Background

UN Women has been implementing a project “Women for Equality, Peace and Development in Georgia” (WEPD) since 2010 with support of the Government of Norway. The aim of the project is to support the efforts and strengthen the capacities of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), conflict-affected and national minority women’s groups, other partners from civil society, and government to advance gender equality and women’s human rights in Georgia. The overarching goal of the project is to support the realization of gender equality and the reduction of feminized poverty through addressing women’s social, economic, and political needs, with particular focus on IDPs, and conflict-affected and national minority women’s groups. Towards this end, the project works at the three interdependent and mutually reinforcing levels:

• at national policy level, to ensure that strategies, policies, plans and budgets are in line with CEDAW and UN SC Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security (1325, et. al);
• at the level of national institutions, towards strengthening capacities to deliver better information and services for IDPs, conflict-affected and national minority women; and
• at the grassroots level, by supporting IDPs, conflict affected and national minority women’s groups and communities to organize and participate actively and effectively in influencing policies and decisions that affect their lives.

One of the intended outputs of the WEPD is to increase capacity of excluded groups of internally displaced, conflict-affected, and national minority women to demand and benefit from legal, social, and economic services. In the framework of the Project, in five administrative centres of Georgia: Rustavi, Gori, Kutaisi, Marneuli and Zugdidi in close collaboration with the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia (MIDPOTAR), and the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia (PDO), Legal Clinics have been established since April 2010 to provide IDP, conflict-affected and ethnic minority women and their family members, with free of charge legal aid, and follow up legal actions (including court representation when necessary). UN Women closely cooperates with the MIDPOTAR and PDO. 

Moreover, the project pays special attention to community mobilization. In the first phase of the WEPD project (implemented in 2010-2012) there has been effectively applied the social mobilization strategy resulting in the establishment of about 45 Self-Help Groups (SHG) of internally displaced and conflict affected persons. The groups involved 255 individuals (89% woman and 11% man) thus, reaching out to their families and more than 3 000 community members from 18 different villages in Georgia, including the Gali region of breakaway territory of Abkhazia, Georgia. Within the Project I phase under social mobilization strategy in total 52 small-scale projects, proposed by these SHGs, were funded in 2010-2012.

WEPD II continues to effectively apply the social mobilization methodology initiated under WEPD I by supporting the establishment of 30 new SHGs in 2013, as a result of which a further 181 individuals (87 per cent women) benefited. In total, the Project reached out to some 724 new community members from 19 different villages/communities to address issues of access to livelihoods, healthcare and social services. WEPD II has expanded the social mobilization methodology to new target groups of women from ethnic minorities in the Marneuli municipality of the Qvemo Qartli region. WEPD partner NGO Taso Foundation hired eight community workers who conduct regular community mappings to identify the needs of the most vulnerable groups within IDPs, conflict-affected persons and minority communities and directly work with mobilized women’s groups.  

In its ongoing activities at the policy level, the project pays special attention to the implementation of the National Action Plan adopted for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution #1325 on “Women, Peace and Security”. WEPD II has been significantly supporting national partners, especially the Gender Equality Council of the Parliament of Georgia in its coordinating role in the implementation of NAP 1325 in Georgia. Georgian NAP made significant achievement for the fulfillment of objective 5.5. - Coordination, monitoring and reporting (accountability) of National Action Plan implementation. For this purpose a National Coordinating Group (NCG) on the implementation of the NAP on UN SCR 1325, created in March 2012, continued to hold meetings with the chairing of the Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Chairperson of the GEC.

The Within the framework of the WEPD project study of social and healthcare policies and programs from the perspective of gender equality principles is being conducted. The project also supports women’s engagement in peace-building processes through promotion of people-to-people diplomacy initiatives.

As the II Phase of the Project has been ongoing during last 18 months, a mid-term review of the Programme has to be undertaken as agreed with the project donor the Government of Norway. The mid-term review will be conducted by an independent, external local consultant. The review will assess programmatic progress (and challenges) at the outcome level, with measurement of the output level achievements and gaps and how/to what extent these have affected outcome-level progress. It will consist of a desk review, visits in the regions, in-depth interviews with UN Women staff (at country level), and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders and beneficiaries. It will contribute to results-based management through a participatory approach that documents results achieved, challenges to progress, and contributions to the creation of a more conducive environment for addressing needs of internally displaced, conflict affected and ethnic minority women in Georgia.

The information generated by the review will be used by different stakeholders to contribute to building of the evidence base on effective strategies for addressing the needs of women IDPs, conflict affected and ethnic minority women and to facilitate UN Women’s strategic reflection and learning for programming on addressing the needs of IDP, conflict affected and ethnic minority women.

The mid-term review of the project is to be conducted externally by an independent (The evaluator should not have been involved in the design, implementation or the monitoring of the WEPD project; he/she should not have benefitted from the WEPD programme) hired national consultant with substantive support from UN Women CO Georgia. It is planned to be completed by October 2014.

The review will cover almost the 18-month project implementation period of January 2013– July 2014.

The review will be conducted in Georgia, where the project has been implemented, in the capital Tbilisi with a travel to Qvemo Qartli, Shida Qartli, Imereti and Samegrelo regions (the Project target regions) to collect data as defined by plan.

This mid-term review  will highly contribute to the final review of the WEPD project to be conducted by the December 2015. The review will also provide a valuable source for project redesign, if applicable, as well as will serve as a resource for future programming.

The review will examine all the relevant documents of WEPD project, including logical framework of the project, its Monitoring and Review Plan, annual work plan, mission reports, monitoring reports, annual and shorter-term status reports to donor, knowledge products produced in the frameworks of the project, etc. The review will interview all the key stakeholders involved in the WEPD project, including but not limited to UN Women staff, WEPD project team, WEPD project implementing partners (Women’s Information Centre, Taso Foundation), beneficiaries, government partners, etc.

The review will address the criteria of Project Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Sustainability and Impact. More specifically, the review will address the key review questions: 

• Relevance: a) How the programme design match the complexity of national structures, systems and decision-making processes? B) Is the programme design based on quality analysis, including gender and human rights based analysis, risk assessments, socio-cultural and political analysis and conflict assessments? 
• Effectiveness: To what extent did the Project reach the indicators and targets for the mid-term implementation of the project? What was not achieved in full and why?
• Efficiency: Have resources (financial, human, technical support, etc.) been allocated strategically to achieve the project outcomes?
• Sustainability: Is the programme aligned with government priorities and integrated into national plans and budgets?

To what extent were the capacities of government and participating national partners considered in the design of the programme and what steps are being taken to develop and/or reinforce the operating capacities of national partners during implementation? How was any resistance addressed?

What role has civil society – in particular women’s organizations – played in the planning, design, implementation and monitoring of the programme?

Duties and Responsibilities

In further details the duties and responsibilities of the national consultant will be as follows:

• Elaborate and submit the detailed work plan including the key activities, and timeframe of the assignment in close cooperation with the UN Women;
• Develop and submit the methodology including the desk research, analytical work, data collection mechanisms;
• Elaborate and finalize the data collection methodology such as guides, questioners/tools to be used with the key informants/interviewees;
• To conduct individual interviews and focus groups discussions if necessary with the relevant stakeholders;
• To prepare a Power Point Presentation and an outline on preliminary findings and present to the project team. The comments made should be incorporated in the final report;
• To produce and submit the final review report in English. Format of the final review report shall include the following chapters: Executive Summary (maximum five pages), Programme description, Review purpose, Review methodology, Findings, Lessons learnt, Recommendations and Annexes (including interview list- without identifying names for confidentiality/ anonymity, data collection instruments, key documents consulted, Terms of Reference).

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent writing, presentation/public speaking skills;
  
• IT literacy.

Core Competencies:

• Familiarity with UN and UN Women system;
  
• Sound understanding of cooperating with different government, civil society and other external agencies for supporting RBM application on country or regional levels; 
• Demonstrate strong oral and written communications skills;
  
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability. 

Required Skills and Experience

• At least 5 years of advance evaluation expertise and experience in a wide range of review approaches including utilization-focused, gender and human rights responsive and mixed methods;
• Past experience of work in an international environment;

• Fluency in Georgian and good knowledge of English.

• At least a master's degree in economics, sociology, international development, gender/women studies or related areas (max 30 points);
• At least 5-7 years of advance evaluation expertise and experience in a wide range of review approaches including utilization-focused, gender and human rights responsive and mixed methods (max 70 points);
• Expertise in gender equality and women's empowerment, gender mainstreaming, gender analysis and the related mandates within the UN system; experience/knowledge of women peace and security; (max 70 points);
  
• Familiarity with the political, economic, social and gender situation in Georgia (max 70 points);
• 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) (max 70 points); 
  
• Fluency in Georgian and good knowledge of English (max 40 points).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the mandatory criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points under the technical evaluation will qualify to the next round of the financial evaluation.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F 150.

• S - score received on financial evaluation;
  
• Fmin - the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;
  
• F - financial offer under the consideration.

Management Arrangement:

The UN Women National Programme Office as a responsible for evaluation in the country office will serve as the evaluation task manager. The evaluation task manager will be responsible for day-to-day management of the review. Evaluation task manager will be the main decision-making body for the review. Coordination in the field including logistical support will be the responsibility of the Georgia WEPD Project Team.

The review will be conducted in accordance with UN Women evaluation guidelines and UNEG Norms and Standards for evaluation and the UNEG Code of Conduct for reviews in the System (UNEG Ethical Guidelines : http://uneval.org/papersandpubs/documentdetail.jsp?doc_id=102; The UNEG Code of Conduct for Evaluation: http://uneval.org/papersandpubs/documentdetail.jsp?doc_id=100).