UN WOMEN Jobs - 1534- Consultant: Evaluation Team Member (2 positions)

Consultant: Evaluation Team Member (2 positions)

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Kabul, AFGHANISTAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

07-May-2007

Application Deadline :

20-Apr-07 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

Duration of Initial Contract :

2 months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

Since 2001, UNIFEM has been managing a multi-donor, multi-pronged programme called “Supporting Women’s Leadership in Re-building Afghanistan” and which includes five sub-components. The overall outcomes anticipated for the programme are:

Strengthened capacity of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA)
Improved awareness and understanding of the impact of conflict on Afghan women and their role in peace building
Putting gender perspectives at the centre of Afghanistan’s governance and peace-building efforts
Improvement in Afghan women’s protection and economic security
Promoting an end to violence against women and ensuring respect for their human rights
Support to gender mainstreaming and attention to women’s empowerment throughout the UN system strategy and programme on reconstruction in Afghanistan

UNIFEM is commissioning an independent outcome evaluation of the programme, the purposes of which are:

To assess the extent to which the anticipated outcomes have been achieved and the internal and external factors that have supported or inhibited their achievement
To assess the sustainability of programme accomplishments thus far and make recommendations related to strengthening sustainability in the next phase of programming
To identify performance and management-related strengths and weaknesses and how these can be addressed to improve overall programme performance
To consolidate lessons learned and partners’ feedback useful for guiding UNIFEM’s and its partners’ future work in Afghanistan, as well as in other conflict and post-conflict countries

The substantive areas of work to be evaluated include those related to: a) governance, particularly strengthening Afghan institutions to be gender responsive; b) livelihoods; and c) gender justice.
The evaluation is expected to start in early May 2007 and to be completed by early July 2007.
UNIFEM is organizing an evaluation team composed of a team leader and two members to undertake the evaluation.

This announcement is specifically for the evaluation team members.

Duties and Responsibilities

The two evaluation team members will support the Team Leader to ensure timely submission of high quality deliverables to UNIFEM, as follow:

An evaluation design that defines the areas of focus, the key questions to be addressed, methods of data collection and analysis, and sources of information (documents and key informants), using the programme logframe as basic reference
Preliminary findings of the evaluation
Draft narrative report (maximum of 40 pages) that includes evaluation findings, good practices identified, areas needing strengthening, lessons learned, voices of diverse stakeholders (summaries of interviews and focus group discussions), and recommendations regarding the way forward for future programming in Afghanistan
Final evaluation report, with the same requirements as for the draft report in terms of length and coverage
Executive summary of evaluation findings, lessons learned and recommendations (not more than eight pages)

Specific tasks include but are not limited to the following:

Participate in evaluation planning consultation process with UNIFEM New York and UNIFEM Afghanistan staff through visit to New York and/or teleconferences with staff in both locations
Review relevant documents.
Develop protocols for, and undertake interviews, focus group discussions, and other means of data collection
Analyze data in accordance with approved evaluation design and in line with agreed upon division of responsibilities within the evaluation team.
Participate in discussion of preliminary findings and draft evaluation report with UNIFEM
Prepare assigned sections of the evaluation report, both draft and final versions

Competencies

ability to facilitate multi-stakeholder discussions
excellent interpersonal skills and teamwork
excellent written and oral communication skills

Required Skills and Experience

The two evaluation team members, together with the Evaluation team Leader, should bring in combined expertise/solid background in the following:

gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s rights;
programming in conflict and post-conflict countries
programming in support of women’s political and economic empowerment and gender justice
human rights and results-based programming
experience in Afghanistan
knowledge of one Afghan language

In addition, the following qualifications apply to each of the two evaluation team members

Master’s degree in a relevant discipline required (e.g., gender studies, international development, political science, public administration); specialized training in evaluation an asset
should have at least five to seven years of experience in undertaking evaluations, including outcome evaluations using participatory approaches
experience in undertaking multi-stakeholder programmes preferred
experience in undertaking evaluations for multilateral organizations preferred

Women are strongly encouraged to apply for these positions.