Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women Multi-Country Office Kazakhstan (Central Asia)/MCO KAZ has been operational since 2014.  It was preceded by UNIFEM Regional Office for CIS until 2011 and UN Women Sub-regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia from 2011 to 2014. MCO KAZ is based in Almaty and covers four countries of Central Asia (CA): Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (as noted further in the ToR, although Turkmenistan is part of the MCO portfolio and is included in the Strategic Note, it would not be covered by the evaluation exercise). UN Women’s work in CA is grounded on the growing recognition among partners of UN Women’s special role and mandate in leading development partners’ efforts on gender equality and women’s human rights advancement.

This evaluation will consider the MCO KAZ Strategic Note covering the period 2014-2015.

The Strategic Note (SN) is the main planning tool for UN Women’s support to normative, coordination and operational work in four CA countries. The document is grounded in the standards, principles and obligations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BDPfA), Concluding Observations of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), UN SCR 1325, Millennium Development Goals, Concluding Observations of CEDAW and UPR recommendations concerning the respective countries, as well as UN Human Rights instruments (including Optional Protocols), to which the respective countries are member States and relevant Concluding Observations of the respective UN Human Rights Treaty bodies concerning the respective countries as well as relevant reports of Special Rapporteurs (detailed information on the status of ratification of UN HR Instruments, including CEDAW  and its Optional Protocol will be provided to the selected evaluator).

The Strategic Note is linked to the UN Women Global Strategic Plan 2014-2017, national development plans, and UNDAFs at the country level.

The MCO Strategic Note supports the following Strategic Goals (SG) contained in UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2014-2017:

• SG1: Women’s leadership and political participation;
• SG2: Women’s economic empowerment;
• SG3: Ending violence against women;
• SG4: Women’s leadership in peace and security;
• SG5: Mainstreaming gender in national governance systems.

A new Strategic Note is due to be developed by MCO KAZ starting in August 2015 for the   period 2016-2020, based on the lessons learnt during the evaluation.

Duties and Responsibilities

Justification and Purpose of Evaluation

(For a detailed UN Women Multi Country Portfolio Evaluation Terms of Reference please visit MCO KAZ website at:  http://unwomen-eeca.org/en/announcements/vacancies/)

The Multi-Country Portfolio Evaluation (MCPE) is a systematic assessment of the contributions made by UN Women to development results with respect to gender equality at the country level. The UN Women portfolio responds to its three core mandates, which include normative, operation and coordination work. The MCPE focuses on their individual and combined success in advancing gender equality in the countries covered by the MCO. It uses the Strategic Note as the main point of reference.

This MCPE is being primarily commissioned by the Multi Country Office as a formative  forward-looking) evaluation to support the MCO and national stakeholders’ strategic learning and decision-making for the next Strategic Note, which is to be developed in August-October 2015. The evaluation is expected to have a secondary summative (backwards looking) perspective, to support enhanced accountability for development effectiveness and learning from experience. It is a priority for UN Women that the MCPE will be gender-responsive, and will actively support the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The MCPE has the following specific objectives:

• Assess the relevance of UN Women contribution to the intervention at national levels and alignment with international agreements and conventions on gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Assess effectiveness and organizational efficiency in progressing towards the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment results as defined in the Strategic Note;
• Support the UN Women MCO to improve its strategic positioning to better support the achievement of sustained gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Analyse how human rights approach and gender equality principles are integrated in the design and implementation of the Strategic Note;
• Identify and validate lessons learned, good practices and examples of innovation that supports gender equality and human rights;
• Provide insights into the extent to which the UN Women MCO has realized synergies between its three mandates (normative, coordination and operations);
• Provide actionable recommendations with respect to the development of the next UN Women MCO Strategic Note.

The information generated by the evaluation will be used by different stakeholders to ensure:

• Learning and improved decision-making to support the development of the next Strategic Note, to cover the cycle of 2016-2020;
• Accountability for the development effectiveness of the MCO Strategic Note 2014-2015 in terms of UN Women’s contribution to gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Capacity development and mobilization of national stakeholders to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Scope of the Evaluation

The timing of this Multi Country Portfolio Evaluation is intended to assess the effectiveness and lessons as we approach the end of the current Strategic Note. The period covered by the evaluation will be 2014-2015. This evaluation will cover MCO’s work in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The evaluation should focus on the thematic area of Women’s Economic Empowerment undertaken by the MCO under the Strategic Note, as well as general support to normative policy and UN coordination. The evaluation team is expected to do data collection and have stakeholder consultations in all countries where there is programme work, namely Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The evaluation will not consider impact (as defined by UNEG) as it is considered too premature to assess this.

The evaluation will apply four OECD/DAC evaluation criteria (relevance, effectiveness (including normative, and coordination mandates of UN Women), efficiency, and sustainability) and 11 sub-criteria. Human Rights and Gender Equality is mainstreamed as a sub-criterion.

Expected Results and Timeframe

As a logical result of the completion of the desk review and inception workshop it is expected that the International Consultant  will submit an inception aide memoire, which will contain evaluation objectives and scope, description of evaluation methodology/methodological approach, data collection tools, data analysis methods, key informants/agencies, evaluation questions, performance criteria, issues to be studied, work plan and reporting requirements.

As a result of the completion of the field visits to Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and surveys and interviews with the partners, it is envisaged that several key products will be submitted, namely: Draft full evaluation report with preliminary findings, lessons learned, and recommendations. The draft report will be discussed with the national partners to ensure participation and involvement of the national stakeholders. Afterwards a Final evaluation report and five-page executive summary are expected to be submitted to the UN Women MCO KAZ incorporating all comments and feedback collected from all partners involved.

Format of the final evaluation report shall include the following chapters:

• Title and opening pages;
• Executive summary;
• Background and purpose of the evaluation;
• Programme/object of evaluation description and context;
• Evaluation objectives and scope;
• Evaluation methodology and limitations;
• Findings: relevance, effectiveness (normative, coordination, operational), efficiency, sustainability, and gender and human rights;
• Conclusions;
• Recommendations;
• Lessons and innovations.

Annexes to the report should include:

• Terms of reference;
• Documents consulted;
• Lists of institutions interviewed or consulted and sites visited (without direct reference to individuals);
• Analytical results and methodology related documentation, such as evaluation matrix.

“Quality Criteria for UN Women evaluation reports” should be followed. These quality criteria are intended to serve as a guide for preparing meaningful, useful and credible evaluation reports.  It does not prescribe a definite format that all evaluation reports should follow but rather indicates the contents that need to be included in quality reports.

Travel costs for field mission to Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, accommodation, daily subsistence, will be paid for the period of international consultant’s work. If necessary, translation/interpretation, secretarial assistance will also be provided during field missions.

Language of all deliverables: English.

The timeframe allocated for the completion of the above indicated products:

Product / Activity / Estimated number of working days/to be completed by:

Stage 1: Inception desk review and inception workshop

• Key product: Inception Workshop aide memoire, which includes the evaluation methodology and the timing of activities and deliverables/Inception Desk Review and Workshop/5  days/by 22 May 2015.

 Stage 2: data collection in KAZ, TAJ, UZB

• Key product: Mission report (for the personal use of the evaluator)/13 working days/by 10 June 2015

Stage 3: Reporting

• Key product: Draft Evaluation report/15 working days/by 3 July 2015.

Stage 4: Commenting

• Consolidated comments by Evaluations Reference Group and Evaluation Management Group will be provided by 17 July 2015.

Stage 5: Final reporting

• Key product: Final report PDF format/10 working days/by 1 August 2015.

Stage 6: Consolidation of final comments by reference and management groups

• Key product: Final-final report PDF format and five-page executive summary/5 working days/by 14 August 2015.

Total number of working days: 48.

Evaluation Team Composition, Skills and Experience

UN Women are seeking to appoint a qualified individual to undertake the evaluation.

The evaluation team is expected to consist of 1 international lead evaluator (consultant to be hired), 1 UN Women International Evaluation Guide, 1 UN Women Regional Evaluation Specialist. The international evaluator is expected to have significant experience in designing and conducting gender responsive evaluations.

The evaluator is expected to be able to demonstrate evidence of the following capabilities:

• Experience in conducting gender-responsive evaluation;
• Extensive knowledge of, and experience in applying, qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods;
• Experience in gender analysis and human-rights based approaches;
• A strong record in designing and leading evaluations;
• Data analysis skills;
• Excellent ability to communicate with stakeholders;
• Technical competence in the thematic areas to be evaluated;
• Process management skills, including facilitation and communication skills;
• Knowledge of the role of UN Women and its programming, coordination and normative roles at the regional and country level;
• Language proficiency in English, working fluency of Russian will be an asset;
• Country or regional experience in Central Asia is a requirement.

Management of the Evaluation

This evaluation will have the following management structures:

• UN Women Evaluation Manager and Regional Evaluation Specialist for coordination and day-to-day management;
• Evaluation Management Group for administrative support and accountability: Country Representative or Deputy Country Representative, M&E Manager, Regional Evaluation Specialist, Country Programme Officers (for MCO);
• Evaluation Reference Group for substantive technical support: UN Women programme staff, National government partners, Development partners/donors, UNCT representatives, Civil Society Advisory Group.

Application Process

All applications must include (as an attachment):

• Personal detailed CV including all qualifications and past experience in similar projects;
• Samples of relevant evaluation reports written by the consultant;
• Names and email contacts 3 references.

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document .

Each short listed applicant will be required to submit an aggregated financial offer (“aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of the task with detailed breakdown of expected honorarium).  Economy class travel and 80% of UN DSA rates will be provided for the field work.  The evaluator shall bare costs for all supplies needed for data collection and data processing including possession of his own personal computer, printer and scanner needed for home based work.

All documents should be submitted in Word (*.doc) or Adobe Acrobat readable (*.pdf) format, all files should not exceed in total 2 MB.

Shortlisted candidates (based on meeting key education and experience requirements) will be required to:

• Participate in interview via Skype.

Criteria / Maximum points:

• At least a master’s degree in economics, sociology, international development, gender/women studies or related areas. A special training in Monitoring and Results Based Management is considered an asset / 50;
• 10 years of working experience in evaluation, and at least 5 in evaluation of development and gender projects; a strong record in leading evaluations in the field of gender equality and experience in evaluation of programs with budget over USD 1 million / 50;
• 3 years of experience and background in gender-responsive evaluation / 50;
• Familiarity with the political, economic and social situation in Central Asia/ 20;
• Proficiency in English and Russian / 30;
• Ability to produce well written reports demonstrating analytical ability and communication skill. Proven ability to undertake self-directed research (through submitted sample evaluation reports  / 40;
• Interview (Experience in participatory approach, facilitation skills and ability to manage diversity of views in different cultural contexts – 10 points; integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standards – 10 points; cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability – 10 points)  / 30.

Maximum total technical scoring / 270 (80%)

Only candidates who reached at least 189 points will be qualified for financial evaluation.

Maximum total for financial proposal / 67.5 (20%).

The selected candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Competencies

• Ability to produce well written reports demonstrating analytical ability and communication skills;
• Proven ability to undertake self-directed research;
• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standards;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Familiarity with the political, economic and social situation in Central Asia.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• At least a master’s degree in economics, sociology, international development, gender/women studies or related areas;
• A special training in Monitoring and Results Based Management is considered an asset.

Experience:

• 10 years of working experience in evaluation, and at least 5 in evaluation of development and gender projects;
• Of which 3 years of experience and background in gender-responsive evaluations;
• A strong record in designing and leading gender-sensitive evaluations and experience in evaluation of programs with budget over USD 1 million;
• Experience in participatory approach is a must as well as facilitation skills and ability to manage diversity of views in different cultural contexts.

Languages:

• Fluent in English and Russian.

Notes:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.