Background
The gef expects to ensure that its projects are monitored and evaluated regularly. By this exercise, gef aims to promote accountability for achievement of gef objectives through the assessment of results, effectiveness, processes and performance of the partners involved in gef activities. The results need to be monitored and evaluated for their contribution to global environmental benefits. The mte is intended to assess the relevance, performance and success of the menarid project.The menarid - institutional strengthening and coherence in integrated natural resources management project has an overall objective to contribute to the removal of barriers to climate-resilient integrated natural resources management (inrm) in Iran by providing coordination mechanisms, policies, and inventories of good practice, degradation assessments and capacity building. Participatory, gender sensitive, community-driven demonstration activities are undertaken in four watersheds, representing a range of dryland situations. The expected outcomes from project’s substantive and complementary components include:
- Enhanced engendered knowledge and understanding of the drivers of land-use change causing land, ecosystem and water degradation with consequent impacts on ecosystem services and local livelihoods;
- An enabling environment for inrm and the use of the enhanced knowledge; and
- Community-driven, climate-resilient approaches and techniques for sustainable land and water management demonstrated through inrm practices.
Duties and Responsibilities
The MTE is intended to identify potential project design and implementation problems, assess progress towards the achievement of planned objectives and outputs, including the generation of global environmental benefits, identify and document lessons learned. the MTE is also expected to serve as a means of validating or filling the gaps in the initial assessment of relevance, effectiveness and efficiency obtained from regular project monitoring. while looking into any delays in completion of planned outputs, the MTE will also make recommendations on programmatic and technical issues requiring course corrections.Main responsibilities of the MTE team will be to:
- Assess the relevance of proposed strategies and activities as mentioned in the project document (prodoc) and recommend changes, if necessary;
- Review the indicators given in the prodoc, assess their relevance and recommend changes, if necessary;
- Review project performance in terms of the physical and financial progress against the targets as planned under various project components, and assess to what extent the physical targets have been met;
- Hold detailed consultations with the concerned staff and committees at the national, provincial, township and demonstration sites as well as the community institutions, individual families and other beneficiaries that are involved in implementation of the project;
- Review the efficiency of project management and execution, its organizational setup,? its functioning and decision-making process, including financial management and delivery of inputs;
- Assess whether the activities undertaken contribute towards addressing land degradation, biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation and improve the livelihoods of the target communities;
- Identify, analyze, and record major factors that have facilitated or impeded the progress in achieving the intended outcomes and outputs;
- Analyze the level of stakeholders involvement and if appropriate suggest ways and means to enhance local level stakeholders participation in on-the-ground project implementation;
- Review achievements of the project in terms of its contribution towards capacity building, institutional strengthening, and creating enabling environment;
- Determine best practices and lessons learned under the project that need to be scaled-up during the second half of the project;
- Conduct critical analysis of the institutional arrangements at different levels and make recommendations for their further strengthening and sustainability; and
- Provide concrete recommendations for the way forward for promoting institutional strengthening and coherence in INRM at national, provincial and local levels.
- Inception report—an inception report should be prepared by the evaluators before going into the full fledged evaluation exercise. It should detail the evaluators’ understanding of what is being evaluated and why, showing how each evaluation question will be answered by way of: proposed methods; proposed sources of data; and data collection procedures. the inception report should include a proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables;
- Presentation(s) to key stakeholders: a presentation will be made within 7 days after completing the field visits to all major stakeholders on conduct of the mte and its preliminary findings in Tehran. attendance at the presentations will include representatives of local communities, government, project team, the pb members, relevant ngos, other local and national stakeholders as well as representatives from frwo, moja and undp;
- Draft evaluation report—the evaluation team should submit draft report in English and Persian within 15 days after completing the field visits in the format given in guidance on gef project review criretia and explanation of terminology in the following pages. undp,pmu and key stakeholders will review the draft evaluation report to ensure that the evaluation meets the required quality criteria;
- Final evaluation report. the main final output of the review will be an independent and comprehensive report with annexes as needed. the main report should not exceed 50 pages;
- 1st instalment (20 %) on submission of inception report;
- 2nd instalment (40%) on submission of 1st draft of the review report based on the tasks mentioned above and presentation of findings in stakeholders’ meeting as agreed by the undp;
- 3rd instalment (40%) after submission and approval of the final report by the undp.
Competencies
Core competencies- Integrity: demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN in actions and decisions, in line with the UN code of conduct;
- Professionalism: demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work, including the community-based approach and participatory management and planning;
- Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity: demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the project and its team; appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.
- Planning and organizing: Ability to achieve outcomes in limited period of time, establish priorities and meet strict deadlines with limited resources;
- Coordination and monitoring: Ability to build strong relationships with clients and focus on impact and results; demonstrated aptitude to work effectively with a diverse group of stakeholders; capacity to provide recommendations on future monitoring and evaluation activities in the project; mentor project staff and provide guidance and support during the assignment and for future improvement of project;
- Communications and language: compelling (verbal and written) communication skills including ability to prepare reports, formulate and defend sound recommendations and articulate opinions concisely conveying maximum necessary information.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:- Master’s degree/phd in natural resource management or related areas.
- Minimum work experience of at least 10 years (preferably in GEF projects/programme);
- Prior experience in Mid-term/Final evaluation of GEF projects;
- Community-based work experience preferred;
- Prior experience of working in Iran is an asset;
- Experience in MENA region is an asset .
Language:
- Outstanding oral and written communication and presentation skills in English.