Background

The UNCT Armenia invites applications from qualified international consultants in order to perform the Final Evaluation of the Armenia-UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2016-2020. UNDAF for Armenia is a strategic document developed in close cooperation and through a partnership between the Government of Armenia and the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in Armenia.(The UNCT refers to the totality of UN operations in Armenia by resident and non-resident agencies, funds and programmes).

The UNDAF evaluation is a summative, external, independent and system-wide exercise aimed at generating an independent assessment of the UN Development System’s (UNDS) collective contribution at country level. It will focus on issues at strategic level and the aggregate contribution of UNDAF at outcome level, as well as the System’s contribution to Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) targets.

The UNDAF evaluation will examine whether UNCT is prioritizing support and contributing to the country’s development as a whole. The evaluation will obtain substantive feedback from the UNDAF partners on the progress and impact achieved against expected UNDAF results. In addition to identifying achievements, the evaluation will also identify synergies, enabling factors, gaps, overlaps and missed opportunities. It will advise on the overall strategic positioning of the UNDS in Armenia and on priorities and considerations for future support. As such, it will serve as an opportunity to learn from past and current work and to inform 2021-2025 National/UN Cooperation Framework design and implementation.

The Evaluation Team will comprise independent external evaluators. It will consist of one international Consultant/Team leader and one national expert. The selected consultants will fully adhere to all aspects of 2016-2020 UNDAF Final EvaluationTerms of Reference.The evaluation team will report to the UNCT through the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator and will receive their overall guidance and support.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the UN Armenia Resident Coordinator and Evaluation Manager, the selected National Consultant on UNDAF 2016-2020 Evaluation, as the Evaluation team member, provides support to the UNDAF Final Evaluation International Consultant/ Team Leader as well as receives guidance and instructions in terms of research and drafting support. The Final Evaluation International Consultant/Team Leader will take a lead role during the evaluation and coordinate the work of the National Consultant.

The National Consultant will provide the expertise in the local development issues with sound understanding of the Armenian social and economic context as well as share responsibilities for conducting desk review and in-country data collection, including interviews, focus group discussions and field missions. He/she will provide substantive inputs to the inception report as well as to the draft and final evaluation reports. The National Consultant is expected to perform the following tasks:

• Review relevant documents.
• Participate in the design of the evaluation methodology and provide inputs on the inception report.
• Conduct an analysis of the outcomes, outputs, Join WorkPlans and other reference materials.
• Carry out fieldwork and data collection as per the inception report and Terms of Reference.
• Draft related parts of the evaluation report as agreed on the division of labor with the team leader.
• Assist the Team Leader in finalizing the evaluation final report including incorporating suggestions received on draft related to his/her assigned sections.
• Perform any other research tasks as requested by the team leader.
• Provide inputs to post-evaluation communication materials.

Deliverables and Tentative Timeline

Key deliverables of the assignment include the inception report, the evaluation report as well as post-evaluation communication materials. The full evaluation report (minimum 30 pages excluding the Executive Summary and Annexes) shall cover the issues outlined in the terms of reference and inception report including evaluation findings and conclusions, lessons and recommendations.

UNDAF evaluation report should adhere to and implement UN Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards, as well as be in line with UNEG Guidance on Integrating Human Rights and Gender Equality in Evaluation, OHCHR Guidance on Human Rights-Based Approach to Data and use UN-SWAP Evaluation Performance Indicator and its related scorecard.

The Final Evaluation Report should at a minimum include the following components:

• Executive summary
• Introduction
• Description of the evaluation methodology
• Analysis of the situation with regard to outcome, outputs, resources, partnerships, management and working methods and/or implementation strategy
• Key findings
• Conclusions and practical, actionable recommendations for the successor 2021-2025 National/UN Cooperation Framework
• Annexes including:
  • Evaluation ToR
  • The evaluation matrix
  • Inception report (including gap and stakeholder analysis)
  • List of persons interviewed
  • Summary of field interviews
  • List of documents reviewed
  • Online survey and/or questionnaire (if any) used and summary of results
  • Overview of the country context with a preliminary analysis of the progress, gaps, opportunities and bottlenecks vis-à-vis the achievement of the 2030 Agenda
  • Any other relevant material that supports evaluation findings and recommendation

Expected deliverables/activities and tentative evaluation schedule for National Consultant is detailed below:

The tentative length of the assignment for the National Consultant is 25 working days. The indicated number of working days in the table above is reflective of the UNDAF Evaluation TOR timeline and should be used for orientation only. In the financial offer the consultant should indicate the number of working days per deliverable. The selected consultant will receive the payments by deliverable based on the lump sum provided in his/her proposal.

The consultancy will start in October 2019 and must be completed by January 2020. The deliverables should be submitted by the Evaluation Consultants to the Evaluation Manager and considered as accepted upon written confirmation from the UN Resident Coordinator Office.

The USD lump sum amount will be paid in the following four installments upon completion of the tasks under each output by the UN by the due dates and approval of deliverables:

Competencies

• Excellent knowledge of Armenia’s development context
• Knowledge of relevant human rights issues in Armenia and ability to identify related problems in their political, ethnic, racial, gender equality and socio-economic dimensions
• Ability to evaluate and integrate information from a variety of sources related to the human rights and gender equality
• Strong quantitative and qualitative research skills
• Good analytical ability and drafting skills
• Excellent team working skills
• Knowledge of relevant human rights issues and ability to identify related problems in their political, ethnic, racial, gender equality and socio-economic dimensions;
• Good understanding of the SDGs and their implications for development cooperation;
• Good understanding of the role of the UN System in development cooperation in the context of the country in question;
• Demonstrated analytical capacity, including on political economy and financing for development;

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s Degree in a relevant discipline

Experience:

• At least 7 years work experience in the field of research and  analysis in Armenia
• At least 3 years of experience in development evaluation
• Expertise in statistics (Armenia’s context) would be an advantage
• Experience in results-based management systems

Languages

• Excellent English writing and communication skills. 

Application should include:

• CV containing date of birth and contact information;
• Offeror’s Letter (only PDF format will be accepted) confirming Interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) Assignment. Can be downloaded from the following link: http://www.undp.org.rs/download/ic/Confirmation.docx The Offeror’s Letter shall include financial proposal specifying a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this announcement with a breakdown of costs. Offeror’s Letter must also include the following:
• Example of a national (the Republic of Armenia) research-based development report authored in partly or fully by the applicant; or an evaluation report on the development intervention in the Republic of Armenia authored in part or fully by the applicant.

Example of the national (the Republic of Armenia) research-based development report should be merged into Offeror’s Letter and submitted as one document.

Any request for clarification must be sent by standard electronic communication to the e-mails mane.tadevosyan@one.un.org and silva.abelyan@undp.org. The procuring UN entity will respond by standard electronic mail and will send response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants.

Financial Proposal

Lump sum contract: The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive lump sum amount, which should include professional fee (calculated based on the number of working days), the financial proposal should include a breakdown of the lump sum amount. Payments are based upon delivery of the services and outputs specified in the TOR. 

General Conditions of Contract is available here: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf.

Note: Please note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents in one single PDF file to attach).

INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANTS WILL BE EVALUATED BASED ON THE FOLLOWING METHODOLOGY:

The proposal will be evaluated using the weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight; 70%

* Financial Criteria weight; 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation  

Engagement of Government Officials and Employees

Government Officials or Employees are civil servants of UN Member States. As such, if they will be engaged by UN under an IC which they will be signing in their individual capacity (i.e., engagement is not done through RLA signed by their Government employer), the following conditions must be met prior to the award of contract:

• A “No-objection” letter in respect of the individual is received from the Government employing him/her, and;
• The individual must provide an official documentation from his/her employer formally certifying his or her status as being on “official leave without pay” for the duration of the IC.

• The above requirements are also applicable to Government-owned and controlled enterprises and well as other semi/partially or fully owned Government entities, whether or not the Government ownership is of majority or minority status.

  UN recognizes the possibility that there are situations when the Government entity employing the individual that UN wishes to engage is one that allows its employees to receive external short-term consultancy assignments (including but not limited to research institutions, state-owned colleges/universities, etc.), whereby a status of “on-leave-without-pay” is not required. Under such circumstance, the individual entering into an IC with UN must still provide a “No-objection” letter from the Government employing him/her.The “no objection” letter required under (i) above must also state that the employer formally certifies that their employees are allowed to receive short-term consultancy assignment from another entity without being on “leave-without-pay” status and include any conditions and restrictions on granting such permission, if any. The said document may be obtained by, and put on record of, UN, in lieu of the document (ii) listed above.