National Evaluation Consultant – Country Portfolio Evaluation of UN Women Timor-Leste Country Office

Background

The Independent Evaluation Service (IES) conducts Country Portfolio Evaluations to provide an independent and systematic assessment of the contributions made by UN Women to development results with respect to gender equality at the country level to feed into learning on what strategies work well and what needs strengthening. 

The primary purpose of the CPE of Timor-Leste Country Office (CO) is to assess the contributions of UN Women in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment in Timor-Leste over the course of its ongoing Strategic Note 2021-2025, to support enhanced accountability for development effectiveness and learning from experience and support decision-making for the office strategy moving forward, namely the new Strategic Note 2026-2030. 

The primary intended users of this evaluation are UN Women Timor-Leste Country Office and their key stakeholders including the government, civil society organizations, development partners and other UN agencies as well as UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP), Headquarters, including the Senior Management Team and IES. UN Country Team (UNCT) Timor-Leste may also use the findings of this evaluation as key inputs to its new United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF).  The primary intended uses of this evaluation are:

• Support decision-making regarding the development of the next Strategic Note.
• Accountability for the development effectiveness of the existing Strategic Note in terms of UN Women’s contribution to gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as organizational effectiveness, learning, and knowledge management and UN Women’s contribution towards the implementation of the UNSDCF.
• Learning on effective, promising and innovative strategies and practices.
• Capacity development and mobilization of national stakeholders to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Duties and Responsibilities

The evaluation will apply the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/Development Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC) evaluation criteria (relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability) and a Human Rights and Gender Equality criterion. The evaluation has the following objectives: 

1. Assess effectiveness and organizational efficiency in progressing towards the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women results.  
2. Assess the relevance and coherence of UN Women programme, vis-a-vis the UN system, the added value of UN Women, and identify contributions to Timor-Leste UNSDCF 2021 – 2025 outcomes. 

1. Analyze how a human rights approach and gender equality principles are integrated in the design and implementation of UN Women’s work in Timor-Leste and contribute to transformative change and sustainability of efforts.  

1. Provide lessons learned and actionable recommendations to support UN Women strategic positioning moving forward.   

This CPE will answer the key questions below.  During the inception phase after consultation with the Management and Reference groups the evaluation team will revise the questions to ensure they reflect the priorities of key stakeholders and elaborate the sub-questions in the evaluation matrix: 

1. To what extent have UN Women’s contributions across its integrated mandate advanced gender equality and the empowerment of women in Timor-Leste, including through the UN system and the Timor-Leste UNSDCF 2021 – 2025 outcomes? [effectiveness] 

1. Is UN Women’s focus and strategy for implementation the most relevant and coherent for advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment in Timor-Leste considering its added value vis-à-vis other development actors, and its response to crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic? [relevance and internal coherence] 

1. To what extent is UN Women leveraging its coordination mandate to strategically position itself and contribute to a more gender responsive approach by the UNCT and by other development actors to catalyze transformative change for women and girls and achieve gender equality in Timor-Leste? [external coherence] 
2. Has the portfolio been designed and implemented according to human rights, LNOB, including disability perspective, social and environmental safeguards and development effectiveness principles (ensuring national ownership and sustainability of programming efforts)? [human rights and gender equality, and sustainability] 
3. Does UN Women Timor-Leste have appropriate governance, capacity and capability to ensure good use of resources (personnel, funding, and assets) to deliver results? [organisational efficiency]

CPE scope

The CPE will focus on the current Strategic Note (SN) cycle (2021-2025) with the understanding that the current SN cycle will not be complete, the CPE will analyze work completed through Q1 2024 and ensure a formative analysis of the CO strategy, moving forward including the remaining time of the SN. The timing is aimed at feeding into the UNSDCF evaluation, which should be scheduled to commence in 2024.

The geographic scope will include all locations where UN Women Timor-Leste is operating. The entire programme of work and UN Women’s integrated mandate will be assessed, including its contributions in the operational, coordination and normative spheres. Given the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing economic downturn in Timor-Leste, the CPE will include an analysis of efforts of UN Women to respond or adapt to the crisis while at the same time analyze UN Women’s strategic positioning within this dynamic context. Furthermore, the evaluation is expected to be informed by the regional and decentralized evaluations undertaken such as (a) An Evaluation of UN Women’s Contribution to the Implementation of Timor-Leste National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (2016-2020).

Limitations

The key limitations may relate to selection bias if the evaluation team is not able to reach key stakeholders engaged or benefitting from UN Women’s work. The evaluation team will conduct a thorough stakeholder mapping, plan well in advance and split the evaluation team into two teams so that we can maximize coverage and reach rights holders to ensure their voice is heard. Online interviews will also allow for flexibility of timing. The data will be triangulated to ensure the robustness of findings.  

I.Deliverables and scope of payment

The National Evaluation Consultant is an integral member of the team and is expected to support the entire evaluation process under the direct supervision of the Regional Evaluation Specialist. The consultant will need to connect with the team via online communication platforms. UN Women will cover the travel related expenses as per the UN Women standard guidelines, if travel is required. Payment will be made in two instalments of equal value made upon satisfactory receipt and approval of the following deliverables:

II.Ethical code of conduct

All UN Women evaluations can be found on GATE ()

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• 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: 

Functional Competencies:

• Strong commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of women, with demonstrated experience of researching or working on gender issues;
• Strong research and writing skills, with strong analytical skills and creative thinking;
• Ability to think and work logically and work precisely with attention to detail;
• Initiative, sound judgment and demonstrated ability to work harmoniously with staff members of different national and cultural backgrounds;
• Previous experience (also volunteer experience) from the non-profit sector is an advantage.
• Ability to multi-task and address competing priorities
• Ability to produce quality deliverables in a timely manner
• Strong computer skills, including Word, Excel, and Power Point

Required Skills and Experience

ANNEXES

Annex 1 UN Women GERAAS evaluation quality assessment checklist

Annex 2 UN Women Evaluation Consultants Agreement Form

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Annex 3 UNEG Norms and Standards for evaluation

Annex 4 UN Women Evaluation Handbook