Evaluation Team Leader for South Sudan

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• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture.
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply;
• Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO's values
• FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination　　
• All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality
• FAO staff are subject to the authority of the Director-General, who may assign them to any of the activities or offices of the Organization.

Organizational Setting

The Office of Evaluation (OED) anchors the evaluation function in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Evaluation in FAO provides accountability on organizational and programme performance to member countries and FAO’s Director-General and the evidence base to guide their decision-making and oversight. Evaluation also contributes to corporate learning, by offering a basis for improvements in the Organization's programmes in terms of their relevance to countries, definition of objectives, design and implementation. OED also participates in system-wide evaluation initiatives, thereby contributing to assessments of development effectiveness by the United Nations (UN) system.

The Office of Evaluation undertakes evaluations of key programme areas around specific themes, including evaluation of emergency responses in crises contexts in any country where FAO engages in humanitarian response. OED works in close consultation with the Office of Emergency and Resilience (OER) and all the regional, sub-regional and country resilience and emergency focal points. Emergency and Resilience evaluations are managed through a dedicated team within OED, as they require specific methodological expertise to assess the complexity of the technical interventions in emergency/crisis settings, as well as methodological approaches to address more frequent restrictions in access and coverage. In addition, the topics and coverage focus need to be aligned to the humanitarian programme cycle and delivery modalities. In order to maximize the utilization and learning from resilience and emergency evaluations, as well as to meet the internal and external accountability requirements.

Purpose of the Call

In 2022, OED plans to undertake an evaluation of FAO’s programme in South Sudan. The evaluation will take stock of the work carried out under the South Sudan Country Office’s two resilience strategies (2016 – 2018 and 2019 - 2021) and assess the effectiveness, efficiency and results of the work along the desired outputs and outcomes of the strategies. As the second biggest country programme of FAO and the first FAO country office to implement a resilience strategy, the evaluation will look at what we can learn and seek new insights about FAO’s resilience programming as a multi-mandate UN agency, as well as issues and challenges in relation to the H-D linkages and FAO’s contribution to sustaining peace. .

Thematically the evaluation will look at resilience and food security, as well as a number of key areas, including: (i) disaster risk reduction-management (DRR-M), climate change and floods; (ii) territorial approaches, natural resource management (NRM) and land tenure; (iii) engaging with communities; (iv) cash and vouchers; (v) pastoralism; (vii) agriculture and seeds; and (viii) fisheries.

Reporting Lines

The Evaluation Team Leader will be under the supervision of the Evaluation Manager (OED) assigned to the specific evaluation.

Technical Focus

A team leader with extensive experience in emergency and recovery settings, and management of complex evaluations. Specific thematic focus to be covered by the evaluation team include:
• Humanitarian and resilience programming
• Food Systems & Systems thinking
• Food security and nutrition
• Food Security Information Systems
• Climate, disaster preparedness and management
• Conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding
• Anticipatory Action / Early warning early action
• Cash and voucher programming
• Gender and inclusion
• Communicating with communities
• Pastoralism
• Fisheries

Tasks and responsibilities

The Evaluation Team Leader will carry out specific tasks in accordance with the evaluation’s Terms of Reference, including:

• Lead in inception phase tasks and drafting of inception reports, including evaluation framework and timeline;
• Lead in the development of the evaluation methodology and tools;
• Lead and participate in field missions (when feasible) and/or briefing, debriefings and feedback sessions, including virtually;
• Lead and conduct data collection (face-to-face when feasible, and virtual) and analysis;
• Lead in the drafting and finalizing of the evaluation report and/or relevant sections;
• Lead in the production of any other evaluation products (briefing notes, PowerPoint presentations, among others)

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in evaluation, agriculture, environmental studies, social and economic development, public policy, international affairs or related fields depending on technical area;
• At least ten years of relevant experience in policy, programme or project evaluation, with solid evaluation team leadership experience.
• Working knowledge of English and limited knowledge of one of the other FAO languages (French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian). Working knowledge of English for PSA.SBS. Knowledge of Arabic would be a plus.

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Extent and relevance of experience in designing, planning, leading, and conducting evaluations in humanitarian/conflict contexts;.
• Knowledge of technical work in areas highlighted by the VA such as food security, nutrition, rural development, agriculture, livestock, fisheries and climate change adaptation, as well as cross-cutting themes.
• Experience and knowledge on the context in South Sudan and/or region would be an asset.

Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency