UNDP Jobs - 47747- Consultant to Evaluate UNDP's Support to Gender Eq

Consultant to Evaluate UNDP's Support to Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Development Results – Poverty Reduction & MDG Achievement

Location :

Home-based with field travel

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Aug-2014

Application Deadline :

18-Jul-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

60 days spread out within the duration of the assignment

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

August 2014 - June 2015

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

The UNDP Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) is conducting a thematic evaluation on the contribution of UNDP to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE).

The objectives of the evaluation are:

To assess UNDP’s contributions to national GEWE results during the 2008-2013 period;
To assess the extent to which the UNDP Gender Equality Strategy (2008-2013) was used and successfully functioned as guidance to UNDP programming in the implementation of the Strategic Plan; and
To provide strategic recommendations taking into account the implementation of the UNDP’s Gender Equality Strategy for the period 2014 – 2018.

A key aim of the thematic evaluation is to assess the extent to which UNDP support to GEWE has contributed to results at the country and regional levels. The main evaluation questions are:

Has UNDP contributed to gender equality and women’s empowerment development results?
Has UNDP integrated gender equality across the institution at the programme, policy, technical, and cultural levels during the period 2008-2013?
Where have UNDP’s institutional change results been the most and least successful in improving gender equality and women’s empowerment development results?

The IEO seeks to recruit an Evaluation Consultant with specific expertise in gender and Poverty Reduction & MDG Achievement. This Consultant will be part of a larger team of evaluation experts being assembled by the IEO to carry out the evaluation.

The contract is expected to commence in August 2014.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Evaluation Consultant – Gender and Poverty Reduction & MDG Achievement will serve as part of a team of international consultants that have the task of assessing UNDP’s gender equality and women’s empowerment results in each of the four focus areas of the UNDP Strategic Plan:

Poverty Reduction and Achievement of the MDGs;
Democratic Governance;
Energy and Environment;
Crisis Prevention and Recovery.

Each consultant in the four focus areas will be responsible for data collection, analysis and writing to produce a ‘camera-ready’ chapter in the evaluation that focuses on development results by area, as well as contribute findings to a synthesis chapter for the final evaluation report.

Evaluation Consultant Task and Estimated Level-of-Effort:

Preparatory desk review of relevant documentation -- 5 days;
Provide comments on: Proposed evaluation matrix; data collection and analysis plan; and sampling plan. -- 2 days;
Participation in Inception Workshop (New York) -- 2 days;
Interviews at HQ (New York) -- 3 days;
Pre- and post-mission desk review and analysis -- 15 days;
In-country data collection (3-4 country visits) -- 15 days;
Analysis and report writing -- 18 days;
Total 60 days

The assignment involves both home-based work and limited international travel. Locations of field missions will be defined at a later stage and travel entitlements will be paid separately according to UNDP rules.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Ability to organise and analyse complex multi-country data sets using standard qualitative and quantitative analysis software;
Evaluation experience assessing UNDP, or within the UN context, highly desirable;
Demonstrated capacity for strategic thinking and ability to provide actionable recommendations;
Capacity to work in multicultural and multidisciplinary teams with limited supervision;
Strong communication skills and writing abilities;
Capacity to withhold judgment until after thorough analysis of facts, and to separate facts from personal interpretation and inclinations.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

A master’s degree in, development studies, economics, political science, sociology, or a relevant social science field.

Experience:

Experience (10-15 years) in international development issues related to gender and women’s empowerment; together with demonstrated in-depth expertise in the Poverty Reduction & MDG Achievement focus area, as it relates to GEWE, a must;
10-15 years of international development experience, with a demonstrated focus in poverty reduction;
Experience in programme evaluation and mastery of techniques and methods of data collection, interviews and quantitative and qualitative analysis;
Experience implementing a diverse range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies and analysis, including participatory and feminist evaluation methods;
Previous work in the area of GEWE in various capacities, including evidence-based policy recommendations;
Significant evaluation experience, having participated in complex evaluations of development programmes.

Language:

Fluency in English;
Fluency in French and/or Spanish advantageous.

Submission Details

Applicants are invited to submit their CVs through the UNDP Jobs website and include their expected daily rate for this consultancy and 5 references, including one from a past team member and one from a past team leader. Short-listed candidates may be asked to share a writing sample of past, analogous work. For a full evaluation Terms of Reference visit: http://erc.undp.org/evaluationadmin/downloaddocument.html?docid=7907

Candidates that have been directly involved in the design or implementation of UNDPs initiatives related to gender during the time period covered by the evaluation (2008-2013) will not be considered. Only short-listed candidates shall be contacted.