UNDP Jobs - 66655- Provision of individual services of an Internation

Provision of individual services of an International Consultant for Evaluation of UNDP’s role in the Leadership of the Coordination of the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP).

Location :

Beirut, LEBANON

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

24-Jun-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

30 days.

Languages Required :

Arabic English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

30 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

More than one million Syrians and Palestinians have crossed the border with Lebanon over the past three years, fleeing from the suffering brought to them by the war. They live within Lebanese communities across the country, but are concentrated in deprived areas of the North and the Bekaa Valley. Refugees now constitute over a quarter of the pre-crisis population, making Lebanon the country with the highest per-capita concentration of refugees worldwide. The burden on host communities is enormous, and is felt in Lebanon more than in any other country. Impact assessments, such as the one conducted jointly by the UN and the World Bank, point to increased strain on basic services, such as education, health, water and sanitation, and waste collection, as well as growing competition for jobs and sources of income. Tensions and frustration are increasing among host communities, who feel neglected in the face of international support perceived to be exclusively earmarked for refugees.

Initially for the first there years of the response it was led by UNHCR with there being five Refugee Response Plans (RRP). However as of the beginning of 2015 a new response methodology was developed. In collaboration with the Lebanese authorities, UN Agencies, NGOs and international donors, a comprehensive region-wide Syria Crisis Response process was initiated commonly referred to as the 3RP (Refugee and Resilience Response Programme). In Lebanon the country plan that was developed, as part of this process, is known as the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP). The overall leadership is provided by the Resident Coordinators Office, with UNDP and UNHCR providing leadership on Resilience and Refugees respectively. Below this there is a structure of eight sectors which are developing the analysis and plans from a technical perspective. The current version of the LCRP will run until the end of this year and discussions are now beginning with regards the next iteration of plan that will cover a period from 2017 – 2020.

Given UNDP’s leadership role in the LCRP and added to this the fact the next version of the LCRP is about to be developed the leadership felt that it would be timely and useful to carry out an evaluation of UNDP’s leadership with regards the Coordination aspects of the response. This evaluation will examines all facets of UNDP’s role in the Coordination of the response at both central and field level.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP) 2015-16 sets out in stark terms the risks to Lebanon’s stability arising from the Syria crisis: Lebanon, as a nation, faces a critical test of its resilience, and a historic challenge to its hard-fought stability. And to effectively address these challenges, the LCRP faces numerous difficulties, among which some of the key ones are:

Multiple partners. The LCRP represents inputs from government ministries and 95 national and international organizations. This multiplicity of stakeholders generates major challenge for coordination and coherence;
Social variation. Lebanon’s poor and the majority of Syrian nationals registered as refugees by UNHCR live in areas with specific economic and political characteristics which influence the state-society relationship and determine the most appropriate mechanisms for aid delivery to support stability objectives. A centrally planned, one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to deliver optimum results;
A wide variety of delivery mechanisms. Whilst major donors increasingly channel their resources through the MoSA/UN-led coordination modality, many partners choose to apply their resources directly through a multitude of NGOs, bypassing the Government. Despite the establishment of the ActivityInfo Reporting Database, there remain many parallel projects which either duplicate, or fail to leverage clearly available synergies;
Multiple frameworks for evaluating impact. Each international donor, whether working through the UN, through NGOs or directly, tends to undertake its own evaluation of the outputs of the projects it funds, but with few, verifiable and common definitions of success at the outcome or impact level.

Integrated humanitarian – stabilisation response. While this is one of the strengths of the LCRP, it also poses challenges, whether in terms of defining scope, structure and the optimal way of supporting government engagement. The government, with the Ministry of Social Affairs in the lead, is taking on a greater role in coordinating the response, however at times without the required capacities to fulfil this function effectively.

The LCRP is committed to supporting the Government in better aligning international contributions with its priorities and on-going actions, improving coordination, and strengthening the role of sub-national delivery mechanisms. An urgent and immediate need exists, in particular, to generate a platform for harmonization of project interventions through agreement on a common, verifiable set of outcome and impact indicators, and through fostering a coordinated approach to Monitoring and Evaluation in line with a unified definition of success.

Given the above, UNDP is seeking to contract technical advisory expertise to evaluate the role that it has played as one of the lead Agencies in regards to the Coordination dimension of the LCRP. The specific roles that should be researched and evaluated are as follows:

UNDP’s overall lead with regards the Stabilization aspect of the plan;
UNDPs role with regards the Inter sector response mechanism;
UNDPs role as lead of the Social Stability and Livelihoods sectors;
UNDP’s role in strengthening monitoring & evaluation.

To achieve this objective, the consultant will need to consult with the following constituencies. Support will be provided by a local consultant but the international consultant will be the team leader and hold responsibility for completing the task:

The team that make up the UNDP Coordination Unit;
UNDP and UNHCR leadership;
Government representatives from MoSA and the relevant actors/representatives from the Coordination structures at the central level;
Local Government representatives;
Representatives from the Donor Community;
Representatives from other UN agencies at both the central and local level in Lebanon at the very least this should include the following UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, ILO, FAO and UNIDO, including both coordination and IM experts;
The UNDP Sub Regional Facility and UNHCR 3RP lead in Amman Jordan;
INGO representatives in Lebanon;
Local NGO representatives in Lebanon;
Representatives of the UNDP projects that are implementing programmes under the umbrella of the LCRP.

The Tasks are likely to involve but not be limited to the following:

Review of reports and relevant background reading.
Individual meetings with stakeholders.
Some focus group discussion with key stakeholders
On line surveys and feedback making use of tools such as Survey Monkey.

Key Deliverables

The technical advisory will produce the following:

A work plan outlining exactly how the activities will be implemented;
A draft report based upon the findings and including recommendations for the future;
A presentation of the initial findings;
A final report incorporating comments and feedback.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Excellent writing skills.

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

Academic Qualifications:

Master level qualification in social sciences or equivalent subject.

Years of experience:

Experienced evaluator;
Experience of working in protracted crisis and knowledge of different coordination mechanisms;
Middle East experience ideally from Lebanon.

Language requirements:

Fluent in English with Arabic language skills being an advantage.

Kindly refer to the Individual Consultant Procurement Notice and all related Annexes by visiting the below link:

http://www.lb.undp.org/content/lebanon/en/home/operations/procurement/

Please make sure to submit all the requested documents/information; otherwise, your application will be considered incomplete