Result of Service
The consultancy will provide NACC and ESCWA with a practical, prioritized basis for deciding the next steps toward an electronic asset and interest declaration system. The outputs will support future detailed design, procurement preparation and donor engagement; they will not constitute a complete procurement-ready technical dossier or certify legal or security compliance. The deliverables, submission formats and acceptance requirements are set out under Outputs and Work Assignment below. Written outputs will be submitted in editable MS Word (.docx) format, the presentation in PowerPoint (.pptx), and the requirements matrix as an editable Word table or Excel (.xlsx) file. Diagrams must be supplied in editable form. The main report will include a table of contents and clear headings. PDF copies may accompany, but will not replace, the editable submissions. All outputs must be edited and checked before submission. Legal texts, standards, tables, diagrams and other substantive sources must be clearly cited, with a reference list. Ownership, confidentiality and permitted use of pre-existing or third-party material will be governed by the applicable United Nations contract conditions. The consultant must identify such material and any relevant permissions or restrictions. ESCWA may check deliverables for plagiarism. All outputs must be original to the assignment except for properly attributed material used with any required permissions. Previously published material, including the consultant’s own work, must be acknowledged. Attribution is required regardless of the proportion of quoted text. The consultant will use blank forms and synthetic or anonymized examples wherever possible. Access to actual declarations is not required for the baseline assignment. Any exceptional access to non-public information must be expressly authorized and handled through agreed secure arrangements, with return or deletion in accordance with ESCWA instructions and applicable contract conditions.
Duties and Responsibilities
Background The declaration of assets and interests by public officials is an important mechanism for strengthening transparency, accountability, public integrity, conflict-of-interest prevention and the fight against illicit enrichment. In Lebanon, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), (الهيئة الوطنية لمكافحة الفساد), is the national body concerned with the prevention and fight against corruption and the promotion of integrity, transparency and accountability in the public sector. According to NACC, the Lebanese legal framework authorizes the electronic declaration of financial assets and interests. This is anchored in Law No. 189 of 16 October 2020 on the declaration of assets and interests and the punishment of illicit enrichment. The practical operationalization of this legal mandate requires clear technical, procedural and institutional specifications to ensure that the future electronic declaration process is secure, reliable, sustainable and aligned with relevant standards. Given the sensitivity of declarations, the future system should protect personal and financial information and support confidentiality, integrity, secure access and auditability. Recommendations should distinguish applicable Lebanese legal requirements from selected United Nations, European Union and international reference standards and good practices, explaining their relevance to the national context. The output of the consultancy should also provide a practical basis for future resource mobilization and donor engagement, including by identifying the main implementation steps, cost categories, capacity-building needs, risks, safeguards and sustainability considerations. The consultancy excludes platform development, hosting, operation and maintenance, detailed software architecture, a complete tender dossier, source code, prototypes, penetration testing, a formal legal opinion and an exhaustive security or will be identified as follow-on activities where needed. Future implementation remains the responsibility of the competent national authority and/or its selected implementation partner. Duties and Responsibilities Under the supervision of Cluster6 - Governance and State-Building section, the consultant will work with ESCWA and consult with the NACC to prepare the core requirements document and implementation roadmap. The assignment includes remote consultation and validation meeting to discuss the work progress. The consultant will specifically carry out the following duties: (1) Review available background material, including Law No. 189 of 16 October 2020, declaration forms procedures, institutional arrangements, and any existing digitalization initiatives. Identify the current operational baseline and legal or procedural questions requiring confirmation by NACC competent legal advisers, including electronic submission, authentication, signatures, receipts and record retention. (2) Conduct a focused desk review of selected standards and comparable practices relevant to electronic declarations, data protection, cybersecurity, authentication, confidentiality, and auditability. Identify practical requirements and references without undertaking an exhaustive international comparative study or certification assessment. (3) Prepare a concise overview of institutional responsibilities, staffing and capacity constraints, and the main procedural and technical prerequisites for the future system, based on available information and consultations. (4) Map the main business processes and user workflows, including registration of covered officials, initial, periodic and final declarations according to applicable legal deadlines, submission, validation, receipt, correction, compliance monitoring, authorized review, reporting and archiving. Distinguish legal requirements from proposed operational choices and flag matters requiring national confirmation. (5) Prepare a prioritized matrix of core functional and non-functional requirements, covering user management, role-based access, authentication, electronic forms, validation, notifications, reporting, document management, audit logs, safeguards, encryption, backup, disaster recovery, accessibility and language needs. For each core requirement, provide an identifier, description, priority and indicative acceptance criterion. Record assumptions on users, workload, availability and recovery objectives; targets requiring further assessment should be explicitly identified. Address hosting, support and interoperability at an options level, without detailed architecture or interface specifications. (6) Prepare proportionate requirements for data governance, confidentiality and verification, including authorized access, retention, secure storage, auditability, incident handling, completeness and consistency checks, and comparison across successive declarations. Risk indicators must support authorized human review and must not constitute findings of wrongdoing. Future registry cross-checks should be identified as optional capabilities subject to legal authority, data-sharing arrangements and technical feasibility. (7) Prepare a phased implementation roadmap and a separate donor concept note, covering preparation, subsequent procurement, development, testing, piloting, training, rollout and sustainability. Identify responsible actors, dependencies, risks, safeguards and indicative one-off and recurring cost categories. Any indicative implementation cost ranges must state their assumptions and limitations and must be distinguished from this consultancy’s budget. Detailed market costing and vendor quotations are outside scope. The consultant will submit a final technical specifications and implementation roadmap document in English, together with a short PowerPoint presentation summarizing the main findings, proposed system requirements, implementation roadmap and donor financing logic, incorporating comments received from ESCWA and, where applicable, from NACC. ESCWA promotes gender equality, disability inclusion and the integration of youth through its publications and technical cooperation activities. The consultant should therefore pay attention, with the support of ESCWA staff, to inclusive and accessible digital service design, including the needs of women and men, persons with disabilities, and different categories of public officials who may use the future system. Writing should use gender-sensitive and inclusive language.
Qualifications/special skills
A master’s degree in digital government, information systems, public administration, governance, public policy, law, anti-corruption, cybersecurity, ICT business analysis, or a related field is required A minimum of seven years of professional experience in digital government, public-sector information systems, governance, anti-corruption, public integrity, cybersecurity, data governance, public administration or related areas is required. Demonstrated experience preparing functional or technical requirements and implementation plans for public-sector information systems is required. Experience addressing confidentiality and access controls in systems handling sensitive information is required. Knowledge of relevant data-protection, cybersecurity, authentication and digital-service standards and their practical application is desirable. Previous experience working with Lebanese public institutions or comparable public-sector contexts is desirable. Familiarity with donor-facing project documentation is desirable. Knowledge of asset and interest declarations, financial disclosure or anti-corruption institutional frameworks is desirable.
