Senior evaluation expert - International Consultant

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EG Home-based; Egypt

Application deadline 2 years ago: Thursday 24 Jun 2021 at 23:59 UTC

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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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, the UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world.

The Independent Evaluation Service (IES) of the Independent Evaluation and Audit Services (IEAS) conducts and managers corporate and selected decentralized evaluations to assess UN Women’s contribution to gender equality and women’s empowerment at global, regional, and country levels. IES is seeking for an evaluation consultant to support the conduct of a planned Mid-term Evaluation of Promoting Productive Employment and Decent Work for Women in Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine: Joint Programme of ILO and UN Women. Access the detailed MTE ToR and supportive Annexes here JP MTE ToR & Annexes.

The Joint Programme is a four-year (2019 -2022), multi-country Programme to promote decent employment opportunities for women in Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine by addressing the structural causes of inequalities that women face in the region. The JP aims to address the underlying, structural causes of inequalities that hinder women from entering and progressing in the workplace on an equal footing to men.

Evaluation purpose and objectives

The purpose of this mid-term evaluation is twofold- a) accountability, to assess the overall performance of the programme and achievement against the planned results; b) learning, by studying the nature and processes of interventions to determine which strategies and elements are working well and in which context for replicating or scaling-up the successful interventions and innovations. Learning will also be focused on identifying what is not working so well and why in order to guide the JP’s mid-course correction and future programming to ensure that the programmatic results are met. The evaluation is primarily formative in nature but will include summative elements within the scope.

Specifically, the objectives of this evaluation are to:

  • Analyze the relevance of the programme objectives, intervention logic, strategy, and approach at the national and regional level as well as UN Women and ILO’s collaborative comparative advantage/added value in this area;
  • Assess the programme effectiveness in achieving the planned programme outputs and outcomes; including unexpected results and factors affecting programme implementation and results (positively and negatively);
  • Assess the joint programme management efficiency, partnerships, governance, and coordination mechanisms including the regional-level Joint Programme Strategic Coordination Committee (JPSCC) and the National Joint Programme Steering Committees (NJPSC) in progressing towards the achievement of the programme results;
  • Review the strategies and mechanisms for outcomes’ sustainability in the target countries as well as at the regional level;
  • Assess the extent to which the programme is informed of gender and human rights-based approach and is contributing towards gender transformative changes to advance and sustain Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE);
  • Assess the coherence of the Joint programme with other interventions at the country and regional level- complementarity, coordination, and harmonisation with other sector players, institutions, and programmes to add value while avoiding duplication of effort;
  • Identify and document lessons learned, good practices and innovations, success stories, and challenges within the programme, to inform mid-course correction and future programmes; and
  • Provide strategic recommendations for the different key stakeholders to improve implementation of the project activities and attainment of project objectives.

The evaluation will follow and apply UNEG gender equality-related Norms and Standards for evaluation, and UNEG Guidance on Integrating Human Rights and Gender Equality in Evaluation during all phases of the evaluation. The evaluation is to be conducted in line with the UNEG Code of Conduct for Evaluations in the UN System, UN Women evaluation guidelines on “How To Manage Gender-Responsive Evaluation” handbook, and Pocket tool for managing gender responsive evaluation during Covid 19. The evaluation will be required to adhere to the UN Women GERAAS evaluation report quality checklist.

Duties and Responsibilities

The evaluation will be led by the UN Women Regional Evaluation Specialist (RES) of the UN Women Arab States Regional Office (ROAS) and the team members will include a senior evaluation expert to support the evaluation lead in designing and delivering the evaluation products; three national evaluators to provide key contextual knowledge and support in-country data collection and analysis; a research assistant for supporting overall data collection, analysis, report and presentation preparation.

Under the supervision of the Regional Evaluation Specialist, the senior evaluation expert will perform the following responsibilities:

  • Provide technical and methodological support to the evaluation team leader for designing and delivering appropriate evaluation design and methodology;
  • Act as a thematic lead for the themes covered in the programme;
  • Support evaluation preparatory phase including facilitation of the inception workshop and preparation of the inception report with appropriate evaluation methodology and design, data collection tools, stakeholder mapping etc;
  • Lead data collection missions in the region and in at least two selected countries with the national evaluators;
  • Support the preparation of all evaluation deliverables, including the analyses and synthesis of evaluation evidence and reports drafting;
  • Support the validation meetings with various stakeholders at the country and regional level;
  • Support the preparation of evaluation knowledge and communication products.

Deliverables

Proposed Timelines

Draft Inception report: contribute towards the inception workshop and develop the inception report with refined scope, detailed evaluation design and methodology, evaluation matrix, stakeholder mapping, data collection tools, data collection, and analysis plans. The report will include a detailed work plan.

June 2021

Final inception report: addressing comments and feedback from the Evaluation Management Group (EMG), Evaluation Reference Group (ERG), and the IEAS.

June 2021

Data collection and analysis: covering the region and at least two countries. Analyze the data for the report.

July- August 2021

Presentation of preliminary findings to Regional Joint Programme Strategic Coordination Committee (JPSCC), National Joint Programme Steering Committees (NJPSC), and ERG members. Incorporate the feedback received into the draft report.

End of September 2021

Draft evaluation report: first draft report covering the evaluation background, methodology, limitations, three-country chapters, and a regional chapter with findings, conclusions, lessons learned, and recommendations following the UN Women Evaluation Global Evaluation Reports Assessment and Analysis System (GERAAS) guidelines.

October 2021

Final evaluation report: The final report addressing comments and feedback from the EMG, ERG, and the IEAS. The report length will be a maximum of 65 pages, including three country chapters (approx. 15 pages/ country chapter), and a regional chapter (approx. 15 pages). In addition, the report will include a concise Executive Summary and annexes detailing the methodological approach/analytical products developed during the course of the evaluation.

November 2021

Evaluation communication products: A PowerPoint/Prezi presentation of the final key evaluation findings and recommendations, and a 2-pager/infographics on the final key findings, lessons learned, and recommendations.

By December 2021

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/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

Functional Competencies

  • Strong technical knowledge of the different components of evaluation, including evaluation design, data collection and analysis, and reporting;
  • Ability to use analytical software such as Nvivo;
  • Substantive knowledge of gender-responsive evaluation, respective methodological approaches;
  • Ability to synthesize evaluative information and to write clear, concise, and logical evaluation reports;
  • Excellent ability to communicate with a diverse range of stakeholders;
  • Ability to plan and manage tasks and participate in the supervision of evaluation teams;
  • Excellent oral skills and written communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • At least a master’s degree in international development, gender/women studies, social sciences, public policy, or related field.

Experience:

  • At least 10-years proven experience in conducting gender-responsive evaluations of women’s economic empowerment and decent work programmes/interventions specifically related to the focus of the JP- Gender and Decent work, gender-responsive labor laws and related policies, its operationalisation, gender-responsive budgeting, and/or gender-responsive Private sector and/or gender roles and unpaid care;
  • A strong record in designing and leading evaluations and proven experience in using the Theory of change evaluation approach, evaluating normative, policy, advocacy work, and experience in participative evaluation techniques;
  • Extensive knowledge of, and experience in applying, qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods and use of data analysis software such as Nvivo;
  • Excellent analytical, facilitation, communications, and writing skills;
  • Proven ability to interact with a wide range of stakeholders; and
  • Process management skills, including facilitation presentations and communication skills.
  • Knowledge of ILO’s roles and mandate and its tripartite structure, the role of UN Women and its programming, coordination, and normative roles at the regional and country-level as well as familiarity with The Women’s Empowerment Principles is highly desirable;
  • Country or regional experience in the Arab States region is highly desirable Past experience of conducting evaluations for UN agencies is highly desirable.

Language Requirements:

  • Fluency in English is required;
  • Working Knowledge of Arabic or French would be an asset.

Evaluation Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the financial evaluation.

Criteria Weight Technical: 70% (70 points)

The candidates will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • Education Qualification (15%)
  • Experience (40%)
  • Quality of 2 written samples (must be a sample where the applicant was directly responsible for writing and demonstrating analytical skills) demonstrating analysis from a gender perspective (15%)

Financial: Lowest Financial Proposal: 30% (30 points)

The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

  • Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical);
  • The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula: (Lowest Bid Offered*)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30;
  • 'Lowest Bid Offered' refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Application:

Interested Individual Consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

  • A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy explaining your suitability for the work and link to portfolio of work;
  • UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
  • Personal CV; and Financial proposal; Proposed inclusive daily rate;
  • Two evaluation reports where the consultant was directly responsible for conducting the evaluation and writing the report demonstrating writing and analytical skills;
  • Two professional references can be contacted.

The above-mentioned documents should be merged in a standalone file including all of them since the online application submission does only permit uploading one file per application. Incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality, and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW, and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

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