International Consultancy for Evaluation of UNICEF Iran’s Adolescents Wellbeing Programme (not open for Iranian national, remote working arrangement with possibility of travel)

Consultant Programme & Policy Monitoring & Evaluation

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International Consultancy for Evaluation of UNICEF Iran’s Adolescents Wellbeing Programme

Background

Situation Analysis

Iran has the second largest population in MENA region after Egypt, with nearly 85 million people with an estimated total number of 14,380,000 adolescents aged 10-19.

Adolescents are particularly exposed to high-risk behaviors, and many of such behaviors can affect their future health and well-being. They can have detrimental effects on adolescents’ development and health or can impede their future success and development.

In Iran, the prevalence of high-risk behaviors among adolescents has reportedly increased from 12.8% to 20%. For instance, the available data indicates that nearly one-third of those living with HIV are in the age range of 16-30. This implies that the transmission had been occurring at lower ages including the adolescence period. On a broader scale and based on reports by Iran Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME), by early 2022, of total registered HIV cases, 32% are female and 68% are male with 15.5% transmitted through injecting drug users, 54.2% sexual contact, 2.1% mother to child and 28.2% unknown.

Of particular concern is the lack of knowledge about prevention and a rise in social harm, especially among adolescents. In addition, substance use and its reinforcing effects on high-risk behavior, can not only result in unwanted pregnancies, abortion, and consequent infertility as well as sexually transmitted infections (STIs), according to the studies, anxiety, depression, dishonor, depriving adolescents of social activities are also among the consequences.

A considerable proportion of the affected population will not be identified until they seriously harm their own health and community as globally this age group has the lowest rate of HIV testing compared with other age groups which put them at a higher risk of HIV infection.

The coincidence of these behaviors can increase health problems among adolescents which calls for immediate and comprehensive preventive action.

Description of the intervention being evaluated

Iran is the only country in the MENA region that has been included in the global initiatives to enable the provision of targeted services for adolescents to help address risky behaviors. Based on recommendations, for the prevention of HIV/AIDS among adolescents, UNICEF jointly with UNAIDS and UNFPA has supported the MoHME since 2015 to develop and pilot an innovative Iranian model that combines awareness-raising, counseling, HIV testing, HIV prevention education, life skills training, drug use prevention, puberty health education, alternatives to risky behaviors, and health services in a safe and enabling environment for adolescents, especially for those most at risk, to enhance their knowledge and attitudes on HIV/AIDs prevention.

The initiative also provided a safe and enabling environment for adolescents aged 10-19 to have access to individualized care plans based on their age group and level of risk. In addition, alternative activities provided room for adolescent empowerment through healthy social engagement and meaningful participation in prosocial activities.

Outreach activities are in place to ensure the inclusion of broader ranges of adolescents in need, and a comprehensive and multi-level assessment process permits for stratification of risk levels and informs the process of developing individualized care plans for adolescents. Although a range of services was provided under relevant initiatives for adolescents in general, the main target group of these clubs is the most vulnerable adolescents aged 10-19 in terms of risky behaviors and social harm.

With a budget of about $ 700,000, UNICEF was able to set up and run a tailored adolescent wellbeing programme through specified centers in 6 provinces of Tehran, Alborz, Lurestan, Fars, Kermanshah, Khuzestan, to provide the aforementioned services for more than 10,000 adolescent boys and girls. While the modality of provision of the above support is under review by relevant national counterparts, UNICEF has remained prepared to scale up the programme towards better adaptation to the contextual needs and is exploring alternative options for service delivery.

Purpose

As foreseen in UNICEF’s current country programme (2017-2022) evaluation plan, certain initiatives under the adolescent wellbeing programme are to be evaluated for necessary programme revisions and validation of the interventions for national scale-up.

The objective of the evaluation is to determine, as systematically and objectively as possible, the relevance, efficiency, sustainability and expansion as well as coherence of UNICEF’s support of the above programme.

This evaluation has a dual purpose of accountability and learning. It will support (i) generation of knowledge on the successes and challenges of the Adolescents Well-Being Programme to inform future programming, and (ii) accountability for UNICEF and partners, as well as beneficiaries of the programme. The evaluation would consider the inclusiveness of services offered to the beneficiaries with the equity lens

Scope

The scope of the evaluation is limited to UNICEF’s support to the adolescent wellbeing programme/model piloted in 6 provinces through 7 centers since 2015. The evaluation intends to review the services offered via these centers, while they were operational, mainly for their relevance and sustainability in addition to the coherence of the programming and efficiency of the implementation. Some components of this model including outreach working, HIV prevention, mental health assessment and psychosocial care and support, empowerment including adolescent participation and engagement, and life skills training, as well as providing safe and enabling space are used in some new adolescent and youth programmes of MoHME and the Ministry of Sports & Youth.

Reference can be made to the “feasibility study on AWBCs (Adolescences Well-Being Clubs) sustainability in Iran” conducted by UNAIDS and “sustainable financing options for AWBCs” conducted by UNFPA, and the result of these two assessments will complement and feed into UNICEF evaluation to:

• Assess the programme and document the lessons learned for required management responses
• Support evidence generation to enhance the design and implementation of programmes with similar components through other platforms

Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation will attempt to answer the proposed following set of questions, organized around the OECD DAC evaluation criteria. Due to reasons elaborated as limitations under the methodology section, Effectiveness will not be considered as one of the key evaluation criteria but is intended to be investigated as much as possible with defined criteria and scales. It is also not expected that the Impact of the programme can be measured in a valid and reliable way given the information available and the major contribution of the external factors. Nonetheless, the unanticipated impact will be looked into and documented for future programming adjustment if required.

A set of sub-questions will be developed and framed in the evaluation matrices by the evaluator as a part of the deliverables of the inception report; however, the criteria will remain the same:

I. Relevance: The extent to which the objectives of a development intervention are consistent with target populations’ requirements, country needs, global priorities and partners’ and donors’ policies.

1- To what extent were the intervention’s design and its intended results relevant to UNICEF’s country programme health component and overall needs of the national health care objective including service providers and the beneficiaries?

2- How effectively the programme’s theory of change facilitated the path toward the needs

II. Efficiency: The measure of how economically resources/inputs (funds, expertise, time, etc.) are converted to results.

3- Do the achieved results justify the resources invested?

4- Was work planning and reporting done sufficiently and appropriately?

5- How effective was the implementation process?

III. Sustainability: The probability of continued long-term benefits. The resilience to risk of the net benefit flows over time.

6- To what extent has the programme been incorporated into the national programmes and protocols?

7- To what extent the pilot initiatives are mature for replicability or scalability at the national level without UNICEF’s support?

8- How has UNICEF’s support been adapted to the contextual requirements

IV. Coherence: The compatibility of the intervention with other interventions in a country, sector, or institution

9- Did the intervention contribute to and/or complement the synergies and interlinkages with other interventions carried out by UNICEF and the government?

V. Child rights, gender, and disability

10- Did the programme design and/or implementation factor in the child rights, gender and disability-related considerations and inclusions criteria?

Methodology

The evaluation will use a mixed-method approach to collect the data questions. Both qualitative and quantitative data will be collected and will be triangulated to ensure the soundness of analysis.

Data and information collection methods will include but are not limited to: (1) structured document review and content analysis of key documents (such as programme documents, progress reports, and etc.); (2) primary and secondary analyses of data; (3) semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with informed individuals including, trained personnel, service providers, UNICEF, UNAIDS, and UNFPA Iran relevant staff, relevant officials/network from the ministry of health and medical education, the beneficiaries where possible and required, etc. The analysis and the presentation of data and information will, to the extent possible, be gender-disaggregated and take into consideration the needs of vulnerable groups. Data collection is expected to take place at the individual, service provider, as well as ministerial and UNICEF levels. The inception report must include an explanation of how the data collection instruments relate to the evaluation questions, and how the data is going to be triangulated. Evaluation findings must be relevant, useful, and be presented concisely.

Limitations

A retrospective approach should be undertaken where the availability of some stakeholders, staff and the target population, as well as data, becomes challenging. Hence, it is expected that a fair balance of qualitative and quantitative methods is deployed to allow conclusive analysis and interpretation.

List of stakeholders

In addition to UNICEF, the key stakeholders who may contribute to different phases of this evaluation are MoHME, UNAIDS, UNFPA, Management and technical staff of relevant universities, health deputies, district health centers and service delivery and centers as well as the beneficiaries of the programme. The internal nature of the evaluation may however imply various levels of involvement of each group/sub-group.

Key Arrangements

• Evaluation Terms of Reference and inception report are reviewed by and commented on by the Steering Committee.

• The Evaluator will report to UNICEF Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Officer (the Evaluation Manager).

• In direct coordination with the Evaluation Manager, relevant sections within UNICEF/Iran will facilitate access to all documents and information required, coordinate visits, organize meetings/interviews, provide backstopping, and liaise regularly on the progress of the evaluation with internal UNICEF management.

• The evaluation deliverables will be quality-assured by the Evaluation Manager and UNICEF regional evaluation advisor.

• The Evaluator shall use their own facilities and space to manage the work.

• The Evaluator is expected to undertake the evaluation in consultation with UNICEF, in full accordance with the terms of references outlined herewith and in full compliance with the UNEG’s norms and standards for evaluation

Timeframe, key tasks, and deliverables, and payment schedule

The following timeframe describes the evaluation deliverable, key steps in the process, and the formal meetings from contract award to post-evaluation briefing:

Kick off (Week 1)

• Discuss timeline of activities, evaluation process, policies, guidelines, and tools at UNICEF
• Discuss expectations and timeline
• List respondents for inception interviews
• Document sharing

Deliverables and Payments: 0%

Inception (Week 2-4)

• Conduct inception interviews and desk review of the documents shared
• Draft Inception report and submission to UNICEF
• Quality review, ethical review, and endorsement of the Inception report

Deliverables and Payments: 20% (Upon endorsed inception report)

Fieldwork, Data Analysis and Preliminary Findings Presentation (Week 5-8)

• Primary data collection and review of secondary data
• Data analysis
• Draft preliminary findings presentation
• Quality Assurance of the Draft preliminary findings’ presentation
• Present the preliminary findings to stakeholders

Deliverables and Payments: 30% (Upon presentation of preliminary findings)

Drafting report (Week 8-10)

• Draft the evaluation report and submission to UNICEF
• Quality assurance endorsement

Deliverables and Payments: 30% (Upon submission of draft final report endorsed for quality assurance)

Final report and other products (Week 11-13)

• Formal commenting process
• Respond to comments from stakeholders and adjust the report accordingly
• Quality assurance and endorsement of the final reports

Deliverables and Payments: 20% (Upon submission of the endorsed final report)

Notes:

• All deliverables must be in English.
• It is expected that the evaluation findings be presented to UNICEF in a PowerPoint presentation.
• The final report must include an executive summary
• The format and sections of the inception and final report must be based on applicable UN guidelines.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… (International Applicants Only)

• Advanced university degree (PhD preferred) in public health, social science, or related fields. Familiarity with reproductive health, HIV/AIDS work and literature as well as maternal and child health is desirable
• Completed training on evaluation, research, and analysis.
• Should have led at least five independent national/international evaluations.
• Previous experience evaluating UN Agencies programmes/projects is an advantage.
• Experience in health and/or social research and in applying qualitative and quantitative research methods.
• Working experience in the Middle East is an advantage.
• Prominent level analytical and report writing skills and experience writing clear and concise reports for a range of audiences.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
• Should not have any conflict of interest through paid involvement or any other aspect with the intervention under evaluation.
• Flexible to work with a local team member for the evaluation.
• Flexibility to adapt the Evaluation methodology based on the contextual needs and limitations

Application Submission

Interested applicants are requested to submit i) CV including 3 professional references ii) a Cover letter and iii) a financial proposal with a detailed cost breakdown based on the deliverables section of the terms of reference.

• Applicants should submit samples/hyperlinks of the national/international independent evaluation lead.
• International and domestic travel costs (ticket, accommodation, and transportation) will be reimbursed by UNICEF based on actual travel where required.
• Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted for the interview.
• Application deadline: 10 Sep 2022

Ethical Note

All the products, including data and analyses, developed in the course of this consultancy are the intellectual property of UNICEF and MOHME. The consultant may not share these products without the expressed permission and acknowledgment of UNICEF Iran and MOHME. All the products developed during this consultancy must comply with the UNEG (United Nations Evaluation Group) norms and standards and UNICEF-Adapted UNEG Evaluation Report Standards.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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 offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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.

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.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.

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Added 1 year ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org