Antecedentes

The COVID-19 crisis continues to have a significant impact on people’s lives – in terms of jobs, livelihoods, delivery of basic services – and particularly for those already in vulnerable situations, who have been hit the hardest.

The speed and scale of the spread, the severity of cases, and the societal and economic disruption is dramatic for all citizens. At the same time, gaps in institutional set-up, effectiveness and capacities are exposed. The inadequacy of the system has become more evident with the sharp increase of social vulnerability because of the pandemic.

The Social Assistance Scheme (SAS) in Kosovo absorbs approximately 88% of the budget for social assistance with the relative total spending on SAS declining over the last decade. The pandemic has exposed a series of gaps in the governance system which has affected the work of institutions and service delivery not least in provision of social services; it has directly affected the work of Centers for Social Work (CSWs) as they are also engaged in other activities to help citizens. Social workers, like much health professionals, are concerned about the impact of the pandemics on their well-being, the people to whom they provide services, their families, and others in the community.

To address some of these issues, the ‘Response to COVID-19 Emergency and Early Recovery Support’, financed by EU Office in Kosovo and implemented by UNDP, in close cooperation with the Ministry of Finance, Labour, and Transfers/Department for Social Policies and Family Planning enhanced the provision of social services by CSWs and improved access to equitable, qualitative, integrated social protection for the most vulnerable groups, including women and girls.

As such, the HAP project was designed to support Kosovo’s efforts to respond to COVID-19 emergency and early recovery focusing on:

  • Output One (1): improving the socio-economic support system for the most vulnerable groups. It addresses governance issues aiming to improve operational and procedural aspects, such as timelines of processes, accuracy, follow-up on cases, verification, and provision of adequate support, in close coordination with the Department of Social Policies and Families (DSPF), Ministry of Finance, Labor, and Transfers (MFLT), and the CSWs.
  • Output Two (2): strengthening front-line response services to mitigate the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic. It contributes to an improved work environment for women and men, and the implementation of basic health and safety measures for front-line workers, ensure the continuity of service delivery from residential centers, provide a range of services which are not part of social services, and promote change in attitudes toward gender discrimination practices.

The primary target group are people and individuals living in poverty or at risk of socio-economic marginalization; who will be further stratified to include single mothers/women heads of households, minority communities particularly Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, women victims of or at risk of gender-based violence, abuse, or domestic violence; people living in remote rural areas who experience difficulties to access social facilities and services.

As the project entered its final stage of implementation, the project will hire an International Evaluation Consultant to conduct a final project evaluation to assess the overall progress towards the expected results and provide recommendations for future similar interventions.

Objectives of Assignment

To assess the overall achievement of the project in terms of its relevance, impact, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability, and provide recommendations for future interventions in this sector. The scope of the evaluation of the project should look both into the outcome-level results as well as the output-level results as key indicators of the overall project performance.

Deberes y responsabilidades

  • Conduct a desk review of project-related documents and UNDP evaluation policies and based on this information draft and submit an inception report with appropriate methodology to be applied during the evaluation, as well as the work plan and any technical instruments to be used during the assignment, while being guided by the set of evaluation questions as presented below;
  • Conduct on-site field visits, meetings, discussions, and interviews with relevant stakeholders and project beneficiaries in Kosovo which include, but are not limited to: Ministry of Finance, Labor, and Transfers/Department for Social Policies and Family Planning, Centres for Social Welfare (CSW), the EU Office in Kosovo, UNDP’s partners, NGOs and other stakeholders. The Evaluator is expected to share the list of interviews to be conducted beforehand, and receive feedback and clearance from UNDP;
  • Hold a debriefing workshop at the end of the mission with main stakeholders to summarize initial findings and recommendations;
  • Based on the inception report and on the feedback received during the debriefing workshop, draft a final evaluation report containing the methodology applied, a presentation of findings and clear strategic recommendations to the UNDP and its partners for future interventions. These recommendations should contain specifically to whom of each of the partners of the project they are addressed;

The final evaluation report should include the elements outlined below:

  • Title and opening pages
  • Table of contents
  • List of acronyms and abbreviations
  • Executive summary, including a summary of recommendations
  • Introduction
  • Description of the intervention
  • Evaluation scope and objectives
  • Evaluation methodology
  • Data analysis
  • Findings and conclusions 
  • Recommendations  
  • Report annexes
  • Finalize the final evaluation report, accounting for UNDP feedback on the first draft.

The following evaluation criteria are to be used as per the UNDP methodology, and related evaluation questions are proposed for the evaluation process; however, these can be expanded, prioritized, and modified by the evaluator during the inception phase in consultation with UNDP.

Evaluation questions:

 

Relevant evaluation criteria

Key questions suggested

Relevance

  • Are/Were the project’s activities relevant for the main beneficiaries? Has the initiative tackled key challenges and problems identified?
  • To what extent have the cross-cutting issues (such as environment, gender equality, women empowerment, human rights based approach and social standards), principles and quality criteria been duly considered/mainstreamed in the project implementation and how well is this reflected in the project reports? How could they have been better integrated?
  • Have there been any changes in policies and strategy development that have affected the project? If yes, have necessary revisions and adaptations been designed? To what extent has the project been appropriately responsive to political, legal, economic, institutional, etc., changes in Kosovo?
  • How did the project link and contribute the national development priorities, the UNDP Kosovo programme’s outputs and outcomes, the UNDP Strategic Plan and the SDGs?
  • How did the project contribute to the theory of change for the relevant UNDP Kosovo programme outcome?
  • What are the areas of relevance for future interventions in the target area?

Effectiveness

  • To what level has the project reached the project purpose and the expected results as stated in the project document (logical framework matrix)?
  • In which areas does the project have the greatest achievements? Why and what have been the supporting factors? How can the project build on or expand these achievements?
  • In which areas does the project have the fewest achievements? What have been the constraining factors and why? How can or could they be overcome?
  • To what extent did the project contribute to the Kosovo programme outcomes and outputs, the SDGs, the UNDP Strategic Plan and national development priorities?
  • What challenges have been faced? What has been done to address the potential challenges/problems? What has been done to mitigate risks?
  • To what extent has the UNDP partnership strategy been appropriate and effective, and to what extent have stakeholders been involved in project implementation?
  • To what extent were project management and implementation participatory and is this participation contributing towards achievement of the project objectives?
  • To what extent has the project been appropriately responsive to the needs of the national constituents and changing partner priorities?
  • To what extent has the project contributed to gender equality, the empowerment of women and the realization of human rights?

Efficiency

  • Have the resources been used efficiently? How well have the various activities transformed the available resources into the intended results in terms of quantity, quality and timeliness? (in comparison to the plan)
  • Were the project funds and activities delivered in a timely manner?
  • To what extent do the M&E systems utilized by UNDP ensure effective and efficient project management?

Sustainability

  • How has the project ensured sustainability of its results and impacts (i.e. strengthened capacities, continuity of use of knowledge, improved practices, etc.)?
  • Did the project have a concrete and realistic exit strategy to ensure sustainability and what could be done to strengthen exit strategies and sustainability?
  • Has ownership of the actions and impact been transferred to the corresponding stakeholders? Do the stakeholders / beneficiaries have the capacity to take over the ownership of the actions and results of the project and maintain and further develop the results?
  • To what extent do stakeholders support the project’s long-term objectives?
  • To what extent the lessons learned were kept and documented by the project team on a continual basis and shared with appropriate parties who could learn from the project?

Impact

  • Is there evidence of long-lasting desired changes, in which aspects?
  • Has the project appropriately reached its target groups? Did the project serve the needs of vulnerable groups, i.e. women, youth, non-majority communities?

Stakeholders and Partnership Strategy

  • How has the project implemented the commitments to promote ownership, alignment, harmonization, management for development results and mutual accountability?

Evaluation

  • Were intended results (outputs, outcomes) adequately defined, appropriate and stated in measurable terms, and are the results verifiable?

Theory of Change or Results/Outcome Map

  • Was the Theory of Change or project logic feasible and was it realistic? Were assumptions, factors and risks sufficiently taken into consideration?

Human rights

  • To what extent have poor, minority groups, physically challenged, women and other disadvantaged and marginalized groups benefited from the project?

Gender

  • To what extent have gender equality and the empowerment of women been addressed in the design, implementation and monitoring of the project?
  • Is the gender marker data assigned to this project representative of reality?
  • To what extent has the project promoted positive changes in gender equality and the empowerment of women? Were there any unintended effects?

 

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

 

Deliverables/Outputs

Target Due Dates

Inception report (approx. 15 pages) containing appropriate methodology to be applied during the final evaluation, as well as the work plan and technical instruments to be used during assignment is drafted, submitted, and endorsed by UNDP.

25 September 2022

Field visits, meetings and interviews in Kosovo are conducted, gathering data to be used in the final evaluation report.

30 September 2022

A debriefing workshop with UNDP, EU and key stakeholders is held and initial findings and recommendations presented.

03 October 2022

Draft evaluation report submitted (30 pages maximum excluding annexes), executive summary (3 pages) incorporating the consolidated UNDP, EU and stakeholder’s feedback.

14 October 2022

Debriefing with UNDP

17 October 2022

Final evaluation report submitted to and validated by UNDP.

28 October 2022

 

Remuneration - Lump Sum Amount:

The Contract is based on lump sum remuneration and shall be processed subject to completion and validation of deliverables as per below schedule:  

  • Draft Final Evaluation report received: 70% of the total amount of the contract
  • Final version of the Final Evaluation report received and validated: 30% of the total amount of the contract

 

Required Presentation of Offer: 

The following documents are requested:

  • Personal CV and P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Offeror and at least three (3) professional references;
  • Technical proposal, a max. 3-page document briefly outlining the methodology envisaged for the assignment for delivering the expected results within the indicated timeframe
  • Financial proposal, that indicates lump sum payment based on deliverables 
  • Copy of Diplomas and copy of Passport

Criteria for selection of the Best Offer

Offers will be evaluated utilizing a combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and technical proposal will be weighted a max. of 70% and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%.

Competencias

Corporate Competencies :

  • Committed to highest regards of professionalism, impartiality, accountability, transparency, ethics, and integrity;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, ethnicity, and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Demonstrates substantial experience in gender equality and social inclusion.
  • Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Functional Competencies:

  • Ability to work effectively within a team and develop good relationships with counterparts and stakeholders;
  • Ability to synthesise research and draw conclusion on the related subjects;
  • Ability to pay attention to details;
  • Demonstrates transparency and provides feedback to all those who will contribute to the evaluation;
  • Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing;
  • Ability to establish effective working relations in a multicultural team environment;
  • Commitment to accomplish work;
  • Responds positively to critical feedback;
  • Results and task oriented.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

  • Master’s degree in social sciences, economics, international development.

Experience:

  • At least 5 years international experience in conducting evaluations of development and/or humanitarian aid & emergency programmes and projects;
  • Knowledge and familiarity with the Kosovo socio-economic and political context is a distinct advantage;
  • Strong working knowledge of UNDP and its mandate is a distinct advantage;
  • Knowledge of results-based management evaluation, as well as participatory M&E methodologies and approaches;
  • Excellent communication skills with various partners including donors;

Language requirements:

  • Fluency in English is required, knowledge of Albanian and Serbian languages is considered an asset.

 

Application Instructions:

  • Click on the "Apply now" button.
  • Input your information in the appropriate Sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume and motivation; You can type in, or paste your short Resume into the last box.
  • Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. On the next page, you will be asked to upload your Resume.
  • System will only allow one attachment. All docs (CV; P11; financial offer; list of similar profiles should be included as one attachment).
  • Please make sure to submit all the requested documents/information; otherwise, your application will be considered incomplete.