Thematic Evaluation Experts

Description

Background

1. Background

The UN Women Independent Evaluation Service (IES) of the Independent Evaluation and Audit Service (IEAS) evaluates the work of UN women to enhance organizational accountability, provide evidence-based information for decision-making and to contribute to learning on gender equality and the empowerment of women. IES posts Regional Evaluation Specialists in the Regional Offices of UN Women with a key task to lead independent evaluations and to support country office personnel with the management of decentralized evaluations. UN Women hires external consultants to conduct evaluations as evaluation Team Leader, thematic expert or evaluation analysts.

UN Women, through its Strategic Plan 2022-2025, has identified four impact areas through which the organization strives to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment:

Governance and Participation in public life
Women Peace and Security, Humanitarian Action, and Disaster Risk Reduction
Ending Violence Against Women
Women’s Economic Empowerment

Expressions of interest from qualified individuals for the following positions are sought on a retainer basis:

Thematic evaluation consultant: to serve as Team leader for evaluations and/or thematic evaluation team member with thematic expertise covering at least one of the themes identified above.

Please mention your specific thematic area of expertise. Consultants will be engaged in a retainer contract and based on organizational needs and alignment with expertise.

Duties and Responsibilities

2. Duties and responsibilities

Thematic evaluation experts may be engaged as Team Leader or thematic expert on evaluations managed in the Asia and the Pacific region. The work of the consultant will be home-based and they will need to connect with the team during Asia and the Pacific working hours via online platforms.

Under the overall oversight of the Regional Evaluation Specialist, the thematic evaluation consultant will contribute to the following phases of an evaluation based on their relevant field of expertise:

Inception phase:

Support the scoping and design of the evaluation by supporting document collection, management and review.
Conduct scoping interviews to inform the evaluation design which should be relevant and tailored to thematic nuances.
Lead theory of change workshops to inform the analytical approach.
Support stakeholder mapping for evaluations with identification of right holders and duty bearers in order to inform the human rights and gender equality stakeholder mapping.
Lead the design of data collection instruments including the evaluation matrix and other gender analytical frameworks from a thematic expertise lens.

Conduct phase:

Lead interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders.
Lead assigned case studies and summary reports.
Work with team members to produce data visualization, data analysis, coding and synthesis of data.
Support synthesis of findings from data coding and analysis for input into evaluations reports.

Reporting phase:
Preliminary analysis of data collected, including providing inputs to the evidence map and other analyses. These analyses should utilise thematic area expertise in capturing results, challenges, gaps and learning pertinent to the thematic area.

Lead the drafting of assigned sections of evaluation report.
Support drafting of sections of the evaluation report and provide inputs to the annexes and for final evaluation report.
Communications with stakeholders, meeting organization, and drafting communication products.

3. Tasks and deliverables

The guidance provided by the thematic evaluation consultants will be particularly useful to ensure that thematic expertise has been leveraged in all phases of the evaluation process and in each type of evaluation to produce concise and analytical evaluation reports. Deliverables for the thematic evaluation consultant include the following: inception report, presentations and final synthesis reports and annexes for evaluations. These deliverables must be high quality and in line with the GERAAS criteria established by UN Women.

4. Supervision

The consultants will be directly supervised by the Regional Evaluation Specialist for Asia and the Pacific who is based in the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand. The Regional Evaluation Specialist reports to the Chief of Independent Evaluation Service at UN Women headquarters.

Competencies

5. 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:

Excellent analytical skills
Strong knowledge of UN Women processes and systems
Strong networking skills
Strong inter-personal skills, communicate effectively with staff at all levels of the organization;
Ability to work in a highly pressured environment

Required Skills and Experience

6. Required qualifications

Education

1. Master’s degree in a field of relevance for the evaluation (i.e. Social Sciences, Gender Equality, Evaluation, international affairs).

2. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;

Experience and skill

3. At least 7 years of work experience in any one of the following thematic areas:

Governance and Participation in public life
Women Peace and Security, Humanitarian Action, and Disaster Risk Reduction
Ending Violence Against Women
Women’s Economic Empowerment

4. Proven experience as a team leader of gender-responsive evaluation, including gender analysis and human-rights based data collection approaches.

5. Knowledge of the role of UN Women or the UN system and its programming, coordination, and normative roles at the regional and/or country level is an asset.

6. Experience working in the Asia and the Pacific region is an asset.

7. Language proficiency in English required.

7. Duration of Assignment

From 14 July 2023 to 13 July 2026 (Maximum 100 days of assignment period; UN Women does not warrant that the maximum of 100 days. The service will be purchased during the term of the Agreement). The consultant will be engaged under a retainer contract, which facilitates direct engagement of the consultant depending on need and availability within the contract period for a pre-agreed fee.

8. Payments

Payments for this consultancy will be based on certification of satisfactory submission of deliverables against the Purchase Order for each task.

9. Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis:

Technical qualification (100 points); weight: (100%)

A one-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria for thematic evaluation consultant:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria: Technical Evaluation Criteria

Obtainable Score

A) Education

Master’s degree in a field of relevance for the evaluation (i.e. Social Sciences, Gender Equality, Evaluation, international affairs).
A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;

15

B) Experience and skills

3. At least 7 years of work experience in any one of the following thematic areas:

Governance and Participation in public life
Women Peace and Security, Humanitarian Action, and Disaster Risk Reduction
Ending Violence Against Women
Women’s Economic Empowerment

4. Proven work experience contributing to gender-responsive evaluation, including gender analysis and human-rights based data collection approaches.

5. Knowledge of the role of UN Women or the UN system and its programming, coordination, and normative roles at the regional and/or country level is an asset.

6. Experience working in the AP region is an asset.

65

C) Language and report writing skills

7. Language proficiency in English required

20

Total Obtainable Score

100 %

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically-qualified candidates who may be contacted for validation interview.