Background

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women (UNTF) is a global multi-lateral grant making mechanism supporting national efforts to prevent and end violence against women and girls. The UN Trust Fund was established through the UN General Assembly Resolution 50/166 in 1996 with UN Women as its Administrator on behalf of the UN system. The UN Trust Fund provides grants to advance the development of innovative models and strategic interventions in the area of ending violence against women and girls. Grantees – comprising governments and non-governmental organizations - have engaged diverse actors, such as women’s, men’s, adolescents and youth groups, indigenous communities, religious and traditional leaders, human rights organizations and the media. To date, the UN Trust Fund has awarded US $129 million to 463 initiatives in 139 countries and territories.

The UN Trust Fund introduced external evaluation as a mandatory stage of project cycle management for all grantees in 2012 in recognition of the importance of evaluation to align with UN Women policies and procedures. Since then more than 100 external evaluations have been produced. One of the key objectives set out in the UN Trust Fund’s Strategy 2015-2020 is to create an evidence and learning hub to collect and reflect on the depth of knowledge and lessons learned through the work of its grantees. This will be achieved partly through improving the UN Trust Fund’s evaluation practice and results monitoring to produce high quality, useful evidence and supporting grantees to improve their own capacity in data collection, monitoring and evaluation, and in generating evidence

In 2016, the UN Trust Fund’s commissioned a Meta Evaluation of final, external evaluations to assess the quality and to make recommendations on how evaluation practices could be improved. The analysis concluded that there were particular challenges for small organizations to produce good quality evaluations due to insufficient budgets and lack of capacity to manage the process. Due to this the UN Trust Fund made a decision to centralize final, external evaluations for projects implemented by small organizations receiving small grants[1] —presenting an opportunity to build upon existing capacity development activities and move toward a coaching relationship with evaluation task mangers from small CSOs. This is the first year the UN Trust Fund has centralized evaluations for small grants and the following project in the Solomon Islands has been identified for an evaluation in 2019.

Project Description: Transforming communities to end sexual and gender-based violence has been implemented by the Family Support Center (FSC) in the Solomon Islands with a small grant award of USD 119,266 from the UN Trust Fund. The project started 1 March 2017 and will end on 28 February 2019. It is therefore within the final six months of implementation.  

Since beginning implementation, the project worked with the goal of having women and girls, including survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Honiara, Temotu and Isabel, experience better support and protection against sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in their communities. To achieve this, the project worked to establish a counselling, paralegal support and referral network of local volunteers for women and children in two provinces, Temotu and Isabel. Through the establishment of the network, the project, and its partners, have worked to ensure that social services extend to remote provincial areas of the Solomon Islands. Local volunteers have worked with the aim of forming committees to coordinate and deliver workshops raising awareness of SGBV. It has also been the intention of the FSC to develop and maintain awareness campaigns in Honiara through school-based programs and drama performances.

Primary beneficiaries include women and girls survivors of violence within the family and communities.  Secondary beneficiaries include members of non-governmental organizations, members of community based-groups, health professionals, and social/welfare workers. Key implementing partners include SAFENET service providers, a volunteer committee, various community leaders, law enforcement, youth, rural community members, and members of provincial government.

Results chain:

Project Goal: By the end of the project, women ang girls, including survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Honiara, Temotu and Isabel, experience better support and protection against SGBV in their communities.

Outcome 1 By the end of the project victims/survivors of SGBV have better access to essential and quality services

(counselling, paralegal and referral services) in two Solomon Island provinces, Temotu and Isabel.

Output 1.1 By the end of the project, trained female volunteers in Temotu and Isabel provinces acquire increased awareness of available support services for victims/survivors and acquire skills in basic counselling, and paralegal and referral services.

Activity 1.1.1 FSC conducts two 3-day training workshops on SGVB in each of the target provinces and Honiara, followed by a further 2-day training for 3-5 female participants selected from initial workshops.

Activity 1.1.2 Volunteers form a committee to carry out and delegate

responsibilities such as providing basic counselling, providing paralegal support, referring clients to other service providers, and raising awareness of their services in their communities and surrounding villages.

Activity 1.2.3 FSC Counselling Unit provides ongoing guidance to volunteers during biannual supervision and training visits. In addition, two volunteers from each committee attend the annual M&E forum in Honiara each year of the project.

Output 1.2 By the end of second reporting period, the referral network

linkage, protocols and services in Temotu and Isabel are improved to

better respond to SGVB cases.

Activity 1.2.1 FSC and committee members establish a referral network the identified service providers comprised of

Activity 1.2.2 Committee and service providers establish an action protocol for SGBV cases including referral procedures to ensure referrals are made in a coordinated manner.

Activity 1.2.3 Committees and service providers from each of the target provinces hold quarterly supervision meetings and receive support from FSC to enhance knowledge on available options of dealing with SGBV.

Outcome 2 Over the life of the project, community members

in in the target Provinces of Temotu and Isabel; and Honiara

are better able to prevent and respond to SGBV.

Output 2.1 By the end of the project, the communities in Temotu and

Isabel, including children enrolled in schools, improve their knowledge

and awareness on how to address the underlying causes of SGBV.

Activity 2.1.1 Committees, with FSC support, develop and implement a workplan and budget to conduct activities to raise awareness of SGBV within their province.

Activity 2.1.2 Committees conduct school-based program in 1 high school per year for each province to increase knowledge of children and youth on preventive strategies to prevent child abuse.

Activity 2.1.3 FSC will conduct school-based programs in 4 schools, including drama performances and weekly radio programs to increase knowledge of children, youth and public on preventing strategies to prevent SGBV.

Output 2.2 By the end of the project, committees in Temotu and Isabel

are able to actively participate in the 16 Days of Activism campaign in the

Temotu and Isabel.

Activity 2.2.1 Committees, with FSC support, plan and conduct an activity in their respective province during 16 Days of Activism.

Justification for the consultancy

This consultancy is intended to provide the UN Trust Fund Secretariat with an external, independent, final evaluation of the project ‘Transforming communities to end sexual and gender-based violence’, implemented by the Family Support Centre in Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. The evaluation presents an opportunity for learning important lessons on how to effectively combat family violence in remote communities in an under-resourced and challenging region. In order to draw on concrete data, it is also necessary to design an end-line survey. In addition, it will enable the Family Support Centre to learn about what mechanisms and practices have (or have not) enabled effective project management and efficient functioning of the team. 

Scope and Objectives

Evaluation scope:

  • Timeframe: to cover the entire project duration (1 March 2017 to 28 February 2019)
  • Geographical Coverage: Honiara, Temotu and Isabel
  • Target groups to be covered: primary and secondary beneficiaries, as well as key stakeholders

Evaluation objectives include:

  • evaluating the entire two-year project against the effectiveness, relevance, efficiency, sustainability and impact criteria, as well as the cross-cutting gender equality and human rights criteria;
  • identifying key lessons and promising or emerging good practices in the field of ending violence against women and girls, for learning purposes; and
  • building the capacity of the FSC in data collection, monitoring and evaluation, as well as support on reviewing organizational preparedness for future projects.

Proposed evaluation questions (to be determined and agreed during the inception phase):

Evaluation Criteria

 

Evaluation Questions

Effectiveness

 

A measure of the extent to which a project attains its objectives / results (as set out in the project document and results framework) in accordance with the theory of change.

  1. Was the programme design logical and coherent in: a) taking into account the roles, capacities and commitment of stakeholders; and, b) in realistically achieving the planned outputs?
  2. To what extent were the intended project goal, outcomes and outputs (project results) achieved and how?
  3. What mechanisms enabled or constrained project performance?
  4. Did the programme develop and build the capacities of partners on planning for activities?
  5. What alternative strategies would have been more effective in achieving expected results?

Relevance

 

The extent to which the project is suited to the priorities and policies of the target group and the context.

  1. To what extent was the intervention informed by needs and interests of diverse groups of stakeholders through in-depth consultation?
  2. To what extent do the achieved results (project goal, outcomes and outputs) continue to be relevant to the needs of women and girls in Honiara, Temotu and Isabel?
  3. To what extent does the programme respond to the international framework to prevent and respond to violence against women, such as CEDAW, Beijing Platform Action and women’s human rights principles?

Efficiency

 

Measures the outputs - qualitative and quantitative - in relation to the inputs. It is an economic term which refers to whether the project was delivered cost effectively. 

  1. To what extent was the project efficiently and cost-effectively implemented?
  2. How efficiently does the programme management monitor programme performance and results?
  3. Have resources (funds, human resources, time, expertise, etc.) for integrating human rights and gender equality been allocated strategically to achieve results? What were the benefits, costs or consequences?

 

Sustainability

 

Sustainability is concerned with measuring whether the benefits of a project are likely to continue after the project/funding ends.

  1. To what extent will the achieved results, especially any positive changes in the lives of women and girls (project goal level), be sustained after this project ends?
  2. How have stakeholders been involved in programme implementation? How effective has the programme been in establishing local ownership?
  3. Can the programme approach or results be replicated or scaled up by national partners? What would support their replication and scaling up?

 

Impact

 

Assesses the changes that can be attributed to a particular project relating specifically to higher-level impact (both intended and unintended).

  1. To what extent has the project contributed to ending violence against women, gender equality and/or women’s empowerment (both intended and unintended impact)?

 

 

Knowledge generation

 

Assesses whether there are any promising practices that can be shared with other practitioners.

  1. To what extent has the project generated knowledge, promising or emerging practices in the field of EVAW/G that should be documented and shared with other practitioners?

 

Gender Equality and Human Rights

 

  1. Has an enabling or adaptable environment been developed for real change on human rights and gender equality issues in Honiara, Temotu and Isabel? In neighboring communities?

[1] Small grants refer to UN Trust Fund awards of US$ 125,000 or less in 2017 and US$ 150,000 or less from 2018.

Duties and Responsibilities

Outputs

1. Inception report & Endline survey design: By 11 February 2019, design an endling survey which will capture progress toward the goal, intended outcomes and outputs, as well as perspectives of primary and secondary beneficiaries. This will be used by FSC for required final reporting and provide data to feed into the evaluation. By this date, the consultant must also produce an inception report that sets out what, how and when the evaluator(s) will complete the Final Evaluation. This should be based on an initial desk review of background documents and a participatory consultation with FSC staff, select stakeholders and the evaluation management group. The inception report must include the final evaluation questions, evaluation criteria with definitions, the evaluation design and methodology (i.e. description of data collection methods), ethical and safety protocols and a more detailed timeline and deliverables.

2. Draft the Final Evaluation Report: By 1 April 2019, produce a draft evaluation report that covers the agreed evaluation questions in the format agreed at the inception phase. It must provide evidence, analysis, conclusions and recommendations, including - where necessary - annexed summaries of the evidence gathered, tables and graphics to illustrate the findings. This should be presented to the FSC and select stakeholders for fact-checking and discussion to inform the final report. This should also be shared with the evaluation management group for quality assurance. The evaluator should collect feedback on the draft in a systematic manner to improve the final report.

3. Final Evaluation Report: By 6 May 2019, based on the feedback provided on the draft report, finalize the evaluation report, which must cover the agreed evaluation questions in the format agreed at the inception phase. It must provide evidence, analysis, conclusions and recommendations, including - where necessary - annexed summaries of the evidence gathered, tables and graphics to illustrate the findings. This should be presented to the FSC staff, select stakeholders and the evaluation management group.

Activities

Inception phase: By 11 February 2019

1. Desk review of background documentation on the FSC to develop the evaluation methodology, including, but not limited to: FSC ProDoc, baseline survey data, monitoring data, progress reports, end line data and report (when available)

2. Design for endline data collection on progress toward intended results. Design must adhere to standard principals of ethics and safety. Existing project -level data that will available to the consultant includes: some client statistics from service providers, statistics on referrals between service providers and pre and post-test data from surveys before and after training.

3. Design of the evaluation and the methodology: to include draft data collection methods. The methodological design and approach to the evaluation must be gender-responsive and therefore ensure that human rights and gender quality are respected, addressed and promoted throughout the exercise. Innovative and pilot approaches to evaluation are highly encouraged.

4. Draft the inception report setting out the proposed evaluation questions and criteria, the evaluation design and methodology including a description of the stakeholders who will be interviewed and surveyed and the rationale for selection (sampling framework). This should include a more detailed workplan, timeline and deliverables for the data collection and analysis stage of the process as well as any limitations and constraints to set expectations for the evaluation.

Data collection, analysis and drafting phase: by 1 April 2019

1. Data collection and analysis: complete the data collection as proposed in the inception report including the endline survey, interviews, discussions and document reviews etc. This is will include missions to Honiara, Temotu and Isabel. All other data collection should be conducted remotely unless otherwise agreed with the FSC during the inception phase.

2. Synthesis and draft reporting: produce the first draft of the evaluation that addresses all the agreed evaluation questions in the format agreed at the inception phase. It must provide evidence, analysis, conclusions and recommendations, including - where necessary - annexed summaries of the evidence gathered, tables and graphics to illustrate the findings.

Final reporting phase: by 6 May 2019

1. Consultation and feedback: the draft report should be presented to the FSC and stakeholders for fact-checking and discussion to inform the final report. It should also be shared with the evaluation management group for quality assurance. The evaluator should collect feedback on the draft in a systematic manner to improve the final report.

2. Final draft: based on the feedback provided on the draft report, finalize the evaluation report that must cover the agreed evaluation questions in the format agreed at the inception phase. It must provide evidence, analysis, conclusions and recommendations, including - where necessary - annexed summaries of the evidence gathered, tables and graphics to illustrate the findings. This should be presented to the FSC, selected stakeholders and the evaluation management group.

Inputs and Timing

Contribution from the beneficiary (FSC): the FSC will provide the consultant(s) with access to all the documentation required, key contacts and introductions to partners and stakeholders (and will introduce the consultant(s) when required to key partners and stakeholders). Travel (international and domestic), accommodation and allowances for the mission to project sites in Solomon Islands should be organized and managed by the contracted consultant(s). Office space, desk, access to internet and a printer will be provided by FSC for the period of that mission.

Consultants input: A total of 50 days (approximate, exact breakdown to be agreed in the inception phase)

  • 10 days for the inception phase
  • 30 days for the data collection and drafting phase
  • 10 days for the final reporting phase

The consultant is expected to cover the costs of the home-based activities within the daily rate. All travel to and within Solomon Islands is to be coordinated by the consultant, with guidance from FSC. To apply, applicants should provide a short proposal with a suggested approach to the evaluation, including your proposed daily rate for the work. This proposal must be included in the same attachment as your P11 and resume. Please note that the selected consultant may suggest that additional support is required, in the form of an assistant or data specialist, however this additional support must be organized and managed by the selected consultant within the daily rate agreed. Please provide details in your proposal when applying for the consultancy.

Reporting

The draft report should be shared with the UNTF Secretariat by 1 April 2019 for consultation and fact checking, and the final report to be completed by 6 May 2019.

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: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, human rights, gender/women's studies, international development, or a related field is required.

Experience:

  • 10 years of working experience in evaluation and/or programmatic and operational performance assessments of development programmes;
  • 5 years of experience and background on human rights-based approach to programming and gender equality rights and specifically on issues related to EVAW would be advantage;
  • Experience in designing and conceptualizing programmes/projects especially the theory of change;
  • Experience in working with NGOs, and multilateral/bilateral institutions and donor entities is an asset;
  • Experience in participatory approach is an asset. Facilitation skills and ability to manage diversity of views in different cultural contexts;
  • Ability to produce well written reports demonstrating analytical ability and communication skill;
  • Ability to ensure that a high-quality product is delivered on a timely basis;
  • Experience in Solomon Islands and/or the Pacific region would be an asset.

Language:

  • Full proficiency in English (written and spoken);
  • Knowledge of local languages in the Solomon Islands would be an advantage.

How to apply

Applicants should provide a short proposal with a suggested approach and timeline for the Final Evaluation, including your proposed daily rate for the work. This proposal must be included in the same attachment as your P11 and resume. Note that all applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment hence the need to add your proposal and resume into the same document as the signed P11. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. Deadline for submission is 3 January 2019.

Due to the large number of applications we receive, we are only able to inform the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

Ethical code of conduct

It is expected that the consultant will ensure that the confidentiality and independence of judgment are maintained, and that findings and recommendations are independently presented. The consultant will operate in an impartial and unbiased manner and give a balanced presentation of strengths and weaknesses of the issues being assessed. The consultant must disclose in writing any experience, which may give rise to a potential conflict of interest, and to deal honestly in resolving any conflict of interest which may arise.