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. UN Women’s engagement in humanitarian action and DRR is to ensure consistency and sustainability in addressing gender equality concerns across the humanitarian-development nexus. UN Women seeks to achieve inclusive and gender responsive humanitarian responses by working with governments, INGOs, other UN agencies as well as CBOs, particularly women led CBOs.

The disaster and humanitarian context in the ESAR remain complex and dynamic underpinned by climate related factors, conflict/displacement/fragility, urbanization, pandemics, micro and macro level shocks such as the COVID 19 pandemic, the on-going war between Ukraine and Russia that has negatively affected basic commodity prices, food chains and access globally.  These have and continue to disproportionately impact women and girls due to pre-existing gender inequalities before and during crisis.

Across the ESA region, climate related disasters and events are on the increase, in the Horn of Africa, failed rains over four consecutive seasons (for the period 2021-2022) have translated into a situation of severe food insecurity a climatic event not seen in at least 40 years.[1] Approximately 21.1m people face high level of food insecurity due to the drought including 3.2m in IPC[2] 4 – emergency in Kenya and Somalia, and 213,180 people in IPC 5 – catastrophic/famine conditions in Somalia.

COVID-19 has impacted the region with economic growth contracting from 2.4 percent in 2019 to between   -2.1 and -5.1 percent in 2020 causing deepening of poverty, reduced agricultural productivity and weakened supply chains.[3] In IDP and refugee settings within Uganda and Somalia, impacts of COVID 19 are particularly severe given the pre-existing inequalities. These twin challenges have impacted implementation of COVID 19 prevention measures. Through the LEAP Programme both Uganda and Somalia are addressing some key barriers to service uptake especially in the IDP settings.

In the ESA region, similar efforts are on-going with advocacy on gender inclusive policies and frameworks, capacity development, and provision of services to the most vulnerable women affected by ongoing crisis such as the COVID 19 pandemic, severe food insecurity and the Ebola disease outbreak.

The Government of Japan is a key partner supporting UN Women through the LEAP programming approach. Over the 2022-2023 period, both Uganda and Somalia received direct funding to promote gender responsive COVID 19 interventions targeting 15,760 direct beneficiaries over a 12-month period commencing April 2022 to March 2023. To enhance the quality of monitoring and reporting of the Programme, the regional office is coordinating workshops in each of the countries targeting the implementing partners [IPs] as well as select staff directly involved in data collection, validation and collation for monitoring and reporting purposes.

To capture the results of the Programme as well as document accurately lessons learned, UN Women Office for East and Southern Africa will coordinate an End of Programme Evaluation. To this end, the office seeks the services of a national consultant to lead and coordinate the Evaluation exercise in collaboration with consultants in both Uganda and Somalia after implementation has come to a close in March 2023.

Objectives of the assignment:

The UN Women Evaluation Policy and the UN Women Evaluation Strategic Plan 2014-2017 are the main guiding documents that set forth the principles and organizational framework for evaluation planning, conduct and follow-up in UN Women. These principles are aligned with the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards for Evaluation in the UN System and the Guidelines. The key principles for gender-responsive evaluation at UN Women are: 1) National ownership and leadership; 2) UN system coordination and coherence with regard to gender equality and the empowerment of women; 3) Innovation; 4) Fair power relations and empowerment; 5) Participation and inclusion; 6) Independence and impartiality; 7) Transparency; 8) Quality and credibility; 9) Intentionality and use of evaluation; and 10) Ethics.

The one-year LEAP Japan programme, whose implementation commenced in April 2022 will end in March 2023. In line with the programme requirements and the UN Women evaluation policy, an end of programme evaluation will be conducted. 

The purpose of this independent end-term evaluation is to assess the programme achievements against the set objectives, identify and document lessons learnt (including design issues, lessons and best practices that can be up-scaled or replicated), and assess how the program contributed to strengthening the protection, leadership and empowerment of over 15,760 vulnerable women, men and youth affected by COVID-19 in IDP and refugee camps of Uganda and Somalia.

It is a priority for UN Women that this end line program evaluation will be gender-responsive and will actively support the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment, with emphasis on UN Women key areas central to supporting women and girls’ empowerment in humanitarian action: Leadership and participation, Protection and safety, and Economic well-being.

The primary intended users of this evaluation are:

• Relevant staff in target ministries, local government/government institutions, and CSOs
• Target beneficiary communities/groups
• Members of community leadership structures
• Staff in relevant UN-agencies
• Staff of implementing partners
• Sector leads in the participating UN-agencies and refugee response coordination
• UN Agencies thematic working groups
• Development partners

Primary intended uses of this evaluation are:

1. Learning and improved decision-making to support scale up of the LEAP programming approach.
2. Feedback, participation, and accountability to affected communities.
3. Accountability for the development effectiveness of LEAP to donors and other stakeholders.
4. Capacity development and mobilization of national stakeholders to advance gender equality, protection, and empowerment of women.

Scope of Work:

The evaluation is an end of programme activity and will cover all programme activities implemented from April 2022 to March 2023. The evaluation will cover programme beneficiaries in IDP and refugee settings of Uganda and Somalia and the respective host communities.

The evaluation team is expected to undertake a rapid evaluability assessment at the inception of the assignment. This should include the following:

1. An assessment of the quality of performance indicators in the program, and the accessibility and adequacy of relevant documents and secondary data
2. A review of the conduciveness of the context for the evaluation
3. Ensuring familiarity with accountability and management structures for the evaluation.

[1] https://www.unocha.org/horn

[2] IPC- Integrated Phase Classification (Acute Food Security Classification)

[3] https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/eastern-and-southern-africa

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Assess the relevance of LEAP intervention in addressing the needs of refugee and host community women in alignment with gender equality and women’s empowerment.
2. Assess the effectiveness and efficiency of UN Women’s approach for achievement of results, as defined in the logical framework, including the Programme Theory of Change
3. Analyse how the human rights approach and gender equality principles were integrated in LEAP and humanitarian action programming in Uganda and Somalia
4. Identify and validate lessons learned, promising practices and innovations of work supported by LEAP Program within the context of the aid effectiveness agenda
5. Assess the inter-connectedness and sustainability of UN Women’s initiatives on increasing leadership, protection and economic opportunities for refugee women and analyse possible weaknesses to improve next steps for scale-up programming.
6. Provide actionable recommendations with respect to the strategy, and overall approach to UN Women’s programming in humanitarian settings.

The Evaluation will apply six UN Evaluation Group (UNEG) evaluation criteria (relevance, effectiveness-including normative, and coordination mandates of UN Women- efficiency, coherence, impact and sustainability), as well as standards based on Human Rights, Gender Equality and Value for Money as additional criteria.

Deliverables:

• The evaluation will be an external, independent and participatory exercise, which should be completed within a timeframe of 30 days [spread across 2.5 months] beginning in February 2023.  The final evaluation methodology will document and analyse the distinct achievements of each programmatic pillar, while also assessing the ways in which efforts contributed to national implementation and program-level work influenced country advocacy and policy.
• The evaluation shall provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable, and useful and will be based on gender and human rights principles, as defined in the UN Women Evaluation Policy and adhere to the United Nations norms and standards for evaluation.
• The evaluation methodology will employ mixed methods and an innovative approach for capturing results, while ensuring that the views of the most excluded groups of women and girls are represented in the evaluation. An initial desk review and brief discussions with key stakeholders will support the refinement and finalization of the methodology and analytical framework. An important component of this evaluation will be the assessment of the LEAP Program’s Theory of Change and results framework to assess whether the program remained on track to achieve expected outcomes. The UN Women Rapid Assessment Tool for Evaluation of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Results in Humanitarian Context will be used as part of the data collection instruments.
• The evaluation is expected to follow a collaborative and participatory approach ensuring close engagement with Programme beneficiaries in both countries and other key stakeholders as will be informed by the stakeholder mapping process.  The analysis of the application of human rights and gender equality principles in LEAP interventions will be an integral part of the evaluation. Integration of human rights and gender equality issues into the evaluation requires adherence to three main principles – inclusion, participation, and fair power relations.

Work Schedule:

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

• In-country or regional experience in programming in refugee and IDP settings
• Flexibility and Ability to work with teams in multicultural settings.
• Demonstrable ability to work under pressure to meet challenging deadlines.
• Knowledge of the role of UN Women/UN system and its roles. 

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• A Master’s degree related to any of the social sciences, political science, international relations, economics, gender studies and monitoring and evaluation.
• Certification as a PMP professional
• Certification as a Monitoring & Evaluation professional

 Experience:

• A minimum of 10 years of working experience in conducting evaluations including
• Proven practical professional experience in designing and conducting major evaluations within humanitarian settings.

• Over 5 years’ experience in evaluating interventions in humanitarian settings and familiarity with Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) and the Comprehensive Refugees Response Framework (CRRF)
• Extensive knowledge and experience in the application of quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods within a humanitarian programming
• Experience in high level data analysis skills and demonstrable experience using data analysis tools including but not limited to SPSS, NVivo, Tableau, Qgis
•  Experience in process management skills, including facilitation and communication skills with stakeholders.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in oral and written English is required.
• Working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.

Note:

Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)