International Consultant for a Thematic Evaluation of UN Women Bangladesh Humanitarian portfolio in Cox’s Bazar

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations (UN), 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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate UN system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
August 2022 marks the fifth year since extreme armed violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state prompted a massive influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh. Close to half a million Rohingya women and girls currently live in refugee camps in Bangladesh. The speed and scale of this mass displacement invoked a critical humanitarian emergency in Bangladesh and prompted urgency in delivering a gender-responsive response to this cross-border crisis. During the last five years, Rohingya refugees have shown resilience and the government and people of Bangladesh have generously hosted them. However, pre-existing gender inequalities, GBV, and discrimination continue to be perpetuated and exacerbated.
UN Women Bangladesh Country Office is currently undertaking a thematic evaluation of the humanitarian area of work as a means for providing the organization with an understanding of how it has responded and is continuously adapting programming, primarily to the ongoing Rohingya refugee response in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The purpose of this evaluation is to provide information for decision-making, learning, and accountability, which will ultimately strengthen UN Women’s strategy moving forward to respond effectively and in a harmonized manner to the needs and priorities of women and girls in the Rohingya refugee camps and the host community.
An evaluation team is being established to conduct this independent evaluation. The international evaluation consultant with experience in the humanitarian field will lead the evaluation process, including working closely with an evaluation team to design the evaluation methodology, conduct data collection, analysis and draft the overall synthesis report. To facilitate data collection in the local languages a national consultant and interpreter will be hired to support the team.

Duties and Responsibilities

UN Women in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

The humanitarian action programme is implemented by UN Women Bangladesh Cox’s Bazar Sub-Office. It targets the most vulnerable women and girls in Rohingya camps, as well as the host community. The programme is in line with the Government’s NAP WPS and is contributing to the Joint Response Plan. The overarching Theory of Change (derived from the TOC of UNSDCF) of the UN Women Bangladesh Strategic Note (2022-2026) seeks to ensure a strong coherence and synergy among UN agencies and partners. One outcome has been added to specifically integrate the response to the Rohingya humanitarian crisis in Cox’s Bazar:
Outcome 5: By 2026 more Rohingya and host community women and girls are empowered by a gender-responsive enabling environment, to exercise their agency and decision-making with improved access to protection, education, and socio-economic opportunities.
The major focus of the programmatic interventions include:
i. Enhancing the capacities of Rohingya and host community women and girls to participate in decision-making and increase their access to multi-sectoral services;
ii. Increasing the advocacy and leadership capacities of Rohingya and host community women-led organizations (WLOs);
iii. Increasing the capacities of humanitarian actors, including WLOs, to operate enhanced coordination mechanisms and play a leadership role. (This encompassed UN Women coordination support on gender in humanitarian action).
Across its programming, UN Women seeks to ensure localization, ownership, and sustainability. Currently 6 projects are being implemented in Cox’s Bazar with the focus of empowering Rohingya refugees and the host community. These are:
1. Means to Lead: Empowering Rohingya refugees and host community women through leadership, learning and livelihoods.
2. Empowerment of Rohingya Refugee and Host Communities Women and Girls in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
3. Women and girls who have experienced/are experiencing GBV or are at risk of GBV benefit from the provision of and access to quality services and are empowered to increasingly engage in decision-making and leadership in GBV response, mitigation and prevention.
4. Women Peacebuilders Lead Social Cohesion: Enhancing Capacities and Collaboration of Women Civil Society Groups from Rohingya Community and Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
5. Bangladesh CFPs – under WPHF Impact Area 5: Improved socioeconomic recovery, participation and leadership of women and young women in forced displacement contexts.
6. WPHF: ME function of the WPHF COVID-19 ERW, Bangladesh.
In addition, UN Women actively participates in coordination mechanisms related to the Rohingya refugee response, co-chairing the Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group together with UNHCR, to ensure accountability to gender equality and empowerment of women and girls across the response.
III. Purpose, intended users and scope of the evaluation
UN Women undertakes evaluations to enhance accountability, inform decision-making, and contribute to learning. This thematic exercise will focus on the evaluation of the humanitarian portfolio being implemented by the Cox’s Bazar sub-office and will aim to provide strategic recommendations for the sub-office moving forward.

An independent evaluation team leader and national evaluation consultant will be engaged to conduct the evaluation. In conducting the evaluation, this evaluation team should continuously make reference to the guiding documents for evaluation at UN Women, which include: the Evaluation Policy, the Evaluation Handbook, United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards1 and Ethical Guidelines2 and the Global Evaluation Reports Assessment and Analysis System (GERAAS) evaluation report quality checklist. The report will be assessed against the GERAAS standards.
The primary intended users of the evaluation (outlined in the box below) are the UN Women Bangladesh Country Office, including the Cox’s Bazar sub-office, SIDA and other bilateral donors supporting interconnected programming (SDC and DFAT) and responsible parties.

Scope 

Thematic scope: This evaluation is expected to assess UN Women’s contribution to the Rohingya refugee response in Cox’s Bazar and related lessons learned, with a focus on the “Means to Lead: Empowering Rohingya refugee and host community women through leadership, learning and livelihoods” project (hereon: Means to the Lead project) supported by the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). In addition, the evaluation will seek to generate findings and recommendations on UN Women’s coordination efforts in Cox’s Bazar.

Timeframe: The evaluation is expected to assess the project and activities implemented by both UN Women Cox’s Bazar sub-office team and its Responsible Parties from October 2019 to December 2022, with a focus especially on the Means to Lead project.

Geographical coverage: Overall, the humanitarian portfolio of UN Women Bangladesh spans the country with diverse crisis response efforts in different districts. The evaluation will focus on UN Women’s contributions in Cox’s Bazar which have focused on empowering Rohingya refugee and host community women and girls through protection and livelihood support and advancing women’s leadership, and on strengthening gender mainstreaming across the response. Linkages between Dhaka and Cox’s Bazar programming will also be explored.

IV. Objectives

The evaluation is intended to serve as the basis for programming and management, generating findings, lessons learned and recommendations that will be of use in designing similar programming interventions moving forward. Specifically, the evaluation will:

Assess the relevance and coherence of the strategy, approaches and results of UN Women’s Cox’s Bazar programming and coordination work.
Assess the effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the contributions of UN Women with respect to results across programming and coordination activities.
Assess how the human rights based approach, gender equality principles and the participation of socially marginalized groups, including persons with disabilities and gender diverse groups were integrated in the design and the implementation of the humanitarian portfolio.
Draw lessons learnt of the programmatic interventions in the Rohingya refugee camps and host communities, best practices, success stories and challenges from the implementation of programming interventions.
Provide actionable recommendations to guide UN Women’s future humanitarian response efforts in Cox’s Bazar, identifying opportunities to enhance sustainability, including through programmatic developments and support to coordination.
Assess the partnership approach of UN Women’s programming in Cox’s Bazar, including with regards to the protracted nature of the Rohingya refugee crisis and its implications for engagement with government stakeholders moving forward.

Key Evaluation Questions

The evaluation team will revise the evaluation questions based on consultations during the inception phase and considering the feasibility of objectives and scope outlined in this Terms of Reference. The evaluation team should raise and address any other relevant issues that may emerge during the evaluation. They should be guided but not limited by the evaluation questions listed below. The evaluation team will develop an evaluation matrix during the inception phase in consultation with the Evaluation Management Group (EMG) and the Evaluation Reference Group (ERG) which will outline the questions and means of answering them.

1. Relevance:

To what extent has UN Women’s humanitarian portfolio been relevant to and responding to the needs and priorities of women and girls in Rohingya refugee and host communities?
To want extent has UN Women drawn on its comparative advantage in the context of its work in Cox’s Bazar?
To what extent are the design and focus of the humanitarian portfolio aligned with the humanitarian response priorities in Cox’s Bazar and with national priorities relevant to gender and humanitarian action?
To what extent has the humanitarian portfolio adapted to the evolving context, including the COVID-19 situation, in order to remain relevant?

2. Coherence:

To what extent has the humanitarian portfolio been coherent internally? Do the individual projects, including the Means to Lead project, build on synergies between each other to achieve a greater impact?
To what extent are UN Women’s efforts in Cox’s Bazar coherent externally with the interventions of other actors engaged in the Rohingya refugee response in Cox’s Bazar (particularly within the UN system)?

3. Effectiveness:

How well has UN Women’s programming, especially the Means to the Lead project, achieve its objectives and how did UN Women contribute towards them? What strategies, partnerships and coordination mechanisms were most effective? Were any replicable models established with potential for scale-up?
What barriers and challenges did the projects, especially the Means to the Lead project, experience during the implementation and how were they addressed? Were there any unintended results, either positive or negative?

4. Efficiency:

To what extent does the UN Women Cox’s Bazar sub-office have sufficient human and financial resources to support the humanitarian portfolio? How timely and economical are the efforts of the humanitarian portfolio?
How is UN Women monitoring its efforts and integrating learning into its approach?

5. Sustainability:

To what extent are the results achieved through UN Women projects in Cox’s Bazar likely to continue beyond 2023?
To what extent has the humanitarian portfolio built-in mechanisms – such as capacity development of partners - to ensure the sustainability of efforts?

Human rights and gender equality:

How is UN Women ensuring inclusive approaches to humanitarian response, ensuring the most marginalized groups are benefitting from efforts (women with disabilities, ethnic minorities, rural women, gender diverse groups, and others)?
To what extent is UN women addressing underlying social norms and structural barriers related to gender?

V. Evaluation Design

UN Women evaluations are gender-responsive meaning that both the process and analysis apply the key principles of a human rights-based approach: they are inclusive, participatory, ensure fair power relations, and transparent; and they analyse the underlying structural barriers and sociocultural norms that impede the realization of women’s rights. Gender-responsive evaluation applies mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative data collection methods and analytical approaches) to account for complexity of gender relations and to ensure participatory and inclusive processes that are culturally appropriate. UN Women evaluations are also utilization-focused, which means that it will be tailored to the needs of the organization through a participatory approach from the inception through to the development of recommendations, which will facilitate production of a useful evaluation. It will be carried out in accordance with UNEG Norms and Standards and Ethical Code of Conduct and UN Women Evaluation Policy and guidelines and the UNEG Guidance: Integrating Human Rights and Gender Equality in Evaluation. The evaluation is employing a non-experimental, theory-based approach. A re-constructed Theory of Change will be used as the basis for contribution analysis. The evaluation methodology would enable achievement of the evaluation purpose, be aligned with the evaluation approach, and be designed to address the evaluation criteria and answer the key questions through credible techniques for data collection and analysis.

Process

The evaluation process will include four phases:

• Preparation (UN Women is responsible): This includes the stakeholder analysis and establishment of the reference group, development of the ToR, and recruitment of the evaluation team;

• Conduct (Evaluation Team in coordination with UN Women): Inception report, stakeholder inception meeting, data collection and analysis

• Reporting (Evaluation Team in coordination with UN Women): Presentation of preliminary findings, draft and final reports

• Use and follow up (UN Women is responsible): Management response, dissemination of the report, and follow up to the implementation of the management response

Methods of data collection

Data collection methods and data sources: Mixed data collection methods should be used as well as on-line and in-person data/information collection from the key project stakeholders (beneficiaries, the associated government and non-government agencies, the project responsible partner, etc.). A sampling frame for data collection should be developed (area and population represented, rationale for selection, mechanics of selection, limitations of the sample) and should specify how it will address the diversity of stakeholders. The evaluation team will take measures to ensure data quality, reliability and validity of data collection tools and methods and their responsiveness to gender equality and human rights; for example, the limitations of the sample (representativeness) should be stated clearly and the data should be triangulated (cross-checked against other sources) to help ensure robust results. During the inception phase the evaluation team will develop a data protection plan and ethics protocol for data collection explaining how protection of subjects and respect for confidentiality will be guaranteed.

The analysis will be built on triangulating information collected from different stakeholders (project staff, project implementing partners, stakeholders, and beneficiaries) through different methods including secondary data and documentation review and primary data. Regular meetings will be organized with the Evaluation Reference Group and the project teams as the main entity for project implementation, informing on and verifying the stage of evaluation, seeking relevant data and coordinating organizational issues. It should critically examine the information gathered from the various sources and synthesize the information in an objective manner. If contradictory information is obtained from different stakeholders, an effort should be made to understand the reasons for such information, including any gender-based factors and differences. The evaluation must provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable and useful.

The evaluation consultants shall review the following documents before conducting any interviews: Project documentation, UN Women Bangladesh Strategic Note, progress reports (baseline, end-line and annual report), work plans, monitoring data, workshop reports, country data, policies, legal documents, etc. The preliminary suggestions for data collection methods to be envisaged include Documentation review (Desk review), Key informant Interviews; Surveys; Focus group discussions and presentation of findings to the UN Women and the wider stakeholders for validation prior to the preparation of the final report.

Stakeholder participation

Participatory evaluation is encouraged by UN Women. Stakeholders including but not limited to local government agencies, civil societies, women’s groups and leaders will be invited to participate in the process of the evaluation. The evaluators are expected to discuss during the Inception phase how the process will ensure participation of stakeholders at all stages, with a specific emphasis on members of women organizations and networks, rights holders and their representatives. The evaluators are expected to consult with marginalized groups (e.g. ethnic minorities, women with disabilities, LGBTIQ+ and others) during data collection and apply an inclusive and participatory approach which will ensure active participation and involvement of stakeholders at all levels of the project. The evaluators will finalize the list of key stakeholders/informants and the appropriate data collection methods for each informant category (such as semi-structured or in-depth interviews, expert interviews, focus groups), which will be chosen in close coordination with the project team.

Further, key stakeholders are involved in the evaluation process through the establishment of the Evaluation Reference group (ERG). This group will represent UN Women’s key partners including government partners, donors, civil society, and UN system partners. The ERG will be asked to engage and provide input at every stage of the evaluation process, from inception phase to preliminary results and final draft report. The ERG plays a critical role through meetings on a virtual platform in ensuring a high quality, transparent process, providing insights on the key questions and approach, ensuring factual accuracy, ensuring gaps and misinterpretation of information is avoided. They will also be key informants. The ERG also plays a key role in the dissemination of the evaluation findings and recommendations and ensuring the use of the information by UN Women and key partners. 

Limitations: Limitations of the evaluation will be clearly identified in the evaluation products. This may include selection bias if not all stakeholders are available or reached.

The theory of change approach to evaluation is a widely deployed evaluation methodology that makes assumptions explicit about how program is supposed to work and create social change. It focuses on the causal relationships between resources, activities, short-term and long-term outcomes and the context of the intervention, including its unintended consequences. Like any planning and evaluation method, the theory-driven evaluations require the stakeholders to be clear on long-term goals, identify measurable indicators of success and formulate actions to achieve goals. However, its focus on causal relations between resources, activities, outcomes and the context of intervention makes this method particularly suitable for the assessment of complex programmes. The theory-driven approach makes the programme transparent, allowing the stakeholders to see how it is thought to be working from multiple perspectives. It helps to identify critical areas and issues on which the evaluation should focus. Overall, a theory-driven approach by mapping a process of change from beginning to end establishes a blueprint for the work ahead and anticipates its effects, and it reveals what should be evaluated, when, and how.  

VI. Expected Deliverables and timeline

Approximately 40 days of work for the Team Leader are estimated over the period from January – early June.

Deliverables

Activities

Expected delivery date

% Payment

Inception report in English (clean and track-change version) which should include a comprehensive stakeholder analysis, an evaluation matrix, sampling frame, data collection tools, ethical protocol, proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables, a refined evaluation methodology and a reconstructed Theory of change. 

Inception meeting PowerPoint presentation

*The inception presentation and draft report should be submitted for review by the EMG prior to sharing with ERG for quality assurance.

Have working meetings with Evaluation Management Group to plan for the evaluation;
Lead and conduct desk review to the project related documents, including but not limited to the project document, concept notes, workplans and budget plans, responsible party reports donor reports and communication materials;
Present to the Evaluation Reference Group (ERG) and Evaluation Management Group (EMG) the proposed approach of the evaluation based on the desk review and consultations.
Integrate feedback from the inception presentation and submit a detailed evaluation inception report in English;

31 January 2023

30%

Preliminary finding PowerPoint presentation
Share the initial findings and recommendations with the evaluation reference group
The draft report

*The preliminary findings presentation and the draft evaluation report must be reviewed by the EMG prior to sharing with ERG and will integrate multiple rounds of review from EMG and ERG and until it meets quality standards (Global Evaluation Reports Assessment and Analysis System (GERAAS)).

Finalize the draft preliminary findings and presentation (i.e. PowerPoint presentation)
Share the initial findings and recommendations with the ERG and EMG before developing the first draft report to validate the findings.
Draft the final report

28 February 2023

30%

The final evaluation report and two-page brief

Tracking form for transparency on the feedback received from ERG and EMG and how it was integrated into the final report.

Based on the substantive inputs by the national consultant (see below duties), refine and finalize the English report including case studies as annexes, based on the comments collected and in line with UN Women quality standards

 31 March 2023

40%

 * Payment will be made upon submission of deliverables with the approval of the Regional Evaluation Specialist

* All deliverables should be in line with the UN Women Editorial Style Guide

* All deliverables should be written and generated in English.

*All data collected is the property of UN Women and should be provided upon request.

VI. Expected Deliverables and timeline

Approximately 40 days of work for the Team Leader are estimated over the period from January – early June.

Deliverables

Activities

Expected delivery date

% Payment

Inception report in English (clean and track-change version) which should include a comprehensive stakeholder analysis, an evaluation matrix, sampling frame, data collection tools, ethical protocol, proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables, a refined evaluation methodology and a reconstructed Theory of change. 

Inception meeting PowerPoint presentation

*The inception presentation and draft report should be submitted for review by the EMG prior to sharing with ERG for quality assurance.

Have working meetings with Evaluation Management Group to plan for the evaluation;
Lead and conduct desk review to the project related documents, including but not limited to the project document, concept notes, workplans and budget plans, responsible party reports donor reports and communication materials;
Present to the Evaluation Reference Group (ERG) and Evaluation Management Group (EMG) the proposed approach of the evaluation based on the desk review and consultations.
Integrate feedback from the inception presentation and submit a detailed evaluation inception report in English;

31 January 2023

30%

Preliminary finding PowerPoint presentation
Share the initial findings and recommendations with the evaluation reference group
The draft report

*The preliminary findings presentation and the draft evaluation report must be reviewed by the EMG prior to sharing with ERG and will integrate multiple rounds of review from EMG and ERG and until it meets quality standards (Global Evaluation Reports Assessment and Analysis System (GERAAS)).

Finalize the draft preliminary findings and presentation (i.e. PowerPoint presentation)
Share the initial findings and recommendations with the ERG and EMG before developing the first draft report to validate the findings.
Draft the final report

28 February 2023

30%

The final evaluation report and two-page brief

Tracking form for transparency on the feedback received from ERG and EMG and how it was integrated into the final report.

Based on the substantive inputs by the national consultant (see below duties), refine and finalize the English report including case studies as annexes, based on the comments collected and in line with UN Women quality standards

 31 March 2023

40%
         

 * Payment will be made upon submission of deliverables with the approval of the Regional Evaluation Specialist

* All deliverables should be in line with the UN Women Editorial Style Guide

* All deliverables should be written and generated in English.

*All data collected is the property of UN Women and should be provided upon request.

VII. Duties and responsibilities

The international consultant’s role is:

To lead and conduct the evaluation and work closely with the UN Women programme team and the national evaluation consultant;
To perform a desk review of the project-related documents, including but not limited to the project document, concept notes, work plans and budget plans, responsible party reports, donor reports and communication materials.
To develop an evaluation plan with sound methodologies with quantitative and qualitative approaches and data analysis, and a feasible timeline; 
To conduct interviews with the national consultant and other team members and key stakeholders following ethical protocols. Cox’s Bazar sub-office will provide a list of stakeholders and will assist with liaising and coordinating the meeting schedules as needed.
To analyse the data and draft the presentations and report with the support of the national consultant.
To work closely with the national consultant for the final evaluation.
To brief preliminary results to the UN Women Evaluation Management Group.
Based on the substantive inputs from the national consultant, refine and finalise a comprehensive evaluation report in English with an executive summary, key findings, best practices, lessons learned, and recommendations.
The report will only be considered final when it meets the UN Women GERAAS quality standards.
The report should be copy-edited and in line with UN Women branding guidelines.

The National Consultant's role is to:

Review all relevant documents.
Provide inputs to the team leader on the data collection tools and approach, including translation.
Collect data including leading interviews, focus group discussions, and observation. All data collected will be submitted in a word document in English.
Support the drafting of a case study as applicable (e.g. in-depth project review).
Contribute to the analysis of findings and draft presentation on preliminary findings.
Contribute to the draft report as guided by the Team Leader.

VIII. Management and Quality Assurance of the evaluation

Under the overall supervision of the Cox’s Bazar Head of Sub-Office, and in close coordination with the Evaluation Co-Managers, Dhaka based Planning, Monitoring and Reporting Analyst and Cox’s Bazar-based Monitoring and Reporting Analyst, an international consultant and a national consultant will be hired to undertake this evaluation. The evaluation co-managers will be dedicated to coordinating the evaluation process. The Cox’s Bazar sub-office will provide the support needed, including but not limited to project documents and relevant materials, and assist with liaising and coordinating the meeting schedules as needed. UN Women Regional evaluation specialist will provide quality assurance throughout the evaluation process. The evaluation will have the following groups:

Evaluation Management group for administrative support and accountability: the evaluation co-managers, Regional Evaluation Specialist, Cox’s Bazar Head of Sub-office, and Cox’s Bazar Gender in Humanitarian Action Specialist. It will oversee the day-to-day management of the evaluation, and also provide logistics and other types of support.
Evaluation Reference Group for substantive technical support (max 10 persons): Donor, National Government, Civil Society, Humanitarian partners, UN partners (including ISCG).
Evaluation team: One international and one national consultant

IX. Ethical code of conduct

The evaluators should abide by the principle of the UN Evaluation Group’s Ethical Guideline and Code of Conduct for Evaluation in the UN System and follow the UN Women Evaluation Handbook. UN Women has developed a UN Women Evaluation Consultants Agreement Form for evaluators that must be signed as part of the contracting process, which is based on the UNEG Ethical Guidelines. These documents will be annexed to the contract. The four principles of ethics in evaluation are 1. Integrity (the active adherence to moral values and professional standards, which are essential for responsible evaluation practice); 2. Accountability (the obligation to be answerable for all decisions made and actions taken; to be responsible for honouring commitments, without qualification or exception; and to report potential or actual harms observed through the appropriate channels); 3. Respect (involves engaging with all stakeholders of an evaluation in a way that honours their dignity, well-being and personal agency while being responsive to their sex, gender, race, language, country of origin, LGBTQI+ status, age, background, religion, ethnicity and ability and to cultural, economic and physical environments); and 4. Beneficence (means striving to do good for people and the planet while minimizing harms arising from evaluation as an intervention). The evaluation’s value added is its impartial and systematic assessment of the programme or intervention. As with the other stages of the evaluation, the involvement of stakeholders should not interfere with the impartiality of the evaluation.

The evaluator(s) have the final judgment on the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation report, and the evaluator(s) must be protected from pressures to change information in the report. Additionally, if the evaluator(s) identify issues of wrongdoing, fraud or other unethical conduct, UN Women procedures must be followed, and confidentiality is maintained. If any indication of misconduct is identified, including sexual exploitation and abuse, the Director of IEAS will be informed and it will be referred to OIOS immediately in line with the UN Women Legal Framework for Addressing Non-Compliance with UN Standards of Conduct, and accompanying policies protecting against retaliation and prohibiting harassment and abuse of authority.

The evaluators will obtain oral informed consent from participants to participate in the evaluation activities prior to engaging in data collection. The evaluation team members will read the statement of intent of the evaluation and request the individual to express their willingness to participate or not prior to initiating the discussion or interview in English and/or the local language. An ethical protocol should be developed as part of the inception report detailing how the data collection from the stakeholders and beneficiaries will obtain informed consent. The data should be safeguarded in the whole process of collection, utilization and maintenance to ensure the confidentiality and rights protected in line with UN Women policy.

All data collected through this evaluation is subject to the UN Women Information Security Policy that sets out the basis for UN Women in protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of its data to protect these assets against unauthorized usage, access, modification, destruction, disclosure, loss or transfer of data, whether accidental or intentional. All UN Women staff and other authorized individuals or entities are responsible for maintaining appropriate control over information in their care and for bringing any potential threats to the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of that information to the attention of the appropriate management. Compliance with this Policy is a condition of employment for all UN Women staff and a condition of contract for all other authorized individuals or entities unless a prior (temporary) waiver is obtained. Failure to comply with this Policy without obtaining a prior waiver shall be dealt with in accordance with Staff Regulations and Rules, or as appropriate, the contractual terms of UN Women’s engagement of the authorized individual or entity. Data Management Plan outlining key aspects of data protection during this evaluation, namely collection of data and study materials; treatment of consulted populations and observed topics; storage, security and backups; archiving, preservation and curation. The data may be requested and would be the property of UN Women.

Competencies

Competencies

Core Values:

· Respect for Diversity

· Integrity

· Professionalism

Core Competencies:

· Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues

· Accountability

· Effective Communication

· Inclusive Collaboration

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies.

Required Skills and Experience

X. Qualifications, Skills and Experience

Team Lead - International consultant (national consultant forthcoming)

Academic Qualifications

Master’s degree in relevant subjects: monitoring and evaluation, international relations and/or development, or other relevant social sciences 
A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree

Experience and Skills

At least 10 years of proven experience in evaluations with international organizations is required, at least 3 of which as a team leader.
At least 5 years of experience and background on gender issues in humanitarian/crisis response.
Experience evaluating or implementing humanitarian work is a strong asset.
Experience in contributing to gender-responsive evaluation or experience in gender analysis and human-rights-based approaches will be considered as an asset.
Proven work experience in data collection including interviews and/or focus group discussions.
Excellent drafting and writing skills to produce and present concise and analytical reports.

Languages

Demonstrated abilities in writing high-quality English-language reports. 

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all
costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, only and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the SSA in completing the assignment.
The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon
completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages

Evaluation Method and Criteria:
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis-

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/evaluation and determined as:
1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the
solicitation;
Only candidates obtaining a 70 mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation.
Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 49 points out of 70)

Criteria-01; 

Master’s degree in relevant subjects: monitoring and evaluation, international relations and/or development, or other relevant social sciences 
A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree  - Max Point 10

Criteria-02; 

At least 10 years of proven experience in evaluations with international organizations is required at least 3 of which as a team leader.- Max Point 30
 

Criteria-03; 

At least 5 years of experience and background on gender issues in humanitarian/crisis response. Max Point 30

Criteria-04; 

Experience evaluating or implementing humanitarian work is a strong asset.

Experience in contributing to gender-responsive evaluation or experience in gender analysis and human-rights-based approaches will be considered as an asset.. Max Point 20

Criteria-05; 

Proven work experience in data collection including interviews and/or focus group discussions.
Excellent drafting and writing skills to produce and present concise and analytical reports. Max Point 10

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points (70) will be considered as technically-qualified candidate.

Interested candidates will submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.