Paraguay

The Forest4Life Paraguay Action within the framework of which the required services will be contracted, aims to preserve and restore biodiversity by fighting against deforestation and promoting the sustainable management of forests.

It will focus on the following areas of intervention: (i) improving preparedness, prevention and capabilities to reduce the incidence and extent of extreme wildfires. (ii) strengthening the management and conservation of forests and other key ecosystems in three selected protected areas. (iii) promotion of sustainable forestry, livestock and agriculture practices, and the respective value chains in the buffer zones around the three protected areas selected.

The services consist of the provision of technical assistance to public entities beneficiaries to reduce the incidence and extent of extreme forest fires. It is expected also to generate awareness at different levels, increase capacities, teach new skills, and incorporate technology for forest fire management (estimation, prevention, risk reduction, preparedness, response, rehabiliton and reconstruction/restoration).

The specific objectives of this contract are as follows:

• Identify, collect, analyse, assess and synthetize all the necessary information for the formulation of the new Programme. This includes the analysis of the possible implementation modalities for the future Programme.
• Write the Action Document of this new Programme according to the template (to be provided).

The purpose of the Exploratory Mission was to collect factual information concerning this election process, in line with the criteria contained in the Commission Communication on Electoral Assistance and Observation [COM(2000)191]

The experts had in particular to:

• Assess the pre-election situation in the light of international standards for democratic elections and national legislation. The assessment will cover: (i) Political situation, (ii) Legal and Electoral framework, (iii) election administration, (iv) voter registration, (v) party and candidate registration, (vi) human rights and fundamental freedoms, (vii) potential for electoral violence, (viii) traditional and online media, as well as social media, (ix) security aspects, (x) logistics and operational matters, (xi) use of electoral ICT and (xii) any other relevant issues relating to the elections and possible deployment of an EU EOM.
• Assess, when relevant, the state of implementation of recommendations of previous EU election missions (both EU EOMs and EEMs).
• Make necessary preliminary logistics related enquiries and provide advice on how to organise the operational component of a possible EU EOM.
• Assess the security situation in the country, in particular in connection with the possible deployment of an EU EOM.
• Advise on the composition, number and length of stay of the Core Team members and long and short-term observers of the EU EOM.
• Draft tentative specifications and Terms of Reference of a possible EU EOM and related estimated costs and budget breakdown.
• Assess the relevance of providing support to domestic observer organisations.
• Acquire updated information on EU election support (both EU and Member States) and other major partners (Canada, Norway and Switzerland) and possible other major actors plans in this field, including in the area of electoral assistance.
• Liaise closely with domestic and international election observation organisations that may be present on the ground regarding the preparation of elections.
• Prepare a number of specific reports as outlined in section 'VI. Output' of these ToR.
• Participate in the briefing of the EU EOM Core Team should the deployment of an EU EOM be decided.

The "Strengthening of the Government Control System" Project had the objective of improving the performance of government control in Paraguay through the development of the regulations and operational methodology of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR), complying with international standards and aligned with the regulations and methodology of Internal Control. Furthermore it aimed at strenghtening the capacities of the CGR staff in control tasks sensitizing and public officials of State Agencies and Entities, as well as expanding and improving the technological capabilities of the CGR. The Project was structured into three components:

1. Normative and methodological development,

2. Technical training and sensitization, and

3. Strengthening of Technological Capacities.

The contracted consultancy was mainly framed in Component 1, which aims to support the normative and methodological development of Paraguay's control framework.

The objective of the consultancy was: To provide the Comptroller General of the Republic with methodological guidelines for the execution of the audit work carried out by the institution in compliance with the functions established in the National Constitution. The guidelines were based on the Paraguayan Government Auditing Standards (NAGUPY), and considered the Audit Manual (MAGUP) for the implementation of government control. They also were aligned with the International Standards on Auditing for Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI), considered the Integrated Audit Control System (SICA) and also took into account the elements set out in the latest version of the COSO for the evaluation of the Internal Control System.