Expert 1: Senior expert (Team Leader) –Judicial expert

Specific Terms of Reference -

Formulation of the Nigeria Justice sector Project for the 10th EDF

EUROPEAID/127054/C/SER/MULTI

LOT N° 7: REQUEST N° 2010/229887/1

1. BACKGROUND

Since the end of military rule in Nigeria in 1999, the importance of the justice sector and its institutions1 to political stability, rule of law and accountability, and ultimately poverty reduction has been widely acknowledged. The sector however faces enormous systemic constraints that hamper access, timeliness and fairness of justice including archaic laws/rules; poor coordination and a lack of effective planning; poor skills and inadequate training capacity; corruption and abuse of human rights. General direction for reform has been at the federal level with the establishment of committees to come up with reform recommendations. But the recommendations have not been transformed into policy or strategic documents and attempts at implementation have not been coordinated. Nevertheless the current government of Nigeria's (GoN) 7-point agenda includes adherence to the rule of law, while a Federal Justice Sector Reform Coordination Committee recently established, has developed a draft reform action plan for adoption by all relevant federal institutions. On the other hand, only few states have undertaken reform initiatives, with Lagos becoming a model for others.

The EU - Nigeria political dialogue in 2008 and 2009 recognised the GoN's emphasis on the rule of law and agreed to support Nigeria to improve the judicial and prison systems to strengthen human rights and support efforts to reform the police to strengthen the fight against criminality and impunity. These are included in the focal sectors of the 10th EDF CSP/NIP. The DFID has been the major donor in the justice sector. The EC currently supports the judiciary but as a component of its support to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. So far, donor support has ensured that justice reform remains in the political agenda, at least at the federal level. It has shown that reforms take time to yield results and exposed the need for coordination and more commitment among stakeholders. Donor coordination has been informal but attempts are currently being made to formalise and

strengthen it.  Taking these into consideration, the EC conducted three prefeasibility studies5 and developed a PIF for a project to support the justice sector with the overall objective to promote the rule

of law and good governance in Nigeria. It has an indicative budget of €25million.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

Global objective

The overall objective of this assignment is to support the government of Nigeria in the formulation of a justice sector project.

Specific objective(s)

The specific objective of this assignment is to produce a complete set of project formulation documents for the EC intervention within the scope of the 10th EDF National Indicative Programme for Nigeria.

Requested services

The Specific tasks can be summarised as follows:

1. Analyse the proposed project coherence with the partner government's development policy, sector policies and expenditure plans. The formulation should assess the soundness of any such policies and plans and how far the proposed justice project can be linked to them. If there is none, to make recommendations on how the project can support policy development and lay the foundation for a future sector policy support programme.

2. Analyse the absorption capacity and the degree of local ownership of national stakeholders and beneficiaries. This will include any evidence of real commitment and contribution to the project.

3. Analyse the operational and management capacity of the potential implementing agencies or service providers (UN system, Ministry of Justice/NPC, or others)

4. Provide an analysis of the options and justification for the recommended implementation modality of the project including an assessment of the commitment and willingness of the relevant government agencies in the case of a decentralised management.

5. Review of ongoing/planned projects from other donors in particular the DFID's Justice for All programme and identify the gaps, complementarity and division of labour with these other interventions while ensuring that the EC is a visible and influential stakeholder in promoting Nigeria's justice and security reform agenda

6. Define the geographical scope of the project, if needed.

7. Define the details of the governance and the management/coordination structure and procedures. The structure and procedures should demonstrate how institutional strengthening and local ownership will be effectively supported. Identify in which MDA6 these structures should be set up. Describe how this structure should relate with those proposed by other relevant donors' projects.

8. Propose recommendations to ensure that civil society is adequately involved in activities and the governance structure

9. Review and improve the indicative Logframe matrix prepared during the identification phase. This will include redefining and prioritising objectives and activities (if necessary) and identifying necessary resources (inputs) for the project

10. Provide a description of the proposed performance measurement (monitoring, review and evaluation) and accountability system

11. Design a set of SMART and OVI8 to be included in the Logframe to enable a systematic monitoring and evaluation mechanism of the project

12. Provide a complete analysis of assumptions/risks and a risk management plan

13. Redefine the indicative budget of the PIF according to the needs and activities proposed and if necessary redefine the timeframe for the project. Where possible provide the relative return on key activities (cost benefit analysis) and make recommendations on prioritisation

14. Analyse the relevant cross cutting issues (gender, environment, good governance and human rights, children,), including accountability of justice agencies.

15. Identify synergies/links with other EC programmes (thematic/geographic and regional)

16. Prepare the visibility strategy of the project

17. Prepare ToR for any service contract (Policy advise, Technical Cooperation, Capacity Development, Technical Assistance) to be involved in project implementation.

Methodology

The formulation will be undertaken in the following steps:

1. The experts will carry out a desk study/review of relevant documents at the beginning of the assignment. Documents will be provided to experts before the start of the assignment. The experts will also take into account the remarks, comments and suggestions of the QSGI (foreseen in February 2010).

2. A briefing meeting with officials of the EU Del

3. A kick-off meeting will be organised by the NPC and the consultants with the MDAs and the relevant national stakeholders. In this meeting the experts will present the project to the participants and a general discussion to follow.

4. Several bilateral meetings with the MDAs and relevant stakeholders will be organised by the experts in order to fully capture the needs9 of the beneficiaries and the best way to translate them into activities. This will include the stakeholders identified in the PIF, including the potential implementing partners and others, if needed.

5. A consultative meeting will be organised with the MDAs, the relevant stakeholders and the NPC where the experts will present the findings of the mission and the participants will discuss and validate them.

6. A debriefing session will be organised at the end of the mission to inform the EU DEL on the main findings and the steps forward for the finalisation and delivery of the outputs. The experts will work in close and regular contact with the EU DEL during their mission and will immediately raise any important issues to the EU DEL, if any. The experts will conduct the necessary interviews and desk work as to ensure that the formulation documents are in line with the Government of Nigeria priorities and that the project meets the quality standards to be financed.

All the outputs and deliverables will be conducted fully in line with the provisions, methodologies and templates of the following EC documents: Project Cycle Management Guidelines (March 2004); the Backbone Strategy10 (2009); Institutional Assessment and Capacity Development (September 2005); and any other EU related methodology. Any other methodologies could be used if duly justified and as long as the quality expectations of the EU DEL are met.

In case of serious discrepancies with the documents prepared during identification (PIF and Annexes) the experts will raise the issue to the EU DEL immediately and will include a SWOT analysis11 and an exit strategy/corrective measures to be put in place.

Required outputs or deliverables.

The mission will produce the following results:

1. An analysis of the operational feasibility of the proposed project including its relevance, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability.

2. An institutional and organisational capacity assessment at two levels: one for national stakeholders involved that will analyse the operational and absorption capacity of these institutions; and one for the potential implementing agencies that will assess their operational capacity on the ground, in terms of structures, human resources, technical capacity and flexibility to deploy personnel, and their willingness and commitment.

3. An Action Fiche (Financing Proposal) including the Technical and Administrative Provisions (TAPs). These documents must follow the format provided for projects implemented by EuropeAid, including a detailed budget, a plan of action and a logical framework. The Action Fiche produced will have to ensure that it responds adequately to the QSG II checklist for the formulation phase of projects.

4. The Terms of Reference for: (i) the governance structure (Tor for the Sector Policy Support Committee and Tor for the Project Management Committee); (ii) the operational management (ToR for the Project Support Unit or Project Management Unit). These ToRs should include all the details in terms of human, material and financial resources of these structures: number and competence of its personnel, technical expertise, administrative procedures and daily operational practices.

5. Analysis of the relevant cross-cutting issues, to be carried out in line with the EU guidelines and methodologies.

6. Analysis of the national budget on the justice sector in 2010 and the breakdown of the budget of beneficiary MDAs, as well as the budget execution in 2009.

EXPERTS PROFILE

Number of requested experts per category and number of man-days per expert

Number Category Workdays

Expert 1 1 Senior expert 35

Expert 2 1 Senior expert 35

Expert 2 1 Senior expert 35

Profile required (education, experience, references and category as appropriate)

The 3 experts required should have different but complementary backgrounds in justice reform with the expectation of providing a 'well-rounded' and multi-dimensional approach for a future EDF-funded programme. The experts must work as a team. It is therefore expected that each expert must meet the minimum requirements, and at least one expert in the team must possess skills required to undertake the tasks indicated in the request for services.

Expert 1: Senior expert (Team Leader) -Judicial expert

Qualifications and skills:

• Masters Degree in law, social sciences, humanities or related field; or at least 15 years equivalent professional experience in the relevant sector where the expert has no such academic qualification

• 10 years of professional experience in the relevant sector in case of an expert with a Masters Degree.

• Comparable experience in EC programmes identification and formulation especially in developing countries

• Experience in leading missions for project identification/formulation;

• Knowledge of EDF programming procedures, guidelines, methodologies and different aid modalities

• Expertise in problem analysis, stakeholders' analysis and institutional/capacity assessment

• Experience in mainstreaming cross cutting issues of gender, human rights, etc.

• Specific expertise in justice sector reform especially in the area of capacity development and judicial reform

• Knowledge and experience of the workings of the justice system (laws, police, courts prisons) in Nigeria or in similar countries especially those with common law legal system

• Understanding of governance issues in Nigeria an asset

• Full working knowledge of English, as well as excellent report writing and communication skills

Expert 2: Senior expert (Expert in police reform)

Qualifications and skills:

• Masters Degree in law, social sciences, humanities or related field; or at least 15 years equivalent professional experience in the relevant sector where the expert has no such academic qualification

• 10 years of professional experience in the relevant sector in the case of an expert with a Masters Degree

• Experience in EC programme identification and formulation in developing countries

• Knowledge of EDF programming procedures

• Expertise in problem analysis, stakeholders' analysis and institutional/capacity assessment

• Experience in mainstreaming cross cutting issues of gender, human rights, etc

• Expert in police reform especially developing police training programmes

• Good knowledge of the functioning of the police services especially criminal investigations and forensic services.

• Considerable knowledge and experience of the penal chain and the workings of the justice system in Nigeria an asset

• Full working knowledge of English, as well as excellent report writing and communication skills

Expert 3: Junior expert (Expert in prison reform)

Qualifications and skills:

• Masters Degree in law, social sciences, humanities or related field; At least 5 years of professional experience in the relevant sector

• Experience in EC programme identification and formulation in developing countries

• Knowledge of EDF programming procedures

• Expertise in problem analysis, stakeholders' analysis and institutional/capacity assessment

• Experience in mainstreaming cross cutting issues of gender, human rights, etc

• Expert in prison reform especially capacity development

• Considerable knowledge and experience of the workings of the justice system in Nigeria an asset

• Full working knowledge of English, as well as excellent report writing and communication skills

Minimum required skills

A. For all experts

1. Knowledge and experience with EDF programming procedures;

2. Sound knowledge of justice sector reform and expertise in designing technical assistance, capacity development and training programs for the justice sector

B. For the team

At least one expert in the team must have strong expertise and experience of:

1. Institutional/capacity assessment

2. Mainstreaming cross-cutting issues of gender, human rights, etc

3. The workings of the justice system in Nigeria

4. Designing or working on judicial, police or prison reform project.

If needed evidence may be required of the above skills.

Working language(s): English

3. LOCATION AND DURATION

Starting period: 1st March 2010

Foreseen finishing period or duration: 23rd April 2010

Planning:

The contract will be fee-based. It is envisaged that the tasks of the consultants will be covered through a period of 35 working days (7 weeks) for each expert. Of this, 30 working days (6 weeks) will be needed in Nigeria, while the remaining 5 working days (1 week) will be in their home base.

Location(s) of assignment: Nigeria and home base of the experts

4. REPORTING

Content

The consultant will be responsible for the following reports:

1. Inception report after one week of the beginning of the assignment containing a work plan of the assignment agreed by the EU Delegation. The experts may suggest adjustments to the assignment's scope to better address the beneficiary needs.

2. Draft final report including all the deliverables to be submitted not after the 9th April 2010.

3. Final Report to be submitted at the end of the assignment and in any case not later than

23rd April 2010

Language: All the reporting will be done in English language

Submission/comments timing

The formal reports will be subject to EU DEL approval. Once the reports are submitted, the Delegation will indicate to the consultants its approval or indicate the necessary changes to the consultants in writing. The consultants will have 5 days after the receipt of the comments to make the necessary modifications and for submission of the final version of the reports. The EU DEL will indicate to the consultant in writing its acceptance of the reports and other deliverables submitted.

Number of report(s) copies

All draft documents and inception report to be submitted to the EU DEL in electronic format by email. The Final programming documents and other reports are to be submitted in electronic format by email and in 3 paper copies. Electronic/email versions must be in standard computerized format: Microsoft Word and Excel files.

Tax and VAT arrangements

On the ground of the specific Council regulations governing the concerned EC external aid program, VAT and any other local taxes and duties are excluded from the Community financing

Documents for consultation

1. Comments from the QSG I (foreseen for early February 2010)

2. Template of the Action Fiche

3. Template of the Technical and Administrative provisions

4. PIF submitted to the oQSG

5. Specific Sector documents and other relevant annexes included in the PIF

6. Checklist of the QSG II

7. Relevant EC guidelines

8. Any other documents relevant to the formulation