UN WOMEN Jobs - 70693- National Consultant to Conduct a Final Evaluation

National Consultant to Conduct a Final Evaluation of UN Women’s Project “Rural Women’s Food Security in Jordan”

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Amman, with Travel to the North of Jordan, JORDAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

01-Mar-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

3 months (45 working days)

Languages Required :

Arabic English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

3 months

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 United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Country Office in Jordan was established in December 2012, to address and support the challenges and opportunities to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in Jordan. The country office focuses on a number of programmatic initiatives, including: enhancing women’s economic empowerment; making gender equality priorities central to national, local and sectoral planning and budgeting; expanding women’s voice, leadership and participation; ending violence against women; strengthening implementation of the women, peace and security agenda and supporting the national response to the Syria crisis. Since 2011, the conflict in Syria has displaced approximately 11 million Syrians, close to 5 million residing outside of Syria, and 655,399 Syrian refugees registered with UNHCR in Jordan, with an estimated 83% living in host communities. In response to this growing crisis, UN Women in Jordan has implemented a project funded by the Government of Japan which aimed at promoting rural women’s food security in Irbid and Mafraq.

To this end, UN Women and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are working in Irbid and Mafraq to secure rural women’s food security and rights as an entry point for building resilience in the context of the Syrian crisis. This will support the improvement of family food security and social cohesion in host communities. The project seeks to address food insecurity in Jordan while also bolstering the role and conditions of women working in the agricultural sector. At the macro level, it aims to tackle pressing policy issues from a gender equality lens – including those related to climate change. At the community level, the project utilizes resilience focused interventions that seek to give women and their families the needed skills to support food security, rather than through direct cash or food handouts. Moreover, the project works with women to advocate for better working conditions and leadership positions within rural and agricultural governance structures.

Project Description

Overall the project aims to support rural women’s food security and rights in Jordan within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and as an entry point for building resilience in the context of the Syrian crisis. The project started on the 1st of May 2016 and will end on the 31 March 2017. The total budget for the project is USD 1,260,000. The project reached an average of 700 women directly (a minimum of 555 through increased access to micronutrients, and a minimum of 200 through capacity building opportunities on advocacy and leadership).

Project outcomes and outputs

Outcome 1 seeks to improve food and nutrition security through increasing the nutritional intake of vulnerable families. The project targets female members of vulnerable households for micro-homestead production that includes crop production and livestock, to improve food and nutrition security. This intervention targets and brings together both Syrian refugees and Jordanians. This outcome is led by FAO including the following outputs:
Output 1.1: Rural women have increased access to and knowledge of resources and services critical for their food and nutrition security.
Output 1.2: Rural women have enhanced knowledge and adaptation of optimal nutrition practices.
Outcome 2 on rural women’s enhanced leadership and participation looks at women’s engagement in community life and in rural institutions to enhance women’s community decision making and promote gender responsive policy environments for the empowerment of rural women. This outcome is led by UN Women and includes the following outputs.
Output 2.1: Rural women, including young women have enhanced confidence and leadership skills to take an active part in local decision-making.
Output 2.2: Rural women, including young women, have increased capacity to engage in and influence relevant policy forums at the national level, with a focus on advocacy for climate change issues.
Output 2.3: Policy makers and decision makers have enhanced capacities to effectively mainstream gender into land, food, agriculture, nutrition, socio-cultural and tourism development and rural employment policies and budgets.

This project’s interventions include:

Working with 11 community based organizations (CBOs) to build their capacity on issues of advocacy, communication, decision-making, leadership, climate change, etc. through trainings of trainers, national trainings and roundtable discussions, and similar activities. This is linked to building the capacities of decision makers on topics concerning rural women situation and engagement in Mafraq and Irbid, as well as providing the space for civil society organizations to engage with decision makers on these issues.

Working with the CBOs to implement project activities among rural women beneficiaries across Irbid and Mafraq governorates in order to strengthen civil society institutions and platforms for dialogue and engagement outside the Kingdom’s capital city;

Providing technical and material support to rural women beneficiaries to enhance their knowledge on micronutrients through asset transfer, homestead production, cooking sessions and nutrition training, as well as increased access to agriculture tools, seeds, seedlings and fertilizers;

Conducting advocacy-oriented research on rural women’s role in the agricultural sector in Jordan, the current legislative framework, and the gendered impact of climate change to inform policy makers and decision makers on the methods to effectively mainstream gender into land, food, agriculture, nutrition, socio-cultural and tourism development and rural employment policies and budgets.

In accordance with the UN Women Monitoring, Research and Evaluation Plan, a final evaluation is to be conducted for “Rural Women’s Food Security in Jordan” project. The final evaluation of this project is intended to assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and inclusiveness of the project. It looks at signs of potential impact and sustainability of results, including the contribution to country and global UN Women objectives. The final evaluation also aims to identify/document lessons learned and make recommendations that UN Women and all other project stakeholders might use to capitalize on and guarantee the sustainability of services provided to rural women in Jordan.

Evaluation Purpose, Objectives and Scope

The overall purpose of this evaluation is to assess the extent to which the project has resulted in progress (or lack thereof) towards intended and/or unintended results regarding gender equality and support for the empowerment of women in Irbid and Mafraq. This final evaluation is being undertaken by UN Women. The evaluation demonstrates results and accountability, provides credible and reliable evidence for decision making, and contributes important lessons learned about normative, operational and coordination within the area of gender equality and the empowerment of women. It also provides lessons learned based on the project scope. The target users of this evaluation are the key stakeholders including ACTED, NCARE, AWO, CWS, MoA, and NCARE, UN Women and the Government of Japan. While this evaluation is being conducted at the end of the project period, it will have both summative and formative elements. The evaluation will assess progress towards results as well as inform UN Women’s strategy on supporting the Government of Jordan to combat the impact of the Syria crisis – particularly in the areas of food security and livelihoods. The evaluation will assess implementation in Irbid and Mafraq. The evaluation should look at all the activities funded under the project, also focusing in depth on issues of food security, women’s leadership and organizational capacities in local decision-making, and social cohesion.

The objectives of the evaluation are to:

Assess the relevance of the intervention approach to contribute to women’s food security and fulfillment of women’s rights;
Assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the project in progressing towards the achievement of results, for women and households in Irbid and Mafraq;
Determine whether the human rights approach and gender equality principles are integrated adequately in UN Women’s approach to support rural women’s food security and rights in Jordan as an entry point for building resilience in the context of the Syrian crisis; and
Identify and validate important lessons learned and provide actionable recommendations for the design and implementation of future interventions.

Duties and Responsibilities

The proposed time frame and expected products will be discussed with the consultant and refined in the inception report. The Jordan CO and the Independent Evaluation Office through the regional evaluation specialist reserve the right to ensure the quality of products submitted and will request revisions until the product meets the quality standards as expressed by the Jordan CO and as set forth in UN Women Evaluation Handbook Tool 14 GERAAS Evaluation Report Quality Assessment checklist.

Inception Report (after 2 weeks):Based on a review of relevant project documents, consultations with the project team and a limited number of key stakeholders, and a stakeholder mapping, the consultant will produce an inception report with a refined scope, a detailed outline of the evaluation design and methodology, and evaluation questions. The report will include an evaluation matrix and a detailed work plan. A first draft report will be shared with the evaluation management group and, based upon the comments received, the evaluation team will revise the draft. The revised draft will be shared with reference group for feedback. The evaluation team will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the final inception report.

Draft Evaluation Report (after 7 weeks): A first draft report will be shared with the UN Women for initial feedback. The second draft report will incorporate the Evaluation Management Group feedback and will be shared with the Evaluation Reference Group for feedback and validation. The third draft report will incorporate this feedback and then be shared with the reference group for final validation. The evaluation team will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the revised drafts. The report should include infographics/tables/pictures/graphs to display data collected in an innovative and reader-friendly format.

PowerPoint presentation (after 10 weeks): A PowerPoint presentation detailing the findings of the evaluation will be shared with UN Women for feedback. The revised presentation will be delivered to the reference groups for comments and validation. The PPT presentation will be delivered with the draft evaluation report summarizing the key findings, conclusions and recommendations with the team either presenting it to the ERG or just share it electronically. The evaluation team will incorporate the feedback received into the draft report.

Final Evaluation Report (end of 3 months): The final report will include a concise Executive Summary and annexes detailing the methodological approach and any analytical products developed during the course of the evaluation. The structure of the report will be defined in the inception report.

Competencies

Demonstrates commitment to UN Women’s mission, vision, and values;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty;
Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities;
Openness to change and ability to receive feedback;
Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s Degree in Social Sciences or International Relations.

Experience:

A minimum of 7 years of working experience in evaluation of development and/or humanitarian interventions, and a wide range of evaluation approaches including utilization-focused, gender and human rights responsive, and mixed methods.
A proven record of evaluating interventions related to gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Experience in economic recovery and / or with refugee populations.
Excellent knowledge of UN programming at the country level, in development and conflict/post-conflict contexts.
Knowledge of the relevant international frameworks pertaining to gender equality and women’s empowerment and humanitarian action; gender mainstreaming, gender analysis and the related UN mandates.
Strong experience and knowledge in human rights issues, the human rights-based approach to programming, human rights analysis and related UN mandates.
Experience working with Civil Society actors and grassroots organizations in Jordan is an asset.

Languages:

Fluent in Arabic and English is a requirement.