The Joint SDG Fund supports countries as they accelerate their progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It operates through joint programmes (JPs) that provide the mechanism for transformative solutions implemented by governments and national stakeholders and supported by the UN Country Team led by Resident Coordinators (RCs). Strategic direction for the Fund is provided by the Strategic Advisory Group chaired by the Deputy Secretary-General as the chair of UN Sustainable Development Group. The Fund is managed by the Operational Steering Committee, comprised of representatives of 5 UN entities, and with the support from the Secretariat of the Fund. The UN Development Coordination Office (DCO) hosts the Fund and provides for the alignment with the broader UN Development System reforms. The Administrative Agent of the Fund, in charge of financial management, is the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTF-O). Official documents (e.g. Terms of Reference and Operational Guidance) of the Fund and information on funding can be found on the Gateway portal. The Fund launched its first global Call for Concept Notes in March 2019 to support integrated policy for SDG acceleration focusing on Social Protection and Leave No One Behind (LNOB), particularly the most vulnerable and marginalized – children, adolescents, people living with disabilities, minorities, and the elderly. A 114 countries applied and the top 35 proposals were selected, leading to development of 35 joint programmes (hereinafter JPs) in 39 countries with the total funding of $US 102 million over 2 years. JPs were finalized and approved in 2019 and launched in 2020. The implementation involves 600+ partners from governments, civil society, the private sector, and international organizations. All joint programmes are expected to deliver results at scale by 31 January 2022, while improving the coherence of UN Country Teams and facilitating acceleration of SDG progress. More information on JPs can be found on the Joint SDG Fund website and on the Gateway portal. Portfolio Context The focus of the portfolio is on integrated policies, institutions, programmes and services for social protection of the most vulnerable. The approach is based on the understanding that social protection refers to any vulnerability across the whole individual’s lifecycle. This led to a diverse portfolio, which includes focus on a large number of vulnerable populations, including children, youth, elderly and persons with disabilities. Across all these groups, the focus on women is put into the foreground and JPs also substantially mainstream human rights because they address systemic inequality. JPs in this portfolio were launched at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fund provided an opportunity to re-purpose 20% of the budget, which was used by 1/3 of the JPs. In addition, all JPs adapted to the new context and responded to COVID-19, in particular given that social protection of most vulnerable proved to be essential to address the immediate and system impact of the pandemic. The implementation of all JPs is carried out by UN Country Teams, led by the Resident Coordinator. Global portfolio management focuses primarily on: developing portfolio-level policies and best practices, operational monitoring (quarterly check and 6-month progress update); risk management; and support to partnerships, strategic communication, learning and sharing of innovation practices. There are two levels of results. At the global level, the results relevant for this portfolio are those included in the Joint SDG Fund Results Framework (as presented in its Terms of Reference). The global results are divided into programmatic (outputs and outcomes that focus on integrated policy) and performance indicators. The second level of results are programme-specific and presented in detailed results frameworks in each JP documents. The high diversity of focus of the JPs implies that the programme-specific results frameworks are too diverse to be effectively aggregated at the global, portfolio level. JPs are required to report on both: a) they provide input to the global results of the Fund, which are then aggregated, and b) they provide detailed analysis of the progress towards the results from programme-specific results frameworks. The portfolio reports on aggregate global results; provides clustered summaries of progress and showcases innovation and emergent practices. In 2020, JPs provided quarterly updates for Q1 and Q3, as well as a 6-month progress update. These emphasized overview of the progress on implementation, risks, and next steps. It is expected that the delivery of expected results for 2020 will be hindered by lock-down measures and the broader impact of COVID-19. However, there is a great emphasis for JPs to innovate and leverage partnerships and related initiatives. JPs are also in the process of adapting their workplans, which in most cases leads to postponing certain activities to 2021, but in several cases it facilitated accelerating the implementation in 2020 (e.g. by moving some activities from 2021 into 2020 when requested from the government). The JP progress reporting included both implementation of expected results and the additional contributions provided through innovation, partnerships and engagement with individuals and families across vulnerable groups. In addition, more than 100 blog posts – human interest stories and expert insights – have been produced by the 35 JPs in 2020. The major upcoming milestone for each of the JPs is the Annual Progress Report, to be submitted in January 2021. Given that the duration of the JPs is 2 years, the 2020 Annual Progress Report is a critical opportunity to collect information, data and insights into the state of play given the ambitious results expected by 2022. Purpose and Scope of the Portfolio Mid Term Review
The Portfolio Mid-Term Review (MTR) will not be a conventional evaluation and it will not seek to address the criteria such as programme efficiency, effectiveness, etc. The MTR is expected to provide: a) a strategic snapshot of the implementation to date across the 35 JPs, articulated at the global, portfolio level; b) an analysis of main issues relevant for portfolio management, such as progress towards the JP results expected in 2021; c) evidence for how the Fund’s contributions to the JPs have facilitated systemic and catalytic change at the country level; and d) recommendations for portfolio management into 2021 and beyond.
The MTR will also include the analysis of Annual Progress Reports from JPs, which will be then accompanied by supplemental data analysis (e.g. survey questionnaire) and a limited number of interviews of UNCTs. The final report will then provide content for the annual progress report of the overall Joint SDG Fund.
This MTR is meant to streamline the engagement towards the most strategic findings. Its scope is not to undertake in-depth analysis of each JP), but rather a portfolio-level assessment. This analysis and reporting should focus on the aspects that hold relevance across tare of most relevance for the portfolio, and their contributions towards the global results of the Joint SDG Fund overall. Furthermore, the MTR will take into consideration that this portfolio is the first of the Joint SDG Fund and aims is expected to to provide lessons learned for other current and future portfolios.
Overall, the Portfolio MTR will include:
Contextual analysis
- Brief review of the scope and focus of the portfolio, its role in the broader Joint SDG Fund, key information on the 35 JPs, and the specific needs and requirement of portfolio monitoring and reporting.
Strategic analysis of Annual Progress Reports of JPs - 35 JPs will submit Annual Progress Reports by end January 2021 in a standardized template with information on progress of implementation and results for each JPs.
- The Consultant will conduct a brief but strategic analysis of 35 reports focusing on the information considered most essential for the portfolio MTR. This will lead to an overview of the portfolio-wide progress, accompanied by limited number of examples of particularly successful results and innovations. The Consultant will be required to undertake brief review of results (as per JP-specific results frameworks) in order to validate the narrative sections of the reports, and to acquire relevant evidence and data. Aggregation of selected clusters of programme-specific results may be conducted only for a limited number of focus areas (upon the agreement with the Fund’s Secretariat).
- The reports will also provide data on the contribution of each JP to the global Fund’s results relevant for this portfolio. This data will be aggregated and analyzed by the Consultant.
In-depth analysis of MTR survey questionnaire - In addition to the Annual Progress Reports, JPs will provide data through a survey questionnaire. It requires the JPs to provide basic quantitative data on results or to respond to multiple-choice questions. Data will be validated, consolidated and analyzed by the Fund Secretariat before it is provided to the Consultant for analysis.
- The data from the questionnaire will build upon the analysis of Annual Progress Reports and represent the core aspect of the portfolio MTR.
Interviews with key stakeholders - The Consultant will conduct interviews with stakeholders of JPs (country-level) and of the Joint SDG Fund (global). The interviews with the JP stakeholders will need to be limited in both number and scope. The Consultant will propose the most optimal approach (e.g. 2-3 interviews for each cluster of JPs).
Quarterly check for Q1 2021 - The information provided in the Annual Progress Report and the MTR survey will refer to implementation during 2020. However, during the course of MTR, JPs will provide an additional monitoring update –the quarterly check for Q1. This monitoring update will be brief (1-2 pages per JP) and will provide additional information for the final MTR report.
Input to global report of the Joint SDG Fund and updated summaries of JPs - The findings of the MTR report be summarized and included into the global annual report of the Fund overall. They will also inform the updating the existing summaries of JPs.
Given the scope of and the limited period for the portfolio MTR, it will be essential for the Consultant to be selective and strategic in the analysis and reporting. The Consultant will need to balance providing the “big picture” of the portfolio with the need to present evidence of results and progress of individual JPs. This will require an advanced aptitude for analyzing complex information from different sources, identifying most essential insights, and articulating multi-faceted and cross-sectoral findings in a clear and concise manner. It will also require the ability to quickly acquire optimal understanding of diverse country contexts and undertake high-quality research using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
|
