Background

In accordance with United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) policies and procedures, all full and medium-sized UNDP support GEF financed projects are required to undergo a terminal evaluation upon completion of implementation. These terms of reference (TOR) sets out the expectations for a Terminal Evaluation (TE) of the Integrating climate change risks into the agriculture and health sectors in Samoa (ICCRAHS) Project.

There are a variety of critical climate change induced impacts on Samoa.  One of these is the increased prevalence of climate-related water-borne, vector-borne, and food-borne diseases which add substantive strain to an already over-burdened public health system. These impacts are compounded by adverse climate effects on agriculture and food security, which are particularly related to failing crops in conditions of increasing average temperatures and rising groundwater salinity levels. Against this backdrop, agricultural planners in Samoa lack the information and experience necessary to design long-term food security strategies and projects that focus on diversified crop choices and resilient farming methods. The health sector lacks a systematic monitoring system to analyze the connection between climate-related trends and events and specific patterns and dynamics of disease prevalence, which translates into an insufficient knowledge base for the effective allocation of financial resources to growing climate-related health risks. These aspects are compounded by capacity gaps with policy-makers and sector planners at all levels, which makes it difficult to systematically support climate-resilience in policy and investment decisions.

In order to address these challenges, the Government of Samoa proposes an integrated approach to address climate change impacts in the agriculture and health sectors. The project focuses on the enhancement of organizational and technical capabilities in the Samoa Meteorology Division to monitor climate trends and provide regular, timely and accurate climate risk and early warning information to agricultural extension and public health services.  The project will strengthen the capabilities of Samoa’s public health workers and agricultural planners to make use of climate risk information and adopt measures that increase the resilience of communities to climate-induced food security and disease risks. Demonstration of adaptive crop management and climate-related disease prevention in four high-risk districts will provide a knowledge base to catalyze increasingly resilient policy and investment decisions in Samoa, and enable replication and up-scaling of project lessons within the country and in the wider Pacific region.

Project components:

The ICCRAHS project consists of four major components:

  • Enhancing Technical and Organizational Capabilities of the Samoa Meteorological Division.  These capabilities will help Samoa monitor climate change risks, and provide early warning communications to the agricultural and health sectors. 
  • Improving Samoa’s Capacity to Perform Short-Term (Seasonal) and Long-Term (Decadal) Agricultural Planning, and Crop Management.  A long-term strategy for agricultural diversification and integration of climate resilience will be incorporated into Samoa’s National Agricultural Sector Plan.  There will also be targeted capacity building in agricultural planning.
  • Strengthening Samoa’s Capacity in Public Health.  Public health planner and worker capacities will be strengthened to reduce the impact of climate change on this sector. 
  • Enhancing Learning, Evaluation and Adaptive Management.  Project lessons will be added to the Adaptation Learning Mechanism on a continual basis.  Information will also be shared with other climate-sensitive sectors in Samoa. 

These components will ensure that Samoa’s public health workers and agricultural planners have the information necessary to remain aware of, assess, and respond to climate risks.  This will increase the resilience of local communities to climate-induced food security and disease risks.  Demonstrations of adaptive crop management and climate-related disease prevention will also provide a knowledge base to facilitate climate adaptation investments and policies.

Duties and Responsibilities

The objectives of the evaluation are to assess the achievement of project results, and to draw lessons that can both improve the sustainability of benefits from this project, and aid in the overall enhancement of UNDP programming.  Specific objectives include:

  • Assess extent of achievements of projects outputs and results including extent of implementation of  Mid-Term Evaluation recommendations;
  • Examine current level of impact and sustainability of results, including the contribution to institutional strengthening, biodiversity conservation and conservation friendly livelihood promotion, and the achievement of global and national environmental goals;
  • Identify and document lessons learned and make recommendations that will maximize the impact of the project and also to provide evidences to improve design and implementation of similar projects in near future;
  • Identify an exit strategy for the project by linking its products to other ongoing initiatives.

The evaluator is expected to frame the evaluation effort using the criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and impact, as defined and explained in the UNDP Guidance for Conducting Terminal Evaluations of  UNDP-supported, GEF-financed Projects.  

The evaluation must provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable and useful. The evaluator is expected to follow a participatory and consultative approach ensuring close engagement with government counterparts, in particular the GEF operational focal point, UNDP Country Office, project team, UNDP GEF Technical Adviser based in the region and key stakeholders. The evaluator is expected to conduct a field mission to Samoa and Niue visiting the relevant project sites. Interviews will be held with the following organizations and individuals at a minimum: (UNDP, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, national Health Services, Ministry of Health, SPC, Ministry of Women).

The evaluator will review all relevant sources of information, such as the project document, project reports – including Annual APR/PIR, project budget revisions, midterm review, progress reports, GEF focal area tracking tools, project files, national strategic and legal documents, and any other materials that the evaluator considers useful for this evidence-based assessment.

Evaluation timeframe:

The total duration of the evaluation will be 30 working days according to the following plan:

  • Preparation (3 days, deadline 21 November);
  • Evaluation mission (15 days, deadline 6 December);
  • Draft evaluation report (8 days, 10 January);
  • Final report (4 days, 20 January) .

Evaluation deliverables:

The evaluation team is expected to deliver the following:

  • Inception report (to be submitted to UNDP CO at the end of the evaluation mission), inclusive of clarifications on timing and method;
  • Presentation (to be submitted to the project management and to UNDP CO at the end of the evaluation mission), inclusive of initial findings;
  • Draft final report (to be submitted to UNDP CO, reviewed by RTA, PCU, GEF OFPs within 3 weeks from the evaluation mission),based on the template annexed to the TORs and complete of annexes;
  • Final report (to be submitted to UNDP CO within 1 week from receiving UNDP comments on draft), inclusive of revisions based on comments.

Competencies

Technical Competencies:

  • Ability to efficiently cover the evaluation of GEF and AF projects;
  • Ability to advise on the development and implementation of climate change adaptation projects;
  • Demonstrated understanding of the implications of climate change on key sectors and ability to provide guidance on the integration of climate risk management and, development of long term and medium term responses to climate change;
  • Ability to work with multiple stakeholders across a wide range of disciplines.

Corporate Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning 

  • Promotes knowledge management in UNDP and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example;  
  • In-depth practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues;  
  • Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more Practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;  
  • Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside of UNDP.  

Development and Operational Effectiveness 

  • Ability to lead strategic planning, change processes, results-based management and reporting;  
  • Ability to lead formulation, oversight of implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development projects;  
  • Ability to apply development theory to the specific country context to identify creative, practical approaches to overcome challenging situations.  

Management and Leadership 

  • Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;  
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;  
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;  
  • Effective leadership, mentoring as well as conflict resolution skills;  
  • Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;  
  • Remains calm, in control and good humoured even under pressure;  
  • Proven networking, team-building, organizational and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Masters degree in Environmental Sciences, Development Economics, Energy, Public Finance, Environmental Law or other closely-related field.

Experience:

  • Minimum 10 years of relevant professional experience with strong technical background and proven competency in climate change adaptation and development issues in the Pacific related areas of natural resource management, including demonstrable expertise in project formulation, implementation and evaluation
  • Previous experience with results-based monitoring and evaluation methodologies;
  • Work experience in an international organization is an advantage, as is knowledge of UNDP policies and procedures;
  • Previous experience with GEF mechanisms will be an asset;
  • Previous work experience in the Pacific, working experience in Samoa would be an asset.

Language  Requirements:

  • Excellent knowledge of the English language, with exceptional writing, presentation and communication skills.

Important note:

Qualified candidates are requested to apply by the 6th of November 2013 by sending their application packages to procurement.ws@undp.org with the subject line “Integrating Climate Change Risks into the Agriculture and Health Sectors in Samoa”.

The application should contain:

Terms of Reference

Please click on link below to access the Terms of Reference for this position.

http://www.ws.undp.org/content/dam/samoa/docs/ad/UNDP_WS_TOR_ICCRAHS_TE.pdf.