Background

The Local Government Association of Zambia (LGAZ) in collaboration with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has, since April 2021, been implementing the Partnerships for Municipal Innovation - Women in Local Leadership (PMI-WILL) project with financial support from the Canadian government. PMI-WILL is a 6-year (2021-2027) project designed to enhance the enjoyment of rights for women and girls in Benin, Cambodia, Ghana, Sri Lanka, and Zambia. To achieve this goal, the project is applying a two-pronged approach centered on the following intermediate outcomes:

• Increased participation of women, particularly those from marginalised groups, as leaders and decision-makers in local governance.
• Strengthened capacities of local authorities in planning and delivery of inclusive, gender-responsive services.

Through PMI-WILL project, LGAZ has been facilitating capacity development initiatives targeting serving and aspiring female civic leaders and selected local authorities (Chifunabuli, Kafue, Kasama, Lunte and Nakonde Councils). These initiatives are focused on strengthening capacities of women as local leaders and decision makers and local authorities to plan and deliver quality services through an inclusive, gender responsive approach.

To contribute to the capacity development of local authorities in the context of devolution, the Association intends to develop a knowledge product in form of guidelines for assessing and improving municipal service delivery. This will build on other efforts conducted over the last three years, including trainings on gender analysis and municipal service assessments using a community score card as a participatory tool for identifying gaps and evaluating service performance. The knowledge product will provide salient information to support local authorities in understanding service gaps and responding to community needs, especially the needs of marginalised including women, children, adolescents, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Specifically, the guide will benefit local authorities as follows:

• Improve planning and delivery of services: Set clear objectives, basic standards and realistic activity schedules and timelines, assignment of tasks, and resource requirements for each prioritised service.
• Enhance operational efficiency: Eliminate waste and ensure optimal usage of available resources for basic services.
• Integration of environmental, social inclusion and gender considerations: Consider environmental effects of service initiatives and engage marginalised groups to better understand and respond to their specific needs.
• Enhance performance monitoring: Provide criteria and targets for assessing service performance through a gender lens, allowing for continuous improvement.
• Obtain user-feedback: Gather service-user feedback to identify specific gaps and inform service improvement. This includes demonstrating the use of a community score card as a participatory tool for engaging marginalised groups in service assessment and performance monitoring.
• Support decision-making: Provide a basis for making informed decisions about resource allocation and sustaining quality services.

The guidelines should enable municipalities to systematically assess their service delivery performance, identify gaps, and implement targeted improvements that strengthen efficiency, accountability, and responsiveness to community needs. The guidelines should be practical, user-friendly, and aligned with national frameworks, decentralization policies, and good international practices.

Core Purpose of the Assignment

To lead the drafting and graphic designing a 15-to-20-page guide to support local authorities in improving their service delivery efforts.

Professional Qualifications

This assignment is suited for an individual (or a group of individuals) who meet the following basic requirements:

• Tertiary qualification in a relevant discipline, such as Public Policy, Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Economics or Finance, Development or Project Planning and Management.
• Proficiency in graphic design and illustrations is an added advantage.
• Understanding of gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) as well as natural environment and climate considerations is an added advantage.
• Conversant with the local government system in Zambia.
• Proven experience in developing or editing information, educational and communications (IEC) materials.

Evaluative Criteria

A candidate will be assessed based on the criteria that systematically combine the following aspects:

• Professional qualifications (25 points).
• Professional experience (25 points).
• A tentative table of contents (25 points).
• A tentative methodology/approach and workplan (15 points).
• Daily consultancy fee (10 points).

• Draft a set of guidelines for assessing municipal service delivery in accordance with national regulations and procedures as well as local and international best practices.
• Ensure the step-by-step guidelines are grammatically accurate, factually accurate, consistent, and logically formatted, coherent, summarized, and reader friendly.
• Design the cover page and layout of the documents, including visual elements. This includes visually appealing illustrations to facilitate easy comprehension and retention of information.
• Ensure use of gender and culturally sensitive language, symbols, and color schemes throughout the knowledge product.
• Ensure contents including visual designs are suitable for readers of varying comprehension.
• Stakeholder Consultation and validation to gather their input.

• Proficiency in graphic design and illustrations
• Understanding of gender equality and social inclusion (GESI)
• Understanding of natural environment and climate considerations
• Knowledge of local government system in Zambia
• Experience in developing or editing information, educational and communications (IEC) materials

• Tertiary qualification in a relevant discipline, such as Public Policy, Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Economics or Finance, Development or Project Planning and Management