Killefit consult

consultant sourcing and project management

SME Interventions Ltd. U.K. - Experts + Projects S.A. CR

SUPPORT TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF JEAN MONNET SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME

Country/ Location of the position

Turkey

Status/Reference

FWC

Agency

Experts required

Expert 1: Team Leader (Senior) 90 wd

Expert 2: Communication Expert (Junior) 90 wd

Start date

second half of February 2010

Duration

5 months. A total of 180 working days are foreseen for the assignment.

Working language skill required

English, Good command of Turkish will be an asset

Application Deadline

27.01.2010. Recruitment starts immediately upon publication of this vacancy announcement, posts may be filled already before the indicated application deadline.

ToR (we send the ToR only to applicants)

Shown hereunder

Eligible Nationalities

All

Observations

Only short listed consultants will be replied to.

Please apply only if you fulfill all requirements for the vacant position

All experts must have at least regional experience

Sending us your application is a commitment and we expect you to be available for the mission you are applying for.

Application Instructions

CONTACT

Only short listed consultants will be replied to.

If you wish to submit your candidature, please send us:

1 - Your up dated and position-adjusted CV in EU AID format, in the language of vacancy and as word.doc detailing qualifications, experience in similar assignments

2 - The country, no of position/field (s) you will apply for in the subject line of message

3 - Your daily/monthly fee (EUR) without the living allowances.

4 - Your communication details (Mobil, phone, etc.)

Suggestions: Please make sure, that the experience requested is also shown "Description" section 14 of your CV. As the selections are very strict and paper based, we request you to prepare your CV in the right format and detail all the relevant experience under the Professional experience table as much as possible. There is no problem if your CV is long, the most important is to prepare so that it describes clearly your experiences relevant to the mission. (Your CV has to sell you!)

Restrictions: In case consultants are short listed, they must be able to provide documentary evidence for educational and professional items in their CVs (copies of diplomas, copies of employers' reference letters, etc.). Documents that are not available in English have to be accompanied by a faithful translation. This is mandatory requirement for Europe Aid tenders.

DESCRIPTION

SPECIFIC TERMS OF REFERENCE

SUPPORT TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF JEAN MONNET SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME

EuropeAid/127054/C/SER/multi

1. BACKGROUND

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

Ø Global objective

Ø Specific objective(s)

Ø Requested services, including suggested methodology

Ø Required outputs

3. EXPERTS PROFILE

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

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

Ø Working language(s)

4. LOCATION AND DURATION

Ø Starting period

Ø Foreseen finishing period or duration

Ø Planning including the period for notification for placement of the staff as per art 16.4 a)

Ø Location(s) of assignment

5. REPORTING

Ø Content

Ø Language

Ø Submission/comments timing

Ø Number of report(s) copies

6. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Ø Interviews if necessary indicating for which experts/position

Ø Language of the specific contract

Ø Other authorized items to foresee under `Reimbursable'

Ø For riders only : operational conditionality for intermediary payment if foreseen as per article 7.2 b) of the Special conditions

Ø Others

Annex I: Tax and Custom Arrangements

Annex II: Evaluation Grid

1. BACKGROUND

1.1. Beneficiary country

The Republic of Turkey

1.2. Contracting Authority

Central Finance and Contracts Unit (CFCU)

1.3. Relevant country background

The 1999 Helsinki Summit recognized Turkey as a candidate for full membership and since then Turkey-EU relations gained a new momentum with the perspective of full membership. After the opening of accession negotiations on 3 October 2006, the nature of the relations has dramatically changed and Turkey became a negotiating country. Consequently, the need for trained human resources on European integration in general and on the "acquis communautaire" in particular has increased in Turkey.

As it is known "negotiations" are mainly on Turkey's ability to adopt and implement the EU acquis and parallel to the evolution of the enlargement process, EU has underlined the importance of "implementation" and hence administrative capacity. First, at its meeting in Madrid in 1995, the European Council stressed the need for the candidate states to adjust their administrative structures in order to create the conditions for their gradual and harmonious integration, implementation and enforcement of the acquis. Then, at Luxembourg Summit in 1997, the European Council emphasized that incorporation of the acquis into legislation is necessary, but not in itself sufficient; and it is necessary to ensure that it is actually applied. Successive EU Summits further confirmed the vital importance of the applicant countries' capacity to implement and enforce the acquis, and added that this required important efforts by the applicants in strengthening and reforming their administrative structures. Therefore, the development of adequate administrative capacity to implement and enforce the entire acquis is the core element in candidate countries' preparations for accession.

Strengthening administrative capacity for the implementation and enforcement of the EU acquis has various aspects ranging from institution building to infrastructure and equipment. However one of the most important aspects of administrative capacity building is development of human resources in all areas covered by the acquis. Human resources can be developed by various ways and one of them is post-graduate studies.

In this context, the Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme, which provides opportunities for postgraduate studies in a university, or an establishment of equivalent level in one of the member states of the EU, has been running successfully for many years, with the aim to generate solid support for Turkey's accession, by raising awareness and understanding of the European integration process and by developing a workforce in the relevant disciplines. The Programme, started under an agreement signed between Turkey and the European Commission in 1989, and was financed from the special action funds created by the European Council in 1979 and other commitments made in 1993 and 1995-1996. In 1997, the European Commission and the Republic of Turkey decided to continue and extend the Financing Agreement until 31 December 2001 from the funds of MEDA (Mediterranean Development Assistance) Programme. This period can be considered as the first phase of the Programme, during which the main aim was to increase the knowledge about EU integration and from 1990 till 2002, 442 young Turkish Scholars completed their postgraduate studies.

The second phase commenced in 2002 and finished at the end of 2006. The European Commission and the Government of the Republic of Turkey signed a financing Agreement for the "Continuation and Enlargement of the Programme of Jean Monnet Scholarships for Postgraduate Students" and under the MEDA II Programme and European Commission allocated 10 million Euro for the continuation of the Programme in Turkey. In this second phase, the emphasis of the Jean Monnet Programme was reconsidered because in 1999 Helsinki Summit Turkey had become a candidate country for EU accession. Therefore, the objective of the Programme has changed and apart from enhancing the level of knowledge in Turkey about the EU in general, it aimed to increase acquis specific knowledge in Turkey. Moreover, due to the increase in resources allocated for Jean Monnet Scholarships, Delegation of European Union to Turkey (EUD) decided to procure technical assistance in order to implement the Programme effectively. In the second phase 357 people benefited from the Programme.

In the meantime, to utilise their potentials more effectively, Jean Monnet scholars have founded a Jean Monnet Scholars' Association on 23rd September of 2005 in Ankara. The Association aims to support Turkey's accession process with the help of technical expertises of its members at local, national and EU levels as well as in Member and Candidate Countries. Founding members of the Association are composed of 21 scholars, at present 36, to streamline the establishment procedures now that overwhelming number of them have been settled down in Istanbul, Ýzmir, abroad and other cities of Turkey. It was generated a network comprising about 400 scholars along with sub-groups in Istanbul and Ýzmir by means of previous attempts. As a general rule, non-member scholars are accepted as `natural members' and the network and the sub-groups are devised to spur the agendas of the Association.

Third phase of the Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme has started with the decision of the European Commission and Turkish Republic to finance the Programme from the EU Pre-Accession Financial Assistance to Turkey. Thus in 2005 and 2006 projects entitled "Continuation of the Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme" have been programmed and financed from the Pre-Accession Financial Assistance of the EU to Turkey. In the scope of 2005 project, 2007-2008 academic year scholars were financed and 105 scholars were placed to the related programmes. In the scope of 2006 project, 2008-2009 academic year scholars were financed and 76 scholars were placed to the related programmes.

As it is known, in 2007 EU developed a new way of financial cooperation, which is called "Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance" (IPA). Therefore in 2007, Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme was programmed under IPA.

Consequently, Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme is an extraordinary scholarship programme. It is one of Turkey's most long established and prestigious scholarships. Moreover it plays crucial role in Turkey's administrative capacity building efforts for the effective implementation of the EU acquis, through enhancing its human resources in the relevant disciplines. Especially, since the Secretariat General for the EU Affairs (EUSG) has become the beneficiary of the project, both application conditions and evaluation process have been changed radically in order to make the Programme more acquis focused and in order to attract more civil servants.

1.4. Current state of affairs in the relevant sector

As it is stipulated in all Accession Partnership Documents for Turkey and as it is underlined in the all National Programmes of Turkey, administrative capacity building is an indispensable aspect of Turkey's accession to the EU. However, Turkey's accession to the EU is a matter of "integration" and it has two aspects; on the one hand Turkey should have necessary human resource for the adoption and implementation of the EU acquis but this is not a purely technical issue and essence of the acquis has to be internalized by different segments of the society. At this point the second aspect comes to the forefront namely the development of a cultural dialogue between Turkey and the EU.

In order to strengthen administrative capacity of Turkey with respect to the implementation of the EU acquis, various training programmes have been developed in various fields that cannot be discussed here due to space limit. Moreover, putting the programmes developed by Turkish public institutions, universities, NGOs or private companies aside, Turkey is benefiting from TAIEX and Twinning that are the most important pre-accession instruments of the EU. There are also various post-graduate EU studies in different Turkish Universities. However, with the help of these training or post-graduate programmes, only one aspect of administrative capacity can be realized, namely the technical capacity for the implementation of the EU acquis, which is not sufficient for "integration". Therefore, Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme is a peculiar mechanism that strengthens not only the technical administrative capacity in Turkey but also establishes a "human bond" between Turkey and the EU member states.

Therefore, taken into consideration the above mentioned catalytic effect of the previous Jean Monnet Scholarship Programmes, the continuation of this programme during 2009-2010 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 academic years is an important priority of Turkey during the accession negotiations.

Announcement for the Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme for the 2010-2011 academic year has been launched at the beginning of October 2009. Deadline for applications will be expired on 24 November 2009. It is aimed that approximately 100 scholarships will be granted for the 2010-2011 academic year.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

2.1. 2.1. Global objective

The global objective of the project is as follows: Participation of young Turkish professionals, students and civil servants in the Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme funded by the EU and in this way to contribute Turkey's accession negotiations with the EU, by developing trained human resources in the EU Acquis.

2.2. 2.2. Specific objective

The specific objective is to ensure participation of young Turkish professionals, students and civil servants in the Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme and assisting the EUSG in the implementation of this Programme in Turkey.

2.3. 2.3. Requested Services including suggested methodology

The technical assistance within this TOR will be provided by the Consultant to the EUSG only for support activities required for the selection of Jean Monnet scholars for 2010-2011 academic year. Main services that will be provided by the Consultant as follows:

Service 1: The Consultant will responsible to provide information to the grant beneficiaries. The Consultant will assist EUSG in the preparation of accurate announcements in both English and Turkish. After the announcement of eligible applicants for written and oral exams the consultant will provide information if it is required by the beneficiaries. The consultant support EUSG for notification of ineligible applicants. The consultant will be responsible for the overall coordination and day-to-day management of the selection process.

Service 2: The Consultant will assist EUSG to find the written and oral exam assessors especially from the universities and public sector. A comprehensive search to find experienced and qualified assessors will be managed and a list of potential assessors will be prepared and submit to the approval of EUSG.

Service 3: The Consultant will carry out the first eligibility check of the applicants in terms of the application criteria determined by the scholarship announcement.

The scholarship announcements will have clearly defined deadlines and the Consultant will ensure that the rules and principles of these deadlines are strictly adhered to by holding supporting documents to demonstrate this. The Consultant will produce a full list of applications with names and personal details for the first committee meeting on administrative compliance. The Consultant will also produce checklists based on the pre-defined eligibility criteria and evaluation grids which reflect accountable checking. The Consultant will carry out the first eligibility check of applications so as to allow more time for the evaluation committee members' input in the evaluation process. Following completion of the eligibility check process, the consultant will prepare individual reject letters to ineligible applicants.

Service 4: The written exam will be organised to select the scholars, based upon the criteria introduced by the beneficiary. Organisation of written exam will require logistics such as renting / organising the written exam venue, printing exam papers, announcement of the exam date and place, organising seating arrangements and ensuring security. The Consultant will organise the venue for the written examination and will handle all logistics related to the exam. It is foreseen that maximum 100 assessors and 25 invigilators will be required but the numbers may be lower depending on the approval of the EUD.

Service 5: The consultant will also organise the oral exams: i.e. logistics related to the oral examinations. These logistics involve preparing interview schedules, proposing list of specialist assessors from the public sector and academia, briefing the assessors prior to the interview process, preparing the evaluation grids to be used during interviews, providing standard interview assessment forms and administering the traffic of assessors and candidates on interview days.

Service 6 : The Consultant will assist EUSG in the monitoring of the current 100 scholars studying in the 2009-2010 academic year in close contact with the scholars, their supervisors and their host institutions. The Contractor will respond to daily correspondence received from the scholars and academic progress of each scholar will be followed up through their academic supervisors reporting on what they achieved and the study plan for the next quarter. Any problems which are encountered and recommendations on ideas for resolving the issue will be presented to EUSG.

2.4. 2.4. Required Outputs

· Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme related information (especially on written and oral exams) provided to all potential candidates for 2010-2011 academic year.

· EUSG assisted for the realisation of a transparent and fair selection of scholars for 2010-2011 academic years.

· EUSG assisted on fields of study and selection criteria for awarding the scholarships.

· The first eligibility check of the applicants carried out on the basis of procedures and criteria determined by the scholarship announcement.

· The written exam organized (renting the written exam venue, printing exam papers, announcement of the exam date and place etc.) to select the scholars, based upon the criteria introduced by the JMJC.

· The oral exams organized including logistics and stationary.

· EUSG assisted in finding the written and oral exam assessors especially from the universities and public sector

· EUSG supported for the notification of ineligible applications

· The list of successful applicants announced on the web-site of the Programme.

· Compilation of Interim Reports and Academic Progress Reports of 2009-2010 scholars.

3. EXPERTS PROFILE

2.5. 3.1. Number of requested experts per category and number of man-days per expert

The Consultant shall provide a team of two experts who are required to operate jointly according to the following inputs:

No of Experts	Experts	Working days
1	Team Leader (Senior)	90
2	Communication Expert (Junior)	90
	TOTAL	180

A total of 180 working days are foreseen for the assignment,

2.6. 3.2. Profile required (education, experience, references and category as appropriate)

The experts should have the following educational background and professional experience which will be assessed in line with the Annex II Evaluation Grid:

Expert 1: Team Leader (Senior)

Qualifications and skills

· Full computer literacy

· Education at least Master Degree Academic level in field of education, or equivalent professional experience of 15 years in the area relevant to the assignment.

· Having a working knowledge of English

· Good command of Turkish will be an asset.

General Professional Experiences

· Minimum of 10 years of working experience

· Having an experience in an EU funded project as team leader will be an asset

Specific Professional Experience

· Minimum 5 years of experience in scholarship management

· Experience in the implementation of EU grant schemes will be an asset

Expert 2: Communication Expert (Junior)

Qualifications and skills

· Having a working knowledge of English

· Good command of Turkish will be an asset.

· Full computer literacy

· Education at least Master Degree Academic level in field of education, or equivalent professional experience of 8 years in the area relevant to the assignment.

General Professional Experiences

· Minimum of 5 years of working experience

Specific Professional Experience

· Minimum 3 years of experience as communication expert

· Experience in organizing events and communication with the public

· Experience in the implementation of EU grant schemes will be an asset

2.7. 3.3. Working language(s)

The working language of this assignment is English. The Consultant should provide translation service if needed.

4. LOCATION AND DURATION

2.8. 2.9. 4.1. Starting period

The indicative starting date for the assignment is by the second half of February 2010.

2.10. 2.11. 4.2. Foreseen finishing period or duration

The duration of the assignment is foreseen 5 months from the signature of the contract. The details of working days will be determined in inception period.

2.12. 2.13. 4.3. Planning

TA team will have an initial briefing meeting with the participation of the representatives of CFCU, EUSG and EUD at the beginning of the assignment.

Work-plan, time-management, organisation of the team members, allocation of the duties among the experts for the efficiency and success of the assignment and reporting is the responsibility and duty of the Team Leader, on behalf of the Consultant. The Consultant should prepare and submit detailed work schedule and sequencing of inputs for successful completion of the assignment as stated in Section 5.1 below.

2.14. 4.4. Location of assignment

Location of assignment is Ankara. Home base work can only allowed on a case by case basis and will be approved by the CFCU with the agreement of the EUSG.

5. REPORTING

2.15. 2.16. 5.1. Content

· The Contractor shall submit the Final Report which should reflect the outcome of all activities prepared by the framework contractor. The report should also give recommendations for further activities to be carried out in order to secure a long term feasible and sustainable development of the measure.

5.2. Language

All reports shall be in English.

2.17. 5.3. Submission/comments timing

The Consultant shall submit reports in accordance with the following timetable:

Final Report shall be submitted not later than 10 days after the completion of the activities.

The Consultant shall submit the report in both hard copies and electronic version readable by a Microsoft Office application.

Final report must be approved by the Contracting Authority with the agreement of the EUSG. The Consultant shall consider the comments of and necessary revisions proposed by the Beneficiary and the Contracting Authority. Within 10 days from the receipt of the comments or modification proposal from the Beneficiary and the Contracting Authority, the Consultant shall prepare and submit the final versions of the report. If no comments or proposed modifications are received from the related parties within 15 days after the submission, the report will be considered tacitly approved.

2.18. 2.19. 5.4. Number of report(s) copies

The consultant shall submit report in 2 copies for EUSG, 1 copy for CFCU and 1 copy for EUD.

6. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

6.1. Interviews if necessary indicating for which experts/position

No interview is foreseen.

6.2. Language of the specific contract

Language of the specific contract is English.

6.3 Other authorized items to foresee under `Reimbursable'

The budget should include (1) fees and (2) reimbursable expenses. Office accommodation for each expert and all necessary equipments including computer facilities (such as laptop, printer etc.) shall be covered by the Consultant within the fees of the experts. Per diems shall be paid only to experts working out of their residence. The reimbursable costs shall include:

i) Per-diems,

ii) International travel,

iii) Venue hire for written exam,

iv) Printing and duplication of exam papers,

v) Translation and interpretation.

6.4 For riders only: operational conditionality for intermediary payment if foreseen as per article 7.2 b) of the Special conditions

N/A

6.5 Others

2.20. 2.21. Tax and customs arrangements

The contract is, as a rule, exempt from all taxes and duties, including value added tax (VAT) and Special Consumption Tax (SCT), Motor Vehicle Tax, Special Communication Tax, and/or taxes of equivalent effect, stamp or registration duties or any other charge having equivalent effect, pursuant to the provisions of Articles set out in the Framework Agreement signed between Turkey and the EC in 2008, extracts of Article 25 & 26 of which are provided in Annex I. The Contractor shall accordingly complete the necessary formalities with the relevant authorities to ensure that the goods and services required for performance of the Contract are exempt from taxes, customs, import duties, levies and/or taxes of equivalent effect, and stamp or registration duties or any other charge having equivalent effect.

Publicity and Visibility

The Consultant shall take the necessary measures to ensure the visibility of the European Union financing or co financing. These measures must comply with the rules laid down and published by the Commission on the visibility of external operations: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/visibility/index_en.htm

All projects /contract implemented under this programme shall comply with the Visibility Guidelines for European Commission Projects in Turkey published by the EC Delegation to Turkey, at www.avrupa.info.tr.

Important remark;

During all contacts with the Beneficiary and other institutions the Consultant will clearly identify themselves as independent Consultant and not as official representatives of the European Commission. All documents and papers produced by the Consultants will clearly mention on its first page a disclaimer stating that these are the views of the Consultant and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission.

2.22. 2.23. Beneficiary and Contracting Authority

The beneficiary/counterpart organisation is the Secretariat General for the European Union Affairs (EUSG). The EUSG will be directing the services to be provided under these ToR.

The Central Finance and Contracts Unit (CFCU) is the Contracting Authority and will be responsible for all procedural aspects of the tendering process, contracting matters and financial management, including payment of project activities.

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