Foreign economic-aid-related services

Tender description

The Sub-National Governance Programme II aims to further strengthen local and provincial governments and building sustainable institutions in Pakistan’s provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab to improve the way provincial and local governments manage their finances to raise more revenue and allocate money to improve basic services for the poor and excluded. The planned new programme will build on SNG’s successes and increase its ambition. Working through a delivery partner, it will undertake targeted technical assistance in the 2 provinces aimed at resolving governance blockages to improving service delivery. In addition to its core focus on planning, institutional reform, decentralisation, PFM, and revenue raising it will also respond opportunistically to other identified governance challenges. An Innovation Challenge Fund will pilot innovative new governance approaches. The UK’s wider engagement and DFID’s portfolio in Pakistan have been working towards a better governed, more prosperous and stable Pakistan playing a constructive role in the region and beyond. The SNG programme is targeting an improvement in service delivery by getting the right systems, processes and capacities in place for government to effectively manage its resources. SNG II will continue to be a technical assistance programme primarily, bringing leading international and national expertise to help build the capacity and systems of local government to raise revenue and deliver services. It will total 37 000 000 GBP over 5 years and will be delivered through a contracted service providers. 34 000 000 GBP is allocated to technical assistance of which 8 000 000 GBP of the funds will support a Challenge Fund aimed at piloting innovative solutions to governance challenges. The remaining 3 000 000 GBP is to support monitoring and evaluation and collaborations (please note: The monitoring and evaluation work will be a separate tender opportunity). The programme will work towards 4 outputs: Planning and reform, helping improve the way government plans for carrying out its functions so resources are allocated based on need, and helping to get the most efficient and effective government systems and structures in place. Activities would include helping to develop Annual Development Plans, supporting the development of district-level planning capacity and supporting institutional reforms. Budgeting and transparency, helping provincial and local governments manage their resources better, including better budget allocation and spending that reflects them, and to become more transparent, making it easier for citizens to hold them to account. This includes continuing the support in developing of PFM Reform Strategies for both provinces and capacity building and institutional reform to support the decentralisation process. Fiscal space, helping government generate and free up more resources which can be utilised for the delivery of services. This will include activities on increasing own-source revenue, particularly at a district level. Innovations, piloting and scaling up innovative approaches to improving evidence based policy making and planning, governance, and action-oriented research. This will be through a 2 challenge funds: an Innovation Challenge Fund and a flexible Action Research Fund. The innovation challenge fund will be thematically focussed and is expected to have at least 4 rounds during the programme. The SNG programme is contributing to the impact: consolidated democracy in Pakistan and reduced poverty. The intended outcome is: improved provision of basic services and strengthened perception of government performance. The programme will support those most marginalised as the improvement of government’s management of its public finances will therefore improve the provision of health and education services for the poorest and most vulnerable. This will be a key indicator.