National Consultant to support the implementation of the Country Portfolio Evaluation

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.

The overarching goal of the UN Women Georgia Strategic Note (2021-2025) is to achieve sustainable empowerment of women and girls towards a gender-equal society. The three levels of interventions foreseen by the SN bring about interrelated and transformative positive changes; The proposed theory of change for the above overarching goal / impact is as follows: If (1) legislation and policies are improved, resourced, coordinated and implemented in compliance with international human rights and GEWE standards and corresponding national commitments; and if (2) governmental, public and private institutions possess the required capacities to implement GEWE-related legislation, policies and programmes; and if (3) evidence shows that excluded groups of women and girls clearly benefit from the advanced legal/policy frameworks, programmes and services in the areas of Governance and National Planning/Governance and Participation in Public Life, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Eliminating Violence Against Women and Girls and Women, Peace and Security; then (4) women, especially the most marginalized, are empowered because (5) the key (legislative and institutional) conditions and spaces to ensure women’s voices and needs are heard have been created for the advancement of gender equality in national planning and budgeting processes and in the labour market, employment, livelihoods and ending violence against women, and in conflict prevention and peacebuilding processes. Partnerships with state as well as non-state actors, such as civil society, private sector, academia, media, donor community and last but not least UN system partners is the foundation for the realization of the proposed theory of change.

Evaluation approach, objectives and intended use: A Country Portfolio Evaluation (CPE) is a systematic assessment of the contributions made by UN Women to development results with respect to gender equality at the country level. The UN Women portfolio responds to three core mandates, which include normative, operations and coordination work. The CPE focuses on their individual and combined success in advancing gender equality in Georgia. It uses the Strategic Note as the main point of reference.

It is a priority for UN Women that the CPE will be gender-responsive and will actively support the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment. The key principles for gender-responsive evaluation at UN Women are: 1) National ownership and leadership; 2) UN system coordination and coherence with regard to gender equality and the empowerment of women; 3) Innovation; 4) Fair power relations and empowerment; 5) Participation and inclusion; 6) Independence and impartiality; 7) Transparency; 8) Quality and credibility; 9) Intentionality and use of evaluation; and 10) Ethics.

and the   are the main guiding documents that set forth the principles and organizational framework for evaluation planning, conduct and follow-up in UN Women. These principles are aligned with the , and UNEG .

This CPE is being commissioned by the Country Office as a primarily formative (forward-looking) evaluation to support the Country Office (CO) and national stakeholders’ strategic learning and decision-making for the next Strategic Note, due to be developed in 2025. The evaluation is expected to have a secondary summative (backwards looking) perspective, to support enhanced accountability for development effectiveness and learning from experience.

The specific evaluation objectives include:

1. Assess the relevance and coherence of UN Women contribution to the intervention at national levels and alignment with international agreements and conventions on gender equality and women’s empowerment;
2. Assess effectiveness and organizational efficiency in progressing towards the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment results as defined in the Strategic Note;
3. Support the UN Women Georgia CO to improve its strategic positioning to better support the achievement of sustained gender equality and women’s empowerment;
4. Analyze how human rights approach and gender equality principles are integrated in the design and implementation of the Strategic Note;
5. Identify and validate lessons learned, good practices and examples of innovation that supports gender equality and human rights;
6. Provide insights into the extent to which the UN Women Georgia CO has realized synergies between its three mandates (normative, coordination and operations);
7. Provide actionable recommendations with respect to the development of the next UN Women Georgia CO Strategic Note.

The primary intended users of this evaluation are:

• UN Women Georgia CO, ECA Regional Office, and UN Women HQ
• Target groups, their households and community members, programme/project partners
• National and local government institutions
• Civil society representatives
• Donors and development partners
• UN Country Team and GTG

Primary intended uses of this evaluation are:

1. Learning and improved decision-making to support the development of the next Strategic Note;
2. Accountability for the development effectiveness of the next CO Strategic Note in terms of UN Women’s contribution to gender equality and women’s empowerment;
3. Capacity development and mobilization of national stakeholders to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Evaluation criteria and key questions: The evaluation will apply four OECD/DAC evaluation criteria (relevance, effectiveness (including normative, and coordination mandates of UN Women), efficiency, and sustainability) and Human Rights and Gender Equality as an additional criteria. The evaluation will seek to answer the following key evaluation questions:

Relevance: Is the CO doing the right things?

• Is the portfolio aligned with UN Women Strategic Plan, national policies and priorities and international human rights norms in the area of GEWE??
• Is the choice of partners most relevant to the situation of women and marginalized groups??
• Is the design of the Strategic Note and interventions most relevant to the context of Georgia??

Coherence: How well the interventions fit??

Internal coherence:?

• Do interventions achieve synergies within the UN Women portfolio??
• Is the balance and coherence between programming – operational, coordination and policy-normative work optimal??

External coherence:?

• Are interventions achieving synergies with the work of other key partners??
• What are UN Women’s comparative advantages and how are they leveraged?

Effectiveness: Are the things we are doing working?

• To what extent have planned outputs been achieved? Are interventions contributing to the expected outcomes? For whom??
• What unexpected outcomes (positive and negative) have been achieved? For whom??
• What are the main enabling and hindering factors of observed outcomes?

Efficiency: Are we doing things right??

• To what extent does the management structure support efficiency for implementation? Does the organization have access to the necessary skills, knowledge and capacities needed to deliver to portfolio??
• Has a Results Based Management system been established and implemented??
• How effective are monitoring and evaluation mechanisms??
• How functional is programme and operations collaboration?

Human Rights and Gender Equality: Do women, girls and most vulnerable benefit?

• Has the portfolio been implemented according to human rights and development effectiveness principles (Participation / empowerment; Inclusion / non-discrimination; National accountability / transparency.?
• Is the portfolio addressing the root causes of gender inequality, social norms? How it supports the most vulnerable??
• Is the design tailored to target the underlying causes of gender inequality and address LNOB?
• To what extent is the portfolio changing the dynamics of power in relationships between different groups, including backlash on gender equality??
• To what extent disability inclusion is embedded across the activities within the threefold mandate??

Sustainability: Will the changes last? 

• To what extent was capacity developed in order to ensure sustainability of efforts and benefits??
• Is there national ownership and are there national champions for different parts of the portfolio??
• What local accountability and oversight systems have been established??
• What are the potentials for replication, upscaling of the results?

The evaluation is expected to take a gender-responsive approach. Gender-responsive evaluations use a systematic approach to examining factors related to gender that assesses and promotes gender equality issues and provides an analysis of the structures of political and social control that create gender equality. This technique ensures that the data collected is analyzed in the following ways:

1. Determining the claims of rights holders and obligations of duty bearers;
2. Assessing the extent to which the intervention was guided by the relevant international (national and regional) normative frameworks for gender equality and women’s rights, UN system-wide mandates and organizational objectives;
3. Comparing with existing information on the situation of human rights and gender equality in the community, country, etc.;
4. Identifying trends, common responses and differences between groups of stakeholders (disaggregation of data), for example, through the use of graphs or illustrative quotes (that do not allow for identification of the individual);
5. Integrating into the analysis the context, relationships, power dynamics, etc.;
6. Analyzing the structures that contribute to inequalities experienced by women, men, girls and boys, especially those experiencing multiple forms of exclusion;
7. Assessing the extent to which participation and inclusiveness (with respect to rights holders and duty bearers) was maximized in the interventions planning, design, implementation and decision-making processes;
8. Triangulating information to identify similarities and/or discrepancies in data obtained in different ways (i.e., interviews, focus groups, observations, etc.) and from different stakeholders (e.g., duty bearers, rights holders, etc.);
9. Identifying the context behind the numbers and people (using case studies to illustrate broader findings or to go into more depth on an issue);
10. Comparing the results obtained with the original plan (e.g., through the application of the evaluation matrix);
11. Assessing the extent to which sustainability was built into the intervention through the empowerment and capacity building of women and groups of rights holders and duty bearers.

Scope and methodology of the evaluation: The CPE covers the implementation of the UN Women Georgia CO SN 2021-2025; however, considering the final evaluation report needs to be timely ready to inform the CO’s next SN planning process, the period assess by this will be 2021 – 2024 and the plans for 2025. The CPE will assess the implementation of the threefold mandate of UN Women in Georgia during this period, including general support to normative policy, UN coordination and programmatic work which will be considered in relation to the thematic areas established by the UN Women Strategic Plan 2022-2025. Joint programs and initiatives are within the scope of this evaluation. Where joint programmes are included in the analysis, the evaluation will consider both the specific contribution of UN Women, and the additional benefits and costs from working through a joint modality.

The evaluation will not consider impact (as defined by UNEG) as it is considered too premature to assess this. The evaluation team are expected to establish the boundaries for the evaluation, especially in terms of which stakeholders and relationships will be included or excluded from the evaluation. These will need to be discussed in the inception phase of the evaluation. The evaluation is expected to consider the main cultural, religious, social, and economic differences when analyzing the contributions of UN Women.

The evaluation will use a theory-based design. The performance of the country portfolio will be assessed according to the theory of change stated in the Strategic Note 2021-2025. To achieve sufficient depth, the evaluation will cluster programming, coordination, and policy activities of the Country Office around the thematic areas stated in the UN Women Strategic Plan 2022-2025.

The evaluation team is expected to undertake a rapid evaluability assessment in the Inception. This should include the following:

1. An assessment of the relevance, appropriateness and coherence of the implicit or explicit theory of change, strengthening or reconstructing it where necessary through a stakeholder workshop;
2. An assessment of the quality of performance indicators in the DRF and OEEF, and the accessibility and adequacy of relevant documents and secondary data;
3. A review of the conduciveness of the context for the evaluation;
4. Ensuring familiarity with accountability and management structures for the evaluation.

The evaluation will undertake a desk-based portfolio analysis that includes a synthesis of secondary results data for the Development Results Framework and the Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency Framework of the Country Office. This will cover all activities undertaken by the Country Office.

The portfolio analysis will be triangulated through a mixed methods approach that will include:

1. Desk review of additional documentary evidence;
2. Consultation with all main stake holding groups; and
3. An independent assessment of development effectiveness using Contribution Analysis.

The evaluation is expected to apply a gender responsive approach to assessing the contribution of UN Women to development effectiveness. It should identify expected and unexpected changes in target and affected groups. It is anticipated that the evaluation will apply process tracing to identify the mechanisms of change and the probable contributions of UN Women.

The evaluation is expected to assess the strategic position of UN Women. It is anticipated that mixed qualitative/quantitative cases of different target groups will be developed, compared, and contrasted. The evaluation team will identify which factors, and which combinations of factors, are most frequently associated with a higher contribution of UN Women to expected and unexpected outcomes.

The method should include a wide range of data sources (including documents, field information, institutional information systems, financial records, beneficiaries, staff, funders, experts, government officials and community groups).

The evaluation is particularly encouraged to use participatory methods to ensure that all stakeholders are consulted as part of the evaluation process. At a minimum, this should include participatory tools for consultation with stakeholder groups and a plan for inclusion of women and individuals and groups who are vulnerable and/or discriminated against in the consultation process.

The evaluator should detail a plan on how protection of participants and respect for confidentiality will be guaranteed. The evaluation is encouraged to use the following data collection tools: secondary documents analysis, surveys, interviews, focus group discussions and observations.

The evaluation is expected to reconstruct the theories of change using a participatory process during the Inception Phase of the evaluation. This should be based on feminist and institutional analysis. The evaluation will apply Contribution Analysis (CA) to assess the effectiveness of UN Women’s country portfolio. This will use a model template to be provided to the evaluation team.

The evaluation is expected to consider the main cultural, religious, social, and economic differences when analyzing the contributions of UN Women.

The evaluation team should ensure participation of stakeholders during the evaluation process, with a particular emphasis on rights holders and their representatives considering limitations imposed by the pandemic which may limit the ability to ensure engagement of stakeholders as per normal practice.

Stakeholders should include:

1. Target groups, their households and community members;
2. Programme and project partners;
3. National government institutions;
4. Internal UN Women stakeholders;
5. Civil society representatives;
6. Private sector and trade unions representatives;
7. Political leaders and representatives;
8. Donors and development partners;
9. UN Country Team members and key staff from UN sister entities;

It is important to pay particular attention to participation of rights holders—in particular women and vulnerable and marginalized groups—to ensure the application of a gender-responsive approach. It is also important to specify ethical safeguards that will be employed.

The evaluators are expected to validate findings through engagement with stakeholders at stakeholder workshops, debriefings, or other forms of engagement.

Evaluation management: The evaluation team will consist of the international and national consultants and the evaluation process will be led by UN Women Independent Evaluation Service. The management structure for this evaluation will include: 1. ECA Regional Evaluation Specialist (RES), the evaluation team lead and the task manager for this evaluation and will be supported by the UN Women Georgia CO M&E Focal Point during the evaluation process; 2. Evaluation Management Group (EMG) for administrative support and accountability will include: Country Representative, M&E Focal Point; ECA RES (who will lead the group); 3. External Evaluation Reference Group to foster stakeholders’ ownership and participatory approach; CSOs, state partners; development partners (including donors); representative of the UNCT. 4. Internal Evaluation Reference Group integrated by all UN Women Georgia CO personnel and key RO staff. The consultant will work closely and support international evaluation consultant and will be reporting to ECA RES.

A theory based-design assesses the performance of the Strategic Note based upon its stated assumptions about how change happens. These assumptions can be challenged, validated, or expanded upon by the evaluation.

Duties and Responsibilities

The National Evaluator will be expected to support the evaluation Team Leader and the international evaluation consultant and carry out the following responsibilities:

1. Provide country contextual advice and support to the evaluation team leader for designing and delivering contextually relevant and sensitive Country Portfolio Evaluation;
2. Conduct desk review and initial data collection and contribute to preparing inception report
3. Conduct data collection including interviews, focus group discussions, and other data collection methods as advised by the team leader and international evaluation consultant;
4. Contribute to data analysis and drafting the evaluation report;
5. Contribute to finalizing the evaluation report, including making necessary revisions based on comments received from the Team Leader and other evaluation stakeholders;
6. Attend and support the preparation of all meetings and presentations including: (1) Virtual inception meeting (including refining evaluation uses, the evaluation framework, stakeholder map, and theories of change); (2) In-country participatory data collection mission for UN Women staff and key stakeholders; (3) Findings, validation and participatory recommendations session (first with EMG and once validated with EMG a second meeting should be scheduled with ERG).

Deliverables

Deliverables	Expected completion time (due day)	Payment Schedule (optional)
Inception report prepared	By December 5 (6 working days)	By December 15, 2024
Meetings, interviews and focus group discussions arranged, conducted and relevant summaries prepared	By March 7 (5 working days)	By July 15, 2025
Data analyzed and draft evaluation report prepared	By March 31 (7 working days)
Inputs to final report provided	By June 30 (2 working days)

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a Tbilisi-based consultancy. The consultant is expected to visit several sites in Georgia. As part of this assignment, there will be a maximum of 5 trips to different regions of Georgia (outside Tbilisi).

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: 

• Ability to think, analyze and articulate strategically on programme development and results-based management;
• Ability to facilitate meetings with different levels of stakeholders;
• Excellent drafting and writing skills to produce and present concise and analytical discussion papers;
• Knowledge in results-based programming in support of gender and human rights;
• Technical knowledge in monitoring and evaluation.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in sociology, international development, Social sciences, gender studies or other related areas is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with seven additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years (7 years with bachelor’s degree) of professional experience on relevant development and Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment related issues, including substantive support to several evaluation processes;
• Minimum 5 years (7 years with bachelor’s degree) of experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis;
• Experience of gender analysis and human-rights based approaches;
• Process management skills, including facilitation and communication skills with stakeholders;
• Knowledge of the role of UN Women and its programming, coordination and normative roles is an asset;
• Knowledge of gender equality situation in Georgia is an asset;

Languages:

• Fluent in Georgian;
• Proficient in English, both written and spoken.

How to Apply:

• Personal CV and P11 (P11 can be downloaded from: )
• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)

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 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.)