Evaluation Consultant (Retainer), Home Based

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 and peace and security.

Evaluation consultants are integral members of the evaluation team. The work of the consultant will be home-based and they will need to connect with the team during Europe and Central Asia working hours via online platforms. Data collection missions will be envisioned during the different assignments.

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:

Evaluation consultants to support evaluation team leaders in the conduct of evaluations.

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

Duties and Responsibilities

Evaluation consultants are integral members of the evaluation team. The work of the consultant will be home-based and they will need to connect with the team during Europe and Central Asia hours via online platforms.

Under the overall oversight of the Regional Evaluation Specialist, the Evaluation consultant will contribute to the following phases of evaluations:

Evaluation Planning stage:

• Reviewing all relevant documents (i.e. Strategic notes, project documents, donor and/or other monitoring reports, evaluation and audit reports, etc.) to identify efforts relevant to the evaluation topic.
• Providing support to the portfolio analysis to provide an overview of the different efforts undertaken by the CO/RO for the thematic areas

Evaluation Inception phase:

• Support the Human rights-based stakeholder analysis from a thematic perspective.
• Contribute to the development of an inclusive Evaluation methodology which is tailored to relevant inquiry in the thematic area (including through the evaluation matrix, data collection tools etc.).

Evaluation Data collection:

• Support interviews and consultations by taking detailed notes and ensuring adherence to ethical guidelines.
• Contribute to evaluation analysis by capturing results, challenges, gaps and learning pertinent to the evaluation topic.

Reporting phase:

• Provide substantive inputs to the final synthesis report.
• Potential support to case study through inputs on the thematic areas.

Other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.

Tasks and deliverables

The evaluation consultant will be key member of the evaluation team, engaged in all phases of the evaluation process and in each type of evaluation to produce concise and analytical evaluation reports. Deliverables for the evaluation consultant include the following: desk review, portfolio analysis, stakeholder analysis, interview notes, qualitative and quantitative data analyses, contributions to the 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

Supervision

The consultants will be directly supervised by the Regional Evaluation Specialist for Europe and Central Asia. The Regional Evaluation Specialist reports to the Chief of Independent Evaluation Service at UN Women headquarters.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. However, onsite data collection will need to take place. Typically every country case study or country portfolio evaluation in the context of an evaluation process includes a one week onsite data collection mission.

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:  

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

Education and Certification:

At least a master’s degree in social sciences, economics, international relations, gender studies or a relevant social science related area;

Experience

• 7 years of relevant experience of periodically conducting evaluations of strategies, policies and/or development programmes and projects;
• Proven experience of designing and leading or participating in gender-responsive and human rights-based evaluations utilizing participatory approaches and methodologies;
• Knowledge and experience in gender equality and women’s empowerment, gender mainstreaming and gender analysis;
• Demonstrated facilitation and communications skills, experience in participatory approaches and ability to negotiate amongst a wide range of stakeholders;
• Ability to produce well-written analytical reports;
• Previous experience working in Europe and Central Asia will be considered an asset;
• Experience with the United Nations system will be considered an asset;

Languages

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of languages from the Europe and Central Asia region is a strong asset.

Personal CV or P11 (P11 can be downloaded from: )

A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination.  All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)