Background

UN Women was established by GA resolution 64/289 of 2 July 2010 on system-wide coherence, with a mandate to assist Member States and the UN system to progress more effectively and efficiently towards the goal of achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women. Since 2001 UN Women (previously as UNIFEM) in Kyrgyzstan has implemented catalytic initiatives on promoting women’s economic, political and social rights. In 2012 a full Country Office was established.

This consultancy is in support of UN Women Kyrgyzstan Country Office’s Women, Peace and Security portfolio that is primarily funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) in support of realizing the Peacebuilding Priority Plan (PPP) and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), both agreed between the Kyrgyz Republic and the United Nations. The UN Women Country Office in the Kyrgyz Republic is implementing three projects under the Women, Peace and Security portfolio:

• “Inclusive Governance and Justice System for Preventing Violent Extremism” - a joint project with UNDP, UNICEF, and OHCHR;
• “Communities Resilient to Violent Ideologies” - a joint project with UNICEF and UNFPA;
• “Cross-border Cooperation for Sustainable Peace and Development Phase 2” – a joint project with FAO, UNICEF, UNDP and WFP.

The first and second projects are aligned with the Peacebuilding Priority Plan 2017-2020 agreed between the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic and the United Nations in October 2017 and address PPP Outcome Areas 1 and 3. The projects aim at supporting efforts by the Kyrgyz Government to prevent violent extremism in line with the UN Secretary General’s Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism (A/70/674) and the United National Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy review adopted by the General Assembly on 1 July 2016 (A/70/L.55). The third project is a Phase 2 of the previous cross-border project aligned with the PPP 2013-2016 under the PBSO’s Immediate Response Facility (IRF) and address PPP Outcome 1 on increasing cooperation and trust between communities to mitigate risks of renewed violence and PBF Focus Area 2 on promoting coexistence and peaceful resolution of conflicts.

The “Inclusive Governance and Justice system for Preventing Violent Extremism” joint project is led by UNDP, UNICEF, OHCHR, and UN Women in partnership with government and civil society organizations. This project fits within the approved Peace Priority Plan and addresses the Outcome Area 1 and is expected to enhance justice and security sector institutions, national and local authorities’ capacity and ability to apply socially inclusive approaches, participatory decision-making and guarantee increased civic space to address the root causes of and strengthen resilience against violent extremism. The project is also informed on the rationale of Sustainable Development Goal number 16 aiming to improve the government’s ability to establish a more inclusive relation with its citizens thus reducing grievances relating to effective or perceived exclusion or marginalization or inequality.

The “Communities resilient to violent ideologies” joint project is led by UNICEF, UNFPA, and UN Women in partnership with the government and civil society organizations. The project contributes to the Peace Priority Plan and its’ Outcome Area 3 on diverting people at risk from a radicalization path by means of community dialogue, education and development. The project targets outcomes that provide alternative pathways away from violent and manipulative ideologies in 10 pilot municipalities by taking a multidimensional approach through education, participatory community development and dialogue, as well as through the cultural domain and digital space. The project will provide civic competencies within secular and religious schooling and promote multilingualism through experience and evidence sharing, thus expanding opportunities for adolescents and youth to engage in socio-political and economic life. It will empower adolescents, youth and women to claim their rights and participate in addressing issues that cause vulnerability to violent ideologies. People from different social backgrounds and professional affiliations will be identified and supported in their actions as credible intermediaries between the vulnerable groups and the state actors. They will facilitate greater communication between these groups and raise awareness about the risk of violent ideologies, thus reducing grounds for violent extremism. On-line and off-line platforms will be strengthened to promote constructive debate around diverse identities as an alternative to radicalization and violent ideologies.

The “Cross-border Cooperation for Sustainable Peace and Development - Phase 2” joint project is led by FAO, UNICEF, UNDP, WFP, and UN Women. The project aims to increase cooperation and trust between communities in pilot Tajik-Kyrgyz village clusters to mitigate immediate risks of renewed cross-border violence. UN Women’s project activities are aimed at building positive relationships and interaction across the Batken and Sughd provinces’ border through facilitating the engagement of women and girls in these processes. UN Women will seek to empower women at household and community level to play a bigger role in formal and informal interactions across the border in village clusters in Batken and Leilek districts of Batken province of the Kyrgyz Republic. UN Women will work towards promoting gender equality by involving, especially young women, in all aspects of public life and economic activity, and by building support systems to ensure their rights, especially those related to living a life free of violence. UN Women activities focus on bridging ethnic divisions by promoting equal opportunity regardless of ethnic origin by facilitating side-by-side and cross-border learning of life- and livelihood skills and by actively building knowledge of how to be a good citizen based on respecting diversity.

All PBF funded projects are part of the monitoring, evaluation and learning process. Fund recipients remain the primary agents for monitoring projects and programmes and for procuring and managing evaluations of projects. In general, the evaluation framework for the projects under PBSO have typically four major types of evaluations:

• Evaluability assessments managed by PBSO/PBF (first 9 months investing in a new strategic plan);
• Lessons learned reviews managed by funds recipients and where decided by PBSO (toward the end of a strategic plan period);
• Project evaluations managed by funds recipients (end of the project period);
• Portfolio evaluations managed by PBSO/PBF (at the end of all projects in 5 years).

In addition, based on the recommendation from the UN Women Kyrgyzstan CO Programme Evaluation, all programme strategies and approaches should be integrated and thematic areas and programmes’ theories of change should be linked. This multidimensional and integrated programmed approach should be also reflected through monitoring and reporting activities. Strengthening M&E and knowledge management system would support better targeted interventions and learning.

UN Women globally implements gender mainstreaming through twin-track approach. This approach consists of combining gender-targeted or focused interventions for specific social groups, organizations, and/or processes with gender efforts integrated across the substantive general work of all priority sectors. UN Women Kyrgyzstan CO anticipates monitoring of implementing gender mainstreaming within its projects and across joint-projects with its partners under PBF for gender-integrated and gender-targeted interventions crucial to the achievement of national gender quality goals.

With the aim to ensure effective monitoring and evaluation of the PBF-funded projects, UN Women Kyrgyzstan.

CO plans to contract a Consultant who will be responsible for leading and coordinating the work on establishing monitoring and evaluation system within each project and across three projects under WPS portfolio. The Consultant will promote a client-oriented approach consistent with UN Women rules and regulations and commits to high standards of quality, productivity and timeliness in the delivery of tasks. The Consultant will be fully dedicated to the mandate and the values of UN Women, particularly to promoting Gender Equality as a strategy to reduce conflict, improve livelihoods and ensure fairness and justice; to Women Empowerment underpinning Gender Equality promotion efforts; to inter-ethnic tolerance and concord; and to respect for diversity.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work

Under the overall guidance of the Project Coordinator of the Women, Peace and Security portfolio and regular coordination and day-to-day work with the Representative of UN Women Kyrgyz Republic Country Office and other Programme personnel, the Consultant will lead and coordinate the work on monitoring and evaluation for three projects funded by the PBF. More specifically, the Consultant will:

Activity 1: Support to design Programme Development Plans

The Consultant will support team members in conceptualization of programme approaches for three projects under WPS portfolio and its linkages with the overall UN Women programming (SN 2018-2022) . More specifically, the Consultant will support to design the Project Implementation Plan for three projects and a Programme Management Plan aligned with its partners interventions under PBF funding and the overall UN Women programming and its’ Strategic Note;

Activity 2: Establish a Monitoring and Evaluation System for interventions within WPS portfolio

The Consultant will establish monitoring and evaluation system to measure projects’ progress specifically on tracking the changes on GEWE, PVE and cross-border cooperation and trust. More specifically, the Consultant will develop M&E plans for three projects led by WPS portfolio under PBF in alliance with PBSO/PBF policies on monitoring, evaluation, and learning. He/she will design one integrated framework and establishment of targets and indicators which will specifically measure the interventions on sustaining peace, PVE, cross-border trust and cooperation, and on mainstreaming gender. The plans will set out specific measurable performance indicators, targets for overall objectives and activities of the projects, and tools for effective M&E data collection, monitoring, analysis and reporting systems. The Consultant will discuss and coordinate M&E plans developed with relevant fund recipients. He/she will review and update the programme's M&E plan on an on-going basis and lead the process of evidence gathering and reporting;

Activity 3: Conduct a workshop on M&E in peace/PVE/gender to WPS team

The Consultant will develop training materials and conduct a one-day workshop on M&E in peace/PVE/gender for WPS team. The workshop will have details for Project Coordinators and the programme team on general principles of M&E, specific practices of monitoring and evaluating peace and gender indicators, on developed and proposed M&E plans, on developed and proposed data collection tools for M&E. Based on the materials developed and the workshop conducted, programme teams in WPS should regularly implement monitoring and evaluation activities as per the plan throughout the projects’ implementation to ensure the timely achievement of relevant indicators, targets and criteria;

Activity 4: Support and coordinate evaluability assessments managed by PBSO/PBF

The Consultant will support and coordinate activities related to a baseline assessment for two PVE projects managed by PBSO/PBF, if it is confirmed during the duration of consultancy. This assessment will identify baseline indicators at the start of the two joint projects. Specifically, the Consultant will contribute to the development of baseline assessment methodology and questionnaire for these two projects, participate in the field work and data collection, support in data analysis and report production, and provide general support in coordination during the baselines assessment;

Activity 5: Support monitoring of budget on GEWE

The Consultant will support monitoring of at least 30% of budget spent on empowerment of women and girls across all RUNO agencies under the PBF funding. More specifically, the Consultant will develop a roadmap on inclusion and coordination of GEWE indicators in the activities of joint projects. As per guidelines and regulations by PBSO/PBF, RUNOs have to expand its support to foster inclusion of youth and women, with a target of 30% total investments in gender-responsive peacebuilding. This is both to help achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s commitment to “leave no one behind”, and to recognise the emphasis placed on the positive role of youth and women in peacebuilding in key UN resolutions. The Consultant will support UN Women to monitor and report on the extent RUNOs’ programming that leads to inclusion of the most marginalized, promotes gender equality and strengthens the role of young people, women and girls in peacebuilding.

Deliverables

Activity 1: - approx. 25 fee days

a. Three Project Implementation Plans are regularly aligned with monitoring findings developed;

b. Programme Management Plan is drafted.

Activity 2: - approx. 10 fee days

a. Three M&E plans are developed with established targets and specific indicators to measure peace, PVE, cross-border cooperation and trust, and gender mainstreaming;

b. Data collection tools for M&E are developed for the use of the programme teams.

Activity 3: - approx. 15 fee days

a.   Workshop materials on M&E in peace/PVE/gender are developed in English;

b.   One-day workshop on M&E in peace/PVE/gender is conducted for WPS team.

Activity 4: - approx. 25 fee days

a. Support to develop assessment methodology and questionnaire is provided for two projects;

b. Field work* and data collection is carried out for two projects;

c. Data is analysed and two baseline reports for two projects are produced;

d. Support and coordination efforts provided to PBSO/PBF overall.

Activity 5: - approx. 5 fee days

a. Review of RUNO’s programming on 30% budget investments on youth and women is conducted;

b. Roadmap on coordination of GEWE indicators in the activities of joint projects is developed.

*Note: For field visits that may be undertaken as agreed with UN Women, UN Women will provide the UN DSA, relevant UN terminals, air-ticket if necessary, and offeror’s amount for road transportation or provide a vehicle.

Tasks, timeframe, payments

The duration of the consultancy will be through 28 September 2018, with duration of 80 fee days.

Payment will be made in KGS in monthly instalments after all the deliverables are submitted, accepted and approved on a monthly basis as per guiding table below:

Instalment I:       Reporting period from the date of signing the contract to 30 June 2018 (deliverables Activity 1b, 2a, 2b, 5a and 5b);

Instalment II:      Reporting period from 1 July to 31 July 2018 (deliverables Activity 1a, 3a, 4a and 4b);

Instalment III:     Reporting period from 1 August to 31 August 2018 (deliverables Activity 1a, 3b, 4c and 4d);

Instalment IV:     Reporting period from 1 September to 20 September 2018 (deliverables Activity 1a, 4c and 4d).

Competencies

Competencies

• Knowledge and understanding of design, monitoring, and evaluation;
• Proven experience in research, analysis and reporting;
• Good analytical, drafting and report-writing skills;
• Strong oral/written communication and training skills; 
• Ability to perform a broad range of specialized activities aimed at effective and efficient implementation and coordination of design, monitoring, and evaluation activities; 
• Excellent in human relations, coordination, and planning;
• Ability to initiative and manage change and to recognize and adjust to rapidly changing conditions;
• Demonstrated attention to detail and procedures, and able to meet deadline and work independently and cooperatively with team members;
• Excellent skills with Word, Excel, Power Point and visual presentation.

Required Skills and Experience

Required Experience

Education:

• Master’s (or equivalent) degree in the social science, development, peace and conflict studies, M&E, or related field.

Experience:

• Minimum five years of professional experience in program development and/or program management, also including experience specifically in M&E, research and analysis;
• Experience in designing M&E systems that report progress against indicators for projects;
• Proven experience in analysis, reporting and knowledge management;
• Knowledge and understanding of thematic gender related issues in development and peacebuilding/PVE context.

Language:

• Fluency (written and spoken) in English and Russian;
• Working knowledge of Kyrgyz;
• Knowledge of Uzbek is desirable.

Application Procedure

Applications should include:

• Offeror's letter to UN Women confirming interest and availability for the assignment;
• Financial proposal, indicating a total lump sum to include all costs relating to the delivery of results as per above description;
• P-11 form including past experience in similar assignments. This form can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment.

Financial proposal format:

Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant during the contract period, including travel expenses. The financial proposal should be provided in KGS; if the proposal is provided in any other currency it would be converted as per UN exchange rate on the date of post closure.

Evaluation of applicants

The evaluation starts with shortlisting of potential candidates and received applications against the mandatory requirements in education, years of work experience and knowledge of languages. Only full applications will be considered. Shortlisted candidates will be then evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants' technical qualifications and experience, and financial proposal. The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Technically responsive/compliant/acceptable to the requirements of the ToR; and
• Having received the highest cumulative (technical & financial) score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation - max. 70 points

• Criteria A - Minimum five years of professional experience in program development and/or program management, also including experience specifically in M&E, research and analysis - max. points 25 if mandatory requirement is met;
• Criteria B - Experience in designing M&E systems that report progress against indicators for projects - max. points 25 if mandatory requirement is met;
• Criteria C - Proven experience in analysis, reporting and knowledge management - max. points 10;
• Criteria D – Experience on thematic gender related issues in development and peacebuilding/PVE context - max. points 10.

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation - max. 30 points

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion.

A suggested formula is as follows: p=30 (µ/z)

Where:

p - points for the financial proposal being evaluated;

µ - price of the lowest priced proposal;

z - price of the proposal being evaluated.