months of each year, and the citizen’s budget. Currently this vital budget and financial information is not readily available and shared with the public. Additionally, the Federal budget and financial information is not published in a format that would enable citizens to increase their understanding of the Federal budget and what is spent to provide basic services to communities.

Under this activity, IGPA/Takamul will also provide technical support to the MOF to prepare a citizen’s guide to the national budget to improve transparency and citizen understanding of the national budget. This activity involves supporting MOF to prepare the citizen’s guide to the 2022 budget, and possibly the 2023 budget, uploading the national budget and financial information on the MOF website required under the PFM Law.

III. Objectives

The main objectives for the work of the Senior Budget Specialist under this Scope of Work are:

Program Budgeting Implementation

  • Objective 1: Building awareness, knowledge and understanding of ministers, deputies and director generals on how to transition to program budgeting
  • Objective 2: Preparing a roadmap for the transition and a comprehensive program budgeting manual to provide guidance for transitioning from line item to program budgeting
  • Objective 3: Training a cadre of MOF and MOP Planning technical staff on how to implement the roadmap for transitioning to program budgeting and to train line ministry staff on program budgeting implementation

Increase Budget Transparency

  • Objective 1: Build MOF capacity to prepare national budget and financial data, information, and reports in a timely and regular manner and making this information available on the MOF and other government websites.
  • Objective 2: Support MOF to prepare a citizen’s guide to the budget for public dissemination that would increase understanding of the Federal budget projects and activities that improve local service delivery.

The local Senior Budget Specialist will be engaged for 90 LOE working days to be embedded in the MOF Budget Department with weekly/biweekly coordination meetings with the MOP on achieving these objectives. The local Senior Budget Specialist will work closely with the local international Budget Reform consultant and the PFM Regional Technical Coordinators to complete the work under this SOW.

IV. Key Tasks and responsibilities

The main responsibilities of the local Senior Budget Specialist, working under the direction of the Public Financial Management Team Lead, and with the expatriate Budget Reform Consultant will include, but not be limited to:

Program Budget Implementation:

  • Task 1: Work with the MOF Budget, Economic, Accounting Departments, Ministry of Planning and 2 – 3 select line ministries to update the draft roadmap that was prepared in 2019 to detail step-by-step how to transition from line item budgeting to program budgeting over five years. Establish a working group with the Heads of these Departments and a MOP representative to be responsible for the program budgeting implementation work.
  • Task 2: Based on the draft roadmap, the technical working group will prepare a program budgeting manual of up to 100 pages without the appendices and templates and worksheet tools for preparing the annual draft Federal budget using the program budgeting principles.
  • Task 3: The Senior Budget Specialist will support the Budget Reform Consultant to conduct a half-day workshop on program budgeting implementation to increase the level of understanding and awareness of the importance and how this budget reform has been implemented in other countries. The workshop will target the Technical Deputy Ministers of Finance and Planning, MOF Budget, Economic Director Generals, MOP, Capital Investment, and Sector Director Generals for up to 15 participants.
  • Task 4: Support the MOF to finalize the draft roadmap and program budgeting manual. Prepare training materials to conduct training sessions for the MOF, MOP and select line ministries for implementing program budgeting.
  • Task 5: Train a cadre of trainers in the MOF and MOP to conduct three-day program budgeting training sessions for sustainability. IGPA, in consultation with MOF and MOP will select 3 – 4 budget and planning staff to be trained as trainers to conduct program budgeting training sessions for line ministries and provincial government staff. The STTA Senior Budget Specialist will work with the Objective 2 team to get the approval of the participant list. The STTA Senior Budget Specialist will conduct one three-day TOT to train the selected trainers. The trainers will then actively participate in the two two-day training events to be conducted to build their training skills and knowledge to replicate the training for additional line ministry staff.

Increase Budget Transparency:

  • Task 6: Support MOF Budget, Economic, Accounting Departments to review the current budget and financial information available in accordance with PFM Law transparency requirements. The local Senior Budget Specialist with the Budget Reform Consultant will then work with the MOF departments to determine the appropriate format to share this information on websites to be readily available and accessible to the public.
  • Task 7: Support MOF to develop instructions for the MOF internal departments and relevant ministries on making budget and financial information available by website and other communication mechanisms – media, forums, etc.
  • Task 8: Support MOF Budget and Economic Department to design and develop a citizen’s guide to the national budget based on the budget and financial information collected and formatted under Task 6. The guide should be published in Arabic with an English translation and in a format that can be easily understood by the public.
  • Task 9: Design and support MOF to conduct a workshop for the Ministry of Planning and COMSec and the line ministries on the instructions for public dissemination of budget and financial information in accordance with the PFM Law.

Multiyear Investment Budgeting for GOI/KRG MOP

  • Task 10: Consult with the Deputy Minister and DGs of Investment of the GOI and KRG MOP and determine how to implement multiyear investment budgeting aligned with and integrated with the program budgeting implementation reform activity under Tasks 1 – 5. Support the MOP with the MOF to integrate the multiyear investment budgeting reform activity with a phased approach over five years. The multiyear investment budgeting approach should incorporate the IDMS/KDMS capital project information and the PIM and feasibility study guidelines for project planning, selection, approval, implementation and evaluation.
  • Task 11: Provide ad hoc advice and support to the Objective 2 team and STTA provincial consultants with decentralized budget technical assistance work, as needed.
  • Task 12: Write and publish final lessons learned report of up to 10 pages that describes the progress and what was accomplished towards completing the activity tasks, challenges and how they can be resolved, recommendations and next steps and at least 2 success stories.

The Senior Budget Specialist should submit weekly reports to the IGPA/Takamul PFM Component Lead/Regional Technical Coordinator every Tuesday by the end of the workday for the previous week. The weekly reports can be combined with the Budget Reform Consultant’s weekly reports if needed. The weekly reports should detail which governmental entities the consultant met with in the previous week, what has been accomplished towards completing the deliverables under this scope of work, provide a brief description of the support provided and what is planned for technical support for the next week/coming weeks.

In executing these tasks, the STTA Budget Reform Consultant will be responsible for complying with the relevant requirements specified under the IGPA Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) component 1 . (See Attachment 2 for more detail).

V. Sustainabiilty and change agents

Objective 2 will consult with the MOF Economic, Budget, Accounting Departments to select at least 1 change agent from each department to be responsible for the sustainability of the program budgeting implementation and increased budget transparency efforts.

Increased budget transparency

The change agents will work closely with the IGPA local senior budget specialist and regional PFM coordinators to ensure the national budget and financial information is identified, collected, reviewed and formatted to be readily available and accessible to the public via the MOF and other government websites. The change agents will be responsible for ensuring that the MOFfollows the schedule and process for updating the information on the website regularly. The change agents may also participate in the MOF workshop for MOF department, MOP, COMSec and key economic and fiscal institutions on the policy and instructions on public dissemination of budget and financial information. The change agents 1 During project implementation of events (e.g., workshops, training sessions, awareness campaigns, on-the-job training, etc.) the technical teams will be responsible to collect project data at the source (i.e. place where event is taking place). This role may be performed by any staff from the technical team or the MEL focal points on the team. In either case, the MEL Specialist should ensure that the relevant staff responsible to collect the data utilizes the appropriate data collection form and understands the data collection process for the specific indicator. Once the data is collected by the technical team representative, the technical staff will submit the completed form and all supporting documents to MEL Specialist within the region. The MEL Specialist will verify the completed form and supporting documents for correctness and completeness. will participate in the budget transparency workshop for the MOF, Ministry of Planning, and COMSec and the line ministries on the instructions for public dissemination and will be responsibility for the sustainability of the budget transparency efforts including dissemination of the national budget and financial information on the MOF and other government websites and other media mechanisms.

Program Budgeting Implementation
The change agents will work closely with the IGPA local senior budget specialist and regional PFM coordinators to ensure the program budgeting implementation tasks are carried out effectively including the draft roadmap development, and preparing a program budgeting manual up to 100 pages with appendices and templates and worksheet tools for preparing the annual draft Federal budget. The change agents will support the STTA budget experts to conduct training sessions for the MOF, MOP and select line ministries for implementing program budgeting and will be responsibility for the sustainability of the program budgeting implementation efforts based on the roadmap and manual and instructions that may be developed by the MOF for implementation.

 

VI. Required Qualifications

  • A Bachelor’s degree in public policy, economics, finance or a related field is required.
  • At least 10 years of experience working as a budget expert at the national and provincial level in Iraq. Prefer some experience in the MENA region.
  • Familiarity with relevant budget reform including program budgeting reform implementation and budget transparency best practices to be adapted for the local context
  • Fluency in Arabic with professional proficiency in English (written and speaking skills)
  • Excellent communication and reporting skills
  • Familiarity with the social, economic and political context of Iraq

VII. Skills

  • Strong analytical and research skills
  • Excellent writing, reading and verbal communication skills essential 
  • Arabic is essential. English will be an advantage
  • Ability to prepare analysis reports
  • Facilitation skills with persuasion abilities
  • Computer skills: proficient in the use of Microsoft Office package (Word, Excel, Powerpoint Presentation)

VIII. Location and Language of Deliverables

The duty station for this assignment will be Baghdad and embedded in the Ministry of Finance Budget Department. All deliverables must be prepared in both English and Arabic.

IX. Reporting

The local Senior Budget Specialist will report to the PFM Team Lead.

X. General Statement

Under this SOW, IGPA/Takamul project will be responsible for covering all other indirect implementation costs including air and ground transportation, lodging, per-diem, and phone communications.

For all formal workshops and trainings, for the purposes of contractual compliance, the consultant will be responsible for implementing the relevant requirements specified under the IGPA Projects Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) component, including the submission of all sign-in sheets, photos.

How to apply:

You can address your application to: IGPArecruitment@dai.com Your application will not be taken into consideration if you do not insert the position title in subject line of your e- mail. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Applications will not be accepted after the closing date. This position is for Iraqi nationals only.

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