Evaluation consultant to conduct Brazil Country Office Portfolio Evaluation

Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, it was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.[1]

The UN Women Independent Evaluation Service (IES) evaluates the work of UN women to enhance organizational accountability, provide evidence-based information for decision-making and to contribute to learning on gender equality and the empowerment of women.  It is currently undertaking a Country Portfolio Evaluation (CPE) of the UN Women Country Office in Brazil’s Strategic Note for 2017-2021.

The CPE is a systematic assessment of the contributions made by UN Women to development results with respect to gender equality at the country level, through its Strategic Note. This CPE is led by IES as a primarily formative (forward-looking) evaluation to support the UN Women Brazil and its key stakeholders in strategic learning and decision-making for the next Strategic Note, due to be developed in 2021. The evaluation is expected to also have a summative (backwards looking) perspective, to support enhanced accountability for development effectiveness and learning from experience.

The IES Regional Evaluation Specialist for the Americas and Caribbean region has been appointed the Team Leader for the evaluation, who will be supported by an external Evaluator and a Research Assistant. The evaluation is required to adhere to UN Women’s Evaluation Policy and UNEG Norms, Standards, Ethical and other relevant guidelines.

[1] UN Women website: http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us

Duties and Responsibilities

The Evaluator will be expected to support the Team Leader in:

• the scoping and design of the evaluation, including support for the drafting of the Inception Report and data collection instruments.
• the implementation of the evaluation, including participation in document review, virtual/in situ field visits, survey design and implementation, and deployment of selected methods and tools for data collection.
• analysis of all the data collected to develop preliminary findings and drafting of final report, including annexes.
• communication with evaluation stakeholders, including attending selected meetings.

Timeframe and Key Deliverables

Payment Plan:

A lump sum fee will be paid in two (2) tranches, based on satisfactory certification of the following deliverables:

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

• At least 7 years of experience conducting evaluations, with experience in assessment of relevant thematic areas of UN Women Brazil programming (ending violence against women, women’s economic empowerment, women’s leadership and political participation, and governance).
• Familiarity and practical knowledge of a wide range of relevant evaluation approaches such as: gender equality and human rights responsive evaluation, feminist approaches, developmental evaluation, systems thinking approaches, culturally responsive evaluation, cost-effectiveness, among others.
• Experience and knowledge of the Brazil context, including main thematic areas of UN Women Brazil portfolio.
• Proven ability to design and implement a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, including survey design, participatory methods, and desk reviews.
• Strong analytical and report writing skills as well as knowledge of data analysis software.
• Knowledge of gender mainstreaming and gender analysis, human rights-based approaches and human rights analysis; specific experience in intersectional analysis is desirable.
• Knowledge of the United Nations system, United Nations coordination efforts and the current organizational reform context is desirable.
• English and Portuguese required.

ANNEX 1: UN Women Evaluation References

• Evaluation Policy of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UNW/2020/5/Rev.1)
• UN Women GERAAS evaluation quality assessment checklist
• UN Women Evaluation Consultant Agreement Form
• UN Women Guidance on Country Portfolio Evaluation
• UN Women Core Values and Competencies

ANNEX 2: UNEG References

• UNEG Norms and Standards for evaluation
• UNEG Ethical Guidelines and Code of Conduct
• UNEG Guidance on Integrating Human Rights and Gender Equality in Evaluation