Local Consultant for the Terminal Evaluation of the project “Strengthening natural resource valuation capacities for improved planning and decision-making to conserve the global environment”

Contract

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Background

In accordance with UNDP and GEF M&E policies and procedures, all 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 medium-sized project titled “Strengthening natural resource valuation capacities for improved planning and decision-making to conserve the global environment” (PIMS # 5737) implemented through the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Guinea Bissau. The project started on the 16th of April 2018 and is in its 4th 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-supportedGEF-financedProjects.pdf).

The goal of this medium-sized project is for Guinea-Bissau to make better decisions to meet and sustain global environmental obligations through improved natural resource valuation and accounting. To that end, the objective of this project is to develop technical and institutional capacities for undertaking an economic valuation of global environmental goods and services as potentially impacted by proposed development policies, programmes, plans and projects. The project is implemented through the following four strategically linked components:

Component 1: Strengthening policy and legislative instruments for effective monitoring and decision-making on the global environment

Component 2: Strengthening effective monitoring and decision-making mechanisms for the global environment

Component 3: Development of natural resource valuation tools for improved decision-making on the global environment

Component 4: Improving awareness of global environmental values through the use of natural resource valuation

Each of these components comprises a set of outputs with their respective activities to build systemic, institutional, and individual capacities within Guinea-Bissau. Among the key activities of the project are the enhanced targeted capacities, strengthened monitoring, natural resource valuation tools, and targeted training and awareness-raising. At the end of the project, each of the four components will result in an expected outcome, namely:

• Enhanced targeted capacities to improve policy and legislative instruments for better monitoring and decision-making on the global environment.
• Strengthened monitoring and decision-making mechanisms for the global environment
• Natural resource valuation tools for improved decision-making on the global environment
• Targeted training and awareness-raising will have resulted in improved understanding of the good practices for delivering and sustaining global environmental outcomes within the framework of sustainable development

The project’s strategy emphasizes a long-term approach to institutionalizing capacities to meet MEA obligations through a set of learn-by-doing activities that lay the foundation for effective decision-making regarding global environmental benefits. Active participation of stakeholder representatives in the full project life cycle facilitates the strategic adaptation of project activities in keeping with project objectives. Moreover, the inclusion of non-state stakeholders contributes to the adaptive collaborative management of project implementation and promotes long-term sustainability of project outcomes.

After close to 4 years of implementation, this project will be operationally closed on the 16th of April 2022. As per UNDP project management policies and procedures, an independent terminal evaluation is required. This evaluation mission will proceed while the project team is still in place, yet ensuring the project is close enough to completion for the evaluation team to reach conclusions on key aspects such as project sustainability. The consultants that will be hired to undertake the assignment will be independent from organizations that were involved in designing, executing or advising on the project to be evaluated.

This TE will be conducted by a team of 2 consultants (hereby referred to as the TE team) made up of an international consultant who will act as the TE team leader and a local consultant. This TOR is developed specifically for acquiring the services of a local consultant for the TE.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the assignment

The TE report will assess the achievement of project results against what was expected to be achieved and draw lessons from the project implementation 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. It also highlights the relevance, efficiency, sustainability and impact of the project. The evaluation will also identify the main challenges and constraints faced by the project and provide recommendations for future UNDP interventions to support and strengthen capacities for planning and decision making towards natural resources management in light of the government´s development priorities and the Agenda 2030.

In order to attain this objective, the evaluation will cover the 4 project components mentioned above and will take into consideration the feedback from all the relevant government institutions, development partners and Civil Society Organizations involved in the project. In addition, the evaluation will also seek information from the core personnel involved in the project implementation activities and UNDP senior management. The evaluation will also assess the project approach to capacity development, knowledge management, south-south and triangular cooperation, mainstreaming gender equality and the results achieved in that regard.

Duties and responsibilities

The consultant together with the TE team leader will review all relevant sources of information including documents prepared during the preparation phase of the project, the Project Document (ProDoc), various project reports and any other materials that the TE team considers useful for this evidence-based evaluation. The consultant will review the baseline and midterm GEF focal area Core Indicators/Tracking Tools submitted to the GEF at the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) endorsement and midterm stages and the terminal Core Indicators/Tracking Tools that must be completed before the TE field mission begins.

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 Regional Technical Advisors, direct beneficiaries and other stakeholders.

The consultant will ensure the engagement of all stakeholders who have project responsibilities for the success of the TE. These includes relevant government counterparts, NGOs, CBOs, Executing agencies, project beneficiaries etc. He/she is expected to conduct field missions to project sites upon assessment of the TE team. 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 consultant must, however, 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 TE will assess project performance against expectations set out in the project’s Logical Framework/Results Framework. 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-supportedGEF-financedProjects.pdf).

Expected outputs and deliverables

The consultant, led by and together with the senior international consultant shall prepare and submit:

• The inception report before the TE mission
• A presentation of initial findings at the end of the TE mission
• A draft TE report within 3 weeks of end of TE mission
• Final TE Report* + Audit Trail within 2 weeks of receiving comments on draft report

*The final TE report must be in English.

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.

Duration of the assignment

The total duration of the TE will be approximately 45 working days over a time period of 9 weeks starting 14/03/2022 and shall not exceed five months from when the consultant is hired. The expected start date of contract is the 14th of March 2022.

Competencies

• Strong analytical, negotiation and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products;
• Professional and/or academic experience in one or more of the areas of the Development or knowledge management field.
• Ability to work independently and to produce high quality outputs in a timely manner;
• Ability to focus on impact and results for the client, promoting and demonstrating an ethic of client service;
• Strong ability to communicate clearly, adapting style and content to different audiences;
• Strong interpersonal and presentation skills in meetings;
• Strong analytical and writing skills with demonstrated ability to think strategically;

Required Skills and Experience

I. Academic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in economics, natural resource management, development studies and other similar areas
• Certification in Evaluation is desirable;

II. Years of experience:

• 3 years of relevant experience with results-based management evaluation methodologies;
• 2 years of experience applying SMART indicators and reconstructing or validating baseline scenarios;
• 1 year of experience in evaluating projects preferably GEF projects; Competence in adaptive management, as applied to GEF Multifocal Area);
• 2 years of experience working in the West Africa Region;
• Demonstrated understanding of issues related to gender and GEF Multifocal area; experience in gender responsive evaluation and analysis;
• Excellent communication skills;
• Demonstrable analytical skills;
• At least 1 project evaluation/review experience within the United Nations system will be considered an asset;
• Experience with implementing evaluations remotely.

III. Language:

• Fluency in spoken and written English and Portuguese;

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 MTR reports).
• The Audit Trail includes responses to and justification for each comment listed.

Recommended presentation of proposal

1. Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
2. CV and a Personal History Form (P11 form);
3. 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)
4. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price and all other travel related costs (such as flight ticket, per diem, etc.), supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template attached to the Letter of Confirmation of Interest template. If an applicant is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the applicant must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

All application materials should be submitted through the link on the job site. Incomplete applications will be excluded from further consideration.

Criteria for selection of the 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 price 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.