Senior National Consultant

Contract

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Result of Service

The final evaluation will be conducted to examine the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and likelihood of impact of the PSDP and the coherence of the UN development system. This evaluation will also identify strengths and weaknesses in the programme design, strategy, and implementation as well as lessons learned, good practices, and recommendations. The objective of these learnings is to assess the PSDP from a programmatic perspective, what has worked what has not what needs to be improved, as to the effectiveness and efficiency of implementing it as a joint programme between the participating UN organizations - PUNOs. The evaluation will comply with the UNEG guidelines and principles.

Work Location

Remotely

Expected duration

3.5 months

Duties and Responsibilities

The main goal of the UN joint Programme, the PSDP (Productive Sectors Development Programme), is to support gender-responsive job creation in the agriculture and agri-food sectors, with a focus on women and young females in disadvantaged areas. The PSDP operates on three levels: national policy, institutional support, and direct beneficiary support, aiming to create an inclusive and sustainable economic impact. Key outcomes from the programme includes improving the policy environment for women's economic empowerment, enhancing market access for small and medium enterprises, and increasing the capacity of farmers and cooperatives to create gender-equitable job opportunities and adopt sustainable practices. The programme aligns with and strengthens the 2023-2025 UN Cooperation Framework in Lebanon and involves collaboration with various Lebanese ministries and organizations. The UN plans a final independent evaluation of the PSDP to assess its effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and impact. The external consultant will draft an Inception Report, which should describe, provide reflection and fine-tuning of the following issues, programme background purpose, scope and beneficiaries of the evaluation, evaluation matrix, including criteria, questions, indicators, data source, and data collection methods, methodology and instruments, main deliverables, management arrangements, work plan and timeline, risks and limitations. Aiming to provide insights for future engagements in productive sectors and joint UN programming in Lebanon.

Duties and Responsibilities:

I. Kick-off meetings The consultant will have an initial consultation with the RCO, donor and relevant focal points from the participating UN organizations. The objective of the consultation is to reach a common understanding regarding changes in contextual background, the status of the programme, the evaluation methodology/approach, the priority assessment questions, available data sources and data collection instruments and an outline of the final assessment report. The following topics will be covered: status of logistical arrangements, programme background and materials, and key evaluation priorities.

II. Desk Review The consultant will review programme background materials before conducting interviews. Documents to review include Joint Programme Document, progress reports, studies, analytical papers, reports, tools, and publications produced, and any other relevant background notes.

III. Inception Report The external consultant will draft an Inception Report, which should describe, provide reflection and fine-tuning of the following issues: • Programme background • Purpose, scope and beneficiaries of the evaluation • Evaluation matrix, including criteria, questions, indicators, data source, and data collection methods • Methodology and instruments • Main deliverables • Management arrangements • Work plan and timeline • Risks and limitations

IV. Primary Data Collection Key Informant Interviews: Following the approval of the inception report, the consultant will conduct interviews with stakeholders & beneficiaries. The list of interviewees will be determined during the inception phase, but the preliminary list of organizations includes Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Economics & Trade, Ministry of Agriculture, IDAL, Berytech, IDRAC Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture of Tripoli and North Lebanon, RCO, UNIDO, UNDP, UNWOMEN, UNICEF, ILO, FAO, WFP, the donor and World Bank, as well as other relevant partners and key beneficiaries. Focus group discussions: Following the approval of the inception report, the consultant will conduct focus group discussions with beneficiaries across the different components of the programme including farmers, cooperatives, MSMEs and youth.

V. Preliminary finding presentation Upon completion of data collection, the consultant will provide a briefing of preliminary findings to the PSDP Steering Committee.

VI. Final Report a) The final report will follow the format below and be in a range of 35-45 pages in length, excluding the annexes: 1. Title page 2. Table of Contents, including List of Appendices, Tables 3. List of Acronyms or Abbreviations 4. Executive Summary with key findings, conclusions, and recommendations 5. Background and Programme Description 6. Purpose of Evaluation 7. Evaluation Methodology and Evaluation Questions 8. Key evaluation findings (organized by evaluation criteria) 9. A table presenting the key results (i.e. figures and qualitative results) achieved per objective (expected and unexpected) 10. Clearly identified conclusions (identifying which stakeholders are responsible and the time) 11. Lessons Learned 12. Good practices 13. Forward looking recommendations for UN joint programming and for support to productive sectors 14. Annexes (list of interviews, focus groups, TORs, list of documents consulted, good practices and lessons learned in prescribed template, etc.) b) The quality of the report will be assessed against UNEG Quality Checklist for Evaluation Reports.

The deliverables will be submitted in the English language:

Deliverable 1: Inception Report, including data collection tools. Deliverable 2: PowerPoint Presentation on preliminarily findings. Deliverable 3: Draft Evaluation Report. Deliverable 4: Final evaluation report with separate template for executive summary & templates for lessons learned and good practices fully filled in.

• http://www.unevaluation.org/document/detail/607

Qualifications/special skills

A master’s degree in economics, agriculture, agri-food, industry or any other related area is required. A Ph.D. is desirable.

All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. A minimum of ten years of professional work experience in field of economic policy making and development of policy recommendations and economic analysis reports is required. In-depth knowledge of the Lebanese economic context is required. Proven familiarity with and understanding of the international trade policy of Lebanon is required. Demonstrated experience in econometric modelling is desirable. Demonstrated experience in producing high-quality research reports is desirable. Proven work experience with international organizations and prior experience working with UN agencies is desirable.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat; and Arabic is a working language of ESCWA.

For this position, fluency in Arabic & English is required.

Note: “Fluency” equals a rating of ‘fluent’ in all four areas (speak, read, write, and understand) and “Knowledge of” equals a rating of ‘confident’ in two of the four areas.

Additional Information

Not available.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.