Evaluability assessment of UNICEF MONGOLIA COUNTRY PROGRAMME (2017-2021)

UNICEF is seeking expressions of interest from international professional evaluators or institutions with RBM skills to conduct an Evaluability Assessment of the Government of Mongolia and UNICEF Country Programme 2017-2021 to be conducted in September and October, 2017 (35 working days).

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you.

For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

BACKGROUND

UNICEF Mongolia is at the start of the Government of Mongolia and UNICEF Country Programme 2017-2021. Thus, UNICEF is planning to conduct an Evaluability Assessment of its Country Programme’s design. In general, an Evaluability Assessment is “Extent to which an activity or a program can be evaluated in a reliable and credible fashion" of the Country Programme or its sub-components.

The Evaluability Assessment is to provide evidence to UNICEF management, the Government of Mongolia and other stakeholders regarding “the robustness of the Country Programme’s design, including its Theory of Change, in terms of clarity in the intent of the subject to be evaluated, sufficient measurable indicators, assessable reliable information sources and the conduciveness of the institutional context supporting and that no major factor hinders an impartial evaluation process”.[2] An important aspect of the Evaluability Assessment will be to identify shared and divergent understanding among Government and stakeholders of the Country Programme’s objectives, while building consensus on the desired results and what is realistically achievable by 2021. This will create the basis for reflection and learning among programme managers and key stakeholders, resulting in greater coherence and improved management for results. Similarly, this will enable the Country Programme to meet the accountability requirements of UNICEF and the donors and help validate the programme’s continuing coherence at inception to measure progress and demonstrate UNICEF’s contribution. 

The Evaluability Assessment is foreseen to be conducted in September and October, 2017 (35 working days), and UNICEF is seeking expressions of interest from international professional evaluators, or institutional contractors, with RBM skills, and preferably with experience with similar agencies (UN, INGO).

PURPOSE

The purpose of the present Evaluability Assessment is to provide review of the quality and adequacy of the GOM-UNICEF 2017-2021 Country Programme’s design, including its Theory of Change, its relevance to the Mongolia short, medium and long term development priorities and UNICEF global strategic plan; the availability of sufficient quality data or collectable at a reasonable cost as well as the conduciveness of the context to conduct an evaluation with no major factors that will hinder an impartial evaluation process. UNICEF CO and RO management, Government of Mongolia at national and sub-national level are the primary users of the findings and conclusions of this assessment. The evaluability assessment will promote evaluation readiness among those managers whose activities will be the subject of evaluation.

 MAIN DELIVERABLES

 The Contractor shall deliver the following:

 1..Inception Report

2. A complete first draft Evaluability Assessment report; and

3. A final Evaluability Assessment report.

The report shall be prepared based on the UNICEF-Adapted UNEG Evaluation Reports Standards. Copies will be furnished upon awarding of the contract.

 DURATION

 This evaluation shall be undertaken within an estimated period of two (2) months or 35 working days. In the event of an extension in the implementation period, the Contractor shall not receive additional budget from UNICEF.

 QUALIFICATIONS OF THE CONTRACTOR

UNICEF is seeking expressions of interest from international professional evaluators, or institutional contractors, with RBM skills, and preferably with experience with similar agencies (UN, INGO).

The contractor shall have:

• Proven track record in evaluating similar complex national and local programs of UNICEF or UN Programs;
• Advanced university degree in social and relevant sciences and at least 8 years of experience of work in related field;
• Demonstration of strong capacity on child rights issues;
• Commitment to equity and gender sensitive analysis;
• Ability to design and conduct interviews and focus group discussions;
• Strong analytical skills;
• Substantial experience in generating dialogue and consultation process in areas of policy analyses;
• Cultural sensitivity;
• Proven ability to prepare reports in English;

  MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS

 This undertaking will be managed and overseen by the M&E Officer UNICEF, Mongolia with the support of the Regional Evaluation Advisor, based in the UNICEF EAPRO, especially on the agreed upon outputs/deliverables of the Contractor, upon which payments for their services shall be based.

 All materials produced or acquired under the terms of this consultancy shall remain the property of UNICEF. UNICEF furthermore retain the exclusive right to publish or disseminate the reports and studies arising from such materials even after the termination of this consultancy.

 The financial aspects to the offer will also, be assessed on an equal basis irrespective of whether the offer comes from an Individual Contractor / Consultant or Institutional / Corporate Vendor.

If the outcome of the exceptional process is to award the contract to an individual contractor/consultant, the provisions of the Administrative Instruction CF/AI/2013-001 Amend. 2 shall apply (and the individual contractor / consultant will be required to sign an individual contract/consultant contract).

If the outcome of the exceptional process is to award the contract to an institution/corporate vendor relevant provisions of the Supply Manual shall apply (and the institution/corporate service provider, including sole proprietorships will be required to sign an institutional contract).

Payment schedule:

1. Completion of Inception Report                     30%     15 work days
2. A draft Evaluability Assessment report          30%     15 work days

3. A final Evaluability Assessment report          40%     5 work days

    

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold up to 30% of the total fee in the case that the deliverables are not submitted on schedule or do not meet the required standard. Copyright and ownership of all documents produced will remain with UNICEF.

For more details, please refer to the Request for Proposal (RFP) # 9132908 which can be downloaded from http://www.unicef.org/mongolia/about.html.

You may send your queries or submissions to ulaanbaatarhr@unicef.org.

 Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above (including travel and daily subsistence allowance, if applicable).  Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organization.