Background

The Strengthening Democratic Institutions Programme (SDI) is a 3-year initiative that aims to strengthen the capacities and effectiveness of core governance institutions as the machinery that will ensure the needs and aspirations of Sierra Leoneans as articulated in the National Development Plan (NDP 2019-2023) are met. The centerpiece of the Project’s approach is to provide dovetailed support to: (i) democratic institutions and semi-autonomous MDAs that are essential building blocks of the machinery of government, i.e. the chain of decisions and actions that are needed to make policies deliver concrete results for people’s lives; (ii) parliamentary processes and local government as Parliaments define laws that organize a country’s public sector management system and are meant to make government more responsive and accountable, with a view to increase cooperation and capacity building of local government to ensure systematic and tangible decentralization; and (iii) inclusive and participatory spaces for civil society, media and local communities and women, youth and PWD groups.

The Programme is organized into 5 key intervention areas for support: (1) Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs); (2) Parliament; (3) Integrated Civil Register; (4) Subnational and Local Governance; (5) Media and Civil Society, and will ensure throughout all activities, in line with principles of the Agenda 2030 and SDGs, the imperative of leaving-no-one-behind by introducing and supporting innovative, cutting-edge and effective approaches to mainstreaming gender equality and equity, conflict-sensitivity and, more broadly, to fighting vulnerabilities. Also, with DISP, UNDP seeks to support the full devolution and decentralization of core governance functions. 

The programme seeks to contribute to the following four outputs in the UNDP Country programme document (2020-2023):

1. Strengthened democratic oversight, accountability and monitoring institutions.
2. Targeted rule of law, justice and security institutions strengthened to uphold democratic principles
3. Institutions for peace, citizen’s voice and participation strengthened for social cohesion.
4. Devolution of functions and resources to local government increased

The overall objective of the programme is to consolidate gains made during the previous interventions through support to initiatives aimed at strengthening capacities of democratic institutions, legal frameworks, institutional structures, and processes. The project complements the efforts of the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) to strengthen independence and oversight functions as articulated in GOSL Medium Term National Development Program.  It contributes to Cluster 4: Governance and Accountability of the Sierra Leone Medium-Term National Development Plan (MT-NDP 2019–2023), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 and 16, and the priorities of the African Union Agenda (AUA) Goals 11 and 17. The programme employs two pronged approaches, with strategic level interventions crafted to support oversight at the central level, gender responsive legal frameworks and capacities while ensuring capacities and procedures are strengthened at the community level for people centred local development.

The Programme utilizes a combination of National and Direct Implementation (NIM/DIM) modalities to deliver outputs in partnership with the Electoral Commission, Parliament of Sierra Leone, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, National Civil Registration Authority, and media institutions. The project also supports civil society organisations (CSOs) to complement the work of government institutions and expand services to women, youth and people living with disabilities in rural communities to enhance capacities to participate, provide platforms for voice and understanding rights and responsibilities.

The need to be responsive to the COVID-19 pandemic was critical in defining project interventions. The project’s priorities in this context did not only strive to meet the capacity needs of relevant institutions to respond to COVID-19, but emphasis was also placed on ensuring specific interventions address the immediate needs of local governments to support their communities respond to the pandemic and adhere to legal frameworks for the prevention of Covid-19. The implementation process was mainly guided by strict adherence with NaCOVERC COVID-19 regulations to ensure the safety of staff and project beneficiaries especially in remote communities in the regions.

1.       Purpose of the evaluation

The purpose of this evaluation is to assess the UNDP Strengthening Democratic Institutions Portfolio which comprises of four projects: (1) Support to Parliament, (2) Support to Integrated Civil Register, (3) Support to Media Development & Civic education; and Support to Local Governance. It will assess the progress, achievements and lessons learned, as well as challenges faced regarding capacity strengthening support to democratic institutions, and civil society organizations working to strengthen oversight, citizen’s inclusion, participation and voice. The evaluation will review the impact of project interventions at local, regional and national levels within the wider context of the technical and financial assistance provided by UNDP and its partners. Specifically, the evaluation will assess the impact of UNDP’s support towards strengthening capacity of oversight institutional, local governance structures, integrated civil register, and inclusion in governance processes.

Applicants are requested to apply online at http://jobs.undp.org by 3rd October 2022. The application document can be accessed on https://procurement-notices.undp.org. Candidates are invited to submit applications together with their technical, financial proposal and CV for this position. UNDP applies a fair and transparent selection process that will consider the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals. Qualified women and members of social minorities are encouraged to apply. Interested applicants should send an email to:  Vendors.sle@undp.org  for any inquiries.

Duties and Responsibilities

 Scope and objectives of evaluation

The evaluation will focus mainly on assessing the achievements of the various components within the SDI Portfolio document. It will focus on assessing the impact of programme interventions spanning from 2020 to present. Specifically, it will examine the impact of UNDP’s support to the Parliament with a focus on institutional capacities strengthening, outreach and accessibility of Parliament, Gender responsive lawmaking, civil society inclusion into the work of Parliament.

Focus will as well be placed on efforts towards promoting decentralisation legal framework, capacities for effective inclusive decentralisation and capacities for communities to input into community-level planning and development interventions. The Assessment will also examine the innovative approach of partnership between private sector, government and civil society in community-led development. The consultancy will further explore the impact of programme support aimed at strengthening wholistic local development in Kono.

The evaluation of the support to the Integrated Civil register relating to institutional capacity (technical, policy and legal) strengthening, technologies deployed in support of generating data on citizens and residents, and the communication/education of communities on vital events.

Specific objectives of the evaluation include:

• Review the performance of the SDI programme interventions in achieving the outputs stated in the programme document and their contributions to CPD outcomes.
• Review of programme approach and coherence in delivering programme results.
• Assess the factors that have been influenced community and national ownership of programme results and its sustainability.
• Assess the knowledge, visibility and communication employed by both programme and government counterparts around the programme results.
• Assess the appropriateness of the project strategy, implementation approach, and programme institutional/management arrangements.
• Document best practices and lessons learned from the programme to feed into the next phase of the programme cycle.
• Proffer concrete recommendations that may be required for enhancing the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of a future programme.

 Evaluation criteria and key questions

The evaluation will follow the Organization of Economic Cooperation Development (OECD), Development Assistance Committee (DAC)’s evaluation criteria – relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact

and sustainability. Partnership, Gender Empowerment and Social Inclusion (GESI) and human rights will

be added as cross cutting criteria. The guiding questions outlined below should be further refined by the

consultant and agreed with UNDP prior to the commencement of the evaluation: The assessment on the contribution of the projects to development results through its activities will be made in accordance with the following evaluation criteria:

• Relevance of projects outputs.
• Effectiveness of project interventions in terms of achieving stated goals.
• Efficiency of project interventions in terms of use of human and financial resources.
• Sustainability of the results to which the project contributes.

Relevance

• To what extent does UNDP Strengthening Democratic Institutions Portfolio respond to the priorities of the Government of Sierra Leone National Development Plan (2019-2023) and similar strategies, the UNDP Country Programme Document (2020-2023), Embassy of Ireland Mission Strategy 2019-2023 and the Sustainable Development Goals?
• How does the support for project interventions contribute to the longer-term development results in terms of approaches, capacities, policies and strategies?
• How relevant have project interventions been in leveraging support sustainable development?
• Do the interventions meet the practical and strategic needs of all genders, persons with disability, and other disadvantaged and marginalized groups?

Coherence

• To what extent the UNDP Strengthening Democratic Institutions Portfolio is coherent with Government’s policies?
• To what extent does the intervention support national legislation and initiatives that aim to improve gender equality and human rights? What lessons can be learned?
• To what extent the UNDP Strengthening Democratic Institutions Portfolio addressed the synergies and interlinkages with other interventions carried out by UN and other development partners?

Efficiency

• Has the programme been implemented within its stated timeframe and cost estimates?
• Did the programme interventions focus on the set of activities that were expected to produce significant results?
• Were there sufficient (human and financial) resources allocated towards achievement of the programme objectives?
• Were different resources allocated in ways that considered gender equality, and inclusion of person with disability and youth? If so, how were they allocated? Was differential resource allocation appropriate?
• Was there any identified synergy between UNDP-funded interventions and other similar interventions that contributed to reducing costs while supporting results?
• Has there been over expenditure or under expenditure in programme interventions?
• Were there any unanticipated events, opportunities or constraints? What could be done differently in the future?
• What measures were taken to assure the quality of development results and management practices, both in relation to process and products, and to partnership strategies?
• What monitoring and evaluation procedures were applied by UNDP and partners to ensure greater accountability?

Effectiveness

• Have the expected programme (quantitative and qualitative) results been achieved and what were the supporting or impeding factors?
• Were the approaches, resources and conceptual frameworks relevant to achieve intended outputs?
• What are the main lessons learned from the partnership strategies and what are the possibilities of replication?
• To what extent have interventions’ objectives and results contributed to gender equality, women and youth empowerment and human rights in governance processes?
• Which aspects of the interventions had the greatest achievements? What have been the supporting factors? How can UNDP build upon or replicate these achievements?
• In which areas does the programme component have the least achievements? What have been the constraining factors and why? How can they be overcome?
• Were the approaches, resources and conceptual frameworks used relevant to the achievement of planned outcomes/outputs?
• What were the unintended results (positive/negative) of project interventions?

Impact

• Are the portfolio interventions causing a significant change in the lives of the intended beneficiaries?
• How did the portfolio interventions cause higher-level effects (such as changes in social norms or systems)? To what extent have impacts contributed to equal power relations between people of different genders?
• Are all the intended target groups, including the most disadvantaged and vulnerable, benefiting equally from the portfolio interventions?
• Are the portfolio interventions transformative – does it create enduring changes in norms – including gender norms – and systems, whether intended or not?

Are the interventions leading to other changes, including “scalable” or “replicable” results? How will the interventions contribute to changing society for the better?

Sustainability

• To what extent were sustainability considerations taken into account in the design and implementation of interventions? How was this concern reflected in the design of the programme component and in the implementation of activities at different levels?
• Were exit strategies programme interventions appropriately defined and implemented, and what steps have been taken to ensure sustainability of results?
• How did the development of partnerships at local and national level contribute to sustainability of the results?
• How were different stakeholders engaged in the design and implementation? Have interventions been implemented with appropriate and effective partnership strategies? What has been the nature and added value of these partnerships?
• To what extent do mechanisms, procedures and policies exist to carry forward the results attained on gender equality, empowerment of women, human rights, and human development by primary stakeholders?

Human right, Gender equality and disability inclusion

• To what extent have poor, indigenous and persons with disability, women, men and other disadvantaged and marginalized groups benefited from the project?
• To what extent has the portfolio integrated Human Rights Based Approach in the design, implementation, and monitoring of the project? Have the resources been used in an efficient way to address Human Rights in the implementation?
• Is the gender marker assigned to this project representative of reality?
• To what extent has the project promoted positive changes in gender equality and the
  promoting the rights of women and persons with disability? Did any unintended effects emerge for women, men or vulnerable groups?

  Evaluation methodology

The methodology mentioned in this section is indicative. The evaluator should propose a final detail methodological framework in the inception report based on the systematic review of the portfolio documents. Evaluator should adopt both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The qualitative data assessment should include the secondary project data to be collected and developed for more insight into the project's accomplishments and lessons learned. The evaluation stages include (i) desk review, (ii) prepare inception report, (iii) field visits to project’s provinces and districts, (iv) data analysis and interpretation, and (v) evaluation report writing and finalization.

The consultant/evaluator will be responsible for designing appropriate theory-based evaluation methodology including designing tools, developing questionnaire and other instruments for data collection and analysis based on programme theory of change. A kick-off meeting should be organized with UNDP and evaluation partners to discuss on data collection plan, expectations, and tools and techniques to be adhered for collection of primary information. The consultant should use, but not limited, the following methods for data collection:

Desk review

The evaluator should review portfolio documents which includes portfolio notes, project proposals, progress reports, consolidated quarterly and annual reports, minutes of project board meetings, project modification document, knowledge products, research, monitoring reports and legal review reports, communication and visibility reports, case stories, IEC Materials etc. Please see annex -1 for relevant portfolio documents. In addition, the evaluator will review literatures, relevant research, and donors’ and government’s reports.

Interview/Consultation

The consultant will conduct in-depth key informant interviews (online or virtual) to gather primary data from key stakeholders. For this, evaluator should develop checklist and evaluation questions. This includes interviewing representatives from donors and partners. The evaluator also conducts group interview, Focus Group discussion, with portfolio stakeholders and beneficiaries. Interview should also include relevant UN agencies and other implementing partners. While organizing interviews and consultations with beneficiaries, the evaluator should ensure the participation of women, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.

Field observation

Evaluator is expected to directly observe portfolio interventions in provinces and districts. This also includes observing the functioning of the project supported community and stakeholder’s groups, platform and infrastructures. The evaluator will follow the COVID-19 protocols during the mission. If field mission is not possible due to COVID-19 crisis, it should be discussed and mutually agreed with UNDP.

Case story

Using thematic case studies, evaluator may assess the impact of the project on the beneficiaries, particularly the benefits they accrued from the project and the visible changes in their lives, and overall well-being. The gender and social inclusion should be well considered while capturing and documenting the stories in the report.

Deliverables and timelines

Under the direct supervision of the Evaluation Manager and in coordination with the UNDP Program Support Unit (PSU), portfolio team and collaboration with relevant partners, the Consultant will accomplish the following deliverables in accordance with the stipulated timelines covering a total period of Thirty (30) working days. 

Evaluation criteria

Offers received will be evaluated using a combined scoring method, where the qualifications and proposed methodology will be weighted 70%, and combined with the price offer, which will be weighted 30%.

Criteria to be used for rating the qualifications and methodology

Technical evaluation criteria (total 70 points)

• Proposed methodology of approach to the consultancy [25 marks].
• Demonstrated experience in similar consultancy work especially in evaluation of core governance or parliamentary programmes in developing countries especially working within the UN system. [25 marks].
• Demonstrated/evidence of relevant education and experience in M&E, Development Studies, Human Rights and Law. [20 marks].

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the Technical Evaluation will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Financial evaluation (total 30 points)

All technically qualified proposals will be rated out of 30 points. The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal.

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.

Competencies

 Evaluator competencies

This Mid-term evaluation will be conducted by an external consultant who will work closely with the Country Office M&E Specialist, the SDI Team and government counterpart in the conduct and direction of the evaluation

Corporate Competencies

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Demonstrates diplomacy and tact in dealing with sensitive and complex situations.
• Strong communication, team building, interpersonal, analysis, and planning skills.

Professionalism

• Effective communication.
• Problem solving skills.
• Demonstrated ability to negotiate and apply good judgment.
• Shows pride in work and in achievements.
• Is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results.
• Superior leadership and strategic management skills with an excellent understanding of international development issues and knowledge of the UN system.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, in a multi-cultural setting; ability to conduct results-based management and reporting, objectivity and ability to analyze large multi-country data sets in short period.
• Good understanding of gender and human right based approach, and skills, experience and commitment to gender issues including experience of conducting inclusive evaluation.

Planning & Organizing

• Organizes and accurately completes multiple tasks by establishing priorities while taking into consideration special assignments, frequent interruptions, deadlines, available resources and multiple reporting relationships.
• Plan, coordinate and organize workload while remaining aware of changing priorities and competing deadlines.
• Establish, build and maintain effective working relationships with staff, partners and beneficiaries to achieve the planned results.
• Experience working collaboratively in small teams with tight deadlines.

Required Skills and Experience