Consultant Programme & Policy Monitoring & Evaluation

Contract

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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, Hope

Sudan, surrounded by the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya and South Sudan, positioned next to East, West, South and North Africa, is surrounded by complex conflicts in an unpredictable, volatile and rapidly evolving region. Sudan is by size the third biggest country in Africa, with a diverse population of around 42 million people. Sudan's children make up half of the total population, and the past two decades have seen their lives significantly improve: fewer girls and boys are dying before their fifth birthday, primary school attendance is increasing, immunization coverage is high and the country remains polio free. Still, millions of children continue to suffer from protracted conflict in Darfur, the Kordofan's, and Blue Nile, from seasonal natural disasters, malnutrition and disease outbreaks, and from under-investment in basic social services. More than three million of Sudan's school aged children are not in the classroom. UNICEF has been in Sudan since 1952 and continues with a presence in 12 of Sudan's 18 states.

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheUNICEFSudan

How can you make a difference?

As of 26 April 2021, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported that an estimated total of 63,000 Ethiopian refugees have entered Eastern Sudan since November 2020. Currently, the total population of refugees in the two camp settlements in Gedaref remains 41,000. Roughly 50 percent of these are settled in each of the two camps, i.e Tunaydbah and Um Rakuba. The remaining 22,000 estimated number of refugees in border entry points (Hamdeyat and Village 8) will be relocated to the Tunaydbah camp in the coming weeks. HCR aims to extend the existing refugee camp (Tunaydbah) to accommodate the remaining population to be relocated from the border entry points. There is an urgent need to provide more services for people with disabilities and youth programming within both refugee camps. Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), Family Tracking and Reunification, provision of basic health and nutrition services, youth engagement, prevention of Gender-Based Violence, and behavioral change communication are the critical needs of the affected population.

UNICEF has been providing basic social services to the affected population since November 2020 under the overall leadership of UNHCR and Commission for Refugees (COR) in Gedaref. The key interventions included the provision of safe drinking water; hygiene kits; basic health and nutrition services including treatment of children with SAM; psychosocial support and linkages to other interventions, including family tracing and reunification of unaccompanied and separated children; and supporting measures to ensure Protection against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA).

Scope of Work:

The evaluation will primarily focus on the preparedness and how this has affected the implementation of the responses to various types of emergencies i.e floods, outbreaks and conflicts. The evaluation will be implemented in a phased manner starting with the flood response. In order to benefit from the lessons from each type of experience, the findings and recommendations will be shared as soon as possible to ensure that it feeds into the preparedness planning and response and for the new country programme preparations. The phasing and duration of the next phases will be agreed during the inception stage of the first phase.

1. The analysis will take into consideration gender and equity issues. The scope includes UNICEF’s leadership of the clusters, their coordination with other actors, coherence with other sectors and implementation.
2. Geographic scope. The evaluation will focus on the following three states: (a) Blue Nile, (b) Kassala and (c) West Darfur.
3. Temporal scope. Although the review is primarily focused on the emergency response system, effectiveness of the preparedness plan will be assessed through UNICEF’s response to rapid onset or recurring emergencies in Sudan in 2019-2020

Evaluation questions:

5. The key questions for this evaluation were formulated based on the OECD DAC humanitarian evaluation criteria. The evaluation aims to answer the following questions:

• Relevance How “fit for purpose” is UNICEF SCO preparedness system for capturing key contextual factors that influence the likely impact of emergencies, and how well informed is the process by solid risk and context analysis[1]?
• To what extent does SCO’s preparedness plan constitute a necessary and sufficient set of activities that need to be undertaken in order for UNICEF (and its partners) to be as prepared as possible for an emergency? What if anything is missing? What if anything is redundant?

Efficiency

• To what extent has UNICEF SCO utilized human and financial resources in the response in the most economical manner to achieve its objectives?
• How effectively has the starting point for preparedness – information and knowledge- been harnessed for maximum preparedness?
• What, if any, of UNICEF SCO’s preparedness outputs and activities are particularly high value-for-money in light of response time and cost savings? Which are potentially low value-for-money, and what cost-effective alternatives should be considered?

Effectiveness

• To what extent has the preparedness process informed the response?
• What, if any, evidence is there that heightened preparedness resulted in a timelier response?
• What, if any, evidence is there that heightened preparedness resulted in a strengthened response and / or lowered risk and vulnerability to the impact of hazards, and helped minimize loss of life and human suffering?
• What, if any, evidence is there of preparedness contributing to UNICEF meeting quality standards as specified in the CCCs?
• How well understood and applied are the various aspects of preparedness by key partners (e.g. pre-positioning of supplies, ensuring procedures or fast-tracking staff deployment etc.)?
• How have beneficiaries been affected by preparedness action?
• How well does UNICEF SCO preparedness contribute to and relate to peace building and development outcomes?
• To what extent have UNICEF’s SCO preparedness interventions supported its commitment under the CCCs to strengthen national capacity?

Coordination

• How do the different layers of UNICEF offices (HQ, RO) contribute to preparedness for responses in Sudan?
• To what extent did preparedness contribute to inter-agency coordination structures (e.g. clusters)?

Coherence

• What has been UNICEF’s added value to and from inter-agency and implementing partners’ preparedness efforts?
• To what extent was preparedness connected to broader programming and plans?

Coverage

• How has UNICEF explicitly sought to identify the likely impact of various emergency scenarios on the most vulnerable, children’s and women’s rights? How accurate have these estimates turned out to be in actual emergencies?
• How much forethought has UNICEF given to identifying where pockets of the hardest-to-reach in emergencies will be and preparing to reach these in the event of an emergency and advocating for equity in its preparedness efforts as part of its national capacity development and upstream activities?

Stakeholders

6. UNICEF Country, Regional, Headquarters
7. Line Ministries
8. UN Agencies
9. Implementing Partners

Methodology

10. This section provides the preliminary direction of the methodology. The methodology is based on UNEG norms and standards and refers to relevant UNEG and UNICEF guidance materials such as the guidance on integrating human rights and gender into evaluation, guidance on humanitarian evaluations and Core Commitments to Children. It will be further elaborated during the inception phase in the annexes of the inception report including the research instruments and evaluation matrix.
11. The evaluation will adopt a mixed-methods approach.
12. Formal desk review including a desk review of existing secondary data and documentation (e.g. partner reviews, relevant findings from parallel inter-agency evaluations / reviews; SitReps; HAC; needs assessments; EPR training materials; monitoring indicators and reports; funding information; HR data; supply data; Minimum Preparedness Standards and benchmarks, COs preparedness and contingency plans reflected in the Emergency Preparedness Platform (EPP) etc.);
13. Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) remotely by telephone or Skype with UNICEF staff at CO and RO levels; other UN agencies; donors and partner agencies; field based interviews and FGDs may be needed, if relevant to the proposed methodology.
14. Staff Survey with UNICEF CO staff to elicit a snapshot of the state and functioning of preparedness systems in the CO.
15. Data and information collected will be triangulated to ensure soundness and cross-validated at key points in time, as deemed relevant by the evaluation consultant, through in-country briefings with stakeholders. An exit workshop will be arranged as an opportunity for the consultant to share findings and recommendations at country level and for stakeholders to validate such findings prior to the finalization of the evaluation report.

Limitations

16. Key limitations will include time constraints affecting the evaluation, namely access and availability of data in emergency contexts, and the need to balance timeliness with depth of information and well-substantiated findings. Availability of credible data, and timeliness of monitoring data may also be limited. Evaluability
17. The flooding and outbreaks in the areas selected for the evaluation has been reasonably well documented primarily by UNICEF partners. This information is available. The evaluability of the conflict in West Darfur will be undertaken prior to proceeding to the last phase of the evaluation

Governance

18. The evaluation will be guided by a steering committee that will discuss the terms of reference and endorse the inception report. The direct management of the evaluation will be done by the evaluation manager, in coordination with the MENA Regional Office. The Sudan Country Office will ensure that all relevant documentation is available to the consultant and support the arrangement of meetings with relevant stakeholders (partners, UNICEF staff).

Deliverables

19. The contract will have the following deliverables: Inception Report, Presentation of Preliminary Findings and Recommendations, Draft Report, Final Report, Response to the Comments Matrix.
20. The Report will follow the UNICEF guidelines and be cognizant of relevant UNICEF and UNEG guidelines for evaluation.

Proposed team composition

1. The Evaluation will be led by an Evaluation Specialist (Humanitarian).

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

Education

• Relevant master’s degree (evaluation, development studies economics, social science, etc.)
• Extensive experience in emergency response, preferably with a UN agency
• At least 7 years’ experience in conducting and managing multi-disciplinary evaluations, including evaluating rapid onset emergencies.
• Familiarity with UNICEF’s emergency response, including Core Commitments to Children
• Knowledge of latest methods and approaches in humanitarian evaluation, especially participatory methods and accountability to affected populations
• Experience in conducting RTEs in sudden onset emergencies
• Good understanding of integrating gender and human rights into evaluations

Language skills

Excellent oral and written communication skills (in English)

1. All interested consultants are requested to include in their submission detailed costs including:

• Daily rate including hours per day
• Number of days required per deliverable and activity
• Additional Expenses (external and internal travel, field works, interpretation and translation, workshop costs for training data collectors (flight, hotel, workshop costs, etc.)

2. The consultants would be required to use their own computers, printers, photocopier etc. Payment is contingent on approval by the Evaluation manager and will be made in three instalments for each of the three phases:

• 20 percent after the inception report
• 30 percent after the completion of the draft report
• 50 percent on completion of all deliverable to the satisfaction of UNICEF.

Location

3. The work will be home based except for in-country data collection activities, if and when possible given COVID-19 related travel restrictions.

Official Travel

4. All travel arrangements, including insurance and visas, will be managed and paid by the consultant. Therefore, expected travel costs must be included as a budget item in the financial proposal. The quarantine period needs to be catered for and can be used for remote preparatory activities in country.

ICT considerations

5. The consultant will require access to some of the UNICEF internal databases and documents. These will remain the property of UNICEF and will not be used for any other purpose other than for this consultancy.

Evaluation Process of the Proposal

6. Assessment will be done based on the CV of the consultant (30%) and the financial proposal (70%).

Unsatisfactory Performance

7. In case of unsatisfactory performance, the payment will be withheld until quality deliverables are submitted. If the selected organization is unable to complete the assignment, the contract will be terminated by notification letter sent 30 days prior to the termination date. In the meantime, UNICEF will initiate another selection process to identify appropriate candidate.

Conditions and Administrative Issues

8. The contractor(s) will work on their own computer(s) and use their own office resources and materials in the execution of this assignment. The contractor's fee shall therefore be inclusive of all office administrative costs.
9. Granting access to UNICEF ICT resources for consultants/non-staff is considered as 'exception,' and therefore shall only be granted upon authorization by the head of the office on justification/need basis.
10. All evaluation consultants must uphold the UNEG Code of Conduct for Evaluation in the United Nations system.
11. All persons engaged under a UNICEF service contract, either directly through an individual contract, or indirectly through an institutional contract, shall be subject to the UN Supplier Code of Conduct: https://www.ungm.org/Public/CodeOfConduct
12. Ethical approvals as required will be obtained by the consultant, through the government or UNICEF facilitated procedure.
13. Please also see UNICEF's Standard Terms and Conditions attached.

Task No

Task/Milestone

Deliverables/Outputs

#of days

Responsibility

1

Inception report

Inception report

10

Consultant(s)

2

Acceptance of inception report[1]

(30%)

Acceptance of inception report[2]

5

Evaluation manager / steering committee

3

Field work

Field work

25

Consultant(s)

4

Presentation of preliminary findings

Presentation of preliminary findings

1

Consultant(s)

5

Draft report (50%)

Draft report

20

Consultant(s)

6

Commenting process

Commenting process

5

Evaluation manager to coordinate

7

Final report (20%)

Final report

5

Consultant(s)

Total

71

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[1] In case the report is not accepted an additional commenting process might be necessary.

[2] In case the report is not accepted an additional commenting process might be necessary.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

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 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.

Candidates are requested to provide their financial proposal, all inclusive for completing this particular consultancy assignment.

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.

No Fee:

UNICEF DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). UNICEF DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.

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