Technical Review Panel Anchor / Team Leader - Consultancy Opportunity at Montrose

Background

The overarching objective of the ‘UK Nigerian Infrastructure Advisory Facility (UKNIAF) Monitoring and Review Panel’ programme is to improve infrastructure services in Nigeria, addressing lessons learned over 2 previous phases of the Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility programme. Through UKNIAF, consultancy services will be made available to government ministries and agencies that are involved in the direct planning and delivery of infrastructure or the development of mechanisms or transactions involving private sector financing of infrastructure. The technical assistance provided will be flexible and based on demand from the government. It will focus on the following three areas: (i) the power sector, (ii) the Federal road network, (iii) infrastructure financing through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and federal capital budgets.

The expected outcomes of the programme are:

Montrose has been contracted by FCDO to deliver a Technical Review Panel (TRP) to support FCDO’s UKNIAF programme delivered by Tetra Tech and through a new Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (CDEL) component. A Technical Review Panel aligns to the recommendations in the last Annual Review and to a recent change in focus of the UKNIAF programme as a result of the UK ODA budget reviews and the programme’s adaptations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact in Nigeria.

Our approach is mindful of the increased focus and integration of climate and alignment to the International Climate Finance (IFC) Key Performance Indicator (KPIs) and the streamlined focus on fewer institutions, alongside the amalgamation of programme outputs to capture potential efficiencies within the former ‘capital budget’ and public private partnerships (PPP) components. We note that the primary beneficiaries of the UKNIAF programme, and so of the TRP’s outputs, are the Government of Nigeria and indirectly Nigerian citizens, who would benefit from improved living conditions, job creation, and sustainable, green, output-oriented, manufacturing-led growth in the country.

Purpose of the consultancy

The purpose of this consultancy is to lead a team of experts as part of the TRP assessing the impact of UKNIAF.

As the TRP Anchor, the consultant will provide a key role in checking that the technical approach across the streams appropriately reflects the Nigerian context and the FCDO standard Annual Review process of assessing achievement against the UKNIAF logframe outcome and output indicators. This will include providing a sounding board for the expert team on key policies, documents and data, stakeholders, political economy issues and reforms. The consultant will support the coordination of the team, oversee each technical expert’s contribution to the deliverables and compile and complete the reports to ensure they are cohesive and evidence-based. The TRP Anchor will be the liaison with FCDO and will facilitate presentations of findings with the support of the rest of the expert panel and Montrose team, where necessary. The consultant will also research and write the cross-cutting sections of the report including but not limited to value for money, lessons learned, and review against previous years’ recommendations.

Scope of work

Conduct an assessment of the achievements of the UKNIAF project against the logframe indicators by coordinating a team of experts to research and deliver evidence-based reviews of the UKNIAF programme.

Specific roles and responsibilities of the consultant

The main Annual Reviews and secondary reviews will involve the following key tasks:

• Oversee the TRP team to ensure methodology and strategy are appropriate, that the quality of the work is to a high standard, that the team are working together where applicable. This includes liaising with FCDO to ensure that the work being carried out is in line with its expectations.
• Lead, oversee and contribute to the desk-based review of written evidence to assess the achievement against the logframe outcome and output indicators.
• Interview a series of key stakeholders to collect further evidence to support the findings in the review.
• Lead, oversee and contribute to drafting the relevant sections of the Annual Review.
• Lead, oversee and contribute to presentations of findings to FCDO, Tetra Tech, the Government of Nigeria and any other stakeholders as necessary after the review.

Essential skills and qualifications

• Master’s degree in a relevant discipline
• Minimum 15 years’ experience in developing country infrastructure reform
• Experience in reviews and/or evaluations of programmes.
• Experience in leading a team
• Proven ability to work effectively in a diverse team
• Experience in capacity development and/or coaching public sector infrastructure capacity-building projects and in large fragile economy states with failing infrastructure, complex political economies

Desirable skills

• Nigeria infrastructure experience preferred