Evaluation Consultant - East And Southern Africa

Background

The UN Women Independent Evaluation Service (IES) of the Independent Evaluation and Audit Service (IEAS) evaluates the work of UN women to enhance organizational accountability, provide evidence-based information for decision-making and to contribute to learning on gender equality and the empowerment of women. IES posts Regional Evaluation Specialists in the Regional Offices of UN Women with a key task to lead independent country portfolio evaluations and regional evaluations and to support country office personnel with the management of decentralized evaluations. During 2024, the RES will be leading two Country Portfolio Evaluations and one regional evaluation and supporting quality assurance of other decentralized evaluations.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and responsibilities

The Evaluation Consultant is an integral member of the team and is expected to support the evaluation management and conduct. The work of the consultant will be home-based and will need to connect with the team during East and Southern Africa working hours via online platforms. Under the overall oversight of the Regional Evaluation Specialist, the consultant will contribute to the following:

• Overall evaluation task management ensuring deadlines are adhered to
• Planning stage:
  • Collecting, organizing and reviewing all relevant documents (i.e. Strategic notes, project documents, donor and/or other monitoring reports, evaluation and audit reports, etc.).
  • The portfolio analysis aims to provide an overview of the different efforts under the CO/RO area by systematically organizing and analysing the type of initiatives / projects, budgets, and stakeholders involved.
  • Lead any necessary scoping interview guide and staff survey design and support interviews and consultations by taking detailed notes.
  • Support drafting Terms of Reference for evaluations including for the Evaluation Management and Reference Groups.
• Inception phase:
  • Evaluability assessment
  • Human rights-based stakeholder analysis and visualization
  • Reconstruction of theory of change and visualization
  • Development of evaluation matrix
  • Evaluation data collection tool design (interview and focus group guides, etc.)
  • Drafting and presentation of inception report PowerPoint presentation.
  • Drafting inception report, including creating data visualizations, tables and graphs and annexes.
  • Editing of final inception report including annexes, ensuring all feedback from the ERG and peer reviewers has been integrated and tracked for transparency.
• Data collection:
  • Support interviews and consultations by taking detailed notes.
  • Lead analyses and support others (in-depth analysis of project or sub-theme selected during inception phase), including systematic document review and triangulation and potentially drafting 2-3 page case study report.
  • Conduct results mapping and analyse according to Gender@work framework (systematize information reported on results; excel format and visualization)
  • Undertake qualitative (using software such as NVivo) and quantitative data analysis (including survey analysis) and produce summary reports.
  • Create data visualizations, tables and graphs as necessary.
• Reporting phase:
  • Support drafting and presentation of the Preliminary Findings PowerPoint
  • Support the drafting of the synthesis evaluation report (provide substantive input to findings, conclusions and recommendations) and annexes.
  • Support editing of final report including preparing annexes, ensuring all feedback from the ERG and peer reviewers has been integrated and tracked for transparency.
• Other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.

Tasks and deliverables

Deliverables include the following for the below list of evaluations: Contributions to the Terms of Reference, inception report, presentations and final synthesis reports and annexes for evaluations that reflect high quality in line with the GERAAS criteria established by UN Women.

• Support the overall conduct of regional evaluations, for example in 2024 the thematic evaluation on care economy: Contributions to the Terms of Reference, inception report, data collection, presentations and final synthesis reports and annexes
• Support the overall conduct of the Country Portfolio Evaluations (CPEs): Contributions to the Terms of Reference, inception report, data collection, presentations and final synthesis reports and annexes
• Support co-managing project evaluations as relevant: Contributions to the Terms of Reference, and reviewing quality of inception report, presentations and final synthesis reports and annexes
• Manage the schedule related to decentralized evaluations and provide inputs on quality.
• Lead organization of 2-3 knowledge sharing events during the year

Supervision

The consultant will be directly supervised by the Regional Evaluation Specialist for East and Southern Africa who is based in the Regional Office for East and Southern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. The Regional Evaluation Specialist reports to the Chief of Independent Evaluation Service at headquarters.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent analytical skills
• Strong knowledge of UN Women processes and systems
• Strong networking skills
• Strong inter-personal skills, communicate effectively with staff at all levels of the organization;
• Ability to work in a highly pressured environment

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in a field of relevance for the evaluation (i.e. Social Sciences, Gender Equality, Evaluation, international affairs).
• 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:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible professional experience in conducting evaluations is required, preferably specific to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Proven work experience contributing to gender-responsive evaluation or experience in gender analysis and human-rights based approaches or research.
• Experience using qualitative data analysis tools such as NVIVO is an asset.
• Experience developing infographics, graphs and figures for reports.
• Experience working in the ESA region is an asset.

Language Requirement:

Fluency in English is required.

Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).