International consultancy to provide services of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) specialist

Background

UNDP is the development arm of the United Nations system, with presence in over 170 countries. Globally the organization employs 17,000 people and manages a budget of USD 5 billion annually. The UNDP office in Baku employs a team of 55 professionals and currently manages a portfolio of projects in areas of inclusive growth, environmental protection and good governance.

The project’s goal is through building capacities of women, creating more equal opportunities and strengthening the enabling environment, the project reinforces especially the recovery and relief pillar of Women, Peace and Security, where conflict affected women become agents of change to participate in the economic and social lives of their communities after the recent Karabakh conflict. As a platform for change, the Women Resource Centers (WRCs) will be utilized to advance gender equality in these communities with women and for women. Increasing financial literacy of women and endorsing them for social change through tailored capacity building is complemented with strong formal and informal support networks. Ultimately the project aims to achieve economic security of conflict affected women so they are better prepared for external shocks of conflict and crises.

The project will aim to ensure that:

Outcome 1. Vulnerable women are empowered with skills and have access to services and information to improve livelihoods and deliver community-level benefits sustainably, by cooperating as part of the network of WRCs;

Outcome 2. Stakeholders at national and local levels are supportive of WRC models and take actions to strengthen vulnerable women’s economic and social inclusion through targeted interventions informed by stakeholder analysis produced by the project

Duties and Responsibilities

OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

MEL Specialist will work under the supervision of the designated Project Manager. The MEL Specialist is a critical position and will play a key role in addressing the MEL needs in the project implementation and closeout cycle. The role will be focused on standardization and data management that lays patterns and guides the data collection and data storing over time.

The objective of the assignment is to ensure necessary input for monitoring and evaluation of progress towards achievement of project goals. The international consultant for project monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) will develop major documents to help the project with the periodic assessment of progress on delivery of the specified project results and towards the achievement of project objectives. As a part of the project activities, UNDP Office will further contract a local Monitoring Specialist to coordinate and support the implementation of monitoring and evaluation of all project activities to be conducted in accordance with the Logical and Results Framework of the Project and relevant M&E tools.

SCOPE OF WORK

The international MEL consultant is expected to particularly deliver the following assignments:

Substantially revise the project’s draft Results Framework that will help the project team to maintain progress and adapt activity based on evidence/progress from the data collected. The Results Framework is to demonstrate that the project is evidence based, utilizing data to establish baselines against which progress can be monitored. The data collated from the earlier needs assessments need to be included in the baselines.
The Results Framework must include baselines and milestones linked to the evidence collected during the first phase of the project. Indicators are reviewed to ensure the strongest possible focus on, and enable effective monitoring of the behaviour change of beneficiaries and institutions as progress towards project outcomes is made. The Results Framework must be gender sensitive, enable data to be disaggregated by age and sex and enable monitoring and evaluation of the project’s contribution to gender equality. Effective delivery of conflict sensitivity and risk management, as well as value-for-money should be clear in the Results Framework indicators.
Identify numerical milestones and targets to be complemented by qualitative indicators to help tell the wider change story and understand the path to reach the target.
Develop Risk Register including to identify the conflict sensitivity issues with which the project interacts, and how the project will ensure that its approach will “do no harm”. This should be further measured in the Results Framework.
Develop and advise on application of appropriate types of M&E tools to gather evidence against both quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure progress and provide evidence to analyze the effectiveness of the project activities based on the reports provided by the project partners and make judgment over the progress/impact. The sources of evidence should be particularly relevant for managing conflict sensitivity.
Design the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plan/system based on, and integrated with, the Results Framework by ensuring gender and conflict sensitivity is evidenced through the approach to MEL. A Monitoring and Evaluation Plan is to include modalities to record and report on the number of beneficiaries (achieving disaggregated data by sex and age); monitor the delivery of activities and risks; ensure lessons learned are generated and shared and to monitor media coverage of project activities. The MEL plan to be linked with MEL tools to ensure standardized approach for data collection, data recording and reporting;
Develop and advise on the appropriate data collection methods to ensure output and outcome progress is evidenced effectively, including to tell the overall change story as a result of UN/UK efforts;
Support (and train) staff on the data collection, data recording and reporting processes;
Advise learnings capturing system to be applied by the project, including applicable to the wider WRC network (and that learning is brought in from other WRCs to inform the approach for the ones supported);
Guide local MEL Specialist to effectively monitor the activities, produce reports and over period of time play a role of the mentor to the local MEL specialist;
Develop and maintain the M&E System of the project and ensure that it feeds the PMU with relevant information for progress assessment and decision-making.
Develop the indicators and monitoring mechanisms to monitor, record and report on progress of the indicators against the Annual Work Plan and Budgets (AWPBs)
Provide mentorship to the local candidate when needed

DELIVERABLES, TIMING AND TERMS OF PAYMENT

The international MEL consultant is expected to produce the following deliverables, which will be linked to the specific tasks assigned and communicated in Purchase Order. The deliverables may include but not limited to any of the following:

The initial assignment is planned to start on 15 May 2022 and continue until 30 December 2022 with estimated 40 working days input.

Payment will be 100% upon certification of the satisfactory completion of the tasks and acceptance of the deliverable in 3 installments upon providing of the above-mentioned completed deliverables by authorised UNDP personnel.

No

Deliverable

Period

%

Installment 1

Substantially revise the project’s draft Results Framework that will help the project team to maintain progress and adapt activity based on evidence/progress from the data collected. The Results Framework is to demonstrate that the project is evidence based, utilising data to establish baselines against which progress can be monitored. The data collated from the earlier needs assessments needs to be included in the baselines.
Identify numerical milestones and targets to be complemented by qualitative indicators to help tell the wider change story and understand the path to reach the target.
Develop Risk Register including to identify the conflict sensitivity issues with which the project interacts, and how the project will ensure that its approach will “do no harm”. This should be further measured in the Results Framework.
Develop and advise on application of appropriate types of M&E tools to gather evidence against both quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure progress and provide evidence to analyze the effectiveness of the project activities based on the reports provided by the project partners and make judgment over the progress/impact. The sources of evidence should be particularly relevant for managing conflict sensitivity.
Design the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Plan/system based on, and integrated with, the Results Framework by ensuring gender and conflict sensitivity is evidenced through the approach to MEL. A Monitoring and Evaluation Plan is to include modalities to record and report on the number of beneficiaries (achieving disaggregated data by sex and age); monitor the delivery of activities and risks; ensure lessons learned are generated and shared and to monitor media coverage of project activities. The MEL plan to be linked with MEL tools to ensure standardized approach for data collection, data recording and reporting.

May 2022

50%

Installment 2

Develop and advise on the appropriate data collection methods to ensure output and outcome progress is evidenced effectively, including to tell the overall change story as a result of UN/UK efforts;
Support (and train) staff on the data collection, data recording and reporting processes;
Advise learnings capturing system to be applied by the project, including applicable to the wider WRC network (and that learning is brought in from other WRCs to inform the approach for the ones supported);
Guide local MEL Specialist to effectively monitor the activities, produce reports and over period of time play a role of the mentor to the local MEL specialist;
Develop and maintain the M&E System of the project and ensure that it feeds the PMU with relevant information for progress assessment and decision-making.
Develop the logical framework, particularly indicators and monitoring mechanisms to monitor, record and report on progress of the indicators against the Annual Work Plan and Budgets (AWPBs)

June-August 2022

35%

Installment 3

Provide mentorship to the local candidate when needed (overall input – 6 working days)

August 2022 – December 2022

15%

Approval Process

The authorisation for each respective payment will be made by Project Manager after the acceptance of each deliverable.

FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

Financial offer “all inclusive” – specifying a total lump sum in USD for the deliverables specified in the TOR. The financial offer shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (number of anticipated working days, professional fee).

The financial proposal is only accepted in the form of the Offeror’s letter and Annex 2 to it (please see the link in the list of documents to be included when submitting a proposal). Please include the professional fee under the heading Personnel Costs/Professional Fees in Annex 2 to Offeror’s letter.

Note: The total input is estimated at 40 working days within a span of 8 months. The candidates are free to propose the time input they consider feasible for implementation of the assignment; however, they should note that the total price is one of the factors of evaluation.

Travel:

No travel is expected. The candidate is expected to work remotely from his home office.

Competencies

· Sharing knowledge and experience, communicating ideas and managing information glow

· Strong communication and facilitation skills and ability to establish good working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders in a sensitive environment. S/he must be able to respond quickly to requests for information

· Analytical thinking

Required Skills and Experience

REQUIREMENTS FOR EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

I. Academic Qualifications:

· Master’s degree in Statistics, Social and Humanitarian Sciences and any other relevant field – 10 points

II. Years of Experience:

· At least 4 years of the international work experience in the field of monitoring and evaluation, M&E plan design– 20 points

· Proven experience in the project design and application of results-based approach in project management – 10 points

III. Competencies and skills:

· Knowledge in indicator development, data collection and analysis, data quality assessments, and/or performance monitoring and reporting – 10 points

· Good knowledge of concepts and framework for monitoring and Evaluation and Result Measurement – 10 points

· S/he must have ability to write clearly and concisely – 10 points

· Computer literacy in Microsoft packages (MS Word, MS Powerpoint, MS Excel); SPSS is an asset – 5 points

IV. Language requirements:

· Proficiency (verbal and written) in the English language. – 10 points

V. Methodology / approach to work: 15 points