Consultancy: Team Member (Mid-level Consultant): Evaluation of the UNICEF L3 response to COVID-19, Evaluation Office, NYHQ, USA (50 days)- Remote

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, evaluate:

A children’s crisis: Children have been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and, almost 2 years since the outbreak, there is increasing evidence of the detrimental effects that the crisis has on children. While less directly vulnerable to the virus itself, children have been impacted in unprecedented ways and, by now, COVID-19 is indeed seen as a ‘children’s crisis. The combination of confinement measures, on the one hand, and the disruption of violence prevention and response services, on the other, have accelerated serious child protection risks including violence, child marriage and pregnancies and mental health.

Since April 2020, UNICEF mobilized considerable efforts and resources to adapt to the new operating context and challenges and mitigate the risk of reversing decades of hard-won development gains for children. On 16 April 2020, the UNICEF Executive Director approved the activation of a Level 3 Scale-Up Corporate Emergency Activation Procedure (CEAP) for the COVID-19 Pandemic. This formalized the de facto Level 3 approach that had been implemented since early February. The L3 was declared for an initial period of 6 months, i.e. until 16 October 2020, and was in full alignment with the ‘light’ IASC system-wide Scale-Up that had been activated at the inter-agency level for the same period. The L3 got subsequently extended, into a ‘consolidation’ phase which will last until 31 December 2021.

The UNICEF Evaluation Office is launching an evaluation of the L3 UNICEF response to COVID-19. This evaluation is an organizational requirement, as outlined in the UNICEF Evaluation Policy that prescribes that all L3 emergencies must be evaluated (and the EO is responsible for managing them). While this evaluation is further expected to generate learning for UNICEF moving forward, it represents a unique opportunity to evaluate a L3 emergency that featured a global, as opposed to the more typical country-level, scale, gauging how it was made operational and the results it achieved.

The proposal for this L3 evaluation is for it to be a relatively light exercise as it will largely harness and synthesize the wealth of evidence that was generated over the past year, including evaluations, reviews and assessments, as well as the vast amounts of monitoring data and information available within the organization. The evaluation will also yield new evaluative judgment on aspects of the response that have remained outside the scope of the exercises undertaken throughout the pandemic, through a ‘light’ primary data collection module.

How can you make a difference?

The evaluation of UNICEF’s L3 response to COVID-19 has both an accountability and learning purpose. It fulfils the requirement of the UNICEF Evaluation Policy (2018) whereby all L3 emergencies must be evaluated, while also offering an opportunity to help UNICEF further consolidate learning for future emergencies. In doing so, the evaluation is expected to capture learning and make actionable recommendations that can help UNICEF strengthen its response across future global L3 emergencies, especially future pandemics and other public health emergencies (L3 or otherwise), while also continuing to shape the on-going COVID-19 response in many countries.

The objective of this evaluation is to assess, from a global perspective, how well UNICEF has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and the extent to which it realized its intended role in the global response to COVID-19.

By complementing and completing evaluative exercises conducted so far, and harnessing existing data gathered over the past year, the more specific goals of the evaluation are to:

i) Examine the appropriateness, effectiveness and efficiency of UNICEF’s work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; ii) Examine the coherence and effectiveness of UNICEF’s collaboration and coordination efforts with partners (including other UN agencies, governments and civil society organizations) in responding to COVID-19.

While the set of evaluation questions (and sub-questions) will be fine-tuned and finalized during the inception stage, the key areas of inquiry that will be driving the exercise include the following:

1. How well aligned has UNICEF’s response to COVID-19 been with the needs of countries and affected populations, especially the most vulnerable? (Appropriateness)
2. How well have UNICEF’s preparedness efforts supported the delivery of this response? (Appropriateness)
3. How well have gender, disability, age, AAP and human rights standards and commitments been integrated in the COVID-19 response? : (Appropriateness)
4. How effectively has UNICEF responded to the COVID-19 pandemic? (Efficiency/Effectiveness)
5. What have been the key results, successes and areas that require strengthening in UNICEF’s programmatic and operational response to the COVID-19 pandemic? (Effectiveness/Efficiency)
6. To what extent have UNICEF’s management systems/ structures, resources and procedures (including the L3 CEAP) supported a flexible, timely and effective response? (Effectiveness/Efficiency)
7. How efficiently were funds mobilized, (re)allocated and used?: (Effectiveness/Efficiency)
8. How effective has UNICEF been with regards to collaborating and coordinating with partners (other UN agencies, governments and civil society organizations) in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic? (Coherence/coordination)
9. What were UNICEF’s key areas of strength and weakness in coordinating with these partners? : (Coherence/Coordination)
10. To what extent has the UNICEF response to the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to strengthening national preparedness and response efforts? (Connectedness)
11. How well has UNICEF ensured linkages with, ownership and strengthening of local partnerships across the response? : (Connectedness)

The evaluation will use both qualitative and quantitative methods to answer the evaluation questions. All data will be collected remotely (through virtual means). Key methods will include comprehensive desk reviews and structured analyses of secondary resources, alongside a set of ‘light modules’ of primary data collection to inform those areas of inquiry that have not been as extensively covered across exercises conducted so far (e.g. coherence/coordination with partners) - as outlined in more detail below:

• Systematic mapping and analysis of evaluation reports, reviews and assessments undertaken by HQ, RO and COs on the topic of COVID-19 and uploaded on UNICEF’s EISI platform: while gauging the numbers of these products and their quality (based on available GEROS reviews), this activity is expected to distil key patterns/trends across findings, conclusions and recommendations of these evaluative exercises;
• Desk review of UNICEF internal documentation including but not limited to: Sitreps (COs, ROs, global); Country Office Annual Reports (COARs); Regional Office annual reports; the COVID-19 report to the Executive Board; financial data (from Vision); guidance and procedure documents issued to support the COVID-19 response;
• Review and analysis of sectoral monitoring data reported by COs and ROs;
• Review and analysis of online surveys undertaken by HQ and ROs on the COVID-19 response (i.e. UNICEF DAPM country office questionnaires; online surveys administered in the context of the RTAs);
• Review and analysis of Implementing Partner reports;
• Semi-structured key informant interviews and Focus Groups Discussions (FGDs) with internal and external stakeholders at the global, regional and country levels (e.g. UNICEF senior management and UN partners, among others).

Deliverables and Tentative Timeline:

• Initial interviews and consultations, and drafting of Inception Report : 26 November 2021
• Finalized Inception Report : 10 December 2021
• Desk Review and Write up (‘Phase 1’) : December - January 2022
• Light primary data collection (‘Phase 2’) : 20 January- 15 February 2022
• Analysis and Report drafting : 15 March 2022
• Recommendations workshop : 30 March 2022
• Finalized Evaluation Report : 15 April 2022
• Dissemination : April-May 2022

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have...

• Experience conducting multi-disciplinary humanitarian evaluations (as a team member) and/or research assignments
• Knowledge of evaluation methodologies and mixed-method approaches
• Experience with remote data collection
• Proven track-record of desk reviews and structured analyses of secondary evidence
• Strong ability to rationalize and process quantitative and qualitative data, including through the use of dedicated analytical tools and software
• Knowledge of the UN system, UN programming and UNICEF emergency responses considered a plus
• Solid analytical, communication and drafting writing skills (English a must, other UN languages considered an asset)

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

How to apply:

The deadline for applications is midnight 3 November 2021 (New York time).

Applications can be submitted either by an individual consultant or by individuals proposing to work together as a team. If applying as a group please identify the other individuals in your group in your application cover letter. It is important to note separate contracts will be issued to each team member.

Applications must include:

• CV/PHP, which should include up-to-date contact details of at least three reference persons.
• A brief (approx. 5 pages) approach paper outlining how candidates understand the TOR and proposed methodology.
• Cover letter (2-page maximum) with the following information:
  • ◦availability as per indicative timeline, and an outline of how the applicant(s) match the required skills and experience outlined in the terms of reference.
  • Daily rate in USD
• Sample of past evaluative work

Any clarification questions on the TOR or application process should also be submitted electronically to Jane Mwangi (jmwangi@unicef.org) and copy to Carlotta Tincati (ctincati@unicef.org) no later than midnight 29 October, 2021 (New York time).

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.