National Consultant to support the implementation of the Country Portfolio Evaluation

Contract

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Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace, and security.

UN Women's mandate (GA resolution 64/289) is to lead, coordinate and promote accountability of the UN system to deliver on gender equality and the empowerment of women with the primary objective of enhancing country-level coherence, ensuring coordinated interventions, and securing positive impacts on the lives of women and girls, including those living in rural areas.

The work of UN Women Jordan is focused around its three-fold mandate:

1. Normative work: to promote policy development and implementation of global norms by supporting national stakeholders to review and revise legal and policy frameworks; promote women’s leadership and civic engagement; challenge harmful social norms and practices through community mobilization, and improve data collection and analysis on SDG gender-related indicators and key policy issues
2. Coordination work: entails both 1) work to promote the accountability of the United Nations system on gender equality and empowerment of women (GEEW), including regular monitoring of system-wide progress, and more broadly 2) work to mobilize and convene key stakeholders to ensure greater coherence and gender mainstreaming across the UN; and
3. Operational work: to help the Member States to implement international standards and to forge effective partnerships with civil society.

UN Women Jordan Country Office supports the Government of Jordan to implement global norms and standards on gender equality and women’s empowerment; promotes women’s economic empowerment; implements a resilience and empowerment model for Syrian refugee women and vulnerable Jordanian women, and supports the government and other national stakeholders to meet Jordan’s commitments to UNSCR 1325 on women, peace and security. The Country office’s engagement is built on a strong partnership with the national women’s machinery and the government—particularly the Jordanian National Commission for Women, the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Women’s Empowerment, and the Ministry of Social Development—and a collaborative relationship with the wider public, including civil society organizations, women’s movement, academia, private sector, the UN and international development players thus placing the women’s empowerment agenda firmly at the center of national priority to attain inclusive growth and social justice.

Evaluation in UN Women is guided by the normative agreements described below to be gender-responsive and utilizes the entity’s strategic plan as a starting point for identifying the expected outcomes and impacts of its work and for measuring progress towards the achievement of results. The UN Women Evaluation Policy[1] is the main guiding document that sets forth the principles and organizational framework for evaluation planning, conduct, and follow-up in UN Women. These principles are aligned with the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms for Evaluation in the UN System, Standards for Evaluation in the UN System[2], and Ethical Guidelines.[3]

Country Portfolio Evaluation (CPE)[4] is a systematic assessment of the contributions made by UN Women to development results with respect to gender equality at the country level. The UN Women portfolio responds to three core mandates, which include normative, operational, and coordination work. The CPE focuses on their individual and combined success in advancing gender equality in Jordan. It uses the Strategic Note as the main point of reference. It is a priority for UN Women that the CPE will be gender-responsive and will actively support the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

This CPE is primarily a formative (forward-looking) evaluation to support the Country Office (CO) and national stakeholders’ strategic learning and decision-making for the next Strategic Note. The evaluation is expected to have a secondary summative (backward-looking) perspective, to support enhanced accountability for development effectiveness and learning from experience.

The primary intended users of this evaluation are:

• UN Women Jordan CO, Regional Arab States Office, and UN Women HQ
• National government institutions
• Civil society representatives
• Donors and development partners
• UN Country Team and Gender Theme Group (GTG)
• Target groups, programme/project partners

Primary intended uses of this evaluation are:

1. Learning and improved decision-making to support the development of the next Strategic Note for Jordan CO 2023-2027;
2. Accountability for the development effectiveness of the CO Strategic Note 2018-2022 in terms of UN Women’s contribution to gender equality and women’s empowerment;
3. Capacity development and mobilization of national stakeholders to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Evaluation objectives (evaluation criteria and key questions)

The specific evaluation objectives include:

1. Assess the relevance of UN Women's contribution to the intervention at national levels and alignment with international agreements and conventions on gender equality and women’s empowerment.
2. Assess effectiveness, organizational efficiency, and coherence in progressing towards the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment results as defined in the Strategic Note.
3. Enable the UN Women's Country Office to improve its strategic positioning to better support the achievement of sustained gender equality and women’s empowerment.
4. Analyze how the human rights approach and gender equality principles are integrated in the design and implementation of the Strategic Note.
5. Identify and validate lessons learned, good practices, and examples of innovation that can be scaled up and replicated to support gender equality and human rights.
6. Provide insights into the extent to which the UN Women has realized synergies between its three mandates (normative, UN system coordination, and operations).
7. Provide actionable recommendations with respect to the development of the next Strategic Note.

[1] https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2012/10/evaluation-policy-of-the-united-nations-entity-for-gender-equality-and-the-empowerment-of-women

[2] UNEG, “Norms for evaluation in the UN system”, 2005, available online at: http://www.unevaluation. org/document/detail/21, and “Standards for evaluation in the UN system”, 2005, available online at: http://www.unevaluation.org/document/detail/22.

[3] UNEG, “Ethical guidelines”, 2008, available online at: http://www.unevaluation.org/document/detail/102.

[4] Guidance on Country Portfolio Evaluations in UN Women: https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2016/3/guidance-on-country-portfolio-evaluations-in-un-women

Duties and Responsibilities

Reporting directly to the Regional Evaluation Specialist (RES) and under the overall support and guidance of the JCO Country Representative. The Evaluator will be expected to support the Team Leader and the international consultant and carry out the following responsibilities:

• Provide country contextual advice and support to the evaluation team leader for designing and delivering contextually relevant and sensitive Country Portfolio Evaluation
• Support inception phase through initial desk review, analysis of available reference material, and in-depth stakeholder analysis based on agreed criteria;
• Liaise with the country stakeholders and assist in the country data collection by conducting interviews and focused group discussions as advised by the team leader;
• Attend and support the preparation of all meetings and presentations;
• Support the analysis of the evidence for the report and support the drafting of various sections of the country evaluation report.

Deliverables

Timelines

Anticipated Deadlines

1. Evaluation Design and Inception Report:

• Conduct a desk review of core documents required for undertaking the assignment (Orientation);
• Support the preparation and execution of CPE inception;
• Contribute towards the inception report with relevant methodology and data collection instruments to deliver a contextually relevant and sensitive CPE.

4 days

8th April 2022

2. Data Collection:

• Conduct data collection including interviews, focus group discussions, and other data collection methods.

7 days

31 May 2022

3. Preliminary Data Analysis, Draft Report, and Briefing:

• · Develop data coding and analysis process through selected software/methods;
• · Carry out analysis of collected data and development of preliminary findings paper/PPT that meet IES quality standards, to be presented to stakeholders.

7 days

First week of July 2022

4. Final Data Analysis and Final Evaluation Report:

• Contribute to the drafting and editing of the evaluation report, including making necessary revisions based on comments received from the Team Leader and other evaluation stakeholders;
• Conduct any additional analysis required to address relevant comments received or gaps identified;
• Finalize evaluation report based on feedback received to meet IES quality standards (GERAAS);
• Contribute towards the Evaluation Brief and the final PPT based on the evaluation report executive summary;
• Support and present evaluation report where relevant

7 days

End of July 2022

Competencies

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

Core Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies

§ Ability to think, analyze and articulate strategically on programme development and results-based management

§ Ability to facilitate meetings with different levels of stakeholders

§ Excellent drafting and writing skills to produce and present concise and analytical discussion papers.

§ Knowledge in results-based programming in support of gender and human rights

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• At least a Master’s degree in sociology, international development, social sciences, gender studies, or other related areas.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of professional experience of working on gender equality and women’s empowerment related issues;
• Minimum 7 years experience of conducting evaluations;
• Experience of gender analysis and human rights-based approaches;
• Technical knowledge in monitoring and evaluation, results-based management;
• Previous experience of working with UN agencies and the UN system is an asset;
• Knowledge of the role of UN Women and its programming, coordination, and normative roles is an asset;
• Data collection and analysis skills;
• Evaluation report writing skills; and
• Process management skills, including facilitation and communication skills with stakeholders.

Language Requirements:

• Fluent in English and Arabic, written and spoken

Application:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from. https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process . Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits employ, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided?on the basis of?qualifications, competence, integrity, and organizational need.?

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.?

UN Women?has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination.? All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel 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.)?