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VAC-9203 National Consultant - Project Mid Term Evaluation - Emergency Mine Action Project

Aden | Sanaa

  • Organization: CTG - Committed To Good
  • Location: Aden | Sanaa
  • Grade: Level not specified - Level not specified
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Medical Practitioners
    • Humanitarian Aid and Coordination
    • Monitoring and Evaluation
    • Mine Action and Weapon Contamination
    • Children's rights (health and protection)
    • Emergency Aid and Response
    • Project and Programme Management
  • Closing Date: Closed

Job description

CTG overview

CTG staff and support humanitarian projects in fragile and conflict-affected countries around the world, providing a rapid and cost-effective service for development and humanitarian missions. With past performance in 17 countries – from the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Asia, we have placed more than 20,000 staff all over the world since operations began in 2006.

CTG recruits, deploys and manages the right people with the right skills to implement humanitarian and development projects, from cleaners to obstetricians, and mechanics to infection specialists, we’re skilled in emergency response to crises such as the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Key to successful project delivery is the ability to mobilise at speed; CTG can source and deploy anyone, anywhere, in less than 2 weeks and have done so in 48 hours on a number of occasions.

Through our efficient and agile HR, logistical and operational services, CTG saves multilateral organisations time and money. We handle all our clients’ HR related issues, so they are free to focus on their core services.

Visit www.ctg.org to find out more

Overview of position

Yemen is widely considered to be the worst humanitarian and development crisis in the world. The conflict, which started in September 2014 was further escalated in March 2015 to a comprehensive civil war, which has caused major loss of life, internal displacement, and destroyed critical infrastructure, government fragmentation, poor public service delivery, weakened population and institutional resilience and food insecurity verging on famine. Major roads and bridges across the country have been partially or/and fully destroyed, power transmittal lines have been severely damaged, and oil and gas production are totally disrupted. An estimated 23.4 million people - equivalent to more than 80 % of the population need humanitarian or protection assistance, including 13.4 million in acute need. More than 19 million people are food insecure.

The escalation of conflict in Yemen 2015 has resulted in large tracts of land being contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO) in areas of direct and indirect land warfare which has spilled over into littoral waters. The aerial campaign added new threats of unexploded aircraft bombs, particularly cluster-type munitions in the middle and northern regions of the country. Existence of explosive remnants of war (ERW) and mines have worsened the living conditions of the already conflict-affected and famine prone populations by challenging humanitarian, and recovery activities such as waste and debris management, access to natural or other resources, access to rescue and social services, and the recovery of business activities. The protracted conflict has no immediate or obvious likely end in sight.

Our strategy for assistance to the mine action sector in Yemen, one of the primary goals of the UN is to ensure the most efficient and effective response to the impact of landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and other explosive remnants of war (ERW, including cluster- munitions and IEDs). According to the UN Policy on Mine Action and Effective Coordination, the primary responsibility for addressing the threats faced by the population from contamination remains with the affected State. To promote national ownership, responsibility, leadership and effective coordination, the CLIENT is mandated by the General Assembly to assist the national authorities in their efforts to review and strengthen existing co-ordination mechanisms and further develop a national mine action programm.

The CLIENT’s Emergency Mine Action Project has contributed considerably to a wide spectrum of mine action activities in Yemen through supporting the National Mine Action Committee (NMAC) and the Yemeni Executive Mine Action Centre (YEMAC). CLIENT acts in an advisory role covering technical implementation and methodologies, policy issues at the central level, planning processes through the full project cycle and resource mobilisation. In addition, CLIENT supports the relevant national bodies with basic running cost, including incentives for personnel to affect Mine Action operations costs due to lack of national budget and payment of salaries since the start of conflict. The project addresses the physical and socio-economic impacts of explosive remnants of war and mines on people and communities by a) preventing the situation from worsening; b) relieving communities from the impact of current contamination and c) addressing the longer-term issues of convention obligations. Project outputs are:

  • Mine and UXO contamination is mapped and impact assessed nationwide using primary and secondary resources.

  • Mines and UXO are cleared in identified priority areas.

  • The awareness of threats posed by mines and UXO is increased in affected communities.

  • Survivors of ERW are more effectively supported and rehabilitated socio-economically.

Since its inception in October 2021, the activities supported or coordinated by the project reached over five million demining and Mine Risk Education (MRE) beneficiaries across the country in the 22 governorates and 297 districts. The field teams cleared over twelve million square meters of land from which they removed over 140,000 different pieces of explosive ordnance, mines, other Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) and Abandoned Explosive Ordnance (AXO) focus in nine governorates Abyan, Aden, Hajjah, Sa’ada, Amran, Sana’a, Taizz, Hadramaut and Al Jawf. The project has been funded by the following donors: Germany, The Netherlands, UK FCDO, US DoS PMWRA, UNOCHA and CLIENT.

This mid-term evaluation is commissioned to assess the project’s progress towards restoration of services and access to key infrastructure, reducing injuries and fatalities, and normalisation of recovery and economic activity in targeted areas and may influence the continuation of the project or act as a terminal review should no further funding be available

The mid-term project evaluation serves as an important learning and accountability tool, providing the donors, CLIENT, key national stakeholders, and authorities in the targeted governorates and districts with an impartial assessment of the results generated, including gender equality measures and women’s empowerment. The evaluation will assess the project’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability, identify and document lessons learned, and provide recommendations to inform future project phases should funding be made available. The findings and recommendations of the evaluation will guide the key stakeholders, relevant Yemen institutions and authorities, project donors, CLIENT, UN agencies, civil society organisations in implementation of related projects.

Role objectives

Scope

The Project Evaluation will cover the period from 1st October 2021 to the date the evaluator is appointed and cover the project locations – Abyan, Aden, Hajjah, Sa’ada, Amran, Sana’a, Taizz, Hadramaut and Al Jawf. The evaluation will cover programme conceptualisation, design, implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of the results. The evaluation will engage all project stakeholders - benefitting communities/institutions, authorities in the governorates and districts covered by the project, funding partners, CLIENT, UN agencies and partnering CSOs.

The evaluation will assess progress made on key indicators agreed with all project stakeholders. In addition to assessing the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency of the project, the evaluation will:

a) explore the key factors that have contributed to the achieving or not achieving of the intended results;

b) determine the extent to which the project contributed towards restoration of services and access to key infrastructure (including community infrastructure), reducing injuries and fatalities, and normalisation of economic activity in targeted areas; addressing crosscutting issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment and human rights; and forging partnership at different levels, including with government institutions, donors, UN agencies, and communities; and

c) assess potential sustainability of the project for continued realisation of results; and

d) draw lessons learned and best practices and make recommendations for future mine action projects.

Objectives Specific mid-term evaluation objectives are to:

  •  Assess the relevance and strategic positioning of the Emergency Mine Action (V) project and whether the initial assumptions are still relevant.

  • Assess: a. the progress made towards project results and whether there were any unintended results;

 What can be captured in terms of lessons learned for future Emergency Mine Action projects.

  • Assess whether the project management arrangements, approaches and strategies, including monitoring strategies and risk management approaches, were well-conceived and efficient in delivering the project intended results.

  •  Assess the overall contribution of the projects towards humanitarian-peace-development nexus and whether there are indications of sustaining the project’s results after the end of the project.

  • Analyse the extent to which the project enhanced application of a rights-based approaches, gender equality and women’s empowerment, social and environmental standards, and participation of other socially vulnerable groups such as children and the disabled. 

Evaluation criteria and key guiding questions

Referencing and adopting from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) evaluation criteria, the evaluation will answer the following questions:

Relevance / Coherence:

  • Was the project relevant in addressing the impacts of UXO and ERW in the targeted areas?

  • To what extent was the project in line with United Nations Development Programme (CLIENT) strategy for assistance to the mine action, national priorities, priorities of the targeted governorates, the country programme’s outputs and outcomes and the SDGs?

  • Was the project relevant to the needs and priorities of the target groups/beneficiaries including women and men? Were they consulted during design and implementation of the project?

  • Did the project address gender issues and help women overcome challenges or limitations?

Effectiveness:

  • To what extent has the project contributed to the country programme outcomes and outputs, the SDGs, the CLIENT Strategic Plan and mine action priorities?

  • To what extent did the project achieve its intended outputs?

  • To what extent has the project contributed toward towards its intended outcome?

  • What was the impact of the project on developing the institutional capacity of the Yemeni mine action bodies?

  • What factors have contributed to achieving or not achieving intended project outputs and outcomes? What could be done to maximise project impact?

  • To what extent has the project contributed to gender equality, the empowerment of women and the realization of human rights?

  • To what extent have different stakeholders been involved in the project implementation?

Efficiency:

  • Were the programme’s resources efficiently utilised? Are there more efficient ways of delivering the same or better results with the available inputs?

  • How efficient were the management and accountability structures of the project? (programme cycle, staffing, M&E processes, selection of implementing partners…)

  • To what extent have the M&E systems utilized by CLIENT enabled effective and efficient project management?

  • To what extent gender equality results are achieved at reasonable cost?

Sustainability:

  • To what extent will financial and economic resources be available to sustain the benefits achieved by the project?

  • Are there any social or political risks that may jeopardize sustainability of project outputs and the project’s contributions to country programme outputs and outcomes?

  • To what extent have relevant government ministries or institutions integrated project outcomes into ongoing policies and practices?

  • To what extent are lessons learned being documented by the project team on a continual basis and shared with appropriate parties who could learn from the project?

  • To what extent the interventions have well-designed and well-planned exit strategies.

Human rights

  • To what extent have poor, indigenous and physically challenged, women and other disadvantaged and marginalized groups included in helping design and prioritize the work of the project in the spirit of broad societal inclusion. To what extent have they benefited from the work of the project?

  • To what extent are the planned project interventions relevant to the overall strategy of inclusivity and empowerment?

  • Was conflict sensitivity mainstreamed and included as an approach throughout project implementation?

Gender equality and empowerment

  • To what extent have gender equality and the empowerment of women been addressed in the design, implementation, and monitoring of the project?

  • Is the gender marker assigned to this project representative of reality?

  • To what extent has the project promoted positive changes in gender equality and the empowerment of women? Were there any unintended effects?

Disability

  • Were persons with disabilities consulted and meaningfully involved in programme planning and implementation?

  • What proportion of the beneficiaries of a programme were persons with disabilities?

  • Guiding evaluation questions will be further refined by the evaluation team and agreed with CLIENT evaluation stakeholders. 

Mid-Term Evaluation Methodology

This mid-term evaluation will adhere to the United Nations Evaluation Group’s Norms and Ethical Standards, OECD/DAC evaluation principles and guidelines and DAC Evaluation Quality Standards, CLIENT Evaluation Guidelines and CLIENT Evaluation Policy.

Due to the security situation, travel to and in the country is constrained by the ongoing conflict. If it is not possible to travel to or within the country for the evaluation then the evaluation team should develop a methodology that takes this into account the conduct of evaluation virtually and remotely, including the use of remote interview methods and extended desk reviews, data analysis, survey and evaluation questionnaires. This should be detailed in the inception report and agreed with the Evaluation Manager.

In case if evaluation will be carried out virtually, consideration should be taken for stakeholder availability, ability, or willingness to be interviewed remotely. In addition, their accessibility to the internet/computer may be an issue as many government and national counterparts may be working from home. These limitations must be reflected in the evaluation report.

It is expected that the evaluation will employ a combination of both qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods. The evaluation team should propose their own methodology, which may include:

  • Document review of all relevant documentation. This would include a review of inter alia; project documents; theory of change and results framework; programme and project quality assurance reports; annual workplans; consolidated progress reports; results-oriented monitoring report; highlights of project board meetings; and technical/financial monitoring reports.

  • Semi-structured interviews with key female and male stakeholders. This would include national authorities, YMACC, YEMAC, project implementing agencies, representatives of key civil society organizations, UNCT members.

  • Evaluation questions will be tailored to the different needs and participation of various stakeholders.

  • All interviews will be undertaken in full confidence and anonymity. Prior to engaging in interviews or focus group discussions, the evaluation team must obtain informed consent from all stakeholders, but especially those from vulnerable categories. The evaluation report should not assign specific comments to individuals but indicate patterns according to categories of respondents.

  • Validation of results. The evaluation team is expected to follow a participatory and inclusive consultative approach that ensures close engagement with the evaluation managers, implementing agencies and direct male and female beneficiaries.

  • Other methods such as outcome mapping, observational visits, group discussions, etc.

  • Data review and analysis of monitoring and other data sources and methods.

All analysis must be based on observed facts, evidence, and data. Findings should be specific, concise and supported by quantitative and/or qualitative information that is reliable, valid and generalizable. The broad range of data provides strong opportunities for triangulation. This process is essential to ensure a comprehensive and coherent understanding of the data sets, which will be generated by the evaluation.

The final methodological approach including interview schedule, field visits and data to be used in the evaluation should be clearly outlined in the inception report and be fully discussed and agreed between CLIENT, stakeholders, and the evaluators.

Evaluation Deliverables

  • The consultant will be expected to deliver the following:

  • Evaluation inception report (10-15 pages). The inception report should be carried out following and based on preliminary discussions with CLIENT after the desk review. It should be produced and approved before the evaluation starts (before any formal evaluation interviews, survey distribution or field visits) and prior to the country visit in the case of the international consultant.

  • Evaluation debriefings. Immediately following an evaluation, CLIENT will ask for a preliminary debriefing of findings.

  • Draft evaluation report (max 40 pages). CLIENT and stakeholders will review the draft evaluation report and provide an amalgamated set of comments to the evaluator within 10 days, addressing the content required (as agreed in the inception report) and quality criteria as outlined in the CLIENT evaluation guidelines.

  • Evaluation report audit trail. Comments and changes by the evaluator in response to the draft report should be retained by the evaluator to show how they have addressed comments.

  • Evaluation report. The final report should address comments, questions and clarification. The final report should also contain a stand-alone executive summary of no more than five pages.

  • Presentations to stakeholders and the evaluation reference group (ERG).

  • Evaluation brief and other knowledge products/impact case studies (potentially, focusing on project components/sub-components/intervention sectors (Capacity building, Assets, livelihood impact of beneficiaries and communities, gender/women empowerment) agreed in the inception report.

Standard templates that need to be followed are provided in the Annexes section. It is expected that the evaluator will follow the CLIENT evaluation guidelines and UNEG quality check list and ensure all the quality criteria are met in the evaluation report. 

Evaluation team composition and required competencies

  • The project evaluation will be conducted by independent consultants (one international and one national). The consultants must have extensive experience in strategic programming of development assistance in active conflict setting countries within the broader areas of mine action. The consultants must also have substantial knowledge and experience of gender and monitoring and evaluation of similar initiatives in volatile environments.

  • The International Consultant will be the Team Leader and take a lead role during all phases of the evaluation and coordinate the work of all the three national consultants. He/she will ensure the quality of the evaluation process, outputs, methodology and timely delivery of all products. The Team Leader, in close collaboration with the other evaluation team members, leads the conceptualization and design the evaluation and plays a lead role in shaping the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the report.

  • The National Consultant will be recruited to work under the leadership of the international lead consultant, be responsible for the overall assistance to the Team Leader to implement the evaluation inception guideline including application of all agreed evaluation methodologies to collect, analysis, and draft report (plus drafting case studies/knowledge products) in line with field findings covering all agreed approaches such as consultations and meetings with selected different stakeholders, FGDs, etc. The national consultant will contribute substantively to the work of the Team Leader, providing substantive inputs and context in the drafting and finalizing the inception and final evaluation reports. Both the international and national consultant should have M&E technical knowledge and experience in key critical cross-cutting areas such as gender equality, empowerment, disability issues, rights-based approach and capacity development.

Project reporting
  • Reports to the line manager

Key competencies
  • Advanced university degree (i.e. master’s degree or equivalent) in the field of social science or other relevant fields of study with a minimum of eight years of relevant experience 

  • First Level University Degree (bachelor’s degree or equivalent) with a minimum of 15 years of relevant experience.

  • Military Experience (or relevant Police Experience) at the Officer level with a minimum of 15 years of relevant experience

  • At least eight years of practical experience in a similar professional role (i.e. implementation, consultancy support and/or Evaluation for the projects (inter alia in local economic development, rural development, community led development and other related areas)

  • At least 10 years of programme/project management and policy formulation experience in mine action and/or related field

  • Proven record of leading complex programmatic evaluations, including Mine Action/UXO programmes or related field.

  • Demonstrable in-depth understanding of results-based management, gender equality, capacity building and strategic planning.

  • Demonstrated experience with UNDP and/or other multilateral/bilateral development assistance agencies in similar assignments is an advantage.

  • Fluency in English is a requirement. Knowledge of Arabic would be an asset.


Team management
  • This role has no team management responsibility 

Further information

Timeframe for the evaluation process

The selected consultant will be expected to deliver the following outputs according to the following tentative schedule (starting from the time of contract signing) 


Time Allocation

Documents to be submitted

% of payment

Approving Officer

Deliverable 1: Evaluation inception report (10-15 pages) describing initial findings based on the comprehensive documentation review - work plan and evaluation matrix prepared. Presentation of inception report to UNDP

8 days

A comprehensive inception report

25%

Evaluation manager and commissioner

Deliverable 2: Draft evaluation report (max 40 pages) should be prepared based on collected data and information following the UNDP templates

16 days

Draft evaluation report

40%

Evaluation manager

Deliverable 3: Final Mid-Term Review Report integrating feedback on draft evaluation report provided by the ERG, UNDP and other stakeholders, Audit trail

12 days

Final evaluation report, audit trail

35%

Evaluation manager

Deliverable 4: Presentation(s) delivered to key stakeholders

1 day

PowerPoint Presentation

Estimated total days for the evaluation

35 days

The consultancy is expected to take a period of 35 working days starting in March 2023. The 35 working days will be spread over a period of two months to provide for delays and the need for additional time that may be required for implementing evaluations virtually recognising possible delays in accessing stakeholder groups. The consultants will inform the evaluation manager if additional time is needed to complete the evaluation.Fee payments will be made upon acceptance and approval by UNDP planned deliverables, based on the following payment schedule:

Milestone for payment Percentage
Inception report 25%
Draft Evaluation Report & presentation of findings 40%
Final Evaluation Report, audit trail and presentation of findings to stakeholders 35%


Disclaimer: At no stage of the recruitment process will CTG ask candidates for a fee. This includes during the application stage, interview, assessment and training.
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