Background

UNDP’s corporate policy is to evaluate its development cooperation with the host government on a regular basis in order to assess whether and how UNDP-funded interventions contribute to the achievement of agreed outcomes, i.e. changes in the development situation and ultimately in people’s lives. Evaluating country programming therefore involves ascertaining whether and how UNDP has assisted in improving human development conditions, including for individuals, institutions and systems. Evaluation also helps to clarify underlying factors affecting development, to identify unintended consequences (positive and negative), to generate lessons learned and to recommend actions to improve performance in future programming.

Background on environmental issues in Zimbabwe

The long term socio-economic well-being of any nation is dependent on natural resources and the health of the environment. In its quest to improve the quality of life of its citizens, Zimbabwe has met several environmental challenges:

Lack of Sustainable Energy

Although Zimbabwe is endowed with a diverse energy resource base, the country has been experiencing power shortages since 2007. The lack of sustainable energy alternatives has further accelerated deforestation in both rural and urban areas as poor households resort to the use of fuel-wood for cooking. In Zimbabwe, more than 80% of the people in the rural and peri-urban areas depend on biomass (mainly wood, cow dung and crop residue) for cooking and lighting and have limited access to modern energy (electricity, paraffin, gas etc. ) this over dependency on firewood has led to deforestation.

Although alternative energy sources such as LPG, biogas, solar and wind have been piloted, the uptake has been very slow due to lack of investment, non-conducive policy framework, prohibitive tariffs and high capital costs.

Unsustainable Agricultural and Mining Practices

Zimbabwe is one of the major tobacco producers in the world and the crop is one of the largest foreign currency earners for the national economy. However, fuel wood is used for tobacco curing. The adoption of tobacco farming by small holder rural farmers is causing serious deforestation of natural forests, posing a serious challenge of balancing economic development and ecosystem well-being. The extractive sector is of key importance to the country as it generates economic growth, income and employment. The country boasts one of the largest platinum and diamond reserves in the world. However, mining has contributed to significant deforestation and loss of habitats. It is the illegal forms of mining that are most worrisome as human lives have been lost and illegal, abandoned mines pose a significant hazard for wildlife, domesticated animals and humans.

Unsustainable Industrial and Municipal Practices

The discharge of sewage and industrial waste by urban authorities and industry is polluting drinking water sources resulting in soaring water purification costs. Mining is causing water pollution, environmental disasters as slime dams burst causing heavy metals such as mercury and cyanide poisoning of humans and livestock and polluting freshwater rivers/streams and the aquatic life that is important to the livelihoods of ordinary people. Shortage of water in urban areas has led urban households to drill boreholes which will have a negative impact on both human health and aquifers. Unplanned settlements on wetlands are a major threat to the water recharging systems and future water supply in urban areas. Poor waste collection and disposal systems which include burning of waste has consequences on water, air and soil pollutions. There is a phenomenal growth in vehicle population in urban areas most of which is imported second hand vehicles, causing traffic jams and vehicular emissions. The country lacks a reliable mass urban transport system to cope with the ever increasing urban population and to significantly reduce emissions. In addition to these industrial and municipal concerns, frequent uncontrolled veld fires are a major source of biodiversity loss in Zimbabwe.

Climate and Disasters

Zimbabwe is susceptible to perennial droughts and floods. Over 70% of the population is dependent on climate sensitive livelihoods. Statistics demonstrate the clear correlation between the amount of rainfall received in an agricultural season and GDP demonstrating the vulnerability of Zimbabwe’s largely agriculture-based economy to climate change.

Policy Environment for Sustainable Development

In general, Zimbabwe has a comprehensive environment policy framework. The National Environmental Policy and Environment Management Act were promulgated after the year 2000. Although rather late considering the scale environmental challenges, it brought fragmented legislation together and put in place a more effective institutional framework. Significant challenges remain in establishing an effective enforcement system for this legislation.

A National Energy Policy was launched in 2012, including specific objectives and policy measures intended for the significant energy sub-sectors, (electricity, fossil fuels, coal and CBM, renewable energy and nuclear energy). The Zimbabwe National Development Strategy provides energy priorities. Although a sustainable energy for all (SE4All) rapid assessment and gap analysis study was done, the country does not have a national SE4All strategy that is meant to set targets and accelerate action on renewable energy, energy efficiency and access to modern energy in line with global commitments.

Zimbabwe does not have a national climate policy. However through UNDP and other partners a National Climate Change Response is being finalized. The strategy is designed to facilitate the mainstreaming of climate mitigation and adaptation across sectors.

A national disaster risk management policy and implementing legislation are in place. District and village structures and disaster risk management plans are established in just a few districts. Recent flood disasters in Zimbabwe have highlighted the capacity challenges of Zimbabwe to handle national disasters.

While Zimbabwe has participated in the World Summits on Sustainable Development, the concept of sustainable development, and its emphasis on integrating economic, social and environmental pillars, has not been sufficiently mainstreamed in development policy planning and across sectors. The green economy concept as a means towards poverty reduction and sustainable economic growth has not been fully embraced.

The Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Social Transformation (ZIMASSET) which is the national development strategy has some key elements of sustainability such as sustainable transport and sustainable energy. The national development strategy has not fully mainstreamed sustainability into its four main clusters: food and nutrition security, infrastructure and utilities, social services and poverty reduction, and value addition and beneficiation.

UNDP support to Zimbabwe on Environment and Sustainable Development:

UNDP’s support to Zimbabwe in the environment and energy sector has focused on three broad strategic areas

•  Policy upstream support mainly the formulation and implementation of policies and strategies that emphasize building national capacity in mainstreaming sustainable development, including strategic assessments and information systems for informed policy making;
  
• Capacity development to meet international obligations, particularly in the area of biodiversity conservation and climate change;
  
• Downstream support for evidence based policy making, derivation of policy lessons through implementation of community environment and livelihoods projects through the GEF Small Grants programme and others.
  

Towards achieving these strategic outcomes, UNDP acknowledges that fostering a broad-based partnership is necessary to harness comparative advantages, allow opportunities for niche management, ensure efficiency, relevance and of our interventions and to support national capacity building.

Duties and Responsibilities

The outcome evaluation will be carried out by an external team of evaluators, and will engage a wide array of stakeholders and beneficiaries, including national and local government officials, donors, civil society organizations, academics and subject experts, private sector representatives and community members.

The outcome evaluation is expected to take a "theory of change" (TOC) approach to determining causal links between the interventions that UNDP has supported, and observed progress in support of environmental management, natural resource protection, sustainable land use, and energy efficiency at national and local levels in Zimbabwe. The evaluators will develop a logic model of how UNDP interventions across these outcomes are expected to lead to wiser use of natural resources at national and local levels. In the case of the three environment and energy related outcomes for Zimbabwe, a theory of change was not explicitly defined when the outcomes were established. The evaluators are expected to construct a theory of change for each of the outcomes, based against stated objectives and anticipated results, and more generally from UNDPs global sustainable development strategies and techniques.

The Outcome Evaluation will be carried out through wide participation of all relevant stakeholders including the United Nations Country Team, Government of Zimbabwe institutions, civil society organisations, as well as members of the donor community, private sector representatives and beneficiaries. Field visits to selected project sites; and briefing and debriefing sessions with UN and the Government officials, as well as with donors and partners are envisaged. Annex 5 provides an initial list of key stakeholders.

Evidence obtained and used to assess the results of UNDP support should be triangulated from a variety of sources, including verifiable data on indicator achievement, existing reports, evaluations and technical papers, stakeholder interviews, focus groups, surveys and site visits. Data collected should be disaggregated (by sex, age and location) where possible.

The following steps in data collection are anticipated:

Desk Review

A desk review should be carried out of the key strategies and documents underpinning the work of UNDP in support of environmental management, natural resource protection, sustainable land use, and energy efficiency in Zimbabwe. This includes reviewing the ZUNDAF and pertinent country programme documents, as well as a wide array of monitoring and evaluation documents, to be provided by the UNDP country office. The evaluators are expected to review pertinent strategies and reports developed by the Government of Zimbabwe that are relevant to UNDPs support in this sector. This includes the government’s Mid-Term Plan (MTP), the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Social and Economic Transformation (ZIMASSET), and other national reports, to be made available by the UNDP country office. The evaluators will examine all relevant documentation concerning the 8 projects implemented within the environment and energy sector, including project TORs, evaluations, and technical assessment reports.

Field Data Collection

Following the desk review, the evaluators will build on the documented evidence through an agreed set of field and interview methodologies, including:

• Interviews with key partners and stakeholders;
  
• Field visits to project sites and partner institutions;
  
• Survey questionnaires where appropriate;
  
• Participatory observation, focus groups, and rapid appraisal techniques.

The Associate Evaluator will, inter alia, perform the following tasks:

• Review documents;
  
• Participate in the design of the evaluation methodology;
  
• Assist in carrying out the evaluation in accordance with the proposed objectives and scope of the evaluation;
• Draft related parts of the evaluation report as agreed with the Evaluation Manager;
  
• Assist the Evaluation Manager to finalize the draft and final evaluation report.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent knowledge of the UN Reform particularly UN coherence, coordination, accountability and management system; 
• A deep understanding of the development context in Zimbabwe and preferably an understanding of environment and energy issues within the Zimbabwe context;
• Builds strong relationships with clients and external actors;
  
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
  
• Ability to work under pressure and remains calm;
  
• Excellent reporting and communication skills;
  
• Demonstrates strong leadership abilities.
  

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
  
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
•  Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism;
  
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment;
  
• Excellent communication, interpersonal skills, teamwork and adept in working with people of diverse cultural and social backgrounds;
  
• An understanding of and ability to abide by the core values of the United Nations.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

•  Minimum master’s degree in the natural sciences.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years’ experience carrying out development evaluations for government and civil society;
  
• Experience working in or closely with UN agencies, especially UNDP, is preferred;
  
• Has extensive experience working in Zimbabwe during the last 5 years.

Language:

• Excellent reading and writing skills in English, and Shona or Ndebele.