PCAsia is seeking an active and motivated candidate for a technical consultancy work with a high profile and dynamic organization.
PARLIAMENTARY CENTRE OF ASIA
The Parliamentary Centre of Asia (PCAsia), established in early 2021 in Phnom Penh, is the successor of the Parliamentary Institute of Cambodia (PIC) founded in 2011, a transition that reflects an expansion of activities with Parliaments across Southeast Asia. The mandate of PCAsia is therefore to contribute to the strengthening of Southeast Asian Parliaments through capacity building of their staff, based on the demands or requests of each Parliament within a framework of south-south and north-south cooperation. It draws on the expertise of national, regional, and international partners (Parliaments and research centres).
ROLE OF DEPARTMENT
The training of Parliamentary staff is at the core of PCAsia’s mission, and the Capacity Development (CD) department is responsible for carrying out the majority of this work. CD handles curriculum and syllabus design for many training programmes, and its staff provides practical training according to their respective expertise for most of the training programmes. With the transition to blended learning and learning by distance, CD staff increasingly plays a facilitation role, working with external experts to design and deliver content suitable for digital platforms, then working with trainees to complete the related assignments.
Other responsibilities include researching, mentoring and quality control of research products produced by the trained parliamentary researchers, and providing quality control and technical advice with regard to newly-trained parliamentary staff members when back working in their institutions in applying their newly-acquired skills.
THE PROGRAMME ON Fiscal Analysis Capacity Training (FACT)-Phase 4
PCAsia-Fiscal Analysis Capacity Training (FACT) programme contributes to strengthening the capacity of the parliamentary staff in AIPA member parliaments to perform fiscal analysis tasks relevant to national budgeting process and monitoring used in the parliamentary context. FACT was initiated in 2016 and has completed three phases of training programmes.
The FACT programme is currently organizing its phase-4 regional training on sectoral fiscal analysis, tailored for parliamentary budget offices (PBOs). The training programme aims to equip participants with the knowledge and skills on (1) sustainable financing and climate finance, including climate budget tagging and relevant options for climate change expenditure tracking, and (2) policy costing of specific proposals to evaluate the effectiveness of budget allocations to different sectors. Participants will gain the skills to produce budget briefs/briefing notes on climate financial analysis and policy costing of a priority sector to support their parliaments, which will contribute to improved legislative input and budget oversight.
POSITION DESCRIPTION
To undertake this task with high quality and efficacy, the PCAsia-FACT programme requires technical consulting services from an individual/legally registered organization possessing extensive expertise in economics and fiscal analysis. The consultant is expected to provide training and technical coaching to the FACT-participants on the relevant subjects, particularly on the underlying skills for fiscal analysis before moving onto more specialized subjects in the training programme. The consultant will also review and provide input to the overall training curriculum to ensure that the programme will achieve its objectives.
The Consultant is expected to contribute to the design of the FACT-4 training programme, administer the training and coaching delivery of the first module on ‘Foundation for budget analysis”, and contribute to bridging the first to the second module on ‘Sustainable financing and climate finance’ (Please see Annex for detailed training courses).
MAIN TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES / SCOPE OF WORK
The consultancy period spans from May to September 2024, with a total of 18 working days. The consultancy encompasses the following tasks and responsibilities:
| Tasks/scope of work | Timeframe | Number of days |
| Curriculum development | May-September | 3 |
| Contribute to designing the training curriculum, master syllabus, and placement test for FACT-4 training programme | ||
| Provide input to course syllabus on Public Financial Management (PFM) and Sustainable Financing to be delivered by potential UNDP experts (collaboration with UNDP under discussion) (FACT-4 Module 2) | ||
| Delivery of training and coaching/mentoring | May-August | 11 |
| Deliver a series of training courses for the first training module (FACT-4 Module 1): State budget framework, and Macroeconomics and fiscal policy | 9 | |
| Design the detailed course syllabus and schedule of each training course and administer the trainings for effective learning | ||
| Produce relevant training materials with theoretical concepts and practical exercises covering the contexts of ASEAN member states | ||
| Provide coaching/mentoring on the relevant subjects to enable FACT participants to apply knowledge/skills gained during the training | ||
| Deliver parts of the training on Revenue forecasting using a macroeconomic-budget (MacBud) model. The training shall include, but not limited to, the concept on the linkages of economy and taxation, fiscal forecasting techniques, proxy tax bases, effective tax rate (contingent, depending on the requirement of the programme). | 2 | |
| Assessment and evaluation of the training courses | July-September | 2 |
| Develop assessment tools and in-class evaluation to monitor and assess the training progress | ||
| Prepare and collect feedback questionnaire to evaluate the effectiveness of the training | ||
| Analyse assessment and feedback results to identify challenges and areas for improvement | ||
| Documentation and reporting | September | 2 |
| Produce a final report on the outcomes of each training course delivered, including identified challenges and lesson learnt and provide recommendations for future improvement |
EXPECTED DELIVERABLES/OUTPUTS
The delivery is output based during the consultancy period. The training courses are delivered face-to-face at PCAsia training facilities in Phnom Penh (online sessions are conducted when necessary).
- Input on the training curriculum, master syllabus and placement test of the FACT-4 training programme
- Input on the course syllabus on the training courses on PFM and Sustainable financing, ensuring that the courses are well connected between modules, and achieve the objective of the FACT-4 programme
- Delivery of the training courses within the suggested timeframe
- Course syllabus, course schedule, and relevant training materials (including lectures/ slide presentations, practical exercises, case studies) for the training courses on State budget framework, Macroeconomics and fiscal policy, and Basic statistics
- Delivery of coaching/mentoring sessions as requested by the programme and/or the participants within the timeframe
- Analytical results of training assessment and feedback survey of each training course
- Final report of each training course including results of training assessment and feedback survey, with recommendation to improve the training in the future
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
Essential
- A master’s degree or higher in economics, public finance, development economics, or other related fields. PhD is preferable
- Proven working or research experience in fiscal policy or macroeconomic policy analysis, public financial management, budget transparency or public sector policy and legislation
- At least five years of professional experiences in providing training/lecturing and conducting research on macroeconomics, economic policy analysis, taxation, government expenditure analysis, or related fields
- Experience in designing and administering training courses, developing training materials, assessing progress of students, and in providing coaching and mentoring
- Professional experience in research writing using quantitative analysis, with knowledge of how to work with statistical modelling and programs such as STATA, SPSS or others
- Strong understanding of the economic structure, fiscal policy and national budget in different ASEAN member states
- Understanding of national budgeting process and monitoring in the context of parliaments would be an advantage
- Strong spoken and written English proficiency.
APPLICATION INFORMATION
Interested applicants should send a cover letter and CV to [email protected] and indicates a daily rate expectation in the email. The application deadline is 10 May 2024. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.