Background

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund), managed by UN Women on behalf of the UN system, is the only global grant-making mechanism dedicated to eradicating all forms of violence against women and girls (VAW/G). Since its establishment in 1996 by UN General Assembly resolution 50/166, the UN Trust Fund has awarded USD 198 million to 609 initiatives in 140 countries and territories. Focusing on preventing violence, implementing laws and policies, and improving access to vital services for survivors, the UN Trust Fund invests in life-changing initiatives for millions of women and girls around the world. To help achieve this vision, the UN Trust Fund’s mission over the next five years will be to enable CSOs, especially WROs and those representing the most marginalized groups, to play a central role in delivering survivor-centered and demand-driven initiatives and to support their programmes to achieve sustainable impact on ending VAW/G.

One pillar of the UN Trust Fund’s Strategic Plan 2021-2025 is to support collaborative and inclusive knowledge exchange, production, and learning. The UN Trust Fund aims to support CSOs funded (grantees) to invest in their own monitoring, evaluation, and learning, including the management of final project evaluations. In 2022-2023 the UN Trust Fund will be supporting around 30 grantees in the design and management of decentralized, external evaluations and ten grantees to be involved in a centralized evaluation, meta-analysis and/or learning processes. The majority of which are funded through a partnership with the Spotlight Initiative to support women’s rights organizations in Africa and Latin America within the framework of Outcome 6 of the Spotlight Theory of Change.  Whilst the grantees design and manage the evaluations themselves, the UN Trust Fund Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Team provide technical assistance, quality assurance and capacity development on how to manage gender-responsive evaluations according to quality standards adapted from UN Women’s Evaluation Handbook. This is critical to ensure grantees can produce evaluations that are useful for their work (e.g., to inform project scale-up) and to gather knowledge to inform the field of ending violence against women.

Purpose of this consultancy:  The UN Trust Fund is seeking an experienced Evaluation Specialist to provide support to the UN Trust Fund’s M&E Team and grantees, on the design and management of centralized and decentralized evaluations, with a focus on Spotlight Initiative projects due to end in 2022-2023. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Knowledge Manager, and working within the M&E Team, the consultant will be responsible for the following duties:

1. Provide advice to grantees, with a focus on Spotlight grantees in Africa and Latin America, on the design, planning and management of final, project external evaluations
   • In accordance with the UN Trust Fund’s guidance, provide technical assistance and quality assurance on planning for evaluations;
   • Provide advice to grantees on how to draft evaluation terms of reference, to plan and manage evaluations, set up evaluation stakeholder reference groups etc.;
   • Quality assure and provide advice on draft inception reports prepared by external evaluators, including advice on evaluation design, ethics and safety and methodologies;
   • Quality assure and provide advice on draft and final evaluation reports, to ensure these meet the UN Trust Fund’s evaluation quality standards.
2. Provide capacity development support, training and coaching to grantees and evaluators on how to adhere to the UN Trust Fund’s evaluation guidance and quality standards
   • Provide training to grantees (and potentially external evaluators recruited by grantees), on the evaluation guidance and standards;
   • Contribute to the design of training materials, handouts and guidance as necessary (working with the M&E team members);
   • Answer questions from grantees and external evaluators on the evaluation guidance as needed;
   • Provide one-on-one support and coaching to grantees and/or external evaluators as needed on evaluation management etc.
3. Contribute to lessons learning within the UN Trust Fund’s M&E Team on how to improve evaluation management, procedures and practices
   • During the above tasks, track lessons learned and gather ideas on how to improve the UN Trust Fund’s evaluation procedures and practices to inform future work;
   • At the end of the assignment produce a lessons learned report on how grantees managed external evaluations and what the UN Trust Fund could do to improve the process moving ahead.

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

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:  https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Strong technical knowledge of the different components of evaluation, including evaluation design, data collection and analysis and reporting;
• Substantive knowledge of gender-responsive evaluation, respective methodological approaches, including impact and contribution analysis, and demonstrated knowledge of human rights-based approach;
• Knowledge on how to conduct evaluations;
• Knowledge on how to synthesize evaluative information and to write clear, concise and logical evaluation reports;
• Broad and in-depth knowledge in social development issues particularly those pertinent to UN Women strategic priorities on gender issues, women’s rights and/or movement building;
• Ability to plan and manage tasks and participate in the supervision of evaluation teams;
• Good knowledge of Results-Based Management principles and approaches;
• Excellent oral skills and written communication skills. 

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

• Advanced university degree in evaluation, social science or related field, or combination of first level degree with relevant experience. 
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree

Experience:       

• A minimum of 5 years professional experience in evaluation, preferably in the field of ending violence against women
• Proven experience in conducting and managing gender-response evaluations;
• Experience in gender equality analytical work and programming, and current development issues;
• Experience working in an international organization, or similar complex organization, is an asset;
• Field experience is an asset, especially work with civil society organization’s in Africa and/or Latin America regions;
• Experience in knowledge exchange, collaboration and co-creation activities highly desirable;
• Experience with civil society organizations and women’s right’s organizations on feminist movement building highly desirable;
• Experience providing training and /or capacity development on evaluation management highly desirable.

Language Requirements:           

• Fluency in English (oral and written) is required.
• Fluency in Spanish (oral and written) is required.
• Fluency in French (oral and written) is a distinct advantage.