IC/UNDP/TIGER/110/2021 - National Consultant for Terminal Evaluation

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ID Home-based; Indonesia

Application deadline 2 years ago: Tuesday 6 Jul 2021 at 23:59 UTC

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Contract

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Background

Interest candidate has to access procurement notice Ref.: IC/UNDP/TIGER/110/2021 - National Consultant for Terminal Evaluation at the following link : UNDP | Procurement Notices - 79885 - IC/UNDP/TIGER/110/2021 - Nationa

1. INTRODUCTION

In accordance with UNDP and GEF M&E policies and procedures, all full- and medium-sized UNDP-supported GEF-financed projects are required to undergo a Terminal Evaluation (TE) at the end of the project. This Terms of Reference (ToR) sets out the expectations for the TE of the medium-sized project titled Transforming Effectiveness of Biodiversity Conservation in Priority Sumatran Landscapes (PIMS #5363) implemented through the Ministry of Environment and Forestry as the Implementing Partner. The project started on the 24th February 2016 and is in its last (6th) year of implementation. The TE process must follow the guidance outlined in the document ‘Guidance for Conducting Terminal Evaluations of UNDP-Supported, GEF-Financed Projects’.

2. PROJECT BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT`

Indonesia has ratified the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on 26 November 1994, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and Drought on 31 August 1998. In addition to these conventions, Indonesia also ratified the Kyoto Protocol on 3 December 2004, thereby committing itself to stabilizing global greenhouse gas emissions for the period of 2008-2012. Moreover, to protect biodiversity from the potential risks posed by genetically modified organisms that are the product of biotechnology, Indonesia subscribed to the Cartagena Protocol on Biological Safety on 3 December 2004.

Sumatra is the sixth largest island in the world, characterized by the Bukit Barisan mountain range and globally significant tropical montane, sub montane, lowland, fresh water and peat swamp forests as well as mangroves and rivers. The island’s fauna includes 201 mammal and 580 bird species, with endemic and critically endangered species such as the Sumatran orangutan and Sumatran rhinoceros, and subspecies such as the Sumatran elephant.

The Sumatran tiger Panthera tigris sumatrae is Indonesia’s last remaining tiger subspecies with an estimated population of 400-500 adults. Its conservation areas include 13 Important Bird Areas, two Ramsar sites (Berbak and Sembilang National Parks) and the UNESCO WHC Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra sites (the National Parks of Gunung Leuser, Kerinci Seblat and Bukit Barisan Selatan).

The current project will cover all five of these globally significant sites and surrounding landscapes. Across Sumatra, the principal threat to biodiversity is habitat loss and forest degradation, with forest cover shrinking from 25.3m hectares in 1985 to 12.8m hectares in 2009, with clearance driven by commercial oil palm and timber fibre plantations, followed by subsistence agriculture, while the main driver of forest degradation has been commercial logging. In addition, the wildlife trade is a significant pressure on species, with an estimated fifty Sumatran tigers poached annually between 1998 and 2002.

The main barriers to achieving this vision are weak natural resource governance and limited protected area management capacity, poor inter-agency coordination for wildlife and forest conservation outside of the PAs, and inadequate financial planning and management for protected areas. The long-term solution offered by the project for securing Sumatra’s forests, wildlife and ecosystem services lies in consolidating a network of effectively managed and adequately funded protected areas (PAs) that are supported by complementary actions in the adjacent forests and with multiple stakeholders to achieve sustainably managed landscapes. This will require both multi-agency partnerships across multiple provinces and sufficient incentives for communities to reduce forest encroachment and illegal hunting of protected species.

The objective of the project is to enhance biodiversity conservation in priority landscapes in Sumatra through adoption of good management practices in protected areas and adjacent production landscapes, using tiger recovery as a key indicator of success. This will be accomplished through supporting implementation of the National Tiger Recovery Plan, which sets out the key elements to protect forests and wildlife in Sumatra.

The project aims to address a range of institutional, governance and financial issues that prevent the project objective from being achieved. In doing so, it will create a model biodiversity management system that is operational across the target landscapes, can be scaled-up across Sumatra, and strengthen the national PA system. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry will lead project implementation in partnership with UNDP and NGOs.

As stipulated in Sumatran Tiger project document and in line with UNDP – GEF guideline on Terminal Evaluation, an International consultant will be recruited to conduct Terminal Evaluation for SUMATRAN TIGER project.

Regarding covid-19 outbreak, as of 02 April 2021, there were 1.523.179 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Indonesia, of which 41.151 were fatalities and 1.361.017persons recovered. Covid-19 has been spread in 34 provinces and 487 regencies/cities across Indonesia. Some regions implemented large social restrictions to prevent of Covid-19 pandemics. Covid-19 pandemic has affected the implementation of the project. Based on our assessment, some activities can continue on-schedule, some activities remain the same but involve delays, some activities need to be redesigned to achieve the expected output.

Tiger project has provided equally important opportunities for the women and men in managing the activities supported by the project. Tiger project has promoted women roles for instance, through the development and management of SMART-RBM and in producing variety of non-timber forest products, and in adapting with the covid-19 pandemic by promoting health protocol for the local community.

Referring to the Covid-19 outbreak in Indonesia, the impact on the Tiger project implementation includes the following:

1. The project has to pay attention to the Presidential Decree of the Republic of Indonesia (KepPres RI no. 12/2020 dated 13 April 2020) concerning Determination of Covid-19 Outbreak as Non-natural Disaster, and Large-Scale Social Distancing measures in several provinces, cities and regencies in Indonesia, including the areas where Tiger Project activities are implemented.

2. During the past few months, consultations with stakeholders have not been able to take place at the project sites. Since early March 2020 several Tiger activities for Q1 (January to March 2020) particularly the ones related to travels (to project sites), face-to-face discussions or meetings, and personnel mobilizations for field technical activities have been postponed or have been implemented using health protocol by Project Implementation Units (PIU).

3. Several Tiger Project activities in the work plan, including monitoring and facilitation that involved discussion with group of people, have been delayed in accordance with government regulation.

4. To assure personnel safety and community health, the project facilitated measures in the fields by allocating project budget for the procurement of personal protective equipment, such as vitamins, mask and other relevant equipment for the community affected by Covid-19 outbreak.

5. To cope with the Covid-19 situation, in the last few months, the project has been working through online system (virtual meetings) to conduct coordination discussions with Project Implementation Units, UNDP Indonesia, the Implementing Partner and other relevant partners

Duties and Responsibilities

1. DETAILED SCOPE OF THE TE

The TE will assess project performance against expectations set out in the project’s Logical Framework/Results Framework (see ToR Annex A). The TE will assess results according to the criteria outlined in the Guidance for TEs of UNDP-supported GEF- financed Projects ( http://web.undp.org/evaluation/guideline/documents/GEF/TE_GuidanceforUNDP-supportedGEF-financedProjects.pdf ). The Findings section of the TE report will cover the topics listed below.

A full outline of the TE report’s content is provided in ToR Annex C.

The asterisk “(*)” indicates criteria for which a rating is required.

Findings

i. Project Design/Formulation

  • National priorities and country driven-ness, relevance
  • Theory of Change
  • Gender equality and women’s empowerment
  • Social and Environmental Safeguards
  • Analysis of Results Framework: project logic and strategy, indicators
  • Assumptions and Risks
  • Lessons from other relevant projects (e.g. same focal area) incorporated into project design
  • Planned stakeholder participation
  • Linkages between project and other interventions within the sector
  • Management arrangements, staffing
  • Institutional capacity

    ii. Project Implementation

  • Adaptive management (changes to the project design and project outputs during implementation)
    • Responsiveness to MTR analysis
  • Actual stakeholder participation and partnership arrangements
  • Project Finance and Co-finance
  • Monitoring & Evaluation: design at entry (*), implementation (*), and overall assessment of M&E (*)
  • Implementing Agency (UNDP) (*) and Executing Agency (*), overall project oversight/implementation and execution (*)
  • Risk Management, including Social and Environmental Standards
  • Sustainable financing for biodiversity management

· Implementation of cross cutting / gender mainstreaming at implementation stage

· Stakeholder engagement

  • M&E at implementation stage

iii. Project Results

  • Assess the achievement of outcomes against indicators by reporting on the level of progress for each objective and outcome indicator at the time of the TE and noting final achievements
  • Relevance (*), Effectiveness (*), Efficiency (*) and overall project outcome (*)
  • Sustainability: financial (*) , socio-political (*), institutional framework and governance (*), environmental (*), overall likelihood of sustainability (*)
  • Country ownership
  • Gender equality and women’s empowerment
  • Cross-cutting issues (poverty alleviation, improved governance, climate change mitigation and adaptation, disaster prevention and recovery, human rights, capacity development, South-South cooperation, knowledge management, volunteerism, etc., as relevant)
  • GEF Additionality
  • Catalytic Role / Replication Effect
  • Progress to impact and long-term sustainability

Main Findings, Conclusions, Recommendations and Lessons Learned

  • The TE team will include a summary of the main findings of the TE report. Findings should be presented as statements of fact that are based on analysis of the data.
  • The section on conclusions will be written in light of the findings. Conclusions should be comprehensive and balanced statements that are well substantiated by evidence and logically connected to the TE findings. They should highlight the strengths, weaknesses and results of the project, respond to key evaluation questions and provide insights into the identification of and/or solutions to important problems or issues pertinent to project beneficiaries, UNDP and the GEF, including issues in relation to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
  • Recommendations should provide concrete, practical, feasible and targeted recommendations directed to the intended users of the evaluation about what actions to take and decisions to make. The recommendations should be specifically supported by the evidence and linked to the findings and conclusions around key questions addressed by the evaluation.
  • The TE report should also include lessons that can be taken from the evaluation, including best and worst practices in addressing issues relating to relevance, performance and success that can provide knowledge gained from the circumstance (programmatic and evaluation methods used, partnerships, financial leveraging, etc.) that are applicable to other GEF and UNDP interventions. When possible, the TE team should include examples of good practices in project design and implementation.
  • It is important for the conclusions, recommendations and lessons learned of the TE report to include results related to gender equality and empowerment of women.

Competencies

1. TE TEAM COMPOSITION

A team of two independent evaluators will conduct the TE – one team leader (with experience and exposure to projects and evaluations in other regions) and one team expert, usually from the country of the project. The team leader will be responsible for the overall design and writing of the TE report. The team expert will assess emerging trends with respect to regulatory frameworks, budget allocations, capacity building, develop communication with stakeholders who will be interviewed, and work with the Project Team in developing the TE workplan.

The evaluator(s) cannot have participated in the project preparation, formulation and/or implementation (including the writing of the project document), must not have conducted this project’s Mid-Term Review and should not have a conflict of interest with the project’s related activities.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions, the International Consultant will work with a National Consultantand the International Consultant will operate remotely using tools to conduct virtual interviews and consultations.

The selection of evaluators will be aimed at maximizing the overall “team” qualities in the following areas:

International Consultant

Experience

  • Relevant experience with results-based management evaluation methodologies; experience in assessing SMART indicators and reconstructing or validating baseline scenarios; (10%)
  • Experience in undertaking evaluations for UNDP or for GEF (10%)
  • Experience working in the area of Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management (10%)
  • Demonstrate understanding of issues related to gender and climate change adaptation/mitigations (10%);
  • Experience in evaluating projects; (10%)
  • Experience working in developing countries in Asia; (10%)
  • Experience in relevant technical areas (biodiversity conservation) for at least 15 years; (20%)
  • Excellent communication skills;
  • Demonstrable analytical skills;
  • Experience with implementing evaluations remotely will be considered an asset. Language
    • Fluency in written and spoken English

Required Skills and Experience

Education

Master’s degree in the fields related to Environment, Natural resources, Biodiversity, Forestry, or other closely related field from an accredited college or university (20%)

Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: jobs.undp.org