Consultant - Evaluation of UN Women’s contribution to Women’s Economic Empowerment in Asia and the Pacific (Open to Indian Nationals Only)

Contract

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Background

UN Women is the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. UN Women is dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.

All human development and human rights issues have gender dimensions. UN Women focuses on priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. Six focus areas that UN Women include violence against women, economic empowerment, leadership and participation, peace and security, national planning and budgeting and intergovernmental processes.

UN Women is carrying out an evaluation that is the first regional thematic evaluation in the Asia and the Pacific region on Women’s Economic Empowerment to be led by the UN Women Independent Evaluation Service (IES). Given that the regional flagship programme “WeEmpowerAsia” (WEA) is coming to an end in August 2022, this evaluation seeks to learn from the programme; ensure lessons are captured and the efforts feed into UN Women Asia and the Pacific broader strategy for WEE moving forward. The evaluation will thus focus on UN Women’s engagement with the private sector and its contributions to women’s economic empowerment in Asia and the Pacific. This forward-looking evaluation aims to support the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) and Country Offices in Asia and the Pacific in learning from experience and as input to strategic decision making; the UN Women headquarters senior management, and the WEE section may also be interested in learning from the findings.

To inform the strategy for Women’s Economic Empowerment work based on the WEA programme lessons learned, this evaluation will facilitate an understanding of UN Women’s WEE portfolio, an understanding on how UN Women is defining and engaging with private sector for WEE, achievements over the course of the Strategic Note 2019-2021 including through the implementation of the WEA Programme, the opportunities, and challenges as well as gaps in programming and results. The primary intended users of the evaluation are the UN Women ROAP, including the WEA team, Offices in which WEA is being implemented, European Union stakeholders and implementing partners. Also, UN Women Senior Management and programme staff at the headquarters, regional and country levels with an interest in, or working in WEE and the UN Women Senior Management and relevant headquarters units. The evaluation may be useful for other actors working in WEE, including private sector, partner governments, civil society, UN agencies, INGOs, and NGOs, forums and platforms, national partners, as well as other donors.

The evaluation team will have a combination of the requisite experience in evaluation and technical expertise in gender equality and women’s empowerment and WEE. The Regional Evaluation Specialist from the IES will serve as the Team Leader, manage the evaluation process, constitute a quality assurance system, and provide administrative and substantive support, including data collection, analysis and report drafting. The composition of the evaluation team will strive for diversity and gender balance. It will adhere to UN Women’s Evaluation Policy and UNEG Norms and Standards and Ethical Guidelines.

Evaluation design

UN Women evaluations are gender-responsive meaning that both the process and analysis apply the key principles of a human rights-based approach: they are inclusive, participatory, ensure fair power relations, and transparent; and they analyse the underlying structural barriers and sociocultural norms that impede the realization of women’s rights. Gender-responsive evaluation applies mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative data collection methods and analytical approaches) to account for complexity of gender relations and to ensure participatory and inclusive processes that are culturally appropriate. UN Women evaluations are also utilization-focused, which means that it will be tailored to the needs of the organization through a participatory approach from the inception through to the development of recommendations, which will facilitate production of a useful evaluation. It will be carried out in accordance with UNEG Norms and Standards and Ethical Code of Conduct and UN Women Evaluation Policy and guidelines and the UNEG Guidance: Integrating Human Rights and Gender Equality in Evaluation. The evaluation is employing a non-experimental, theory-based approach. A re-constructed Theory of Change will be used as the basis for contribution analysis. The WeEmpower Asia project will be a key focus area of the evaluation assessment of contributions to outcomes, and the portfolio analysis will enable a broader assessment of alignment and coherence of WEE efforts in Asia and the Pacific.

Methods of Data Collection

Mixed methods will be employed to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data to overcome weaknesses inherent in purely qualitative and quantitative methods and ensure a gender responsive approach. As part of the inception report, the evaluation team will develop a sampling frame (area and population represented, rationale for selection, mechanics of selection, limitations of the sample) and specify how it will address the diversity of stakeholders. The evaluation team will take measures to ensure data quality, reliability and validity of data collection tools and methods and their responsiveness to gender equality and human rights; for example, the limitations of the sample (representativeness) should be stated clearly and the data should be triangulated (cross-checked against other sources) to help ensure robust results. During the inception phase the evaluation team will develop a data protection plan and ethics protocol for data collection explaining how protection of subjects and respect for confidentiality will be guaranteed.

Data Analysis Methods

The data analysis will employ mixed methods. Quantitative data will be obtained from the survey and publications analysis and from the meta-analysis of evaluations and financial analysis. NVivo qualitative analysis software will be used to analyse qualitative data from interviews and focus group discussions.

Contribution Analysis will be used by the evaluation to develop an overall ‘performance story’ for UN Women’s work on WEE in the Asia and the Pacific region with a focus on the WeEmpower Asia project. WEA contributions to outcomes and their internal coherence with WEE corporate agenda will be assessed against the reconstructed theory of change. The contribution analysis will provide a basis for understanding which interventions show evidence of being most promising for scaling up or scaling back. The evaluation will synthesize evidence from secondary sources, portfolio analysis, and case studies to assess plausible contribution to observed changes, including exploring alternative explanations. An evidence map will be utilized to map information obtained from different sources on the same evaluation question.

Stakeholder participation

Ideally rights holders who have directly participated in or are affected by UN Women programming efforts will be engaged in discussing the outcomes of the programming efforts from their perspective and analyzing the findings of the evaluation. However, given both the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and the cost/benefits to the participation of rights holders as evaluation participants will be assessed during the inception phase, as the evaluation will prioritize “do no harm” and does not want to take time away from livelihoods activities. In the case that it would be too costly for rights holders to participate, a representative of the rights holders engaged by UN Women will be contacted for feedback.

An Evaluation Reference Group (ERG) will be established representing UN Women’s key private sector, government, civil society, and UN system partners in the WEE space. The ERG will be asked to engage and provide input at every stage of the evaluation process, from inception phase to preliminary results and final draft report. The ERG plays a critical role through remote meetings in ensuring a high quality, transparent process, providing insights on the key questions and approach, ensuring factual accuracy, ensuring gaps and misinterpretation of information is avoided. They will also be key informants. The ERG also plays a key role in the dissemination of the evaluation findings and recommendations and ensuring the use of the information by UN Women and key partners.

Duties and Responsibilities

UN Women is seeking to appoint one national evaluation consultant for capturing women’s economic efforts in India, which will form a part of the overall evaluation of UN Women’s contribution to Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) in Asia and the Pacific. The national evaluation consultant will be responsible for ensuring that contextual information on India has been well understood and articulated and UN Women’s WEE efforts captured, using adequate tools, methodological design, following ethical principles on engagement with stakeholders.

The National Evaluation Consultant is an integral member of the team and is expected to support the entire evaluation process under the direct supervision of the Regional Evaluation Specialist. The consultant will need to connect with the team via online communication platforms. UN Women will cover the travel related expenses as per the UN Women standard guidelines, if the travel is required. Payment will be made in three instalments of equal value made upon satisfactory receipt and approval of the following deliverables:

Deliverable 1: Evidence of support provided on data collection and analysis:

Review data collection tools and translate the tools from English to local language (1 day). Support logistics and conduct interviews, focus group discussions and observations following the research protocol (8 days). Depending on the travel time, we estimate approximately 8 Focus Group Discussions and 20 Key Informant Interviews. Submit all detailed interview notes to the team leader in English. Provide briefings on the interviews/visits/observations through online meetings (2 days). - Estimated Number of working days: 11; Proposed deadline for payment: 15 April 2022

Deliverable 2: Thematic Case Study:

Provide substantive inputs to drafting a case study to be conducted as part of the evaluation based on triangulation of documents and primary data collected. - Estimated Number of working days: 2 days; Proposed deadline for payment: 6 May 2022.

Deliverable 3: Final Evaluation Report

Contribute to the preliminary findings / way forward presentation and draft report and participate in presentation/s. Contribute to the annexes and finalization of the report. - Estimated Number of working days: 2 days; Proposed deadline for payment: 30 June 2022.

All data collected by the evaluation consultant must be submitted to the supervisor in Word, PowerPoint or Excel formats and is the property of UN Women. Proper storage of data is essential for ensuring confidentiality and should be in line with UN Women Policy on data management and security. The evaluation report will follow the United Nations Editorial Manual. The evaluation team leader (Regional Evaluation Specialist), with inputs from Evaluation Reference Group and Evaluation Management Team, will quality assure the evaluation report against UN Women Evaluation Report Quality Assurance (See Annex 1). All deliverables submitted by the consultant are subject to quality review.

Ethical Code of Conduct:

UN Women has developed a UN Women National consultants Agreement Form for evaluators that must be signed as part of the contracting process, which is based on the UNEG Ethical Guidelines and Code of Conduct . These documents will be annexed to the contract. The evaluation’s value added is its impartial and systematic assessment of the programme or intervention. As with the other stages of the evaluation, involvement of stakeholders should not interfere with the impartiality of the evaluation. Additionally, if the evaluator(s) identify issues of wrongdoing, fraud or other unethical conduct, UN Women procedures must be followed and confidentiality be maintained.

Competencies

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Corporate Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women.

Development and Operational Effectiveness

• Demonstrated research and analytical capacity;
• Excellent organizational, inter-personal, communication and administrative skills;
• Excellent drafting and presentation skills;
• Strong IT skills;
• Proven ability to manage diverse and complex tasks, with tight deadlines;
• Able to take initiative and work independently, with minimum supervision;
• Able to work effectively in a team and in an international environment.

Management and Leadership

• Focuses on impact and results and responds positively to critical feedback;
• Creativity and innovation;
• Conflict resolution skills;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
• Willing to work as a team, and promote a learning environment and a focus on results-based management.

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
• Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Masters’ degree in Gender and Development Studies, or any Social Sciences.

Experience:

• At least 3 years of work experience in a research, evaluation, audit, reporting and/or monitoring area that required strong organizational skills.
• Strong knowledge about gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in India.
• Proven work experience in data collection including interviews and/or focus group discussions in India
• Experience in contributing to gender-responsive evaluation or experience in gender analysis and human-rights based approaches an asset.
• Knowledge of the role of UN Women or the UN system and its programming, coordination and normative roles at the regional and/or country level will be an added advantage.
• Language proficiency in English and Hindi is required.
• Must be an Indian national.

Language:

• Strong written skills in English and good command over Hindi as medium of communication.

Application Process:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs ;
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

• Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
• Expertise and Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points);
• Demonstrable experience on policy advocacy with the government and other stakeholders (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

• Writing Samples (20 points)
• Interview (80 points)

Please Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.