REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST (REOI) - CHANGE MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST pecialist

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST (REOI)

Selection of Individual Consultant or Individual Consultant Selection (INDV).

Assignment Title: Change Management Specialist
Duty Station: PMU, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Port Vila, Vanuatu
Date of Publication: 27 th October 2026
Deadline for submission: 10 th November 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Vanuatu Time.
Reference Number: VU-MLNR-573544-CS-INDV

1. BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT:

The Government of Vanuatu, through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (MLNR), is implementing a comprehensive programme of land-sector reform and institutional strengthening guided by the Ministry’s Reform Masterplan, Corporate Plan and associated business-planning and performance-management arrangements. These reforms seek to improve service delivery, strengthen organisational performance, modernize administrative and land-management systems, and enhance accountability, responsiveness, and public confidence.

Under the Vanuatu Affordable and Resilient Settlements Project (VARS), supported by the World Bank, the Ministry is progressing major institutional and systems initiatives, including operationalization of the Land Management Information System (LMIS), improved records and revenue management, electronic workflows and forms, digital service delivery, and development of a new integrated Ministry headquarters in Port Vila.

The new headquarters is intended to be more than a replacement office building. Consultation during the Concept Design phase identified opportunities to improve organisational integration, public service delivery, leadership visibility, staff collaboration, records and information management, use of digital technologies, shared facilities,
operational resilience, and workplace culture. Successful occupation will therefore depend not only on completion of the physical facility, but also on the Ministry’s readiness to transition its people, systems, processes, governance arrangements, workplace practices and organisational culture into a new operating environment.

At the same time, staff within the Department of Lands and Corporate Services Unit currently work across a mixed environment of paper files, scanned records, email, shared drives, emerging digital platforms and established administrative procedures. Inconsistent work practices limited digital confidence, unclear filing and follow-up
arrangements, and weak individual work organisation can reduce productivity, create duplication, delay decisions, weaken records integrity and limit the benefits expected from institutional investment.

The Ministry therefore seeks to engage a Change Management Specialist to provide structured organisational change support and practical, person-centred coaching to selected staff in the Department of Lands (including the Valuer General’s Office), the Corporate Services Unit, and the Geology and Mines Unit. The Specialist will help staff and managers adopt improved administrative practices, transition from paper-based to digital ways of working, prepare for new systems and workflows, and progressively become ready to occupy and operate from the new headquarters. The Department of Water is undertaking its own internal reform programme and will therefore participate only in Ministry-wide initiatives under this assignment; the assignment will not provide routine one-to-one coaching or unit-specific reform support to Department of Water staff.

The assignment is administrative, organisational, and behavioural in nature. It will not replace technical specialists or supervisors responsible for land administration, surveying, valuation, legal services, finance, human resources, ICT, records management, facilities management or building delivery. The Specialist will work closely with these parties to ensure that staff adoption, workplace practices and change activities are aligned with technical, legal, policy, ICT, design, and operational requirements.

Strategic alignment and implementation sequencing. The Ministry’s DG-approved Briefing Note 233 establishes a progressive digital-first information-management model, supported by electronic records, workflows and cloud-based systems while preserving physical records when required for statutory, operational, or historical purposes. Briefing Note 202 establishes complementary physical storage and archive accommodation requirements for the new Headquarters. Core Department of Lands lease-creation, registration and subsequent-transaction processes remain substantially manual and require further specification and digital-system development under LMIS beyond current DTS, TIS and M-Files functionality. The Specialist shall support organisational readiness and adoption in step with approved technical releases; the assignment does not imply these processes are already digitised.