No of Positions: 1

Type:  Contract (STTA Consultant)

In support of the CAMRIS-implemented, USAID/Nepal Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Activity, we seek an Economist/Political Economy Analyst for the upcoming Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) Assessment – Nepal 2019. Findings and recommendations of the assessment will inform stage 1 of the upcoming USAID/Nepal public financial management risk assessment framework and the development of USAID/Nepal’s new country development cooperation strategy. 

The DRG assessment 2019 will include four interlinked areas as follows:

• Analysis of the country’s political and governance context, regime type, and potential future government direction in order to identify the key DRG problem(s) in the country. Focused analysis on elements of the political system and governance: consensus, rule of law and human rights, competition and political accountability, transparency in Government of Nepal (GON) decisions, citizen’s engagement in budget planning and decisions, media freedom, inclusion, transitional justice and administrative effectiveness and accountability (step 1 DRG assessment).
• Through a political economy analysis identify the role of key actors and the institutions in which they operate. The actors, together with the institutions that structure their incentives, determine the pace, nature and extent of political change. Identifying the proponents and opponents of specific reforms, along with the resources they can mobilize, is necessary to craft an optimal DRG assistance strategy. This political economy analysis of the stakeholders is intended to help understand the feasibility of promoting certain aspects of democratic governance in terms of political will (step 2 of the DRG assessment).
• Introduce U.S. and USAID’s interests, assistance programs, resources, and comparative strengths and weaknesses. This information serves as a filter that removes strategic or programmatic options that fall outside the focus or capabilities of the mission, and highlights those that are a good fit for the mission. In this step, the team will consider U.S. foreign policy priorities and assistance frameworks, and broader development concerns; the existing USAID portfolio; other USAID and USG assistance programs; the host country development priorities; resource availability (staff and money); USAID’s comparative strengths and weaknesses; donor coordination; and practical constraints on the recipient side (step 3 of the DRG assessment).
• Develop recommendations for an optimal strategy and programming options to address the major DRG challenges most effectively, including any gender inequalities that contribute to the challenges. The strategy should reiterate the primary problems for democracy, human rights and governance, and based on the positions of key actors and institutions, including donors, formulate one or more higher-level DRG objective(s). Next, the team will describe the development hypothesis which explains how the proposed interventions will effectively address the DRG problems identified.  The team also will identify priority DRG subsectors and suggest how the DRG objectives might be achieved by providing illustrative activities (step 4 of the DRG assessments). 

Responsibilities: 

• Provide political economy analysis (PEA) subject matter expertise to the assessment team by integrating knowledge of Nepali issues into the assessment design and activities.
• Work with the CAMRIS MEL Activity field office and USAID/Nepal’s DRG team to plan and conduct the assessment.
• Review key documents for this assessment.
• Lead the political economy analysis described in interlinked area #2 mentioned above in the overview section (step 2 of the DRG assessment).
• Support the design and pilot testing of data collection tools in the field.
• Conduct key informant interviews with prominent stakeholders.
• Code and analyze qualitative and quantiative data.
• Present findings and recommendations to the USAID/Nepal Mission.
• Contribute to the drafting and finalization of the assessment report.

Qualifications: 

• A master’s degree in economics, political science, or a closely related field with demonstrated competence in PEA or similar assessment frameworks
• At least seven years of experience as a member of an evaluation/assessment team, particularly in the domain of DRG in Nepal
• Experience leading or serving as a technical expert in political economy assessments
• Firm knowledge of political economic development in Nepal
• Strong facilitation and team-playing skills
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English; writing samples, and three professional references, will be requested