Accreditation Expert

Trade Facilitation & Customs Support Programme

الوصف الوظيفي

Terms of Reference

Accreditation Expert

Support Palestine Standards Institute (PSI) in Acquiring International Accreditation

The Trade Facilitation and Customs Support programme (Tasdeer) is a three-year programme funded by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and aims at improving the trade performance and customs capabilities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). It will ultimately contribute to private sector-led economic growth and fiscal sustainability in the OPT’s. The programme is designed to be flexible and adaptive and will work politically and technically to make progress across four-key interrelated Workstreams:

Work Stream 1 (WS1): Support to expedite the movement of goods and reduce transaction costs.
Work Stream 2 (WS2): Support to improve Palestinian trade-related institutions and business enabling environment.
Work Stream 3 (WS3): Support to improve the private sector’s skills and innovation to export and create jobs.
Work Stream 4 (WS4): Support to improve PA’s Customs readiness to assume functions from Israel to collect revenues from trade-related taxes.

The programme is implemented by a Cowater-led consortium on behalf of FCDO. A Steering Committee (including representatives from FCDO, the Ministry of National Economy and Ministry of Finance) will approve interventions identified and designed by the programme management. The programme interventions will be reviewed, and quality assured by a Strategic Advisory Panel comprised of experts from the core consortium members across the four workstreams.

About the Palestinian Standards Institution

The Palestinian Standard Institution (PSI) was established in 1994 and started its operations in 1997 as the sole body at the Palestinian Authority (PA) responsible for issuing Palestinian standards and is also considered the focal point for Palestinian participation in the global system of harmonized standards.

Background:

PSI plans to acquire an ISO IEC 17065 and ISO IEC 17025 international accreditation within two years. ISO IEC 17065 is the internationally recognised standard for product certification bodies, and ISO IEC 17025 is the quality standard for testing and calibration of labs. These two quality standards complement each other. As a result of the previously conducted gap analysis for the above-mentioned standards, PSI believes that they have achieved a good level of readiness for the international accreditation. However, there is a need for a review of the gap analysis of PSI capacities and its labs against the ISO IEC 17025 and 17065 accreditation requirements respectively to verify if the existing management systems are compliant with the latest version of the international standards and for developing the missing capacities in order for PSI to obtain such important accreditation.

PSI has been performing at international standards but has not yet obtained international accreditation. By obtaining an international accreditation, PSI will be able to demonstrate that it is a competent, impartial, and reliable organization and thus will gain increased international recognition and enhanced visibility and credibility, both regionally and internationally. In turn, the accreditation certification will then facilitate and support PSI in signing Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) with standard institutes in prospective markets.

Currently, there are three testing labs in Palestine operated by PSI that provide services to the private sector; namely the leather and shoes testing lab located in Hebron and serving the leather and shoes industry, the electrical testing lab located in Ramallah serving importers of electrical equipment and home appliances and the cement testing lab also located in Ramallah and serving the construction industry. The services of the three testing labs are either directly connected to the export sector (such as the leather and shoes) or indirectly linked to the export sector by testing products that serve this sector such as the case of the electrical and the cement testing labs.

Objectives of the Assignment:

The objective of this assignment is to improve PSI international recognition through obtaining international accreditation for ISO IEC 170655 and 17025. Tasdeer will support PSI in developing the systems that meet the requirements of ISO IEC 17025 and ISO IEC 17065 and to provide capacity building services and training for the implementation of these two standards.

Scope of Work:

Tasdeer would like to contract an Accreditation Expert to support PSI in reviewing a previously conducted gap analysis against the ISO IEC 17065 and 17025 standards and to assist PSI develop its systems and procedures to meet the requirements of the two international standards.

The Accreditation Expert is expected to perform the following tasks:

Review and verify findings of existing gap analysis reports based on ISO IEC 17065, and 17025 previously conducted by PSI.
The gap analysis review should verify if the existing management systems at PSI are compliant with the latest version of the international standards ISO IEC 17065 and 17025, including upgrading the current procedures, and developing new ones where needed.
Provide the systems documentation including:

The Quality Manual
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Forms for the procedures
Work instructions

Assess the capacity building needs of staff and provide training for the implementation of the two management systems.
Support PSI to develop a time-bound action plan for the implementation of the proposed international accreditation development plan including an estimated budget for the plan implementation.
Support PSI in the process of implementing the ISO IEC 17065 and 17025 systems.
Support PSI in the process of performing an internal audit for the two systems after the systems implementation.
Support PSI in the process of performing a management review.
Prepare a presentation for PSI management on the steps towards ISO accreditation.

To achieve the stated objective the stated planned interventions objective and the objective of this assignment, the Accreditation Expert will engage with the following (but not limited to) Palestinian stakeholders: Ministry of National Economy (MoNE), The Palestinian Standard Institution (PSI), Palestinian private sector (Palestinian Federation of Industries (PFI) and its specialized member associations (especially the Federation of Leather Industries, Wood Industries Union, Federation of Paper Industries, Federation of Garment and Textile Industries, and Food Industrial Union), PalTrade, Chambers of Commerce, MSME’s, individual female and male exporters and any other relevant stakeholders as deemed necessary.

Deliverables:

The deliverables for this assignment include the following:

An Inception Report containing a methodology, detailed work plan and schedule for completing the assignment.
Verification report on ISO IEC 17065, and 17025 gap analysis documentation.
Management system documentation for the two ISO accreditations
Capacity building assessment report and training material.
A time-bound action plan for the systems implementation
Provide all needed technical assistance to PSI to implement the systems.

Geographic coverage and duty station

The Accreditation Expert will undertake the assessment from his/her own offices and the field (Palestine) and will be expected to maintain regular contact with Tasdeer, PSI and relevant stakeholders including those representing the small-scale traders of women, youth and PWD, for the duration of its work. The Accreditation Expert will need to work closely with several technical departments at PSI, and MoNE, and to conduct interviews with relevant authorities and private sector institutions including, Palestinian Federation of Industries and its, specialised federations, chambers of commerce, Consumer Protection Association, Palestinian Academia, Palestinian small and medium size exporters etc.

متطلبات الوظيفة

Required Expertise, Competencies and Skills:

At least 10 years of experience in developing management systems according to an international accreditation standard or 10 years working as a highly professional assessor in a reputable regional accreditation body with proven track record in conducting similar assignments.
Master’s degree in engineering, applied science, business management or any other related fields.
Good management experience and ability to work with different teams.
Background experience working with standards institutions.
Proven competency in writing and speaking Arabic and English.
Strong leadership and planning skills
Tasdeer is an equal opportunity programme. Qualified women and men, persons with disability professionals are encouraged to apply.

تفاصيل الوظيفة

المسمى الوظيفي Accreditation Expert

آخر موعد للتقديم 25 - Jul - 2021

المكان رام الله والبيرة

نوع الوظيفة العقود والاستشارات

المستوى المهني إدارة

الراتب N/A

الدرجة العلمية الماجستير

الخبرة 10 سنوات

التصنيف الهندسة

آلية التقديم

Application

Interested applicants are requested to provide a methodology for conducting the assignment along with their CV.

Reporting Lines and Managerial Responsibilities

The accreditation expert will report to WS2 Lead.

Type of the Contract:

Short Term Consultancy.

Duration of Contract and level of effort:

The assignment is expected to be accomplished over a period of three months with up to 25 days Level of Effort (LoE).

The expected start date is August 1st and ending by October 24th, 2021.

Application

Interested applicants are requested to provide a methodology for conducting the assignment along with their CVs and cover letter clearly indicating the position name and explaining how they qualify to fulfil the specified position requirements.

Completed applications must be sent by email to [email protected] by July 25th, 2021 no later than 4:00 pm (Ramallah Local Time).

Tasdeer is an equal employer. We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only those shortlisted will be contacted.