UNDP Jobs - 43987- Consultancy: Evaluation Specialist

Consultancy: Evaluation Specialist - Energy, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction for Assessment of Development Results, Armenia

Location :

Home-based with travel as necessary

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

14-Mar-2014

Application Deadline :

26-Feb-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

50 days spread out within the period of March to September 2014

Languages Required :

English Russian

Expected Duration of Assignment :

6 months - March to September 2014

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Assessment of Development Results in Armenia

The Evaluation Office will evaluate UNDP’s contributions to development and its strategic positioning in Armenia during the period of (2005 – 2013). A set of appropriate and forward-looking recommendations will be drawn at the end of the evaluation. It is expected that evaluation results will be used in the formulation of the next programming cycle.

To view the full Terms of Reference (TOR) for this evaluation, please visit http://web.undp.org/evaluation/documents/notice/ADR-Armenia-ToR.pdf.

EO is commissioning a team of experts to cover each of the thematic areas of the evaluation. The evaluation team will consist of five team members, including a Team Leader/Evaluation Manager and Associate Evaluation Manager from UNDP Evaluation Office and 3 specialists to cover the following areas:

Poverty and MDGs;
Democratic Governance;
Energy, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Each consultant will also look into the following cross cutting issues as appropriate: gender equality, capacity development, knowledge management and south-south solutions.

Efforts will be made to compose a team with gender balance and consultants primarily from the country or proven extensive experience in the country.

This document details the job description for the evaluator to cover the area of Energy, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Duties and Responsibilities

Team specialist responsibilities

The Team specialist will be responsible for the following key tasks:

Assess specific outcomes and prepare a paper for each outcome in this thematic area;
Collect, analyze and synthesize data to provide the core inputs to the outcome papers;
Participate fully in the main missions of data collection and analysis;
Contribute to the revision of outcome papers and the ADR draft reports as per comments received from EO, CO, RBEC and stakeholders.

Expected Outputs and Indicative Timeframe

The team specialist under the leadership of the team leader will contribute to ensuring the overall quality of the evaluation, including the timely delivery of the outcome papers drafts and of the intermediate outputs in the task areas previously stipulated. No payment will be processed until the deliverables have been fully approved by EO. The deliverables include:

Data collection plan: List of stakeholders to consult and any additional protocol questions, tools and instruments necessary for data collection specific to each outcome in this thematic area. Due at least one week prior to data collection mission in April;
Power Point presenting the main findings, preliminary conclusions and areas for recommendations. Due on the week of the analysis mission;
Outcome papers (2 in total) of up to 15 pages per outcomes in this thematic area, to be included in the complete version of the evaluation report. Due one week after the analysis mission;
Comprehensive review and necessary adjustments to the outcome papers and drafts of the ADR report.

The outcome papers and final version of the ADR report will be produced in English. It will follow the standards UNDP/EO publication guidelines.

Competencies

Substantive knowledge of Energy, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction in the country;
Knowledge of the country context, development issues and challenges in the country;
Availability to travel and focus on the evaluation as required to meet deadlines of delivery outputs within the agreed time-frame;
Proven oral and drafting skills in English with excellent analysis and synthesis skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master's degree (preferably PhD) in courses related to the areas to be evaluated;

Experience:

At least 8 years of professional experience in the thematic area that will evaluate;
Familiarity with UNDP or UN operations will be advantageous;
Experience in program evaluation and/or mastery of techniques and methods of data collection, interviews and quantitative and qualitative analysis;
Work experience in gender will be advantageous.

Language:

English, required. Fluency in Russian and/or Armenian also required.

Submission instructions:

Applicants are invited to submit their CVs and include their expected daily rate for this consultancy.

Only short-listed candidates shall be provided with further details of the assignment. The consultants will be selected in accordance with procedures set out in the UNDP Procurement Guidelines and UNDP Financial Rules and Regulations. This expression of interest does not entail any commitment on the part of UNDP, either financial or otherwise. UNDP reserves the right to accept or reject any or all expressions of interest without incurring any obligation to inform the affected applicant/s of the grounds.