Background

1.           Background

The UN Joint Programme for Gender Equality (UNJP) is the II phase of an intervention implemented from 20 November 2015 until 31 December 2020 jointly by UNDP (Administering Agent), UN Women (Convening Agency), and UNFPA with the generous support of the Government of Sweden. The first phase of the UNJP was implemented during 2012-2015 and the findings and recommendations of its final external evaluation have significantly informed the design of the second phase.

The second phase of the Programme continues to respond directly to the women’s rights and gender equality commitments undertaken by the Government of Georgia (GoG) on the international and national levels upscaling the results achieved by the first phase of the UNJP implemented in the period of 1 December 2011-30 April 2015. It is noteworthy that mid-term evaluation of the second phase of the Programme was completed in the beginning of 2019 and the report is available on-line at: https://gate.unwomen.org/Evaluation/Details?EvaluationId=10158

The second phase of the Joint Programme addresses gender inequality in a coherent and comprehensive manner, covering a wide range of issues, such as political and economic empowerment of women, reducing violence against women and girls and promotion of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. Therefore, three UN agencies (in the context of UN Joint Programme also referred to as Participating UN Organizations (PUNOs)) have unified efforts towards the achievement of its goals and objectives.

The overall goal of the project is to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment by means of strengthening capacities of government at both central and local levels and across the executive, legislative and judicial branches, engaging civil society and raising public awareness about gender equality. According to the Project Document, this ambitious goal is to be achieved by realization of the following three outcomes:

  1. Enhanced women’s political and economic empowerment (the work under this outcome is led by UNDP);
  2. Enabling environment to eliminate violence against women and girls, especially sexual and domestic violence, created in Georgia (the work under this outcome is led by UN Women);
  3. Advanced gender equality and reproductive rights, including for the most vulnerable women, adolescents, and youth (the work under this outcome is led by UNFPA).

The project exercises a holistic approach by simultaneously targeting three interrelated levels (national, local and grassroots) and applying multi-tiered programming approaches, such as but not limited to:

  • Policy advice - to advocate for streamlining of national legislation and policies in view of gender equality including, political and economic empowerment, violence against women and girls, reproductive rights; and recommend improvements; adjust policies, develop/update the action plans; support evidence-based policy dialogue between policy and decision makers, the legislature and women’s rights and gender equality advocates as well as communities at grassroots level;
  • Strengthening national systems – to enhance coordination and implementation of innovative policies and plans related to gender equality, including political and economic empowerment, SRH&RR, prevention and response to violence against women and girls, as well as supporting development and institutionalization of monitoring mechanisms of implementation.
  • Strengthening public advocacy – to enhance the capacities of rights-holders on the issue of gender equality and women’s political and economic empowerment, domestic and other forms of violence against women and girls, harmful practices and reproductive rights by mobilizing and supporting participatory advocacy platforms with civil society and communities at grassroots level.

The UNJP is fully aligned with national priorities in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment and the stated goals and priority areas of the UN Partnership for Sustainable Development for 2016-2020 (UNPSD); namely, UNPSD Outcome 2: focus area 1 - democratic governance and Outcome 4: focus area 2 - Jobs, Livelihood and Social Protection, as well as the Results Strategy for Sweden’s Reform Cooperation with Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans and Turkey (2014 – 2020). The Programme is further in line with Georgia’s commitments under nationalized Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially with Goal 1 (target 1.4), Goal 3 (targets 3.1 & 3.7), Goal 4 (targets 4.3.a and 4.7), Goal 5 (targets 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.6 and 5.c) and Goal 16 (targets 16.1, 16.3, 16.7 and 16.b).

Target population: Society-at-large, women, men and youth and especially excluded groups of women such as – IDPs and conflict affected populations, ethnic and religious minorities, female-headed households, victims/survivors of domestic violence and sexual violence.

Geographic areas: Tbilisi (the capital), Samegrelo and Kakheti regions of Georgia.

Basic information on the Programme and some of its key documents (for both I and II phases) can be accessed at: http://mptf.undp.org/factsheet/fund/JGE00                        

            2. Purpose and Use of the Systematization of Final Results Exercise

The mid-term evaluation of this UN Joint Programme was completed in the beginning of 2019 ( capturing two thirds of the implementation of the programme), therefore, and also due to the travel restrictions and social distancing requirements in place amid the COVID-19 crisis the UNJP PUNOs in consultation with the donor have agreed to substitute final external evaluation with a systematization of final results’ exercise.

The information generated by the exercise will be used by different stakeholders to:

  1. Contribute to building of the evidence base on effective strategies - especially vis-à-vis the intended sustainability of the project results - for political and economic empowerment of women, reducing violence against women and girls and promotion of women’s sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights
  2. Facilitate Participating UN agencies’ (UNDP, UNFPA and UN Women) strategic reflection, learning and further planning for programming in the areas of political and economic empowerment of women, reducing violence against women and girls and promotion of women’s sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights to strengthen national stakeholders and structures with the aim to increase sustainability of the results beyond the programme

The main users of the findings and recommendations of the exercise include UNDP, UNFPA and UN Women offices in Georgia as well as Government of Sweden (project donor). Furthermore, national stakeholders - NGO partners, parliamentary counterparts, targeted state agencies, and local governments will be also closely involved in the process to increase ownership of findings, draw lessons learned and make greater use of the findings of the systematization of final results.

The findings of the exercise are further expected to contribute to effective joint programming on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) in Georgia.

3.           Objectives, Criteria and Key Questions of the Systematization of Final Results

The overall objective of the exercise is to assess the progress made towards the achievement of the set targets under the outcomes and objectives of the programme, analyze the results achieved and challenges encountered.

The specific objectives of the exercise are:

  • To analyze the relevance of the UNJP II implementation strategy and approaches to UN and national development policy priorities;
  • To review the relevance of the logical framework and respective Monitoring and Evaluation Plan of the project;
  • To assess effectiveness and organizational efficiency in progressing towards the achievement of the project’s results;
  • To assess the sustainability of the results and the feasibility of ongoing, nationally-led efforts in the thematic areas tackled by the project from the viewpoint of national ownership, national capacity development, partnership and coordination between the implementing UN agencies and other development partners;
  • To document lessons learned, best practices, success stories and challenges to inform future programming of UNDP, UNFPA and UN Women in Georgia;
  • To assess how the intervention and its results relate and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals in Georgia.

Since the Systematization of Final Results’ is a lighter exercise than full-fledged evaluation will be guided but not bound to exhaustively look at all questions under the following key criteria – such as project relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and coordination which were exhaustively analyzed in the context of the mid-term evaluation of the project. It is noteworthy that all the questions listed below under these criteria have been explored and answered in-depth through the mid-term evaluation. Thus, it is expected that these questions will guide the development of the methodology of the Systematization of Final Results’ exercise, that will have a summative approach.

Relevance:

  • To what extent was the intervention aligned with international, regional and national agreements and conventions on gender equality and women’s empowerment?
  • How did the project design match with the complexity of national structures, systems and decision-making processes?
  • How did the UNJP assure that the project reflected and aligned to Georgia’s national plans on gender equality as well as the country’s internationally undertaken obligations and/or best practices?
  • To what extent was the UNJP aligned with Georgia’s UN Partnership for Sustainable Development 2016-2020 (UNPSD) and nationalized SDGs?
  • To what extend did the UNJP contribute to the implementation of the UNDP Country Programme Document (CPD), UNFPA CPD and UN Women Strategic Note (2016-2020)?
  • To what extent were key national partners involved in the project’s conceptualization and design process?
  • To what extent did the project’s design and implementation process include collaborative processes, shared vision for delivering results, strategies for joint delivery and sharing of risks among implementing UN entities?
  • Has the implementation been based on quality analysis, including gender and human rights-based analysis, risk assessments, socio-cultural and political analysis?
  • To what extent was the design of the intervention relevant to the needs and priorities of the beneficiaries?

Effectiveness

  • What has been the progress made towards achievement of the expected outputs and outcomes?
  • How effective have the selected programme strategies and approaches been in progressing towards achieving programme results?
  • What contributions were -if any- the PUNOs making to implement global norms and standards for GEWE in Georgia in the framework of this UNJP?
  • Has the project achieved any unforeseen results, either positive or negative? For whom? What are the good practices and the obstacles or shortcomings encountered? How were they overcome?
  • To what extent have capacities of relevant duty-bearers and rights-holders been strengthened at this stage of implementation?
  • Did the project have effective monitoring mechanisms in place to measure progress towards results?
  • How adaptably and rapidly did UNJP react to changing country context?
  • What -if any- types of innovative good practices have been introduced in the programme for the achievement of GEWE results?
  • Has the UNJP led to complementary and synergistic effects on broader UN efforts to achieve GEWE in Georgia?
  • To what extent did the joint programme modality lead to improved communication, coordination and information exchange within the United Nations family in Georgia?

Efficiency:

  • Have resources (financial, human, technical support, etc.) been allocated and split amongst the different implementing entities strategically to progress towards the achievement of the project outputs and outcomes?
  • How has the joint nature of the project affected efficiency of delivery, including reduced duplication and increased cost-sharing, reduced/transferred burdens and transaction costs? What factors have influenced this?
  • Has the established coordination mechanism of “jointness” led to better programme results if compared to UNJP’s phase I?
  • Has there been effective leadership and management of the project including the structuring of management and administration roles to maximize results?
  • To what extent are the programme’s individual entity and joint monitoring mechanisms in place effective for measuring and informing management of project performance and progress towards targets? To what extent was the monitoring data objectively used for management action and decision making?

Sustainability:

While all the above criteria are relevant, it is of utmost importance that the Systematization of Final Results’ exercise looks particularly at the sustainability aspects of the project results

  • Have sustainability considerations been incorporated in the project design and implementation? How is this evidenced?
  • To what extent has the UNJP been able to establish relevant partnerships with key stakeholders? To what extent are relevant national stakeholders and actors included in the UNJP programming and implementation and policy advocacy processes?
  • To what extent the intervention succeeded in building sustainable individual and institutional capacities of rights-holders and duty-bearers?
  • Did key national partners including women’s movements and women’s organizations etc. have voice and influence within the programme implementation?
  • What is the likelihood that the benefits from the project will be maintained for a reasonably long period of time after the project phase out?

The exercise will examine all the relevant documents of the UNJP, including logical framework of the project, its Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, annual work plan, annual reports to the donor, knowledge products produced in the frameworks of the project, etc. and the final report of the mid-term evaluation of the project along with its management response. Data will be collected inter alia through on-line interviews with key stakeholders as defined by the agreed evaluation work-plan.

3.           Design Process and Methods

The systematization of the projects results will be desk based and will also include interviews with key stakeholders in the implementation of the programme. A participatory workshop with implementing UN Entities will be considered. The methodology will be finalized as a part of the second deliverable – inception report in consultation with the management group:

The International Consultant will work in a team with National Consultant and will be responsible for inception, data collection and data analysis and synthesis phase.

  • Inception phase: at the beginning of the exercise, the Consultant will be provided with key sources of information for an initial desk review. The online inception meetings will be conducted with the UNJP team and the management of the three PUNOs. At the end of this phase an inception report that will include the refined methodology for the exercise will be delivered. The inception report will be validated and approved by the management of the three PUNOs.
  • Data collection phase: based on the inception phase, the contractor will carry out an in- depth desk review, and virtual meetings with key stakeholders to complete data collection and triangulation of information.
  • Data analysis and synthesis phase: The collected information will be analyzed, and systematization of final results’ report will be delivered. An online validation meeting will be organized where the contractor will validate the final report with participating UN agencies to be approved by the management of all three UNDP, UNFPA and UN Women.

The consultant must safeguard the rights and confidentiality of information providers, interviewees and stakeholders through measures to ensure compliance with legal and other relevant codes governing collection of data and reporting on data. The consultant must also ensure security of collected information before and after the exercise and protocols to ensure anonymity and confidentiality of sources of information where that is expected. The information knowledge and data gathered in the evaluation process must also be solely used for the evaluation and not for other uses with the express authorization of UN Women, UNDP and UNFPA.

4.           Stakeholders Participation and Management of the Systematization of Final Results

The Systematization of Final Results’ will be a consultative, inclusive and participatory process and will ensure the participation of project beneficiaries.

UN Women as the convening agency of the UNJP will appoint an officer who will serve as the Task Manager for the exercise. The Task Manager will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the systematization of final results and ensure that the exercise is conducted in accordance with the sister entities’ Evaluation Policies, United Nations Evaluation Group Ethical Guidelines and Code of Conduct for Evaluation in the United Nations system and other key relevant guidance documents. The process will be supported by the UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Evaluation Specialist.

Moreover, a Management Group (MG) comprising relevant senior managers of the participating UN agencies and/or their delegated programme staff will be established to oversee the Systematization of Final Results’ process, make key decisions and quality assure the different deliverables. The MG will quality assure and approve all deliverables. Furthermore, it will make certain that factual errors or errors of omission or interpretation are identified in the deliverables produced. The Management Group will provide input and relevant information at key stages of the exercise: the terms of reference, inception report, draft and final reports and dissemination of the findings.

In light of the foregoing UN Women in close cooperation with UNDP and UNFPA would like to hire an International Consultant who in a team with a National Consultant will be responsible for conducting Systematization of Final Results’ of the UN Joint Programme for Gender Equality.

Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of the International Consultant are:

  • Draft and submit Inception Report, presenting a refined scope, a detailed outline of the exercise design and methodology, evaluation questions, and criteria for the approach for in-depth desk review and interviews to be conducted in the data collection phase. The report will include an evaluation matrix and detailed work plan. A first draft report will be shared with the Management Group and, based upon the comments received the Consultant will revise the draft. The Consultant will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the final inception report.
  • Conduct online interviews with key stakeholders to collect and analyse data, where the list of key stakeholders will be identified in consultation with the Contactor. The Task Manager will support the Consultant in liaising with the key stakeholders to schedule interviews as necessary.
  • Prepare and finalize Power Point Presentation of preliminary findings (online) detailing the emerging findings of the exercise will be shared with the Management Group for feedback. The Consultant will incorporate the feedback received into the draft report.
  • Draft and submit the Systematization of Final Results’ Report which will be shared with the Management Group for initial feedback to identify factual errors, errors of omission and/or misinterpretation of information. The revised report will incorporate this feedback and shared with the MG for final validation. The Consultant will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the revised draft.
  • Produce Systematization of Final Results’ report taking into consideration comments and feedback collected from UNDP, UNFPA and UN Women. The report shall include the following chapters: Executive Summary, Introduction and Background, Approach and Methodology (including limitations), Findings, Conclusions, Lessons learnt, Recommendations and relevant Annexes.

Deliverables:

  • Desk review completed (5 working days)- by 10 August 2020
  • Inception Report developed (5 working days) by 15 August 2020
  • Online interviews with key stakeholders conducted (8 working days), by 31 August 2020
  • Power Point Presentation of preliminary findings developed, presented, and finalized (3 working days), by 7 September 2020
  • Systematization of Final Results’ draft Report submitted (7 working days) by 17 September 2020
  • Systematization of Final Results Report developed and submitted (5 working days) - by 30 September 2020

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/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Advanced (at least Masters) degree in one or more of the following areas: social sciences, gender studies, political science, health, development studies or another related field.

Experience:

  • Substantive international (preferably eastern Europe, CIS) experience (at least seven years) in the field of gender equality and women’s rights;
  • At least five years of international experience in managing monitoring and evaluation of projects and programmes;
  • Experience in performing evaluations in the field of gender equality and women’s rights;
  • Profound knowledge and experience in gender-responsive and human rights-based approaches to evaluation.

Language:

  • Fluency in English

Evaluation Procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated in three stages: according to minimum qualification criteria; technical and financial evaluation.

The candidates must possess following minimum qualification criteria to be eligible for further technical evaluation:

  • Advanced (at least Masters) degree in one or more of the following areas: social sciences, gender studies, political science, health, development studies or another related field;
  • At least five years of international experience in managing monitoring and evaluation of projects and programmes;
  • Fluency English.

The candidates will be evaluated in three stages: according to minimum qualification criteria followed by technical and financial evaluation.

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

  • Advanced (at least Masters) university degree in social sciences, gender studies, political science, health, development studies or another related field (max 20 points);
  • Substantive international (eastern Europe, CIS) experience (at least seven years) in the field of gender equality and women’s rights (max 150 points);
  • At least five years of international experience in managing monitoring and evaluation of projects and programmes (max 150 points);
  • Fluency in English (max 30 points).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points out of maximum 350 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150

S – score received on financial evaluation;

Fmin – the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;

F – financial offer under consideration.

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Management arrangements:

The contractor will report to and work under direct supervision of UN Women, UNDP and UNFPA and in close collaboration with the Task Manager. Due to travel restrictions and social distancing policies in place, all tasks under this assignment, including meetings shall be conducted online.

Financial arrangements:

Payment will be disbursed upon submission and approval of deliverables and certification by task manager that the services have been satisfactorily performed as specified below:

  • Deliverable 1, 2, 3 (18 working days) – 50%;
  • Deliverables 4, 5, 6 (15 working days) – 50%

Application submission package:

How to Submit the Application:

  • Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-p11-personal-history-form.doc?la=en&vs=558
  • Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), the Financial Proposal, A list of links or copies of any paperwork on social protection and /or capacity building designing and Cover Letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded.
  • Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement).
  • Click 'Apply Now' button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click 'Submit Application;'
  • Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above).
  • You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

Notes:

  • UN Women retains the right to contact references directly. Due to the large numbers of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.
  • Applications without the financial offer will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
  • The individual consultants should take the mandatory learning security course prior to commencement of assignment– details will follow before the issuance of contract.