UN WOMEN Jobs - 82280- Lead International Evaluation Consultant (Evaluati

Lead International Evaluation Consultant (Evaluation of Zero Tolerance Violence Free Community / ZTVFC Project)

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Suva, FIJI

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

14-Jan-2019

Application Deadline :

13-Dec-18 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

42 work days within a 3 months assignment

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

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, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming, translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women’s Fiji Multi-Country Office (MCO) covers 14 Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs): Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

It works with four key programmes: Women’s Economic Empowerment; Ending Violence Against Women; Gender and Protection in Humanitarian Action; and Women’s Political Empowerment and Leadership Programme to progress with gender equality and women’s empowerment in the Pacific.

UN Women Fiji MCO has been providing extensive support to the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation of Fiji (MWCPA) towards the implementation of the Women’s Plan of Action, National Gender Policy and the National Development Plan, through the EVAW Task Force, including work on the Service Delivery Protocol, and shelter standards. Within this joint partnership, multiple projects have been delivered together, including the Women’s Expo, GBV trainings and consultations, and humanitarian response work as part of the GBV sub-cluster.

The Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation is the Fiji Government’s agency that administers services and programmes aligned to the empowerment, care and protection of women and children, provision of income support to families, who fall within the category of the poorest of the poor and promotes gender equality and the empowerment of women. The role of the Ministry is to:

Provide care and protection for children through programmes as stipulated under the relevant legislations;
Alleviate poverty through social protection programmes for the disadvantaged;
Administer the poverty alleviation programmes;
Empower women and mainstream gender.

Both UN Women and the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation of Fiji are guided by the United Nations Pacific Strategy which is a multi-country sustainable development framework and are partnering on the implementation of the Women’s Plan of Action, National Gender Policy and the National Development Plan.

The MWCPA is the implementer of the ZTVFC project, which is a community-based violence prevention intervention, in 87 communities across Fiji. In this partnership, MWCPA will coordinate the evaluation by providing support staff and logistical arrangements including access into the communities. This includes carrying out all necessary protocol requirements and planning the meetings with relevant stakeholders. The MWCPA will organize the EVAW Task Force steering committee for feedback and reviews.

While challenges have persisted in completing an evaluation of the project, the evaluation findings are critical for UNW’s broader plans for Primary Prevention programming in Fiji. It is intended that the findings and recommendations will allow the MWCPA and UNW to examine strategies to strengthen the ZTVFC project to pilot stronger community-based approaches to prevention, with particular emphasis on ensuring a rights-based approach and rigorous process monitoring.

Therefore, UN Women and MWCPA is looking for a team of two evaluation consultants and two research assistants to work in a team to assess the Relevance, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Inclusiveness and Sustainability of the Ministry of Women’s “Zero Tolerance Violence Free Community” (ZTVFC) Project. The assessment should identify what works and why, highlight intended and unintended results, and provide strategic lessons to guide decision-makers and inform stakeholders on future directions of the programme.

UN Women is planning to hire the team of consultants with the following composition:

Lead evaluation consultant/team leader (international)
Evaluation consultant/team member (local)
2 x Research Assistants (local)

Objective

For this purpose, the selected team of consultants will work under the overall guidance of the Director Women, Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation and direct supervision of the EVAW Deputy Programme Manager to evaluate the Zero Tolerance Violence Free Community” (ZTVFC) Project in a participatory and transparent manner.

Duties and Responsibilities

Tasks

The Lead Consultant will review, analyse and provide conclusions and recommendations on the following:

The degree to which the project activities have been successfully implemented and desired outputs achieved;
Factors that contributed to effectiveness or ineffectiveness;
Efficiency of the project approach in delivering outputs;
Assessment of external factors affecting the project, and the extent to which the project has been able to adapt and/or mitigate the effects of such factors;
Role of stakeholders and coordination with gate keepers in the community;
Extent to which the target beneficiaries have benefited from the project activities;
Any risks to the safety and well-being of women and girls (as an unintended consequence)
Potential for continuation or up-scaling of the initiative.

Key Relevance questions include, but are not limited to, the following:

Relevance of the project to the needs of target groups.
Relevance of the project to norms and instruments like Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and Sustainable Development Goals (MDGs).
Relevance of project intent and actions to the overall response to GBV and Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls (EVAWG).
Relevance of project intent and actions to other national priorities (e.g. National Policies and Action Plans, legislation).
Relevance of project design and operations in terms of human rights, gender equality and child protection.
Relevance of the project objectives in light of current situations.
Relevance of the project approach and intent to the problem.
Relevance of the project to neighbouring communities not reached directly by ZTVFC.
Relevance of a referral process for identified VAW issues
Other aspects of relevance as they arise during the Evaluation.

An assessment of relevance should specifically address the possibility that the zero-tolerance approach can hamper reporting violence, while at the same time such reporting may cause violence to be less acceptable due to the very public nature of the actions.

Key Efficiency questions include, but are not limited to, the following:

Have communities received capacity development support in a timely manner?
Have the use of mentoring activities, such as training provision including technical assistance from government officials and providers, been efficient?
An analysis of the efficiency of the ZTVFCs’ mechanism and processes, mentoring, training and capacity development towards field, programme, administrative and operational costs.

Effectiveness questions include, but are not limited to the following:

Effectiveness of strategies used in ZTVFCs.
Effectiveness of capacity development strategy and approach provided to communities.
Effectiveness of the Implementation partnership modality.

Inclusiveness questions include, but are not limited to, the following:

How inclusive is ZTVFCs project in supporting marginalised and vulnerable groups?
How effective and efficient is ZTVFCs in targeting all affected groups?
How inclusive is the ZTVFCs in involving affected groups and key stakeholders in governance and management of the ZTVFCs project?
How inclusive is the ZTVFCs project in building capacities of duty bearers such as relevant government officials?

The Consultant is requested to consider various options for sustainability, including:

Maintaining current arrangements and if so for how long;
Engagement of government institutions into management and other possible options such as the management of the ZTVFC by the communities.

The Consultants will provide analysis of possible impacts of any of the proposed options (including financial), pros and cons for each of these options and future on sustainability.

Of the engaged communities to date, a representative sample of communities will be selected for evaluation purposes. The sample will include newer and older communities and declared and non-declared communities.

Methodology

The proposed steps in conducting the evaluation will be:

Review of ZTVFC project documentation, monitoring records and progress and other relevant reports as well as relevant publications produced under the Ministry;
Initial meeting with the Steering Committee to agree on the specific design and methods for the evaluation, what is appropriate and feasible to meet the evaluation purpose and objectives.
Agree on the evaluation questions that will need to be answered, given limitations of time and existing data.
Prepare a population sample from the communities where ZTVFC Project was implemented, to collect quantitative data.
Organization of interviews with key staff involved in the project implementation and key Stakeholders.
Focus Group Discussions with target groups and project beneficiaries to assess project's relevance and effectiveness of project implementation take note of their perceptions of accomplishments and potentials for further development and provide suggestions for management response to evaluation findings.
Objectively verifiable data should be collected whenever available, to supplement evidences obtained through interviews and focus group discussions.
Preparation of the Draft Report and presentation to the Steering Committee.
Incorporation of received feedback into the Final Report.
Preparation and adoption of the Final Report with the Executive Summary.

Team Composition

The Lead Consultant will work in a team with a local consultant, two research assistants, jointly with a Ministry of Women appointed field staff.

The Lead Consultant will work together with the national consultant who will be providing technical support and contextual insights to ensure the recommendations are relevant to the Fiji context.

The Lead Consultant will work with a team of two research assistants, who will provide support during the field surveys, including assistance with language translations during interviews, note-taking and data entry.

The field staff appointed by the Ministry of Women will provide logistical support, liaise with the communities and assist in complying with protocol requirements of the communities.

Deliverables and Timelines - (pls refer to the Asia Pacific link provided on the TOR to download the full version).

All deliverables will be presented in electronic version in English.

Management Arrangements

The Consultant will work under overall guidance of the Director Women from the Department of Women (DoW), direct supervision of the UN Women EVAW Deputy Programme Manager and in close coordination with the EVAW Steering Committee and will participate in all working meetings appointed by the MoW and UN Women. The lead consultant will work jointly with the team of national evaluation consultant and national research assistants and will coordinate the work of the team.

The EVAW Steering Committee will be comprised of representatives from Ministry of Women (MoW), UN Women Fiji MCO and Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and will work with the Consultant, providing oversight on behalf of the EVAW Task Force in terms of initial meetings, review of the Inception Report, comments on fieldwork plans including review of the draft Evaluation Report.

Performance Evaluation

Consultant’s performance will be evaluated against such criteria as: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered.

Travel

The Consultant selected for this assignment will be responsible for all administrative and travel expenses associated with undertaking this assignment. All travels shall be coordinated with UN Women Fiji MCO and shall be included in the total contract amount of the contractor. In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs should be agreed upon, between UN Women and the Contractor, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Financial Arrangement

Payment will be disbursed upon submission and approval of deliverables and certification by the EVAW Deputy Programme Manager that the services have been satisfactorily performed. It is estimated to have 3 installments to be paid to consultants/experts as follows:

20% percentage on the submission of the final Inception Report. It is expected that the Consultant will have sufficient funds to complete the fieldwork phase of the consultancy, should this be considered insufficient, it is the responsibility of the Consultant to note this in their proposal.
40% upon submission of the report on completed site visits, consultations and first data analysis.
40% upon submission of the Final Evaluation Report.

Payment will be made within 30 (thirty) days after receipt and acceptance of the specified deliverable and corresponding invoice but only after UN Women have certified that the services have been satisfactorily performed by the Consultant.

Competencies

Core Values

Respect for Diversity
Integrity
Professionalism

Core Competencies

Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
Accountability
Creative Problem Solving
Effective Communication
Inclusive Collaboration
Stakeholder Engagement
Leading by Example

Required Skills and Experience

Education

Advanced University degree in human rights, gender studies, public relations, development studies, law, statistics and/or other social or economic science related to the areas relevant for the assignment;

Experience

Minimum 5 years of proven experience in evaluation of development programmes and projects including in the area of ending violence against women;
Experience of carrying out consultative research and in producing out analytical reports;
Minimum 3 years of experience in working with international organizations (successful experience in working with UN agencies is an asset);
Experience in Pacific Islands’ development context and socio- cultural, political and economic systems and knowledge of situation of violence against women in the Pacific.

Language Skills:

Excellent verbal and written English.

Evaluation Procedure

Initially, individual consultants will be short-listed based on the following minimum qualification criteria:

Advanced University degree in human rights, gender studies, public relations, development studies, law, statistics and/or other social or economic science related to the areas relevant for the assignment;
Minimum 5 years of proven experience in evaluation of development programmes and projects including in the area of ending violence against women

The short-listed individual consultants will be further evaluated based on a cumulative analysis scheme, with a total score being obtained upon the combination of weighted technical and financial attributes. Cost under this method of analysis is rendered as an award criterion, which will be 30% out of a total score of 500 points.

Technical Evaluation

It will be represented through desk review of applications and a written test of shortlisted applicants. Interview will be organized only if needed, depending on the short-listed candidates’ qualifications and written test results. The technical part is evaluated on the basis of its responsiveness to the Terms of Reference (TOR).

Financial Evaluation:

In the Second Stage, the financial proposal of candidates, who have attained minimum 70% score in the technical evaluation (at least 245 points), will be compared. The winning candida will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Application Process and Submission Package

Interested candidates must submit via online submission system the following documents/ information to demonstrate their qualification:

Letter of Intent with justification of being the most suitable for the work, vision and working approach, specifically indicating experience of carrying out consultative evaluation and in producing out analytical reports
Duly filled Personal History Form (P11) and/or CV, including records on past experience in similar projects/assignments and specific outputs obtained;
Financial proposal (in USD) - specifying an all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs as per template provided.

Please note that only applicants who are short-listed will be contacted and will have to pass a written test.