International Evaluation Consultant, IC

Background

UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable and resilient towns and cities. It is the focal point agency for all urbanization and human settlement matters within the UN system. UN-Habitat envisions well-planned, well-governed, and efficient cities and towns, with adequate housing, infrastructure, and universal access to employment and basic services such as water, energy, and sanitation. Responding to crisis and post-crisis context is part of UN-Habitat’s mandate and strategic plan. 

Pursuant to its various mandates, UN-Habitat works on two levels to achieve its goals, effectiveness and impact. At the operational level, it undertakes technical cooperation projects. At the normative level, it seeks to influence governments and non-governmental actors in formulating, adopting, implementing and enforcing policies, norms and standards conducive to sustainable human settlements and sustainable urbanization. Its work is guided by successive strategic plans and work programmes, notably UN-Habitat’s strategic plans (2020-2025 and 2026-2029) that promote preventive risk reduction, effective post-crisis response and inclusive long-term recovery. 

Upon request of its Executive Board in March 2022 and of the Government of Ukraine in July 2022, UN-Habitat has been exploring how its urban expertise in conflict contexts could support the recovery of cities in Ukraine. After an initial engagement with a wide range of stakeholders at the 11th World Urban Forum (Katowice, June 2022), a scoping mission to Ukraine was conducted in October 2022 allowing UN-Habitat to ground truth its proposed support to Ukrainian cities and ensure its alignment with the context, government priorities and the ongoing UN response. UN-Habitat’s Country Programme Framework for Ukraine was adopted corporately in December 2022. A final mission to Ukraine in May 2023 allowed to detail agreements and implementation modalities with key stakeholders.

The war in Ukraine, resulting in the loss of lives, destruction of land, infrastructure and property, has put cities and local governments under extreme pressure. Beyond the physical damage and destruction of the built environment, urban areas are critical in addressing war-related effects on communities. National and subnational governments must identify, plan, finance and implement recovery interventions in a highly complex and volatile environment, where demographics, social cohesion, infrastructure, economic and financial systems, and natural environment have been heavily impacted.

This collectively calls for the recovery efforts to introduce a systemic shift in the planning and design of towns and neighbourhoods, while also embedding measures to build capacity within the built environment professions, including urban planning.

UN-Habitat is therefore supporting Ukrainian authorities with technical support in urban planning & recovery and policy development, within the principles of participation, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainability.

The project ‘Towards inclusive and resilient urban recovery in Ukraine’ is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by UN-Habitat, and executed in close collaboration with Restart, Ro3kvit, IMPACT Initiatives and national counterparts under the leadership of the Ministry for Development of Territories and Communities of Ukraine. The project amounts to Euro 8,050,000 and has been implemented over a period of 30 months. 

The project aims to identify areas for improvement to ensure that national regulatory frameworks, policy and processes support nationally led recovery efforts while enabling bottom-up locally led urban recovery efforts. The project activities fully mobilize Ukrainian planning capacity and ensure cross-learning across all local planning recovery work in Ukraine. The intent is to build longer term Ukrainian planning capacity through on-the-job training, tailored capacity building efforts, and supporting the design of new curricula working closely with Ukrainian centers of education.

Through the establishment of its office in Kyiv, including the Ukraine Urban Lab, UN-Habitat supports urban recovery, through the following inter-connected areas of work: 

1. Policy advisory at national level, for the creation of an enabling environment for urban recovery through the development of an Urban Recovery Framework (URF), based on diagnostics of key areas for urban recovery, including capacities for urban planning and built environment management, regulatory frameworks for recovery and reconstruction planning, housing, land and property rights, multi-level governance systems, municipal finance, smart cities and digital governance, etc. 
2. Technical support in strategic and territorial planning for urban recovery through a participatory, evidence-based, spatial and integrated approach. The Ukraine Urban Lab, convening expertise from Ukraine and abroad, collaborates with selected local governments and communities to co-develop statutory planning documents, including Comprehensive Recovery Programmes and Integrated Development Concepts. 
3. Knowledge and capacity building/development, enhancing spatial planning capacities and urban expertise essential for Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction, in the public and private sectors and among civil society organisations. 

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to an inclusive and resilient recovery of urban areas in Ukraine, through the promotion of an enabling environment at national level, which includes a set of instruments and policies that guide regional and local governments’ recovery efforts, linking short term reconstruction needs to longer term resilience solutions. 

The project has three outcomes that are expected to contribute to the achievement of the overall objective as follows: 

• Outcome 1: National frameworks, instruments and capacities are enhanced to underpin the urban recovery efforts in the country. 
• Outcome 2: An even territorial development, including economic development, is promoted at regional/sub-regional level, through the deployment of expertise and capacities to sustain the recovery efforts of municipalities in the area. 
• Outcome 3: Selected municipalities have developed inclusive, resilient and evidence-based recovery plans, that will better inform and support the coordination of reconstruction interventions.

Evaluation is an integral component of programming and project cycle management. It enhances accountability and learning for stronger performance and results, as defined in the UN Regulations and Rules Governing Programme Planning, Aspects of the Budget, the Monitoring of the Implementation and the Methods of Evaluation (PPBME- ST/SGB/2016/6), the New Administrative Instruction for Evaluation in the UN Secretariat (AI/2021/3), and in the UN-Habitat policy.

A team of two consultants will be engaged to undertake the assignment, one international evaluation expert and a national technical evaluation expert. The Team Leader will be the international evaluation expert. The Team Leader shall propose the methodology for conducting the independent review.

Duties and main responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Chief, Evaluation Unit, the consultant in close collaboration with other staff members of the Evaluation Unit and the programme branches will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Assess the appropriateness of the design, implementation, and achievement of the project results at output, outcome and objective levels.
• Assess the project’s value for money, visibility and extent to which the project’s approaches influenced government authorities and other stakeholders’ understanding of urban recovery and strengthened urban resilience.
• Assess appropriateness, implementation working modalities, coordination, cooperation, partnerships and management; and how they contributed to achieving the planned results of the Project.
• Assess the effects of political instability and degrading security situation on the implementation of the project.
• Assess how cross-cutting issues of gender and empowering of women, youth, human rights, social and environmental safeguards were promoted throughout the project’s activities.
• Identify lessons learned and make recommendations to guide further programming in similar contexts.

  Results Expected

The ultimate result of the assignment is the final independent evaluation of the project ‘Towards inclusive and resilient urban recovery in Ukraine’ validated by the Evaluation Reference Group (ERG) composed of representatives of BMZ, the UN-Habitat Evaluation Unit, the UN-Habitat Programme Managers in Ukraine, as well as representatives of other key partners involved in the project implementation.

  Reporting requirements

The International Evaluation Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Chief, Evaluation Unit, in close collaboration with other staff members of the Evaluation Unit and the programme branches.

  Outputs and Expected Deliverables

The incumbent is required to provide the following outputs according to the below planned schedule:

Working location and travel

The assignment is expected to be conducted under a home-based arrangement with fieldwork in Ukraine. Field missions are subject to UNDSS security clearance and prevailing security conditions.

Required Skills and Experience Education

• A master’s degree in international development, project management, programme evaluation, statistics and survey research, Urban and Regional Planning, Conflict Studies or related fields.

Experience

• 10 years of evaluation experience (conduct and management) with substantive experience in fast-evolving conflict-contexts.
• A minimum of 7 years of professional practical experience in results-based management in the field of policy development and analysis and/or capacity strengthening intervention in public service.
• Ability to present credible findings derived from evidence and formulate conclusions and recommendations supported by findings, including through charts, infographics and other graphic design products. 
• International track record of project evaluation work for different organizations, including in conflict context.
• Familiarity with the work of the United Nations and with UN-Habitat’s mandate is an asset.
• Knowledge of urban recovery, urban governance, decentralisation, and community and institutional capacity building.
• Excellent communication and writing skills in English.
• Knowledge of the EECCA region is an asset. 

Language

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this post, fluency in written and oral English is required

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

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