Background

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women (UNTF) is a global multi-lateral grant making mechanism supporting national efforts to prevent and end violence against women and girls. The UN Trust Fund was established through the UN General Assembly Resolution 50/166 in 1996 with UN Women as its Administrator on behalf of the UN system. The UN Trust Fund provides grants to advance the development of innovative models and strategic interventions in the area of ending violence against women and girls (EVAW/G). Grantees – comprising of non-governmental organizations - have engaged diverse actors, such as women’s, men’s, adolescents and youth groups, indigenous communities, religious and traditional leaders, human rights organizations and the media. To date, the UN Trust Fund has awarded - US$ 140 million to 493 initiatives in 139 countries/territories.

 

In 2015 the UN Trust Fund developed a new five-year (2015-2020) strategic plan with the mission to “advocate for and finance innovative approaches for preventing and ending violence against women and girls, to catalyze learning from global evidence collected from the programmes funded by the UNTF and to leverage its unique mandate and convening power to foster global giving to end violence against women and girls”. It will achieve this mission through three inter-connected pillars of work:

 

  1. Grant giving to initiatives to end violence against women and girls;
  2. Building a global Evidence Hub on ending violence against women and girls based on the evaluated results of UNTF grantees; and
  3. Advocating for global giving for work on ending violence against women and girls.

 

This assignment is intended to support the second pillar: the development of an evidence hub. In 2016, the UN Trust Fund’s Call for Proposals (Cycle 20) specified that final, external evaluations would be centralized for projects implemented by small organizations receiving small grants (under $150,000). This decision was put in place following a meta-evaluation of the quality of final, external evaluations which found that small organizations receiving small grants were not able to budget sufficient resources for quality evaluations.  Therefore, the UN Trust Fund will systematically plan and manage evaluations of small grants from the Secretariat in New York in partnership with grantee organizations. This presents an opportunity to build upon existing capacity development activities for grantees and move toward a coaching relationship with evaluation task mangers from small CSOs. This will inform the UN Trust Fund’s broader support for small women’s organizations in the field of EVAW.  In addition, evaluation remains mandatory for all other projects funded by the UNTF. The UNTF will continue supporting all other organizations receiving grants, to plan and manage their own evaluations through quality assurance, guidance and support. Lessons learned from the above will inform improvements to the UNTF’s guidance, policies and procedures on evaluation.

 

Twenty-one projects will be due for an evaluation or preparing for an evaluation in 2019-2020 and therefore the UN Trust Fund needs an evaluation consultant (with experience in ending violence against women and support to small CSOs) to support the UN Trust Fund’s activities under   the small grants evaluation procedure and support the QA and oversight process for all other grantees. Specific support on Spanish language evaluations is required at this time. We are looking for an experienced, self-motivated, hard-working and analytical person who can work well alone and in a team.

 

The selected candidate will report to the Monitoring, Evaluation and Knowledge Manager and provide specific assistance on: (1) support for the UN Trust Fund’s activities under the pilot Small Grants Evaluation Procedure; (2) support for small grantees on managing evaluations as well as quality assurance and oversight of large grant evaluations; (3) analysis of lessons learned from the above to inform future evaluation support and improve policies and procedures; (4) support for events and workshops relating to UN Trust Fund knowledge and evaluation management in 2019/2020 that inform our evaluation practices.

Duties and Responsibilities

Reporting to the UN Trust Fund’s Knowledge Management, Monitoring and Evaluation Manager

  1.  Support for the UN Trust Fund’s activities under the pilot Small Grants Evaluation Procedure in 2019/2020.
    • Assist the UN Trust Fund Secretariat in the strategic selection of small grants to be evaluated under the pilot in 2019/2020 in accordance with the procedure (6 projects are due for evaluation in 2019/2020).
    • Develop and coordinate workplans for each evaluation in liaison with the UN Trust Fund Portfolio Managers and the selected grantees.
    • Draft terms of reference for independent evaluators, coordinate the recruitment process for the evaluators and lead on all correspondence between grantees, UNTF and the evaluators.
    • Monitor the workplans, budget and timeline for each evaluation to ensure it is on track and delivered on time, to budget.
  2. Support for small grantees on managing evaluations and quality assurance and oversight support for large grant evaluations.
    • Assist the KM/M&E Manager and Portfolio Managers to review Results and Resources Frameworks (RRFs)and data collection methods for small grantees approaching evaluation (6 projects) to select those most suitable for evaluation.
    • Complete reviews of the RRFs and data collection methods of those selected, against quality standards (via a checklist) and provide feedback on what areas do not meet quality standards and need to be improved to ensure effective evaluation is possible.
    • Assist KM/M&E Manager to manage all other evaluations (large grants) including tracking of expected dates of key deliverables: terms of reference, inception reports, draft and final evaluation reports – with a focus on Spanish language evaluations.
    • Assist with supporting large grants to understand UNTF evaluation guidance and mandatory procedures through webinars, email support, quality assurance and advice on evaluation deliverables.
  3. Analysis of lessons learned from implementation of the UNTF evaluation procedures to inform future evaluation support
    • Conduct analysis of the strengths and weakness of UNTF support for grantee evaluations to inform the future of the UNTF’s evaluation practice.
    • Track and record any lessons learned throughout implementation of the small grantees’ evaluation procedure and support for capacity building on evaluation.
    • Draft high-quality reports and presentations on the findings for use with internal and external partners.
    • Contribute analysis and ideas on how the UN Trust Fund can support grantees evaluation capacities for the next UN Trust Fund Strategic Plan (draft to be developed by mid-2020).
  4. Support for events and workshops relating to UN Trust Fund knowledge and evaluation management.
    • Assist with the planning, preparation and management of events relating to knowledge exchange or capacity building on evaluation, this may include:
      • Presentation of lessons learned on the small grants’ evaluations at the SVRI Forum 2019.
      • Support for sessions on evaluations and evidence at the UN Trust Fund Grantees Convention November 2019.
      • Support for capacity building workshops on project management, monitoring and evaluation for small grantees scheduled for early 2020.
    • This will include assistance with preparation of materials, pre-workshop assignments for grantees and analysis of knowledge prior to the event inform the agenda.

 

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s Values and ethical standards;
  • Plans, prioritizes, and delivers quality products per schedule;
  • Participates effectively in a team-based, information-sharing environment, collaborates and cooperates with others;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

  • Focuses on impact and results and responds positively to feedback;
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
  • Builds strong relationships with clients and external actors, at the senior levels;
  • Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
  • Ability to work under pressure and to meet deadlines;
  • Proven track record in undertaking complex and comprehensive assessments
  • Proven ability to coordination with a team of international organizations and senior national stakeholders;
  • High level of communication (verbal and written) and interpersonal skills and working effectively within a multi-cultural environment;
  • Excellent report writing skills.
  • Ample knowledge and use of computer office tools (Excel, PowerPoint, Word etc.)
  • Excellent English writing and communication and analytical skills are required

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:  

Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Political or Social Science, Economics, International Development Studies, Gender/Women's Studies is required.

Experience:  

  • At least 2 years’ experience at the national or international level in data collection and analysis, monitoring and evaluation;
  • Experience in evaluation and/or programmatic and operational performance assessments of development programmes is an asset;
  • Knowledge of evaluation methodologies and approaches and especially the UN’s approach to evaluation is an asset;
  • Experience and background in human rights based and gender responsive approaches to programming, specifically on issues related to ending violence against women and girls is an asset;
  • Experience in training organizations and people in data collection, monitoring and evaluation is an asset;
  • Experience in working with NGOs, and multilateral/bilateral institutions and donor entities is an asset;
  • Ability to produce well written draft reports demonstrating research skills, analytical ability and communication skills.
  • Working knowledge of Spanish is an advantage, as some of the evaluations will be in these languages
  • Experience in the United Nations systems in an asset;
  • Field experience is an asset.

Language Requirements:        

  • Fluency in English is required;
  • Good working knowledge of Spanish is desirable