International Consultant for the Terminal Evaluation (TE)

Consultant Environment

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Background

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 full-sized project titled “Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for Sustainable Water Management in Turkmenistan” (PIMS#4947) implemented through the State Committee for Water Economy of Turkmenistan (SCWE). The project started on 17 July 2015 and is in its sixth 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’ (http://web.undp.org/evaluation/guideline/documents/GEF/TE_GuidanceforUNDP-supportedGEFfinancedProjects.pdf).

Project Description:

The $6.185 million UNDP - GEF “Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for Sustainable Water Management in Turkmenistan” project started in July 2015 and is scheduled to finish in April 2022. The project is financed by the Global Environment Facility and implemented through the United Nations Development Programme. Through technology transfer, investment and policy reform, this project seeks to promote an integrated approach to water management that is energy and water efficient, reduces root causes of land degradation, and enhances local livelihoods and public service delivery. Co-financing of $72.1 million USD has been committed from various sources. Through various interventions, the project aims to achieve some 3.4 million GJ of direct energy savings per year by the end of the project and some 448,000 tonnes of CO2 per year by the end of project.

The objectives of this UNDP/GEF project are as follows:

• Development objective: Provide for sufficient and environmentally sustainable water supply to support and enhance social conditions and economic livelihood of the population of Turkmenistan;
• Environmental objectives: Reduce GHG emissions associated with water management (448,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum by the end of the project); Prevent and remediate salinization of lands.

The project’s activities are organized into four components:

• Component 1 introduces new technologies in irrigated agriculture and pumping for energy efficiency, water conservation, and sustainable land management (SLM);
• Component 2 scales-up investment in new and expanded efficient water-management infrastructure;
• Component 3 delivers local and region-specific planning and educational outreach for IWRM and SLM among farmers and water-sector designers and managers;
• Component 4 develops and supports implementation of policy reform for IWRM.

The first two components of the project constitute the technical foundation of the project. For agriculture and infrastructure, respectively, these components are identifying, verifying, and documenting the most promising ways to save water, increase energy efficiency, and reduce water-related root causes of land degradation in Turkmenistan. The components are generating technical and financial performance data and practical experience to be used to plan and provide necessary justification to scale-up public investment and technology deployment nationwide.

While the first two components define the technical opportunity and priorities for replication, the second two components are seeking to carry actual replication out on a national scale. The third component supports replication from the bottom up via development of action plans at the regional and district levels across the country, as well as educational outreach and capacity-building among farmers and local water management personnel. The fourth component works from the top down, defining and implementing policies, programmes, and investment plans for IWRM and SLM at the national level.

TE Purpose:

The TE report will assess the achievement of project results against what was expected to be achieved and draw lessons that can both improve the sustainability of benefits from this project, and aid in the overall enhancement of UNDP programming. The TE report promotes accountability and transparency and assesses the extent of project accomplishments. The final evaluation will focus on the delivery of the project’s results as initially planned (and as corrected after the mid-term evaluation). The final evaluation will look at impact and sustainability of results, including the contribution to capacity development and the achievement of global environmental benefits/goals. The Terminal Evaluation should also provide recommendations for follow-up activities and requires a management response which should be uploaded to PIMS and to the UNDP Evaluation Office Evaluation Resource Center (ERC). The relevant GEF Focal Area Tracking Tools will also be completed during the final evaluation.During the last three months, the project team will prepare the Project Terminal Report. This comprehensive report will summarize the results achieved (objectives, outcomes, outputs), lessons learned, problems met and areas where results may not have been achieved. It will also lay out recommendations for any further steps that may need to be taken to ensure sustainability and replicability of the project’s results.

Duties and Responsibilities

TE Aproach and Methodology:

The TE report must provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable and useful. The TE team will review all relevant sources of information including documents prepared during the preparation phase (i.e. PIF, UNDP Initiation Plan, UNDP Social and Environmental Screening Procedure/SESP) the Project Document, project reports including annual PIRs, project budget revisions, lessons learned reports, national strategic and legal documents, and any other materials that the team considers useful for this evidence-based evaluation. The TE team will review the baseline and midterm GEF focal area Core Indicators/Tracking Tools submitted to the GEF at the CEO endorsement and midterm stages and the terminal Core Indicators/Tracking Tools that must be completed before the TE field missionor online interviews with relevant stakeholders and counterparts begin.

The TE team is expected to follow a participatory and consultative approach ensuring close engagement with the Project Team, government counterparts (the GEF Operational Focal Point), Implementing Partners, the UNDP Country Office(s), the Chief Technical Advisor (CTA), the Regional Technical Advisor (RTA), direct beneficiaries and other stakeholders. Engagement of stakeholders is vital to a successful TE. For this reason, in case if travel restrictions due to COVID-19 pandemic are eased, it is absolutely essential that shortly after the start of the assignment the international consultant travels to Turkmenistan for a period of 2 weeks (10 working days, not including weekends) to meet with all relevant stakeholders. Stakeholder involvement should include interviews with stakeholders who have project responsibilities, including but not limited to (State Committee of Water Economy of Turkmenistan (SCWE), Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan (MAEP), State Agricultural University, Municipality of Ahal region, Municipality of Kaahka district and Municipality of Geokdepe district); executing agencies, senior officials and task team/component leaders, key experts and consultants in the subject area, Project Board, project beneficiaries, academia, local government, etc. Additionally, the TE team is expected to conduct field missions to (Kaahka and Geokdepe project sites), including the following project sites (Kaahka water pipeline and Green Polygon) as the travel conditions due to COVID-10 permit.

The specific design and methodology for the TE should emerge from consultations between the TE team and the above-mentioned parties regarding what is appropriate and feasible for meeting the TE purpose and objectives and answering the evaluation questions, given limitations of budget, time and data. The TE team, however, must use gender-responsive methodologies and tools and ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment, as well as other cross-cutting issues and SDGs are incorporated into the TE report.

The final methodological approach including interview schedule, field visits and data to be used in the evaluation must be clearly outlined in the TE Inception Report and be fully discussed and agreed between UNDP, stakeholders and the TE team.

The final TE report must describe the full TE approach taken and the rationale for the approach making explicit the underlying assumptions, challenges, strengths and weaknesses about the methods and approach of the evaluation.

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-supportedGEFfinancedProjects.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 drivenness;
• Project Strategy and objectives;
• 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;

ii. Project Implementation:

• Adaptive management (changes to the project design and project outputs during implementation);
• 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;

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 (improved governance, climate change mitigation and adaptation, capacity development, knowledge management, etc., as relevant);
• GEF Additionality;
• Catalytic Role / Replication Effect;
• Progress to impact;

iv. 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 practices in addressing issues relating to relevance, performance and success that can provide knowledge gained from the particular 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;

The TE report will include an Evaluation Ratings Table, as shown in the ToR Annex F.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

The TE Consultant shall prepare and submit:

• TE Inception Report: TE team clarifies objectives and methods of the TE no later than 2 weeks before the TE mission or online interviews with relevant stakeholders. TE team submits the Inception Report to the Commissioning Unit and project management. Approximate due date: (19/10/2021);
• Presentation: TE team presents initial findings to project management and the Commissioning Unit at the end of the TE mission online interviews with relevant stakeholders and counterparts. Approximate due date: (09/11/2021);
• Draft TE Report: TE team submits full draft report with annexes within 3 weeks of the end of the TE mission or online interviews with relevant stakeholders. Approximate due date: (01/12/2021);
• Final TE Report* and Audit Trail: TE team submits revised report, with Audit Trail detailing how all received comments have (and have not) been addressed in the final TE report, to the Commissioning Unit within 1 week of receiving UNDP comments on draft. Approximate due date: (10/12/2021).

*The final TE report must be in English. If applicable, the Commissioning Unit may choose to arrange for a translation of the report into a language more widely shared by national stakeholders. All final TE reports will be quality assessed by the UNDP Independent Evaluation Office (IEO). Details of the IEO’s quality assessment of decentralized evaluations can be found in Section 6 of the UNDP Evaluation Guidelines. http://web.undp.org/evaluation/guideline/.

TE Arrangements:

The principal responsibility for managing the TE resides with the Commissioning Unit. The Commissioning Unit for this project’s TE is the UNDP Country Office in Turkmenistan. The Commissioning Unit will contract the evaluators and ensure the timely provision of per diems and travel arrangements within the country (if applicable) for the TE team. The Project Team will be responsible for liaising with the TE team to provide all relevant documents, set up stakeholder interviews, and arrange field visits.

Duration of the Work:

The total duration of the TE will be approximately 26 working days over a time period of 9 weeks starting on 10/10/2021. The tentative TE timeframe is as follows:

• 20/08/2021: Application closes;
• 05/10/2021: Selection of TE Team;
• 10/10/2021: Preparation of the TE team (handover of project documents);
• 10/10/2021: 4 days: Document review and preparing TE Inception Report;
• 19/10/2021: 1 day: Finalization and Validation of TE Inception Report- latest start of TE mission;
• 28/10/2021: 10 days: TE mission or online consultations: stakeholder meetings, interviews, field visits or online interviews with relevant stakeholders and counterparts;
• 09/11/2021: 1 day: Mission wrap-up meeting & presentation of initial findings- earliest end of TE mission;
• 15/11/2021: 8 days: Preparation of draft TE report;
• 01/12/2021: 1 day: Circulation of draft TE report for comments;
• 10/12/2021: 1 day: Incorporation of comments on draft TE report into Audit Trail & finalization of TE report;
• 15/12/2021: Preparation & Issue of Management Response;
• 06/01/2022: Expected date of full TE completion.

The expected date start date of contract is 10/10/2021.

Duty Station:

The TE assignment is expected to be home-based in case if current travel restrictions due to COVID-19 pandemic are not eased. However, in case if travel restrictions are eased it is absolutely essential that shortly after the start of the assignment the international consultant travels to Turkmenistan for a period of 2 weeks (10 working days, not including weekends) to meet with all relevant stakeholders and conducts field missions to Kaahka and Geokdepe project sites.

Travel:

• International travel might be required to Turkmenistan during the TE mission;
• The BSAFE course must be successfully completed prior to commencement of travel;
• Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director;
• Consultants are required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under: https://dss.un.org/dssweb/ ;
• All related travel expenses should be included to the Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability.

Evaluator Ethics:

The TE team will be held to the highest ethical standards and is required to sign a code of conduct upon acceptance of the assignment. This evaluation will be conducted in accordance with the principles outlined in the UNEG ‘Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation’. The evaluator must safeguard the rights and confidentiality of information providers, interviewees and stakeholders through measures to ensure compliance with legal and other relevant codes governing collection of data and reporting on data. The evaluator must also ensure security of collected information before and after the evaluation and protocols to ensure anonymity and confidentiality of sources of information where that is expected. The information knowledge and data gathered in the evaluation process must also be solely used for the evaluation and not for other uses without the express authorization of UNDP and partners.

Payment Schedule:

• 20% payment upon satisfactory delivery of the final TE Inception Report and approval by the Commissioning Unit;
• 40% payment upon satisfactory delivery of the draft TE report to the Commissioning Unit;
• 40% payment upon satisfactory delivery of the final TE report and approval by the Commissioning Unit and RTA (via signatures on the TE Report Clearance Form) and delivery of completed TE Audit Trail;

Criteria for issuing the final payment of 40%:

• The final TE report includes all requirements outlined in the TE TOR and is in accordance with the TE guidance;
• The final TE report is clearly written, logically organized, and is specific for this project (i.e. text has not been cut & pasted from other TE reports);
• The Audit Trail includes responses to and justification for each comment listed.

Competencies

TE Team Composition and Required Qualifications:

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 local team expert. 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, work with the Project Team in developing the TE itinerary, etc. 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.

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

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
• Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional Competencies:

• Competence in adaptive management;
• Knowledge of and work experience in the energy efficiency related water and agriculture projects, including those funded by the GEF;
• Excellent training, facilitation and communication skills;
• Results driven, ability to work under pressure and to meet required deadlines;
• Good understanding and experience in the field of GHG emissions calculation and monitoring.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced University degree, Masters or preferably a PhD, in Energy, Environment, Business Administration, Economics, Engineering or related field is required;

Experience:

• Extensive (at least 10-year) work experience and proven track record with policy advice and/or project development/implementation in climate change and or water efficiency (including at least some experience with climate change and/or water projects) in transition economies is required;
• Experience working with the GEF or GEF project evaluations within the past seven years including experience with SMART based indicators (Project evaluation/review experiences within United Nations system will be considered an asset) is required;
• Experience working with international technical assistance projects in the Eastern Europe countries or CIS region in the past seven years (experience in Turkmenistan will be an asset) is required;
• Excellent communication and presentation skills;
• Demonstrable analytical skills;
• Project evaluation/review experience within United Nations system will be considered an asset;
• Experience with implementing evaluations remotely will be considered an asset.

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required, knowledge of Russian will be an asset.

Recommended Presentation of Proposal:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications: All experts applying for this position are required to provide:

• Brief description of approach to work/technical proposal of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a proposed methodology on how they will approach and complete the assignment; (max 1 page);
• Financial Proposal with the references to (1) the daily rate for the assignment and within the timing scale indicated in the present TOR, and (2) any other expenses (including transportation costs, accommodation costs, the possibility of vaccination and etc.). Template of the form can be found enter into an Individual Contract based on a lump sum amount. The financial proposal shall represent a detailed, justified and “all inclusive” amount. In order to assist UNDP in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount, including: a daily fee for the tasks and an estimated duration as specified in this announcement, travel (to and from the missions), per diems, any other possible costs (including vaccinations, dwelling, communication etc.);
• Cover letter explaining why they are the most suitable candidate for the assignment;
• Resume /CV.

Note (Conflict of Interest): Any individual who participated in the project preparation, formulation, and/or implementation (including the writing of the Project Document) is ineligible to participate in this bidding.

Criteria for the Selection of Best Offer:

Only those applications which are responsive and compliant will be evaluated. Offers will be evaluated according to the Combined Scoring method – where the educational background and experience on similar assignments will be weighted at 70% and the financial proposal will weigh as 30% of the total scoring. The applicant receiving the Highest Combined Score that has also accepted UNDP’s General Terms and Conditions will be awarded the contract.

When using this method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant and having received the highest score – out of 100 points.

Out of the maximum score, the score for technical criteria equals 70% - maximum 70 points, and for financial criteria 30%.

The technical evaluation will take into account the following as per the scoring provided:

• Educational background (Advanced University degree, Masters or preferably a PhD, in Energy, Environment, Business Administration, Economics, Engineering or related field) – 10 points max; (PhD related to Energy/Environment/Natural Resources/Water/Climate Change = 10 points, PhD related to other relevant topic = 8 points, Masters related to Energy/Environment = 6 points, Masters related to other relevant topic = 4 points, combined (2 or more) Masters related to relevant topics = 8);
• Extensive (at least 10-year) work experience and proven track record with policy advice and/or project development/implementation in climate change and or water efficiency (including at least some experience with climate change and/or water projects) in transition economies – 20 points max (more points if experience specifically includes experience related to both climate change and/or water efficiency projects; more than 20 years = 17 points, 15-20 years = 12 points, 14-10 years = 7 points, 6-9 years = 2 points.) The consultant shall score +3 points if they have specific work experience related to other projects dealing with the issues of both climate change and also specifically related to water efficiency. If the consultant has only specific experience related to one of these two areas then they shall score +1 point;
• Experience working with the GEF or GEF project evaluations within the past seven years including experience with SMART based indicators (Project evaluation/review experiences within United Nations system will be considered an asset) – 20 points max (excellent evidences of the required experience = 20 points (3 assignments or more); very good evidence (2 or more assignments) = 14 points satisfactory evidences (1 other relevant GEF evaluation experience) = 8 points; no evidence of ever having evaluated a GEF project = 0 points);
• Experience working with international technical assistance projects in the Eastern Europe countries or CIS region in the past seven years (experience in Turkmenistan will be an asset and persons who have worked in Turkmenistan before on technical assistance projects will score 10 points) – 20 points max (strong experience (4 assignments or more or at least 1 prior assignment in Turkmenistan) = 20 points; very good experience (3 other assignments or more) = 14 points, good experience (2 assignments or more) = 8 points, satisfactory experience (1 assignment or more) – 6 points, no experience = 0);
• Methodology on how IC will approach and complete the assignment – 10 points max;
• Interview – 10 points max;

• Language skills (English required, knowledge of Russian will be an asset) – 10 points max (10 points for superior writing and oral skills in English + at least some knowledge of Russian; 7 points for superior writing and oral skills in English but no Russian, 4 points for average English and satisfactory writing skills, 1 point for poor English fluency and poor writing skills). Writing skills will be judged by the quality of the 1-page cover letter with the brief description of the approach to the work to be carried out to be sent with this application.Maximum available technical (education, experience and competencies) score – 100 points.

  Additional requirements for recommended contractor:

  Recommended contractors aged 65 and older, and if the travel is required, shall undergo a full medical examination including x-ray, and obtain medical clearance from the UN-approved doctor prior to taking up their assignment. The medical examination is to be cleared by the UN physicians, and shall be paid by the consultant.

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