National Consultant to undertake a Final Evaluation of the project implemented by UN Women Kazakhstan in close cooperation with UNICEF, UNFPA and UNDP Kazakhstan

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.

UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to implement these standards. It stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on five priority areas: increasing women’s leadership and participation; ending violence against women; engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes; enhancing women’s economic empowerment; and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in advancing gender equality.The Government of Kazakhstan has taken important steps to eliminate gender-based inequalities and improve the status of women. Kazakhstan ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1998 and Beijing Platform for Action in 1995. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was ratified in 1989. In 2015 Kazakhstan has joined the Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030. The National Commission for Women and Family Affairs and Demographic Policy under the President of Kazakhstan was created by a presidential decree in 1998, to implement gender and family policy and coordinate work among the Government, Civil Society, and International community.

Furthermore, in 2009, laws On State Guarantees of Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities of Men and Women and On Prevention of Domestic Violence were adopted. In 2021 Kazakhstan has joined two Action Coalitions (GBV and Economic Justice and Rights) in a framework of the Generation Equality Forum 2021 and the Global Acceleration Plan for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. 

While Kazakhstan’s gender equality framework is sound, realization of the gender policy and implementation of the laws are not yet complete. In this regard, with the support of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and the National Commission for Women and Family Affairs and Demographic Policy, in 2019 UN Women Kazakhstan launched the project “Assistance in strengthening national capacity, coordinating, and creating effective interdepartmental measures to implement family and gender policies, expand women's contribution to national production and its growth in order to effectively implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 5, 8 and 10 and introducemultisectoral approach to combat domestic violence in the Republic of Kazakhstan” with the total budget $2,143,311.

Description of the programme/project

The overall goal of a 36-month project is to contribute to achievement of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE), including Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) and Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAW) in Kazakhstan and contribute to the strategic goal of the country to join the top 30 most developed countries in the world. Kazakhstan exhibits a high level of interest in advancinggender equality and women’s empowerment through implementation of the Concept on Gender and Family Policy in Kazakhstan and achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030. The Project was aligned with the national priorities and strategic programmes “Kazakhstan 2050”, the National Plan “100 concrete steps”, “Kazakhstan 2025”, the action plan of the Concept on Family and Gender Policy until 2030, as well as the UNPFD Kazakhstan 2016-2020, UN Women Strategic Plan 2018-2021, UN Women CO Strategic Note 2016-2020, UNFPA Strategic plan 2018-2021, UNICEF Strategic Plan 2018–2021 and the nationalization of SDGs in Kazakhstan.The period of implementation is three years 2019-2021, the Project started on July 2019; anticipated end is December 2021. Total budget is $2,143,311 which includes $285,000 contribution of UN agencies (UN Women, UNICEF, UNFPA, and UNDP). The share of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan is $1,858,311.

The Project is implemented by UN Women CO Kazakhstan as an Implementing party in partnership with UNICEF, UNFPA and UNDP as responsible parties. The UN agency to UN agency agreements are signed between UN Women and UNFPA, UNICEF and UNDP. The roles in the Project are distributed according to the mandates, expertise of the agencies and areas of their interventions in the country according to UNPFD 2016-2020 framework. Responsible parties have the requisite experience in the fields of gender and family policy and of gender-based violence.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection acting as the Donor provides funding for programmatic activities. Within the project UN Women Kazakhstan cooperates with the National Commission for Women and Family Affairs and Demographic Policy under the President of Kazakhstan and its regional offices, the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Information and Social Development, Ministry of Health, Ministry of National Economy, Ministry of Finance, the Parliament of Kazakhstan, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, regional divisions on protection of women from violence.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main purpose of this final evaluation is to assess the programmatic progress and performance of the above-described intervention from the perspective of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, impact, organizational efficiency and sustainability. The evaluation will identify the efficiency and effectiveness of joint initiatives of the UN Women in Kazakhstan, UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF. The UN Women Evaluation Policy and the project “Assistance in strengthening national capacity, coordinating, and creating effective interdepartmental measures to implement family and gender policies, expand women's contribution to national production and its growth in order to effectively implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 5, 8 and 10 and introduce multisectoral approach to combat domestic violence in the Republic of Kazakhstan” are the main guiding documents that set 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 for Evaluation in the UN System, Standards for Evaluation in the UN System1 and Ethical Guidelines. 2 Findings of the final external evaluation will inform UN Women Kazakhstan, UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan and National Commission future work in the area of gender and family policy, women’s economic empowerment, and ending violence against women and girls. The external evaluation will further identify lessons learned, best practices and challenges of the Project and will greatly inform the development of the follow-up programmatic interventions. The evaluation will not be able to fully assess the Project’s performance, as some activities are still ongoing; however, it will address the following questions with the results and evidence that is available to date.

The primary intended users of this evaluation are:• UN Women Kazakhstan CO, UNDP, UNFPA, and UNICEF• Programme/project partners• National government institutions• Civil society representatives• Donors and development partners• UN Country Team and GTGPrimary intended uses of this evaluation are:a. Learning and improved decision-making to support the development of the next Programme/project;b. Accountability for the development effectiveness of the joint collaboration of the UN agencies interms of contribution to gender equality and women’s empowerment; c. Capacity development and mobilisation of national stakeholders to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women. 

Objectives (evaluation criteria and key questions)The specific evaluation objectives are as follows:1. Analyze the relevance and coherence of the Project’s implementation strategy and approaches of “Assistance in strengthening national capacity, coordinating, and creating effective interdepartmental measures to implement family and gender policies, expand women's contributionto national production and its growth in order to effectively implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 5, 8 and 10 and introduce multisectoral approach to combat domestic violence in the Republic of Kazakhstan”;2. Assess effectiveness and organizational efficiency in progressing towards the achievement of the project’s results;3. Analyze how human rights based approach and gender equality principles are integrated in the programme implementation;4. Assess the sustainability of the results and the interventions in advancing gender equality in the target group;5. Asses how the intervention and its results relate and contribute to the Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals;6. Validate the project results in terms of achievements and/or weaknesses toward the outcome and outputs;7. Determine the impact of the interventions with respect to family and gender policy, gender equality, women’s empowerment, and ending violence against women and girls.8. Assess the sustainability of the results achieved by the project;9. Document lessons learned, best practices, success stories and challenges to inform future collaboration of UN Women Kazakhstan, UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan and National Commission in addressing family andgender policy, women’s economic empowerment and ending violence against women and girls.10. Identify strategies for replication and up-scaling of the project’s best practices;11. Provide actionable recommendations for future programmatic developments and maximize ownership by partners in the country covered by the project;

The evaluation will apply four OECD/DAC evaluation criteria (relevance, effectiveness (including normative, and coordination mandates of UN Women), efficiency, and sustainability) and Human Rights and Gender Equality as an additional criterion. 

The evaluation process has five phases:1) Preparation: gathering and analysing project data, conceptualizing the evaluation approach, internal consultations on the approach, preparing the TOR, establishment of the Evaluation Management Group (EMG) and the Evaluation Reference Group (ERG), stakeholders mapping and selection of evaluation team.2) Inception: consultations between the evaluation team and the EMG, programme portfolio review, finalization of stakeholder mapping, inception meetings with the ERG, review of the result logics, analysis of information relevant to the initiative, finalization of evaluation methodology and preparation and validation of inception report.3) Data collection and analysis: in depth desk research, in-depth review of the project documents and monitoring frameworks, in online interviews as necessary, staff and partner survey/s, and online meetings. 4) Analysis and synthesis stage: analysis of data and interpretation of findings and drafting and validation of an evaluation report and other communication products.5) Dissemination and follow-up: once the evaluation is completed UN Women Kazakhstan is responsible for the development of Management Response, publishing of the evaluation report, uploading the published report on the GATE website, and the dissemination of evaluation findings.Participating UN agencies are entirely responsible for phases 1 and 5 outlined above which will not foresee the involvement of the independent evaluation team. Evaluation team will be responsible for phases 2-4 outlined above. 

Scope of the evaluationThe final evaluation of the Project implemented by UN Women in close collaboration with UNICEF, UNFPA and UNDP “Assistance in strengthening national capacity, coordinating, and creating effective interdepartmental measures to implement family and gender policies, expand women's contribution to national production and its growth in order to effectively implement the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) 1, 5, 8 and 10 and introduce multisectoral approach to combat domestic violence in the Republic of Kazakhstan” will be conducted at the end of project implementation and will cover the entire duration of the project 2019-2021.

The evaluation is scheduled between September 2021- and January 2022. The final evaluation of the project is to be conducted externally by an International consultant and a National consultant. It is planned to be completed in 32 days.The evaluation shall cover all aspects of the project, and broadly allocate resources (time) in relation to the relative expenditure between the various project components.The evaluation team is expected to undertake a rapid evaluability assessment in the inception phase of the evaluation. This should include the following:1. An assessment of the relevance, appropriateness and coherence of the implicit or explicit theory of change, strengthening or reconstructing it where necessary through a stakeholder workshop;2. An assessment of the quality of performance indicators in the DRF and OEEF, and the accessibility and adequacy of relevant documents and secondary data;3. A review of the conduciveness of the context for the evaluation;4. Ensuring familiarity with accountability and management structures for the evaluation. 

For more detailed information please refer to ToR here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NDMrn3R8vMq2qM1pHQeYcpFJofqC23g8/view?usp=sharing

Competencies

Core Values:• Respect for Diversity;• Integrity;• Professionalism.

Core Competencies:• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;• Accountability;• Effective Communication;• Inclusive Collaboration.

To learn more about UN Women values and competencies, please follow the linkhttps://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

Required Skills and Experience

The National Consultant must possess the following qualifications:Education:• At least a master’s degree in economics, social sciences, international relations, development studies, gender or related area;

Experience:• 3 years of relevant experience and involvement in several evaluations of development projects;• Strong experience/knowledge of gender equality, or/and a women’s economic empowerment and elimination of the domestic violence at the country level;• Demonstrated analytical and presentation skills and ability to collect data and structure information;• Demonstrated facilitation and communications skills, experience in participatory approaches and ability to negotiate amongst a wide range of stakeholders;• Experience within the United Nations system will be considered an asset;

Language:• Excellent knowledge of English and Russian, working knowledge of Kazakh. 

Evaluation ProcessApplicants must meet the above minimum qualification requirements which will be included in the technical evaluation process in the future. The next stage of the assessment process will be maintained by cumulative analysis methodology of technical proposal (70%) and the financial proposal (30%) of the candidate.- Technical Qualification (350 points) weight; [70%]

- Financial Proposal (150 points) weight; [30%] 

Qualified and interested candidates can view the vacancy and apply online at https://jobs.undp.org/ The system will only accept one document. The interested candidates must submit the following documents/ information to demonstrate their qualification:

• Letter of Intent with justification of being the most suitable for the work, vision and working approach, specifically indicating experience of carrying out evaluations and in producing out analytical reports, etc.• Duly filled Personal History Form (P11) (available at https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process) and/or CV, including records on past experience in similar projects/assignments and specific outputs obtained.• Financial proposal (in KZT) - specifying an all-inclusive daily fee, and the lump sum for the envisaged number of working days. The financial offer should include all costs related to completion of the task under the current Terms of Reference. In general, travel costs exceedingthose of an economy class ticket shall not be accept. The consultant will be provided with the necessary administrative and logistical support to enable them deliver on the expected outputs Considering epidemiological situation in Kazakhstan and other countries, candidate should submit 2financial proposals: (a) with travel expenses (onsite data collection); (b) without travel expenses (online data collection)

Kindly note, that the system will only allow one attachment, hence all supporting document e.g. P11, CV and financial proposal must be scanned as one attachment. Applications without the completed UNDP P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. 

For more detailed information please refer to ToR here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NDMrn3R8vMq2qM1pHQeYcpFJofqC23g8/view?usp=sharing