Final Project Evaluation (2012) Consultant

Location : occupied Palestinian territory (Jerusalem, with travel to other locations in the oPt. Travel to Jordan may be required)
Application Deadline : 25/02/2012
Additional Category
Type of Contract :SSA
Post Level :
Languages Required :English 
Starting Date :
(date when the selected candidate is expected to start) 5 March 2012
Duration of Initial Contract :2 months

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 centre of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations 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.
UN Women oPt, in line with the Palestinian Authority commitment to fight Violence Against Women (VAW) as set in the National Strategy to Combat VAW, approved by the Palestinian Cabinet in January, 2011; in full partnership with the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs, within the framework of the “MEHWAR CENTRE FOR THE PROTECTION AND EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN AND FAMILIES” project funded by the Government of Italy, is supporting the operation of the first specialized anti-violence center in the oPt working towards the adoption of human rights-based standards while offering integrated services to prevent family violence, as well as to protect and empower women and children victims and survivors of violence in the oPt. In specific, the Mehwar Center project aims to:
a)Improve physical and psychological health conditions among victims of violence hosted in the shelter;
b)Build up legal knowledge, in addition to social and life skills for protected women and minors' reintegration in the society;
c)Reduce incidence of violent behaviors against women and children;
d)Increase social engagement in the promotion and respect of women and children's human rights.
As foreseen in the project document and according to the developed logical framework, UN WOMEN is committed to plan and organize jointly with the Italian Cooperation a final project evaluation “summarizing project activities and impact of activities”. UN WOMEN will abide by its corporate evaluation policy and guidelines to ensure quality criteria for the evaluation process and report, highlighting relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact of the implemented project.

Duties and Responsibilities
The Consultant will work under the overall supervision of UN Women oPt Head of Office and the direct supervision of the Women Human Rights Unit (WHRU) Project Manager, and will carry out his/her duties and responsibilities in consultation with the WHRU M&E Officer and Technical Advisor, in partnership with the Italian Cooperation and in coordination with the Mehwar Center Director and team, with MoSA Director General for Family and Child Protection, and with Differenza Donna Director. The consultant will report regularly to UN WOMEN.
Within the above framework, the Consultant will undertake the following tasks, duties and responsibilities:
-Prepare upon the project logical framework, and submit to UN WOMEN by the final evaluation work plan, including field work arrangements and collection of data, for UN WOMEN revision and approval. The plan will be submitted by 5 March, 2012.  
-Develop a “women’s benefit-audit mechanism” for assessing impact of the implemented project activities on their primary beneficiaries who are women and girls victims and survivors of violence;
-Develop, in coordination with WHRU team, the methodology for focus groups discussion and semi-structured interviews according to sampling and key questions presented in UN WOMEN evaluation terms of reference;
-Prioritize key questions presented in the evaluation terms of reference according to agreed-upon evaluation plan and objectives;
-Conduct an inception workshop with the project partners, namely UN WOMEN, Mehwar Centre, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Differenza Donna, in addition to the Italian Cooperation, to present the agreed upon methodology and evaluation plan;
-Conduct a documentation analysis of key project documents, including relevant policies, strategies, commitments promoted and/or subscribed by the Palestinian Authority, supported by the WHRU M&E Officer;
-Conduct bilateral /group meetings and focus groups with project partners, highlighting their contribution towards enhancing the project relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact to decrease the incidence of violence against women in the oPt;
-Conduct bilateral /group meetings and focus groups with key institutional partners involved in the implementation of the Mehwar Center project (Police, Governorates, NGOs, health and mental health practitioners, etc.) highlighting their level of understanding of the Mehwar Center project objectives, as well as the extent/effectiveness of their cooperation for achieving those objectives;
-Conduct interviews and focus groups with Mehwar beneficiaries (women, children and families benefiting from Mehwar Center services, Mehwar Center team) to assess the impact of the project activities in terms of “increasing women’s benefit”;
-Collection and analysis of qualitative and qualitative data from Mehwar Center archive, UN WOMEN documents and other implementing actors’ records upon agreed evaluation plan;
-Define, in close coordination with the Italian Cooperation and UN WOMEN M&E Officer, indicators and a baseline for future evaluations of Mehwar Center services impact;
-Draft and submit to UN WOMEN for feedback by 10 April 2012 initial version of the evaluation Report highlighting relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact of the implemented project;
-Present 1st draft of the Report to the project partners for discussion and feedback. Incorporate partners' feedback in the Report;
-Prepare and submit to UN WOMEN by 25 April 2012 final evaluation Report to be structured as follows:

1-Evaluation purpose,
2-Evaluation methodology and process (specifying all parties consulted),
3-Findings,
4-Process to develop indicators and a baseline for future evaluations of Mehwar Center services,
5-Lessons learnt,


6-Recommendations.
-Address any further issue flagged by project partners in the final evaluation Report, while maintaining the independency and objectiveness of the evaluation findings and recommendations;
-Ensure that the final draft of the Report is engendered and in line with international human rights standards for women’s protection;
-Perform other tasks as agreed upon with UN Women.
 
Deliverables
a)-Evaluation methodology and tools, including “women’s benefit-audit mechanism”;
b)-Evaluation work plan;
c)-Initial draft of the evaluation Report in English;
d)-Final evaluation Report in English.
 
Qualifications and Requirements
-University degree, preferably in Social Science;
-Senior (minimum five years) experience as researcher and/or evaluator and/or trainer in the areas of social science, social change, and human rights. Specific expertise in the field of gender and violence against women will be considered an asset;
-Extensive knowledge and senior (minimum five years) professional experience in applying qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods;
-Strong communication skills, oral and in writing. Ability to coordinate among and communicate with diversified partners
-Strong analytical skills. Ability to identify and gather key information upon given development project frameworks;
-Arabic mother-tongue; fluent spoken and written English;
-Previous working experience within the UN system will be considered an asset.

Competencies and Ethics
From the Standards for Evaluation for the UN System
 “All those engaged in designing, conducting and managing evaluation activities should aspire to conduct high quality and ethical work guided by professional standards and ethical and moral principles.
Standard 2.1: Persons engaged in designing, conducting and managing evaluation activities should possess core evaluation competencies.
Standard 2.2: Evaluators should have relevant educational background, qualification and training in evaluation.
Standard 2.3: Evaluators should have professional work experience relevant to evaluation.
Standard 2.4: Evaluators need to have specific technical knowledge of, and be familiar with, the methodology or approach that will be needed for the specific evaluation to be undertaken, as well as certain managerial and personal skills.
Standard 2.5: Evaluators should be sensitive to beliefs, manners and customs and act with integrity and honesty in their relationships with all stakeholders.
Standard 2.6: Evaluators should ensure that their contacts with individuals are characterized by respect.
 
Standard 2.7: Evaluators should protect the anonymity and confidentiality of individual informants.
 
Standard 2.8: Evaluators are responsible for their performance and their product(s).

Submission of application:

Interested candidates must submit up to date comprehensive curriculum vitae via email to [email protected] 25 February, 2012.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted to submit a proposal for evaluation methodology.