International Consultant / Evaluator for GE4G project

1. 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. 

UN Women Georgia Country Office (CO) Provides technical support to the state and non-state partners towards the achievement of substantive gender equality in Georgia. In line with national and international commitments, UN Women works on the levels of policies and legislation, institutions and grassroots, to achieve transformative results for increased gender equality and greater protection of the rights of women and girls. UN Women puts special emphasis on the work towards gender mainstreaming in good governance reforms and enhancing women’s political participation, ending violence against women, promoting and supporting women’s economic empowerment, and Women, Peace and Security agenda.

In December 2023, UN Women and UNFPA, with the generous support of the European Union (EU), launched the “Gender Equality for Georgia” (GE4G) project.

This action has been developed on the basis of over a decade of complex interventions carried out by UN Women and UNFPA in the area of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) and ending violence against women and girls (EVAWG), including domestic violence (DV), addressing harmful practices, ensuring women’s reproductive health and rights and bodily autonomy, strengthening women’s decision-making power over their health and lives and their agency and participation at national and local levels.

The overall objective of the project is to advance Georgia’s efforts in addressing gender equality gaps. The work of UN Women and UNFPA contributes to two main outcomes:

Outcome 1: Legislation, policies, and capacities are in place for gender-responsive policymaking and budgeting to ensure greater gender equality and prevention of GBV

Outcome 2: Gender stereotypes, social norms, and attitudes transformed in support of women’s empowerment, greater participation in political and economic life, and combatting of GBV.

The action is fully aligned with the priorities set forth in the action document “Support to the Implementation of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement and Migration Management”, particularly objective 1 (to further strengthen capacity for legislative approximation and implementation of the Association Agreement - SO1; output 1.7). More broadly, it resonates with the priorities outlined in the EU's new Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in External Action 2021–2025 (GAP III), its indicators, and Country Level Implementation Plan (CLIP) which prioritise reducing gender gaps by gradually eliminating domestic violence and gender-based violence and by ensuring better rights protection and empowerment of women in social, economic, and political spheres of life. It further points out the need for transforming adverse social norms and discriminatory stereotypes that facilitate such violence as the cause and consequence of gender inequality. 

Most importantly, the action is fully aligned with Georgia’s national and international commitments in the field of GEWE, EVAWG/DV, including those to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1981), Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention, 2014), the UN Declaration to End Violence against Women (1993) and CEDAW General Recommendation 19 (1992) and General Recommendation 35 (2017). The action corresponds to Georgia’s commitments in the frameworks of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) and its review processes; the Agreed Conclusions of the Commission on the Status of Women, especially its 57^th session (2013); and the recommendations received by Georgia State Party through the Universal Periodic Review procedure (2021),[1] from the CEDAW Committee (2023)^[2] and GREVIO (2022),^[3]the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the Nairobi Statement on ICPD25: Accelerating the Promise and Georgia’s commitments made at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 (2019).^[4] The action will further contribute to the achievement of the nationalized Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG5.^[5]

The goals and objectives of this action are in line with the Law of Georgia on Gender Equality (2010); Law of Georgia on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (2014); Law of Georgia on the Elimination of Domestic Violence, Protection and Support of the Victims of Domestic Violence (2006); National Strategy on Human Rights (2022-2030); National Action Plan on Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence and Measures to be Implemented for the Protection of Victims (Survivors) (2022-2024); and the State Concept of Gender Equality of Georgia (2022).^[6]

The final beneficiaries of the project are women and girls, particularly living in rural areas, ethnic and religious minorities and victims/survivors of violence or those at high risk of violence, as well as men and boys with a particular focus on the inhabitants of Tbilisi, and the Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli regions. 

2. Purpose and Use of the Evaluation Exercise

UN Women and UNFPA are commissioning the final evaluation of the project to:

• Contribute to building of the evidence-base on effective strategies - especially vis-à-vis the intended sustainability of the project results - for political and economic empowerment of women, ending violence against women and girls, combating harmful practices against women and girls, the promotion of women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights.
• Facilitate Participating UN agencies’ (UNFPA and UN Women) strategic reflection, learning and further planning for programming in the areas of political economic empowerment of women, ending violence against women and girls, combating harmful practices against women and girls, engaging men and the promotion of women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights issues to strengthen national stakeholders and structures with the aim to increase sustainability of the results beyond the programme.

The main users of the findings and recommendations of the exercise include UN Women and UNFPA offices in Georgia as well as EU (project donor) and project stakeholders. Furthermore, national stakeholders will be also closely involved in the process to increase ownership of findings, draw lessons learned and make greater use of the findings.

The findings of the exercise are further expected to contribute to effective joint programming on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) in Georgia

3. Objectives, Criteria and Key Questions of the Evaluation

The overall objective of the exercise is to assess the progress made towards the achievement of the set targets under the outputs and objectives of the programme, analyze the results achieved and challenges encountered. 

The specific objectives of the exercise are:

• To   assess the relevance and coherence of UN Women and UNFPA contribution to the intervention at national level and alignment with international agreements and conventions on gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• To assess effectiveness and organizational efficiency in progressing towards the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment results;
• To support UN Women and UNFPA to improve its strategic positioning to better support the achievement of sustained gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• To Analyze how human rights approach and gender equality principles are integrated in the design and implementation of the project;
• To identify and validate lessons learned, good practices and examples of innovation that supports gender equality and human rights;
• To provide insights into the extent to which the UN Women and UNFPA  have realized synergies in the context of the implementation of the project;
• To provide actionable recommendations to UN Women and UNFPA with respect to this area of work.

It is expected that these questions will guide the development of the methodology of the Final Evaluation exercise for GE4G

Relevance:

• To what extent is the intervention aligned with international, regional and national agreements and conventions on gender equality and women’s empowerment including the CEDAW and relevant SDGs?
• To what extent does the project contribute to the implementation of the UNFPA CPD and UN Women Strategic Note?
• To what extent are key national partners involved in the project’s conceptualization and design process?
• Has the implementation been based on quality analysis, including gender and human rights-based analysis, risk assessments, socio-cultural and political analysis? To what extent was the design of the intervention relevant to the needs and priorities of the beneficiaries?
• To what extent did the project’s design and implementation process include collaborative processes, shared vision for delivering results, strategies for joint delivery and sharing of risks among implementing UN entities?

Effectiveness

• What is the progress made towards achievement of the expected outputs and outcome?
• How effective are the selected programme strategies and approaches in progressing towards achieving programme results?
• What contributions are -if any- UN Women and UNFPA making to implement global norms and standards for GEWE in Georgia in the framework of this project?
• To what extent have capacities of relevant duty-bearers and rights-holders been strengthened at this stage of implementation?
• How adaptably and rapidly did GE4G react to changing country context?

Efficiency:

•     Have resources (financial, human, technical support, etc.) been allocated and split amongst the different implementing entities strategically to progress towards the achievement of the project outputs and outcomes?

•     How has the joint nature of the project affected efficiency of delivery, including reduced duplication and increased cost-sharing, reduced/transferred burdens and transaction costs? What factors have influenced this?

•     Has there been effective leadership and management of the project including the structuring of management and administration roles to maximize results?

•     To what extent are the programme’s individual entity and joint monitoring mechanisms in place effective for measuring and informing management of project performance and progress towards targets? To what extent was the monitoring data objectively used for management action and decision making?

Sustainability:

While all the above criteria are relevant, it is of utmost importance that the Final Evaluation exercise looks particularly at the sustainability aspects of the project results

• Have sustainability considerations been incorporated in the project design and implementation? How is this evidenced?
• To what extent has the project been able to establish relevant partnerships with key stakeholders? To what extent are relevant national stakeholders and actors included in the programming and implementation and policy advocacy processes?
• To what extent did the intervention succeed in building sustainable individual and institutional capacities of rights-holders and duty-bearers?
• What is the likelihood that the benefits from the project will be maintained for a reasonably long period of time after the project phase out?

Human Right and Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women: 

• Has the project been implemented according to human rights and development effectiveness principles (Participation / empowerment; Inclusion / non-discrimination; National accountability / transparency)? 
• Is the project design tailored to target the underlying causes of gender inequality and address LNOB?
• To what extent is the project changing the dynamics of power in relationships between different groups?

The questions outlined above are preliminary and are expected to be revised and refined by the evaluation team during the inception phase of the evaluation.

The exercise will examine all the relevant documents of the GE4G, including logical framework of the project, its Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, annual work plans, annual reports to the donor, knowledge products produced in the frameworks of the project, etc. Data will be collected inter alia through interviews with key stakeholders as defined by the agreed evaluation workplan. 

4. Design Process and Methods

The Final Evaluation of the project will be desk based and will also include interviews with key stakeholders in the implementation of the programme. A participatory workshop with implementing UN Entities will be considered. The methodology will be finalized as a part of the second deliverable – inception report in consultation with the management group:

The International Consultant/Evaluator will work in a team with National Consultant/Evaluator and will be responsible for inception, data collection and data analysis and synthesis phase.

• Inception phase: at the beginning of the exercise, the Consultant will be provided with key sources of information for an initial desk review. The online inception meetings will be conducted with the GE4G team and the management of UN Women and UNFPA. At the end of this phase an inception report that will include the refined methodology for the exercise will be delivered. The inception report will be validated and approved by the management of UN Women and UNFPA.
• Data collection phase: based on the inception phase, the contractor will carry out an in- depth desk review, and meetings with key stakeholders to complete data collection and triangulation of information. 
• Data analysis and synthesis phase: The collected information will be analyzed, and final evaluation report will be delivered. An online validation meeting will be organized where the contractor will validate the final report with participating UN agencies to be approved by the management of UN Women and UNFPA.

The consultant must safeguard the rights and confidentiality of information providers, interviewees and stakeholders through measures to ensure compliance with legal and other relevant codes governing collection of data and reporting on data. The consultant must also ensure security of information collected before and after the exercise and protocols to ensure anonymity and confidentiality of sources of information where that is expected. The information knowledge and data gathered in the evaluation process must also be solely used for the evaluation and not for other uses with the express authorization of UN Women and UNFPA.

5. Stakeholders Participation and Management of the Evaluation

The Final Evaluation will be a consultative, inclusive and participatory process and will ensure the participation of project beneficiaries. 

UN Women will appoint an officer who will serve as the Task Manager for the exercise. The Task Manager will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the evaluation and ensure that the exercise is conducted in accordance with UNFPA’s Evaluation Policies, United Nations Evaluation Group Ethical Guidelines and Code of Conduct for Evaluation in the United Nations system and other key relevant guidance documents. The process will be supported by the UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Evaluation Specialist.

Moreover, a Management Group (MG) comprising relevant senior managers of the participating UN agencies and/or their delegated programme staff will be established to oversee the evaluation, make key decisions and quality assure the different deliverables. The MG will quality assure and approve all deliverables. Furthermore, it will make certain that factual errors or errors of omission or interpretation are identified in the deliverables produced. The MG will provide input and relevant information at key stages of the exercise: the terms of reference, inception report, draft and final reports and dissemination of the findings. 

In light of the foregoing UN Women in close cooperation with UNFPA would like to hire an International Consultant/Evaluator who in a team with a National Consultant/Evaluator will be responsible for conducting the final Evaluation of the GE4G Project.

The contractor will report to and work under direct supervision of UN Women and UNFPA and in close collaboration with the Task Manager. 

6. Evaluation Ethics

These evaluations will be conducted in accordance with the principles outlined in the UNEG ‘Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation’. The consultant must safeguard the rights and confidentiality of information providers, interviewees, and stakeholders through measures to ensure compliance with legal and other relevant codes governing collection of data and reporting on data. The consultant must also ensure security of collected information before and after the evaluations and protocols to ensure anonymity and confidentiality of sources of information where that is expected. The information knowledge and data gathered in the evaluation process must also be solely used for the evaluation and not for other uses with the express authorization of UN Women and UNFPA.

Description of Responsibilities /Scope of Work

The International Consultant will be responsible to:

• Draft and submit Inception Reports, presenting a refined scope, a detailed outline of the exercise design and methodology, evaluation questions, and criteria for the approach for in-depth desk review and interviews to be conducted in the data collection phase. The reports will include an evaluation matrix and detailed work plan. A first draft report will be shared with the Management Group and, based upon the comments received the Consultant/Evaluator will revise the drafts. The Consultant/Evaluator will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the final inception report.
• Conduct interviews with key stakeholders to collect and analyse data, where the list of key stakeholders will be identified in consultation with the Contactor. The Task Managers will support the Consultant/Evaluator in liaising with the key stakeholders to schedule interviews as necessary.
• Prepare and finalize Power Point Presentations of preliminary findings (online) detailing the emerging findings of the exercises will be shared with the Management Group for feedback. The Consultant/Evaluator will incorporate the feedback received into the draft reports.
• Draft and submit the Evaluation Reports which will be shared with the Management Group for initial feedback to identify factual errors, errors of omission and/or misinterpretation of information. The revised reports will incorporate this feedback and shared with the MG for final validation. The Consultant/Evaluator will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the revised drafts.
• Produce Evaluation report taking into consideration comments and feedback collected from UN Women and UNFPA. The reports shall include the following chapters: Executive Summary, Introduction and Background, Approach and Methodology (including limitations), Findings, Conclusions, Lessons learnt, Recommendations and relevant Annexes.

Deliverables

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

Travel will be required. Travel costs will be covered separately as per the UN Women’s travel policy.

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

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 Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

• Commitment to continuous improvement 
• Risk management
• Partnerships building 
• Resilience  
• Negotiation 

Required Qualifications:

Academic Background:

• Higher University (at least Master’s) degree in one or more of the following areas: social sciences, gender studies, political science, health, development studies or another related field, alternatively
• Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, gender studies, political science, health, development studies or another related field with at least two years of working experience could be considered in lieu of master’s degree

Relevant Work Experience:

• At least seven (7) years with master’s (nine (9) years in case of bachelor’s degree) of international (preferably eastern Europe, CIS) experience in the field of gender equality and women’s rights; 
• At least seven (7) years with master’s (or nine (9) years in case of bachelor’s degree) of international experience in managing monitoring and evaluation of projects and programmes; 
• Experience in performing evaluations in the field of gender equality and women’s rights;
• Profound knowledge and experience in gender-responsive and human rights-based approaches to evaluation.

Languages:

Fluency in English is required. 

Statements:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.