National Consultant(SES)

Sustainable development, a cornerstone of our client 's mission, requires balancing economic, social, and environmental objectives. A critical component of this is ensuring that development initiatives "do no harm" and actively contribute to positive social and environmental outcomes. To this end, our client has established a comprehensive Social and Environmental Standards (SES) policy. The SES underpins our client's commitment to mainstreaming social and environmental sustainability in its Programmes and Projects to support sustainable development. The CO ensures compliance with our client Social and Environmental Standards (SES) by screening risks, applying mitigation measures, and integrating safeguards such as stakeholder engagement, gender equality, and environmental sustainability across the project cycle, supported by monitoring and quality assurance processes.

The SES objectives are to:

• Strengthen the quality of programming by ensuring a principled approach.

• Use a project-level screening and standards system to manage social and environmental risks.

• Ensure full and effective stakeholder engagement.

• Promote accountability and continuous improvement.

This thematic evaluation comes at a crucial time to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the SES framework in Yemen Country Office. The evaluation will cover the period from 2023 to 2026, examining how effectively the environmental and social safeguards have been integrated into the project life cycle from design and appraisal to implementation, monitoring, and closure. The findings will be vital for strengthening accountability, informing future policy adjustments and application at CO level, and enhancing our client’s Yemen’s capacity to deliver sustainable development results

This Thematic Evaluation aims to provide UNDP Yemen Country Office, partners, and other stakeholders with a comprehensive assessment of the performance and applicability of the Environmental and Social Safeguards framework in a crisis context CO level as a case study. The evaluation will assess the framework’s relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact on the CO level. The assessment will cover both dimensions: (i) the effectiveness of project-level safeguard instruments,including risk screening, mitigation measures, and monitoring arrangements; and (ii) the Country Office’s overall progress and compliance with the our client Social and Environmental Standards (SES) Policy. Assessing both levels is important, as project-level implementation provides evidence of how SES is applied in practice, while the CO-level review captures the effectiveness of systems, oversight, and institutional compliance. Together, these complementary analyses will provide a comprehensive view of SES performance.

Specific objectives are to:

• Assess SES performance in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, including conflict sensitivity and institutional capacity constraints in relation to our client Yemen

• Evaluate the effectiveness of the SES in identifying, assessing, managing, and monitoring social and environmental risks and impacts across our client's portfolio specifically in crisis context CO.

• Appraise the efficiency of the institutional arrangements, processes, and resources allocated for the implementation of the SES in such context.

• Analyze the extent to which the SES framework ensured the integration of cross-cutting issues, including human rights, gender equality, LNOB and the empowerment of marginalized groups for our client Yemen.

• Identify and document evidence-based findings, lessons learned, and good practices to inform the ongoing improvement of the SES policy and its implementation especially in crisis context.

• Provide practical and actionable recommendations to strengthen the safeguards system at corporate, regional, and country levels based on the evaluation results.

 The evaluation will cover the period from January 2023 to December 2026. It will encompass the entire SES framework, including policy, procedures, and implementation practices. The case study will focus on our client Yemen and would entails a review of the Yemen CO level support structure and a purposive sample of Yemen country office projects across different regions and thematic areas.

The evaluation will assess:

• The institutional architecture for SES implementation in the Yemen CO, including roles, responsibilities, and accountability mechanisms at all levels.

• The effectiveness of risk management, monitoring, and reporting on safeguards in the Yemen CO.

• Capacity development initiatives for staff and partners.

• The functioning of the Stakeholder Response Mechanism (SRM) and project-level grievance redress mechanisms.

• The quality and utility of safeguard instruments (e.g., Environmental and Social Impact Assessments, Environmental and Social Management Plans) on Yemen CO level.

• The integration of cross-cutting principles like human rights, gender equality, LNOB and stakeholder engagement within the safeguard's application in the Yemen CO.

• SESP and Safeguard instruments are integrated in the cross cutting areas, such as procurement, contracts and agreements with partners, M&E activities, reporting, etc.

Under the supervision of the International Consultant, the National Consultant will:

• Support implementation of the evaluation methodology

• Conduct fieldwork, interviews, and consultations

• Facilitate focus group discussions

• Conduct site visits and validation

• Support data collection and analysis

• Contribute to drafting findings and recommendations

The consultant will report to the Evaluation Manager

Work closely with:

• Evaluation Focal Point

• International Consultant

• Project teams and stakeholders

•  Master’s degree in environmental sciences, social sciences, development studies, or related field.

• Minimum 5 years in evaluation of development projects

• Experience with environmental/social safeguards or SES

• Strong understanding of RBM and evaluation methodologies

• Experience in fragile or conflict contexts

• Experience with UN or international organizations (asset)

• Strong analytical and reporting skills

• Proven qualitative and quantitative data analysis experience

• Excellent stakeholder engagement and facilitation skills

• Fluency in English (Arabic an asset)

This role has team management responsibility

Interested candidates can apply through the CTG website and should submit their detailed CVs, including experience in similar assignments