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Municipal Development Planner

Profile:                                                            CSSF Libya Supporting Sub National Government

Reporting:                                                          Team Leader

Languages Required:                                                Fluent Arabic and English

Starting Date:                                                                   ASAP

Expected Duration of Assignment:                        49 Days

Location:                                                                      Bani Walid, Libya

1.1      Brief description of the Tazeez Program:

The Tazeez programme is a UK-funded Conflict, Security and Stability Fund (CSSF) programme.

The Tazeez programme is designed to contribute to the provision of more responsive and inclusive sub-national Government services in Libya by supporting the Government of National Accord’s (GNA) efforts to decentralise.

Tazeez seeks to support Municipalities and Sector Ministries in implementing the decentralization policy as provided for in Law 59 (2012). The main focus of Tazeez is to support a sustainable decentralized bottom-up planning, decision-making and implementation process through the training and capacity building of development agents at the Municipal and community levels.

In addition, the Tazeez programme aims to assist Municipalities in integrating decentralized departments into the Municipal system and to support sub-Municipal structures (Mahalas) to undertake their roles and functions.

The Tazeez programme also seeks to improve existing service delivery systems at Municipal level, through the provision of training and technical assistance, and to widen the decision-making base by ensuring greater participation in the development process at Community, Mahala and Municipalities levels.

Tazeez seeks to ensure that activities in various sectors like water and sanitation, roads, health, education etc. are planned and implemented in close cooperation between the Municipalities, the respective Sector Departments and the communities.

The various key players from the Municipalities and Mahalas should be co-operating and consulting with each other. The decisive factor in this process will be improvement in both the Municipalities’ internal working practices and the professional skills of the Municipal Administration and other major actors in the District.

The Tazeez programme will actively support the on-going efforts of the Municipalities to improve internal capacities and to foster operational linkages with Mahalas, decentralized Sector Departments, NGOs/CBOs and the private sector, as a means of ensuring decentralized management and citizen participation at the Municipal level.

Tazeez envisages complementing these local level support measures with activities at the national level in the Ministry of Local Government (MLG), the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Labour and the Higher Committee for Transferring Competences aimed at sharing experiences from the local level to inform policy and programme formulation processes.

1.2      Tazeez outcome areas:

Tazeez strategic emphasis is based on three outcome areas:

Outcome 1:         Contribute to stronger (central and municipal) executive capability to implement Libya’s emerging decentralisation agenda

Outcome 2:         Central ministries’ capacity to apply lessons learned from pilot Municipalities developed

Outcome 3:         Municipalities have developed an integrated plan and budget and are delivering project(s) using the programme’s funds

1.3      Context of the assignment:

A fully decentralised Libya would have the Municipalities control many of the services delivered at that level. Prior to transfers of services and decentralisation at municipal level, central government ministries, by virtue of their deconcentrated offices in the municipalities, are responsible for planning and implementing activities in a sectoral manner.  The planning authority for the Sector Ministry offices in the Municipalities lies with the Sector Ministries. The planning efforts of the Municipality and the Sector offices are disconnected. Budgets of Sector offices and Municipal budgets are also disconnected.

At present for people in the communities, it will be unclear that they are complaining about services e.g. water, sanitation, health, over which the Municipality has no planning authority. There is little opportunity for the wider community to influence decision-making, let alone the marginalised members of that community.

Municipalities cannot wait until full decentralisation is achieved and the decentralised Sector offices are working under the span of control of the Municipalities. They need some urgent interim solutions.

The project proposes a planning approach which will contribute to Libya’s vison of a fully decentralised system while accommodating the urgent needs of the Municipalities. It will pave the way for fiscal decentralisation at Municipal level and contribute to other donor’s administrative decentralisation efforts.

Our intention is to support Municipalities and staff from Sector Ministries to collaborate to develop plans for the Municipality (Sector Ministry Integration) and subsequently start to produce composite budgets. This would be an interim stage towards decentralisation and would generate significant learning for the bodies involved.

Support the development of appropriate guidelines

Within the framework of decentralisation, guidelines defining the roles, responsibilities and procedures for planning and implementation of projects have yet to be spelled out. There are presently no national planning or budgeting guidelines for the Municipalities available. The programme will therefore seek to collaborate with national level stakeholders to develop them – Ministry of Local Government; Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour.

2. Duties and Responsibilities of the Consultant

Under the overall guidance of the Tazeez Governance Advisor, the Consultant will provide services for a maximum of 49 days to set up the Tazeez Integrated Municipal Development planning programme in the Bani Walid Municipality.

The consultant will run training sessions in Bani Walid using the draft Integrated Municipal Development Planning Manual and the draft Integrated Development Planning Participant’s Handbook which was already developed by the Tazeez Governance Advisor.

The consultant is also expected to support the Governance Advisor in aligning the Integrated Municipal Planning Manual and Participant’s Handbook with the realities on the ground in Bani Walid and other Municipalities. Finally, the consultant is expected to provide an end of mission report detailing the work undertaken, including summary of the integrated planning approach.

2.1      Deliverables

The deliverables include the following areas:

MODULE 1: Establish and orient a Municipal Planning Coordination Committee (MPCC)

Activity 1: Establish MCCP with representatives of Municipalities (Councillors, Planning Department, civil society, private sector, Municipal Shura Council or similar institution, Directors of Sector Departments).

Activity 2: Orientation of MPPC members

MCCP members will be oriented on Libya’s national decentralisation roadmap/vision, techniques for public consultation, facilitation, different stages of integrated development planning and composite budgeting and M&E issues.

Activity 3: Setting the ground rules for MPPC members and launching the MPPC process.

Agree with MPPC members on the Terms of Reference for the committee and establish a role and functional delineation vis-à-vis Sector Department representatives and different membership groups of the MPPC.

Module 2: Situation analysis

Situation Analysis will set the pace for visioning about the desired future of the district, hence planning in an integrated and participatory way to promote development. This includes physical and demographic characteristic, conflict mapping, environmental situation, human settlement patterns and conditions in the settlements in the Municipality, Municipal Economy, Production and Gainful Employment, Human Resource Development and Basic Services, the Vulnerable and Excluded, as well as Good Governance.

Module 3: Formulation of Goals, Objectives and Strategies

The analysis of the key sectors of the Municipal economy and the prioritised development issues should provide the basis for visualising and formulating goals, objectives and strategies for the development of the Municipality. These would indicate the areas the Municipality would intensively concentrate its efforts and resources within the planning period. The targets set need to be achieved within a certain time frame. Hence, they have to be realistic in relation to technical, financial and institutional capacity of the Municipality so as to improve the existing and future situations of the Municipality. It is also pertinent that the objectives and priorities take into consideration the national development agenda as well as other planned governmental and non-governmental programmes and projects.

Module 4: Design of Programmes and Budgets and Thematic Maps

The targets set in activity 5 will form the basis for designing programmes and accompanying composite budgets. Thematic maps should then be prepared based on the programmes to depict the outcomes of the implementation of the various projects. The thematic maps will represent pictures of spatial manifestation of the programmes envisaged in the plan according to the planning period.

Module 5: Municipal Approval

During this stage the draft plan should be presented to the general public (through open forums/public hearings) for their comments before submission to the Municipal Council for debate, discussions, approval and adoption.

3. Required Education, Skills and Experience

• Relevant higher educational qualification (Master’s Degree or equivalent) in Regional/Settlement Planning, Development Planning, Development Studies, and/or other relevant fields.
• A minimum of five-year experience in spatial planning or related field
• Excellent written and spoken English and Arabic language skills
• Prior professional experience in facilitating Local Government Development Plans
• Skills and knowledge in local government structures is considered an important advantage
• Report writing skills in Arabic and English

4. Methodology

The consultant will facilitate the workshops using the interactive and participatory approaches that will ensure open and frank contributions from all participants. The meta-plan techniques of visualisation and consensus building could be the tools that will guide the consolidation and open sharing of decisions and outcomes throughout the assignment. Group work will be encouraged to enable detailed discussions among all the participants. In addition, plenary sessions will serve to consolidate decisions and arrive at consensus.

5. End of Mission Report:

The report shall contain sections on:

• Background of the mission
• Summary on design or selection of instruments used for the Integrated Development Planning intervention.
• Lessons learned concerning practicability and applicability of instruments used

6. Consulting days for local experts

Required Skills and Experience:

• Relevant higher educational qualification (Master’s Degree or equivalent) in Regional/Settlement Planning, Development Planning, Development Studies, and/or other relevant fields.
• A minimum of five-year experience in spatial planning or related field
• Excellent written and spoken English and Arabic language skills
• Prior professional experience in facilitating Local Government Development Plans
• Skills and knowledge in local government structures is considered an important advantage
• Report writing skills in Arabic and English

To apply please send your CV and Cover letter to the email address taazeezgovernanceprogramme@gmail.com It is a requirement that you write Municipal Development Planner in the Subject.