UN Women: International Consultant to undertake the final evaluation of the EU funded project “Strengthened Gender Action in Cahul and Ungheni districts.

Vacancy Number: Pr22/02584

Location:Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline: 07 Oct 2022, 11:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:Individual Contract
Starting date: 14 Oct 2022
Reference to the project: UN Women
Expected Duration of Assignment:6 months
Supporting Documents:
ToR Project Final Evaluation International Consultant
Annex I. Price Proposal Guideline
Annex II. Price Proposal Submission Form
UN Women Conditions of Service Consultants
Personal History Form (P11) UN Women



Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, 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 center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world.

Through its programmes and projects, UN Women is providing technical assistance to national partners (governmental and non-governmental), including the private sector, in the implementation of existing international and national commitments to women’s rights and gender equality, it facilitates networking and exchange of good practices and advocates for women’s rights and gender equality in all areas of life.

UN Women’s presence in the Republic of Moldova has evolved from being a project-based office in 2007 to a Country Office with fully delegated authority as of 2015. The work of UN Women in Moldova is guided by its Country Strategic Note for 2018-2022, aligned with the Republic of Moldova–United Nations Partnership Framework for Sustainable Development 2018–2022, the Global Strategic Plan of UN Women for 2018-2021, the National Strategy on Gender Equality for 2017-2021 (NSGE) and aims to contribute to the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

UN Women Strategy for Moldova 2018-2022 focuses on three main areas: 1) strengthening women’s participation in politics and decision making, 2) economic empowerment of women, and 3) ending violence against women and girls. To achieve progress in these areas, UN Women works with a variety of national and international partners and as part of different national and regional initiatives.

Based on the European Commission Decision ENI/2018/041-302 regarding the Annual Action Programme 2018 in favour of the Republic of Moldova for Support for the Implementation of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement, it was proposed that United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) will implement the following the project Strengthened Gender Action in Cahul and Ungheni districts with the short title: “EVA”.

Scope of work

A final evaluation of the project “Strengthened Gender Action in Cahul and Ungheni districts” will be conducted with a special focus on lessons learnt both from programmatic and coordination perspectives. The main purpose of this final evaluation is to assess the programmatic progress and performance of the above-described intervention from the point of view of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, organizational efficiency and sustainability. The evaluation will not be able to fully assess the project performance, as some activities are still ongoing by the end of the year; however, it will address the questions with the results and evidence that is available to date.

The findings of the evaluation will contribute to effective programming, refining the approaches of UN Women and UNICEF to gender mainstreaming in local policymaking and decision making and greater access to effective survivor-focused multi-disciplinary services and violence prevention. It is also expected that the evaluation represents a key input to knowledge management on joint programming to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. The findings of the evaluation will moreover be used to engage policy makers and other stakeholders at local, national and regional levels in evidence-based dialogues and to advocate for gender-responsive strategies to promote inclusive local and national economic development with a particular focus on rural women as well as to combat domestic violence affecting women and children.

The objectives of this evaluation include to:

  • Analyse the relevance and coherence of the programme objectives, strategy and approach at the local and national levels for the gender equality mainstreaming in local public policies and combating domestic violence affecting women and children.
  • Assess effectiveness and a potential measurable impact of the project intervention on the target group across all communities under the project interventions.
  • Assess organizational efficiency and coordination mechanisms in progressing towards the achievement of the project results, including the achievement of gender equality mainstreaming and combatting domestic violence affecting women and children.
  • Assess the sustainability of the results and the intervention in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in the target group.
  • Analyse how human rights-based approach and gender equality principles are integrated in the programme implementation.
  • Asses how the intervention and its results relate and contribute to the Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Identify and document lessons learned, good practices and innovations, success stories and challenges within the project, to inform future work of UN Women and UNICEF in the frameworks of gender equality and women’s empowerment trough implementation of gender mainstreaming and combating domestic violence against women and children.
  • Identify strategies for replication and up-scaling of the project’s best practices identified during the project implementation.
  • Provide actionable recommendations with respect to UN Women’s and UNICEF work on gender mainstreaming and combating domestic violence against women and children.

Requirements for experience

Education:

  • At least a master’s degree in economics, social sciences, international relations, gender studies or a related area.

Experience:

  • At least 5 experience conducting evaluations of strategies, policies and/or development programmes and projects.
  • At least 2 years of proven experience of designing and leading or participating in gender-responsive and human rights-based evaluations utilising participatory approaches and methodologies.
  • Ability to produce well-written analytical and evaluation reports (provide links to at least 3 reports).
  • Previous experience working in Europe and Central Asia and/or in Moldova.
  • Experience with the United Nations or other international organizations.
  • Proven experience of evaluation of EU funded project is an asset.

Language requirements:

Language proficiency in both written and spoken English. Knowledge of Russian will be an asset.

Documents to be included

Interested candidates are invited to submit their online applications with the following documents:

1. Dully completed UN Women Personal History Form (P11 form) as attachment UN Women Personal History Form

2. Letter of Intent to include a brief overview about which of your previous experiences makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.

3. Filled in and signed Financial proposal (Annex II).

4. Links to relevant reorts.