International Individual Consultant for Evaluation of the Joint SDG Fund Programme “Improving the system of social protection through the introduction of inclusive quality community-based so

Contract

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Rationale: The Evaluation will be conducted by the end of the UN JP and will provide the guidance and recommendations for further development of social services in Turkmenistan. Since the Programme will be completed in June 2022, beginning of the Evaluation in March 2022 will bring efficient results in developing the National strategic document for further reforming the system of social service provision in the country. The timing of the evaluation is critical as UN was requested by the Government to support with the development of a Road Map further reforming the system of social service provision in the country.

Moreover, Government initiated development of new Socio-economic Strategy until 2052. Thus, the evaluation, which will be the first independent assessment of the JP, will help to shape the programming and policymaking.

Purpose: The main purpose of the evaluation is to generate substantive evidence-based knowledge by identifying good practices and lessons learned from the implementation of the JP. The results of this evaluation will be highly useful to enable any adjustment/redirection necessary for the planning and implementation of the current United Nations Sustainable Development and Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2021-2025and will provide a basis for the development of the new National Programme in the area of the social protection and facilitate the UN joint advocacy efforts for the national scale up of the new specialized services, also creating enabling political environment for these services. The evaluation findings and recommendations will also contribute to strengthening UNICEF contribution to the realization of child rights and protection of children’s access to quality services. The evaluation’s findings will also inform the update of the UN Common Country Analysis, the reporting of the country to Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) and potentially SDG-related progress reports or other situation analyses.

Objectives: The UN JP evaluation aims to assess the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, coherence and, to the extent possible, impact of the Joint Programme, to analyse remaining bottlenecks and barriers that impact inclusiveness of social protection.

The International Consultant should have the following qualifications:

Advanced university degree, preferably in evaluation, social studies or human rights preferably with multi‐disciplinary training. A combination of relevant academic background and relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;

At least five years’ experience in evaluation, including experience of designing and implementing theory based evaluations; experience in social protection and social service provision area; evaluations using experimental and non-experimental approaches; familiarity with UNICEF and the UN system (CVs required);

Expertise to analyse and solid knowledge of social services provision within the social protection systems;

Good understanding of child-sensitive, gender-sensitive and disability sensitive social protection issues;

Familiarity with UNICEF work and procedures (possible but not necessary);

Strong analytical skills and statistical data analysis experience;

Ability to produce content for high standard deliverables in Russian and English;

Experience conducting remote data collection is an asset;

Sensitivity towards ethics with regards to human and child rights issues, different cultures, local customs, religious beliefs and practices, personal interaction and gender roles, disability, age and ethnicity.

The Evaluation Consultant should also adhere to UNICEF’s Evaluation Policy, to UNEG’s ethical guidelines for UN evaluations and to UNICEF Reporting Standards. Evaluation Consultant members will sign a no conflict of interest attestation.

The Evaluation Consultant must demonstrate personal and professional integrity during the whole process of the evaluation. The Evaluation Consultant must respect the right of institutions and individuals to provide information in confidence and ensure that sensitive data cannot be traced to its source. Further, the consultant must respect ethics of research while working with children including using age appropriate consent forms, age appropriate data collection, and principle of do no harm. Furthermore, the consutlant must take care that those involved in the evaluation have an opportunity to examine the statements attributed to them. The evaluation process must be sensitive to beliefs, manners, and customs of the social and cultural environment in which they will work. Especially, the consultant must be sensitive to and address issues of protection, discrimination and gender inequality. Furthermore, the Team is not expected to assess the personal performance of individuals and must balance an assessment of management functions with due consideration of this principle.

The evaluation should follow UN Evaluation Group Norms and Standards (including ensuring that the planned evaluation fully addresses any ethical issues).