Background

Background:

Safe and Fair: Realizing women migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the ASEAN region (2018-2023) is part of the multi-year EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate Violence against Women and Girls. Safe and Fair is implemented by the ILO and UN Women, in collaboration with UNODC, with a total budget of Euro 25.5 million.[1]

Safe and Fair delivers technical assistance and support with the overall objective of making labour migration safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region. Safe and Fair engages with ASEAN Member States’ government authorities; ASEAN institutions; workers’ organizations; employers and recruitment agencies; civil society organizations; community-based organizations; families and communities; research institutions and academia, media networks, youth, and the general public and supports programming in Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.

Per the Project Document, the ILO’s Policy guidelines for results-based evaluation[2] and the Evaluation policy of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women[3] provide the framework for carrying out the Programme’s independent final evaluation. These guidelines adhere to the norms and standards of evaluation adopted by the United Nations Evaluation Group and the OECD/DAC Evaluation Quality Standards.

The joint Mid-Term Evaluation was conducted from January to August 2021[4] and the programme team has been following up on recommendations of the evaluation report.

The final evaluation will systematically assess the performance of the programme against a set of key criteria and derived questions, document lessons learned and good practices and make recommendations for [possible future interventions. To ensure that the evaluation addresses the information needs of all parties, the Evaluation Managers will work closely with the European Commission and Spotlight Secretariat in reviewing and endorsing the Terms of Reference, determining the qualifications of the independent consultants, formulating evaluation questions and defining the meetings schedule.

The final evaluation report will be submitted to the relevant ILO and UN Women departments, the Fund Governing Body through the Spotlight Secretariat and the European Commission, and will be shared with programme partners. The report will be made publicly available on the respective website of each organization. A management response to the recommendations will be developed and approved by the Operational Steering Committee of the Fund in consultation with the Commission, ILO and UN Women, clearly stating the follow-up actions to be taken.

Programme Background

Roughly half of the approximately 10 million migrants in the ASEAN region are women. Women’s labour migration is an important aspect of labour mobility in the region and can be a crucial source of empowerment for women with women migrant workers making vital social and economic contributions to their communities and countries of origin and destination. However, the positive experiences and contributions of women migrant workers can only be fully ensured if their labour and human rights are fully protected.

Whether migrating through regular or irregular channels, women migrant workers face a risk of violence, trafficking and abuse from intermediaries and employers, as well as from partners and others, due to intersecting vulnerabilities and discriminative factors that compound each other, such as poverty, gender, ethnicity, immigration status, education and limited access to information. Additionally, for women migrant workers survivors of violence, there are many barriers to access essential services such as health care, legal, justice, police and social services, even when they are legally working in the country.

Violence against women migrant workers is part of the broader spectrum of violence against women, and the cultural and gendered norms that drive it.  Those cultural and gendered norms – including the use of gender specific bans –  impact the migration experiences of women, including their decision to migrate and the opportunities available to them, restricting their ability to access regular migration into skilled, safe and well-paid employment. Migrant women commonly work in agriculture, manufacturing, services and construction, often in lower paid, informal employment with few if any labour protections. They are also significantly over-represented in domestic work.

Safe and Fair programme

Given the above, there was seen a need for a programme which addresses both the need for stronger gender-responsive migration governance in order to increase better and regular migration opportunities for women into protected labour sectors; and the need for improved information and enhanced coordinated quality services for women throughout the migration cycle to prevent and respond to VAW and trafficking. This programme was designed to promote gender-responsive labour migration laws, policies, practices and services, and support the organization, leadership, empowerment of women migrant workers. It aims to address the legal, policy and institutional gaps and barriers faced by women migrant workers, as well as enhance their access to fair and safe migration by addressing exploitation, forced labour and trafficking. To address violence against women migrant workers, the programme aims to strengthen peer networking, mobilize communities, enhance access to information on available services and support front-liners to provide coordinated services.  Addressing the root cause of violence- gender inequality, gender stereotypical knowledge and attitudes, the programme aims at changing these. Collection of data and evidence – starting from labour migration flows to VAW data is fundamental to achieving programme results.                            

Objectives and strategic approach

The programme seeks to contribute to the following overall and specific objectives.

Overall objective:  Labour migration is safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region.

In being fair, labour migration will be gender equitable in access, opportunity and conditions. According to the ILO, “constructing an agenda for fair migration not only respects the fundamental rights of migrant workers but also offers them real opportunities for decent work.”[5] Labour migration that is safe, refers to migration free of violence and harmful practices. As identified earlier, violence incorporates physical, sexual violence and trafficking but also psychological violence, which includes a range of types of VAW committed by partners, strangers, and the violence of exploitative labour conditions and migration processes.

The programme straegy and the selection of outcomes (objectives) and outputs (results) were based on the theory that strengthened legislative and policy frameworks, when supported by institutions with better capacity, alongside greater organization of women, support services and a freer flow of accurate information will result in a labour migration experience that is fair and safe, with opportunities for skills and employment progression. This reduces the vulnerability of women to poor and exploitative working conditions, and improves the benefit of migration for the women themselves, and the wider communities.

Simultaneously, by working with the broader legislative framework as it relates to VAW, efforts to prevent VAW and trafficking throughout the migration cycle, are supported by strengthening accountability, capacities, and coordination of institutions and the empowering of networks of women. Recognizing that violence is pervasive, the programme strengthens service provision for survivors of violence throughout migration. Addressing the wider environment, the programme builds knowledge on the perceptions and attitudes towards and of women migrant workers, and those related to acceptance of VAW, and present these, along with strengthened data and collected good practices in campaigns that seek to address negative perceptions and discriminatory behaviour.

The project seeks to achieve the following specific objectives:

• Specific objective 1: Women migrant workers are better protected by gender -sensitive labour migration governance frameworks
• Specific objective 2: Women migrant workers are less vulnerable to violence and trafficking and benefit from coordinated responsive quality services
• Specific objective 3: Data, knowledge and attitudes on the rights and contributions of women migrant workers are improved

The programme strategy mainstreams three cross-cutting topics: women’s voice and agency; rights-based approach; and broad engagement of stakeholders.

The programme Theory of Change is annexed at the end of this TOR. The TOC of SAF evaluation aligns with the TOC of the Spotlight Initiative.

Coherence with global policy and international normative frameworks

This programme is informed by and contributes to the 2030 Agenda which emphasizes the importance of gender equality and the empowerment of women at Goal 5 and decent work and economic growth at Goal 8. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also specifically recognize some of the key challenges facing women migrant workers, through their references to VAW and trafficking, the value of domestic work, and the need to protect the labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments of women migrant workers.

The programme is grounded in international labour standards through the widely ratified ILO conventions of general application as well as those that contain specific provisions on migrant workers. Each of the ASEAN Member States also have obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). In seeking to strengthen efforts to prevent and respond to trafficking in women for labour, the programme is guided by the widely ratified Protocol to Prevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. The programme is informed by and, in turn, informs, the process towards developing the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, a commitment made by Member States under the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants.[6] The programme benefits from the recently developed ILO Guidelines on Fair Recruitment, which guides programme stakeholders. The programme is guided by and contributes to the ILO Strategy for Action towards making Decent Work a reality for Domestic Workers Worldwide, which includes strategic focus on the promotion and ratification of the ILO Convention 189, and building institutional capacity and supporting policy and legislative reforms at the national level.

The programme was designed specifically to contribute to regional goals set at the ASEAN level. The ASEAN’s commitment to protecting the rights of migrant workers is set out in the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers. It is included in the work plans of related ASEAN bodies, including the Committee on the Implementation of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (ACMW). Advancing the ACMW work plan and the recommendations of the ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labour (AFML) is key to the success of this programme. The programme is also guided and contributes to the ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on Elimination of Violence Against Women, the ASEAN Committee on Women (ACW) Work Plan and the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) Work Plan, which fall under the Socio-Cultural Pillar. Under the Political-Security Pillar, the programme engages with the Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime (SOM-TC).

Synergies with EU strategies and political frameworks

The programme also comprehensively responds to the EU’s advanced policy framework for external relations and development cooperation on migration. Improving legal migration is identified as one out of four priority areas for EU action, including effective management of labour migration, empowering migrant workers, tackling exploitation and promoting ethical recruitment. The Strategic Engagement on Gender Equality within the EU for 2016-2019, as well as an ambitious and robust new EU Gender Action Plan in External Relations 2016-2020 were adopted by the EU in 2015. The programme directly contributes to the EU Gender Action Plan (2016-2020).

EU-UN Spotlight Initiative

This programme is importantly a part of the multi-year EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls a, global initiative (2017-2022) focused on eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG). The Initiative provides a model for partnership with donors, civil society, and all UN partners, to deliver on the SDGs in a comprehensive manner leveraging comparative expertise. The Spotlight Initiative aims at being transformative, and is evidence and rights-based. Activities address underlying causes of VAWG/harmful practices, including discriminatory social and socio-cultural norms, stereotypes, and unequal power relations. By doing so they contribute to strengthening institutional capacities and accountabilities for improved health and judicial responses increased availability, accessibility and quality of services (in relation to empowerment and support for long term recovery), and enabling the collection of reliable, globally comparable, and quality data.

Within the United Nations system, the Spotlight Initiative is a flagship programme of the development system reforms. It is modelling a new way of working together – that is more coherent, collaborative, inclusive and efficient – under the leadership of Resident Coordinators to develop holistic, technically sound programmes that shatter silos and harness synergies and complementarities. This will increase the effectiveness of programmes and operational efficiencies as well as reduce transaction costs for partners. The modality for delivery of the Spotlight Initiative is through a UN multi-stakeholder trust fund, administered by the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTF), with the support of relevant UN agencies. The initiative is overseen by the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General (EOSG).

The Safe and Fair programme is aligned to the Spotlight Initiative’s theory of change. The overall objective of this programme responds to the impact statement of the initiative by promoting prevention strategies and strengthened multi-sectoral responses and services to address trafficking and violence against women in ASEAN, under component A: Trafficking in Asia; and component B: Violence against women and girls in Asia. 

The programme is guided by the Spotlight Secretariat. The programme sends its reports both to the Spotlight Secretariat for quality control and to the EU as donor. As the first programme to be funded by the Spotlight Initiative, Safe and Fair has a unique set of monitoring indicators and targets, corresponding to its thematic focus on women migrant workers. A mapping of the Safe and Fair indicators onto the Spotlight Initiative indicators has been undertaken. The Safe and Fair programme is thus able to report many of its results to the Spotlight Initiative’s results framework.

This Safe and Fair final Evaluation will feed into the global Assessment of the Spotlight Initiative.

Institutional framework and management arrangements

This action is implemented in indirect management with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in accordance with Article 58(1)(c) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 as trustee of the Multi Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) to implement the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative. The UN MPTF Office as trustee of the MPTF while ILO and UN Women will be the Recipient UN Organizations in accordance to the Fund MOU or Co-delegates in accordance with the PAGODA Co-delegation agreement. ILO is the lead agency of the action, ensuring full cooperation with co-implementing entities and with the EU Delegations in Thailand and in Indonesia.

Governance framework

A governance framework provides strategic and technical governance to the programme at regional and national levels. The European Commission, EU Delegations and relevant ASEAN bodies are involved at appropriate levels.  At the inception of the programme, a Project Steering Committee was set up to ensure coordination between ILO, UN Women and UNODC in implementation, to ensure information flow with the EU Delegations in the region facilitated through the EU Delegation in Thailand, as well as to provide an opportunity to identify and exchange good practices.

In addition a Regional Project Advisory Committee (RPAC) is convened at the regional level on an annual basis and comprises key tripartite plus stakeholders at the regional level including ASEAN bodies, and representatives of relevant EU Delegations and European Commission HQ. The RPAC provides guidance on the implementation of the programme, and endorses a proposed regional annual work plan. At national levels in each country, a tripartite plus Project Advisory Committee (PAC) is convened annually (and in some countries biannually) in close coordination with the EU Delegation on the ground to provide guidance on the implementation of the programme, and endorses a proposed annual work plan.  A CSO Reference Group meets annually, and was established in 2020, in line with Spotlight Initiative’s CSO Reference Group structure. It is a core group of relevant regional, national and local organizations addressing violence, abuse and exploitation in the ASEAN region and provides a space for accountability, transparency and knowledge sharing, ensuring that the programme effectively adhere to the principle of leaving no one behind. This is an informal group (not in prodoc of SAF) set up in line with Spotlight Initiative’s CSO engagement principles.

Evaluation Purpose, Scope and Clients

The Final Evaluation has a dual-purpose: accountability and organizational learning. The evaluation will seek to determine the extent to which the programme has achieved its planned outcomes. The evaluation will also attempt to contribute to organizational learning by identifying lessons that have been learned and emerging good practices. This information can inform future designs of similar interventions.

Scope sets boundaries around the object of evaluation. It determines what is included in the study, and what is excluded. The scope of this evaluation is the project activities in the ASEAN region from inception in 2018 to the time of the final evaluation. This would include countries of origin (Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Philippines, and Vietnam) and countries of destination (Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand); also targeting women migrant workers migrating to East Asia (China (Hong Kong, Taiwan), Republic of Korea), and the Gulf Cooperation Council States, although no programming takes place in these countries. Field visits for in-depth study will be organized in Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand. Indonesia will be the focus of in-depth online study building on rich findings from an ongoing UN Women’s Country Portfolio evaluation, which included an in-deppth look at Safe and Fair efforts. Moreover, national consultants will be recruited for in-depth study in the Philippines and Viet Nam. 

The primary users of the evaluation findings will be the management team of the Safe and Fair programme, the programme’s donors (EU, and the Spotlight Initiative), ILO and UN Women evaluation units at headquarters, and the ILO, UN Women, and UNODC regional and field offices.  Secondary parties making use of the results will include tripartite constituents and civil society organizations who have partnered with the project, as well as other agencies working on labour migration and human trafficking at national and regional levels.

Final Evaluation objectives

• to focus on assessing the effectiveness, impact and transformative changes, and sustainability that the Safe and Fair Programme has brought about.  What have been the factors supporting those positive changes and what have been the challenges.
• to assess the coherence of the Safe and Fair Programme with respect to the UN system efforts and joint approach;
• to determine the extent to which the Programme is cost-effective and was implemented in the most efficient manner including the role of the management and coordination mechanisms in supporting and guiding the programme management team
• to assess the extent to which the Safe and Fair Programme implemented a human rights and gender responsive approach in the design and implementation.
• To assess the extent to which the project outcomes can be sustainable.
• to identify lessons learned, good practices, and recommendations for future possible interventions of similar nature and as follow-up programmes after this one.

Evaluation Criteria and Questions

Based on UNEG, ILO, UN Women, and EU evaluation guidelines and standards, the criteria in Table 1 will be applied to assess the relevance of    the programme to target group needs, the coherence of the programme design, the programme’s efficiency     and effectiveness, the impact of the results and sustainability. For each criterion, two or three specific evaluation questions are suggested. The questions seek to address priority issues and concerns of the national constituents and other stakeholders. In consultation with the Evaluation stakeholders, the evaluation team is expected to refine the below key questions and elaborate sub-questions and means for answering them in an evaluation matrix.

This evaluation will explicitly apply key principles for human rights and gender-responsive evaluation.[7]   Guidance documents that should be referenced include good practices in gender-responsive evaluation[8], UN Women’s handbook[9] and UNEG Norms and Standards for evaluation[10]. This will ensure that the evaluation process is as important as the evaluation focus. To the extent possible, the Spotlight Initiative M&E Strategy (available from the Safe and Fair programme) will also guide the evaluation. These guidelines adhere to of the OECD-DAC Evaluation criteria.

Table 1.  Evaluation Criteria and Key Questions

Crosscutting Issues

The evaluation will address the ILO’s crosscutting policy drivers – gender equality, disability inclusion and non-discrimination, and social transformation. In terms of this evaluation, this implies involving both men and women, and other social/cultural categories as relevant by country in the consultation, evaluation analysis and evaluation team. Moreover, the evaluators should review data and information that are disaggregated by sex at a minimum and assess the relevance and effectiveness of gender-related strategies and outcomes to improve lives of women and men. All this information should be included in the inception report and final evaluation report.

Evaluation Approach and Methodology

Evaluation Approach

The evaluation approach will include the following:

• A theory-based and gender responsive approach to assess progress towards the specific objectives.
• A goal-based approach to examine the project’s achievements.
• A case study approach to examine the countries or approach (i.e. capacity development) under review.
• A mixed methods approach (e.g. document analysis, interviews, direct observation and surveys) to ensure the validity and reliability of the findings.
• A participatory approach in that, to the extent possible, the evaluation will involve key stakeholders such as rights holders, civil society, government, ILO Tripartite Constituents, personnel and strategic partners.
• Gender analytical frameworks[11] should be employed to ensure strong analysis capturing power dynamics and contributions towards transformative change.

Duties and Responsibilities

CONTINUED FROM BACKGROUND SECTION:

Evaluation Methodology

The evaluation methods should be selected for their rigor and their ability to produce empirical evidence to meet the evaluation criteria, answer the evaluation questions and meet the objectives of the evaluation.

The methodology should include multiple methods, with analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data, and should be able to capture intervention’s contributing to the achievement of expected and unexpected outcomes. Multiple sources of evidence will be used and triangulated. During the data collection process, the evaluators will compare and cross-validate data from different sources (programme staff, programme partners and beneficiaries) to verify their accuracy, and different methodologies (review documentary, field visits and interviews) that will complement each other.

The evaluation data collection process will include both face-to-face interviews and on line interviews. The former typology must be preferred when there are connectivity challenges and when dealing with sensitive issues and in particular violence experienced by women. Nonetheless, the full potential of virtual interviews must be exploited to reach a maximum amount of information from the highest number of stakeholders and beneficiaries. In-person participatory methods should be utilized, in cases such as capturing stories of change from those participating in the programme. Observations of migration resource centres could also be systematically employed.

The publications: Implications of COVID-19 on evaluations in the ILO: Practical tips on adapting to the situation (ILO); and Pocket Tool: for managing evaluation during COVID-19 (UN Women) may be used as guidelines for remote data collection.

The evaluation methodology will be defined in consultation between the evaluators and the evaluation manager. It will be described in the inception report to be submitted to the evaluation manager by the evaluators. The inception report shall include the detail approach, the methodology and a workplan.

Stakeholder participation

Human rights based approach and Gender-responsive evaluation places people at the center of the process. It is important to engage with key partners from the planning stage through to the use of evaluation. Evaluation stakeholders have been identified based on their role in the Safe and Fair Programme. Stakeholders are not limited to key informants and they all need to be meaningfully engaged in the process to be able to express their beliefs on an equal footing.  These fundamental power dynamics amongst stakeholders must be recognized in the process and ways for engaging meaningful stakeholder participation should be proposed by the evaluation team. The evaluation should be a means for empowering rights holders, in particular, the most vulnerable such as survivors of violence, victims of trafficking, and others should feel comfortable to claim their rights. The evaluation proposal should propose ways in which various stakeholders will be engaged, ensuring that representatives of the most marginalized or groups in vulnerable situation are able to participate throughout the evaluation process.

Expected Outputs

The deliverables from the evaluation will include:

• Inception presentation: this presentation will be made to the evaluation management group and evaluation reference group to outline key aspects of the inception report. Feedback from the EMG and ERG will be integrated into the inception report.
• Inception report: This document constitutes the operational plan of the evaluation, and should be aligned with the ToR. The purpose of the inception report is to ensure that a common understanding and agreement on the evaluation approach is reached.
• Presentation of preliminary findings: this is an interim product that presents the preliminary findings and ideas on the way forward to the EMG and the ERG for consultation to identify: major gaps, factual errors and errors of interpretation. Feedback received during the presentation will feed into the draft report.
• Draft report: the evaluation team should submit a complete and readable draft report to the evaluation manager. The draft report should reflect the evaluative reasoning and critical thinking that were used to draw values-based conclusions following the evidence. The evaluation managers are responsible for checking the quality of the draft report in terms of adequacy and readability. The evaluation managers circulate the report among stakeholders.
• Final report: the evaluation managers compile the comments received and forward them in a tracking tool for transparency to the evaluators. The evaluators will transparently respond to the feedback in the tracking tool and incorporate feedback as appropriate and submit the final report to the evaluation manager. In general, 3 rounds of revisions should be expected, but the report will not be accepted as final until it meets the quality standards.  Guidance on evaluation reports format and specific editing and branding guidelines of the organizations will be followed.

The evaluation team will consolidate information from the desk review, primary and secondary data collection into draft report that will answer the questions set out in the previous section. The length of the report will not exceed 45 pages (excluding annexes).

The report should include specific and detailed recommendations solidly based on the evaluators’ analysis and, if appropriate, addressed specifically to the organization/institution responsible for implementing it. The report should also include a specific section on lessons learned and good practices that could be replicated or should be avoided in the future.

Ownership of data from the evaluation rests exclusively with the ILO and UN Women. All raw data files, consent forms and relevant documentation must be returned to UN Women and ILO before release of final payment. The copyright of the evaluation report will rest exclusively with the ILO and UN Women. Use of the data for publication and other presentations can only be made with the written agreement of the UN Women and ILO. All deliverables will be paid for on satisfactory completion and certification by the ILO and UN Women evaluation managers and in line with the  UN Women Global Evaluation Reports Assessment and Analysis System (GERAAS). It is anticipated that all deliverables will require at least two revisions before final product is approved and paid.

Resources and Management

An ILO certified evaluation manager will be responsible for managing this evaluation with the support of an ILO Regional Evaluation Officer and the UN Women Regional Evaluation Specialist. These three officials constitute the evaluation management group (EMG) which provides oversight of the evaluation process ensuring day-to-day progress. The main responsibilities of the evaluation managers include managing the respective contract with the evaluation consultants, consulting on methodological issues and facilitating access to primary and secondary data.   Secondary data would include project reports data, project evaluation data, etc. In the region, logistics support will be provided by SAF project management.

An Evaluation Reference Group consisting of the key stakeholders of the programme representing the diverse perspectives will be set up to provide input on the evaluation products at each step: from inception through to using the findings.

The management response to the recommendations of the evaluation will be developed jointly. However, the specific recommendations that each agency will be responsible for carrying forward will be clearly specified in the evaluation report. The ILO and UN Women will utilize their respective management response approach and tracking systems for the specific recommendations/actions for which they are responsible. 

UN Women and ILO may also engage external advisor(s) to assure adherence to ethical standards and provide independent thematic expertise.

The evaluation will be co-led by one international evaluation consultant with labour migration expertise (to be managed by the ILO evaluation manager) and one with EVAW expertise (to be managed by the UNWomen evaluation manager).

Two national consultants based in two countries where SAF is being implemented will also be hired, one by each international organisation, to assist the two international consultants with data collection. The two countries where the national experts will be recruited are the Philippines and Viet Nam (Draft National Consultant ToRs can be found in Annex 2). External advisor/s may be engaged by the ILO and UN Women to provide technical advice on the evaluation. The responsibilities and profile of the “evaluation team” can be found below. The Evaluation team is expected to arrange their own logistics, materials, communication costs and office space required to conduct this evaluation. These costs should be integrated in the financial proposal. However, Safe and Fair will provide support in contacting key stakeholders. Approximately 45 days per international consultant is expected, below is the total for one co-team leader.

Evaluation Workplan

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONSIBILITIES:

Scope of work:

• Defining roles and responsibilities of the co-team leaders throughout the evaluation phases and ensuring quality control and adherence to ethical guidelines;
• Managing national consultants and managing their required logistical and communication arrangements;
• Defining the methodological approach. Producing and delivering the inception powerpoint. Drafting the inception report (including all data collection tools), producing the preliminary findings presentation, draft reports and drafting and presenting a final report, completed through a comment-tracking tool to show how the comments/feedback from the EMG and the ERG were addressed;
• Providing any technical and methodological advice necessary for this evaluation;
• Ensuring the quality of data (validity, reliability, consistency and accuracy) throughout the analytical and reporting phases.
• Ensuring the evaluation is conducted per TORs, including following ILO EVAL and UN Women guidelines, methodology and formatting requirements. And adheres to evaluation report quality standards: GERAAS as referred to above.
• Liaising with the evaluation managers and representing the evaluation team in meetings with stakeholders;

Contributing to the report dissemination and communication by participating in webinars and supporting or providing inputs to evaluation communication products

Supervision

The consultant will be supervised by the UN Women Regional Evaluation Specialist in collaboration with the ILO Evaluation Manager.  

Competencies

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
•  Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement

Functional Competencies:

• Good analytical skills
• Good knowledge of violence against women
• Ethical code of conduct

  Evaluators should have personal and professional integrity and abide by the UNEG Ethical Guidelines for evaluation and the Code of Conduct for Evaluation in the UN system to ensure that the rights of individuals involved in an evaluation are respected. Evaluators must act with cultural sensitivity and pay particular attention to protocols, codes and recommendations that may be relevant to their interactions with women. Evaluators will be expected to sign the respective ILO Code of Conduct and UN Women Evaluation Consultants Agreement Form, to show that they have read and understood the UNEG Code of Conduct for Evaluation in the UN System process. The principles behind the Code of Conduct are fully consistent with the Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service to which all UN staff is bound. UN staff is also subject to any UN specific staff rules and procedures for the procurement of services. The selected team shall sign and return a copy of the code of conduct with their contract.

  During the inception phase the team will specify the protocol for ensuring an ethical approach to the evaluation in accordance with WHO guidelines on research into violence against women. Plan should include how protection of subjects and respect for confidentiality will be guaranteed and include engagement of an advisor to guide/review ethical protocols. The Safe consultations with survivors of violence against women and girls[1] should be used as a reference document. Arrangements to ensure effective referral of survivors of violence to relevant service providers, if required, during the field research, including training of the field team and how referrals will be managed to ensure focal points can provide assistance if required.

   

  [1] UN Women. 2022. Safe consultations with survivors of violence against women and girls. Accessed from: https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2022/12/safe-consultations-with-survivors-of-violence-against-women-and-girls

Required Skills and Experience

Eligibility criteria

• Master’s degree in the field of relevance for the evaluation (Gender, Sociology, Political Science, Anthropology, or other Social Science degree);A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;
• Have specific experience in the field of labour migration and/or gender-based violence.
• Contextual Knowledge of the UN, ILO, UN Women and the ASEAN region;
• Adequate Technical Specialization: Demonstrated knowledge and expertise of labour migration and/or VAW topics;
• At least 10 years’ experience in evaluations of policies, strategies, country programmes and organizational effectiveness; at least 5 years’ experience serving as a team leader with experience applying human rights and gender based approaches to evaluation.
• Experience conducting country programme evaluations for UN organizations is an asset
• Expertise in qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods and an understanding of issues related to validity and reliability;
• Proficiency in English language is required,

It is estimated that the scope of effort required by the evaluation will be approximately 68 days in total for the two international evaluators. The successful evaluation consultants will be remunerated on an output based total fee.  

Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis.

•          Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]

•          Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A two-stage procedure is utilised in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of

the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated. Technical qualification evaluation criteria: The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individuals is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Submission of application

Interested candidates are request to submit a proposal in English including:

• A one-page cover letter indicating relevant expertise and availability during the evaluation time-frame and a financial proposal (daily rate).
• P11 form http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about- us/jobs
• 2 examples of evaluation reports that were written as team leader
• List of 3 professional references

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application to somjai.noohuang@unwomen.org with the email subject “Final Independent Evaluation of Safe and Fair: Realizing women   migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the ASEAN region” no later than 10th May 2023, (Midnight New York, USA)

Short-listed expressions of interest will be asked to prepare a brief proposal based on TORs. Expressions of Interest are welcome from individual consultants. Fluency in English is required. Fees will be based on competitive UN system relevant levels.

Proposals will be judged based on the following criteria: contextual knowledge, technical specialization, prior experience, clarity and soundness of proposed methodology, language and understanding of the Safe and Fair cross-cutting policy drivers and financial competitiveness.

 In the event that the consultant needs to travel related to this assignment, UN Women will bear the costs of requested travel expenses.

 Payment

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated deliverable within the indicated timeframes. Any travel under this consultancy will be covered by UN Women as per our rules and regulations.

Diversity and Inclusion

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.  

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.  

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination.  All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)