In accordance with its core priority to advance women’s economic security and rights worldwide the UN Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN Women) has been active in the Republic of Moldova since 2003 supporting both national and local level initiatives with regards to gender equality and women’s human rights. Since 2007 UN Women’s work within the program supported by Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) highlighted the need to focus on women’s economic empowerment due to persisting local practices, policies and laws that are affecting or diminishing women’s employability leading to inadequate respect for and fulfilment of  women’s human rights and gender equality, especially in rural and sub-urban areas.

In November 2009 UN Women with generous funding from SIDA launched a program “Women’s Economic Empowerment through increasing Employability in the Republic of Moldova” aimed at addressing the needs of the rural and sub-urban population, especially poor women in exercising their social and economic rights through increasing access to quality information and services in employment and social protection areas. This was planned to be achieved through improving local services, building capacity of the relevant institutions as well as improving policy and legislation based on the gaps identified through their practical application on the ground. The program was designed to be fulfilled within four years in line with the Government priorities set for 2009-2013 as well as the reforms launched by the State in the areas of labour market and social protection.

In accordance with UN Women Evaluation Policy, a mid-term evaluation is mandatory for programmes with a budget over 3 million USD. Hence UN Women Sub-Regional office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia (UN Women EECA SRO) is commissioning a mid-term independent external evaluation of the programme to assess programme’s progress towards its results and suggest any adjustments for its further implementation.

The specific objectives of the mid-term evaluation are:

• Assess the programme’s progress towards promoting increased rate of employed and economically active women in rural and sub-urban areas of Moldova practicing their social and economic rights.
• Asses the programme’s contribution to the capacity of key service delivery and media institutions in implementing policies at the local level that promote and protect women’s human rights to access employment and social protection.
• Assess the extent of progress towards ensuring that the gender equality (GE) commitments are translated into labour and social protection laws/by laws, policies and plans as a result of the mainstream actions undertaken by the programme.
• Assess the effectiveness of the strategies employed by the programme and provide recommendations on future work, including innovative approaches that could be upscaled and replicated by UN Women  and its partners.
• Provide analysis of efficiency of project management and provision of recommendations for management of the programmes’ next stage.

It is expected that the results of the evaluation will be used as significant inputs for the following:

• Strategic planning and management of the next stage of the programme.
• To replicate the expertise and knowledge generated by the project for the implementing of similar projects in the region embraced by UN Women EECA SRO activities.
• The lessons learned and recommendations to be provided to the members of the Programme Steering Committee comprised by the relevant state agencies, academia and NGOs for sustaining the strong coordination and linkages among the central level and regional level authorities obtained through project results.
• The use of participatory tools and instruments during the evaluation is expected to be a strong asset to contribute to the strengthening of the ownership feeling over the programme results among the beneficiaries and the stakeholders.

The geographic area of the evaluation activity is the city of Chisinau, the Republic of Moldova, with travel to four pilot rayons, Singerei, Telenesti, Nisporeni and Cantemir where program activities were implemented. The evaluation team will elaborate the selection criteria to ensure geographic diversity and representation. 

The evaluation will address the criteria of Programme Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Sustainability. For detailed Terms of Reference for the Mid Term Evaluation of the UN Women Programme Women’s Economic Empowerment through increasing Employability in the Republic of Moldova (30 November 2009 – 30 November 2013) please visit UN Women EECA website under Announcments section (http://unwomen-eeca.org/en/announcements/).

The evaluation will be based on the methodology described below, which will be further discussed with the Programme partners and validated by the UN Women SRO EECA in consultation with the UN Women Evaluation Unit. The proposed methodology employs results-oriented approach and integrates human rights and gender equality into the evaluation.

The methodology for the final evaluation shall include the following:

1. Preliminary desk reviews of all relevant documents on the programme, the programme document, LogFrame, implementation plan, monitoring reports, donor reports (inception report, progress reports), existing national and international reports on gender equality status, etc.
2. This will be done prior to any field visit, focus group discussion, or individual interviews. Preliminary discussions with the programme staff from UN Women EECA SRO and WEE project unit will also take place within this period.
3. Field visits at different stages of the process; focus groups with disadvantaged/difficult to reach women’s groups.
4. Individual and group discussions, in-depth interviews with key partners: a series of semi-structured interviews and focus groups with the programme management staff, national partners, counterparts, beneficiaries are envisaged to be conducted under this stage. This can include survey among participants of various capacity building trainings and events undertaken by the programme since its start. It can include participants of major trainings organized by the programme in the areas of gender and gender mainstreaming, gender statistics, gender responsible budgeting, etc.

Expected Results and Timeframe

As a logical result of the completion of the desk review it is expected that the Evaluation Team will submit an inception report, which contains evaluation objectives and scope, description of evaluation methodology/methodological approach, data collection tools, data analysis methods, key informants/agencies, evaluation questions, performance criteria, issues to be studied, work plan and reporting requirements.

As a result of the completion of the field visits and surveys and interviews with the partners, it is envisaged that several key products will be submitted, namely: Progress Report of the Field work to the UN Women Sub-Regional office and key internal and external stakeholders, Power Point presentation and an outline  on preliminary findings, lessons learned, and recommendations, Draft full report highlighting key evaluation findings and conclusions, lessons learned and recommendations (shall be done in a specific format). The draft report will be discussed with the national partners to ensure participation and involvement of the national stakeholders.

Afterwards a Final evaluation report and five-page executive summary are expected to be submitted to the UN Women Sub-Regional office incorporating all comments and feedback collected from all partners involved.

“Quality Criteria for UN Women evaluation reports” should be followed (http://erc.undp.org/unwomen/resources/guidance/Guidance%20Note%20-%20Quality%20Criteria%20for%20Evaluation%20Reports.pdf;jsessionid=29976B8B347BD52EB161D8E7CB7DFC94). These quality criteria are intended to serve as a guide for preparing meaningful, useful and credible evaluation reports.  It does not prescribe a definite format that all evaluation reports should follow but rather indicates the contents that need to be included in quality reports.

Format of the final evaluation report shall include the following chapters: Executive Summary (maximum five pages), Programme description, Evaluation purpose, Evaluation methodology, Findings, Lessons learnt, Recommendations and Annexes (including interview list, data collection instruments, key documents consulted, Terms of Reference).

The return travel to Moldova, accommodation, daily subsistence, will be paid for the period of Evaluator’s work in Moldova. Translation/interpretation, secretarial assistance will be provided to the international evaluation consultant during his/her stay in Moldova.

Product & Activity / Estimated number of working days

Stage 1  Key product – preliminary desk reviews, discussions with partners and inception report. 
Desk review and Inception report of the evaluation team, which includes the evaluation methodology and the timing of activities and deliverables -  4 w.d.

Stage 2    Key Product – Evaluation Report. 
Data collection (including field work) - 8 w.d.
Progress Report of the Field work to UN Women EECA Sub-regional office and key internal and external stakeholders - 2 w.d.
Outline and a Power Point presentation on preliminary findings, lessons learned, and recommendations. 
Draft full report highlighting key evaluation findings and conclusions, lessons and recommendations.
Virtual consultations by the evaluator with the key programme partners and stakeholders shall take place to validate the key findings of the report and collect feedback and recommendations to inform the final evaluation report - 10 w.d.
Final evaluation report and five-page executive summary - 10 w.d.

TOTAL number of working days: 30

The UN Women EECA Sub-Regional Office will manage the mid-term evaluation under overall supervision of the UN Women EECA Sub-Regional Programme Director and guidance from Programme Monitoring and Reporting Specialist.  During the evaluation process, the SRO office will consult with UN Women Evaluation Office, as may be necessary.  Coordination in the field including logistical support will be the responsibility of the Moldova  Programme Team.

This is a consultative/participatory mid-term evaluation with a strong learning component. The management of the evaluation will ensure that key stakeholders will be consulted.

Evaluation should be conducted following the UNEG norms and standards and UN Women evaluation guidelines.

After the completion of the mid-term evaluation, a final stage of the process will take place, including the dissemination strategy for sharing the lessons learnt, and the management response of the mid-term evaluation results. These activities will be managed by the UN Women EECA Sub-Regional Office.

Evaluation of submitted proposals:

Evaluation of experience, skills and technical proposal:

Nr. / Criteria / Maximum points

• At least a master’s degree in economics, sociology, international development, gender/women studies or related areas. A special training in Monitoring and Results Based Management is considered an asset - 50 pts;
• 3 years of working experience in evaluation, and at least 1 in evaluation of development programmes. Experience in evaluation of programs with budget over USD 1 million - 50 pts;
• 2 years of experience and background on gender equality and economic policy - 50 pts;
• Familiarity with the political, economic and social situation in the Republic of Moldova - 20 pts;
• Proficiency in English and Moldovan, Russian is an asset (English – 20; English and Moldovan – 30) - 30 pts;
• Ability to produce well written reports demonstrating analytical ability and communication skill. Proven ability to undertake self-directed research (through submitted sample report/project document or relevant Deliverables) - 40 pts;
• Interview (Experience in participatory approach, facilitation skills and ability to manage diversity of views in different cultural contexts – 10 points; integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standards – 10 points; cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability – 10 points) - 30 pts;
• Technical proposal highlighting approach to the evaluation and brief description of the methodology to be applied - 80 pts.

Maximum total technical scoring: 350

Only candidates who reached at least 245 points will be qualified for financial evaluation.

Winning candidate

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Submission package

All online applications must include (as ONE attachment):

• Personal CV including all qualifications and past experience in similar projects;
• Technical Proposal highlighting approach to the evaluation and brief description of the methodology to be applied. Brief explanation of how the Evaluator meets the specified criteria should also be included.
• Financial Proposal: Each applicant will be required to submit an aggregated financial offer (“aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of the task with detailed breakdown of expected honorarium, economy class travel and per diem for in-country stay related to 5-days mission to Moldova).  The evaluator shall bare costs for all supplies needed for data collection and data processing including possession of his own personal computer. 

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standards. 
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability. 
• Familiarity with the political, economic and social situation in the Republic of Moldova.
  

Composition, Skills and Experience of the Evaluation Team

A team of external international evaluator and national consultant will undertake the evaluation, having experience linked to evaluation, gender equality and economic policy with specific knowledge of gender responsive planning, budgeting and monitoring.

Here are key requirements to the National Evaluator with specific tasks to support overall work of the International Evaluator.

Required Skills and Experience:

• At least a master’s degree in economics, sociology, international development, gender/women studies or related areas. A special training in Monitoring and Results Based Management is considered an asset.
• 3 years of working experience in evaluation, and at least 1 in evaluation of development programmes.
• A strong record in designing and leading evaluations and experience in evaluation of programs with budget over USD 1million.
• 2 years of experience and background on gender equality and economic policy.
• Experience in participatory approach in evaluation and ability to manage diversity of views in different cultural contexts.
• Ability to produce well written reports demonstrating analytical ability and communication skill. Proven ability to undertake self-directed research.

Language Requirements:

• Fluent in English and Romanian, Russian is an asset.

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.