Background
The UN Women Kyrgyzstan CO is commissioning a Country Prorgamme Evaluation (CPE) which scope will be the implementation of its Strategic Note for the period 2015-20017. For this purpose, UN Women ECA Regional Office is hiring an International Evaluation Specialist (team leader) and a Kyrgyzstan National Evaluation Specialist (local expert) that will conform the independent evaluation team that will undertake this evaluation. The present ToR refers to and describes the background of this exercise, the scope of work to be commissioned and the qualifications required to the candidates of the National Evaluation Expert position. The full description of the evaluation process is included in “Annex 1 ToR of the Kyrgyzstan Country Programme Evaluation 2015-2017” attached.
UN Women's mandate (GA resolution 64/289) is to lead, coordinate and promote accountability of the UN system to deliver on gender equality and the empowerment of women with the primary objective of enhancing country-level coherence, ensuring coordinated interventions and securing positive impacts on the lives of women and girls, including those living in rural areas.
The Country Office (CO) Strategic Note (SN) is the main planning tool for UN Women’s support to normative, coordination and operational work in the Kyrgyz Republic. UN Women (previously as UNIFEM) has implemented catalytic initiatives on promoting women’s economic, political and social rights in Kyrgyzstan since 2001. A full Country Office has been operational since 2012. This evaluation will consider the current Strategic Note covering the period 2015-2017. A new Strategic Note is due to be developed and approved during 2017.
The Strategic Note is grounded in the standards, principles and obligations of the Convention to Eliminate all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Concluding Observations of the Commission on the Status of Women, SCR 1325, Millennium Development Goals, and Committee and Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Recommendations (2011), and CEDAW Concluding Observations on the 4th periodic reports.
The Kyrgyz Republic has ratified key UN Conventions on human rights and gender equality and developed the most progressive national gender legislation and policy framework in the sub-region. The Government of the KR has made significant efforts in putting its gender equality and sustainable development agenda forward, which resulted not only in the first ever long-term National Gender Equality Strategy (NGES) 2012-2020, but also in the first National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) 2013-2017 and its implementation programme. The National Action Plan on UN Security Council Resolution on Women, Peace and Security 1325 is being implemented since 2013. The Government re-affirmed implementation of international obligations on the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 through nationalization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and establishment of the Coordination Committee on SDGs in February 2016. The Strategic Note is in support of the aforementioned international commitments and national strategies by the Government of the KR. The Strategic Note is furthermore aligned with the UN Women Global Strategic Plan 2014-2017 and Kyrgyzstan’s UNDAF for 2013-2017, contributing to the following Impact Areas of UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2014-2017:
- Impact Area 2: Women, especially the most excluded and vulnerable, are empowered to be actors in economic and local development
- Impact Area 3: Women and girls live a life free of violence;
- Impact Area 4: Peace and security and humanitarian action are shaped by women’s leadership and participation
- Impact Area 5: Governance and national planning fully reflect accountability for GE commitments and priorities
The total planned budget of the Strategic Note for the period of 2015-2017 was 6.4 mln USD. As per December 2016, expenditure against this target programmatic budget was 4 mln USD.
The work of UN Women is focused on responding to its three-fold mandate.
- Normative work: to support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and the General Assembly, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms;
- Operational work: to help Member States to implement international standards and to forge effective partnerships with civil society; and
- Coordination work: entails both work to promote the accountability of the United Nations system on gender equality and empowerment of women (GEEW), including regular monitoring of system-wide progress, and more broadly mobilizing and convening key stakeholders to ensure greater coherence and gender mainstreaming across the UN.
The Strategic Note includes an Organisational Effectiveness and Efficiency Framework (OEEF) with performance indicators. The evaluation is expected to use this to assess organizational performance.
Purpose, objective and scope of the evaluation
Evaluation Purpose
Country Portfolio Evaluation (CPE) is a systematic assessment of the contributions made by UN Women to development results with respect to gender equality at the country level. The UN Women portfolio responds to three core mandates, which include normative, operational and coordination work. The CPE focuses on their individual and combined success in advancing gender equality in the Kyrgyz Republic. It uses the Strategic Note as the main point of reference.
This CPE is being commissioned by the Regional Office (RO) as a primarily formative (forward-looking) evaluation to support the Country Office (CO) and national stakeholders’ strategic learning and decision-making for the next Strategic Note, due to be developed in 2017. The evaluation is expected to have a secondary summative (backwards looking) perspective, to support enhanced accountability for development effectiveness and learning from experience.
An additional objective of the evaluation is to separately assess the performance of the Gender in Society Perception Study (GSPS), a joint project with IOM and UNFPA lead by UN Women under the Peacebuilding Fund’s Gender Promotion Initiative, implemented through its 18-month IRF facility. This assessment will support accountability towards the donor, host country authorities and stakeholders, and contribute to organizational learning.
The primary intended users of this evaluation are:
- UN Women Kyrgyzstan CO, Regional ECA Office, and UN Women HQ
- Target groups, their households and community members, programme/project partners
- National government institutions
- Civil society representatives
- Donors and development partners
- UN Country Team and GTG
Primary intended uses of this evaluation are:
- Learning and improved decision-making to support the development of the next Strategic Note 2018-2022;
- Accountability for the development effectiveness of the CO Strategic Note 2018-2022 in terms of UN Women’s contribution to gender equality and women’s empowerment;
- Capacity development and mobilisation of national stakeholders to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Evaluation objectives
The evaluation has specific objectives:
- Assess the relevance of UN Women contribution to the intervention at national levels and alignment with international agreements and conventions on gender equality and women’s empowerment;
- Assess effectiveness and organizational efficiency in progressing towards the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment results as defined in the Strategic Note;
- Support the UN Women CO to improve its strategic positioning to better support the achievement of sustained gender equality and women’s empowerment;
- Analyse how human rights approach and gender equality principles are integrated in the design and implementation of the Strategic Note;
- Identify and validate lessons learned, good practices and examples of innovation that supports gender equality and human rights;
- Provide insights into the extent to which the UN Women CO has realized synergies between its three mandates (normative, coordination and operations);
- Assess the extent to which the GSPS project’s objectives are consistent with and relevant to the priorities and policies of the donor and relevant to the needs of the target group. Assess effectiveness and efficiency in realizing project objectives;
- Provide actionable recommendations with respect to the development of the next UN Women CO Strategic Note.
The evaluation will apply four OECD/DAC evaluation criteria (relevance, effectiveness (including normative, and coordination mandates of UN Women), efficiency, and sustainability) and Human Rights and Gender Equality as an additional criterion.
Evaluation design (process and methods) and criteria
The evaluation will use a theory-based cluster design. The performance of the country portfolio will be assessed according to the theory of change stated in the Strategic Note 2015-2017. To achieve sufficient depth, the evaluation will cluster programming, coordination, and policy activities of the Country Office around the thematic areas stated in the UN Women Strategic Plan 2015-2017.
The evaluation will undertake a desk-based portfolio analysis that includes a synthesis of secondary results data for the Development Results Framework and the Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency Framework of the Country Office. This will cover all activities undertaken by the Country Office.
The portfolio analysis will be triangulated through a mixed methods approach that will include:
- Desk review of additional documentary evidence;
- Consultation with all main stake holding groups; and
- An independent assessment of development effectiveness using Contribution Analysis.
The evaluation is expected to apply a gender responsive approach to assessing the contribution of UN Women to development effectiveness. It should identify expected and unexpected changes in target and affected groups. It is anticipated that the evaluation will apply process tracing to identify the mechanisms of change and the probable contributions of UN Women.
The evaluation is expected to assess the strategic position of UN Women. It is anticipated that mixed qualitative/quantitative cases of different target groups will be developed, compared and contrasted. The evaluation team will identify which factors, and which combinations of factors, are most frequently associated with a higher contribution of UN Women to expected and unexpected outcomes.
The method should include a wide range of data sources (including documents, field information, institutional information systems, financial records, beneficiaries, staff, funders, experts, government officials and community groups). The evaluators are expected to validate findings through engagement with stakeholders at stakeholder workshops, debriefings or other forms of engagement.
The evaluation team is expected to undertake a rapid evaluability assessment in the Inception. This should include the following:
- An assessment of the relevance, appropriateness and coherence of the implicit or explicit theory of change, strengthening or reconstructing it where necessary through a stakeholder workshop;
- An assessment of the quality of performance indicators in the DRF and OEEF, and the accessibility and adequacy of relevant documents and secondary data;
- A review of the conduciveness of the context for the evaluation;
- Ensuring familiarity with accountability and management structures for the evaluation.
The CO has undertaken an initial assessment and rated the availability of secondary data necessary for the evaluation:
Data Availability
Baseline data Medium
Activity reports High
Output results monitoring High
Outcome results monitoring High
Financial records High
Management reports High
Communications products Medium
Where these constraints create limitations in the data that can be collected, these limitations should be understood and generalizing findings should be avoided where a strong sample has not been used. In addition, cultural aspects that could impact the collection of data should be analysed and integrated into data collection methods and tools. Evaluators are expected to include adequate time for testing data collection tools.
Furthermore, the evaluation is expected to be informed by the centralized and de-centralized evaluations undertaken during the strategic note period, namely UN Women contribution to the United Nations system coordination (2016), UN Women´s Contribution to UN Coordination on GEEW in ECA (2016), UN Women contribution to GRB initiatives in the ECA Region, and Final Evaluation of PBF project “Building a Constituency for Peace” (2016).
Duties and Responsibilities
Time frame and deliverables
This section describes the type of products (reports, briefs or other) that are expected from the evaluation, who will use them and how they will be used.
The evaluators are expected to design and facilitate the following events:
- Inception workshop with the EMG and the ERG (including refining evaluation uses, the evaluation framework, stakeholder map, and theories of change);
- In-country participatory data collection mission for UN Women staff and key stakeholders;
- Findings, validation and participatory recommendations session.
The evaluation is expected to be conducted according to the following time frame (preliminary estimations), with the Inception Phase commencing in March 2017.
Task Time frame Responsible party
Inception workshop 27-30 March Evaluators/UN Women CO
Inception report and ERG and EMG Submission 1 weeks after the Evaluators ERG, EMG
Comments virtual inception workshop
(1 week for commenting) by mid
-April 2017
In depth desk review/virtual Mid-April to Mid-May Evaluators
Interviews
In country data collection 2 weeks - (22 May to 2 June) Evaluators
Reporting stage (analysis and 3 weeks (post final data collection Evaluators
presentation of preliminary findings) by 4th week of June
Evaluation Reference Group and 2 weeks - Mid-July ERG and EMG
Comments
Final Report 1 week (end of July) Evaluators
Use and follow-up 6 weeks post final report UN Women RO in
consultation with key stakeholders
TOTAL 20 weeks
Deliverable Time frame for submission Person responsible
Inception report Word format Mid-June 2017 Evaluator (EMG and ERG feedback)
(including 1 rounds of revision)
Draft report Word format End June to mid July 2017 Evaluator (EMG and ERG feedback)
Final report End of July 2017 Evaluator (EMG and ERG feedback)
Management Response 11 September 2017 Kyrgyzstan CO Director / ECA RO
A model Evaluation Report will be provided to the evaluator based on the following outline. The UN Women Regional Evaluation Specialist for Europe and Central Asia and the evaluation management group will quality assure the evaluation report. The draft and final evaluation report will be shared with the evaluation reference group, and the evaluation management group for quality review. The final report will be approved by the evaluation management committee.
Competencies
- Ethics and Values - Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.
- Organizational Awareness - Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
- Development and Innovation - Take charge of self-development and take initiative.
- Work in teams - Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
- Communicating and Information Sharing - Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.
- Self-management and Emotional Intelligence - Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others.
- Conflict Management - Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.
- Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing - Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- At least a master’s degree in sociology, international development, gender/women studies or related area
Experience:
- At least 7-years proven previous expertise in conducting complex evaluations on international development issues (advanced expertise in wide range of evaluation approaches including utilization focused, gender and human rights responsive, mixed methods as well as in conducting thematic, organizational performance, corporate and multi stakeholder evaluations preferably for the UN system).
- Experience and knowledge on gender equality and women’s empowerment issues, gender mainstreaming and gender analysis and the related mandates within the UN system (knowledge of the relevant international frameworks pertaining to gender equality and country level programming expertise in gender equality and women’s empowerment, gender mainstreaming, gender analysis and the related UN mandates, strong knowledge of human rights issues, human rights based approach to programming, human rights analysis and related UN mandates and the UN Reform).
- Experience in countries in transition, peacebuilding, humanitarian work and conflict and post conflict countries.
- A strong record in designing and leading evaluations;
- Excellent analytical, facilitation and communications skills and ability to interact with a wide range of stakeholders;
- Process management skills, including facilitation presentations and communication skills
- Proven knowledge of the role of UN Women and its programming, coordination and normative roles at the regional and country level is considered and strong asset
- Previous experience working in Central Asia and/or in particular in Kyrgyzstan will be considered a strong asset
- Proven knowledge of the role of UN Women and its programming, coordination and normative roles at the regional and country level is considered and strong asset
Language:
- Language proficiency in English
- Russian and or Kyrgyz language skills are considered an asset
Consultants should have proven commitment to the core values of the United Nations, in particular respecting differences of culture, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, language, age, HIV status, disability, and sexual orientation, or other.
Application process
Qualified and interested candidates can view the vacancy and apply online at https://jobs.undp.org/. The system will only accept one document. The interested candidates must submit the following documents/ information to demonstrate their qualification:
- Letter of Intent with justification of being the most suitable for the work, vision and working approach, specifically indicating experience of carrying out evaluations and in producing out analytical reports, etc.;
- Duly filled Personal History Form (P11) and/or CV, including records on past experience in similar projects/assignments and specific outputs obtained.
- Financial proposal (in USD) - specifying an all-inclusive daily fee, and the lump sum for the envisaged number of working days. The financial offer should include all costs related to completion of the task under the current Terms of Reference including travel cost. In general, travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket shall not be accept. The consultant will be provided with the necessary administrative and logistical support to enable them deliver on the expected outputs.
- Description of Activity :
- Unit of measure (e.g. day, month, etc.):
- Unit price:
- No. of units :
- Total Price:
Payment will be done as follows: 30 % of total payment upon approval of inception report; 40 % upon delivery of draft evaluation report; and 30% upon approval of final evaluation report.
Selection Criteria International Evaluation Specialist position
Evaluation Procedure for the bidders
Initially, individual consultants will be short-listed based on the following minimum qualification criteria:
- At least 7-years proven previous expertise in conducting complex evaluations on international development issues
- Experience and knowledge on gender equality and women’s empowerment issues, gender mainstreaming and gender analysis and the related mandates within the UN system
- A strong record in designing and leading evaluations;
- Experience in countries in transition, peacebuilding, humanitarian work and conflict and post conflict countries.
- Proficiency in English
X is the maximum financial points obtainable (150 points).
Technical evaluation will be represented through desk review of applications and interview of a shortlisted applicants.
Technical Evaluation: The technical part is evaluated on the basis of its responsiveness to the Terms of Reference (TOR).
The short-listed individual consultant will be further evaluated based on a cumulative analysis scheme, with a total score being obtained upon the combination of weighted technical and financial attributes. Cost under this method of analysis Is rendered as an award criterion, which will be 30% out of a total score of 500 points.
Evaluation of submitted offers will be done based on the following formula:
where:
T is the total technical score awarded to the evaluated proposal (only to those proposals that pass 70% m 350 points obtainable under technical evaluation);
C is the price of the evaluated proposal;
Clow is the lowest of all evaluated proposal prices among responsive proposals; and
X is the maximum financial points obtainable (150 points).
Technical evaluation will be represented through desk review of applications and interview of a shortlisted applicants.
Technical Evaluation: The technical part is evaluated on the basis of its responsiveness to the Terms of Reference (TOR).
For the international consultant:
Criteria for technical evaluation Max. points
1 Proven previous expertise in conducting complex evaluations on international 100
development issues(7 years –60 pts, each additional year – 10 additional pts, up
to a max of 100 pts)
2 Relevant experience in gender analysis and human-rights based approaches 50
(at least 5 years of proven records of experience 25 points; 5 to 7 years 35 points;
7 years or more 50 points)
3 Strong record in designing and leading evaluations. (Team leader for 3 major 60
evaluations 50 pts; 5 additional pts per evaluation up to a max of 60)
4 Previous experience in the central Asia region and in particular Kyrgyzstan (20 points 30
For Central Asia 30 if in particular in Kyrgyzstan)
5 Experience in countries in transition, peacebuilding, humanitarian work and 50
conflict and post conflict countries.(at least 5 years of proven records of
experience 25 points; 5 to 7 years 35 points; 7 years or more 50 points)
6 Proven knowledge of the role of UN Women and its programming, coordination and 30
normative roles at the regional and country level
7 Knowledge of Russian (15 points) and Kyrgyz (15) or both (30) 30
TOTAL 350
Financial evaluation:
In the Second Stage, the financial proposal of candidates, who have attained minimum 70% score in the technical evaluation (at least 245 points), will be compared.
Winning Candidate:
The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).
Annex 1 ToR for the Evaluation of UN Women Kyrgyzstan Country Programme Evaluation (please find the document attached on the website)
Annex 2 UN Women GERAAS evaluation quality assessment checklist.
UN Women Independent Evaluation Office website at
http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/evaluation/decentralized-evaluations
Annex 3 UN Women Evaluation Consultants Agreement Form.
UN Women Evaluation Consultants Agreement Form http://gate.unwomen.org/ , UNEG Ethical Guidelines and Code of Conduct for Evaluation in the UN system http://www.uneval.org/document/detail/100
Annex 4 UNEG Norms and Standards for evaluation.?
UNEG Norms: UNEG website http://unevaluation.org/document/detail/21
UNEG Standards: UNEG website http://unevaluation.org/document/detail/22]
Annex 5 UN Women Evaluation Handbook
UN Women Independent Evaluation Office website.
http://genderevaluation.unwomen.org/en/evaluation---handbook
Annex 6 OECD DAC/INCAF guidance on peacebuilding evaluation
http://www.oecd.org/dac/evaluation/evaluatingconflictpreventionandpeacebuilding.htm
Annex 7 Resources for data on gender equality and human rights.
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) – Universal Human Rights Index: http://uhri.ohchr.org/en
UN Statistics – Gender Statistics: http://genderstats.org/
UNDP Human Development Report – Gender Inequality Index: ?
http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/gender-inequality-index-gii
World Bank – Gender Equality Data and Statistics: http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Social Institutions and Gender Index: http://genderindex.org/
World Economic Forum – Global Gender Gap Report: http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-gender-gap
A listing of UN reports, databases and archives relating to gender equality and women’s human rights can be found at: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/directory/statistics_and_indicators_60.htm