Background

Forests in Cambodia are subject to a wide range of threats, including logging, forest fires, subsistence and commercial agriculture expansion, and the establishment of roads and human settlements. Loss of forest cover is of global significance due to its implications for biodiversity, land degradation and climate change. Deforestation also poses a major threat to the livelihoods of local people.

The project plays a critical role in implementing priority actions as identified in the National Forestry Programme and the National Strategic Development Plan 2009-2013 related to sustainable forest resource management, conservation, and community-based forest management. The objective of the project is to strengthen sustainable forest management (SFM), through integrating community-based sustainable forest management into policy, planning and investment frameworks and creating markets for sustainable bio-energy technologies which reduce CO2 emissions. The project has three outcomes, namely, (1) improvement of existing national capacities, policies and regulations which facilitate the widespread implementation of SFM, integrating energy efficiency, biodiversity, sustainable land management and livelihood considerations; (2) community-based sustainable forest management is being implemented effectively within a context of cantonment/province, district and commune level planning and delivering concrete benefits to local communities; and (3) strengthened demand and supply chain for energy efficient cook stoves.

The project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the UNDP. The project is nationally executed by the Forest Administration (FA)/Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (MAFF), which is the Implementing Partner for UNDP/GEF. The FA has contracted with 2 service providers (Regional Community Forestry Training Centre (RECOFTC) and Group for Environment, Renewable, Energy and Solidarity (GERES) to implement technical assistance to the project. The project also works with Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction (MLMUPC), Ministry of Mines and Energies (MME), Ministry of Environment (MOE)/ Department of Research and Community Protected Areas (DRCPAD) Development. The collaborative arrangement has been set up at the technical level through the designation of focal persons in the said ministries and departments. At senior executive level, the inter-ministerial project supervision is carried out by the project board.

Duties and Responsibilities

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 projects.  The evaluator is expected to complete and submit a set of questions covering each of the above criteria as part of an evaluation inception report in consultations with UNDP Country Office, the project team and the UNDP Regional Technical Advisor, and shall include it as an annex to the final report.

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 Project Board members, UNDP Country Office, project team, UNDP Regional Technical Adviser based in Bangkok and key stakeholders. The evaluators are expected to conduct a field mission to the four target provinces namely Kampong Speu, Kampong Chhnang, Pursat, and Battambang. The detailed schedule of the field mission will be developed during the inception stage when the evaluators design the evaluation methodology and approach.

Interviews will be held with the following organizations and individuals at a minimum:

  • The Project Board members;
  • The SFM Project team based at the Forestry Administration;
  • Representatives of UNDP Country Office and the UNDP Regional Technical Advisor;
  • Representatives of inter-ministerial focal persons at the national and sub-national level, including MME, MOE, and MLMUPC;
  • Local authorities and beneficiaries.

The evaluators will review all relevant sources of information, such as the project document, project reports – including Annual Progress Report (APR), project budget revisions, Project Implementation Review (PIR), quarterly progress reports, Project Midterm Review Report (MTR), and any other materials that the evaluators consider useful for this evidence-based assessment.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

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.

The evaluation team will produce the following deliverables to UNDP CO and the Project Board:

  • The inception report with detail methodology and approach of the Terminal Evaluation process;
  • A presentation of an executive summary, jointly prepared by the International and National Consultants, including findings and recommendations to key stakeholders;
  • A detailed draft evaluation report covering scope of the terminal evaluation with detailed attention to conclusion, lessons learned and recommendations; and
  • List of annexes prepared by the consultants including TOR’s, itinerary, list of persons interviewed, summary of field visits, list of documents reviewed, questionnaire and summary of results, and leveraged resources, etc.

The report together with the annexes shall be written in English and shall be presented in electronic form in MS Word format.

Institutional Arrangement:

  • The evaluation team will be composed of 1 international and 1 National Evaluators. The International Evaluator will act as Team Leader responsible for the leading of the TE mission and compiling the Terminal Evaluation final report; while the National Evaluator will provide facilitation and coordination support to the Team Leader;
  • The principal responsibility for managing this evaluation resides with the UNDP CO in Cambodia. The UNDP CO will contract the evaluators and ensure the timely provision travel arrangements within the country for the evaluation team. The team will be responsible to, reporting to, UNDP CO after getting approval/acceptance of output from the National Project Manager and National Project Director. The Project Team will be responsible for liaising with the Evaluator team to set up stakeholder interviews, arrange field visits, coordinate with the Government etc.;
  • The Evaluators will also interact with the UNDP Regional Technical Advisor, if needed, to ensure that the approach and methodology as well as the evaluation report are sound and in line with the donor requirements.

Duration of the Work

The duration of the work is 23 working days starting from 01 July to 31 August 2015. Field work and interview with key stakeholders are expected to be finished by 20 July 2015. The presentation preparation to present the initial findings will be done by 23 July 2015. The project team and UNDP CO as well as UNDP RTA will provide feedback/comments no later than two weeks after the receipt of the draft report.

Duty Station

The Evaluator will need to travel to Cambodia during the period of 01 July -24 July 2015 to conduct stakeholder interviews, visit the project sites (2-3 days visit to the project sites in Kampong Speu, Kampong Chhnang Pursat and Battambong provinces) and make a presentation of the initial findings of the evaluation.  The consultant is expecting to be based at duty station at least 12 days and other work will be home-based.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

  • Technical knowledge in the targeted focal area(s): Climate Change Biodiversity, and Land degradation;
  • Ability to interact with senior government officials.

Corporate Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling 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 favoritism;
  • Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master degree in environmental studies, development studies, and other related field.

Experience:

  • Minimum 10 years of result-based project management, monitoring and evaluation of environmental related projects;
  • Proven experience of evaluating similar projects, preferably involving UNDP or others UN Development Agencies or major donors;
  • Experience working with government, particularly with projects under National Implementation Modality is an asset;
  • Experience and knowledge of the Cambodian development context;
  • Team leadership experience.

Language:

  • Full proficiency in English (written and spoken)

Important note

Interested offeror is strongly advised to read the Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice, which can be viewed at http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=22904 for more detail about term of references, instructions to offeror, and documents to be included when submitting offer.

Documents to be included when submitting the application:

Interested offeror/individual must submit the following documents/information.

UNDP reserves right to reject any applications that is incomplete.

Please be informed that we don’t accept application submitted via email.

Interested candidates are required to submit application via UNDP jobsite system, because the application screening and evaluation will be done through UNDP jobsite system. Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into a single file. Your on-line applications submission will be acknowledged where an email address has been provided. If you do not receive an e-mail acknowledgement within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application, if necessary. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Any request for clarification/additional information on this procurement notice shall be communicated in writing to UNDP office or send to email dalis.heng@undp.org and/or procurement.kh@undp.org. While the Procurement Unit would endeavor to provide information expeditiously, only requests receiving at least 5 working days prior to the submission deadline will be entertained. Any delay in providing such information will not be considered as a reason for extending the submission deadline. The UNDP's response (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry) will be posted in Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice page as provided above. Therefore, all prospective Offerors are advised to visit the page regularly to make obtain update related to this Individual Consultant (IC) Procurement Notice.