Closing date: 22 May 2019 - 5:00pm (NY time)

Duty station: Home based and some travel to the Pacific Island countries

Duration of contract: 55 days from May 2019 – July 2019

The Consultant Evaluation Expert and Team Member post reports directly to the Sub-Regional Director and working in close collaboration with the M&E Specialist.  

The UNFPA Pacific Sub Regional Office (PSRO) rolled out the SRP6 for the Pacific in 2018 and is currently in the second year of implementation. The SRP6 serves as the umbrella programming framework that embeds a number of other frameworks including the Transformative Agenda for Women, Adolescents and Youth in the Pacific (June 2018- August 2022), the Pacific Regional SRH Program (until end of 2019), Essential Services Package Initiative (until June 2019), and the UN Joint RMNCAH programme (until December 2019). The PSRO intends to commission a programme evaluability assessment (EA) of the SRP6 2018-2022 and its various sub-programmes with a particular focus on the Transformative Agenda (TA) funded by Australia’s DFAT which focusses on SRHR demand, supply and enabling environment. The evaluability assessment will help determine the overall readiness of the programme to be evaluated in a reliable and credible fashion and check the coherence and logic of the programme. A two member team consisting of (1) an evaluation expert (team leader) and (2) an organizational effectiveness expert (team member) is currently required to undertake the scope of works outlined below.

 Scope of Work

The EA team member will collaborate, assist and work very closely with the EA Team Leader in the study to:

• Assess the theory of change, bottleneck analysis and critical assumptions of the SRP6 and its sub programmes with a particular focus on the TA to determine if it fully reflects the contextual conditions faced by the programmes.
• Determine the validity, quality and adequacy of the results and resources frameworks (RRFs) of the respective programmes, particularly the SRPD and the TA, to determine whether they are SMART and do capture all key intended and unintended contributions of the programmes.
• Assess the availability and quality of data for indicators for the main SRP6 and sub programmes, particularly the TA, to determine the percentage of indicators with baseline and target information
• Clarify the alignment of the SRP6 framework with the UNFPA Strategic Plan 2018-2021, the TA and the other existing sub programme to streamline the planning, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of the SRP6
• Review the indicators to determine whether they are SMART and fully measure the change stated by the results statements (both intended and unintended)
• Assess the quality of the programme design for the SRPD and the TA focusing on its development process and the various programme documents and products that were produced from this process.
• Review and determine the sufficiency of human and financial resources to deliver the programme results within the time period?
• Determine the SRP6 and TA programmes value for money from its planned investments.
• Determine whether the SRP6 and TA programmes have adequate and effective systems and processes in place to implement, monitor, report and evaluate the programme.
• Provide recommendation on 2-3 key thematic areas, their scope and adequate approaches/tools proposed for mid and terminal evaluations including other sub evaluative activities that maybe required during the 5 year cycle.

His/Her key primary responsibilities will include:

• Contribution to the design of the evaluability assessment methodology;
• Undertaking in-depth documentary review;
• Conducting field work to generate additional evidence from field visits and consultations of a wide range of stakeholders;
• Participating in team meetings, including with stakeholders;
• Preparing inputs and making contributions to the evaluability assessment deliverables

Deliverables

The EA consultancy outputs will be delivered throughout the course of the consultancy as outlined below and will have to be submitted in both hard copy and electronically. Key deliverables are outlined in bold below:

Under the overall supervision of the Director and Representative of UNFPA PSRO, and working in close collaboration with the M&E Specialist, he/she will produce the following deliverables by the agreed timelines against which UNFPA PSRO will pay out the corresponding percentages upon receipt of the outputs.

Expected Travel

The Consultant team leader will be expected to travel to a selection of the 6 TA countries (Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu, Fiji) for the data collection phase. He/ She as team member will discuss with the team leader and PSRO on the travel schedule and to decide on who is traveling to which country. It is expected that each consultant will cover 3 countries each and spending at least 2-3 days in each country.

Requirements and Qualification

The team member will bring together a complementary and balance combination of the necessary technical expertise in the areas directly relevant to the evaluability assessment. The team member will preferably be an expert in organizational effectiveness and performance audit and will focus on work flow assessment, systems and processes for programme implementation, tracking and controls.   Some understanding of UNFPA’s mandated areas of programming i.e. SRH, youth, GBV and population and development will be a key advantage but not necessary. He/She must also have experience in applying evaluation methods in their respective areas of expertise.

Education

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Development Studies, Sociology, Economics, Social Studies, International Relations or other related field.

Knowledge and experience

• 10 years of experience in relevant programming areas. Preference will be given to candidates with experience conducting evaluability assessments or programmatic evaluations on reducing child marriage including child protection, adolescent health, gender equality and education.
• Experience working with the United Nations, particularly UNFPA. Preference will be given to candidate who have a strong understanding of UNFPA’s policies and programming.
• Proven skills in, research analysis, including quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques.
• Demonstrate expertise/experience in developing results frameworks, tools or guide for monitoring and evaluation;
• Be fully acquainted with results-based management orientation and practices;
• Excellent report writing skills, analytical skills, and computer skills.
• Excellent command in written and spoken English

Inputs:

The consultant will use their own laptop and any other equipment required to deliver the outputs of this assignment. The use of PSRO office space, internet and teleconference services by the consultant will be guided by related requirements stipulated under UNFPA’s policies and procedures.   

How to Apply:

• Register your profile in the UNFPA Consultant Roster via https://www.unfpa.org/unfpa-consultant-roster and
• Submit cover letter/proposal stating how you meet the above criteria, CV and your consultancy daily fee by email to vacanciespsro@unfpa.org by 22 May 2019 with title: “Consultant- Evaluability Assessment Team Member”.