UNDP Jobs - 54433- National Evaluation Associate

National Evaluation Associate

Location :

UNDP Office, LAO PDR

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

20-Apr-2015

Application Deadline :

28-Mar-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

3 Months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

3 Months

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 Development Assistance Framework Action Plan (UNDAF AP 2012-2016) was designed to strategically enhance the coherence of the UN System’s response to support the Government of Lao PDR in achieving its national priorities as articulated in the 7th NSEDP and in laying the foundation for the country to meet the LDC graduation criteria by the 2020s.

The UNCT Lao PDR, in collaboration with its Government partners is currently in the process of preparing an UNDAF Evaluation, which will serve as a major input for the planning process of the next UNDAF 2017 – 2020 and the UN agencies’ Country Programmes. The UNDAF evaluation will seek to be independent, credible and useful, and will adhere to the highest possible professional standards in evaluation. It will be responsive to the needs and priorities of the Lao PDR. The evaluation will be conducted in a consultative manner and will engage the participation of a broad range of stakeholders.

The UNDAF Evaluation team will be led by an international UNDAF Evaluation Team Leader, expert on governance and equitable growth, who will be assisted by one international evaluation expert on gender and human rights, one international evaluation expert on education, health and nutrition, and one national Evaluation Associate.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main objective of this assignment is to support the Team Leader and work closely with other team members in consultation with the UNCT, including the Head of the UN Resident Coordinator Office and UN M&E working group, the Evaluation Reference Group, Government counterparts and the Development Partners to conduct the UNDAF Evaluation Report.

The primary responsibilities of the selected consultant include:

Provide substantive inputs to the inception report;
Conduct field visits to the identified project sites and collect data if required; and
Provide substantive inputs to the draft and final reports.

To fulfill the primary functions above, the consultant shall:

Contribute to the whole evaluation process substantively;
Be responsible for the analysis of documents for which no English translation exists;
Be co-responsible for the quality of the evaluation and the report;
Recommend the most appropriate ways to adopt a culturally sensitive and ethical approach to the evaluation;
Work closely with other consultants working on assessments for UN agencies, under the overall supervision of the UNDAF Evaluation Team Leader, in order to link their in-depth assessments in thematic areas to the results identified at Outcome level, and highlight UN contributions;
Facilitate access to data sources;
Liaise with national partners and follows up in country on requests from evaluation team members during design and report drafting phases;
Organize schedule of the evaluation team;
Be able to do interpretation, if required in the absence of an interpreter;
Prepare and presents Powerpoint presentations in Lao language;
Fulfil other tasks, as requested by the Team Leader.

The final products for this assignment are:

The inception report should include a stakeholder map, the final list of evaluation questions, the evaluation matrix, the overall evaluation design and methodology, a detailed description of the data collection plan for the field phase, and a description of the roles and responsibilities of the individual team members. The inception report should be submitted to the ERG at least 7 days before the start of the field phase of the evaluation;
A Powerpoint presentation highlighting the main components of the final inception report, reflecting the comments provided by the ERG and key stakeholders, to be presented to the ERG and the UNCT;
The debriefing presentation to be presented and discussed with the ERG, the UNCT and the UN MEWG during the debriefing meetings at the end of the field phase, synthesizing the main preliminary findings;
A Powerpoint presentation of the second draft of the UNDAF evaluation report, to be made via teleconference, during a validation workshop, in order to facilitate (1) getting a consensus on the report contents; (2) increasing stakeholders’ ownership over the report; (3) agreeing to the conclusions and recommendations; and (4) speeding up drafting the management response process;
The evaluation report, which should be based on two rounds of commenting on draft evaluation reports, taking into account potential comments from the ERG and the UNCT. The evaluation report should comprise a set of clear, forward-looking and actionable recommendations logically linked to the findings and conclusions, and identify lessons learnt to improve the strategies, implementation mechanism, and management of the next UNDAF, focusing on the Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Provision of monitoring and progress controls

The National Evaluation Associate will report to the Team Leader and work closely with the international evaluation expert on education, health and nutrition, and the international evaluation on human rights. S/he will work in consultation with the Head of the UNRCO, the UNCT, the UN M&E working group, the Evaluation Reference Group, Government Counter parts and the Development Partners to conduct the UNDAF Evaluation Report.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Strong analytical and M&E skills;
Demonstrates leadership, team building and coordinating skills;
Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals;
Generates innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations;
Conceptualizes and analyzes problems to identify key issues, underlying problems, and how they relate;
Demonstrates substantive and technical knowledge to meet responsibilities and post requirements with excellence;
Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view.

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment;
Demonstrates commitment to human development principles and values;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Shares knowledge and experience.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Degree in international relations, political science, international development, social sciences or a related subject.

Experience:

Six years of proven experience in the field of development cooperation in Lao PDR;
Experience conducting evaluations in developing countries, combined with a solid understanding on the use of evaluation methodologies;
Strong inter-personal, teamwork and organizational skills;
Substantive knowledge development issues in Lao PDR and their institutional and social context;
Familiarity with information technology, including proficiency in word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software;
Strong inter-personal, teamwork and organizational skills.

Language:

Fluency in written and spoken English and Lao are essential.

Requirements for submission of proposals:

All interested and qualified candidates should apply on-line using the following links:

UNDP Lao PDR Country Office website at http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/operations/jobs/ or
UNDP Jobs at http://jobs.undp.org/

In order to make submission please read the attached relevant documents:

TOR (Annex I);
Individual Contract & General Terms and Conditions (Annex II);
Reimbursable Loan Agreement (for a consultant assigned by a firm) & General Conditions (Annex III).

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

Technical Proposal:

Explaining why you are the most suitable for the work;
Providing a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work including the work schedule for the delivery of outputs/deliverable;
CV including past experience in similar project and contact reference of at least 3 references for whom you have rendered preferably the similar service;

Financial proposal:

Detailed financial proposal: Lump sum offer with clear cost breakdown against each deliverable.

Note:

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days). All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. UNDP accept travel costs not exceeding of an economy class air ticket.

Instructions for on-line submissions:

Step 1: Please prepare all required documents electronically;
Step 2: Combine all documents in ONE SINGLE FILE (preferably in PDF however Word format can be also accepted) and upload to the UNDP Jobs using the links above;
Step 3: After that you will receive an auto reply from the UNDP jobs if your offer is received successfully.

Evaluation of Proposal:

Cumulative analysis: The award of the contract will be made to a consultant who offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria:
Technical Criteria weight; [0.7];
Financial Criteria weight; [0.3].

Only a consultant obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical rating would be considered for the financial evaluation.

For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1- Terms of Reference (TOR). TOR and General Terms and Conditions for Individual Consultants can be also downloaded at: http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/operations/jobs/

Note: Any request for clarification must be sent in writing to the following e-mail: anika.bruck@one.un.org and cc: kiettisack.senephansiri@undp.org.

UNDP Lao PDR will respond in writing by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants.

The copies of the response will be also placed on our web-site at: http://www.la.undp.org/content/lao_pdr/en/home/operations/jobs/ and linked to the current Procurement Notice.

All interested candidates are encouraged to visit the above web-site for updates.

Please note that only short-listed candidates will be notified.

Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

For more detailed information about UNDP Lao PDR please visit our website at http://www.la.undp.org/lao_pdr/en/home.html