International Consultant - conduct Mid-term Review of Strategic Partnership Framework 2022-2025 (SPFIII) between Sida, Norad, and 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.

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and UN Women signed the Strategic Partnership Framework (SPF) in 2012. Since 2012, the SPF has supported the implementation of UN Women Strategic Plan thematic work on Women’s Political Participation, Women Peace and Security, Humanitarian Action, and Disaster Risk Reduction. The programme is in its third phase of implementation, SPFIII, that started on January 1st, 2022, and ends December 31st, 2025.

The SPFIII, generously funded by Sida and, since 2023, by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) supports the implementation of systemic outcomes of UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025, related to Women’s Political Participation (WPP) and Women Peace and Security (WPS), Humanitarian Action and DRR (HA & DRR) work. The SPF supports global, regional, and country level normative, coordination and operational work and remains critical in strengthening of UN Women’ technical capacities in these thematic areas. Thanks to this Partnership, UN Women has expanded its global reach for technical assistance and capacity-building at national level, built its global normative influence, and strengthened its coordination role within the UN System in the thematic areas supported by the programme.

The SPF is implemented as a global programme that is managed by the relevant thematic teams in Policy, Programme & Intergovernmental Division (PPID), in coordination with UN-Women Regional and Country Offices and a dedicated Programme Management Specialist based in Programme Support Management Unit (PSMU).

Within the framework of the SPFIII, UN Women is seeking to commission a mid-term review (MTR) of the programme to inform future programme orientation and implementation. UN Women is looking to engage an independent international consultant to conduct the MTR according to the objective and scope detailed below. 

The consultant will be reporting to SPF Programme Management Specialist, PSMU, who will also be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will conduct a mid-term review of the SPFIII with expected deliverables as detailed below.

Deliverables:

• Desk review and Inception Report with proposed scope, design, methodology, work plan and structure of the final MTR report.
• Desk review and interviews with relevant stakeholders at UN Women HQs, Regional and Country Offices, donors, and other key internal and external stakeholders including civil society organizations, and a possible Country/Regional Office mission.
• Draft Preliminary Report and presentation, to be given at a debriefing meeting with UN-Women’s SPF Team.
• Final Report that should include the following:
  • Executive Summary
  • Introduction (including context, scope, methodology and limitations)
  • Key Strategic Findings and Conclusions
  • Recommendations (corrective actions for on-going or future work, not more than 10)
  • Summary on challenges, lessons learned and best practices
  • Annexes (list of interviewees, list of documents reviewed, etc.)

The consultant cannot have participated in the programme preparation, formulation, and/or implementation and should not have a conflict of interest with programme related activities.

MTR OBJECTIVE, CRITERIA AND SCOPE

The programme has been informed by the final evaluation of the SPF phase I conducted in 2016, mid-term review of the SPF phase II conducted in 2019 as well as relevant corporate thematic evaluations therefore the focus of this MTR is on selected areas of relevance for further refinement of programme strategies as well as amplification of programme results and its impact.

Specifically, the MTR will assess the coherence and compatibility of the SPF-supported work with related thematic work at global, regional, and country level to evaluate how the programme fits the broader context within which it is implemented. This includes internal coherence, focused on alignment with internal policy frameworks and synergies and interlinkages between SPF-supported interventions and other UN Women’s interventions in selected thematic areas as well as external coherence, focused on alignment with UN system wide agenda and policy frameworks and commitments and complementarity and coordination of the SPF-supported interventions with other relevant development actors, including governmental and civil society, and the extent these interventions are adding value while avoiding duplication of efforts.

Furthermore, the MTR will assess sustainability and impact of SPF-supported programming interventions. Specifically, the MTR will identify programming interventions that stemmed out from the SPF support and evaluate how they were sustained and amplified by being taken over by other development or governmental partners, and/or by being replicated by them within their own programming frameworks, or that ended due to the lack of uptake. The review will also include sustainability and transformation that is achieved through opening of new areas of work that were initially conceptualized and piloted with the SPF support and then developed to their full potential through new funding modalities, both internal and external. The MTR will identify, assess, categorize, and document these interventions, their sustainability, impact, and catalytic effect, and recognize underlying internal and external enablers and constraints critical for their success or lack of thereof.

Conclusions & Recommendations:

The MTR consultant will include a section of the report setting out the MTR’s evidence-based conclusions considering the findings. Recommendations (not more than 10) should be succinct suggestions for critical intervention that are specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant. A recommendation table should be put in the report’s executive summary.

MTR APPROACH & METHODOLOGY

The MTR must provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable, and useful.

The MTR will adhere to the principles established in  and the UN Evaluation Group’s . These should include but are not limited to independence, impartiality, transparency, ethics, partnerships, credibility, and utility. Mixed methods, both qualitative and quantitative, should be used to collect data and gather evidence.

The MTR consultant will review all relevant sources of information (listed below) and any other materials considered useful for this evidence-based review. The MTR consultant is expected to follow a collaborative and participatory approach ensuring close engagement with the UN Women SPF Team, Internal Programme Board, selected UN Women Country and Regional Offices supported through the programme, UN Women HQs and Regional Policy Advisers and Specialists, Sida and Norad counterparts, and other key internal and external stakeholders.

The final MTR report should describe the MTR approach taken and the rationale for the approach making explicit the underlying assumptions, challenges, strengths and weaknesses about the methods and approach of the review.

List of Documents to be reviewed by the MTR consultant: 

• SPFI, SPFII, SPFIII Programme Documents and Integrated Results and Resource Frameworks.
• Annual progress reports.
• Annual Work Plans including briefs on strategic direction.
• Minutes of the annual meetings with donors.
• SPF 10 Year Reviews (impact assessments)
• SPFI&II brochure – Stable funding in an unstable world
• SPFIII 2022 annual brochure - Amplifying women’s voice and influence in politics and crises

The following documents will also be available:

• UN Women Strategic Plans 2014-2017, 2018-2021, 2022-2025
• Final Evaluation of the SPFI
• Mid-term review of the SPFII
• UN Women corporate evaluations for thematic areas covered by the SPF
• Flagship Programmes (thematic Corporate Theory of Change under SP 2018-2021)

MTR ARRANGEMENTS

The principal responsibility for managing this MTR resides with the Commissioning Unit - Programme Support Management Unit (PSMU). The SPF Programme Team and Programme Management Specialist will be responsible for liaising with the MTR consultant to provide all relevant documents and set up stakeholder interviews.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy.

As part of this assignment, there will be a possibility of a mission travel to a selected UN Women Country Office as defined in the MTR scope and methodology. 

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

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:  

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES: 

• Excellent knowledge of principles and methods of evaluation, particularly in the context of international development
• Demonstrated grasp and understanding of gender issues, in general, and preferably in the UN system.
• Excellent analytical skills, including ability to rapidly analyze and integrate diverse information with a discerning sense for quality of data.
• Ability to work with multidisciplinary and multicultural teams.
• Creativity, innovation, and initiative.
• Result oriented and able to respect deadlines.

Ability to work and coordinate with numerous stakeholders.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, human rights, gender/women's studies, international development, or a related field is required.

• 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 10 years of progressively responsible work experience in gender programming, monitoring and/or evaluation in the UN and/or international development.
• Recent experience in result-based management programming and/or evaluation metholdogies is required.
• Relevant thematic knowledge would be an added advantage.
• Experience in gender sensitive evaluation would be an added advantage.
• Familiarity with UN Women and its programme evaluation would be an added advantage.
• Excellent analytical skills with strong drive for results and capacity to work independently.
• Excellent English communication and writing skills; (Samples of previous work will be required.)

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.

How to Apply

• Personal CV or P11 (P11 can be downloaded from): )
• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)