Background

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 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);
• Two 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 two Research Assistants (Consultants) will work together with the Lead Consultant the National Consultant and provide support to the team on the evaluation as per the following:

• Provide assistance with translation during the interviews and focus group discussions, including any transcribing that may be required.
• Provide support to the team in data collection, data entry and record keeping of the Evaluation surveys
• Assist in the translation of survey questionnaires in the communities and carry out interviews in local languages
• Accurate note-taking during focus-group discussions and meetings with the communities

Team Composition

The two Research Assistants will work together with the Lead Consultant, the National Consultant and Ministry of Women appointed field staff.  The two Research Assistants will work together with the Lead and National Consultants in providing support in data collection, data entry and translation during the Evaluation process.  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

Based on the tasks above, the deliverables may be as follows:

1. Transation of the questionnaire and focus groups discussions guidance notes from English into i-Taukei and Fiji Hindustani - if needed;
2. Translation provided during interviews with the community members (10 days);
3. Focus group discussions recorded and notes taken (5 days);
4. Data from the interviews and focus groups notes inputted in English into the research system (electronically) and checked for accuracy (15 days).

Management arrangements

The Research Assistants (Consultants) will work as part of the team with Lead and National Evaluation consultants, under overall guidance of the Director for Women from Ministry of Women (MoW), 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.

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 Consultants 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 2 installments to be paid to consultants/experts as follows:

• 20% on the signing of the contract;
• 80% upon submitting completed deliverables;
• 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.

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.

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:

• University degree in language, ender studies, development studies, public relations, human rights, law, statistics and/or other social or economic science related to the areas relevant for the assignment.

Experience:

• Minimum 1 year of proven experience in translation and transcribing work;
• At least 1-year relevant experience in data entry and data inputting;
• Experience working in Fiji communities and have an understanding of the Fiji development context and socio- cultural, political and economic systems and knowledge of situation of violence against women in Fiji and efforts by governments, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), development partners in the area of Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW);
• Experience of carrying out consultative surveys in Fiji communities, will be an added advantage.

Language skills:

• Excellent verbal and written English;
• Good understanding of local languages – i-Taukei and/or Fiji Hindustani;
• Ability to translate from local languages to English and vice-versa.

Evaluation procedure

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

• University degree in language, gender studies, development studies, public relations, human rights, law, statistics and/or other social or economic science related to the areas relevant for the assignment;
• Minimum 1 year of proven experience in translation and transcribing work;
• At least 1yr relevant experience in data entry and data inputting.

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 170 points.

Technical evaluation 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.

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.

* Full TOR with financial table formats and annexures can be obtained by contacting the UN Women Fiji Multi Country Office on +679 3301178.