Consultancy Services for the Development of Romania's Digital Justice Strategy

Project: P178599 - Strengthening Foundations for Improved Justice Service Delivery Reference: CS-2-1-1 Procurement method: Quality And Cost-Based Selection Financing: World Bank REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST (CONSULTING SERVICES - FIRMS SELECTION) ROMANIA COUNTRY: ROMANIA Strengthening Foundations for Improved Justice Service Delivery Project Loan No.: 9549-RO Assignment Title: Consultancy Services for the Development of Romania's Digital Justice Strategy Reference No . CS-2-1-1 The Government of Romania has received financing from the World Bank toward the cost of the Strengthening Foundations for Improved Justice Service Delivery Project , and intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services. The consulting services (“the Services”) objectives are to develop an actionable, user-centric, evidence-based, and sustainable Digital Justice Strategy for Romania (for the 5 years period), aimed at enhancing the efficiency, accessibility, transparency, quality, and resilience of the justice system. The consulting services (“the Services”) include: Phase 1: Assessment and analysis Document review: In-depth review and synthesis of the Functional Review, the Justice Sector Readiness Assessment (pending availability), relevant national strategies such as the Justice system development strategy 2025-2029, EU policies, and existing TORs/project documents. International benchmarking: Analysis of digital justice strategies, tools, and outcomes in relevant EU countries (e.g., Austria, Estonia, Netherlands, UK) and at EU level, focusing on transferable solutions for Romania. Stakeholder mapping and consultation (Initial): Conduct structured interviews, focus groups, and potentially user research activities (e.g., user journey mapping workshops) with key stakeholders (judiciary leadership, court admin, prosecutors, training institutions, legal professionals, MoJ, other relevant ministries/agencies, IT departments, civil society, end-users/citizens) to validate baseline findings, gather in-depth requirements, identify operational pain points, explore initial solution ideas, and map stakeholder influence/interests. Gap analysis: Perform a detailed analysis identifying technological, procedural, legal, skills, infrastructure, security, interoperability, data governance gaps (e.g., data ownership, quality standards, sharing protocols), and user experience gaps between the current state and the desired future state, aligned with EU standards. Phase 2: Strategy formulation Vision and objectives: Define, in collaboration with the above-mentioned justice stakeholders, the strategic vision, guiding principles, measurable objectives, and KPIs for the Digital Justice Strategy, ensuring alignment with Romania's context and EU goals. Architecture and standards: Develop the high-level target digital architecture, a data governance model, technical standards, and interoperability guidelines, emphasizing security-by-design, privacy-by-design, openness, and reusability. Initiatives: Outline and prioritize key digital initiatives (e.g., unified electronic case management, e-filing, digital signatures, citizen portal, remote services, AI use cases, data analytics). This must include non-ICT activities such as development of evidence-based judicial management and policy-making, digital skills development. The strategy should look into harnessing AI to improve efficiency and efficacy of operation while ensuring that proposed AI use cases are aligned with the National AI strategy and the EU AI Act and assessment potential ethical issues such biases, transparency and fairness. Governance framework: Propose a detailed governance structure for implementation, monitoring, and evolution of the strategy. Stakeholder engagement: Organize and facilitate workshops with diverse stakeholder groups to present, discuss, and refine the draft strategic elements (vision, objectives, architecture, governance, key initiatives). Expected outcomes include prioritized initiatives, a refined governance model, and validated architectural principles. Phase 3: Roadmap/Action plan development Implementation roadmap: Create a detailed, phased roadmap including specific actions, timelines, milestones, resource requirements, including human resources (as well as skills/capacity gaps), and financial estimates, dependencies, and owners for key initiatives. Associated frameworks: Develop plans for change management, training and capacity building, M&E. Legal recommendations: Identify and draft specific recommendations for legal and regulatory amendments to facilitate implementation of the Strategy. Funding strategy: Prepare a detailed cost estimation, analyze potential funding sources (National, EU, others), and propose a sustainable financial model addressing both investment and long-term operational costs. Stakeholder validation: Present the draft roadmap/Action plan and associated plans to key stakeholders (e.g., through further targeted workshops or focus