INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANT / EVALUATOR FOR THE FINAL EVALUATION OF THE UN WOMEN PROJECT: Women’s Increased Leadership for Democracy in Georgia (WILD)

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 supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to implement these standards. It stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on five priority areas: increasing women’s leadership and participation in decision-making; ending violence against women; engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes; enhancing women’s economic empowerment; and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in advancing gender equality.

Within the framework of its Women’s Leadership and Decision-making (WLD) portfolio, UN Women, with the generous support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), is implementing the “Women’s Increased Leadership for Democracy in Georgia” project. The project was launched in April 2023, with an impact-level goal is to ensure that women and girls in all their diversity fully and equally participate in decision-making and benefit from gender-responsive governance in Georgia. To achieve this goal, the project is structured around two interlinked outcomes, each supported by two respective outputs.

• Outcome 1: Women and their organizations in all their diversity are engaged in and influence political life and decision-making at all levels in Georgia.
• Output 1.1: Civil society organizations (CSOs) and women leaders, including LNOB women, have enhanced agency, voice, and capacities to lead, monitor, and promote the increased participation of women in political life and decision-making.
• Output 1.2: Increased awareness and sensitization of communities (including men), the media, and opinion-makers is generated about women’s effective roles in leadership and decision-making as part of gender-responsive governance. 
• Outcome 2: Gender equality and women’s meaningful participation and leadership at all levels are promoted through the adoption and implementation of gender-responsive legislative and policy frameworks and practices.
• Output 2.1: Laws, policies, and capacities for women’s political empowerment and gender mainstreaming are developed and implemented at the national and local levels. 
• Output 2.2: More and better-quality data and analysis are available to promote and track the progress of gender equality and women’s political empowerment.

Upon the project completion, as established in the project document, a mandatory external final evaluation is to be conducted by UN Women for accountability and learning purposes. The final evaluation will be designed as a summative project evaluation to support the strategic learning and planning processes, focusing on the assessment of outcome-level and output-level results and capturing the key lessons learned from project implementation. 

The information generated by the evaluation will be used by different stakeholders to contribute to building of the evidence base on effective strategies for women’s empowerment in Georgia and to facilitate UN Women’s strategic reflection and learning for programming in the area. 

Main evaluation users include UN Women Country Office in Georgia as well as the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency (project donor). Furthermore, national stakeholders – civil society partners, private companies, grassroots women, and targeted state and non-state agencies will be also closely involved in the evaluation process to increase ownership of findings, draw lessons learned, and make greater use of the final evaluation results. 

The specific evaluation objectives are as follows:

• Analyze the relevance and coherence of the implementation strategy and approaches of the project.
• Assess effectiveness and organizational efficiency in progressing towards the achievement of the project’s results as defined in the interventions.
• Validate the project results in terms of achievements and/or weaknesses toward the outcome and outputs.
• To assess how the project and its results relate and contribute to commitments and achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Georgia
• Assess the sustainability of the results achieved by the project. 
• Document lessons learned, best practices, success stories, and challenges to inform future work of UN Women and the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency in the areas of women’s leadership and inclusion in the decision-making.
• Identify strategies for replication and up-scaling of the project’s best practices.
• Provide actionable recommendations for future programmatic developments and maximize ownership by partners in the country covered by the project.

The evaluation will address the criteria of Project Relevance, Coherence, Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Sustainability. Human Rights and Gender Equality will be included as an additional evaluation criterion. The evaluation will seek to answer the following key evaluation questions/sub-questions that will be further tailored during the inception phase of the evaluation:

• Relevance: A) How does the project reflect and align with gender equality national strategic plans and normative frameworks as well as Georgia’s international obligations and commitments? B) Is the project design based on quality analysis, including gender and human rights-based analysis, risk assessments, socio-cultural and political analysis? C) Were the programmatic strategies appropriate to address the identified needs of beneficiaries? 
• Coherence: A) To what extent the project adheres to corporate strategic priorities of UN Women and the UN Women CO Strategic Note? B) Is the project achieving synergies between the larger UN Women’s portfolios and the work of the UN Country Team? C) Is the project achieving synergies between UN Women and key national stakeholders, including national governments and CSOs? D) How does the project design match with the complexity of national structures, systems, and decision-making processes?
• Effectiveness: A) What has been the progress made towards the achievement of the expected outcomes and expected results? What are the results achieved? B) What are the reasons for the achievement or non-achievement of the project results? C) Does the project have effective monitoring mechanisms in place to measure progress towards results? D) What is the influence of the specific country context and circumstances on the achievement of results and operational effectiveness? F) How adaptable and rapidly does the project react to changing situations?  G) Has the project achieved any unforeseen results, either positive or negative? For whom? H) What are the good practices and the obstacles or shortcomings encountered? How were they overcome? I) To what extent have capacities of relevant duty-bearers and rights-holders been strengthened? J) What -if any- types of innovative good practices have been introduced in the project for the achievement of WEE results? 
• Human Right and Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women:   A) Has the project been implemented according to human rights and development effectiveness principles (Participation / empowerment; Inclusion / non-discrimination; National accountability / transparency)? B) Is the project design tailored to target the underlying causes of gender inequality and address LNOB? C) To what extent is the project changing the dynamics of power in relationships between different groups, including backlash on gender equality?
• Efficiency: A) Have resources (financial, human, technical support, etc.) been allocated strategically to achieve the project outcomes? B) Have the outputs been delivered in a timely manner? C) To what extend were relevant stakeholders and actors included in the project planning and implementation?
• Sustainability A) How effectively has the project been able to contribute to the generation of national ownership of the project outputs? B) 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? C) To what extend has the project identified strategic partners that could pick up on supporting continued government and non-governmental action when the project comes to an end? D) Do national/local institutions demonstrate leadership commitment and technical capacity to continue to replicate some project activities? E) To what extend have the project’s exit strategy been well planned and successful? F) To what extend has UN Women been able to promote replication of project successes?

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 final evaluation of the project is to be conducted externally by an international external consultant/evaluator in a team with two national consultants/assistant evaluators. It is planned to be carried out in Tbilisi, with a possibility of field visits, completed in 40 working days in the period of 28 September 2026 – 26 February 2027.

The final evaluation will include all aspects of the project and will cover almost the full project implementation period, starting from April, 2023 to September, 2026.

The evaluation methodology will be mixed (quantitative and qualitative research methods and analytical approaches) to account for the complexity of gender relations and to ensure participatory and inclusive processes that are culturally appropriate. A theory of change approach will be followed, and the consultants are expected to reconstruct, validate, and identify the gaps in the project’s theories of change (for each of the Outcomes). The reconstructed theories of change should elaborate on how the project has contributed to creating an enabling legislative, policy, institutional, and economically enabling environment in line with internationally binding standards on gender-sensitive governance systems and women, peace, and security in Georgia. Assumptions should be tested and explain both the connections between early, intermediate, and long-term project outcomes and the expectations about how and why the project has brought them about. By reconstructing the Theories of Change evaluators are also expected to identify challenges and gaps in the implementation of the project for future improvement. Hence, an eventual next phase of the project will benefit from a refined and tested the Theories of Change.

Interviews and focus group discussions with all key stakeholders involved in the project implementation, including but not limited to WILD project team, government partners, NGO partners, beneficiaries, etc. shall also take place.

The evaluation team should develop a sampling frame (area and population represented, rationale for selection, mechanism of selection, limitations of the sample) and specify how it will address the diversity of stakeholders in the intervention. The evaluation team should take measures to ensure data quality, reliability and validity of data collection tools and methods and their responsiveness to gender equality and human rights; for example, the limitations of the sample (representativeness) should be stated clearly, and the data should be triangulated (cross-checked against other sources) to help ensure robust results.

The evaluation process is divided in four phases: 1) Preparation, mainly devoted to structuring the evaluation approach, establishing reference group, preparing the TOR, compiling project documentation, and recruitment of the evaluation team; 2) Conduct, which involves reconstruction of theory of change, organizing inception meetings, drafting inception report and finalization of evaluation methodology, data collection and analysis, including desk research and preparation of interviews and focus groups, preparation of field missions and visits to project sites (data collection in the field will be implemented by national consultant based on the clear and specific guidelines from the international consultant); 3) Reporting, focusing on presentation of preliminary findings, developing draft and final reports; and 4) Use and follow-up, which will entail the development of management response by UN Women team and follow-up to the implementation of the management response.

The consultant will be responsible only for Conduct and Reporting phases:

• Conduct phase: at the beginning of the consultancy, the consultant will be provided with key sources of information for an initial desk review. The online inception meetings will be conducted with the WILD Program team. In this phase an inception report that will include the refined evaluation methodology including data collection plan and instruments will be delivered. The inception report will be produced by the evaluation team and validated and approved by UN Women. Based on the inception phase, the consultant will carry out further in-depth desk review. Data collection will be carried out jointly by the international and national consultant. Online or face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders, as relevant, will take place. Field missions will be conducted by international and national consultant jointly in line with data collection plan and instruments developed by the international consultant, while the international consultant can also interview major English-speaking project partners online. National consultants will provide summaries of interviews in English to the consultant in line with the pre-agreed format and the international consultant will carry out further analysis. 
• Reporting phase: The collected information will be analyzed, and the final evaluation report will be delivered. A validation meeting will be organized where the consultant will validate the final report with UN Women and the Evaluation Reference Group (ERG) and submit for approval by UN Women. 

UN Women’s Independent Evaluation Service (IES) has developed the GERAAS, which has adapted UNEG Standards for Evaluation in the UN System to guide evaluation managers and evaluators on what constitutes a ‘good quality’ report at UN Women. All evaluations in UN Women are annually assessed against the framework adopted in GERAAS, and, hence, the consultant should be familiar with GERAAS quality standards.

In addition, UN Women is an UN-SWAP reporting entity, and the consultant will take into consideration that all the evaluations in UN Women are annually assessed against the UN-SWAP Evaluation Performance Indicator and its related scorecard. The evaluation will be conducted in accordance with UN Women evaluation guidelines and UNEG Norms and  Standards for evaluation and the UNEG Code of Conduct for Evaluations in the UN System.[1]

The evaluation will be a consultative, inclusive, and participatory process and will ensure the participation of stakeholders engaged in the implementation of the project. 

The evaluation will be human rights and gender responsible, and an Evaluation Reference Group (ERG) will be established. 

The Evaluation Reference Group is an integral part of the evaluation management structure and is constituted to facilitate the participation of relevant stakeholders in the design and scope of the evaluation, raising awareness of the different information needs, quality assurance throughout the process and in disseminating the evaluation results. The Evaluation Reference Group will be engaged throughout the process and will be composed of relevant representatives of state and non-state stakeholders. The ERG group will review the draft evaluation report and provide substantive feedback to ensure quality and completeness of the report and will participate in the inception and validation meeting of the final evaluation report.

The UN Women Georgia Evaluation Focal Point will serve as the Evaluation Task Manager, who will be responsible for day-to-day management of the evaluation and ensure that the evaluation is conducted in accordance with the sister entities 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 evaluation process will be supported by the UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Evaluation Specialist.

Coordination in the field including logistical support will be the responsibility of UN Women. 

Within six weeks upon completion of the evaluation, UN Women has the responsibility to prepare a management response that addresses the findings and recommendations to ensure future learning and inform implementation of relevant projects.

This is a consultative/participatory final project evaluation with a strong learning component. The management of the evaluation will ensure that key stakeholders are consulted.

The international consultant will lead the evaluation in close coordination with two a national consultant. 

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

The evaluation team will benefit from the technical and operational support of UN Women Country Office in Georgia. In more specific terms, the international consultant will be supported by the national evaluator and will be responsible for the following tasks: 

• To conduct inception meetings/interviews with WILD Program staff and elaborate and submit the detailed inception report that contains evaluation objectives and scope, desk review, description of evaluation methodology / methodological approach, data collection tools, data analysis methods, key informants/agencies, evaluation questions, performance criteria, issues to be studied, work plan, and reporting requirements. It should include a clear evaluation matrix linking all these aspects.
• To elaborate and finalize the data collection plan (outlining the roles of international and national consultants) and data collection tools (e.g. guides and questionnaires) individually designed for each respondent/group of respondents to be used during the interviews and focus groups with the key informants/interviewees.
• To conduct individual interviews and focus groups discussions with the relevant stakeholders online and face-to-face with the support and together with national consultant.
• To analyze the data and reconstruct, validate, and identify the gaps in the project’s theory of change based on the research findings.
• To prepare a Power Point Presentation and an outline on preliminary findings and present to ERG, and reflect the feedback shared at this presentation in the final report.
• To produce and submit the draft and final evaluation reports in English. Format of the final evaluation report shall include the following chapters: Executive Summary, Project description, Evaluation purpose, Evaluation methodology, Findings, Lessons learned, Recommendations, and Annexes (including interview list - without identifying names for confidentiality, data collection instruments, key documents consulted, Terms of Reference). 

Deliverables

1. Detailed Inception Report, which contains evaluation objectives and scope, findings from inception meetings with all relevant stakeholders, initial desk review, description of evaluation methodology/methodological approach, data collection plan and tools, data analysis methods, key informants/agencies, evaluation questions, performance criteria, issues to be studied, work plan, and reporting requirements. It should include a clear evaluation matrix linking all these aspects - by 12 October 2026 (10 working days, home-based) 
2. Data collected through interviews and focus group discussions - by 27 November 2026 (10 working days, in Georgia or home-based –fieldwork will be carried out by the international consultant and national consultants jointly in line with the agreed guidelines)
3. Data analyzed and Power Point Presentation on preliminary findings conducted to highlight key evaluation findings and conclusions, lessons learnt, and recommendations - by 7 December 2026 (5 working days, home-based)
4. Draft evaluation report incorporating feedback received during the presentation of preliminary findings and including: Introduction and Background; Evaluation Approach and Methodology; Findings; Conclusions; Lessons Learned; Recommendations; and relevant Annexes submitted to UN Women – by January 11 (10 working days).
5. Final Evaluation Report (including two rounds of revision) incorporating feedback received by the Evaluation Reference Group submited to the Evaluation Task Manager by 19 February 2027 (4 working days).
6. Evaluation brief that reflects key findings, conclusions, and recommendations and deployed methodology (indicative samples will be provided by UN Women) – by 26 February 2027 (1 working day). 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. 

As part of this assignment, travel to Tbilisi and a maximum of 2 trips to the regions of Georgia (Samtskhe-Javaheti, Kvemo Kartli, Mtskheta-Mtianeti, and/or Kakheti) with a total stay of a maximum of 6 days may be required.

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:

• Ability to think, analyze and articulate strategically on programme development and results-based management
• Ability to facilitate meetings with different levels of stakeholders
• Excellent drafting and writing skills to produce and present concise and analytical discussion papers
• Knowledge in results-based programming in support of gender and human rights
• Technical knowledge in monitoring and evaluation.

Ethical Considerations 

UNEG Ethical Guidance should be applied to the selection of methods for the evaluation and throughout the evaluation process. The consultant will sign the “Evaluation Consultants Agreement Form – UNEG Code of Conduct for Evaluation in the UN System” prior to the initiation of the evaluation process.

Required Qualifications:

Education and Certification:

• Advanced (at least Master) degree in one or more following areas: social sciences, gender studies, political science, social policy, development studies or another related field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with seven (7) additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 5 (five) years of practical experience in conducting evaluations of strategies, policies, and projects, in lieu of advanced degree, or 7 (seven) years of similar experience in case of first level university degree
• At least 5 (five) years of experience and knowledge on gender equality, gender mainstreaming, gender analysis and women’s empowerment, in lieu of advanced degree, or 7 (seven) years of similar experience in case of first level university degree.
• At least 5 (five) years of experience/knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues in Georgia and/or in the region, in lieu of advanced degree, or 7 (seven) years of similar experience in case of first level university degree.
• Excellent analytical, facilitation and communications skills and ability to negotiate amongst a wide range of stakeholders.
• Proved knowledge of human rights issues, the human rights-based approach to programming, human rights analysis and related mandates within the UN system will be considered as an asset.

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.