Background

Please note!

Your Proposal (max 10 MB) preferably to be submitted by email to: procurement.kz@undp.org with the indication of Ref.2018-0020 in the subject line not later than July 9, 2018.

For detailed information on the position, please refer to the Procurement Notice and Terms of Reference.

Any request for clarification must be sent in writing to the following e-mail: zhanetta.babasheva@undp.org copying meruyert.bolyssayeva@undp.org

Background

Over the past decade, Kazakhstan has made impressive gains in human development. In 2017, it ranked the 56th out of 188 countries globally, according to the UNDP Human Development Report. The country also succeeded in drastically reducing its poverty levels during 2001-2017, from 46.7% to 2.4. Inequalities, as measured by the income distribution among the country’s residents, remain relatively low, with Gini index of 0.278 (2017).

In December 2012, President Nazarbayev outlined his vision in the Kazakhstan-2050 Strategy”, stressing the need to improve development pathways that expand people’s capabilities and well-being and strengthening interaction with civil society and the business sector. Among others, the Strategy prioritizes development of an innovative and knowledge-based economy, to limit its dependence on extractive industries. It emphasizes achieving high quality of life for individuals and society as a whole, and building a modern inclusive society on par with 30 most developed nations in the world. Also, the country aspires to build accountable and open governance systems and institutions, following the standards and principles of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The inspirational vision of the 2050 strategy has been translated into concrete medium-term reform policies such as the Five Institutional reforms and 100 Concrete Steps. Sectoral strategies and programmes such as the “state employment programme 2020”, the “state programme for industrial and innovative development 2020”, the state programme for healthcare development "Salamatty Kazakhstan 2020" and others also serve as the implementation mechanisms of the strategy.  

In line with the national priorities identified in the Nurly Zhol medium-term plan and the longer-term Kazakhstan-2050 vision, reflected in the United Nations Partnership Framework for Development, 2016-2020 (PFD), UNDP CPD Outcome “Diversification of the economy provides decent work opportunities for the underemployed, youth, and socially vulnerable women and men” is focusing on enabling structural transformation processes in the regions, including supporting employment and livelihoods-intensive productive capacities of all 16 regions of Kazakhstan. Within the framework of the outcome UNDP has been providing accelerated support to national programmes such as Employment Programme 2020, Roadmap for Business 2020, Programme for AgroBusiness 2020, and Programme on Innovative Industrialization 2020. Therefore, the programmatic activities focus on innovative and sustainable solutions to strengthen competitiveness and improve productive capacities of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by expanding economic opportunities for women, youth, people with disabilities, and groups/individuals not able to benefit from development gains and opportunities for a variety of reasons. UNDP helps promote new drivers of diversification, such as ‘creative’ and knowledge-based economies to match with modern skillsets and market demands. New social entrepreneurship models are developed and piloted, and knowledge sharing networks supported to promote innovation transfer at local and national levels.

The outcome evaluation is commissioned to assess the progress made on the results of the CPD Outcome during 2016-2018; to assess effectiveness of support towards achievement of national priorities; to ensure improvements in performance and results in the remaining period of the CPD cycle; and  to collect lessons learned.

For more details, please refer to the Terms of References.

Duties and Responsibilities

UNDP in Kazakhstan aims to evaluate its contribution during CPD 2016-2020 cycle to the achievement of the Outcome on Diversification of the economy and take stock of previous efforts and lessons learnt. Also, this Outcome evaluation should address how UNDP supported programmes help the Government of Kazakhstan in meeting the National Strategy of Kazakhstan 2050 and the Sustainable Development Goals. The evaluation exercise will take stock of the progress made thus far, look into underlying factors that affect the development situation overall, identify possible externalities, generate lessons learned and recommend actions that UNDP can use to for future programming and partnership development.

The overall purpose of the outcome evaluation will be to assess how UNDP’s programme results contributed, together with the assistance of partners, to a change in development conditions, especially in the area of economic diversification and poverty reduction. The purpose of the proposed evaluation is to measure UNDP’s contribution to the outcome outlined above with a view to fine-tune the current UNDP programme, providing the most optimal portfolio balance and structure for the rest of the CPD 2016-2020 as well as informing the next programming cycle.

Scope of works:

The evaluation will cover UNDP CPD Outcomes 1.2 under current UN PFD in Kazakhstan for 2016-2020. This outcome evaluation will assess progress towards the outcome, the factors affecting the outcome, key UNDP contributions to outcomes and assess the partnership strategy. The evaluation will also assess the portfolio alignment and its relevance to the UN PFD in Kazakhstan for 2016-2020. Specifically, the scope of works consists of the following:

1) Determine whether there has been progress made towards the Outcomes 1.2 achievement, and also identify the challenges to attainment of the outcomes. Identify innovative approaches and capacities developed through UNDP assistance. Assess the relevance of UNDP outputs to the outcomes.

2) Analyze the underlying factors beyond UNDP’s control that influenced the outcomes. Distinguish the substantive design issues from the key implementation and/or management capacities and issues including the timeliness of outputs, the degree of stakeholders and partners’ involvement in the completion of outputs, and how processes were managed/carried out.

3) Examine the distinctive characteristics and features of UNDP’s inclusive development programme and how it has shaped UNDP's relevance as a current and potential partner. The Country Office position will be analyzed in terms of communication that goes into articulating UNDP's relevance, or how the Country Office is positioned to meet partner needs by offering specific, tailored services to these partners, creating value by responding to partners' needs, demonstrating a clear breakdown of tailored UNDP service lines and having comparative advantages relative to other development organizations in the diversification of the economy result area.

4) Ascertain whether UNDP’s partnership strategy has been appropriate and effective. What were the partnerships formed? What was the role of UNDP? How did the partnership contribute to the achievement of the outcome? What was the level of stakeholders’ participation? Examine the partnership among UNDP and other donor organizations in the relevant field. This will also aim at validating the appropriateness and relevance of the outcome to the country’s needs and the partnership strategy and hence enhancing development effectiveness and/or decision making on UNDP future role in development.

5) Identify lessons learnt and best practices and related innovative ideas and approaches in incubation, and in relation to management and implementation of activities to achieve related outcomes. This will support learning lessons about UNDP’s contribution to the outcomes over the current PFD and CPD cycle so as to design a better assistance strategy for the next programming cycle.

For detailed UNDAF outcome indicators, baselines, targets, as well as the indicative country programme outputs please refer to the Terms of Reference.

Deliverables:

• Conducting a desk review;
• Preparing the detailed evaluation inception report (to finalize evaluation design and methods);
• In-country evaluation mission (visits to the field, interviews, questionnaires) and in country analysis with preliminary feedback to country stakeholders;
• Preparing the draft report;
• Finalizing the evaluation report (incorporate comments provided).

Competencies

Professionalism

• Good knowledge of the UNDP system and UNDP country programming processes (CPD/CPAP);
• Specialized experience and/or methodological/technical knowledge, including data collection and analytical skills, mainstreaming HRBA and gender to programming;
• Results Based Management (RBM) principles, logic modelling/logical framework analysis, quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, and participatory approaches.

Communications

• Good communication (spoken and written) skills, including the ability to write reports, conduct studies and to articulate ideas in a clear and concise style.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Advanced university degree (Master's or equivalent) in social science, economics, or related field.

Experience

• 7 years of the relevant professional experience; previous experience with CPD/CPAP evaluations and/or reviews.
• Practical experience in Eastern Europe and CIS region and/or knowledge of the development issues in Middle Income Countries is an asset.

Language Requirements

• Excellent written and spoken English. Knowledge of Russian is an asset; 
• Excellent report writing skills as well as communication skills.

The candidates must submit proposal, including the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Signed UNDP P11 form or detailed CV;0
• Letters of recommendation (if any);
• A list of provided services in the field of the evaluation, monitoring and social studies in public policy, development studies, sociology or a related social science for the last three years;
• Membership in the research organizations is an asset;
• Proposed methodology of final Evaluation;
• Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided

Application Procedure: Only full submitted application will be considered!!! GTC can be found here.