Citizеns Engagеment Expert, STTA

About DAI

DAI is  a global development company with corporate offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, EU, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Palestine and project operations worldwide. We tackle fundamental social and economic development problems caused by inefficient markets, ineffective governance, and instability. DAI works on the frontlines of global development. Transforming ideas into action—action into impact. We are committed to shaping a more livable world. DAI and its employees are committed to confronting racism and holding ourselves accountable for positive change within the company and in the communities, cultures, and countries in which we live and work.  DAI is committed to attracting and retaining the best employees from all races and backgrounds in our continued effort to become a better development partner. DAI upholds the highest ethical standards. We are committed to the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment as well as other ethical breaches. All of our positions are therefore subject to stringent vetting and reference checks.

DAI is seeking highly qualified candidates for Citizens Engagement Expert  role to conduct a remote Short Term Technical Assistance (STTA) assignment with USAID Governance and Local Accountability (HOVERLA) Activity.

Interested candidates should submit their CV at the following address: [email protected]

Applications will be accepted until 22 December, 2024. Due to a high volume of applications received, we are unable to contact each applicant individually regarding the status of their application. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted in response to this job advertisement.

Project Background

DAI Global is implementing the USAID-funded Governance and Local Accountability (HOVERLA) Activity, based in Kyiv, Ukraine. This Activity is designed for the period 2021 – 2027 to support Ukraine advance self-reliant local governance including legislative reforms, participatory strategic planning methodologies, service improvement, local economic development, civil society engagement, and capacity building of sub-national government entities.

It is implemented through three main Objectives:

Objective1: Ukraine’s system of local self-governance is increasingly institutionalized and effective

Objective 2: More self-reliant subnational governance

Objective 3: Citizens play an increasingly influential role in local governance processes 

Purpose

Expert on Citizen Engagement in the Budget Process (Engagement Expert) will work on institutionalizing mechanisms for engaging citizens in budget forecasting, planning, review, implementation, assessment, and analysis. The expert will work on the institutionalization of mechanisms for citizen engagement in the budget process of all HOVERLA partner CTCs and will provide expert support for public budget discussions. The expert will contribute to citizen engagement in budget process learning sessions and provide capacity-building support and recommendations for further customization of citizen engagement in budget process within the Program Performance Budgeting (PPB) tools. This is a cross objective activity and expert will work closely with HOVERLA’s objective 3.

Objective 2 will implement Activity 2.2.5, “Support CTCs in institutionalizing citizen engagement mechanisms during the local budget process,” through STTA, while Objective 3 will implement Activity 3.1.4, “Support partner CTCs in developing and introducing effective mechanisms/practices for budget planning and accountability,” through the C-HOVERLA-300 grant. The cooperation between Objective 2 and Objective 3 will be carried out in the following manner:

• Objective 2 will focus on the consistent and widespread institutionalization of engagement mechanisms by developing five (5) mechanisms for each of the five (5) stages of the budget process (forecasting, planning, review, implementation, and budget analysis). Objective 2 will provide detailed, consolidated professional recommendations to officials in all HOVERLA partner CTCs (local financial bodies, primary budget managers, and recipients) for integrating these mechanisms into procedural budget documents (such as budget regulations, budget requests, budget program passports, and comparative analysis of budget program results). Objective 3 will focus on implementing these recommendations among citizens, community activists, and will incorporate them in the process of developing, adopting, and amending local legal acts related to participatory budgeting tools, taking into account local specifics.
• Objective 2 will develop a comprehensive and exhaustive list of tools for each of the five engagement mechanisms, including a description of the process for developing tools based on program-performance budgeting (PPB) methodologies. Objective 3 will develop and elaborate on two tools from this list: “Budgets for Citizens” and “Budget Day.”
• In developing the mechanisms, Objective 2 will leverage the results from Objective 3 regarding: a) the assessment of transparency in 20 out of 103 partner CTCs; b) best practices in citizen engagement.
• Objective 2 will conduct training for all HOVERLA partner CTCs and provide Objective 3 with training materials for organizing sessions in 20 communities, considering local specifics. Objective 2 will also provide Objective 3 with materials for events (such as Budget Days in each of the 20 communities, and the National Forum) and for individual work with the communities (such as preparing Roadmaps for 20 communities)

Key Objectives of this assignment.

(1) Implementing mechanisms for institutionalizing citizen engagement in the budget process

(2)Conducting Learning Practice on engaging citizens in the budget process
(3) Providing a package of universal recommendations for developing and integrating mechanisms for institutionalizing citizen engagement in the budget process 

Specific Tasks of this Assignment Include

Citizens Engagement Expert will be responsible for completing the following tasks during the period of this assignment:

• Conduct a practical universal analysis of the institutionalized mechanisms for citizen engagement in the processes of planning, reviewing, and approving budgets for 2025 across 103 HOVERLA partner CTCs. Provide expert evaluations of the effectiveness of tools used for citizen engagement in these processes.”
• Provide a summary of universal expert recommendations on institutionalizing mechanisms for citizen engagement in the processes of planning, reviewing, and approving budgets, as well as in analysis and assessment processes, implementation and introduction of changes to the budget, and budget forecasting for 103 HOVERLA partner CTCs.
• Prepare and conduct a Learning Practice for 103 HOVERLA partner CTCs to engage citizens in the process of planning and reviewing local budgets for 2026.
• Draft an STTA report documenting all completed STTA tasks, achievements, challenges, findings, and recommendations.

The Engagement Expert should provide HOVERLA a final report till September 30, 2025.

Deliverables 

Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years of relevant professional experience in managing local budgets.
• Must be well-versed and competent in all aspects of engaging citizens in the budget process, as well as compliance with budgetary legislation.
• Knowledge of modern methods of increasing transparency and openness of budgets, and the ability to apply their main provisions.
• Excellent communication skills and a talent for articulating and communicating complex concepts and ideas in simple, practical and action-oriented terms.
• Energetic, well-organized and independent individual with good technical skills, analytical and problem-solving skills and high ethical standards.
• Ability to effectively respond to urgent requests.
• Strong interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills.
• Good skills in working with open data (Open Budget, other budget portals).
• Good computer skills (MS Office).