Background

Country Programme Components and Outcomes:

The UNDP Executive Board approved the Malawi Country Programme (CP) in September, 2011.  The programme has four components as follows: i) Sustainable Economic and Inclusive Growth; ii) Disaster Risk Management, Climate Change, Environment and Sustainable Development; iii) MDGs Achievement; Gender and HIV and iv) Governance and Public Sector Management Reform.     Although the initial Country Programme Document (CDP) had three outcomes corresponding to the components, the Country Programme (CP) finally consisted of six outcomes which are also 2012-2016 United Nations Development Assistance Framework Outcomes, namely:

• CP Outcome 26/UNDAF Outcome 1.3: Productive poor benefit from decent work, income generation and pro-poor private sector growth by 2016;
• CP Outcome 27/UNDAF Outcome 1.2:  Improved management of environment, natural resources and climate change for sustainable development at national and district level by 2016;
• CP Outcome 28/UNDAF Outcome 3.2: Critical enablers for the implementation of the national response enhanced and utilized by 2016;
• CP Outcome 29/UNDAF Outcome 4.1: National institutions foster democratic governance and human rights to promote transparency, accountability, participation and access to justice for all, especially women and children by 2016;
• CP Outcome 30/UNDAF Outcome 4.2:  Public institutions are better able to manage, allocate and utilize resources for effective development and service delivery by 2016;
• CP Outcome 31/UNDAF Outcome 4.3:  National institutions advance gender equality and status of women by 2016.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Assess whether the outcomes and output in the Country Programme Document have been achieved or the extent to which they have been achieved;
• Assess the impact of the Country Programme;
• Provide evidence of UNDP’s contribution towards  the  achievement of six Country Programme outcomes:
• Determine the strategic positioning and relevance of UNDP in these sectors – the  strengths, weaknesses, and gaps - especially with regard to the appropriateness of their  partnership strategy (including choice of beneficiaries), their Theory of Change (ToC), and any need for mid-course adjustments to meet the outcomes;
• Propose areas of re-positioning and re-focusing of future CPDs within the current  Malawi’s development context, and in light of UNDP’s new strategic plan;
• Review of factors influencing the achievement of results;
• Assess the sustainability of results achieved and likely to be achieved during the implementation of the Country Programme;
• Assess the extent to which gender was mainstreamed in the design, implementation and reporting of the country programme;
• Distil lessons learnt and provide recommendation for future programming, including to inform higher level evaluations and future decision-making and planning for the remainder of the programme cycle.

Competencies

• Team work skills;
• Work planning skills;
• Strategic thinking;
• Strong analytical, reporting and communication skills;
• Result oriented.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Minimum Master’s degree in economics, political science, public administration, development studies, international relations or other related social sciences.

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of professional experience in at least two subject areas of UNDP Malawi’s work: democratic governance and public sector management; environment, natural resources, disaster risk and climate change management; inclusive and sustainable growth and gender equality;
• Proven experience in leading evaluations of national policies, strategies or programmes of government and international aid organisations;
• Knowledge and experience in gender mainstreaming;
• Excellent reporting and communication skills.

Language:

• Fluent in written and spoken English.

The purpose of the evaluation is to:

This end of term evaluation is carried out within the overall provisions contained in the UNDP Evaluation Policy. In line with the Evaluation Plan of the CO, evaluations are being conducted in 2016 to assess the impact of UNDP development assistance across the major thematic and cross cutting areas of Democratic Governance, Disaster Risk Management, Climate Change, Environment Sustainable Development, Development Effectiveness, Inclusive Growth, HIV and AIDS and Gender.   The mid-term review will capture evaluative evidence of the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of current programming, which can be used to strengthen existing programmes going forward and to set the stage for new initiatives. The evaluation serves an important accountability function, providing stakeholders and partners with an impartial assessment of the results. The will provide an opportunity for UNDP to engage key stakeholders to discuss achievements, lessons learned and adjustments required in response to an evolving development landscape and changing national priorities.

Evaluation questions and criteria:

In order to fulfil the purpose and specific objectives stated above, the evaluation shall address the following specific questions:

• Whether the programme outcomes and outputs have been achieved;
• What progress has been made so far towards the outcomes and whether the outcome will be met by December, 2016;
• To what extent have UNDP outputs and assistance contributed to the achievement of the outcomes?
• To what extent did the CP support national goals;
• Whether UNDP exploited its strategic positioning relative to national priorities and international commitments;
• Whether the UNDP partnership strategy been appropriate and effective;
• What lessons have been learnt from interventions and implementation of programmes.

Evaluation Criteria 

The evaluation of performance of UNDP to the CP outcomes and outputs will be made using the standard criteria: relevance; effectiveness; efficiency; impact and sustainability.

The evaluation will cover the period from January 2012 to June, 2016.   Geographically, the evaluation is national in nature although there are also district interventions.       

Deliverables
The consultant will be required to deliver the following:

• Inception report
• Draft CP Evaluation Report
• Presentation at the validation workshop with key stakeholders, (partners and beneficiaries)
• Lessons Learned report
• Final report on the CP Evaluation

Implementation arrangements:

The consultant is expected to be fully self-sufficient in terms of office equipment and supplies, communication, accommodation and transport. The UNDP Deputy Resident Representative (Programme) will provide the overall oversight to the CP evaluation and ensure timely delivery and satisfactory final product.

Timeframe:

The assignment is for a total number of 35 person days.  The consultant will be expected to complete assignment by 29 July, 2016.

Methodology:

The evaluation team should provide details in respect of:

• Review of project documentation. Review of key project documents such as approved program documents, recent studies, evaluations and reviews, project monitoring documents, disbursement reports, progress reports and other information available implementing agencies or participating UN agency offices.
• Construct a theory, identify detail evaluation questions, methods (mixed methods) and instruments, stakeholder mapping, etc.
• Data collection: (i) visits to selected stakeholders to carry out in depth interviews, inspection, and analysis of the project activities; (ii) phone interviews and performance data surveys of institutions not visited in person; (iii) interviews with the implementing agencies and participating UN agencies.  For each of these interviews, the consultant should first develop and present their ideas for the content and format of the interview forms that will be applied to capture the information required, as well as the method to be used in administering them and tabulating the results.
• Analysis: Data triangulation and analysis to validate evidence and arrive at findings.

The evaluators will be expected to develop and present detailed statement of evaluations methods/approaches in an inception report to show how each objective, evaluation question and criterion will be answered.

Reporting Requirements:

• Input for the inception report which will be due within 5 days of signing the contract.
• Draft output evaluation reports due after 6 weeks of signing the contract.
• Final output assessment report due 8 weeks after signing contract.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Technical Proposal specifying the two outputs of the Outcome to be assessed:

• Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work
• Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work

Financial Proposal

Personal CV (P11 Form) including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references

Proposals must include all three documents. Proposals not meeting this requirement will be rejected.

Financial proposal:

Contracts based on daily fee.
The financial proposal will specify the daily fee, travel expenses and per diems quoted in separate line items, and payments are made to the Individual Contractor based on the number of days worked upon satisfactory completion of the required deliverable.

Travel:

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to Lilongwe and return and to 3 to 4 districts to engage programme beneficiaries.

Evaluation:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Cumulative analysis:

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose 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 specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria weight; (70)

Financial Criteria weight; (30)

• Criteria A:  Minimum Master’s degree in economics, political science, public administration, development studies, international relations or other related social sciences; 5 points;
• Criteria B: Minimum 7 years of professional experience in at least two subject areas of UNDP Malawi’s work: democratic governance and public sector management; environment, natural resources, disaster risk and climate change management; inclusive and sustainable growth and gender equality; 15 points;
• Criteria C: Proven experience in leading evaluations of national policies, strategies or programmes of government and international aid organisations; 25 points;
• Criteria D: Knowledge and experience in gender mainstreaming; 5 points;
• Criteria E: Brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work. 20 points.

Financial  30 points

Combined total score (Maximum) 100 points

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points in the Technical Evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

The financial score for the financial proposal will be calculated in the following manner:

Sf = 100 x Fm/F, in which Sf is the financial score, Fm is the lowest price and F the price of the proposal under consideration.

(Total Financial Maximum points = 100 points)

Total Score:

The technical score attained at by each proposal will be used in determining the Total score as follows:

• The weights given to the technical and financial proposals are: T= 0.7, F=0.3
• The Total score will be calculated by formula: TS = St x 0.7 + Sf x 0.3
• TS - Is the total score of the proposal under consideration?
• St - is technical score of the proposal under consideration.
• Sf - is financial score of the proposal under consideration

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications by 13th May, 2016 at the following email address: procurement.mw@undp.org.