Evaluation Management Consultant with UNICEF Afghanistan

Evaluation Management Consultant with UNICEF Afghanistan

Background 

UNICEF promotes transparency and accountability through demonstrating evidence-based results for children. The Evaluation Policy of UNICEF is fully aligned with the Organization’s Mandate and Mission and the globally accepted obligations in the Convention of the Rights of the Child. Founded on the principles and values emphasized in the Policy, the role of the Evaluation Function of UNICEF is to ensure that the programmes contribute to helping the most disadvantaged and marginalized children realize their rights and recognize their potential, and that that their needs are addressed. UNICEF’s recent developments in the field of evaluation and efforts have been focusing on enhancing the role of evaluations in results-based management, and evidence-based policy making and programming.  

In recent years, UNICEF Afghanistan has carried out several evaluations that yielded significant results; yet several challenges, especially in terms of security and access to the population, continue to persist and delay many evaluation activities. At present, UNICEF Afghanistan has three ongoing evaluations and six planned evaluation-related initiatives for the period of 2017-2020. Special support is required, in particular, for the development of evaluation frameworks, including the conduct of baseline studies, for (i) the Community-based Nutrition Programme (CBNP); and (ii) the Afghan Women’s Leadership Programme (AWLI) to support adolescent girls. Each of these initiatives requires support during the inception phase – including the design of experimental or quasi-experimental approaches for CBNP and AWLI, the conduct of baseline surveys, and quality assurance around the baseline reporting milestones, with the average overall implementation timeline of 6 months.

UNICEF’s Evaluation Policy, Regional Evaluation Strategy of South Asia (ROSA) 2014-2017 and Afghanistan Country Programme Documents highlight the importance of quality assurance and management of the evaluation products. Each evaluation conducted under UNICEF Afghanistan has an Evaluation Reference Group with specific roles and responsibilities for quality assurance, under guidance of UNICEF Afghanistan Social Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Section that ensures that the evaluation reports meet the standards and norms of UNICEF and UN Evaluation Group.

UNICEF Afghanistan is seeking the support of a qualified Evaluation Management Consultant to quality assure and manage two evaluations. The Evaluation Management Consultant will be supervised by the Chief of the Social Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (SPPME) Section. 

Purpose and Scope of Work

The Evaluation Management Consultant will be responsible for developing evaluation frameworks, as well as quality assurance and coordination of the baseline assessments of the following programmes:

1. Community-Based Nutrition Programme (CBNP)
2. Afghan Women’s Leadership Programme (AWLI)

The assignment will require maintaining a good relationship with the evaluation teams as well as with the internal and external partners in the evaluations. The Evaluation Management Consultant will play a key role in upholding United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) norms and standards for all evaluation processes and products, including inception and baseline study reports. Overall, the Evaluation Management Consultant will provide substantive operational and technical support to the evaluation teams. S/he will work closely with the evaluation team leaders throughout the evaluations to ensure that they are conducted in accordance with the UNEG Norms and Standards.

In addition, the Evaluation Management Consultant, will support SPPME in designing and quality-assuring new and on-going evaluations, with a view to strengthening ACO’s evaluation function.

Tasks and responsibilities

The Evaluation Management Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks (1-5 of which relate primarily to the above-mentioned CBNP and AWLI projects):

1. The planning phase.

• In consultation with stakeholders, the Evaluation Management Consultant will finalize the terms of references and support the development of evaluation frameworks for the evaluations. S/he will be responsible for developing and putting in place a quality assurance process and establish evaluation reference groups for each evaluation. S/he will also establish and maintain communication with the reference group on the evaluation’s scope, methodology, findings, conclusions and recommendations. S/he will support the advertisement and recruitment of evaluation teams.
• These tasks will require at least one mission to Kabul, and possibly several missions to zonal offices, to facilitate discussions and agreement between all stakeholders, including the reference group, and to advocate for the proposed evaluation approaches, where necessary.

1. The inception phase

• The Evaluation Management Consultant will ensure the evaluation teams have access to the information they need for designing the baseline assessment and evaluation methods. In particular, s/he will ensure a good liaison of the evaluation teams with relevant programme sections and facilitate access to programme document, results frameworks, monitoring and financial reports and etc.

• The Evaluation Management Consultant will be fully responsible for the quality assurance of inception reports. The inception reports, constituting key design documents, should outline methods for conducting baseline assessments and evaluations. The inception report should be based on detailed desk research and include a theory of change, evaluation matrix, and timeframe for each proposed data collection method. The Evaluation Management Consultant will ensure that the draft inception reports submitted for review by the internal and external reviewers meet quality standards, and that the final design documents take into account all agreed comments contained in the audit trail reports.

   

• These tasks will require at least three missions to Kabul, and possibly several missions to zonal offices, to facilitate the engagement of the evaluation teams with all stakeholders, to organize and minute review meetings with the reference groups.

   

1. Data collection and data analysis

• The Evaluation Management Consultant will support evaluation teams in ensuring that data collection field missions are properly coordinated and prepared, and that UNICEF Afghanistan Zonal Offices, Programme Sections and national counterparts are informed of the purpose of the visits.

• S/he will ensure that the evaluation teams develop clear work plans and guidelines for the training of data collectors and data collection process.

• The Evaluation Management Consultant will ensure the data analysis activities and products meet the quality standards and that the conclusions and recommendations are firmly based on evidence.

   

• These tasks will require at least one mission to Kabul for each evaluation, to quality assure data collection, and to facilitate presentations of emerging findings with a range of stakeholders in Kabul and zonal offices.

1. Report writing and finalization

• The Evaluation Management Consultant will conduct preliminary quality scans of draft baseline reports, and will engage with evaluation teams accordingly, prior to their submission to various internal and external reviewers.

   

1. Coordination of quality reviews

    

• The Evaluation Management Consultant will be responsible to ensure optimal participation by key stakeholders in the various review stages, and to coordinate the review of the inception report and various iterations of the draft report with primary stakeholders, internal reference groups, external advisory panels, and other external review bodies.  Reviews will need to be managed within specific and agreed timelines. S/he will be responsible for generating audit trails for all comments, to work with evaluation teams to ensure that all comments are addressed, and to disseminate audit trail responses to ensure transparency and accountability.

   

• She/he will also ensure the reviewers provide coherent feedback to the Evaluation Teams within agreed timelines; and that, all the comments received will be responded to and included in the final reports when applicable.

   

1. Support to the design, launch and quality assurance of ongoing and new evaluations and reviews

In the context of ACO’s continuing effort to strengthen its evaluation function, increased attention is being given to the development of rigorous evaluation frameworks for projects under development, and to ensuring the quality of existing evaluations.  The Evaluation Management Consultant will support the design, launch and quality assurance of ongoing and new evaluations and reviews, drafting concept notes, terms of reference, undertaking evaluability assessments, and commenting on the quality of existing terms of reference, inception reports and draft reports. Specific tasks will be allocated in consultation with ACO, and may relate, in particular, to the evaluations of the Weekly Iron Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) project; the mid-term evaluation of the Community-Based Education (CBE) programme; and the formative evaluation of the Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) programme.

Deliverables, timeline and payment schedule:

Deliverables/Outputs: Selection of CBNP evaluation team and establishment of a quality assurance mechanism

Timeframe: Month 2

Payment schedule: 10%

Deliverables/Outputs: Selection of AWLI evaluation team and establishment of a quality assurance mechanism

Timeframe: Month 2

Payment schedule: 10%

Deliverables/Outputs: Inception Report CBNP quality assured in line with agreed standards

Timeframe: Month 3

Payment schedule: 10%

Deliverables/Outputs: Inception Report AWLI quality assured in line with agreed standards

Timeframe: Month 3

Payment schedule: 10%

Deliverables/Outputs: Baseline Report CBNP quality assured in line with agreed standards

Timeframe: Month 6

Payment schedule: 22.5%

Deliverables/Outputs: Baseline Report AWLI quality assured in line with agreed standards

Timeframe: Month 6

Payment schedule: 22.5%

Deliverables/Outputs: Ad-hoc support to ACO on evaluation, including conceptualization and design, formulation of terms of reference, and review of evaluation milestones (18 days, to be allocated in consultation with ACO)

Timeframe: Month 6

Payment schedule: 15%

Requirements: (Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required)

• Master degree in Development Studies, Sociology or related Social Science field
• Minimum ten years of relevant work experience in social research and evaluations in the development and humanitarian fields

• Solid experience in conducting and managing evaluations and baseline assessments of development programmes required
• Familiarity with experimental and quasi experimental programme/evaluation designs would be a significant advantage
• Excellent analytical and writing skills
• Excellent research skills
• Familiar with results-based management principles and tools
• Fluency in English