Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action, peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women Country Office (CO), has been operational in Mozambique since 2010. For UN Women, the Country Office Strategic Note (SN) is the main planning tool for the agencies’ support to normative, coordination and operational work. The current UN Women SN cycle in Mozambique is 2017 – 2021 (initially until 2020 and extended to 2021 to align with the UNDAF cycle) and being the last year of its implementation a new SN is due to be developed starting on 2022-2025.The current SN is aligned to the UN Women Global Strategic Plan 2014-2017, UN Women Africa Strategy, and at country level with the Five-year National Programme- 2020-2024, and the country UNDAF 2017-2021. The Strategic Note is grounded in the international standards, principles and obligations such as the Convention to Eliminate all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BdPA), Concluding Observations of the Commission on the Status of Women, the United Nation Security Resolution 1325 and other resolutions under Women, Peace and Security framework and Millennium Development Goals, especially goals 1, 5, 8 and 16 and the UNDAF.

Based in this context, UN Women Mozambique CO is seeking to hire an International Consultant to evaluate the SN 2017-2021. The successful consultant will work closely with CO Monitory and Evaluation focal point and by direct supervision of the Women’s Programme Specialist.

Objectives of the Consultancy:

The overall objective of the consultancy is to evaluate UN Women Mozambique Country Portfolio in close cooperation with UN Women Mozambique Country Team. 

The Mozambique CPE has the following specific objectives:

• Assess the relevance of UN Women contribution to the intervention at national level and alignment with international agreements and conventions on gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Assess effectiveness and organizational efficiency in progressing towards the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment results as defined in the CO SN (2017-2021);
• Support the UN Women CO to improve its strategic positioning to better support the achievement of sustained gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Analyze how human rights approach and gender equality principles are integrated in the design and implementation of the Strategic Note;
• Identify and validate lessons learned, good practices and examples of innovation that supports gender equality and human rights;
• Provide insights into the extent to which the CO has realized synergies between its triple mandate (normative, coordination and Programme);
• Provide actionable and realistic recommendations with respect to the development of the next CO SN 2022-2025 at the Programmatic and Operational Levels (both DRF and OEEF considering UN Women triple mandate).

Duties and Responsibilities

The evaluator is expected to design and facilitate the following events:

• Participatory inception workshop (including refining evaluation uses, the evaluation framework, stakeholder map, and theories of change);
• In-country exit brief for UN Women staff and key stakeholders;
• Findings, validation and participatory recommendations workshop.

Time Frame and Expected Deliverables:

The exact timing of the country portfolio evaluation will be determined in close consultation with the UN Women Mozambique country office. The expected activities and the estimated number of working days for the CPE are listed below.

Ethical code of conduct:

UN Women has developed the 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 and Code of Conduct. The signed Agreement will be annexed to the consultant contract. The UNEG Guidelines note the importance of ethical conduct for the following reasons:

• Responsible use of power: all those engaged in evaluation processes are responsible for upholding the proper conduct of the evaluation;
• Ensuring credibility: with a fair, impartial and complete assessment, stake- holders are more likely to have faith in the results of an evaluation and to take note of the recommendations;
• Responsible use of resources: Ethical conduct in evaluation increases the chances of acceptance by the parties to the evaluation and therefore the likelihood that the investment in the evaluation will result in improved outcomes.

The evaluator is expected to provide a detailed plan on how the following principles will be ensured throughout the evaluation (see UNEG Ethical Guidance for descriptions): 1) Respect for dignity and diversity; 2) Right to self-determination; 3) Fair representation; 4) Compliance with codes for vulnerable groups (e.g., ethics of research involving young children or vulnerable groups); 5) Redress; 6) Confidentiality; and 7) Avoidance of harm.

Specific safeguards must be put in place to protect the safety (both physical and psychological) of both respondents and those collecting the data. These should include:

• A plan is in place to protect the rights of the respondent, including privacy and confidentiality;
• The interviewer or data collector is trained in collecting sensitive information, and if the topic of the evaluation is focused on violence against women, they should have previous experience in this area;
• Data collection tools are designed in a way that are culturally appropriate and do not create distress for respondents;
• Data collection visits are organized at the appropriate time and place so as to minimize risk to respondents;
• The interviewer or data collector is able to provide information on how individuals in situations of risk can seek support.

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.

The evaluator has the final judgment on the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation report, and the evaluator(s) must be protected from pressures to change information in the report.

Additionally, if the evaluator identifies issues of wrongdoing, fraud or other unethical conduct, UN Women procedures must be followed, and confidentiality be maintained. The UN Women Legal Framework for Addressing Non-Compliance with UN Standards of Conduct, and accompanying policies protecting against retaliation and prohibiting harassment and abuse of authority, provide a cohesive framework aimed at creating and maintaining a harmonious working environment, ensuring that staff members do not engage in any wrongdoing and that all allegations of wrongdoing are reported promptly, investigated and appropriate action taken to achieve accountability. The UN Women Legal Framework for Addressing Non-Compliance with UN Standards of Conduct defines misconduct and the mechanisms within UN Women for reporting and investigating. More information can be provided by UN Women if required.

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

Functional Competencies:

• Knowledge of international normative standards on women’s rights and gender mainstreaming processes;
• Technical competence in the thematic areas to be evaluated;
• Knowledge of the role of UN Women and its programming, coordination and normative roles at the regional and country level;
• Excellent ability to communicate with stakeholders incl. process management and facilitation skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced degree preferably in Economics or International Development or gender and development, social services. Preferably a PhD holder.

Experience:

• At least 15 years of robust work experience on gender and development;
• Documented previous experience in conducting gender-responsive evaluations;
• A strong record in designing and leading evaluations, extensive experience in applying qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods incl. data analysis skills;
• Extensive knowledge and experience in using ICT for research, including electronic/digital data collection, analysis and reporting;  
• Proven knowledge and experience with theory-based evaluation designs.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in both written and spoken English is required;
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

Application Procedure:

Interested applications must include (as an attachment) one single PDF document consisting of:

• A letter of Confirmation of Interest and availability
• The duly completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment.

Note: Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Evaluation of Applicants:

All the shortlisted candidates will be requested to share recent evaluation report samples produced by them as team leaders.  

Annex: Resources for data on gender equality and human rights:

• UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) – Universal Human Rights Index: http://uhri.ohchr.org/en
• UN Statistics – Gender Statistics: http://genderstats.org/ 
• UNDP Human Development Report – Gender Inequality Index: http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/gender-inequality-index-gii