Final Project Evaluator

الوصف الوظيفي

Terms of Reference (ToR) For

Final Project Evaluation of Achieving Planning and Land Rights in Area C, West Bank - Palestine (2019-2024) [ENI/2019/408-287]

1. Introduction

The Terms of Reference (TOR) at hand is for the final project evaluation of the EU-funded project for Achieving Planning and Land Rights in Area C”. The project was funded by EU, with a total budget cost of Euro 4.4 million. It is implemented and managed by UN-Habitat in close partnership with Ministry of Local Government (MoLG) the Land and Water Settlement Commission (LWSC), and other implementing partners. The approved implementing period for the project was 57 months, ending in June 2024. The project overall objective is to improve the resilience of Palestinian communities in Area C through achieving planning and land rights.

The project was planned and funded with the evaluation framework of mid-term and final evaluations, to be conducted by the external evaluation consultant(s), contracted by UN-Habitat. The mid-term evaluation was conducted in the months of August and September 2021. This evaluation will be conducted by external evaluation consultant for a period of two months. Specific dates will be determined is consultations with key stakeholders given the ongoing geo-political crisis and the war in Gaza. The target audience for the evaluation is the project team; UN-Habitat management; EU as donor, and the evaluation community interested in knowledge relating to resilience of Palestinian communities in the West Bank, Area C.

2. Background and context

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations agency, mandated to promote the socially and environmentally sustainable development of human settlements through knowledge, policy advice, technical assistance and collaborative action to leave no one and no place behind. The agency supports Member States in development of sustainable cities and human settlements through its normative and operational work at global, regional, national and local levels.

Since 2008, UN-Habitat work has been guided by successive, multi-year strategic plans of 2008-2013, 2014-2019 and 2020-2025. The Strategic Plan 2020-2025 has the overarching objective of advancing sustainable urbanization as a driver of development and peace, to improve living conditions for all. It’s four subprogrammes (called domains of change), address broader global challenges of poverty, prosperity, climate change and crisis prevention.

The Special Human Settlements Programme for the Palestinian People (SHSPPP) (UN-Habitat, Palestine) was established following the adoption of UN-Habitat Governing Council resolution 19/18 by governments in 2003. During the 23rd session of the Governing Council in 2011, a new resolution 23/2 was adopted, providing a clearer and more focused mandate for the SHSPPP, requesting UN-Habitat “to further focus its operations on planning, land and housing issues in view of improving the housing and human settlement conditions of Palestinians”.

Further, during the 26th session of the Governing Council (now UN-Habitat Assembly) in 2017, a resolution was adopted calling UN-Habitat “to continue to focus its work where there are acute humanitarian and development needs as identified through technical assessments by UN-Habitat”.

The spatial planning support programme for Palestinian communities in Area C, West Bank is one of the programmes implemented under the SHSPPP. In close collaboration with MoLG and funding from the EU; UN- Habitat has provided spatial planning support to the Palestinian communities through the following projects: (i) Spatial Planning Support Programme for Palestinian Communities in Area C (2013-2015; (ii) Fostering Tenure

Security and Resilience of Palestinian Communities through Spatial-Economic Planning Interventions in Area C (2017-2020)”; and (iii) this project to be evaluated of Achieving Planning and Land Rights in Area C (2019-2024), The evaluation of the 2017-2020 project (Link) found that projects in Area C continue to be relevant and respond to the needs and rights of the Palestinian people and strongly contributes to the Palestinian National Policy Agenda of 2017-2022 and the Palestinian National Development Plan 2021-2023. The Mid-term evaluation (Link) for this project found that the project effectively addresses national and local needs in Palestinian communities, focusing on strengthening tenure security and development potential through land and planning interventions. It builds on previous EU-funded initiatives with partnerships including MoLG and LWSC, demonstrating relevance and effective community participation. The project is marked by its sustainability, leveraging strong local ownership and institutional capacity. It aligns with national strategies and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, enhancing community value through participatory processes and maintaining high visibility with strategic communication efforts. Overall, the project shows efficient resource use and responsiveness to external challenges like COVID-19, ensuring continued impact and alignment with broader development goals.

Support to planning and development activities in Area C of the West Bank through MoLG has received financial support from many donors and members of the international community. The support was kick started by the British Government in April 2009 and sustained till 2015. Subsequently, the spatial planning work in Area C was consolidated between August 2013 and September 2015 with funding from the EU. Between February 2013 and March 2015, the Belgium Government supported more spatial planning interventions in Area C, especially the preparation of local outline plans, and then replicated its support during August 2018 and December 2019. In parallel, UN-Habitat and in collaboration with MoLG and other Palestinian stakeholders received financial support from the French Government (December 2012 – September 2015), UK/Department for International Development (DFID) (February 2014, -June 2016), EU (May 2017 -May 2020), and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) (2022-2024), to substantially contribute with a wide-range of spatial planning interventions, including statutory and non-statutory plans, along with advocacy work to defend the planning and building rights of Palestinian communities in Area C.

UN-Habitat has leveraged its spatial planning interventions in Area C by working closely with the Palestinian partners, especially MoLG, and the Area C National Coordination Team affiliated to the Office of the Prime Minister. Development and planning of Area C is defined as a priority in the Palestinian National Development Plan (2021-2023) dubbed “Steadfast Resilience, Disengagement, and Cluster Development Towards Independence”. Likewise, since its establishment in 2016, LWSC received technical and financial support from development partners, mainly the World Bank and the EU through UN-Habitat to support the Road Map for Reforming Palestinian Land Sector (2017).

3. The Project description

3.1 Objectives and expected accomplishment results and related outputs

According to the contribution agreement logical framework, the project’s objective is to improve social and economic condition of Palestinian Communities in Area C.

The expected accomplishment results are:

Improved resilience and tenure security of Palestinian communities in Area C, through spatial economic planning and mapping of land rights.

Strengthened capacity of Palestinian institutions to perform land-based function and delivery of essential services and public infrastructure in Area C.

The results were likely to be achieved once the target beneficiary of Palestinian communities used the following goods and services (outputs), produced/delivered by the project.

20 Local (Detailed) Outline Plans consolidated to advance discussions with the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA)
Two Cluster Plans in North-West Jenin and North Tubas consolidated for a group of local Palestinian communities in Area C, and support to the established joint planning committees to monitor and oversee the implementation of the prepared plans
More than 70,000 dunums of land settlement for Palestinian communities in Area C is accomplished
Coordinated Advocacy and Capacity Development - Information monitoring and advocacy statements and visibility activities are delivered
A national urban policy and rural planning guidelines are prepared and adopted

3.2 Project components

This project has two interconnected components aimed at improving resilience, tenure security, and national capacities.

Component 1: Mapping of land rights component

This component focuses and will be achieved through (i) upgrading the national and local capacities to implement and document participatory land settlement; (ii) providing comprehensive technical support and equipment to LWSC; (iii) providing expert recommendations on policy change and implementation; (iv) conducting high level coordination highlighting the importance of land administration and management; and (v) piloting land settlement in selected areas in marginalised communities in Hebron and Bethlehem governorates utilising the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) and Gender Evaluation Criteria (GEC). The project also promotes Housing, Land, and Property (HLP) rights, especially those of women and the most marginalised, through: (i) awareness raising and access to information; (ii) research, knowledge management and documentation of lessons learnt and best practices; (iii) advocacy efforts related to safeguarding the rights of the most marginalised and good governance;

(iv) establishing synergies; and (v) promoting better use of public and state land. The Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) headquartered at UN-Habitat is providing technical support in this component, especially in terms of the employed GLTN’s tools, namely the STDM and GEC.

Component 2: spatial planning focusing on the provision of support to Palestinian communities in Area C to respond to the demolition crisis in place and enable local spatial development interventions

This component will be achieved through consolidation and development of local outline plans and cluster plans, and adoption of a National Urban Policy. It promotes good governance on the local and central levels, participatory decision making, and aims to coordinate investments spatially, to create synergies between investments in different sectors, to connect urban and rural areas into functional economic units, to build consensus amongst stakeholders and to chart a development path that is respectful of local needs and cultures.

3.3 Project alignment with UN-Habitat strategies and global Agendas

The project is in conformity with the UN-Habitat Strategic Plan 2020-2025 and Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS) Regional Strategic Plan 2020-2023. Furthermore, the strategic interventions identified in the project contribute and cut across a number of the key elements identified in the Action Framework for implementation of New Urban Agenda, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a focus on Goal 11- sustainable cities and communities.

3.4 The main local implementing partners involved in the project

An Najah National University (NNU) based in
NNU and Universal Group for Engineering and Consulting based in
Palestine Polytechnic University based in
Beit Sahour
Shadi Engineering Office based in Beit
Ar-Rafedein Engineering Office based in Ramallah and Taha Surveying Office based in

The Union of Agricultural Works Committees (UAWC) based in Ramallah and Mousa Alqam Company based in Hebron.
Palestinian Central Bureau of
As Samou’
Globe Consultants – Architects and Engineers based in
Hassan Abu Shalbak based in

3.5 Project beneficiaries

Direct beneficiaries of this project were estimated to be about 85,000 people. In addition, 120 local and national staff were to benefit from training and capacity building activities, including village leaders and officials from LWSC and MoLG. Indirect beneficiaries include the whole of the Palestinian territory.

3.6 Monitoring and reporting on the project

Communication was central aspect of the project design. The fourth progress report covering the period 1 September 2022 and 31 August 2023 under this project highlghted that four main issues have significantly impacted the situation of the Palestinian people, increasing the need for this project, and impacting the project implementation:

Israeli-Palestinian engagement: the administrative and security coordination between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority (PA) is maintained, as well as submissions and discussions of LOPs through MoLG. One technical meeting took place during the reporting period to discuss 17 LOPs with the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA).
Intensified demolitions and confiscations: the demolitions, displacement and confiscations by Israeli authorities continues at the same rate. During the reporting period (23 September 2022 – 22 August 2023), a total of 804 structures were demolished or confiscated, including 96 donor funded structures, and 873 persons displaced, including 420 females and 448 children1.
Updated strategies and frameworks: the UN family in partnership with the Government of Palestine launched the United Nations Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) in January 2023, following the launch of the Common Country Analysis (CCA)2 for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) in September 2022 that address multidimensional vulnerabilities and risks. The United Nations Country Team and Humanitarian Country Team conducted a multi-sectoral needs assessment using a nexus-based UN-Habitat continues its technical support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development3.
Alignment with EU priorities: As a result of the EU’s Heads of Missions report on “Area C and the Palestinian State Building” of July 2011, the 14 May 2012 Council Conclusions developed, for the first time, a clear and comprehensive EU policy related to Area C, to be followed by a set of concrete steps and action. The conclusions highlighted the critical importance of social and economic developments in Area C and called upon Israel to allow more access and control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) over Area C. Furthermore, by end of 2022, the EU signed on the new European Joint Development Programme in Area C, asserting the five main pillars of support – Pillar 1: Planning & Mapping Land Rights: Upgrade the Master Plan Approach by fostering better integration of Area A, B and C and move from local urban master (outline) plans to a geographically wider and integrated vision including increasing support to mapping of land rights; Pillar 2: provision of social and public services; Pillar 3: economic development, notably in agriculture and green economy; Pillar 4: Local Governance, including Green Local Economic Development (GLED) and Pillar 5: Analytics, knowledge generation, for improved programmatic decision making, political advocacy, and nexus operationalisation Legal Assistance.

This final project evaluation of “Achieving Planning and Land Rights in Area C” is mandated by the donor, the EU, and in-line with UN-Habitat Evaluation Policy (2013) and the Revised UN-Habitat Evaluation Framework (2016) that mandate all projects over USD 1 million to have an evaluation conducted by external consultant.

The final project evaluation serves both accountability and learning purposes. It is intended to provide evidence on what was achieved so far by the project at objectives, expected accomplishment (outcomes) and output levels by assessing the achievements, challenges and opportunities of the project through measurement and analysis of all the phases of the project management cycle in relation to its results chain and the project’s logical framework. It is also intended to enhance learning by identifying gaps and where adjustments are needed, constraints, lessons learned and recommendations that may be the basis of decision-making for UN-Habitat’s scheduled programming under this project.

In addition to assessing the status of the achievement of the planned results, the evaluation will assess the project against the evaluation criteria of relevant, efficient, effective, sustainable, impact and coherence. The main target audience of this evaluation is the project team, UN-Habitat Management, the MoLG, LWSC, EU, international and local implementing partners and other stakeholders.

The specific objectives of the evaluation are:

To assess the project’s performance in terms of achievement of results at objective, expected accomplishment (outcome) and output levels;
To assess the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, impact, and coherence of the project in improving the conditions of Palestinian communities in Area C in terms of planning and land issues to protect and ensure their right to an adequate standard of living;
To assess project management modalities, appropriateness of partnerships, working arrangements, adequacy of resources and how these may have impacted the effectiveness of the project;
Assess the project's implementation strategy in terms of the project’s visibility and information and communication;
To assess how cross-cutting issues such as gender equality, climate change, youth and human rights were integrated into the project as well as how they impacted the achievements of the project, and provide tangible recommendations for enhancing the performance of the project in terms of these cross-cutting issues;
Identify lessons learned and make strategic, programmatic and management recommendations on what further needs to be done to effectively promote and develop sustainable spatial planning and good land governance in Area C and the Palestinian territory; and
Identify if the project was nimble to the needs and aspirations of the beneficiaries, especially after the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic.

4.1 Scope of the evaluation

The evaluation will focus on the life cycle of the project, covering the period from September 2019 and until June 2024. It will assess the planning, funding, implementation achievements, monitoring and reporting on the project.

4.2 Key evaluation questions

The suggested evaluation questions below and indicative ones on the evaluation criteria. The consultant will modify or include relevant questions based on the reconstructed Theory of Change of the project that will guide the design and questions for this evaluation.

Relevance

To what extent did the project respond adequately to the needs/ requirements of the target beneficiaries living in area C?
To what extent was the implementation strategy responsive to the EU and UN-Habitat strategies and addressed territorial rights of Palestinian people?
To what extent were the project’s intended outputs and outcome consistent with national and local policies and priorities?
To what extent is UN-Habitat’s comparative advantage in this area of work and capacity to implement the project compared with other UN entities and key partners?
To what extent were the identification of key stakeholders and target groups (including gender analysis and analysis of vulnerable groups) and of institutional capacity issues relevant?

Effectiveness

To what extent did the project achieve the planned results (outputs and outcome)?
What types of products and services were provided to beneficiaries through this project?
What extent were results achieved distributed inclusively across different target groups of the population in area C?
To what extent has the project proven to be successful in terms of ownership in relation to the local context and the needs of beneficiaries? To what extent and in what ways has ownership, or lack of it, impacted the effectiveness of the project?
To what extent did the assumptions and risk assessments at results level turn out to be inadequate or invalid, or unforeseen external factors intervened, and how flexible the project’s management has been to ensure that the results would still achieve the intended purpose?

Efficiency

To what extent was the appropriateness of the project design in terms of the quality of the logframme and the Theory of Change.
To what extent did resources and management structure of the project support efficiency for project implementation?
To what extent did the project management and local partners have the capacity to implement the project?
To what extent are the institutional arrangements of UN-Habitat adequate for the project? What type of (administrative, financial and managerial) obstacles did the project face and to what extent has this affected the project?
To what extent was monitoring and reporting on the project satisfied key stakeholders and bring any adjustments to the project?
To what extent has Covid-19 affected the delivery of the project?

Impact

What change has been brought by the project to beneficiaries (positive or negative).

Sustainability

To what extent can the benefits generated by the project be sustained when the project ends?
To what extent was capacity developed in order to ensure sustainability of the efforts and benefits?
To what extent did the project engage the participation of beneficiaries in design, implementation, monitoring, and reporting to promote ownership?
To what extent was the private sector involved, with the view to contribute to the sustainability of the project?
To what extent will the project be replicable or scaled up at national or local levels?
To what extent did the project foster innovative partnerships with local institutions and authorities and other development partners?

How well did the project increase resilience to shocks and address specific root causes of the problems in area C, West Bank?

Coherence/complementarity

Was the project coherent and implemented in synergy with other EU-funded development programme/projects in the area?
Was the project coherent or complement with UN-Habitats’ donors, and partners’ policies?
What was specific added value of EU funding in comparison with other international funding in the area?

Community value-added

Has the project brought added value by involving UN-Habitat and partners?
What impact has this project made that would not have been possible without the intervention?

Visibility

Did the project develop a detailed communication and visibility plan to support the implementation of the project?
What visibility elements did the project produce and use? The consultant should evaluate the media coverage, outreach, and impact of the different visibility and outreach activities and the extent of the EU exposure in both Palestinian and international media with regard to these activities.
The consultant should provide recommendations on how to improve EU-UN-Habitat visibility and media coverage in this respect.

The evaluator may expound on the evaluation questions, as necessary, in order to carry out the objectives of the evaluation.

5. Stakeholder engagement

It is expected that this evaluation will be participatory, involving key stakeholders. Stakeholders will be kept informed of the evaluation processes including design, information collection, and evaluation reporting and results dissemination to create a positive attitude for the evaluation and enhance its utilization. Relevant entities may participate through a questionnaire, interviews or focus group discussions. UN-Habitat will facilitate for the evaluator the engagement with the main stakeholders including key government entities, implementing partners, and beneficiary communities. A stakeholder analysis should be prepared by the external evaluation expert/consultant at the inception phase of the assignment. All data collected, analysed and presented should be gender-, age- and community-disaggregated.

6. Evaluation Approach and Methodology

The evaluation approach will be a results-based approach (Theory of Change). It will be independent, carried out by external consultant, and conducted in line with the evaluation norms and standards of the United Nations System and UN-Habitat Policy. The main emphasis will be placed on project delivery (including partnership and collaboration); achievement of results; lessons learned including critical gaps; and recommendations. Findings in the evaluation should be evidence-based with clear identification of the sources of information.

A variety of methodologies will be applied to collect information during the evaluation. These methodologies include the following elements:

Review of documents relevant to the Documents to be provided by the UN-Habitat country office, donor and partners, include but are not limited to the following: project documents, results-oriented monitoring review report, progress reports to donor, final deliverables, etc.
Key informant interviews and consultations, including focus group discussions, will be conducted with key stakeholders, including each of the implementing partners.

Field visits, if deemed feasible with currently geo-political crisis and the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip to assess selected activities of the project and interview beneficiaries.

7. Accountability and responsibilities

This is a decentralized evaluation. The UN-Habitat country office in Palestine will commission and manage the evaluation. It will hire a suitable consultant to conduct the evaluation and will be responsible for sharing the evaluation products with key stakeholders, including the donor and other implementing partners.

UN-Habitat Independent Evaluation Unit will support the evaluation on quality assurance through providing support to the main evaluation products including the ToR, the inception report and the draft evaluation report.

The evaluation will be conducted by one consultant. The evaluator is responsible for meeting professional and ethical standards in planning and conducting the evaluation and producing the expected deliverables. The consultant, in close consultation with UN-Habitat team, is responsible for and will fulfil the following tasks:

Review the project document and contract (and other supporting documents) and evaluate the project’s outputs (planning documents/reports);
Develop the evaluation and assessment tools (questionnaires, interview questions, etc.) in line with the evaluation norms and standards of the United Nations System;
Organize interviews, consultations, and discussions with key Palestinian and other relevant stakeholders, UN-Habitat, other UN agencies, project beneficiaries, and civil society organizations in order to evaluate the project activities in line with the key objectives of this project’s evaluation (as outlined in Section 3 of this Terms of Reference); and
Produce inception report, draft report for feedback and final evaluation report in a timely

8. Primary deliverables

The three (3) primary deliverables for this evaluation are:

Inception report with evaluation detailed work plan, and a stakeholder mapping analysis, and a clear timeframe for all the evaluation activities and reports Once approved, it will become the key management document for the evaluation, guiding evaluation delivery in accordance with UN-Habitat’s expectations and standards for evaluation reports. The inception report shall include background and context, evaluation purpose and objectives, theory of change, evaluation matrix, approach and methods to be used, limitations or constraints to the evaluation, proposed outline of the evaluation report, as well as work schedule and delivery dates of key evaluation deliverables.
Draft evaluation The evaluator will prepare the draft evaluation report in line with the proposed timeframe, to be reviewed by UN-Habitat. The draft should follow UN-Habitat’s standard format for evaluation reports (the format will be provided). The format is intended to help guide the structure and main contents of evaluation reports formulated by UN-Habitat.
Final evaluation report including executive summary and appendices will be prepared in English and follow UN-Habitat’s standard format of an evaluation report. The report should not exceed 20 pages, excluding the executive summary and annexes. The report should be technically and linguistically easy to comprehend for non-evaluation specialists.

9. Duration of assignment

The duration of the evaluation is 22 working days over a period of two (2) calendar months. The exact start date will be agreed with UN-Habitat and partners (especially, donor and governmental institutions), and in

consideration of the ongoing geo-political crisis and the war in Gaza. The work schedule for the assignment is summarized in the table below.

5. Technical and financial evaluation

Technical evaluation

Experience of the consultant in the field of project evaluation 25 points
Qualifications and competency of the consultant to complete the assignment 40 points
Compliance of the proposed plan and methodology with the ToR 30 points
Women candidate 5 points

Financial evaluation

Upon completion of the technical evaluation, the financial assessment will be carried out as follows:

The technical evaluation will weigh 70 per cent, while 30 per cent will be allocated for the financial
Financial offers from bidders with a total technical score of 75 points or more will only be Bidders with a total technical score of less than 75 points will be excluded and the financial offers will not be opened.
The financial assessment points will be calculated for each bidder whose financial offer has been opened according to the following formula:

The financial evaluation of the consultant: Lowest price x 30%

Consultant fees/price

The technical and financial evaluation points will be combined for each offer that has not been The tender will be then offered to the consultant with the highest number of financial and technical evaluation points, and as agreed by UN-Habitat.
The consultant will not be provided with daily subsistence allowance/per UN-Habitat will provide logistical support, including local transportation, where needed.

6. Payment schedule

The payments for undertaking the evaluation assignment shall be paid to the consultant, according to the following:

First instalment: 30 per cent of the value of the contract after signing the agreement and submission of the inception plan, including work plan and stakeholder analysis and approval by UN-Habitat.

Second instalment: 40 per cent of the contract value after the delivery of the draft evaluation report and approval by UN-Habitat.
Third (final) instalment: 30 per cent of the value of the contract after delivery of the final evaluation report and all deliverables (documents and reports) and approval by UN-Habitat.

متطلبات الوظيفة

Education

At least a master’s degree in urban and Regional/Spatial Planning, Local Governance, Land Management and Administration, Development Studies, Public Policy, Urban Geography, or other relevant discipline.

Work experience and other requirements

Extensive and proven evaluation experience. The consultant should have ability to present credible findings derived from evidence and putting conclusions and recommendations supported by the
A minimum of seven years’ professional practical experience in results-based management working with projects/ programmes in the field of spatial planning and land governance.
Very good knowledge of international experience and best practices regarding institutional change management and human resource development, planning, sustainable urban development, and land
Very good knowledge of cross-cutting issues and their relation to spatial planning and land management projects, including gender equality, climate change, and youth and human rights.
Understanding of and experience with demand-driven processes and methodologies of capacity building
Good understanding of planning, development and governance and the associated responsibilities at municipal level.
Familiarity with and loyalty to the goals of the United Nations and UN-Habitat’s mandate
Knowledge of municipal legal, spatial and economic

Language