Project: “Support Participation, Accountability and Civil Society Empowerment
(SPACE)”
Reference number: IPA III/2022/441-234
Job title: External assessors for subgrantees
Location: Tirana
Full/ Part time: Part time position
Duration: 4 working days
1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1.1 Country
Republic of Albania
1.2 Contracting authority
Together for Life (TFL)
1.3 Background of the Contractor
“Together for Life” (TFL) association is a non-political, nongovernmental and not-for-profit organization, established in late 2009 as an initiative of a group of reputable journalists as a membership organization; focusing on the development and empowerment of people. TFL has undertaken a range of innovative and successful projects and activities. It has gained reputation as the first and most prominent organization dealing in health rights in the country; as well as has expanded its activity to promote the debate on the building of civil society and a culture of human rights in Albania; with a focus on vulnerable communities; communities living in remote or economically less advantaged areas; women and youth.
Since its inception, TFL is playing an active role socio-economic betterment and cultural development of the society through a rights-based approach. TFL has successfully managed and implemented project on human rights, patients’ rights; labor rights; economic empowerment and good governance and achieved remarkable milestones.
TFL was founded on values of transparency, participatory approach; teamwork; commitment and efficiency based on the principles of development and coordination of all stakeholders in the development process.
1.4 Project description
“Together for life” association, in cooperation with BIRN Albania, Qëndresa Qytetare and Destiny Center for Excellence, is implementing the project “Support Participation, Accountability and Civil Society Empowerment” (SPACE). This project is funded by the European Commission, reference EuropeAid/174080/DD/ACT/.
The overall objective of the project is to strengthen the engagement of civil society organizations (CSOs) in public policy processes/ cycle through evidence – based advocacy and monitoring of reforms.
This will be achieved through: a) improving the capacities of civil society organizations for enabling them to engage as actor of governance; b) monitoring government functioning, voice concerns, and promote accountability in health and education sector; c) increasing the cooperation and collaboration between CSOs, media, youth, state/ non- state stakeholders on transparency and accountability in health and education sectors.
Through the actions undertaken as part of this project, is expected that grassroots civil society organizations will work better to demand increased accountability and budget transparency by public institutions in health and education sector; Public pressure on authorities to respond, change behavior and reduce corruption will be increased and CSOs, media, youth, state/non-state stakeholders will work together to improve the budget transparency and accountability, leading to the better quality of services for the Albanian citizens.
The sub-granting scheme, divided into two phases, constitutes a vital component of the SPACE project.
On November 20th, 2023 was launched the first phase of SPACE call for proposals that aims to award up to 6 grassroots civil society organizations from different regions of the country.
The specific objective of this Call for Proposals is to provide financial support for small local grassroots CSOs from different regions of Albania, enabling them to push for transparency and accountability of local public institutions in health and education sector, while working toward
advocacy and change.
The expected results to be obtained under this call for proposals are:
(a) Grassroot local CSOs capable to increase pressure on public authorities to reduce corruption in health and education sectors;
(b) Albanian citizens experience an improved quality of services in education and health sectors, due to the improvement of transparency and accountability of public institutions in the local level.
2. SCOPE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
2.1 General
External assessors will carry out quality assessment of all the applications that are considered as administratively compliant under the 1st Calls for Proposals of SPACE project and to fill in the assessment Grids, accordingly.
The assessors must possess technical and administrative capacities necessary to provide an informed opinion on each full application. They shall perform their duties in a fair and impartial manner, maintaining strict adherence to the relevant EU rules, including those on impartiality, confidentiality and conflict of interest.
To ensure the independence of the quality assessment performed, the external assessors will have to sign before starting their assignment a Declaration of Impartiality, Confidentiality and avoidance of Conflict of Interest.
2.2 Role and tasks of Assessors
• Qualitative assessment of the project proposals in line with the Guidelines for Applicants, including the published evaluation grids;
• His/her own experience of the sector and project implementation to bear in the analysis of each proposal;
• One signed evaluation grid for each full application, with each grid providing a scored assessment and textual comments;
• Coherent comments and scores, implying that comments must reflect the scores given, illustrating the scores per question and section of the evaluation grid;
• A list of identified issues that require clarification (if necessary) per full application proposed for funding;
• A re-assessment of project proposals upon the request of TFL as the Contracting Authority.
External assessors have to ensure their availability to review their assessments in the following indicative, but non exhaustive cases:
– comments do not correspond to scores given in evaluation grid (incoherence);
– evaluation grids contain formulation or expressions which are vague, as indicated as examples in the previous paragraph;
– the comments and recommendations do not sufficiently justify the awarded score(s);
– discrepancies, including contradictory comments between the two evaluation grids of the same application;
– failure to apply the assessment rules established in the Guidelines for Applicants;
– grids are of low quality showing superficial consideration of the application.
2.3 Required qualifications for the External Assessors
Minimum requirements for candidates include the following:
Qualifications and skills:
• University degree;
• Excellent command of spoken and written Albanian and English;
• Computer literacy;
• Good analytical and writing skills;
• Proficiency in report drafting.
General professional experience:
• At least 6 (six) years of general working experience.
Specific professional experience:
• Good knowledge of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA);
• Good knowledge of SPACE Project call of proposals priority sectors (health and education).
• Experience in preforming quality assessment of project proposals under national, European or international funding programmes;
2.4 Reporting requirements
During the evaluation process, assessors will provide evaluation grids with scoring, justification and recommendation both electronically and in written form.
As contractor, each assessor will prepare in English his/her final report on implementation of the tasks of this assignment. The final report will be the basis for issuing the final payment by the Contracting Authority to the external assessor.
The required format of the report will be communicated to the external assessor after the signature of the contract.
3. APPLICATION PROCEDURE
Candidates will be appraised against the selection criteria based on data provided in the CV. If the candidate fulfils minimum requirements listed above based on the data provided in the CV, she/he will be invited for an interview.
Interviews (which may be conducted in person or online) will aim to assess the knowledge of each candidate and his/ her relevance for the position.
The interested candidates shall submit the following documents:
• CV in Europass format (English language)
• A letter of interest (English language)
The dateline for the submission of the applications is December 15th, 2023.
Applications must be submitted in English to the Contracting Authority in the email address: info@togetherforlife.org.al or in the postal address:
Together for Life
Rr. Brigada VIII, Pallati Jeshil Tekno-Projekt, Hyrja 2, Ap.14, Tiranë/ Shqipëri
