Extended Announcement - Senior Evaluation Consultant - UNICEF LACRO, Panama City

Consultant Monitoring & Evaluation Programme & Policy

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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.

UNICEF Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Office is responsible to provide guidance and technical assistance to strengthen the evaluation function to the twenty four country offices by a) designing, planning, supporting the implementation, and monitoring the regional evaluation strategy; b) quality assuring regional and country office evaluations; c) providing technical support to COs in the area of evaluation including capacity development at various levels.

In June 2018, the Evaluation Office-HQ new UNICEF Evaluation Policy established new coverage requirements including country programme evaluations and thematic evaluations In UNICEF LAC, this means increasing the number of evaluations completed each year. In addition, a number of multi-country evaluations have been planned along with the 2018-2021 Regional Office Management Plan.

To meet these requirements effectively, the UNICEF LACRO intends to hire the services of a Senior Evaluation consultant with experience in managing evaluations of child-focused interventions, such as child protection, education, social protection, health, and emergencies; and experience in dialogue with different stakeholders to contribute to build a common regional response to the new UNICEF Evaluation Policy. The consultant should have experience in quality assurance of evaluation and ensure the appropriate implementation of UNEG norms and standards.

For more information about UNICEF and its work in this region. (www.unicef.org/lac)

And we never give up.

For every child, hope

Under the guidance and supervision of the LACRO Regional Evaluation Adviser, the Senior Evaluation Consultant will provide technical assistance to UNICEF COs as well as RO to plan, manage, implement and disseminate high quality, independent, credible and useful evaluations in the Region, to achieve global Evaluation Policy and Regional Strategy objectives.

It is important to note, that the evaluation Section staff manage the relationships with CO Evaluation Focal Points while the consultant will only provide technical in-put on specific products and process. Specific objectives are to:

1) Management of evaluations

• Support for LACRO and COs to scope and draft evaluation TORs;
• Support for either management or backstopping of specific regional or country level evaluations at the request of LACRO Regional Adviser

2) Evaluation and CO Representatives

• Support for the recruitment of qualified evaluation teams following UNICEF procedures and guidance

3) Quality assurance

• Technical support for the quality assurance of regional and country level evaluation deliverables, to ensure evaluation teams deliver high quality reports and LACR evaluations comply with UNICEF and UNEG standards and guidelines

4) Evaluation dissemination and use

• Support for LACRO and CO senior management to ensure that evaluation findings are useful and assistance for uptake and communication of the findings to key stakeholders and the wider public;
• Support for ensuring that the evaluation management responses fully address the recommendations;
• Support for the identification and dissemination of good practices, innovations and knowledge on evaluation related matters;
• Support for the identification of additional opportunities for evaluation evidence use;

5) Capacity development of RO/CO staffs

• Support for the evaluation capacity development for LAC RO and CO staff by improving evaluation planning and management processes at country level and providing on-the-job training to staff managing evaluations;

How can you make a difference?

To achieve the objectives of this assignment, the Evaluation Consultant will provide technical support throughout evaluation processes from preparation and design through to implementation, dissemination and use to ensure the production of independent and credible evidence that meets high professional standards in line with UN norms and standards for Evaluation, UNEG codes of conduct for evaluation in the UN system and Ethical Guideline, embodied in UNICEF’s evaluation standards. In support of LAC Regional Adviser– Evaluation the consultant will provide technical assistance for:

1) Technical support on evaluations at regional and country level: Together with concerned programme staff in RO and/or CO, managing evaluation process from conceptualization. Additionally, the consultant will support:

• LACRO Regional Advisor – Evaluation and other programmes and CO senior management for scoping regional and country level evaluations, including CPEs and strategic evaluations, clarifying its intent and identifying key issues;

• In consultation with RO and CO, drafting initial concept notes for regional evaluations as well as for CPE, identifying key stakeholders and establishing an Evaluation Management Group (EMG) and a Reference Group (RG) involving CO senior management and external partners – as well as RO and HQ stakeholders as relevant

• Contribute to Development of the evaluation Terms of reference (TOR) for regional evaluations as well as CPE, including sharing the draft TOR with the Regional Adviser - Evaluation, RO Evidence group, participating CO(s) and RG for review, using their feedback to finalise the document

• Consolidating a repository of information needed for the evaluation before start of inception that will be accessible to the evaluation team;

• Provide technical input on evaluation team selection;

• Facilitation of evaluation team orientation meetings;

• Liaison with the evaluation team as needed;

• RO and/or CO for convening RG at key stages of the evaluation on behalf of the chair, and provision of secretariat services;

• Coordination with the evaluation team and the participating CO staffs to prepare field site visit schedules in line with the requirements agreed in the inception phase and organization of meetings (including a briefing and debriefing);

• Organization of a workshop with the evaluation team, RG and key stakeholders to validate evaluation findings and proposed recommendations;

• As appropriate, organization of a brief session at the end of the process to reflect on the lessons and the process - with a representative of the consulting firm or the team leader;

• Provide technical support in Conducting of evaluability assessment of planned evaluations based on LACR COs requests.

2) Technical support on Strengthening evaluation quality assurance:

• Providing initial technical review and comments on draft of TOR, inception and evaluation report to ensure that evaluation deliverables are fully compliant with the UNEG Norms and Standards and UNICEF evaluation quality and ethical standards as well as relating guidelines;

• Sharing the final draft TOR, inception and evaluation report with RG and relevant stakeholders for their review and comment;

• Collating all comments received on draft inception and evaluation report in a matrix and following up to ensure that the evaluation team address all of them or provides a rationale if any comments are not addressed;

• Quality assure Regional and CO evaluation deliverables submitted including inception and evaluation reports in timely manner

3) Technical support on Promoting evaluation dissemination and use:

• Ensuring a high level of communication with RO and CO throughout the entire process to foster ownership and use of the evaluation;

• Developing an evaluation dissemination plan for regional and CO evaluations when needed;

• Facilitating the development of a management response and dissemination of the evaluation report and its findings with all evaluation stakeholders;

• Distilling evaluation findings and preparing appropriate policy and communication briefs of evaluation findings and recommendations with the objective to support uptake of evaluation findings - in particular in support of countries developing CPDs in 2020;

• Identifying lessons and good practices from LACR evaluations, innovations and emerging knowledge on evaluation related matters and disseminating them to UNICEF and external stakeholders;

4) Technical Support on Capacity development of LACRO/CO staffs:

• Training and strengthening capacity on evaluation planning and management to staffs either in RO and/or COs, when needed;

5) Other assignments as may be assigned to her/him

• Prepare ToRs of Evaluation products, such as Evaluations, Evaluability Assessments, Synthesis evaluations, etc.

• Provide feedback to ToRs, Inception Reports, and Evaluation Reports for evaluations.

• Consult Country Office to contribute to develop the LAC Region Evaluation Strategy 2021-2025, including staff capacity assessment and human and financial resources gaps.

• Prepare and or analyze evaluation related products (reports, briefs, evaluability assessments, syntheses, etc.) to ensure use of evaluation findings, conclusions, lessons learned and recommendations.

• Support Country Offices in ensuring the UNEG Evaluation norms and standards are implemented;

• Contribute to capacity development of UNICEF CO Staff on evaluation, through virtual and on-site training, webinars and other capacity building related activities

• Contribute to the preparation of presentations, briefs, and other reports on evaluation in UNICEF LAC

• Facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing on evaluation.

Expected deliverables for this consultancy are:

1. Terms of Reference of regional, multi-country or Country Office-led Evaluation related products: Evaluations, Evaluability Assessments, Synthesis evaluations, etc.

2. Written feedback for ToRs, Inception Reports, and Evaluation Reports for multi-country evaluations or CO evaluations, as per quality standards of the UNICEF LAC Regional Office.

3. Report of evaluation capacity mapping in UNICEF LAC, including human and financial resources gaps, for UNICEF

4. Analytical report of national capacities on evaluation in Governments in the LAC Region

5. Analytical report of evaluation related-products (reports, evaluability assessments, syntheses, etc.)

6. Report of technical guidance for Country Offices in the implementation of Evaluation norms and guidance;

7. Evaluation training materials for UNICEF CO Staff, through virtual and on-site training, webinars and other capacity building related activities

8. Presentation (PPT), briefs, and other analytical reports on evaluation in UNICEF LAC

9. Report of facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing on evaluation.

For each task, the deliverables will be agreed upon on the basis of a monthly work plan with a brief description of the assignment. Additional task could be included based on the needs and demands of the Regional Office.

Deliverables

Description

Estimated duration [in days]

Expected deadline

Support the preparation of terms of reference of 6 country program evaluations and of 20 thematic evaluations.

38 days

End

Contribute to the quality assurance of 20 ongoing regional and country specific evaluations inception reports, drafts and briefs against the UNICEF UNEG guidance

45 days

Throughout the year

Contribute to the development of a draft regional roadmap to implement

8 days

End February 2021

Preparation of evaluation related products

22 days

Throughout the year

Preparation of Analytical and knowledge products

15 days

Throughout the year

Other tasks as required

10 days

Throughout the year

Total

138 days

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

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master) in evaluation, social sciences or other related fields.

Work Experience:

• At least eight years or more of relevant professional work experience in implementing and managing evaluations, preferably for the UN System

• Proven excellent knowledge of UNEG evaluation Norms and Standards

• Experience in Quality Assurance Systems for Evaluations is an asset

• Experience working in LAC Countries

• Experience in consultation processes

• Familiarity of Human rights and Gender approach to evaluations

• Familiarity with humanitarian evaluations, is an asset

Languages:

• Fluency in Spanish and English is required.

• Knowledge of French or Portuguese will be considered an asset.

Techical Knowledge:

• Highly qualified professional technical knowledge/expertise in evaluation, including data management and qualitative analytical information.

• Professional technical knowledge/expertise in methodology of Evaluation, including theories, standards and models, quantitative/qualitative/mixed methods, validity/reliability testing of data, data analysis and interpretation, etc.

• Emerging international good practice in evaluation.

Other skills and attributes:

• Flexibility and adaptability to shifting conditions and work demands.

• Capacity to communicate effectively and work collaboratively with RO and CO colleagues and external partners.

• High level of Integrity and commitment to UNICEF’s mission and professional values.

• Analytical and conceptual ability, negotiating, communication and advocacy skills.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People.

UNICEF competencies: building and maintains partnerships, demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness, drive to achieve results for impact, innovates and embraces change, manages ambiguity and complexity, thinks and acts strategically, works collaboratively with others and nurtures, and, leads and manages people. e and Drive for Results.

Supervision:

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Regional Adviser of Evaluation.

Workplace:

Home-based with extensive travel to Country Offices in the LAC region, as needed.

Duration:

The duration of this consultancy is 11.5 months. Estimated start date is November 2, 2020

How to apply?

Application should be submitted online and should include:

• CV
• Cover letter and
• Financial proposal.

Qualified candidates are requested to submit daily fees in their financial proposal. [Travel will be covered by UNICEF and calculated per the United Nations standards.]

UNICEF reserves the right to make additional assessment of the pre-selected candidates, if needed UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

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.

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Added 3 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: unicef.org