Evaluation Specialist (End of project)

Islamabad

Job Description

    UN Women Pakistan is seeking to hire an Evaluation Team-Leader to conduct the end term evaluation of its project “Prevention and Protection of Women from Violence Through Access to Justice, Services and Safe Spaces” funded by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL US State Department) under the UN Women EVAW unit at the Pakistan Country Office.

    The theory of change for this project is based on a number of principles:

    Context is critical: successful interventions are those that are tailored and based on rigorous analysis of the particular factors affecting violence against women in a specific context, including setting, form of violence and population affected by the violence.

    The state has primary responsibility for action on violence against women and girls: federal and provincial governments hold the ultimate responsibility for implementing laws, policies and services around violence against women and can achieve change on violence against women.

    Holistic and multi-sectoral approaches are more likely to have impact: coordinated interventions operating at multiple levels, across sectors and over multiple time-frames are more likely to address the various aspects of, and therefore have greater impact on, tackling violence against women.

    Social change makes the difference: sustained reduction in violence against women will only occur through processes of significant social change, including in social norms, at all levels.


    Purpose of Evaluation:


    To conduct an end term evaluation of a project title ‘Prevention and Protection of Women from Violence through Access to Justice, Services and Safe Spaces’ funded by the US State Department-INL.


    Accountability:

  • Provide credible and reliable judgements on the project’s results, including in the areas of programme design, implementation, contributions towards impact on right holders, partners, and overall results.
  • Learning:

  • Identify novel/unique approaches to catalyse processes toward the development of access to justice commitments.
  • Improve evidence-based decision making:

  • Identify lessons learnt from the experience of implementing partners in order to influence policy and practice at sub- national and national levels.
  • Inform and strengthen UN Women´s planning and programming by providing evidence-based knowledge on what works, why and in what context.

  • Use of the Evaluation Report

  • The Evaluation findings will help to feed into building the EVAW portfolio of UN Women Pakistan.
  • The report will be used by the implementing organizations and UN Women to make strategic decisions on the future direction and design of the project and its Annual Work Plan.
  • The Evaluation Specialist will provide inputs to design a complete dissemination plan of the evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations with the aim of advocating for sustainability, scaling‐up, or sharing good practices and lessons learnt at sub- national and national level.
  • Existing Information Sources


    Existing information sources of programme include: Project Pro Doc, baseline report, Donor Reports, training reports, mission reports, monitoring visit reports, project IPs’ progress reports, quarterly report and previous external review report, etc.

    Guidance on Methodology:

    All evaluation processes at UN Women establish mechanisms to ensure high quality evaluation processes and products as outlined in the UN Women Evaluation Policy and Handbook. This will be a gender-responsive evaluation, which means the principles of human rights should be integrated: the process of evaluating the project should be participatory, inclusive, promoting maximum input from all relevant stakeholders, and should actively analyse the structural and cultural barriers that impede the achievement of gender equality and women’s human rights. The cultural context and language/s of operation must be taken into consideration in the design of the evaluation approach and data collection methods.


    Note: Amid the coronavirus pandemic, people around the world are being asked to socially distance themselves, or in some cases are under mandatory lockdown. These dynamics have created unique challenges for those seeking to be vigilant, while also trying to maintain normalcy in their lives. Pakistan experienced a locked down in all 4 provinces including the Islamabad (ICT), in the 3rd and 4th week of March 2020. The situation continues to remain unclear therefore this evaluation might experience restrictions of inter-provincial travel depending on the prevailing situation and certain in person meetings will have to be replaced by telephonic and skype interviews.

    Stakeholder Engagement:


    An Evaluation Reference Group will be established representing UN Women’s key government, civil society and UN system partners. The ERG will be asked to engage and provide input at every stage of the evaluation process, from design, to preliminary results and final draft report. The ERG plays a critical role through remote and in-person meetings 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.

    Evaluation Objectives:


    The evaluation will address the OECD-DAC criteria of Project Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Sustainability and human rights and gender equality.


    The objectives of the evaluation are to:


  • Analyze the relevance and effectiveness of the programme strategy and approaches in the overall context of the country in general, and the project locations in particular.

  • Assess the potential for sustainability of the results and the feasibility of continuing/ replicating/ expanding similar initiatives efforts.
  • Analyze the gender responsiveness of the programme and the extent to which the underlying barriers to achieving gender equality and empowerment of women were achieved.
  • Assess the extent to which the interventions were guided by the relevant international (national and regional) normative frameworks for gender equality and women’s rights, UN system-wide mandates and organizational objectives.

  • Assess the extent to which participation and inclusiveness (with respect to rights holders and duty bearers) was maximized in the interventions planning, design, implementation and decision-making processes

  • Compare existing information on human rights and gender equality in the community, country, etc.

  • Triangulate information to identify similarities and/or discrepancies in data obtained in different ways (i.e., interviews, focus groups, observations, etc.) and from different stakeholders (e.g., duty bearers, rights holders, etc.)

  • Document lessons learned to inform future work of UN Women as well as various stakeholders in addressing gender inequality and VAWG within the context of the aid effectiveness agenda.

  • Analyze successes and weaknesses of the project strategy and implementation in order to provide recommendations for a subsequent phase of the project.

  • Measuring effectiveness


    Validate programme results in terms of achievements and/ or weaknesses with regard to the planned outcomes and outputs, with a critical examination of how/ to what extent the programme succeeded in contributing to the creation of an enabling environment for improved Access to Justice and creation of safe spaces.


    Education and Functional Competencies of the Evaluation Specialist:


  • At least a master’s degree (PhD preferred), in any social science, preferably including gender mainstreaming, access to justice, Monitoring & Evaluation or social research.
  • Technical expertise in gender, aid effectiveness, and Access to Justice.

  • A minimum of 12 years of working experience applying qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods, particularly at the outcome level for a final evaluation.
  • A strong record in designing and leading evaluations.
  • Strong ability to translate complex data into effective, written reports.

  • Experience in gender analysis and human rights. Knowledge of the role and functions of the UN and INL and their programming would be desirable.
  • High level data analysis skills.
  • English language proficiency.
  • EVALUATION ETHICS

    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 and Code of Conduct. These documents will be annexed to the contract. All data collected by the team members must be submitted to the evaluation manager in Word, PowerPoint or Excel formats and is the property of UN Women. Proper storage of data is essential for ensuring confidentiality. The UNEG guidelines note the importance of ethical conduct for the following reasons:

    1. Responsible use of power: All those engaged in evaluation processes are responsible for upholding the proper conduct of the evaluation.

    2. Ensuring credibility: With a fair, impartial and complete assessment, stake- holders are more likely to have faith in the results of an evaluation and to take note of the recommendations.

    3. Responsible use of resources: Ethical conduct in evaluation increases the chances of acceptance by the parties to the evaluation and therefore the likelihood that the investment in the evaluation will result in improved outcomes.

    The evaluation’s value added is its impartial and systematic assessment of the programme or intervention. As with the other stages of the evaluation, 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.

    Proper procedures for data collection with rights holders who may have been affected by violence must be adhered to as outlined in the WHO Ethical and Safety Recommendations for research on violence against women.

    Additionally, if the evaluator(s) identify issues of wrongdoing, fraud or other unethical conduct, UN Women procedures must be followed and confidentiality be maintained. 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, provide a cohesive framework aimed at creating and maintaining a harmonious working environment, ensuring that staff members do not engage in any wrongdoing and that all allegations of wrongdoing are reported promptly, investigated and appropriate action taken to achieve accountability. The UN Women Legal Framework for Addressing Non-Compliance with UN Standards of Conduct defines misconduct and the mechanisms within UN Women for reporting and investigating.

    The Evaluation Specialist is also required to complete mandatory trainings and sign the code of conduct.


    Core values / guiding principles:

    The Evaluation Specialist will adhere to the following core values and guiding principles:

    • Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
    • Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

    Guiding Principles and Code of Conduct To ensure the credibility and integrity of the evaluation process and following United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Ethical Guidelines, the Consultants will be required to commit to the Code of Conduct for Evaluation (see http://www.unevaluation.org/document/detail/102), specifically to the following obligations:

  • Independence: Ensure that independence of judgment is maintained, and that evaluation findings and recommendations are independently presented.
  • Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff.
  • Impartiality: The Evaluator shall operate in an impartial and unbiased manner and give a balanced presentation of strengths and weaknesses of the policy, program, project or organizational unit being evaluated.
  • Conflict of Interest: The Evaluator is required to disclose in writing any past experience, which may give rise to a potential conflict of interest, and to deal honestly in resolving any conflict of interest which may arise.
  • Honesty and Integrity: Demonstrate honesty and integrity in their own behavior, negotiating honestly the evaluation costs, tasks, limitations, scope of results likely to be obtained, while accurately presenting their procedures, data and findings and highlighting any limitations or uncertainties of interpretation within the evaluation.
  • Competence: The Evaluator shall accurately represent their level of skills and knowledge and work only within the limits of their professional training and abilities in evaluation, declining assignments for which they do not have the skills and experience to complete successfully.
  • Obligations to Participants: The Evaluator shall respect and protect the rights and welfare of human subjects and communities, in accordance with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights conventions. Evaluators shall respect differences in culture, local customs, religious beliefs and practices, personal interaction, gender roles, disability, age and ethnicity, while using evaluation instruments appropriate to the cultural setting. Evaluators shall ensure prospective participants are treated as autonomous agents, free to choose whether to participate in the evaluation, while ensuring that the relatively powerless are represented.
  • Confidentiality: Respect people’s right to provide information in confidence and make participants aware of the scope and limits of confidentiality, while ensuring that sensitive information cannot be traced to its source.
  • Accuracy, Completeness and Reliability: The Evaluator has an obligation to ensure that evaluation reports and presentations are accurate, complete and reliable. Evaluators shall explicitly justify judgments, findings and conclusions and show their underlying rationale, so that stakeholders are in a position to assess them.
  • Omissions and wrongdoing: Where the Evaluator find evidence of wrong-doing or unethical conduct, they are obliged to report it to the proper oversight authority.


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