A. BACKGROUND

The World Bank (WB) and the European Union (EU) agreed to implement a new hybrid Trust Fund (TF)-financed Strengthening Governance in Mongolia (SGM) project aimed to support the efforts of the Government of Mongolia (GOM) to improve fiscal discipline, public financial management (PFM), as well as transparency and accountability processes for strengthened governance in Mongolia. 

This new TF, through both Recipient Executed (RE) and Bank Executed (BE) interventions, will serve two main purposes. Firstly, it will complement and expand the ongoing technical assistance the WB is providing through the Strengthening Fiscal and Financial Stability (SFFS) Project. Secondly, this TF will support the GOM in advancing the current efforts toward increasing transparency, participation and accountability in fiscal matters as well as in strengthening its capacity to deal with non-technical drivers of the reform process that prevent state agencies from implementing policies and regulations as intended. 

The Component 1 of the TF will aim to complement interventions financed under the SFFS Project and will focus on supporting operationalization of the newly established Fiscal Council (FC) and strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in areas such as debt management and revenue forecasting, among others.

The Parliament of Mongolia is the highest governing body of Mongolia, passing legislation and determining the state’s foreign and domestic policy, acting independently and transparently and ensuring the fundamental principle of including the people’s engagement in legislative process and implementation of laws. The Standing Committee of Budget Affairs (SCBA), one of the 8 standing committees of the Parliament, is responsible to prepare all the laws and resolutions in relation with the fiscal policy and budgetary proceedings at the parliament level. Within the standing committee, the Fiscal Council engages to provide independent review on the budget as the primary responsibility. The council also responsible for reviewing implementation of the fiscal sustainability law and support the standing committee of Budget affairs in certain budgetary procedures. 

The objective of the project is to improve capacity of the Fiscal Council of the Secretariat (Parliament of Mongolia) to conduct in-depth fiscal analysis, necessary assessment of proposed laws with fiscal consequences and to provide comprehensive recommendation to the SCBA members and MPs on budgetary decisions. It will lead to efficient law-making and monitoring process, with greater quality of approved laws/legislations to meet the certain fiscal disciplines in general.  

B. OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The main objective of this assignment is to help the Fiscal Council of the SCBA on initiating a template for designing and preparing the short and medium-term macroeconomic framework, carry out a unified system, including estimating, computing and forecasting software based on IT for macro-economic analysis. 

C. SCOPE OF THE WORK 

The role will include, but will not be limited to, the following tasks: 

(i) Prepare a template for macroeconomic key sectors outlook including real, external and monetary sectors (financial sector);

(ii) Propose a unified analysis and forecasting system (e.g., financial programming and other economic structural models), including estimation, code for macro-economic analysis;

(iii) Prepare the calculation template for external financing gap;

(iv) Determine all the relevant inputs for Fiscal council’s finalized outputs and make proposal to improve information flow management;

(v) Coordinate the work to be performed of all consultants hired under the sub-component 1.1, draft and finalize the Terms of Reference and Technical specifications according to the procurement plan, assist in preparing monthly, semi-annually, annually reports, and develop training proposals for international, local training events;

(vi) The knowledge, information and skills gained during the duration of the project should be transferred to staff at the FC’s Secretariat office.

D. DELIVERABLES

Submit completion report by the end of the assignment. This report should be in Mongolian and in English if required.

(i) Developed template for macroeconomic analysis and forecasting based on financial programming framework or other economic structural models. 

a.Real Sector

b.External Sector

c.Fiscal Sector

d.Monetary and financial sector;

(ii) Report on macroeconomic analysis and forecasting framework;

(iii) The calculation template for external financing gap analysis; 

E. CONSULTANT’S QUALIFICATIONS/ SELECTION CRITERIA

Education:  A suitable candidate must have at least a master’s degree in relevant field: economics, finance. 

Experience: A candidate should have at least 5 years of relevant professional experience, with specific experience in macroeconomic and fiscal or financial industry. Moreover, he or she must have at least 2 years of working experience in policy making organizations such as finance ministry, central bank or line ministries and government agencies.

Language skills: Excellent in both Mongolian and English. 

Other skills:

-Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to function effectively and collaboratively in a team environment;

-Be proficient in PC based applications such as Word, Excel, E-Views, Stata and data management, and have excellent web research and navigation skills;

-Be proficient with IT based economic analysis techniques and methodologies;

-If there will be an offer from the FC, being able to continue working at the Fiscal council or its office will be an advantage.

-Professional ethics towards information governance and privacy;

F. SUPERVISION AND REPORTING 

The consultant will report directly to both the Senior Officer of the Fiscal Council and the Coordinator of the project. He or she will also work closely with the SCBA to deliver the technical assistance outputs. A detailed timebound work plan shall be developed and agreed by the assignment. Payments shall be released based on the progress made towards the deliverables specified on the work plan.

G. CONTRACT DURATION 

The consultant’s work is expected to commence in August 2020. The duration of the assignment is for 8 months. 

H. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

The consultant will be supported by not only experts of the Fiscal Council but also advisors of the SCBA under his/her contract for the main outputs. The Secretariat may provide office space if necessary.

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