National Consultant to Conduct the End of Project Evaluation for the MUSHO Project

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.

This consultancy will support the final evaluation of “The Project for the Implementation of Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Refugee Settlements and Host Communities (MUSHO)” implemented from September 2024 – February 2027. The project aimed to reach 11,000 direct and 43,100 indirect beneficiaries across 5 refugee hosting districts, Adjumani, Yumbe, Madi Okollo, Kyegegwa and Isingiro, in Uganda.  

The evaluation will assess the achievement of the project’s goal which was ‘Enhancing women's agency and resilience through comprehensive approaches to women, peace, and security in the humanitarian context in Uganda. The project Outcomes include: 

1. Refugee and host community women, girls, men, and boys have increased capacity to actively participate and contribute meaningfully to peacebuilding and conflict mitigation processes; 
2. Refugee women and youth including women peacebuilders and women human rights defenders’ access timely and quality social and protection services through strengthened protection, referral, and access to justice mechanisms; 
3. Women and youth have increased participation and benefit from gender responsive climate change mitigation and DRR systems and programs to overcome conflict and climate shocks;
4. Income and economic opportunities for refugee and host community women and girls are scaled up to address economically induced conflicts in the humanitarian context, including violent extremism & radicalisation.

The project design was informed by the following Theory of Change.

1) IF refugee and host community women, men, and youth have increased capacity to actively participate and contribute meaningfully to peacebuilding and conflict mitigation process, 2) IF refugee women and youth including women peacebuilders and women human rights defenders, access timely and quality social and protection services through strengthened protection, referral and access to justice mechanism, 3) IF women and youth have increased participation and benefit in gender-responsive climate change mitigation and DRR systems and programs to overcome conflict and climate shocks, and 4) IF income and economic opportunities for refugee and host community women and girls are scaled up to address economically induced conflicts in the humanitarian context, including violent extremism and radicalization, THEN 5) women’s agency and resilience in peace, security and humanitarian contexts will be enhanced 6) BECAUSE women are key drivers of peace and security and including them in peace process leads to more lasting peace and stable societies. 

The MUSHO project has been implemented through Responsible Parties: Women International Peace Centre (WIPC), Alight, Peace Winds Japan (PWJ) alongside other sub-partners such as Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), National Agricultural Research Institute (NaCRRI), Abi Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Abi ZARDI), National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE), CFAO Mobility Uganda (Toyota Uganda) and RICCI Every day. 

Purpose of the evaluation:

The UN Women Evaluation Policy is the main guiding document that sets forth the principles and organizational framework for evaluation planning, conduct and follow-up in UN Women. These principles are aligned with the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards for Evaluation in the UN System. The key principles for gender-responsive evaluation at UN Women are: 1) National ownership and leadership; 2) UN system coordination and coherence with regard to gender equality and the empowerment of women; 3) Innovation; 4) Fair power relations and empowerment; 5) Participation and inclusion; 6) Independence and impartiality; 7) Transparency; 8) Quality and credibility; 9) Intentionality and use of evaluation; and 10) Ethics. 

It is a priority for UN Women that this endline project evaluation will be gender-responsive and will actively support the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment, with emphasis on UN Women’s key areas central to increasing women’s participation in advancing the women peace and security agenda, women’s protection and safety, climate resilience and economic wellbeing in humanitarian action.   

The primary intended users of this evaluation are:

• Staff in target Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, District Local Government and CSOs; 
• Target beneficiary communities/groups including grassroot women rights organizations;
• Staff of responsible partners; 
• Sectoral leads in the participating UN-agencies and refugee response coordination; 
• UN Agencies technical working groups; 
• Development partners. 

The primary intended uses of this evaluation are: 

1. Learning and improved decision-making to support the advancement of the NAP III WPS, Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) and gender-responsive disaster risk reduction practices;
2. Provide accountability for the development effectiveness of the project to the donor and other stakeholders;
3. Inform capacity development and mobilization of national stakeholders to advance the WPS agenda, protection services, gender-responsiveness and empowerment of women, girls and youth in humanitarian action;
4. Provide lessons learned and recommendations to inform future resource mobilization and project design.

Evaluation objectives, criteria and key questions:

The objectives of the evaluation are to: 

1. Assess the relevance of the project and its approach in line with local, national, and international priorities on WPS and its intervention in addressing the needs of refugee and host community women in alignment with GEWE;
2. Assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the UN Women’s approach for achievement of results, as defined in the logical framework, including the Program Theory of Change; 
3. Analyze how the human rights approach and gender equality principles were integrated in the design and implementation of the project;
4. Identify and validate lessons learned and good practices that support gender equality and human rights in relation to UN Women’s mandate;
5. Assess the inter-connectedness and sustainability of UN Women’s initiatives on increasing leadership, protection and economic opportunities for refugee women and analyse possible weakness to improve next steps for scale-up programming;
6. Provide actionable recommendations with respect to the HDP nexus.

The evaluation will seek to answer the following key evaluation questions aligned to the UN Evaluation Group (UNEG) evaluation criteria as well as standards based on Human Rights and Gender Equality. 

Evaluation Design: 

The evaluation is expected to be non-experimental and summative. It will employ mixed methods including desk-based review of relevant documents backed by consultation with key project stakeholders and field-based primary data collection from direct project beneficiaries. The evaluation will follow a collaborative and participatory approach, ensuring close engagement with programme beneficiaries, implementing partners, ministries, departments, agencies and local governments and other key stakeholders. The analysis of the application of human rights and gender equality principles will be an integral part of the evaluation. Integration of human rights and gender equality issues into the evaluation requires adherence to three main principles – inclusion, participation, and fair power relations. 

Management and Reporting Arrangements:

The consultant will report directly to the Program Specialist, Women Peace & Security, who will provide overall management and supervision of this consultancy. To ensure inclusiveness and comprehensive stakeholder engagement, UN Women will also establish an Evaluation Reference Group comprising UN Women staff, duty bearers, right holders, development partners/donors, UN Country Team representatives, and civil society organizations. Members will be selected based on a stakeholder analysis. 

The evaluation will be conducted in accordance with UN Women evaluation guidelines and UNEG norms and standards. 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 their relevant Programmes. For quality assurance, the evaluation report will be rated against the Global Evaluation Report Assessment & Analysis System (GERAAS).

Description of Responsibilities/Scope of Work:

• Conduct an initial desk review of available documents, gather and analyse project data, conceptualize the evaluation approach, consult internally on the approach, develop data collection tools, stakeholder mapping, engage reference group;
• Develop the evaluation methodology and data collection tools for review by the Evaluation reference group and incorporate changes as appropriate;
• Develop Inception Report that will be reviewed by the Evaluation Reference Group;
• Review existing baseline data to determine available data against which to measure progress;
• Collect primary quantitative and qualitative data from beneficiaries and selected stakeholders;
• Conduct in-depth interviews with national UN Women staff, responsible partner organizations, donor representatives, and other stakeholders as necessary;
• Prepare the first draft of the evaluation report and submit it to the Evaluation Reference Group for comments and possible endorsement;
• Present the evaluation findings for validation with the Evaluation Reference Group;
• Produce a final evaluation report of not more than 40 pages excluding annexes, with structure and quality as per UN Women’s evaluation handbook and GERAAS tool 14.

Deliverables:

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel:

This is a home and field-based consultancy. The consultant is expected to undertake travel to the project locations in Adjumani, Yumbe, Madi Okollo, Kyegegwa and Isingiro districts for primary data collection. 

Travel costs will be covered separately by UN Women based on UN Women rates.

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:

• Strong knowledge of programme formulation and implementation and Results Based Management;
• Strong understanding of various methodologies in evaluation, both qualitative and quantitative, such as surveys, record reviews, focus groups and case studies; 
• Ability to synthesize programme performance data and produce analytical reports to inform strategic decision-making;
• Good Women Peace and Security and humanitarian programming knowledge;
• Strong analytical, interviewing skills and ability to work independently.

Education and Certification:

• A master’s degree or equivalent in Gender / Women's studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Social Sciences, Human Rights, International Development, or a related field is required;
• A first-level relevant university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in planning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of development projects/ programmes is required;
• Experience in designing and leading baseline studies and/or evaluations including gender responsive baseline studies and/or evaluations is required;
• Experience working on GEWE programming with a specific focus on Women, Peace, and Security and humanitarian programming is required;
• Experience in conducting research, analysis, and interpretation, and in presenting findings on gender, human rights, conflict prevention, and peacebuilding issues is required;
• Experience with the UN system is desirable;
• Experience working with national and sub-national government institutions, peacebuilding stakeholders, and humanitarian actors advancing women’s rights and gender equality is desirable.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of any other UN official language is an asset.

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.