UNV Jobs - 53128- Mid- Term Evaluation of Regional Project “Arab You

Mid- Term Evaluation of Regional Project “Arab Youth Volunteering for a Better Future”

Advertised on behalf of

UNV

Location :

Bonn, Germany (UNV HQ) & Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen (Regional Project Countries)

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

09-Feb-2015

Application Deadline :

30-Jan-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Until 04/10/2015

Languages Required :

Arabic English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

should not exceed 35 working days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. Volunteerism is a powerful means of engaging people in tackling development challenges, and it can transform the pace and nature of development. Volunteerism benefits both society at large and the individual volunteer by strengthening trust, solidarity and reciprocity among citizens, and by purposefully creating opportunities for participation. UNV contributes to peace and development by advocating for recognition of volunteers, working with partners to integrate volunteerism into development programming, and mobilizing an increasing number and diversity of volunteers, including experienced UN Volunteers, throughout the world. UNV embraces volunteerism as universal and inclusive, and recognizes volunteerism in its diversity, as well as the values that sustain it: free will, commitment, engagement and solidarity.

The Arab Youth Volunteering for a Better Future regional project is a three-year initiative led by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, which aims to increase youth’s social inclusion and active participation in the development of their countries through volunteerism. The project is implemented in five countries, namely Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen, and was launched in April 2013.

The Regional project is founded on findings from regional and national consultations with youth and other relevant stakeholders held throughout 2012. The implementation phase in 2013 focused on developing and conducting activities aiming at strengthening the infrastructure necessary to build the skills and capacities of youth in the region, enhancing the social inclusion of youth and providing new opportunities for youth through volunteerism.

The outcome of the regional project is that youth in the Arab region are empowered so that their capacity to participate meaningfully in socio-economic development is strengthened through volunteer engagement. The project theory of change, as summarized in the results chain, highlights the pathways towards this outcome through four outputs:

Awareness of the role of volunteerism in socio-economic development and participatory governance increased;
Institutional frameworks for volunteerism in the target countries and thee region strengthened;
Capacity of youth organizations and CSOs to promote youth volunteering enhanced;
Formal structures for youth inclusion through volunteer is strengthened.

The main project beneficiaries are youth, CSOs, and the five participating governments and as such, they are the key partners involved in the intervention. Additionally, development partners are key partners in implementation (i.e. UNDP, Carrefour Associatif, France Volunteers, etc).

The Chief, Results Management Support Section, is the Commissioner of the MTE and the Project Manager of the Arab Youth Volunteering for a Better Future provides overall management and coordination to the MTE. The Commissioner provides clear advice to the evaluator at the onset on how the findings will be used and safeguards the independence of the exercise.

The overall responsibility for managing the evaluation will be with the Project Manager of the Arab Youth Volunteering for a Better Future, fully supported by the M&E Specialist. They will ensure close collaboration with the commissioner of the evaluation and other UNV stakeholders both at HQ and country office levels. The continuous involvement of major stakeholders at the country level (including UNDP Resident Representative(s), CSOs, youth, government and others) should be ensured and maintained throughout the entire evaluation process.

An evaluation reference group will provide advice on the evaluation process and will participate in the review of the evaluation process and reports to ensure a high agreement with UNV evaluation standards. They will assist in collecting required data, and oversee the process. Additionally, they will review the draft evaluation report and ensure it meets quality standards. The proposed group is composed of a mix of the Results Management Support Section, Programme Coordination Section, UNV Arab States Portfolio, Volunteer Knowledge and Innovation Section, in addition to the Arab Youth project team, as well as representatives from the National Advisory Committees from each country.

Duties and Responsibilities

Main Objectives

The general objective of the MTE serves the dual objectives of learning and accountability – To assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, effects and sustainability of the project (see following sections for more detailed definitions).

The specific MTE objectives are:

To provide recommendations to improve the design and performance of the implementation of the Regional Project;
To provide recommendations to inform future UNV programming at regional and country levels;
To generate knowledge about good practices and lessons learned.

The following are the expected outputs for this MTE. Templates for the documents are included in the annexes.

Evaluation inception report: Evaluation matrix with the evaluation design, methodology, key questions, indicators and means of verification; Detailed information on evaluation methods and data collection tools to be used; Evaluation work plan with a schedule of tasks, activities, and deliverables;
Aide memoires of evaluation missions;
All raw data;
Draft and final evaluation report in English with executive summary that can be used as stand-alone document;
Two-page evaluation brief on preliminary key findings;
Power point presentation based on final report for dissemination;
Recommendations/ management response matrix.

The scope of MTE is the country and regional implementation of the Regional Project starting from the project implementation date (PID: April 2012) to mid-term (31 October 2014).

The primary audiences for the MTE are UNV Senior Management, the Project Board and the Project team, as they will be responsible for changes to project design and implementation. The secondary audiences are the National Advisory Committees in each country, who will use the findings in their advisory roles, as well as the UNV Global Youth Programme and other UNV HQ staff, who will feed the findings into the global synthesis report of ongoing global programmes and project to contribute to broader UNV programming.

Inception stage (up to 6 working days):

Desk review of all relevant documentation related to the project, including policy and programmatic documents, and monitoring reports;
Stakeholder mapping to determine who should be consulted, what evaluation questions should be addressed to them, and what tools are more effective to generate information with each different target group;
Briefing meetings and interviews to finalize evaluation design;
Preparation of inception report: the inception report will take advantage of the consultant’s experience in M&E, and will be based on the conclusions of the inception stage. It should particularly look at the evaluation questions (and refine them as appropriate), data sources and data collection methods.

Data collection, analysis and report generation stage (up to 16 working days):

Country Data Collection: Evaluation missions to the country and locations where the project is implemented and/or virtual meetings with relevant stakeholders. Limited travel is preferred. Use of appropriate communication technologies is mandatory due to travel and budget restrictions. During this stage, the following tools can be applied for data collection and generation:

In-depth interviews with selected project stakeholders;
Focus groups meetings with stakeholders;
De-briefing meetings or workshops with project teams and relevant stakeholders to report on initial findings from the data collection and generating stage, to correct errors, and to discuss ideas for recommendations. When appropriate, a summary of conclusions in local language or pictorial format (for illiterate stakeholders).

Preparation of mission aide-memoire(s): a detailed description of the evaluation missions, including activities carried out, people met, and issues to be considered in the evaluation report.

Preparation of country reports.

Finalization and reporting stage (up to 13 working days):

Preparation of draft evaluation report, 2-page evaluation brief and recommendations matrix
Feedback incorporation on draft evaluation report and evaluation brief from UNV and selected stakeholders
Presentation of final evaluation report through a “learning chat” at UNV HQ

Overall approach and methodology (suggestions)

The evaluation should be done in consultation with all relevant stakeholders, using a mixed method approach and a variety of participatory tools, with a focus on triangulation. The evaluation design needs to take into consideration the different stakeholder groups, their specific needs and inputs, in order to avoid biases in the overall analysis. On the other hand, it needs to be adequate to the scope and context of the evaluation, to the availability of resources, and to the needs of the project. Note, the appropriate use of face-to-face, telephone, and other communication technologies are required as travel to all countries is not feasible.

Possible examples of methods and tools that can be combined at different stages as part of the evaluation:

Desk review and stakeholder mapping;
Briefing meetings and interviews with key project informants, including the UNV country teams and HQ, the project management team, key partners/ stakeholder representatives and others with an interest in the evaluation;
In-depth interviews with selected project stakeholders (appropriate use of face-to-face, telephone, and other communication technologies);
Focus groups meetings with stakeholders;
Collecting evidence of what has been achieved and working backwards to determine whether and how the project or intervention contributed to change;
Micro-narratives – the collection and aggregation of short stories from beneficiaries to gain insight into most significant change
Site visits to areas where the project is implemented (where applicable);
Presentations of final evaluation to UNV.

The lead consultant after brief orientation, s/he will develop plan of action stating the methodologies and required resources for the MTE. In the plan of action areas of evaluation, indicators and data collection should be clearly spelled out. The consultant(s) need to attach interview questionnaires and focus group guide (if applicable).

All evaluations in UNV should be consistent with the UNEG (United Nations Evaluation Group) Norms and Standards (annex to the TOR), and the UNDP Evaluation Policy. The consultant needs to sign the UNEG Code of Conduct for evaluation consultants (annex). After the evaluation is finalized, the project partners will be responsible for preparing a management response to the recommendations made (template is annexed to the TOR). All documents related to the evaluation (TOR, evaluation report, management response matrix) will be made available to the public through the UNDP Evaluation Resource Center (http://erc.undp.org)”.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Integrity/ Ethical work approach;
Knowledge sharing/ participatory learning;
Analytical and strategic thinking;
Results orientation/ RBM;
Working in teams;
Self and conflict management;
Communicating information and ideas;
Appropriate and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge and experience of volunteerism with its diverse manifestations and cultural settings;
Competence in data collection techniques and computerized data processing;
Excellent analytical and report writing skills;
Good people and communication skills;
Ability to write concise, readable and analytical reports
Excellent writing and verbal communication skills in English.
.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

University degree at the post-graduate level in the social sciences, management or other relevant field of study.

Experience:

10 years work experience of which at least five in a developing country;
Proven track record and experience in the substantive area and with participatory methodologies;
Knowledge and experience of volunteerism with its diverse manifestations and cultural settings;
Proven experience of producing high-quality, credible evaluations (examples required);
Proven experience of working with/evaluating NGO work in the Arab region;
Experience of working in, or assessing, multi-country programmes.

Language requirement:

Fluency in English and Arabic is required; and
Working knowledge of French is an asset.

Application procedure:

Applicants have to provide a technical and financial proposal.

Please note that the full text of consultancy notice, all Annexes and Templates are available on : http://reliefweb.int/job/767786/consultant-mid-term-evaluation-regional-project-arab-youth-volunteering-better-future or http://www.unv.org/en/about-us/procurement.html

The technical proposal (max 5 pages) shall describe the methodology and the approach how to fulfill the required deliverables as well as outline the major components of its implementation.

The financial proposal shall consist of all-inclusive lump sum for the whole duration of the contract period, which shall include the consultancy fee, costs of living, costs for insurance, and cost of travel to and from the duty station. The financial proposal shall contain a breakdown of these costs and indicate the number of off-days the consultant wants to take during the contract period (if any).

The lump sum/contract price is fixed regardless of subsequent changes in the cost components.

Criteria for Selection of the Best offer:

The selection of the best offer will be based on the combined scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted – 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted 30%.

Key selection criteria are:

Evaluation working experience in the field of Volunteerism, Youth and UNV/UN system (30%);
Proven experience in formative as well as summative evaluations (20%);
The quality and feasibility of methodology proposed (20%);
The price offer (30%).

Interested candidates are advised to carefully review this ToR and ensure that they meet the requirements and qualifications described above. Applications should contain: A brief cover letter, a short summary of relevant qualifications and a technical proposal accompanied by a list of similar evaluations (if possible, proved by hyperlinks to those evaluations). A current completed and signed P11 form/ UN Personal History Form in English. Blank form can be downloaded from www.sas.undp.org/documents/p11_personal_history_form.doc

Please also include your CV and contact details for 3 references. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you provide all requested materials. All documents should be scanned and attached in one pdf format document.

Financial proposal should be sent in a separate e-mail and addressed to: procurement@unv.org clearly marking the job title in the subject line.

Annexes:

UNEG Norms and Standards for Evaluation (i.e. Gender & Human Rights)

Norms: http://www.unevaluation.org/document/detail/21

Standards: http://www.unevaluation.org/document/detail/22

UNEG code of conduct for UN evaluators

Code of Conduct: http://www.unevaluation.org/document/download/547

UNEG Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation

Ethical Guidelines: http://www.unevaluation.org/document/download/548

UNV Evaluation Policy

Policy: http://www.unevaluation.org/document/download/1517.

Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.