Institutional Reform Technical Expert - OMSAR

POSITION INFORMATION

• Organization: UNDP Lebanon Through Stars Orbit Consultants and Management Development

• VA No.: UNDP/LBN/VA26/191

• Position Title: Institutional Reform Technical Expert - OMSAR

• Duty Station: OMSAR- Beirut, Republic of Lebanon

• Duration: 2 months (without exceeding 6 working days per month)

• Vacancy Date of Issue: 11 October 2026

• Vacancy Closure Date: 17 October 2026

• National or International consultancy: National consultancy

To review the full Terms of Reference (TOR), please follow link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t2Ibj5TkGDZnczHtD0zST_vA0rLG-ss8/view

BACKGROUND

For over six years, Lebanon has been facing a prolonged economic, financial, and social crisis. The country experienced multiple shocks, including economic and financial collapse, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Beirut Port explosion, and, most recently, more than a year-long armed conflict that caused extensive damage and losses. These developments led to a severe economic contraction, depreciation of the Lebanese Pound, soaring inflation, fiscal imbalances, and a sharp decline in the real value of income, particularly affecting public sector employees. As a result, state institutions have been struggling to deliver on their mandates due to a lack of financial resources and a significant loss of skilled professionals in the public sector. Against this backdrop, the capacity for evidence-based policymaking, regulation, and the delivery of priorities has been severely constrained by the crises.

While the election of a president and formation of a new government mark a positive political turning point, the state continues to face major resource and capacity constraints in responding to the crisis, supporting post-conflict recovery, and addressing structural challenges. At the same time, there is limited visibility over development aid directed to Lebanon. Since the 2019 collapse, most donors have made funding conditional on broad reforms and progress toward an IMF agreement. As a result, only a small share of aid has been channeled through government systems. Most grants and loans remain off-budget, creating a disconnect between aid inflows and national public finance management.

To address the implications of these crises, UNDP has been supporting the Government of Lebanon (GoL) in restoring core functions and in resuming its role in service delivery, and to help in implementing priority reforms, while linking traditional public administration, civil service, and policy reforms with a digital transformation process, with the ultimate aim of reactivating the social contract.

In response, the Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR) has launched “Reinventing Government 2030,” which represents one of Lebanon’s most ambitious efforts to modernize the State and rebuild citizens’ trust in public institutions. The reform vision is structured across three phases:

Phase 1: Stakeholder Aspirations (Listen, Analyze, Prepare)

OMSAR engaged thousands of stakeholders—citizens, youth, diaspora, civil servants, municipalities, civil society, unions, media, political and religious leaders—through surveys, workshops, town halls, and interviews. This participatory phase has produced a unified vision and validated national reform aspirations.

Phase 2: Blueprint Design for Government Restructuring

This phase aims to reorganize ministries and public agencies by:

• Redefining mandates;

• Eliminating fragmentation and duplicated functions;

• Designing a Target Operating Model (TOM) tailored to Lebanon;

• Benchmarking against global governance models;

• Ensuring alignment with stakeholder aspirations and future state needs.

Phase 3: Full Implementation (2026–2030)

Execution of the restructuring plan, introduction of digital and process reforms, reskilling of human capital, and establishing performance-based management across government.

After completion of Phase 1, OMSAR has launched Phase 2 of the Reform. Central to this phase is the Baseline Assessment of the current state of affairs of GoL. The Reform’s design is manifested in the Conceptual Framework, which provides a basic outline for the Baseline Assessment. It envisages functional analysis of the Government of Lebanon along horizontal and vertical axes.

The horizontal axis establishes four universal Functions of the Government:

• National Directions and Policy Setting;

• Licensing and Regulation;

• Service Delivery;

• Delivery Oversight and Surveillance.

The vertical axis provides thematic or area classification of the governance model. In particular, it identified a number of sectors that could reach 28 sectors and around 120 subsectors.

Following several rounds of consultations with OMSAR, UNDP Lebanon has developed and validated a methodology for the Baseline Assessment in line with the priorities enshrined in the Conceptual Framework.

The methodology is based on a rigorous research design that ensures data is collected from multiple sources. In total, it includes four research methods. Each method is designed to build upon the previous one, moving from theoretical mandates to operational realities:

• Desk Research

• Survey

• Key Informant Interviews (KIIs)

• Focus Groups/Validation Workshops

To this end, UNDP seeks to recruit a national Institutional Reform Expert to support the validation and quality assurance of the cluster, sector and entity-level mapping of the governance architecture of the Government of Lebanon (GoL).

The overall objective of this consultancy is to conduct a rigorous functional and institutional review of each subsector/functionality, benchmarked against the GOFOC methodology (Policy Development and Coherence, Regulation and Licensing, Oversight, Service Delivery). This includes validating the existing cluster and sector mapping, cross-checking entity-level mandates to identify structural redundancies, overlaps, gaps and "institutional silos," reviewing the international benchmark underpinning the Target Operating Model, and coordinating with ministries' focal points and stakeholders to confirm findings and secure sign-off.

Ultimately, this work will provide the evidence-based data required to streamline institutional mandates and business processes, informing the next phases of Lebanon's "Reinventing Government 2030" national transformation agenda.

SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ANALYTICAL WORK

Under the general supervision of the UNDP Senior Economist and LPARD-P Project Manager, and in close coordination with OMSAR, the Institutional Reform Technical Expert will be tasked with performing a comprehensive functional and institutional governance analysis of assigned subsectors/functions.

The Institutional Reform Technical Expert will be responsible for the following:

• Review the methodology and outputs of the cluster and sector mapping for the sectors of Finance, Education, Social Affairs, Industry, and Central Bank and financial markets, and assess its completeness, consistency and logical structure.

• Validate the baseline mapping of public entities (to feed into the macro Target Operating Model) against the four identified functions (Policy Development and Coherence, Regulation and Licensing, Oversight, Service Delivery), cross-checking entity-level data, identifying inconsistencies, gaps, duplications and overlapping mandates, and maintaining a discrepancy log with proposed corrections.

• Review and validate the international benchmark used to inform the Final Target Operating Model, assessing the relevance and evidentiary basis of the comparator countries and models selected, and the robustness of the resulting recommendations on entities to abolish, merge, or reconstitute as councils or committees.

• Serve as the day-to-day technical counterpart to ministries' focal points, coordinating data validation requests, resolving discrepancies, and securing sign-off on sector-level findings relevant to each ministry.

• Design and organize structured stakeholder consultations (ministries, regulatory authorities, public establishments and other relevant entities) to test and confirm baseline and benchmark findings, including scheduling, briefing materials, facilitation, and consolidated minutes/outcomes.

• Support quality assurance of deliverables against the GOFOC methodology and relevant good international practice.

EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES

The consultant is expected to complete the above tasks and activities within 2 months (without exceeding 6 working days per month).

INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

• With day-to-day management by the designated Project Manager or institutional focal point.

• UNDP will be responsible for providing the contractor with all necessary materials related to the project in a timely, thorough and transparent manner. UNDP will also be responsible for providing clarifications and facilitating the work.

• Day-to-day transportation from home to office (and vice versa) shall be covered by the consultant’s own means. The Consultant will rely on his own means of communication and transportation.

DURATION OF WORK

The assigned duration for this consultancy is 2 months without exceeding 6 working days a month.

The mission is expected to commence immediately and to be completed by December 31, 2026, at the latest.

The time needed to review, complete and approve deliverables and outputs is five (5) working days.

DUTY STATION

The assignment is based at OMSAR- Beirut, Republic of Lebanon

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Education: Master’s degree or equivalent in Economics, Public Administration or Public Policy or a related field.

• Experience: At least 6 years of combined experience in: (i) analyzing public governance and institutional frameworks, including the interaction between mandates, regulatory functions, and administrative structures across government entities; and (ii) institutional mapping and functional reviews of public entities.

• Language: Fluency in the Arabic and English languages (both written and oral).

“The Personnel will be covered with Health insurance and Personal accident insurance; the fees shall be deducted from personnel's monthly payment”.