Historique

The UNDP and UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Through the Governance and Poverty Reduction Unit (GPRU) of the UNDP and the Women’s Political Empowerment and Leadership Programme (WPEL) of the UNWomen, the WILS joint programme works with regional partners to address country-specific barriers to women’s full political participation. It works with government, non-governmental organizations, state-owned corporations, civil society organizations and communities to help create an institutional and social environment that welcomes and supports women’s participation in leadership and decision making, political participation, increasing the number of women candidates and enhancing their support networks. 

The WILS Project seeks to build and reinforce progress already made on gender equality and women’s leadership in Samoa. It is Phase II of the Increasing Political Participation of Women in Samoa (IPPWS) Project and builds on the work completed since the project began in 2015.

WILS targets the ‘leadership’ development of women as individuals and as a group, to work together to address women’s leadership and gender equality issues, and to enhance their exercise of leadership. The Women in Leadership in Samoa (WILS) Project is a three-year joint programme implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Women with funding from the Australian Government in partnership with the Government of Samoa under the overall leadership of the WILS Steering Committee. The Steering Committee comprises of representatives from the Government of Samoa (Ministry of Women, Community & Social Development, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade), community (SUNGO),  DFAT and participating UN agencies (UNDP and UN Women).

Recent achievements for gender equality progress in Samoa included the 2013 Constitutional 10 per cent quota for women parliamentary seats, establishment of the Family Court Act (2014), Family Safety Act (2013) and the National Policy for Gender Equality (2016-2020), the 2017 Ombudsman Inquiry into Domestic Violence, the Samoa Law Reform Commission’s 2016 Report into CEDAW Compliance, as well as the 2017 Samoa Family Safety Study. 

However, despite significant advances made in promoting and addressing gender equality in Samoa, there remain enduring systemic, institutional, cultural, attitudinal and financial barriers that continue to prevent women from engaging effectively in decision making roles at the community, village and national parliament levels, and including boards of public enterprises (see Table1 of the project document). Women’s leadership contribution at all levels of society needs encouragement, support and acknowledgement. Working with men and youth across different levels to address these barriers is also needed to address gender equality issues.

Within its limited scope, resourcing and timeframe, this project will not address all those barriers, most of which are deeply rooted in societal belief systems and practices. Social change takes time and requires sustained leadership, partners’ cooperative commitment and stakeholders’ support. A key lesson from the IPPWS is that the work to increase the number of women representation needs sustained and long-term investment and support. Within a targeted focus on ‘Women in Leadership, this Project is one stepping stone to building and encouraging such a long term process of looking at addressing some of the key women representation issues in Samoa. Effective implementation of initiatives under this Project relies on genuine collaboration amongst key partners and stakeholders. It seeks to give more emphasis and recognition to women’s leadership in all forms, not just formal political leadership, but also women’s leadership (current, potential and emerging) in families, villages, communities, businesses, and the government, as well as the private sector.

The Project Theory of Change and a set of indicative activities and partnerships were validated by partners and stakeholders in August 2017. The Project has four major outputs and a long-term outcome: strengthened women’s leadership and gender equality in Samoa. 
 
Three concepts: women in leadership, theory of change, and Samoanisation guide the conceptual underpinning of this Project. These are defined below.

The Project targets the ‘leadership’ development of women as individuals and most importantly as a group - to try and work together to address women’s leadership and gender equality issues and to enhance their exercise of leadership for the common good of their villages, constituencies and the country. This Project adopts the following definition in its ‘Women in Leadership’ focus: 

A political process of women mobilising people and resources in pursuit of shared and negotiated goals within government, private sector, and civil society (Kenway, Bradley & Lokot, 2013, p. iii) 

Samoa’s system of governance is a blend of neo-traditional and contemporary systems of governance. The Project has adopted a Samoanisation concept where learning from international best practices is valued, but local involvement and partnerships facilitate a participative process for the Project to have value-added. Samoanisation is about localization – making interventions relevant to local context and seeking locally driven strategies. Specialist and technical expertise are provided when needed, complemented with the involvement of partners and local counterparts to provide local insights and contextual knowledge. This Samoanisation hopes to contribute to the sustainability and continuity of initiatives and activities beyond the Project’s timeframe.

The project is implemented over the course of 3.5 years and started in 2018 and ends in June 2022. WILS is a joint programme between UNDP and UN Women, with funding from the Australian Government in partnership with the Government of Samoa.

Project monitoring and evaluation is conducted in accordance with established UNDP and UNWomen procedures and is provided by the project team and the UNDP Multi-Country Office (UNDP-MCO) in Apia with support from the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia-Pacific (RBAP) region in Bangkok. 

The total funds for this project is AUD3 million.

Devoirs et responsabilités

The objective of this consultancy is to undertake the end of project review of the WILS Phase 1 joint programme.

The EPR will assess progress towards the achievement of the project objectives and outcomes as specified in the Project Document and assess signs of project success or failure with the goal of making key recommendations to be made for a Next Phase of the WILS Project so that results are produced in Phase 1 of the WILS project are sustained. The EPR will also review the project’s strategy, its risks to sustainability.

Approach and Methodology

The EPR must provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable and useful. The EPR consultant will review all relevant sources of information including documents prepared during the preparation phase (i.e. the Project Document, Mid Term Review Report & Recommendations, project reports including Annual Project Review/PIRs, project budget revisions, lesson learned reports, national strategic and legal documents, and any other materials that the team considers useful for this evidence-based review).  

The EPR consultant is expected to follow a collaborative and participatory approach  ensuring close engagement with the Project Team, government counterparts, the UNDP Country Office(s), UNDP Technical Adviser, UN Women and other key stakeholders. 
The engagement of stakeholders is vital to a successful EPR.  Stakeholder involvement should include interviews with stakeholders who have project responsibilities, including but not limited to the WILS stakeholders and agencies including Government, NGOs, Private Sector and Community Representatives, Project Management Unit, executing agencies, senior officials and task team/ component leaders, key experts and consultants in the subject area, Project Board, project stakeholders, academia, local government and CSOs, etc. Additionally, the EPR consultant is expected to conduct field missions in Samoa including the selection of the project sites on Samoa.

The final EPR report should describe the full EPR approach taken and the rationale for the approach making explicit the underlying assumptions, challenges, strengths and weaknesses about the methods and approach of the review. A list of documents that the project team will provide to the evaluator for review is included in Annex A of this Terms of Reference.

Download the full terms of reference from the Procurement website link below for further information.

Compétences

1. Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s & UN Women’s mission, vision and values
2. Highly effective in working with multi-sector teams
3. Ability to function effectively under pressure and tight timelines
4. Self-motivated and able to work independently
5. Excellent oral and written communication
6. Creative thinking and emotional intelligence

Qualifications et expériences requises

An independent national consultant usually from the country of the project will conduct the EPR. The consultant cannot have participated in the project preparation, formulation, and/or implementation (including the writing of the Project Document) and should not have a conflict of interest with the project’s related activities. 

The selection of the consultant will be aimed at qualities in the following areas:

• At least a Post-graduate degree in political science, development studies, law, legislative studies, public administration or related field; 20%
• Minimum of 5 years experience in project evaluations, results-based monitoring, and/or evaluation methodologies; 25%
• Sound understanding of the UNDP Project Cycle Management, with demonstrated experience in designing and facilitating processes to enhance project implementation and its adaptive management through the application of M&E tools, including results-based management logical frameworks; 20%
• Experience working in engaging with parliamentary development, gender equality, community development and women in leadership and in the Pacific region; 25%
• Fluency in English (oral and written) is a requirement, with excellent written and presentation skills; 10%

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Download the full Terms of Reference PLUS the templates for submission of your proposal from the UNDP Procurement website link https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=89510