The UN Women Independent Evaluation Service (IES) evaluates the work of UN women to enhance organizational accountability, provide evidence-based information for decision-making and to contribute to learning on gender equality and the empowerment of women. 

The IES is currently undertaking a rapid independent evaluation as a means for providing the organization with an understanding of how the organization has responded and is continuously adapting programming to ongoing and diverse crises[1] in the Asia and the Pacific region.  This information can help ensure the organization has in place systems and mechanisms that facilitate rapid decision-making and adaptation that ensure effective response that meets the needs of the most vulnerable women and girls in the most efficient and sustainable way.  The purpose of this rapid independent evaluation is to conduct a forward-looking assessment to provide information for decision-making and learning, to ultimately strengthen UN Women’s ability to respond effectively when confronted with a crisis and develop high quality replicable interventions. 

Given that the current COVID-19 pandemic is restricting travel, the evaluation will primarily be conducted remotely (i.e. interviews using virtual platforms, secondary data analysis); travel restrictions within the selected case studies locations will be monitored, and local UN guidance on COVID-19 precautions and safety measures for personnel (including consultants) will be adhered to. Limitations of the evaluation will be clearly identified in the evaluation products.

An evaluation team is now being established to conduct the rapid independent evaluation. The Independent Evaluation Service’s (IES) Regional Evaluation Specialist (RES) for Asia and the Pacific will be the Team Leader and manager for the evaluation. The evaluation consultant with experience in the humanitarian field will support the conduct of the case studies and contribute to the overall draft synthesis report. The consultant is expected to contribute to the design of the case studies, collect and analyze data, and draft the case study reports in collaboration with the team members. To facilitate data collection in the local languages, national consultants may be hired to support the team. The full TOR will be shared with the selected consultant.  

Given that this evaluation is being led by the Independent Evaluation Service (IES), all consultants contracted will report to the Regional Evaluation Specialist, who reports to IES; and UN Women oversight of the evaluation process and quality assurance criteria as outlined in GERAAS will be followed. It is a priority for UN Women that the evaluations will be gender-responsive and will actively support the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment. It will adhere to UN Women’s Evaluation Policy and United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards[2] and Ethical Guidelines[3].

All data collected by the humanitarian evaluation consultant must be submitted to the evaluation team leader/manager in Word, PowerPoint or Excel formats and is the property of UN Women. Proper storage of data is essential for ensuring confidentiality and should be in line with UN Women Policy on data management and security. The evaluation reports will also need to follow the United Nations Editorial Manual, which can be found here. The Evaluation Manager (Regional Evaluation Specialist) and peer reviewers will quality assure the evaluation reports against UN Women Evaluation Report Quality Assurance (See Annex 1). All products submitted by the consultant are subject to quality review. All data collected through the evaluations is property of UN Women.

UN Women has developed a UN Women Evaluation Consultants Agreement Form for evaluators that must be signed as part of the contracting process, which is based on the UNEG Ethical Guidelines. These documents will be annexed to the contract. The evaluation’s value added is its impartial and systematic assessment of the programme or intervention. As with the other stages of the evaluation, involvement of stakeholders should not interfere with the impartiality of the evaluation. Additionally, if the evaluator(s) identify issues of wrongdoing, fraud or other unethical conduct, UN Women procedures must be followed and confidentiality be maintained.

UN Women is seeking to appoint one Humanitarian Evaluation Consultant to lead the conduct of the case studies in Bangladesh and Myanmar. The Humanitarian Evaluation Consultant will also be responsible for inputs to the overall synthesis report. The Humanitarian Evaluation Consultant is expected to be able to demonstrate evidence of the following experience and capabilities:

1. Master’s degree in a field of relevance for the evaluation (i.e. Social Sciences, Economics, Evaluation, international affairs).
2. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
3. At least 5 years of work experience in a research or evaluation capacity.
4. At least 3 years of humanitarian response experience - preferably humanitarian evaluation experience, with knowledge of other areas relevant to UN Women’s work (e.g. women’s political participation; violence against women and girls; etc.) being an advantage.
5. Humanitarian work experience in Asia and the Pacific is preferred.
6. Proven work experience in data collection including interviews and/or focus group discussions.
7. Experience in contributing to gender-responsive evaluation or experience in gender analysis and human-rights based approaches an asset.
8. Added asset is experience working with UN Women or other UN humanitarian system actors.
9. Language proficiency in English is required.

5. Selection Criteria

The candidates will be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria: (i) educational background and work experience as reflected in their P11; (ii) writing samples; and (iii) financial proposal. The evaluation will be based on the combination of the weighted technical and financial scores (70 per cent technical and 30 per cent financial). The evaluation methods include desk review and/or interview.

6. Application procedure

Interested candidates are requested to submit the following documents to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org and copy to suwanna.sangsuwan@unwomen.org:

1. Completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-p11-personal-history-form.doc?la=en&vs=558.
2. Letter of motivation with professional fee (daily and lump sum) based on the deliverables listed above.
3. 2 writing samples (preferably evaluation) 
4. List of 3 professional references that can be contacted.

Applicants without the completed UN Women P-11 form and other required documents as mentioned above will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Deadline for application: 26 July 2021, midnight (New York’s time)

ANNEXES

Annex 1 UN Women GERAAS evaluation quality assessment checklist

• http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/evaluation/evaluation-geraasmethodology-en.pdf

Annex 2 UN Women Evaluation Consultants Agreement Form

• UN Women Evaluation Consultants Agreement Form
• UNEG Ethical Guidelines and Code of Conduct.

Annex 3 UNEG Norms and Standards for evaluation

• http://www.unevaluation.org/document/download/2787

Annex 4 UN Women Evaluation Handbook

• https://genderevaluation.unwomen.org/en/evaluation-handbook

https://genderevaluation.unwomen.org/en/evaluation-handbook/country-portfolio-evaluation-guidance