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.
The mandate and functions of UN Women call for the promotion of organizational and UN system accountability on gender equality through evaluation, strengthening evaluation capacities and learning from evaluation, and developing systems to measure the results and impact of UN Women with its enhanced role at country, regional and global levels. The purpose and role of evaluation in UN Women is to enhance accountability, inform decision-making and contribute to learning on the best ways to achieve women’s empowerment and gender equality through operational and normative work.
The majority of UN Women’s evaluations are decentralized, which means they are managed by regional, multi-country and country offices in partnership with national stakeholders and other development partners and conducted by independent external evaluators. The Independent Evaluation Service, mainly through its regional evaluation specialists, provides support and technical assistance to field offices to strengthen evaluation culture and capacities and help fulfil their responsibilities under the Evaluation Policy.
Objective
Duties and Responsibilities
Duties and responsibilities
Independent evaluation experts will conduct evaluations under the technical supervision of UN Women’s West and Central Africa Regional Evaluation Specialist who will make approvals in consultation with the Evaluation Management Group (EMG). Country Office Monitoring and Evaluation officers and Project Managers will be Key members of the.
The Evaluation Team Leader will lead all evaluation phases and tasks:
1. Desk review and inception meeting
2. Develop an Inception report.
3. Data collection (mixed methods).
4. Sharing of preliminary findings.
5. Data analysis and synthesis.
6. Sharing of draft report.
7. Finalization of the Report.
Tasks and deliverables may slightly change depending on the assignment and on the specific requirements of each evaluation and its stakeholders. Standard responsibilities will include:
Inception phase:
- Undertake the scoping and design of the evaluations by supporting document collection, management and review.
- Conduct scoping interviews to inform the evaluation design.
- Where applicable, facilitate theory of change workshops to inform the analytical approach.
- Design data collection instruments including the evaluation matrix and other gender analytical frameworks applicable for the relevant thematic area.
Conduct phase:
- Lead interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders.
- Lead assigned case study (to be determined) and summary reports.
- Work with team members to produce data visualization, data analysis, coding and synthesis of data.
- Support synthesis of findings from data coding and analysis for input into evaluations reports.
Reporting phase:
- Preliminary analysis of data collected, including providing inputs to the evidence map and other analyses.
- Drafting the evaluation report.
- Support drafting of sections of the evaluation report and provide inputs to the annexes and for final evaluation report
The Evaluation Team Member will be responsible for supporting all evaluation phases and tasks
The table below presents a standard work breakdown structure and the corresponding payment schedule. A specific duration, timeline and payment schedule will be adopted for each evaluation.
# | Products | Estimative number of days | Corresponding payments |
1 | Final Inception Report. The inception report should capture relevant information such as proposed methods; proposed sources of data; and data collection procedures. The inception report should also include an evaluation matrix, proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables and should also contain background information1. | 10 days | 30% |
2 | A briefing and report with preliminary findings and Power Point Presentation of preliminary findings presented to the Reference Group. | 14 days |
|
3 | Interim Evaluation Report. Report structure should follow UNEG evaluation reporting guidance and in line with UN Women’s GERAAS parameters.
| 7.5 days | 30% |
4 | Power point Presentation of interim report. The Evaluation Team will organise a validation workshop to present a draft report | 1/2 day |
|
5 | Final Evaluation Report. The final report will be aligned with UN Women’s GERAAS parameters and will be structured as follows:
Annexes:
? The final report should be submitted in both hard and in soft copies
| 3 days | 40% |
The assignment may not be sub-contracted to another party. The above tasks are the sole responsibility of the consultants hired by UN Women. | |||
Evaluation management
All evaluation processes at UN Women establish mechanisms to ensure high quality evaluation processes and products as outlined in the UN Women Evaluation Policy and Handbook. The Evaluation Report will follow the standard outline as established in the UN Women Evaluation Handbook. The UN Women Evaluation Report Quality Assurance (GERAAS) criteria will be used to assure quality (See Annex 1). All products are subject to quality assurance review by the peer reviewer, the ERG, and the evaluation management group.
The standard quality assurance and governance structure for evaluations at UN Women is presented below:
The Evaluation Management Group (EMG), chaired by the Regional Evaluation Specialist, is responsible for approval of all deliverables, which are assessed on the bases of UN Women’s GERAAS parameters. The EMG will also comprise a member of the project team and the country M&E officer/focal point, who will serve as Evaluation Manager. The M&E officer/focal point is responsible for the daily management of the evaluation.
The Evaluation Reference Group (ERG) is an integral part of the evaluation management structure and is constituted to facilitate the participation of relevant stakeholders in the design and scope of the evaluation, raising awareness of the different information needs, identification of any factual errors or errors of omission or interpretation at key stages of the evaluation process. It will ensure quality assurance throughout the process and in disseminating the evaluation results.
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
Functional Competencies
- Good programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills
- Good knowledge of Results Based Management
- Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions, and present findings and recommendations
- Good analytical skills
- Good knowledge of Gender
- Ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising
Required Skills and Experience
The Evaluation Team Leader should fulfill the following requirements:
Education
Master’s degree in Economics, Political Science, Gender, Development Studies, Performance Management or a similar field.
Experience and Skills
- 7 years’ professional experience in evaluation
- Experience/knowledge on gender equality and women’s empowerment issues, gender mainstreaming
- Knowledge and experience in one of UN Womens’ thematic areas
- Strong analytical, facilitation and communications skills and ability to negotiate amongst a wide range of stakeholders;
- Familiarity with the West and Central Africa Region
- Knowledge of human rights issues, the human rights-based approach to programming, human rights analysis and related mandates within the UN system;
Language and other skills:
Fluency in French and/or English
The Evaluation Team Member should fulfill the following requirements:
Education
Master’s degree in Economics, Political Science, Gender, Development Studies, Performance Management or a similar field.
Experience:
- 3 years of experience in evaluation, research or project management of development and humanitarian projects
- Experience in carrying out/assisting evaluations
- Experience in gender analysis and human rights (e.g. expertise in women’s economic empowerment; rural agricultural development will be considered an asset), including in gender-responsive evaluations will be an asset
- Very good writing skills and analytical skills
Language and other skills:
Fluency in French and/or English
Contracting arrangements:
Successful candidates will be included in the Vetted Roster of Experts for the maximum period of 3 years. Membership beyond the 3-year period must be renewed through a new application process. Entry into the expert roster system does not necessarily mean that contract with Un Women is guaranteed.
Where a request for services arises, the UN Women shall directly contact minimum 3 consultants with the most appropriate experience from the roster and proceed with an interview or a deskreview, based on the specific Terms of References
A specific Terms of Reference outlining outputs for each assignment shall be provided and a Special Service Agreement (SSA) will be issued. Conditions of a particular assignment may be negotiable.
Application procedure:
The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:
- A one-pager describing the following points:
- your experience in evaluation
- if you apply for the Team expert role or the Team member role or both
- if you meet the minimum criteria
- Your minimum daily fee. Note that travel and perdiem costs will be borne by UNWOMEN
- P11 with past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment, a signed copy should be submitted.
- Highest diploma
- One example of previous work related to Evaluation area in French and/or English
Evaluation of applicants:
Consultants will be evaluated using a technically compliant/compliant profile based on a point system method with a minimum threshold taking into consideration the criteria of qualifications. Membership will be awarded to the individual consultants whose profiles have been evaluated and determined as:
- Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
- Having received the sufficient score out of above defined technical criteria (min 50/100).
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 50/100 points in the evaluation can be recommended for the Roster.
Duration and Remuneration:
Membership in the roster is valid for a maximum period of 3 years.
Duration of contracts can vary from one day (1) to a maximum of one (1) year. Payments will be made as specified in the actual contract upon confirmation of UN Women on delivering on contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.
Consultant’s profile:
Profiles of consultants who are included in the roster will be published on internal UN Women roster pages and they will be accessible for UN Women WCARO and Country Offices