Preparing framework/instructions to manage E-participation process through governmental entities in Jordan

1. Project background

Referring to the 16th Sustainable Development Goal, which states “ensure that decisions are taken in a manner that is responsive to the needs of the beneficiaries in a participatory and representative manner at all levels”. And the importance of openness and communication with different segments of society, including citizens, residents, private sector and civil society organizations and to employ the results of dialogue and communication in government procedures, legislation and decisions Jordan issued the “Jordanian Policy for Electronic Participation” in 2021.

The “Jordanian Policy for Electronic Participation” aims to:

• Activate electronic tools to enhance the process of community participation
• Activate community participation in preparing legislation and making decisions.
• Improve the quality of public services
• Enhance the transparency and increasing confidence in government
• Improve the efficiency and quality of information and facilitating access to it

The policy has defined the roles and responsibilities of different parties, the following points elaborate some of these roles:

• Ministry of digital economy and entrepreneurship to develop a unified interactive portal for e-participation.
• Department of Institutional Performance Development and Policies[1] in the Prime Ministry to prepare the necessary legislation and guidelines for implementing the policy and facilitating its application to institutions, and to provide support to government entities on how to adhere to the guidelines.
• Government entities to implement the E-participation policy and what comes out of it

In cooperation between the following parties: the Leading Government institution, World Bank expert, the Prime Ministry, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship (MODEE) and the Legislative and Opinion Bureau (LOB) have prepared the Systems Requirement Specifications (SRS) for a unified public consultation portal for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The portal will use to conduct online consultation on proposed new laws, regulation, policies, strategies and other government decisions.

Recently the Leading Government institution invited the bidders to provide their proposal to design and develop the portal.

Hence, the roles & responsibilities of MoDEE have grown to become inclusive what mention in policy “the roles of department of Institutional Performance development and Policies at the Prime Ministry”. Included in these roles & responsibilities is to prepare instructions/framework to manage the participation process for e-consultations and e-decisions making pillars in Jordan through governmental entities.

B. Project objectives

The main objective of this assignment will be to establish the framework/instructions rationalization of all government entities to ensure full implementation of the E-participation policy and its pillars: E-information, E-consultation and E-decision making.

C. Scope of Work

The duties of the selected consultant shall comprise the following:

1. Work closely with relevant key staff members from all relevant ministries, public agencies and NGOs to identify and evaluate the current situation of public participation in general and the electronic tools “social media, polls, questionnaires…”
2. Reviewing Current policies and legislation for public participation in Jordan
3. Reviewing best regional and international practices in electronic participation especially in “e-participation framework/instructions”.
4. Holding interviews with the various stakeholders and summarize their observations.
5. Recommend framework/instructions for e-participation based on best practices and local needs , covered following points:
   • Governance model of government entities and responsibilities for each party.
   • Public participation in decisions on specific activities by put specific rules to manage the process Such as who must comply, Who is consulted, Time frames, What information must be given, How does the public comment, What happens after the participation
   • How the product of consultation must be conscientiously taken into account in making the decision?
   • How the product of E-decisions making must be raised into the decision maker and how should consider it during making the decision?
   • The procedures to inform the public about the decision has taken by the public authority based on their contributions.
   • What we should do if a consultation is deficient, the authority fails to carry out a consultation?
   • How the institutions should deal with received comments on consultations subject, especially they may receive huge comments with bad or good ideas.
   • Ways to evaluate and monitor the participation process.
   • Define all e-participation and networking tools and how the institutions may use them to publish and conduct the public consultations
   • Review the current guideline of social media and suggest the recommendations to enhance the content of the guideline especially the procedure to manage public participation through social media. In addition, suggest KPIs to evaluate the performance of social media accounts of government entities.
   • Participate in MoDEE’s workshop to elaborate the content of e-participation instructions draft for group of government entities and reflects the received comments on the draft.
   • Review the main roles of government entities based of system requirements specifications “SRS” of unified public consultation “UPC” portal and reflect the main roles into the instructions.
   • Provide performance measures, indicators or deliverables should also be included to ensure that progress can be reviewed, monitored and evaluated of entities related to e-participation.
   • Any other tasks that appear during the preparation process.

D. Implementation Arrangements and Deliverables

The consultancy services outlined in Section “C” above shall be scheduled with the following time schedule (30 days). The expected starting date of the consultancy services is envisaged as of August 27th, 2023.

Expected deliverables of project are:

• E-participation instructions/framework in Arabic and English, edited and saved in MS-Word.
• Report illustrate the best international and regional practices for e-participation regulatory framework.
• Position paper of public consultation for e-participation instructions
• Impact assessment report based on Regulatory impact assessment manual[1].
• Guideline elaborate the performance measures, indicators or deliverables to ensure that progress can be reviewed, monitored and evaluated of entities.
• Guideline to manage social media accounts, in addition, performance indicators to measure entities activities.

https://govreform.jo/storage/download/manual%20guideline.pdf.SLnqM07sXjVtWg8YFjDmlo30wxN9i7ik

E. Time Schedule for Reporting (TBC) and Payment schedule

The consultancy services shall be scheduled in accordance with the time schedule below:

F. Required Skills and Expertise

The individual consultant must meet the following requirements to perform the activities highlighted in this ToR:

• A postgraduate degree in a relevant field
• Led the development of e-participation regulatory frameworks.
• Have at least 7 years of experience in development and implementation e-participation regulations, frameworks, bylaws…
• Have experience in social media and electronic participation tools.
• Demonstrated experience in conducting stakeholder consultations and engaging vulnerable populations
• A good understanding of national and regional legislations such as: laws, strategies, policies…
• Excellent written and oral language skills in Arabic and English

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