Provision of Consultancy Services for the Evaluation of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Support to Small States
Item Details:
- Organisation: The Commonwealth
- Reference Number: 531-2020
- Published: 26.10.2020
- Deadline: 11.11.2020 at Noon
- Time zone: Local time
- Street: Marlborough House, Pall Mall
- City: London
- Country: United Kingdom
- Zip/Postal Code: SW1Y 5HX
- Expires: This ad has expired
Item Description:
The Commonwealth Secretariat (The Secretariat) is an international organisation established by Agreed Memorandum, which is given privileges and immunities under the domestic law of the United Kingdom by the Commonwealth Secretariat Act 1966 (as amended by the International Organisations Act 2005). Under this legislation, the Secretariat is not subject to UK jurisdiction and enforcement. Further information on the Secretariat can be found at: http://thecommonwealth.org/
This status has an impact on some of the standard terms and conditions of contract (see appendix 1). In particular, we draw your attention to our dispute resolution clause, which refers disputes to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitration Tribunal (CSAT). The 8 members of the Tribunal are selected by the Board of Governors and come from Commonwealth member countries. CSAT is located in London, United Kingdom. Information about CSAT, including its governing statute and procedure are available on its website at http://thecommonwealth.org/tribunal.
The Secretariat implements decisions agreed by 54 Heads of Government and Ministers through advocacy, consensus–building, information sharing, analysis, technical assistance, capacity-building, and advice on policy development.
Terms of Reference
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of independent and equal sovereign states. Its members are bound together by shared values and principles, which are enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter. The Commonwealth Secretariat in London convenes member states; executes mandates set by the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) and implements strategic plans agreed by its Board of Governors representing its member states.
The Commonwealth has championed small and vulnerable states (SVS) since the 1980. In 1985, a Commonwealth Consultative Group produced the report, Vulnerability: Small States in the Global Society. The Report noted that small states are ‘inherently vulnerable to external interference’ and outlined the characteristics of smallness, the vagaries of vulnerability and the threats to small states.
The Secretariat defines small states as countries with a population of 1.5 million people or less, and vulnerable states as countries with a bigger population but which share many of the same vulnerabilities:
- vulnerability to external events such as natural disasters;
- vulnerability to external economic shocks such as world trade fluctuations;
- limited market diversification;
- limited capacity in the public and private sectors and;
- limited access to external capital.
Based on this definition, thirty-two (32) of the 54 member countries of the Commonwealth are small and vulnerable states (See List of SVS in Annex 1).
The Commonwealth delivers a range of programmes to address the needs of SVS. Programme approaches include global advocacy, capacity and institution building and technical assistance, knowledge sharing and policy development. Support to small states is delivered directly to address country needs and priorities and, indirectly, through pan-commonwealth and regional-level provisions.
The four-year Strategic Plan of 2013/14 was the first to prioritise support for small states with one of the six strategic outcomes (SO) being:
SO 6. Strengthened resilience of small states and vulnerable states
Under the subsequent four-year Strategic Plan of 2017/18, the Secretariat further expanded on this strategic outcome as:
SO 5. Strengthened resilience of small and vulnerable states, including adaptation and mitigation against climate change
This strategic outcome reflected an agreed focusing by Member States on the environmental and climate change issues impacting small states. The outcome however does not fully encompass the cross-organisational strategic focus on ensuring that small states benefit disproportionately from the Secretariat’s delivery. Across each of the other strategic outcomes, a number of projects and programmes recognise and respond to the needs of small states. (See Strategic Outcomes Matrices in Annex 2)
In March 2020, the Secretariat commenced development of a new strategic plan. The Annual Evaluation Plan identified a number of critical evaluations to inform the new Strategic Plan development. These evaluations which will be implemented concurrently will also include results to small states in their scopes:
- Strategic Plan Evaluation, 2020
- Evaluation of Consensus Building, 2020
- Evaluation of the Economic Development Programme, 2020
- Evaluation of the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub, 2020
Purpose and Users of the Evaluation
The main purpose of the evaluation is to assess the contribution of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s programmes in delivering benefits to, and promoting the interests of, its small member states. The evaluation is summative as it seeks to take stock of the effectiveness of the Secretariat in assisting its small state members to address their development and public governance challenges. Its findings are also expected to inform the new Strategic Plan from July 2021.
The objectives of this evaluation are therefore to:
- Assess the overall coherence of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s support to small and vulnerable states
- Review the relevance of the support to small states’ development and public governance challenges and needs, and specifically in light of the changed global context over the past 10 years
- Consolidate and assess whether the Secretariat’s actions in favour of small states have been effective in meeting the expected outcomes of the Strategic plan.
- Identify specific stories and evidence of impact across the four regions
- Make recommendations for the consideration of the Secretariat’ s senior management and Board of Governors on how small states impact can be scaled up across the Commonwealth.
Primary Users
There are two primary user groups of the evaluation: 1) senior management and programme leads of the Commonwealth Secretariat; 2) the Board of Governors, sector leader and heads of member states.
ITT Documents (PDF)
Terms of Reference (PDF)
Appendix 1: General Terms and Conditions (PDF)
Appendix 2: Code of Ethics (PDF)
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