NDI is seeking a consultant to support the development of a knowledge product on global executive transition laws, regulations, and guidelines, in order to support education and guidance for transition actors on the importance of such frameworks in advancing smooth leadership handovers.
A smooth executive leadership handover ensures that new leaders are prepared to govern from day one. An important element of transition success is the existence of legal frameworks or guidelines that codify transition preparedness processes. Though few transition legal frameworks exist across the world, countries that draw on a set of norms, guidelines, and good practices in the flow of information and resources between outgoing and incoming administrations are more successful in addressing public priorities quickly and effectively during and following a change in leadership. Key elements in a transition legal framework include regulations codifying the following:
- Transition timelines (how much time is allotted for the transition period?)
- Transition resources (what resources are allotted – either official or campaign – for the transition, including space, staff, and materials?)
- Transition actors (who in the executive is responsible for managing/overseeing transition affairs? How will these actors engage with the candidate-elect and their team?)
- Transition teams (will the candidate-elect or outgoing executive be responsible for assembling a team to support the transition? What will the team be responsible for? How will they interact with outgoing executive staff specifically on issues related to government services, programs, and pending issues; security; international affairs; etc.?)
- Memoranda of Understanding between outgoing and incoming teams on information-sharing (established commitments between outgoing/incoming leaders and staff to cooperate and share information)
- Archival requirements (requirements for archiving public information that is critical to national security and government institutional memory)
- Assets tracking (tracking the flow – return, retention, resubmission – of government assets between outgoing and incoming officials)
- Ethics guidelines (ensuring candidates, leaders, and staff have filed all necessary ethical financial disclosures and have cleared regulatory ethics laws related to serving in office)
- Security clearances and exchange of national security information (how will candidates-elect and their staff gain access to classified or secure information in order to obtain necessary intelligence on pending national security matters?)
The scope of work for this consultancy includes the following:
- Conduct literature review of existing knowledge on executive transition legal frameworks
- Conduct research on international legal frameworks, regulations, and guidelines that exist to codify executive transition processes, which may include interviews with NDI country teams, government officials, academics, and other individuals with experience researching or supporting executive transitions globally (i.e. transition team leads, secretaries-general, former leaders, civil servants, etc.).
- Note: Though it is not expected that the resource will realistically survey all transition frameworks that exist globally, the goal should be to obtain a diversity of country examples from across different regions. NDI’s staff will be available to help the consultant connect with relevant government officials in different countries to support research and to gather relevant data and information.
- Develop a knowledge product of between 20-30 pages that offers:
- Identification and analysis of the known legal frameworks and regulations that exist across different regions; and
- Survey of lessons and good practices related to those frameworks in order to promote international education and awareness.
Details and guidelines: The ideal candidate will have prior experience in government, or preferably during a leadership transition. This may include former work in the legislature or executive, in either a civil service or political capacity. Consultant compensation for the project would commensurate with experience, in addition to guidelines pertaining to daily rate thresholds required by the project donor and NDI. This consultancy would run from April 1, 2022 to July 1, 2022. Based on the consultant’s interest and availability, this project may also begin in March. Interested applicants should send a resume and statement of interest to Frieda Arenos, Program Director for Democratic Governance at the National Democratic Institute, farenos@ndi.org.