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:

Deliverables Activities Estimated No. of Working Days Proposed deadline for payment 1 Evidence of support provided on data collection and analysis Desk review of documents (1 day) Review data collection tools and translate the tools from English to local language (1 day). Support logistics and conduct interviews, focus group discussions and observations following the research protocol (8 days). Submit all detailed interview notes to the team leader in English. Provide briefings on the interviews/visits/observations through online meetings (1 days). Provide translation support as necessary (1 day).   12 days 15 April 2024 2 Final Evaluation Report Contribute to the preliminary findings / way forward presentation and draft report and participate in presentation/s. Contribute to the annexes (including case studies) and finalization of the report. 3 days 25 June 2024

All data collected by the evaluation consultant must be submitted to the supervisor in Word, PowerPoint or Excel formats and is the property of UN Women.  Proper storage of data is essential for ensuring confidentiality and should be in line with UN Women Policy on data management and security. The evaluation report will follow the United Nations Editorial Manual, which can be found . The evaluation team leader (Regional Evaluation Specialist), with inputs from Evaluation Reference Group and Evaluation Management Team, will quality assure the evaluation report against UN Women Evaluation Report Quality Assurance (See Annex 1). All deliverables submitted by the consultant are subject to quality review.

 

II.Ethical code of conduct

UN Women has developed a for evaluators that must be signed as part of the contracting process, which is based on the . These documents will be annexed to contracts. All data collected by the team members must be submitted to the evaluation manager in Word, PowerPoint or Excel formats and is the property of UN Women.  Proper storage of data is essential for ensuring confidentiality. 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 CPE value add 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 report. The CPE team has the final judgment on the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the CPE report, and the team must be protected from pressures to change information in the report.

 

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

UN Women is seeking to appoint one national evaluation consultant for supporting data collection and analysis for the CPE. The national evaluation consultants will be responsible for ensuring that contextual information on Timor-Leste has been well understood and articulated and UN Women Timor-Leste Country Office’s efforts captured by reaching out to various rightsholders, using adequate tools, methodological design, following ethical principles on engagement with stakeholders. The national consultants are expected to be able to demonstrate evidence of the following experience and capabilities:   Master’s degree in a field of relevance for the evaluation (i.e., Social Sciences, Evaluation, international affairs) or Bachelors with additional 2 years of relevant work experience. At least 3 years of work experience in a research, evaluation, audit, reporting and/or monitoring area that required collecting data in the field. Strong knowledge about gender equality and women’s empowerment in Timor-Leste. Proven work experience in data collection including interviews and/or focus group discussions in Timor-Leste Experience in contributing to gender-responsive evaluation or experience in gender analysis and human-rights based approaches an asset. 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 will be an added advantage. Language proficiency in English and Tetum Must be a national of Timor-Leste   VI. Selection Criteria  If required, an interview will be conducted before making the final decision on selection of the consultant.   1. Technical qualification evaluation criteria: The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100 which will be later converted into 70 points out of total obtainable (technical and financial) score of 100 points. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria: Master’s degree in a field of relevance for the evaluation (i.e., Social Sciences, Evaluation, international affairs) or Bachelor’s with an additional 2 years relevant work experience (15 points). At least 3 years of work experience in a research, evaluation, audit, reporting and/or monitoring area that required strong organizational skills (20 points). Strong knowledge about gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in Timor-Leste(15 points). Proven work experience in data collection including interviews and/or focus group discussions in Timor-Leste (15 points). Experience in contributing to gender-responsive evaluation or experience in gender analysis and human-rights based approaches an asset (10 points). 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 will be an added advantage (10 points). Relevant writing sample related to evaluation and research (15 points). Only the applicants who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically qualified applicant.   2. Financial/Price Proposal evaluation: The financial proposal of only those applicants who meet the technical assessment threshold will be evaluated. The financial assessment will count as 30% of the total points. In this methodology, the maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion. The formula is as follows: p = y (µ/z) Where: p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal µ = price of the lowest priced proposal z = price of the proposal being evaluated   3. How to Apply Interested individuals must submit the following documents/information in one single PDF document to demonstrate their qualifications: Expression of interest/cover letter. Completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded: ;  and A financial proposal (in a separate page of the same PDF document) using the following template: Deliverables Estimated No. of Working Days Total Amount (USD)                   Total lumpsum financial proposal       Please note that you will be able to upload only one attachment. Hence, combine your all documents into one single PDF document before uploading them.   Deadline for Application: 15 February 2024

 

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