Background
The Governance for Resilient Development in the Pacific (Gov4Res) project aims to increase climate change and disaster resilience in Pacific Island Countries (PICs) through strengthening Pacific led risk- informed development. The project works with Pacific national and local governments and Pacific communities, as well as regional organisations, to strengthen decision-making processes and governance systems towards resilient development. There is a strong emphasis on the integration of gender equality and social inclusion principles and practice into risk-informed development. The project has three end of program outcomes:
Outcome 1: Government planning and financing systems enable gender-sensitive and inclusive risk- informed development.
Outcome 2: Country oversight and accountability systems require gender- sensitive and inclusive risk-informed development.
Outcome 3: Regional organisations, policies and practices are actively supporting gender-sensitive and inclusive risk-informed development.
The project builds on a pilot project (the Pacific Risk Resilience Project, (PRRP) 2012 – 2019), which was funded by the Australian government through Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The pilot project demonstrated the value of a risk- informed development approach in the Pacific context and the value of work through and with Pacific governments and communities to tailor risk- informed development in ways that are specific to country and local context. It also demonstrated the value of working flexibly, taking opportunities in different locations to influence development processes through a wide variety of strategies. Significantly, it demonstrated the value of supporting Pacific-led development.
Gov4Res has continued to advance a focus on risk-informed development based on the learning and achievements from PRRP. It has expanded to include work with regional organisations, recognising the unique interconnection between regional and national systems in the Pacific. It has given increased attention to Pacific government systems in particular national systems of planning, budgeting, and project implementation, recognising that sustainable change requires that these national systems are themselves risk-informed (rather than establishing parallel systems).
Gov4Res has a particular focus on social inclusion, utilising the perspectives of all groups to inform the definition of risk, and to support processes of risk assessment and management. At present, the project supports work in Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, as well as engaging with regional organisations and regional processes.
The project is implemented by UNDP and supported by the governments of Australia, Korea, New Zealand, Sweden, and more recently the United Kingdom. The various donor partners contribute different levels of support over varying timeframes. The overall value of the project is US$19 million commenced in 2020, following an inception phase in 2019, and was due for completion in 2024. With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was approved for extension to 2025. In recent months, with revised project scope and directions, the project has been further extended to 2029.
In terms of delivery, the project has a team based at UNDP in Fiji that includes project management and technical specialists. This team is complemented with staff embedded in government and other offices in various Pacific Island countries. It is also supported by a range of short-term technical specialists or advisors on contract. It collaborates with other relevant UNDP programs including an Asia-Pacific Climate Finance Network, bilateral agriculture and disaster management projects, an internal Accelerator Lab, and an Effective Governance programme, and also with other regional and national partner organisations such as Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, the Commonwealth Local Government Forum and the Pacific Community. Under the support received from DFAT it is part of a wider program, the Australia Pacific Climate Partnership, which provides particular opportunities for collaboration with other Australian funded programs. The project is overseen and receives strategic guidance by a Board consisting of project donors, and representatives from Pacific Island governments (i.e., countries where the project is being implemented) and the UNDP Pacific Office.
Duties and Responsibilities
DETAILED SCOPE OF MTE
The MTE team will assess the following categories of project progress:
The MTE will assess the ongoing relevance of Gov4Res, given the changing context since project commencement. This will require examination of the initial project analysis and strategy development, how adequately this has been updated in response to changing context, wider examination of key contextual influences (both enabling and disabling), and how adequately the project has responded to or is positioning to respond to these conditions.
The relevance of Gov4Res should be considered from the perspective of different stakeholders including partner governments and Pacific Island communities, civil society organisations, and private sector. The projects coherence with other interventions, especially those of the donor partners, regional organisations and UNDP should also be reviewed.
The MTE will recommend options to support ongoing project relevance and coherence, giving due attention to these different perspectives. To assess relevance and coherence, the following should be considered (but should not limit the evaluation):
The MTE will verify project effectiveness utilising available information (see discussion around methodology below), together with additional evidence collected as required. The MTE will consider in particular, how effectively the Gov4Res project has progressed against its original outcomes and outputs as outlined in the original project theory of change. As required, the MTE will examine core assumptions under the original theory of change and test how well these have held throughout project implementation to date. The MTE will recommend options for further development and maturing of the project theory of change that will support increased project effectiveness.
To assess effectiveness, the following should be considered (but should not limit the evaluation):
Gov4Res operates through a range of strategies and pathways to achieve change. The MTE is an opportunity to review the efficiency of the major project strategies. That is, given the resources available, which of these strategies most efficiently contributes to project implementation? In particular the MTE will examine the value being achieved from the following strategies:
Gov4Res works with and through PIC governance systems and practices to promote sustainability of the reform agenda. The MTE will assess the extent of take up of project activities by in-country systems. It will recommend options and areas of work where the project should expand or undertake further activity to support sustained PIC led outcomes.
Considering the progress of work in this current phase and the likely options for future phases of the program, the MTE will examine how the project can most effectively support sustained Pacific Islands-led action for risk-informed development.
The MTE will also identify areas for further research and enquiry is required in order to develop additional activities and strategies that will support sustained outcomes beyond the life of this project. In considering sustainability of outcomes the MTE will give particular attention to the principle of localisation.
To assess sustainability, the following should be considered (but should not limit the evaluation):
line with UNDP principles the MTE should assess to what extent human rights considerations are included in the project design and implementation
Gov4Res proposes that it is impossible to risk-inform development without understanding and addressing the underlying vulnerabilities that arise due to structural inequalities that prevent women and marginalised groups from contributing to and benefitting from that development. To ensure that the process is equitable, and benefits reach marginalised groups, the development process must be informed by diverse voices.
The project has recently developed a Gender Action Plan. The MTE is timely as the project will use the outcomes of the review to further refine its strategies for implementing its Gender Action Plan and refine its GESI indicators for the project
The MTE will assess the quality and value of the Gov4Res gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) strategies, as outlined in its GESI Action Plan, including how comprehensively and effectively the project has partnered with women, marginalised groups, including people living with a disability, and those marginalised by other intersecting social identities (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity, living in rural or remote areas, etc.), in project activity planning, implementation and assessment.
The MTE will provide detailed recommendations for further improvement in the Gov4Res strategies for GESI, including opportunities to engage with other organisations and practitioners working on these issues (e.g., Ministry of Women, UN Women)
To assess the integration of GESI into Gov4Res, the following should be considered (but should not limit the evaluation):
Gov4Res is currently designed as a project under the UNDP Resilience and Sustainable Development Unit. It receives funding from several donors and allocates those funds to different areas of project activity and in some cases, different locations. Going forward, the project seeks to make the most efficient use of donor partner funds, as well as provide the maximum accountability for those funds.
The MTE will explore options for the project structure going forward, considering likely future phases of the project, and identify options for how the project can be most efficiently structured to meet UNDP processes and respond to donor partner accountability and reporting requirements.
To assess the appropriateness of the project structure, the following should be considered (but should not limit the evaluation):
To assess the appropriateness of the project monitoring and evaluation, the following should be considered (but should not limit the evaluation):
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EXPECTED OUTCOMES AND DELIVERABLES
The following deliverables in line with UNDP’s evaluation guidelines:
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Institutional Arrangement
The evaluation team will work under the supervision of the UNDP Integrated Results Management Unit (IRMU), with oversight form the RSD team leader. The Gov4Res Monitoring Officer will support the logistical arrangements of MTE travel (if required and possible under Covid restrictions) and stakeholder consultations. Although Gov4Res is administratively responsible for the MTE, it shall not interfere with analysis and reporting, except when requested and at opportunities for comments/feedback.
The MTE will be supported by an Evaluation Reference Group comprising a selection of donor and government partners. The purpose of the Evaluation Reference Group will be to ensure transparency in the evaluation process and support stakeholder engagement with evaluation findings and recommendations. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Duration of the Work This assignment is anticipated to take place between 1 June 2022 – 31 January 2023. The assignment is home-based, and payments are output based. Travel is required to Fiji and may be undertaken to other one or two Pacific locations if COVID restrictions allow. The expected level of effort for the MTR consultant(s) is approximately 80 days in total.
Duty Station The MTE will include travel to Fiji where Gov4Res has its main base. If COVID restrictions allow, travel will be expected to other locations (a minimum of 2 other Pacific countries). If further travel is not possible then the evaluation team will be required to undertake remote data collection and analysis. The team will be expected to manage this remote process in ways which ensure the methodological standards outlined above are maintained.
Limitations and Risks With restrictions due to COVID-19, and in order to stay within reasonable time and budget limits, it will not be possible for the evaluation team to travel to all project locations nor consult all project stakeholders. As a result, there is a risk that those stakeholders who are more difficult to reach either because of location or other factors, will have limited opportunity to contribute to the evaluation. This is a limitation which will need to be carefully managed in the MTE planning and it is expected that the evaluation team will give due consideration to this risk in the comprehensiveness of their data collection.
There are limits to the expertise that an external evaluation team is able to bring. For a project such as Gov4Res with multiple technical and other work areas, there is some risk that the evaluation team will not be able to fully understand or appreciate all of the work undertaken by the project especially given that strategies and activities are localised to particular countries and sectors. Gov4Res will aim to support the evaluation team as far as possible to access a full understanding of the project activities and achievements, providing country and regional briefs, support in technical and other inquiries and directing the team to additional areas or people who can provide the required information. However, it is acknowledged that there is a risk that the evaluation team will gain a partial or incomplete perspective of the entire project operations. To mitigate this risk the Evaluation Reference Group will be tasked to review the evaluation team findings and analysis and recommend where further data collection might be required. The evaluation team will also be expected to use multiple data collection and analysis methods to test findings and interpretations with different stakeholders as they proceed.
A time bound evaluation is limited in the range of areas and issues it is able to examine in-depth. While the terms of reference for this evaluation have been deliberately limited to those areas of current significance for the project, it is also recognized that each of the MTE objectives will likely involve considerable methodological enquiry. In order manage this it will be important for the evaluation team to maintain communication with the Evaluation Reference Group and with other stakeholders including donor partners, to ensure expectations are realistic and are being satisfactorily addressed.
Ethical Consideration This evaluation will be conducted in accordance with the principles outlined in the UNEG ‘Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation’. The consultants must safeguard the rights and confidentiality of information providers, interviewees and stakeholders through measures to ensure compliance with legal and other relevant codes governing collection of data and reporting on data. The contractor must also ensure security of collected information before and after the evaluation and protocols to ensure anonymity and confidentiality of sources of information where that is expected. The information knowledge and data gathered in the evaluation process must also be solely used for the evaluation and not for other uses without the express authorization of UNDP and partners.” Contractor will be held to the highest ethical standards and are required to sign a Code of Conduct upon acceptance of the assignment. |
[1] Indicative
Competencies
- High quality monitoring and evaluation experience with demonstrated expertise in effective engagement with diverse groups of people including women, and people marginalised because of disability, geography and other factors. Demonstrated knowledge and experience in monitoring evaluation or research with Pacific Island governments and communities.
- Demonstrated ability to conduct evaluations from a critical research perspective making use of diverse and culturally appropriate methodologies. Experience in evaluating adaptive programs and complex governance projects will be looked upon favourably.
- Current experience in resilient Climate Change and Disaster Risk management,
- Technical expertise and experience in financing and planning for resilient and sustainable development.
- Demonstrated experience in supporting and assessing strategies for inclusion of women and marginalised groups, including people living with a disability, and those marginalised by other intersecting social identities (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity, living in rural or remote areas, etc.)
The team is expected to reflect a balance of gender. At least one person in the team should be from a Pacific Island country relevant to the project. Ideally the team will also reflect other diversities including lived experience with disability.
Required Skills and Experience
Educational Qualifications:
- Minimum Master’s Degree in evaluation, international development, public policy, governance or other closely related field (10%)
Experience
- Relevant experience (minimum 4 years) to conduct evaluations from a critical research perspective making use of diverse and culturally appropriate methodologies (15%)
- Experience in Theory of Change for complex systems programs (5%)
- Technical expertise and experience in financing and planning for resilient and sustainable development (15%)
- Experience in monitoring evaluation or research with Pacific Island governments and communities (15%)
- Experience in supporting and assessing strategies for inclusion of people including women and people marginalized by disability, age, geography, sexuality and other factors (10%)
- Project evaluation/review experiences within United Nations system will be considered as an asset
Language requirements
- Fluency in English (written and verbal) language is required
Documentation required
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:
- Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided in Annex II.
- Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
- Technical proposal (no more than 4 pages): including a) a brief description of why the team considers itself as the most suitable for the assignment, with reference to technical criteria outlined above.
- Financial proposal, as per template provided in Annex II. Note: National consultants must quote prices in United States Dollars (USD).
Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The successful consultant shall opt to sign an Individual Contract or a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) through its company/employer with UNDP.
Annexes
- Annex I - Individual IC General Terms and Conditions
- Annex II – Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability for the Individual IC, including Financial Proposal Template
For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to procurement.fj@undp.org or for technical questions to nicola.glendining@undp.org