Republic of Somaliland

Ministry of Information and Communication Technology

PILOT E-GOVERNANCE PLATFORM FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN SOMALILAND IN AN EFFORT TO DIGITALIZE MUNICIPAL FUNCTIONS AND SERVICES

Terms of Reference (TOR) for an Individual Consultant

Background

The UN Joint Programme on Local Governance and Decentralized Service Delivery in Somaliland (UN JPLG) is a five-year joint programme comprising of ILO, UNCDF, UNDP, UN-HABITAT and UNICEF. The Programme’s overall goal is “creating an enabling environment for improved service delivery and greater stability, through improved legal, policy and system frameworks – building the knowledge of those working in and with local governments.” JPLG commenced in April 2008 and has now entered its third phase (2018- 2023).

From the government front, in 2018, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MoICT) carried out government e-readiness assessment covering 43 public institutions.

The survey revealed that 98% of surveyed government institutions believe that internet is crucial for their work, as it is both reliable and connects efficiently to the public.

To capitalize the potential of the ICT in government, the Ministry is committed to digitize public service delivery and thus, introduced e-governance strategy 2020-2024. The strategy entails transforming public service delivery process from traditional way of doing it to a more efficient, faster and paperless systems guided by ICT.

The strategy also outlines phased action plan to digitize selected public services, of which many of them fall within the domain of local governments. These include, but not limited to marriage, death, divorce, birth, land registry, health, education, police, taxes.

Within the framework of JPLG, MoICT in partnership with UN-Habitat aims to advance e-government to local government levels – the level that’s closest to the communities, and to build on earlier success in automating tax administration systems. This will also capitalize the existing ICT infrastructure, expertise and various legal and regulatory frameworks introduced by MoICT. This support significantly transforms public service delivery of the local government and makes their services’ modern and tech oriented.

Objectives of the Assignment

The Legal consultant will develop local government digitization regulations, mobile money payment

regulation, local government web portal guideline, standardizing digital local government services and

developing a policy for local community participation and engagement.

The overall objective of this exercise is to modernize priority services of the local governments

in Somaliland to deliver services equitably and efficiently. This exercise is also meant to enhance transparency and accountability within the service delivery process and foster confidence and trust between the public and the local governments. on top of delivering services more efficiently, the move will further strengthen own source revenue generation at the district level.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Legal Consultant will be expected to carry out the following tasks;

1. Undertake desk review of the existing laws, policies, regulations and other instruments pertinent to the pertinent to ICT, mobile payments, decentralization and digital services in Somaliland. The desk review also includes consultation with the appropriate and best practices for digitizing municipal services.
2. In conjunction with other technical personnel at the Ministry, lead consultation workshops with target districts and other relevant stakeholders to set the blueprint of the current practices of delivering targeted municipal services. These services include property and business registration, building permits, waste management and taxes including residential, business property taxes and land taxes;
3. By working closely with the Ministry’s technical personnel and the vendor tasked to spearhead the whole digitalization work, write and translate all steps of the procedures for rendering municipal services that are agreed upon by the districts and the Ministry.
4. Draft digitalization government payment regulation, mobile money payment regulation, local government web portal guideline, standardized guideline for digitalizing local government services and the design of a platform for local community participation
5. Organize and lead consultative workshops with target districts and other relevant stakeholders and document their feedback for action.
6. Produce revised regulations and guidelines both in English and in Somali language, such that the Ministry considers and is issues through Ministerial decree
7. Organize and deliver on-the-job training for the target districts. This training is more of an overview training with targeted district personnel, mostly, those who spearheads digitalization of municipal services
8. Support the overall e-governance work led by the Ministry and provide legal guidance and advisory throughout the project period
9. Keeps an eye on new developments, in terms of national or local government policy and legislation changes, that might impact the digitalization work.
10. Performs other duties as assigned by the Ministry

Key Deliverables/Outputs

1. Inception report
2. Consultation workshop report including a comprehensive write-up of the proposed procedures for delivering the selected municipal services, both in Somali and in English
3. Final and translated versions of digitalization government payment regulation, mobile money payment regulation, local government web portal guideline, standardized guideline for digitalizing local government services and the design of a platform for local community participation
4. Background papers for Project Committee meeting minutes.
5. Narrative report of the on-the-job trainings provided to the target districts
6. Other ad-hoc updates, reports as needed by the Ministry

Qualifications and experience

1. Bachelor’s Degree in Law, Legal Studies, International Law, Business Law, or any other discipline related to the field. Masters in any related field will be preferred.
2. 5 years or more of hands-on experience in legal drafting.
3. Candidates are expected to have sound knowledge of contemporary issues related to Computer, IT, Cyber security and data exchange.  
4. The candidates should possess excellent team building, interpersonal relationship management and negotiation skills, and ability to resolve conflicts constructively.
5. Strong understanding of best-practice approaches to monitoring;
6. Ability to develop Tech regulations.
7. Demonstrated computer skills literacy.
8. Written and spoken fluency in Somali and English;
9. Must have worked in a similar environment in ICT regulation framework.
10. Good understanding of Somaliland Regulatory Frameworks, policies and strategies.

Candidates must be Somaliland citizens.

Application procedures

Applicants are requested to send a motivation letter together with an updated CV to these email addresses  Procurement.mict@Sldgov.org and copy abdihakim.osman@un.org on or before
 2^nd June, 2023, 3:30 PM (Somaliland Time).