Position Title:

• Legal Expert (Lead Consultant) (40 person days)
• Economist (25 person days)
• Sociologist/Anthropologist (20 person days)
• Research Associate (15 person days)

Objective of the Consultancy:

The KP Government is alive to the fact that a true merger would only be possible through a full economic integration and the complete linkages of erstwhile FATA with mainstream KP markets. There is recognition of the need for a customized framework at both the Federal and Provincial levels and there exists a demand for assistance to draw it up.  A demand for this had  been raised by the Planning and Development Department KP, which has been assessed and further evaluated in SMEA’s internal study for MAs.  

Principal Duties & Responsibilities:

• Develop workplan for this assignment clearly mentioning the overall structure of the activity, and breakdown into tasks, timelines and responsibilities of team members.
• Conduct a short literature review for purposes of analysis of regulatory gaps
• Identify key public and private sector stakeholders for consultations. Organize and conduct meetings (formal meetings with stakeholders), including, but not limited to, Government, private sector, community based organizations,  associations and chambers of commerce
• Conduct small group discussions/focus group discussions/interactive meetings (location and total number of these group meetings to be proposed by the consultants but should be a minimum of 3) with SMEs, relevant public and private sector entities in KP. Major representation should be from merged districts. (If the situation of pandemic continues, these consultations might have to be done remotely, through online group discussions or through other means proposed by the consultants).
• Synthesize collected information in the form of a gap analysis to help inform and draw up a customized framework for enablement of conducive business environment for SMEs in newly merged districts.
• Develop a customized economic framework including three legal instruments (i) partnerships, (ii) contracts enforcement (iii) alternate dispute resolution
• Develop trip reports, meeting notes and event notes (as applicable)
• Lead consultant to coordinate the efforts of the other two consultants and to finalize all content in a single cohesive document which will be the final deliverable under this activity, as outlined in section 10. 

Specific Tasks of the Consultants:

• Meet with the SMEA COP, Component Leads for Business Enabling Environment, Competitiveness Enhancement, Challenge Fund and SMEA’s Senior Policy Consultant to understand the specific requirements of the scope of work
• Study and understand the project background, approach and objectives and review other relevant studies/ material
• Design and develop a work plan/action plan within the first week of signing the contract and submit an inception report to SMEA (deliverable). The workplan should be inclusive of major activities, division of work among consultants, methodology review, proposed meetings, tools and other required formats/instruments.
• Conduct a short analysis of existing situation and identify prevalent gaps in the regulatory frameworks, which act as a barrier and/or deter normative business in MAs.
• Given the prevalent environment for private sector development in newly merged districts, some of the key issues that exist due to lack of regulations include; (i) lack of investment as no legal cover (ii) no formal partnerships for expansion; (ii) land acquisition is problematic and with delays and issues; (iii) obtaining loans is extremely difficult and recovery of loans is even more problematic; (iv) opening of L/Cs and banking transactions are expensive; (v) worker rights are violated and; (vii) impossible to impose any form of quality standards. These elements increase the cost of business transaction significantly. These and other gaps to be looked into as part of the analysis
• Analyze ease of doing business (World Bank Indicators) in NMDs and propose an economic regulatory framework which could potentially ease the cost of doing business for SMEs and is in-line with the socio-cultural environment of the areas. Issues under the subject of EODB, such as construction permits, registering property, trading across borders etc. must be taken a look at while suggesting this framework.
• Draft at least 3 legal instruments of immediate relevance for the conduct of contracts, partnerships and alternate dispute resolution/arbitration in the MAs.
  • Section 1: BEE Regimes for SMEs: Develop a requisite framework for private sector growth in MAs, which promotes the security of rights and assets, effective compliance with contractual obligations, an environment for open and fair competition that would minimize costs and an efficient mechanism for adjudicating and resolving commercial disputes. It is common knowledge that most of the transactions in newly merged districts are informal and there is weak writ of state with missing laws, regulations and policies. It is clear that without legal safeguards and incentives, it would be difficult to expect any substantial investment in MAs. Secondly, those involved in the business consider themselves vulnerable unless their rights and obligations have the protection of law. The existence of regulatory frameworks makes business transactions easier and induces  a sense of security in entrepreneurs for investing their capital. Identify these laws, under the overarching framework to be developed under this assignment.
  • Section 2: Contract Enforcement: While the Contract Act has been extended to all the MAs under the 31^st Constitutional Amendment, its applicability remains an issue. From an investment perspective, enforcement of contracts is critical to private sector development.  The consultants will be required to come up with a business and area friendly contract enforcement regime.
  • Section 3: Alternate Dispute Resolution: Most of the disputes (79 percent)[1] are handled by the JIRGA. The decisions of the JIRGA more often than not  are influenced by local and tribal maliks and often to the disadvantage to the non-local business-person and may not result in fair decisions . There is a strong need to address this issue as it is a primary pillar of private sector development especially when it comes to SMEs. This consultancy aims to  propose a suitable, alternate dispute resolution mechanism at community levels.
  • Section 4: Partnerships:   One of the key elements to be reviewed under this Consultancy is the capability of the current partnership legal frameworks  to be  effective under the local conditions of these areas. The efficacy of formal arrangements in the absence of the right institutional infrastructure, is likely to be low. The need, hence, may be to seek the design of arrangements which are backed by a level of community-underwriting.
  • Conduct a do-ability analysis and propose an implementation strategy for these frameworks.
  • Indicate other areas which require customized legal instruments  for instance (i) municipal services and urban markets, (ii) rental laws and systems, (iii) registration of businesses and the requisite compliance regimes, (iv) urban laws (on zoning and commercialization)
  • Based on above, submit a final report to SMEA.

Job Qualifications

Duty Station:

The consultant should be available to work with the SMEA team preferably out of SMEA’s Islamabad office or alternatively based out of Peshawar. In case of non-availability of a suitable resource, we could look into the possibility of hiring a consultant based in any other city.

Reporting:

The consultant will be working under the guidance and technical oversight of the BEE Deputy Component Lead and will be regularly supervised by the Policy Analyst.  

Duration of the Assignment:  

This assignment is planned to take place as per a start date of on or around May 20, 2020 (depending on the date of mobilization of the consultants), and end date of on or around August 31, 2020, over a period of 4 months for a total of 100 days level of effort (LOE), distributed among the team as follows;

-          Legal Expert: 40 days

-          Economist: 25 days

-          Sociologist/Anthropologist: 20 days

-          Research Associate: 15 days

Deliverables:

The following are the key deliverables and their associated deadlines. The LOE assigned for each activity as mentioned in the following table will be discussed and agreed with the technical team and the consultants. The final deliverable of this assignment is the final report on “Business Enabling Environment Regimes for SMEs in Newly merged districts of KP”