International consultant for monitoring and evaluation of the Spatial Development Framework project in Guinea-Bissau

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Application deadline 2 years ago: Sunday 5 Sep 2021 at 23:59 UTC

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Contract

This is a International Consultant contract. More about International Consultant contracts.

Background

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations system’s designated agency for addressing human settlements issues at the global, regional, country and local levels. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) office in Guinea-Bissau started opened in December 2015. Since then, it has become a crucial Government partner with the Government of Guinea-Bissau (notably via the Ministry for Public Works, Housing and Urbanism – MOPHU) in urban issues inherent to its mandate.

Its works are framed within a Habitat’s Country Programme Document 2018-2022 (HCPD), which has been developed in line with the country’s main strategic documents and established priorities at national government level – national development priorities under the National Development Plan, as well as the recently-established national development policy “Hora Tchiga”. The Programme is also aligned with the priorities preconized in the United Nations Partnership Framework (UNPAF) (2016 – 2020) (extended for 2021), signed between the United Nations Agencies and the Bissau-Guinean government. Finally, it follows the vision contained in UN-Habitat’s Strategic Plan, the Action Framework for the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda (AFINUA). All of them corroborate to the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) nº 11 – to make cities and communities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

In Guinea-Bissau, UN-Habitat performs both normative and operational works. On the normative side, the programme has collaborated with the city of Bissau in the elaboration of a Strategic Development Plan (Bissau 2030) via a participatory approach. In 2021, a similar exercise is being conducted for the Bijagós Archipelago, in combination with the development of a Spatial Development Framework (SDF) for the whole country. This project has the objective to support national and local decision-making towards a more equitable territorial development in Guinea-Bissau, as well as building capacity on strategic planning, coordination and urban development and maximizing the benefits from public and private investments, contributing to reducing territorial inequalities at the national level, with a special focus in Bijagós.

The SDF is a participatory regional spatial planning method to support national, regional and local government decision-making processes on where to prioritize investments by articulating industrialization, infrastructure development and urbanization, thus contributing to the sustainable economic growth and bringing about more realistic planning and implementation.

As the SDF projects comes to its completion, UN-Habitat would like to carry out the evaluation of its actual developmental impact. The inclusion of an independent party in the process aims to ensure transparency, improve and strengthen accountability mechanisms between stakeholders as well as evaluate and assess the achievements of SDF framework in terms of expected results, such as effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, impact of the implementation and sustainability. The findings, lessons and recommendations will serve as an information platform for UN-Habitat, EU and all stakeholders involved in the process.

Duties and Responsibilities

Purpose and Objectives of the Evaluation

The main objective of the consultancy is to carry out an independent appraisal of the of SDF project under the overall supervision of the UN-Habitat Regional Office for Africa and the direct supervision of the UN-Habitat’s National Technical Advisor for Guinea-Bissau.

The evaluation consultant will provide donor (EU), UN-Habitat and the SDF implementation team with an independent and forward-looking appraisal of the SDF operational experience, achievements, opportunities and challenges, and provide recommendations on how UN-Habitat and its partners could address spatial planning in future.

Specific objectives of the evaluation are to:

  • Assess the appropriateness, performance and achievements of SDF approaches at output, outcome and impact levels;
  • Assess the extent to which the SDF has created ‘value-for-money’;
  • Assess the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, impact outlook, synergy and coherence, and partnership and cooperation arrangements of SDF;
  • Assess how cross-cutting issues of gender and empowering of women, youth, human rights, social and environmental safeguards have been integrated in the SDF;
  • Identify lessons and propose recommendations that can be used for further programming on land conflict in the DRC or other similar conflict contexts.

Evaluation Approach and Methodology

Carry out portfolio document review; consolidate and update performance information, as well as validate, co-validate, and complete indicator tables and other reports. The consultant will carry out field/site visits and prepare document performance as well as participating in consultations and technical reviews of SDF’s activities with EU representatives and UN-SDG project staff (conditions allowing).

In addition, the evaluation consultant will:

  • Review SDF’s activities statements of work and descriptions to ensure that methods to measure performance results are adequate and feasible;
  • Participate in technical reviews and provide comments on draft documents to ensure that monitoring and evaluation plans and reports meet SDF’s framework as well as EU guidelines needs and requirements;
  • Support SDF’s implementation team in consolidating internally consistent information of SDF’s activities; determine which indicators remain relevant and useful as the nature of activities change over time and recommend modifications if required;
  • SDF’s implementation team with preparation and analysis of performance data and reviews to determine SDF progress;
  • Give guidance on how UN-Habitat requirements within the SDF’s Framework are can tracked. These include environment, biodiversity, gender equity and climate change;

The assignment should include at least one field visit to Guinea-Bissau so as to allow face-to-face interaction with relevant projects partners. Travel will only be permitted if sanitary conditions allow; otherwise, interactions will happen remotely.

Expected Outputs

Expected outputs are:

  • Inception evaluation report;
  • Draft and final evaluation report, including an executive summary, background and context, project description, approach and methodology, evaluation questions, main findings, evaluative conclusion, lessons learned and recommendations;
  • A guidance note on design, implementation and follow-up of SDF operations. recommendations;

Timeframe

The assignment will be carried out over a period of three (3) months on a part-time basis (estimated at 50%), from July ending to September 2021.

Competencies

  • Ability to work independently with a high degree of responsibility, in a flexible manner and often under pressure.
  • Capacity to research at multiple sources.
  • Excellent communication and writing skills.
  • Ability to prepare charts, infographic and other graphic design products.
  • Fluency in oral and written Portuguese.
  • Proficiency in oral and written English.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualification:

Post-graduate degree in a development relevant field or research is a minimum qualification. Degree may include subject areas such urban planning, economics, project management, international development, program evaluation, statistics and survey research.

Experience:

  • Working experience in a Portuguese-speaking African country is mandatory;
  • Previous experience in programme management support in the area of M&E is mandatory;
  • Solid background in M&E of projects/ Programme with budget over USD 300,000;
  • Previous experience in M&E associated with sustainable urban development desired;
  • Experience in spatial and/or strategic planning is highly desired.

Candidate Evaluation

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis methodology. When using this weighted scoring method, the contract shall be awarded to the individual consultant whose bid has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable.

Having received the highest score from a predetermined set of technical and financial criteria weighted specifically for this solicitation.

  • Weight of technical criteria - 70 points;
  • Weight of financial criteria - 30 points.

Only applicants scoring a minimum of 70 points will be considered for the financial evaluation.

Evaluation criteria:

  • Education according to the ToR - 10 points;
  • Experience according to the ToR - 20 points;
  • Skills according to the ToR - 10 points;
  • Interpretation of the ToR - 15 points;
  • Methodology and global approach - 25 points;
  • Overall quality of the proposal (comprehension, structure, language and clarity) - 20 points.

Payment

The assignment will be carried out on a part-time basis for three (3) months. The consultant will be allowed 10 extra working days for the delivery of the demanded outputs unless otherwise agreed.

Payment will be made in three installments according to the following criteria:

  • 20% at contract signature
  • 40% upon first product delivery
  • 40% upon final product delivery

The total amount to be received by the international consultant will be paid in one instalment, upon the presentation and approval by supervisor (Edinilson Silva) of the draft project output.

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