Background

Background of the Project

UN Women has been implementing a multi-year project “Women for Equality, Peace and Development in Georgia” (WEPD) since 2010 (I phase in 2010-2012 and II phase 2013-2015) 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 ethnic 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 ethnic 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 ethnic minority women; and
  • at the grassroots level, by supporting IDPs, conflict affected and ethnic minority women’s groups and communities to organize and participate actively and effectively in influencing policies and decisions that affect their lives.

The former Soviet Republic of Georgia experienced two internal conflicts (over its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia) following the collapse of the Soviet Union and its independence in the early 1990s. Subsequently, the war of August 2008 over South Ossetia resulted in further civilian casualties, destruction and suffering, along with a new wave of forced displacements. Georgia has a total of 259,247 (According to data from MIDPOTAR, as of November 2014. http://mra.gov.ge/geo/static/55) Internally-Displaced Persons (IDP) as a result of its conflicts. Women and girls comprise approximately 54% of all IDPs. They are a special beneficiary group of WEPD II, along with conflict-affected women and their families, i.e. those citizens of Georgia who live in the villages that are adjacent to the breakaway regions, but are not displaced from their homes.

Georgia is a home to various ethnic minority groups, especially in the Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli regions. According to the 2002 national census, Georgia’s main minority groups include Azerbaijanis 285,000 (6.5% of the country’s total population), and Armenians 249,000 (5.7%). Ethnic minority women and girls are, however, usually disadvantaged, not only in comparison with the ethnic majority counterparts, but also in comparison with ethnic minority men. The Azerbaijani ethnic minority represents 40% and Armenians 8% of the total population in the Kvemo Kartli region, one of the target regions selected in the WEPD II. The region was targeted by the Project in particular because it has the largest Azerbaijani population, as well as some Armenian ethnic minority groups.

The main development objective/outcome of the project is to support excluded groups of internally-displaced, conflict-affected, and ethnic minority women in accessing justice, social, and economic services, and gaining increased opportunities for participation in confidence-building activities. UN Women employs a holistic approach that involves working with national institutions at the national policy level, and with the beneficiaries at the grass-roots level. The Taso Foundation (TF) and the Women’s Information Centre (WIC) are the UN Women’s local non-governmental project partners since 2010, when the first phase of the WEPD project commenced. The projects’ three expected outputs are: 

Output 1: Civil servants and service providers have an increased capacity to provide adequate legal, social and economic services to excluded groups of internally-displaced, conflict-affected and ethnic minority women

Output 2: Excluded groups of internally-displaced, conflict-affected and ethnic minority women have increased their capacity to demand, and benefit from, legal, social and economic services 

Output 3: Increased role of women in confidence-building and conflict-prevention processes, as envisaged by the UN SCR 1325 National Action Plan of Georgia.

In close collaboration with the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia (MIDPOTAR) UN Women WEPD Project established five legal clinics for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in five administrative centers of Georgia: Tbilisi, Rustavi, Gori, Kutaisi, and Zugdidi. As a major achievement of the WEPD project, the legal clinic of Tbilisi was taken over by the Ministry in July, 2012 after the phase out of WEPD I phase. Four Legal clinics in four administrative centers of Georgia continue to provide IDP women and their family members with free legal aid and court representation. Since 2010, the legal clinics have provided consultations to 58 701 IDPs (individual consultations- 20,628 and collective consultations - 38,073). Out of the total number of claims received by the legal clinics, approximately 66% were from women and 34% men. 

Lawyers of legal clinics conduct outreach visits to the places of IDPs’ compact settlements on a monthly basis following their work plans, where they consult IDPs on the spot. Since 2010, visits to 2,257 compact settlements have been conducted where 38,073 IDPs received legal advice and consultation. Lawyers of legal clinics provide upon necessity Court representation of beneficiaries, which is a unique service existing within the Ministry. Since 2010 Court representation was provided to 851 persons (approximately 65% women).

A legal clinic for ethnic minority women was jointly established under WEPD II in close cooperation with the Public Defender’s Office (PDO) of Georgia in Marneuli in August 2013. The legal clinic provided individual consultations to 429 beneficiaries (45% women and 55% men) since its launch. Additionally, visits were made to 89 villages outreaching 1270 residents of Marneuli municipality. The legal clinic provided court representation to 18 ethnic minority representatives (11 women and 7 men) in the Kvemo Kartli region.

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% women and 11% men) thus, reaching out to their families and more than 3 000 community members from 18 different villages in Georgia, including the Gali district of breakaway region of Abkhazia, Georgia. Within the project’s 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 38 new SHGs, as a result of which a further 238 individuals (86% women) benefited. In total, the Project reached out to some 714 new community members from 20 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 villages of Marneuli municipality, Kvemo Kartli region.

During the WEPD II phase, 44 joint local government-community initiatives received small-scale grants totalling USD 91,325, reflecting the strategic needs of IDPs, conflict-affected persons and women from ethnic minorities with regard to their economic and social empowerment.

UN Women WEPD project responsible party, the Women’s Information Centre (WIC), has been holding “One Stop Shop” meetings since 2010 to facilitate dialogue between representatives of different sectors of central and local governments and IDP, conflict affected and ethnic minority women and their families to address the immediate social and legal protection priorities of individuals, families and communities.

Since 2010, a total of 21” One Stop Shop” consultation meetings were organized by the WIC. Through this innovative mechanism, local government representatives engaged directly with IDP, conflict-affected and ethnic minority persons participating in the meetings, and followed up with coordinated efforts to address the problems that were raised. A total of 204 cases were presented in eight locations (Gori, Rustavi, Kutaisi, Samtredia, Sachkhere, Marneuli, Tetritskharo and Zugdidi) from 2010-2014. Primary beneficiaries in 98 cases were women, in 32 cases - men, 38 cases concerned a whole family and 36 had relevance for broader communities. 92 (45%) cases reviewed at these meetings were successfully resolved, providing individuals with access to adequate housing and legal protection and improving their access to social and healthcare services. Out of 204 cases, 41 cases (20%) have not been resolved and 71 cases (35%) are being monitored and expected to be resolved soon. The WEPD project is working towards institutionalization of ”One Stop Shop” methodology.

In its ongoing activities at the policy level, in its second phase 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, as well as the Office of the Prime Minister 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, continues to oversee the NAP implementation. The NCG consists of 27 members from all government agencies responsible for the NAP’s implementation. WEPD II is assisting the GEC and NCG with developing effective monitoring and reporting tools to ensure successful implementation of the UN SCR 1325 National Action Plan. The coordination group includes two permanent representatives from CSOs. One additional NGO representative from regions close to the ABL in the breakaway territories was also chosen to participate on a rotational basis.

During this reporting period UN Women’s WEPD II has provided the technical assistance to the GEC to conduct the mid-term evaluation of the 1325 National Action Plan implementation in Georgia with the purpose to track the progress, achievements and remaining challenges as identified by the implementing parties and government agencies. The evaluation was conducted by the local consultant in the period of 1 April – 5 July 2014. The report was presented at the second coordination meeting of the NCG highlighting the achievements and challenges, as well as strengths and weaknesses in the delivery of the NAP 1325 over the last 24 months and suggested the recommendations for its second phase.

In order to strengthen the women peace activists' initiatives, people-to-people (p2p) diplomacy and confidence-building to further women's human rights and engagement in advocacy work, in line with UN SCR 1325, WEPD II and the IWPR held two trainings during the second phase, in Gender Aspects of Mediation Strategies for Increasing Women’s Role in Peace Building facilitated by international trainers.  Each time, fifteen Georgian, Abkhaz and South Ossetian participants took part in the training.

The experience of women in p2p diplomacy and the impact of conflict on their lives is regularly communicated through a specially established information channel, “Women Connecting for Peace” (www.women-peace.net), operating in the Russian language to ensure its broad accessibility and usage by the communities across the ceasefire lines. The website contributes to strengthening people-to-people diplomacy and confidence-building efforts between the conflict-affected and divided communities by creating a joint platform for women peace activists and journalists to share their experiences and familiarise themselves with each other’s work.

WEPD project phase II has conducted several studies to generate information for programming and advocacy:

1. Between June and October 2013, a study on the Needs and Priorities of Ethnic Minority Women in Kvemo Kartli was conducted under WEPD II, in collaboration with the Institute for Studies and Analysis, in seven municipalities of the Kvemo Kartli region: Bolnisi, Dmanisi, Gardabani, Marneuli, Rustavi, Tetritskharo and Tsalka. The final outcome of the study includes an overview of the basic needs of ethnic minority women and policy recommendations aimed at improving ethnic minority women’s legal, social and economic protection.

2. The Study on Access to Justice for IDP and ethnic minority women in target regions of the project was conducted by Institute for Social Studies and Analysis (ISSA) in July-October, 2013. The study was conducted in 6 target locations of the project: Tbilisi, Rustavi, Gori, Kutaisi, Zugdidi and Marneuli with the participation of 700 respondents: IDPs (500 respondents) and national minority (200 respondents) women who have already received legal clinics' assistance and those who have not received legal clinics' assistance yet. The baseline study generated important evidence that allowed the project to document the process of change and provide clear evidence on the project’s contribution and impact. By the end of the project, endline study on Access to Justice will also be conducted.

2. WEPD II, together with UN Women’s European Union-funded project “Innovative Action for Gender Equality in Georgia” (IAGE) conducted a study, entitled “Gender Analysis of Social Protection and Economic Policies.” The study aimed at identifying how/if at all, the specific needs of IDP and conflict-affected women, including disabled women, ethnic minority women, women residing in remote mountainous areas, and imprisoned and former women prisoners, are integrated into the Targeted Social Assistance Programme (TSA) and other relevant social policies and programmes. Social assistance is an increasingly important lifeline for Georgia’s poor population, especially with the government’s introduction of the TSA at the end of 2006. The study will be used for advocacy purposes to lobby several of its recommendations.

The final, end-of-project external evaluation will be conducted by an independent international expert. It is mandatory final evaluation, undertaken as agreed with the donor of the project the Royal Government of Norway. The evaluation will assess programmatic progress (and challenges) for the duration of the second phase of the project i.e. since January 2013 up to the actual evaluation period 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 to the regions, observations, in-depth interviews with UN Women staff (at country level), and in-depth interviews with the key stakeholders and beneficiaries and focus groups as relevant.

Evaluation Purpose and Use

It is mandatory, final end-of-project external evaluation, to be undertaken as agreed with the donor of the project - the Royal Government of Norway. The project phases out in December 2015, the final evaluation report will be submitted to the donor together with the Project Final Report.

The information generated by the evaluation 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;
  • Facilitate UN Women’s strategic reflection, learning and further planning for programming on addressing the needs of IDP, conflict affected and ethnic minority women.

Results, recommendations and lessons learned from the evaluation will inform the drafting of the Strategic Note of UN Women CO Georgia for the years 2016-2020.

The findings of this evaluation will be used by UN Women CO Georgia to further refine its approaches to women, peace and security.

Main evaluation user include UN Women CO Georgia, as well as UN Women ECA RO. Furthermore, national stakeholders such as NGOs Taso Foundation, Women’s Information Center, Institute for War and Peace Reporting; state agencies: Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia, Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, Public Defender’s Office, Ministry of Defense, Gender Equality Council of the Parliament of Georgia, Prime Minister’s Assistant in Human Rights and Gender Equality, Office of the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, Local government representatives of Target Municipalities will be closely involved in the evaluation process to increase ownership of findings, draw lessons learned and make and greater use of evaluation results.

Evaluation Objectives, Criteria and Key Evaluation Questions:

The specific evaluation objectives are to:

  • Analyze the relevance of the WEPD II implementation strategy and approaches to the project’s results chain;
  • Review the relevance of the logical framework and respective Monitoring and Evaluation Plan of the project;
  • Validate project results in terms of progress toward the achievement of outcomes and outputs, with a critical examination of how/to what extent the project supported efforts and strengthened the capacities of IDP, conflict-affected and ethnic minority women’s groups, as well as other national partners from government and civil society to advance gender equality and women’s human rights in Georgia;
  • Assess the potential for sustainability of the results and the feasibility of ongoing, nationally-led efforts in advancing rights of IDP, conflict affected and ethnic minority women’s groups in Georgia;
  • Document lessons learned, best practices, success stories and challenges to inform future work of UN Women in the frameworks of Women, Peace and Security agenda and beyond;
  • Document and analyze possible weaknesses in order to improve next steps of UN Women CO Georgia interventions in the area of women, peace, and security programming.  

The evaluation will address the criteria of project relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability. More specifically, the evaluation will address the following key questions:

  • Relevance: A) How does the project design match with the complexity of national structures, systems and decision-making processes? B) How does WEPD Project assure that the project reflects and aligns to Georgia’s national plans on gender equality as well as the country’s internationally undertaken obligations? C) Is the project design based on quality analysis, including gender and human rights based analysis, risk assessments, socio-cultural and political analysis and conflict assessments? D) Were the programmatic strategies appropriate to address the identified needs of IDP, conflict affected and ethnic minority women? E) What capacities and skills should UN Women prioritize and further develop to bring greater coherence and relevance to its interventions in confidence building activities?
  • Effectiveness: A) What has been the progress made towards achievement of the expected outcomes and expected results? What are the results achieved? B) What are the reasons for the achievement or non-achievement of the project results? C) To what extent have capacities of relevant duty-bearers and rights-holders been strengthened? D) Does the project have effective monitoring mechanisms in place to measure progress towards results? E) How adaptably and rapidly did WEPD project react to changing country context?
  • Efficiency: A) Have resources (financial, human, technical support, etc.) been allocated strategically to achieve the project outcomes? B) Have the outputs been delivered in a timely manner? C) To what extent are relevant national stakeholders and actors included in the WEPD programming and implementation and policy advocacy processes?
  • Sustainability: A) What is the likelihood that the benefits from the project will be maintained for a reasonably long period of time after the project phase out?  B) How effectively has WEPD Project been able to contribute to the generation of national ownership of the results achieved, the establishment of effective partnerships and the development of national capacities? C) To what extent has WEPD Project been able to promote replication of successful programmes? D) To what extent have WEPD’s exit strategies been well planned and successful?

Scope of the evaluation:

The final evaluation of the WEPD II 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 project) international consultant with substantive support from UN Women CO Georgia and UN Women East Europe and Central Asia Regional Office. It is planned to be conducted in the period of September - November 2015.

The evaluation will cover project implementation period from January 2013 until November 2015.

The evaluation will be conducted in Georgia, where the project has been implemented; in the capital Tbilisi with travel to Kvemo Kartli, Shida Kartli, Imereti and Samegrelo regions (the project target regions) to collect data as defined by the agreed evaluation work-plan.

The evaluation will examine all the relevant documents of WEPD project, including logical framework of the project, its Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, annual work plan, annual and shorter-term status reports to the donor, knowledge products produced in the frameworks of the project, mid-term review of the project conducted in the middle of 2014, etc. The evaluation will interview all key stakeholders involved in the WEPD project, including but not limited to UN Women staff, WEPD project team, WEPD project responsible parties –local NGOs (Women’s Information Centre, Taso Foundation), local NGO partners (Institute for War and Peace Reporting – IWPR) beneficiaries, legislative body, central and local government partners, etc.   

Evaluation Design Process, and Methods

The evaluation methodology will deploy mixed methods, including quantitative and qualitative data collection methods and analytical approaches to account for complexity of gender relations and to ensure participatory and inclusiveness processes that are culturally appropriate. A theory of change approach will be followed. The reconstructed theory of change should elaborate on the objectives and articulation of the assumptions that stakeholders use to explain the change process represented by the change framework that this project considered and should assess how UN Women WEPD project’s action has contributed to supporting excluded groups of internally-displaced, conflict-affected and ethnic minority women in accessing justice, social, and economic services, and gaining increased opportunities for participation in confidence-building activities. Assumptions should explain both the connections between early, intermediate and long term project outcomes and the expectations about how and why the project has brought them about.

The evaluation process is divided in five phases: 1) Preparation, mainly devoted to structuring the evaluation approach, preparing the TOR, compiling programme documentation, and hiring the evaluation team; 2) Inception, which will involve reconstruction of theory of change, evaluability assessment, online inception meetings with the WEPD Project team, inception report and finalization of evaluation methodology; 3) Data collection and analysis, including desk research and preparation of field missions, visits to project sites; 4) Data analysis and synthesis stage, focusing on data analyzed, interpretation of findings and drafting of an Evaluation Report; and 5) Dissemination and follow-up, which will entail the development of Management Response, uploading it on Evaluation resource Centre.

The consultant will be responsible for inception, data collection and data analysis and synthesis.

  • Inception phase: at the beginning of the consultancy, the consultant will be provided with key sources of information for an initial desk review. The online inception meetings will be conducted with the WEPD project team.  At the end of this phase an inception report that will include the refined evaluation methodology will be delivered. The inception report will be validated and approved by UN Women.
  • Data collection phase: based on the inception phase, the consultant will carry out an in-depth desk review, and field missions will be conducted to complete data collection and triangulation of information. Interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders, as relevant, will take place.
  • Data analysis and synthesis phase: The collected information will be analyzed and final evaluation report will be delivered. A validation meeting will be organized where the consultant will validate the final report with UN Women and the ERG and to be approved by UN Women.

UN Women IEO has developed the GERAAS, which has adapted UNEG Standards for Evaluation in the UN System to guide evaluation managers and evaluators on what constitutes a ‘good quality’ report at UN Women. All evaluations in UN Women are annually assessed against the framework adopted in GERAAS and hence the consultant should be familiar with GERAAS quality standards.

In addition, UN Women is a UN-SWAP reporting entities and the consultant will take into consideration that all the evaluation in UN Women are annually assessed against the UN-SWAP Evaluation Performance Indicator and its related scorecard.  The evaluation will be conducted in accordance with UN Women evaluation guidelines and UNEG Norms and Standards for evaluation and the UNEG Code of Conduct for Evaluations in the UN 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).

Stakeholders Participation and Evaluation Management

The evaluation will be a consultative, inclusive and participatory process and will ensure the participation of women and CSOs representing various groups of women from various regions in Georgia. Special attention will be given to representativeness of all target groups of women including IDP, conflict affected and ethnic minority women.  

The evaluation will be Human Rights and Gender responsible and an Evaluation Reference Group will be constituted.  

The Evaluation Reference Group is an integral part of the evaluation management structure and is constituted to facilitate the participation of relevant stakeholders in the design and scope of the evaluation, raising awareness of the different information needs, quality assurance throughout the process and in disseminating the evaluation results. The Evaluation Reference Group (ERG) will be engaged throughout the process and will be composed of relevant National Government and local stakeholders, representatives from Civil Society Organizations. The ERG group will review the draft evaluation report and provide substantive feedback to ensure quality and completeness of the report and will participate in the inception and validation meeting of the final evaluation report. WEPD Project Steering Committee members -the key government partners (Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia, Public Defender’s Office), project NGO Partners (Taso Foundation and Women’s Information Center), UNHCR, UN Women Country Representative and WEPD Project Manager will serve as the Evaluation Reference Group.

The UN Women Georgia Monitoring and Evaluation Focal Point will serve as the Evaluation task manager, who will be responsible for day-to-day management of the evaluation. The evaluation process will be supported by the ECA Regional Evaluation Specialist.

Coordination in the field including logistical support will be the responsibility of the Georgia WEPD project Team, including provision of translator to the evaluator as needed.

Within six weeks upon completion of the evaluation, UN Women has the responsibility to prepare a management response that addresses the findings and recommendations to ensure future learning and inform implementation of relevant projects.

This is a consultative/participatory final project evaluation with a strong learning component. The management of the evaluation will ensure that key stakeholders will be consulted.

Duties and Responsibilities

Expected Deliverables, Duties and Responsibilities

  • Detailed Inception Report which contains evaluation objectives and scope, findings from inception meetings with WEPD Project team, initial desk review, description of evaluation methodology/methodological approach, data collection tools, data analysis methods, key informants/agencies, evaluation questions, performance criteria, issues to be studied, work plan and reporting requirements. It should include a clear evaluation matrix linking all these aspects - by 30th of September, 2015 (8 working days)
  • Conducted field visits to Tbilisi and project sites and key informant interviews and focus group discussions, observations to collect the data and analyzed data- by 23th of October, 2015 (10 working days)
  • Power Point Presentation on preliminary findings (conducted in Tbilisi) highlighting key evaluation findings and conclusions, lessons learnt and recommendations - by 23th October, 2015 (2 working days)
  • Draft and Final Evaluation report in English taking into consideration comments and feedback collected. The report shall include the following chapters: Executive Summary (maximum five pages), Introduction and Background, Evaluation approach and methodology, Findings, Conclusions, Lessons learnt, Recommendations and relevant Annexes - by 30th of November, 2015 (10 working days).  

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

  • To elaborate and submit the detailed inception report which contains evaluation objectives and scope, findings from the online inception meetings with all relevant stakeholders, desk review, description of evaluation methodology / methodological approach, data collection tools, data analysis methods, key informants/agencies, evaluation questions, performance criteria, issues to be studied, work plan and reporting requirements. It should include a clear evaluation matrix linking all these aspects.
  • To 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 UN Women staff including WEPD project team and reflect the feedback shared at this presentation in the final report;
  • To produce and submit the final evaluation report in English. Format of the final evaluation report shall include the following chapters: Executive Summary (maximum five pages), Project description, Evaluation purpose, Evaluation methodology, Findings, Lessons learnt, Recommendations and Annexes (including interview list- without identifying names for confidentiality, data collection instruments, key documents consulted, Terms of Reference).

The timeframe for the work of international consultant is planned in the period of 14 September, 2015 – 30 November 2015 for 30 working days.

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 communication skills;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • At least a master’s degree in sociology, international development, gender/women studies or related areas.

Experience:

  • At least 7 years of advanced evaluation expertise and experience in a wide range of research, review/evaluation approaches including utilization-focused, gender and human rights responsive and mixed methods;
  • Past experience of work in an international environment.

Language:

  • Fluency in English.

Evaluation procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated in three stages: according to minimum qualification criteria; technical and financial evaluation. The candidates must possess minimum qualification criteria to be eligible for further technical evaluation.

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

  • At least a master’s degree in sociology, international development, gender/women studies or related areas (30 points);
  • At least 7 years of  advanced evaluation expertise and experience in a wide range of evaluation approaches including utilization-focused, gender and human rights responsive and mixed methods (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 (70 points);
  • Familiarity with the political, economic, social and gender situation in Georgia (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)  (70 points);
  • Proficiency in English (40 points).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points out of maximum 350 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

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 consideration.

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical
score + financial score).

Management arrangements: The UN Women M&E Focal Point in Georgia will serve as the evaluation task manager. The evaluation task manager will be responsible for day-to-day management of the review. Coordination in the field including logistical support will be the responsibility of the Georgia WEPD Project Team.

Financial Arrangements: Payment will be disbursed in 2 installments upon the satisfactory submission of the deliverables cleared by Evaluation task manager to certify that the services have been satisfactorily performed; 40% will be paid after the submission of 1 deliverable and 60% will be paid upon the completion of deliverables 2, 3 and 4.

Application submission package:

  • CV;
  • Dully filled Personal History Form PHF11 that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
  • Financial Proposal (in USD)  - Lump sum financial proposal/offer, aggregated*  including all necessary expenses, fee per day, travel expenses and any other expenses essential to undertake the task.

“Aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of the task with detailed breakdown of expected honorarium, economy class travel and per diem for in-country stay in Georgia (including travel and accommodation in 5 target regions of Georgia(“aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of the task with detailed breakdown of expected honorarium, economy class travel and per diem for in-country stay in Georgia (including travel and accommodation in 5 target regions of Georgia

Applications submission deadline: 30 July 2015.

Only Short listed candidates will be contacted.

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

Note:

Ethical Considerations:

UNEG Ethical Guidance should be applied to the selection of methods for the evaluation and throughout the evaluation process. The consultant will signed the “Evaluation Consultants Agreement Form – UNEG Code of Conduct for Evaluation in the UN System” prior to the initiation of the evaluation process.

TOR Annexes: