Political Economy Analysis Consultant, Senior at DAI

Job Description

• This is a call for proposals for senior consultants to respectively provide expertise and lead Political Economy Analysis at the state level, one lead in each of the following states: Adamawa, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Gombe, and Sokoto.
• One expert in each state will be paired with a supporting consultant. The team will be given guidance on the PEA framework and process by a PEA expert based in DAI’s home office in the United States.

Project Overview

• Development Alternatives Global LLC (DAI) was awarded the USAID-funded, five-year State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness (State2State) Activity in July 2020. State2State is designed to increase the accountability, transparency and effectiveness in targeted states and local governments (LGAs) in Nigeria. State2State will be implemented in the partner states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Gombe, and Sokoto, to start. This will be achieved by:
  • Sub Purpose 1: Increased Efficiency of Sub National Government Operations: strengthening governance systems (with a focus on public financial management [PFM] and procurement, as well as monitoring and evaluation) related to the delivery of services in the key sectors of basic education, primary health care, and water, sanitation and hygiene [WASH]);
  • Sub Purpose 2: Improved Sub National Government Responsiveness to Citizen / CSO Engagement: increasing government ability to respond to citizen needs and priorities; and
  • Sub Purpose 3: Improved Sub National Capacity to Manage Conflict: improving government and civil society capacity to manage conflict through work on prevention, mitigation and reconciliation with sectoral partners.
• Critical services, including education, health care and WASH, are the responsibility of state and local governments. These subnational units are confronted by a host of challenges in carrying out their mandate, which are of three fundamental types: governance capacity constraints; financial resource constraints; and sectoral technical capacity constraints.
• State2State will address primarily the first type of constraints through governance and PFM interventions. State2State will also help to address financing constraints through enhancements to internally generated revenue. These governance reforms will support the other sector-specific USAID/Nigeria interventions health, education and WASH activities.
• State2State governance reforms are intended to achieve measurably improving delivery of basic services in the key sectors, thus reducing extreme poverty in Nigeria. Conflict mitigation, citizen participation and gender and social inclusion are core State2State principles. Improved governance and public services, coupled with a Do-No-Harm approach and conflict mitigation strategies and tools, will also contribute to reducing conflict associated with service delivery and resource allocation.

The Role

• The State2State project seeks a thorough understanding of the context in which governance and public finance management impacts quality of service delivery in education, health and WASH in each of the five project states is key for the implementation of the State2State project. DAI, therefore, seeks to engage senior experts with a background in research, political analysis, political economy analysis and other related qualitative assessment skills to conduct a baseline PEA in each geography.
• The expert should have familiarity in one or more of the following areas: good governance/public administration; public finance management; accountable service delivery in education, health and WASH sectors, in the respective state. The assignment will be conducted in close collaboration with the State2State federal project staff and in consultation with key state institutions and stakeholders. There will be five parallel data collection efforts in each target state, culminating in a unified report.
• The specific PEA framework and research questions are under development for each state, but in general the PEA will follow USAID Guidelines (https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1866/thinking-and-working-politically-th...). The research questions will focus on the relationship between governance -- particularly public financial management- related interventions that enhance or hinder service delivery improvements in health, education and/or WASH.

Tasks:

• Participate in PEA framework development and training sessions;
• The consultant from each state will help identify key stakeholders and their contacts in that state, based on the specific research topic(s);
• The consultant(s) will assist in gathering, and reviewing relevant secondary materials on the service sectors - relevant institutional set-ups, coordination mechanisms and support structures/oversight institutions;
• The consultant(s) will lead two weeks of key informant interviews in a target state, interviewing stakeholders from government offices, parliament and civil society organizations (CSOs), and private sector groups that support improved governance and service delivery in education, health and/or WASH;
• The consultant(s) will present written meeting notes and participate in triangulation exercises with the other team members;
• The consultant will manage another consultant who will assist in identifying stakeholders, arranging meetings and coordinating logistics, and
• The consultant(s) will provide written sections of the PEA report, per a division of labor as agreed with the PEA advisor in the U.S.

Requirements / Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required in Political Science, Law, Development Studies, Public Policy or other related fields; advance degree preferred.
• Residence in, or experience working in one of the following states: Adamawa, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Gombe, and Sokoto.
• Minimum 7 years of experience working related sectoral project management (in one or more target areas of health, education and WASH, or cross-cutting areas of good governance);
• Experience with Political Economy Analysis or similar forms of contextual analysis, and how they are used to advance development programming, work demonstrating the use of these tools strongly preferred;
• Experience working with counterparts at the state government level and understanding of local governance issues related to public financial management, budgeting, and resource allocation required;
• Previous experience working with government officials or in government offices preferred
• Experience with USAID or other donor-funded projects focused on governance, public finance management, education, health or WASH preferred;
• Fluency in English and a relevant local language required.