Evaluation Consultant (Team Leader), International CST-IV, DS:Remotely, with travel to Malawi at spe

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WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles.

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance.

Job Title: Evaluation Consultant (Team Leader)

No. Position/s: 1 (One)

VA No.: 134410

Date of Issue:    11 January 2021         Deadline: 24 January 2021

Type of Contract: International Consultant - When Actually Employed (WAE) Level: CST-IV

Unit / Division: UN World Food Programme Malawi Country Office

Duty Station: Remotely, with travel to Malawi at specified times

Duration: 41 days from January 2021 to October 2021

ABOUT WFP

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. As the international community has committed to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition by 2030, one in nine people worldwide still do not have enough to eat. Food and food-related assistance lie at the heart of the struggle to break the cycle of hunger and poverty. For its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict, WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020. 

Malawi is a small landlocked country in Southern Africa. With a population expanding rapidly at 3 percent per year and the majority of livelihoods dependent on agriculture, the population is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate-related disasters. Poverty is experienced by most rural families, with those headed by women suffering the most. Relying on small parcels of densely cultivated land for their livelihoods, rural Malawians are highly affected by climate change. Episodes of drought as well as severe flooding are increasing in frequency, intensity and unpredictability, giving the most vulnerable households inadequate time to recover.

Malawi’s challenges are also compounded by high rates of HIV infection (at 9.6 percent), low primary school completion rate (at 51 percent) and chronic under-nutrition (at 37 percent for children under 5). WFP continues to partner with the government, other UN agencies, NGOs, civil society and the private sector to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, with a particular emphasis on reaching Zero Hunger (SDG 2), addressing structural drivers of hunger wherever possible.

Social Protection for the Sustainable Development Goals (SP4SDG) in Malawi

SP4SDG is a United Nations Joint Programme that aims to support the Government of Malawi (GoM) to enhance the Malawi social protection system to meet emergency food needs and reduce the vulnerability of those most at risk of food insecurity by 2021, while strengthening the social protection system for all vulnerable households across the lifecycle. The programme combines advancing an innovative Shock-Sensitive Social Protection (SSSP) prototype with reinforced financial structures and the transformation of existing policies into legal frameworks to enhance the existing social protection system to be more robust, comprehensive and sustainable, leaving no one behind.

The joint programme leverages the expertise of three implementing UN agencies (World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and International Labour Organization (ILO) to accomplish its targets. SP4SDG is structured around three interlinked components, implemented by the three UN agencies that seek to accelerate SDGs 1, 2, and 17 while at the same time promoting the Leave No One Behind (LNOB) commitment.  The three SP4SDG components are as follows:

a. The Malawi social protection system is adapted to meet emergency food needs together with the humanitarian sector: This constitutes the largest financial component of the joint programme. Global commitments have been made to link humanitarian-development action, such as those articulated in the Grand Bargain; these commitments have been localized in Malawi. The United Nations (UN) and Government of Malawi (GoM) together have collaborated to identify, test, and adapt the most appropriate way to operationalize Shock-Sensitive Social Protection (SSSP) in Malawi. Yet, increasing donor appetite and a yet to be defined coordination structure for SSSP at national level is producing numerous piece-meal SSSP initiatives.

2. The Government of Malawi increases its share of the social protection budget and undertakes measures to improve efficiency of spending: The social protection sector in Malawi is largely donor funded (at 93%), heavily fragmented with minimal coordination of disbursement processes and mechanisms, and inadequate for needs, leaving the most marginalized behind in the process. There is an immediate need for sustainable financing of social protection through increased domestic funding with targeted attention to the most vulnerable, including for predictable annual emergency caseloads. Exploring new and/or innovative funding solutions through public and private financing is critical to addressing this need and accelerating action on the SDGs. Lessons from this component can be applied to other sectors for improved financing for a whole-of-society approach.
3. The Government of Malawi is advancing towards a more comprehensive social protection legal framework: This component is in line with Malawi’s human rights treaty obligations. The lack of a legal framework threatens the sustainability of the sector, even though the poverty levels in the country point towards social protection as a critical intervention. The existing social protection system is fragmented and not anchored in a comprehensive legal framework. This leads to confusion around who should have access to social protection and how the system should respond to the needs of the people. This justifies the need for a transformative action towards a sustainable, efficient, better coordinated, domestically financed, and nationally owned social protection system, thereby accelerating the achievement of the SDGs.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

 This final evaluation is commissioned by the three aforementioned UN agencies in Malawi and will cover the period of January 2020 to December 2021. Geographically, the evaluation will cover two levels: firstly, the national social protection system and secondly, the local government (district) level.

The evaluation will answer the overarching question “To what extent were the SP4SDG joint programme objectives achieved and how?” This SP4SDG evaluation will serve dual and mutually reinforcing objectives of accountability and learning:

• Accountability – The evaluation will assess and report on the performance and results of the SP4SDG. This evaluation will, therefore, ensure that the Development Assistance Committee of the Economic Cooperation and Development (DAC/OECD) evaluation criteria of Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Impact and Sustainability are adequately covered.
• Learning – The evaluation will

• determine the reasons why certain results occurred or not as well as unexpected results, to draw lessons, derive good practices and pointers for learning. It will provide evidence-based findings to inform operational and strategic decision-making. The evaluation will deepen knowledge and understanding of underlying assumptions that guided the design and implementation of the programme. Findings will be actively disseminated, and lessons will be incorporated into relevant lesson sharing systems.

Data collection will be conducted in April 2021 and the evaluation report is expected by October 2021. Due to COVID-19 restrictions at time of data collection, Team Leader may work remotely throughout the evaluation period.

Composition of the Evaluation Team

WFP is looking for an experienced international evaluator to lead a team of two national evaluators with appropriate skills to conduct the evaluation as per the evaluation terms of reference (will be made available).

The evaluation team is expected to include three members (two Malawian national evaluators and one international evaluator (who will be the team leader). To the extent possible, the evaluation will be conducted by a gender-balanced, geographically and culturally diverse team with appropriate skills to assess to assess gender equity and women’s empowerment as well as protection dimensions of the subject as specified in the scope, approach and methodology sections of the ToR. At least one team member should have WFP knowledge and a strong understanding of the national context. At least one team member should fluently speak Chichewa. Chichewa is also required because communication with community members will be mainly in the local language.

Collectively, the team should have experience in evaluating in these fields both at sectoral and policy levels. They should have good research design and implementation expertise and the capacity to conduct an independent and quality evaluation. In addition to the technical expertise and experience noted above, the team should collectively have:

• Evaluating capacity development and strengthening activities and social policy/social development initiatives in low income countries
• Demonstrated experience in designing and leading complex evaluations;
• Familiarity with Malawi and/or the Eastern and Southern Africa region
• Significant experience in a range of evaluation approaches including approaches that mix quantitative, qualitative and participatory methods;
• Strong knowledge and experience in the selection and implementation of statistically accepted sampling methods;
• Exceptional data analysis skills for both qualitative and quantitative data;
• A sound understanding of the UN system and its approach to working with national governments;

• Excellent report writing skills;
• Proven ability to produce reports or publications in English;
• Gender expertise and good knowledge of gender issues and tools for integrating human rights and their link with nutrition, health and gender equality;
• A high degree of professionalism and ability to systematically follow guidelines;
• Strong analytical and communication skills; and
• Excellent ability to communicate and write in English.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the Evaluation Committee, and day-to-day coordination with the evaluation managers, the team leader will:

• Define the evaluation approach and methodology;
• Guide and manage the team to implement the evaluation from inception up to dissemination of key findings;
• Represent the evaluation team in meetings with stakeholders and maintain communication between the UN Evaluation Managers and Quality Assurance Service;
• Draft the inception report using the WFP template and consolidate inputs from other team members;
• Revise the inception report based on feedback from WFP’s external quality support service to produce the second draft;
• Finalise the inception report based on comments from stakeholders;
• Design the data collection tools and programme in-line with statistically significant sampling methodologies;
• Lead the evaluation data collection mission;
• Debrief stakeholders on preliminary findings at the end of the field work/data collection;

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• Draft the evaluation report using the WFP template and with inputs from other team members (it is expected that each team member will draft their portion and submit to the team leader);
• Revise the evaluation report based on feedback from quality support services to produce draft 2, which will be circulated to stakeholders for comments;
• Finalise the evaluation report based on stakeholders’ comments and submit draft 3;
• Address any further comments on draft 3 until all issues are resolved and submit final evaluation; and
• Lead the dissemination of evaluation findings and development of communication products.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT

1. Draft 1 of Inception Report with data collection tools, analysis plan, evaluation schedule, communication plan that goes to Quality Support (QS) for review and feedback in line with WFP’s decentralized evaluation policy and templates;
2. Draft 2 Inception Report that has incorporated QS feedback and goes to stakeholders from all three UN agencies + Government of Malawi staff for review and comments;
3. Final Inception Report that incorporates stakeholder comments;
4. PowerPoint presentation for exit debrief and presentation of preliminary findings;
5. Draft 1 Evaluation Report that goes to QS for review and feedback;
6. Draft 2 Evaluation Report that has incorporated QS feedback that goes to stakeholders for review and comments;
7. Final Evaluation Report that has incorporated stakeholder comments; and
8. Other dissemination products as may be agreed and determined during the inception phase.

PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Payment will be based on actual days worked, and not exceeding the planned:

• Payment 1: 20% upon satisfactory submission and approval of the Inception Report.
• Payment 2: 20% upon satisfactory completion of field work and debriefing.
• Payment 3: 60% upon submission of the full and Final Evaluation Report. 

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced University degree in any relevant social sciences

Experience: At least 12 years of relevant working experience in research, methods design, quantitative and qualitative research in social sciences, etc.;

• Experience in leading teams in similar assignments, preferably within Southern Africa;
• Experience evaluating programmes with technical support to the Government;
• Experience in assessments and evaluations of social policy/social protection programmes in low income countries;
• Experience in working with UN agencies (i.e. ILO, UNICEF and WFP).

Knowledge and Skills:

• • Proven practical expertise of designing and implementing rigorous evaluations, ideally social protection, using different approaches;
  • Expertise in designing methodology and data collection tools and demonstrated experience in leading similar evaluations;
  • Skill and proven experience in the use of theory-based evaluation approaches such as contribution analysis and/or Qualitative Comparative Analysis in assessing programme performance and contribution to stated outcomes;
  • Understanding of national development planning and programming processes including National Development Plans and strategies;
  • Leadership, analytical and communication skills;
  • Track record of excellent English report writing;
  • Strong interpersonal and diplomatic skills;
  • Good presentation skills; and
  • Ability to work with people from different cultures and background.

Languages: Fluency in both oral and written communication in English. Knowledge of the local language or UN official language is an added advantage.

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Female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.