International Consultant to conduct a Final Project Assessment of the project: “Decentralization and Law Enforcement Reforms: Transformative approaches to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Ukraine”

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.

The overarching goal of UN Women Ukraine is to empower women and girls and ensure full enjoyment of their human rights towards a peaceful and gender equal society in Ukraine. The implementation of the UN Women Ukraine Country Strategy (2018-2022) is guided by key international gender equality and women’s human rights norms and standards. UN Women’s work in Ukraine focuses on supporting the government, parliament and civil society in advancing gender equality and implementation of the national and international commitments.  Through its normative support functions, UN Women assists Ukraine in implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review, implementation of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and other human rights treaty body recommendations on women’s human rights, Beijing Platform for Actions and the outcome documents of its reviews, and the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security, among other normative frameworks.

Since 2018, UN Women is implementing a project “Decentralization and Law Enforcement Reforms: Transformative approaches to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Ukraine.” The Project aims to support the Government in integration of gender equality and women’s rights into the decentralization and law enforcement reforms at the national level based on good practices and workable cases tested in the decentralised local communities in eastern Ukraine. The project strives to contribute to a lasting impact of the gender-responsive reforms and to secure a positive change for the women and men of Ukraine, particularly those affected by the conflict in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts.

The project is in the final phase of its implementation and due to the current crisis brought on by war in Ukraine, the project will not undergo a full project evaluation but rather a final project assessment. To conduct this assessment, UN Women seeks to hire an International Consultant.  

1.  OBJECTIVES, KEY QUESTIONS AND AREAS OF INQUIRY

The final assessment will serve to document the progress made towards planned outputs, outcomes and impact of the project and to support the country office’s strategic learning and decision-making on further interventions.  The assessment is expected to support enhanced accountability for development effectiveness and learning from experience to inform the future operations of the CO, including for the next Strategic Note. This final assessment is taking place towards the final phase of project implementation, which is due to end in December 2022.

The overall objective of the final assessment is to assess the progress made towards the achievement of the set outcomes and objectives, and analyze how UN Women can leverage the results achieved in further programming.

Key Questions and Areas of Inquiry

1. What results have been achieved by the project?

1. To what extent have the intended results been achieved? (As per the project document, TOC, Outcomes and Outputs)
2. What results have been achieved beyond the original scope, particularly as it relates to covid-19 and the current escalation of war?
3. What project results have the greatest possibility to contribute to gender transformative change for Ukraine? What -if any- types of innovative good practices have been introduced in the project for the achievement of GEWE results?

1. How has the project been able to adapt work in the rapidly changing context during the project life cycle, and remain relevant? (Particularly as it relates to Covid-19 and the current escalation of war). What lessons can be learnt for future planning and implementation of projects in Ukraine with regards to rapidly changing contexts?

1. How has the project contributed to the following key UN Women priority areas? (Identifying key findings, good practices and recommendations):

1. Advancing normative frameworks, and gender-responsive laws, policies and institutions
2. Promoting positive social norms for gender equality and women’s empowerment
3. Enhancing women’s voice, leadership and agency
4. Improving the production, analysis and use of gender statistics and sex-disaggregated data
5. Strengthening coordination among stakeholders for gender equality and women’s empowerment, and positioning UN Women as the partner in choice for future interventions.

1. What are the key entry points for further programmatic work by UN Women in Ukraine, building on results achieved and lessons learnt from the project? What strategies and best practices are worth replicating and scaling up?  

The final project assessment report will primarily be an internal document to help guide future project planning and the broader strategic planning of the country office. The assessment will also be shared with the project donor for their consideration. The assessment is seeking specific and concrete suggestions on how to take the results achieved in the past years, forward in the current context of war.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the UN Women Ukraine Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation Analyst, the consultant will implement a set of tasks, including: 

1. Inception Report and Planning

In consultation with the UN Women Ukraine team, the consultant will develop an inception report, which will present a proposed plan for undertaking the final project assessment. The report should be no more than 5 pages and include a proposed methodology and framework to be able to respond to the key questions and areas of inquiry of the assessment (outlined above). The report should include a proposed plan and approach to conduct the assessment remotely, which is respectful of the current context in Ukraine and has minimal disruptions to projects’ and stakeholders important ongoing response to the crisis.

Output: Inception Report (3-5 pages)

Time:    5 days

1. First Draft of Project Assessment Report

The consultant will write a project assessment report based on a detailed desk review and interviews/focus group discussions, as outlined and deemed appropriate in the inception report. The desk review should include the documents related to the implementation of the project such as:

• Donor progress reports and annual corporate reporting contributions
• Project documents, budget and log frame
• Progress reports from implementing partners and consultants
• Knowledge products and other concrete outputs from the project

The consultant may also conduct interviews and focus group discussions with project staff, relevant country office staff and with selected implementing partners and project consultants. Engagement with the project team should utilise a participatory approach and focus on providing support to clearly extract and formulate the key results of the project and opportunities for further work. The report should cover all areas of inquiry as outlined and agreed upon in the inception report, and for each area clearly articulate key findings, good practices and recommendations.

Output: First Draft Project Assessment Report (15-20 pages)

Time:    15 days

1. Feedback Workshop, Final Project Assessment Report and Dissemination

The consultant will prepare and conduct a comprehensive and participatory workshop with the project team and relevant country office colleagues. The aim of this workshop will be to review the preliminary findings, good practices and recommendations, and collectively brainstorm to expand on these.  The consultant will then incorporate the feedback and results of the participatory workshop into the final project assessment report. In addition to finalising the report, the consultant will also prepare dissemination materials, including key talking points and a PowerPoint presentation (or similar), and conduct one internal and one external presentation of the assessment process, findings and recommendations.

Outputs:

• First Draft Project Assessment Report (20-25 pages)
• Dissemination materials, including talking points and PowerPoint presentation

Time:    10 days

Approach to Project Assessments

UN Women sees this assessment as an opportunity to creatively approach project assessments and innovate in monitoring and evaluation of projects. Due to the challenging context of conducting assessments in Ukraine, the Country Office is keen to get a fresh perspective on how to innovate in M&E.

Therefore, UN Women is seeking a consultant who may have unique experiences in M&E, especially in crisis contexts, or may be able to leverage their experience to support the office in identifying new ways to monitor and evaluate projects through similar assessments in the future.

Key priorities for the country office during this assessment is:

• Minimise as much as possible disruptions to projects’, partners’ and stakeholders’ important ongoing lifesaving/ humanitarian work.
• Identify clear opportunities for next steps, which are specific, realistic and actionable.
• Identify effective, easy and useful M&E strategies for a rapidly changing context, which at the same time hold projects and partners accountable to achieving results.
• Innovate in assessment frameworks, to look beyond the OECD-DAC criteria when assessing projects’ results and their true value, with a gender transformative approach in mind.
• Map out new ways to implementation project activities to increase the impact, and identify “does and don’ts”

Assignment /Deliverables

#	Deliverables	Deadlines	Estimated number of working days	Payment percentage
1	Inception Report (3-5 pages)	26 August 2022	5	17%
2	First Draft Project Assessment Report (15-20 pages)	30 September 2022	15	50%
3	Final Project Assessment Report (20-25 pages) Dissemination materials, including talking points and PowerPoint presentation	14 October 2022	10	33%
Total	30	100%

The assessment will be conducted from the period of 15 August to 15 October 2022, for 30 working days. All deliverables will be presented in English.

Competencies

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications Education:

• Advanced (Masters) degree in Law, Political Science, Human Rights, Gender Studies, Social Sciences, Business Administration, Development Studies or related field.

Experience:

• Minimum five years of progressive professional experience in the field gender equality and/or women’s empowerment;
• Proven experience in evaluating, assessing or auditing development projects, programmes, policies and strategies using innovative approaches.
• Knowledge of the Ukrainian context and gender equality would be a strong asset;
• Previous experience conducting gender assessments, audits or evaluations in challenging circumstances, such as war, would be a strong asset;
• Previous experience with development agencies and the United Nations will be an asset, especially work with UN Women.

Languages and other skills:

• Proficiency in English. Knowledge of Ukrainian, Russian is an asset.

6. SELECTION OF CONSULTANTS

The selection of the consultant will be based on the fulfilment of the specifications established in the TORs. The submitted technical proposals will be assessed on the three main categories: relevant education, language skills and relevant expertise and competencies of the evaluators, as reflected in the CVs of the experts. The categories will be assigned different weighting, which will total to 70 points (100 %). Technical passing score is 49 (70%) points.

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of their qualifications and financial proposal. A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical proposal being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. The award of the contract should be made to the individuals whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical criteria - total max 70 points:

The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on desk review and following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Criterion A – Relevant education – max. 10

Criterion B – Language skills – max. 10

Criterion C – Relevant Experience with total for all stated criteria – max. 50

Required Experience:

• Minimum five years of progressive professional experience in the field gender equality and/or women’s empowerment; (25 points)
• Proven experience in evaluating, assessing or auditing development projects, programmes, policies and strategies using innovative approaches; (Two sample reports should be submitted); (10 points)
• Knowledge of the Ukrainian context and gender equality would be a strong asset; (5 points)
• Previous experience conducting gender assessments, audits or evaluations in challenging circumstances, such as war, would be a strong asset; (5 points)
• Previous experience with development agencies and the United Nations will be an asset, especially work with UN Women. (5 points)

Total Obtainable Score for technical criteria – max. 70

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation will be further considered and evaluated. The total number of points allocated for the financial/price component is 30.  The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30

(S - score received on financial evaluation; Fmin - the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round; F - financial offer under the consideration).

Inputs:

• The Consultant is expected to work remotely using her/his own computer but may access the UN Women office for printing of relevant documents or should he/she be required to work on-site at any point during the assignment.
• UN Women will provide the consultant with the resource materials and organize meetings as required.

Performance evaluation:

Contractor’s performance will be evaluated against such criteria as: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered. The evaluation will be carried out and cleared by the hiring manager which will also be the basis for payment on a delivery by delivery basis to the consultant.

Financial arrangements:

• Payment will be disbursed by three instalments upon receipt of the deliverables (as detailed above) and their certification by the UN Women Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation Analyst that the work submitted is of the required standards and as per the requirements set out in the TOR.

Application and submission package:

All applications must include as one attachment:

• Cover letter responding to the following questions:

1. What experience will you draw upon to conduct this project assessment? (particularly as it relates to conducting a remote assessment and during the current challenging context in Ukraine)
2. UN Women is keen to use this assessment as an opportunity to creatively approach project assessments and innovate in monitoring and evaluation. Can you provide an example of how you have innovated in M&E or any ideas you might have for this specific assignment?
3. Confirmation of availability during the set dates and indication of time-zone.

Completed and signed UN Women Personal History (P-11) form, which can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc

• Financial proposal (sample is provided below) completed and signed. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount with a breakdown of a daily professional rate per number of anticipated working days to include all costs (telephone, etc.).
•  
• Two sample reports related to the evaluating, assessing or auditing development projects, programmes, policies and strategies using innovative approaches.

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment.

Interested candidates are requested to apply no later than 9:00 am EEST 11 July 2022 by submitting applications to the following e-mail address: hr.ukraine@unwomen.org with a subject “International Consultant to conduct a Final Project Assessment of the project: Decentralisation and Law Enforcement Reforms: Transformative approaches to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Ukraine”

Applications without P11 and financial proposal may be treated as incomplete and may not be considered for further assessment.

Sample of Financial Proposal

The format shown on the following tables is suggested for use as a guide in preparing the Financial Proposal.

Cost Breakdown per Deliverables*

Deliverables	# of days and Percentage of Total Price (Weight for payment)	Price, USD (Lump Sum, All Inclusive)
1
2
3
4
Total	max. # of working days (100%)	USD ……

*Basis for payment tranches

UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that would take into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need. 

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check).