Result of Service

Duration of the Work The duration of the assignment is 25 working days spreading over the period from April to October 2024. The assignment shall start on 15 April 2024 with the final, approved product to be submitted by 10 October 2024. The National Consultant on evaluation will have home-based work with field trips within Turkmenistan. The National Consultant shall be tasked to provide substantial support to Evaluation Team Leader to accomplish the following expected deliverables following the template requirements suggested in the UNEG – DCO UNSDCF Evaluation Guidelines: 1. Theory-of-change technical meeting 1 day in Apr 2024 2. Substantial inputs to the Final Inception Report including presentation of the inception report 3 days in May 2024 3. Field data collection and analysis 10 days in June-July 2024 4. Substantial inputs to the Initial evaluation findings report including presentation of key preliminary finding 5 days in July-Aug 2024 5. Validation workshop including substantial inputs to the PPT for the workshop 1 day in Sep 2024 6. Substantial inputs to the Final Evaluation report 4 days in Sep 2024 7. Dissemination workshop including substantial inputs to the PPT for the workshop 1 day in Oct 2024

Work Location

RCO Turkmenistan

Expected duration

April-October 2024

Duties and Responsibilities

Introduction: General Assembly resolution A/RES/72/279 designated the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework as “the most important instrument for the planning and implementation of United Nations development activities in each country, in support of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. It forms the centrepiece of UN reform and represents the collective response of the UN to help countries address national priorities and challenges in achieving the 2030 Agenda. Evaluation of the UNSDCF is a mandatory independent system-wide country evaluation guided by the UNEG – DCO UNSDCF Evaluation Guidelines-Revised July 2022.pdf. UNSDCF evaluations ensure accountability, support learning, and inform decisions regarding the design of subsequent UNSDCF cycles. They systematically assess the contributions of the UNSDCF by focusing on achieved development results, as well as internal and external gaps and overlaps in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Purpose and Objectives of UNSDCF final evaluation: i. Ensure accountability of UN actions to stakeholders. By objectively providing evidence of results achieved within the framework of the UNSDCF and assessing the effectiveness of the strategies and interventions used, the evaluation will enable the various stakeholders in the UNSDCF process, including national counterparts and donors, to hold the UNCT and other parties accountable for fulfilling their roles and commitments. ii. Provide a transparent and participatory platform for learning and dialogue with stakeholders regarding national progress, challenges and opportunities, and best approaches in the context of the system-wide national response. The evaluation will provide important information for strengthening programming and results at the country level, specifically informing the planning and decision-making for the next UNSDCF programme cycle and for improving UN coordination at the country level. The UNCT, Turkmenistan government and other UNSDCF stakeholders can learn from the process of documenting good practices and lessons learned, which can then be shared with DCO and used for the benefit of other countries. iii. Deliver clear recommendations to support the next UNSDCF cycle and ensure accelerated progress towards the SDGs. The evaluation will provide actionable forward-looking recommendations for improving the UNSDCF’s contribution, especially for prioritization and incorporation into the new UNSDCF programming cycle. These recommendations should be logically linked to the conclusions and findings of the evaluation and should draw upon lessons learned identified through the evaluation. Scope of Evaluation: Thematic scope: The Evaluation covers all contributions to the UNSDCF 2021-2025 outcomes of all programmes, projects and activities at national and regional level for the UNSDCF period from January 2021 to June 2024 conducted by the UNCT including FAO, ILO, IOM, ITC, OHCHR, UNDP, UNDRR, UNECE, UNEP, UNESCAP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UN-Habitat, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNIDO, UNODC, UNOPS and WHO. At the same time, the UNSDCF evaluation shall not seek to conduct a full evaluation of individual programmes, projects, or activities of UNCT members, but rather synthesise and build on the programme and project evaluations conducted by each agency. Where possible, the UNSDCF evaluation shall learn from the results of evaluations and mid-term reviews of country programmes of some UN agencies conducted during the UNSDCF period. Therefore, the UNSDCF Evaluation Team shall work in close coordination with the respective evaluation teams to avoid duplication of efforts, promote synergies and efficiencies throughout the process. The UNSDCF 2021-2025 evaluation will assess, among others, the UNSDCF cross-cutting priorities and global UN programming principles such as LNOB, human rights, gender equality and the empowerment of women, disability inclusion and youth participation, environmental sustainability, and results-based management. The Evaluation will consider the changed national context, if any, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, regional political instability, national demographic trends, including migration, and conflicts. Geographic scope of the evaluation: Since UN agencies are active in various regions of the country, ideally, this evaluation shall represent various parts of Turkmenistan. Therefore, focus areas for evaluation will be decided based on geographic representation (i.e. UN supports that have wide geographic coverages). However, considering the budget availability, areas with a high UN presence will be prioritized. Time-scope: The UNSDCF evaluation will cover the implementation period from January 2021 to June 2024. Users of the evaluation findings: The primary users of the evaluation are the UNCT, including non-resident UN agencies, the Government and Parliament of Turkmenistan, Office of the Ombudsperson, national research institutions, and in particular the line ministries – members of the UNSDCF Results Groups, and civil society. In addition, bilateral and multilateral donors, and the broader development partners are also seen as important audience of the evaluation. Evaluation Methodology and Approach The evaluation will assess the progress of the UNSDCF 2021-2025 implementation, relevance to the country’s development needs and the targeted vulnerable populations, current national context and global commitments of the country, effectiveness of management arrangements and status of the UNSDCF budget. The focus span of the evaluation will be the results achieved during the 3.5 years of UNSDCF implementation, lessons learnt, validate identified areas for UN Joint Programmes, progress on and likelihood of mobilizing resources envisaged in the UNSDCF, analyse challenges and opportunities, and based on that recommend the way forward to design the next UNSDCF for the period 2026 – 2030. The methodological approach will be to review the UNSDCF progress from the perspective of the key criteria suggested by https://www.unevaluation.org/document/download/3737 or UNSDCF Evaluation Guidelines – Engl – Revised July 2022.pdf (adobe.com). Evaluation criteria and evaluation questions The evaluation criteria to be used are relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, coherence, sustainability, coordination and orientation towards impact. The Evaluation Team comprised of an international Team Leader and two national team members may adapt the evaluation criteria and questions, upon agreement between the Evaluation Manager (and Evaluation Management Team) and the evaluator as reflected in the Inception Report. The final evaluation questions and evaluation matrix will be finalised by the Evaluation Team in the Inception Report based on feedback from the Evaluation Management Team. Relevance and adaptability 1. To what extent the UNSDCF strategic priorities are consistent with the country’s long- and mid-term national priorities and needs such as human capital development, governance and institutional capacity strengthening, climate change mitigation and adaptation, economic diversification, trade facilitation and connectivity, health and social protection services, the country’s international commitments, including on SDGs, leaving no one behind, human rights, sustainable development, environment, and gender equity? 2. How resilient, responsive and strategic the UNCT was in addressing emerging and emergency needs including those of the most vulnerable (persons with disabilities, youth NEETs), disadvantaged and marginalized groups (migrants, stateless people and refugees), for example, in response to the Aral Sea crisis, the COVID-19 impacts and in reprioritizing/adapting its support to provide timely support to the country and to ensure the achievement of the UNSDCF outcomes? Coherence and Coordination 3. Post UN reform, to what extent have UN agency programs and work plans been effectively and meaningfully derived from the CF both in design and implementation? 4. To what extent did the post reform Resident Coordinator office’s roles and responsibilities enable positive UNCT’s joint convening power and better coherence of the country team? 5. To what extent, how and through what partnerships (civil society/private sector/local government/parliament/academia, research institutions/ international development partners) has the UNSDCF strengthened the coherence of UNCT support to address specific national development challenges and to enhance the achievement of results? 6. How effective have the UNSDCF joint coordination structures and national SDG governing bodies (Steering Committee, Results Groups, National SDG Working Group) been in articulating implementation bottlenecks and agreeing the pathways to fix those and to accelerate the progress towards SDGs in Turkmenistan? Effectiveness 7. How effective has the UNSDCF been in achieving the results outlined in the results framework? What have been the benefits for the people and institutions targeted by the interventions, including the most vulnerable, disadvantaged, and marginalized population? 8. To what extent has the UNSDCF contributed to key institutional, behavioural and legislative changes that are critical for catalysing progress towards the UNSDCF desired impact including the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment, human rights, and disability inclusion? 9. To what extent has access to SDG data influenced effectiveness of UNSDCF implementation? Efficiency 10. Was the UNSDCF supported by an integrated funding framework and by adequate funding instruments? What were the resource mobilization gaps, and how were they addressed? Have resources been allocated efficiently? 11. To what extent has UNSDCF contributed to efficiency gains from UNCT collective actions and reduced transaction costs for partners? How adequate has the UNSDCF been in facilitating the effective reallocation of resources to emerging needs and priorities? Orientation toward impacts 12. To what extent are the UNSDCF achieved results demonstrating sound and sustainable progress towards the achievement of the expected SDG targets? Sustainability 13. What is the likelihood that progress towards the SDGs is sustained by national partners and stakeholders over time? 14. In which UNSDCF strategic priority areas the SDG progress is likely to be sustainable? Evaluation Methodology: Data collection: The UNSDCF evaluation will use a multiple method approach, which will include the following: desk reviews of reference material, interviews with relevant stakeholder groups (e.g. UN staff, government officials, donors and development partners, civil society organizations, youth, private sector, and beneficiaries), latest data, site visits and surveys. The evaluation should use a mixed – method analysis, employing the most appropriate qualitative and quantitative approaches, data types and methods of data gathering and analysis. Evaluation results and recommendations shall derive from explicit and judicious use of the best available, objective, reliable and valid data such as the UNSDCF Outcome/Output indicators, the latest survey data including MICS 2024, and other official statistics to conduct an accurate analysis of evidence. Where a lack of data necessitates a quick assessment of a contribution, this shall be carried out using appropriate evaluation methodologies that identify contributions at the outcome level and ascertain the plausibility of causal relationships between sub-outputs, outputs, and outcomes. Validation: All findings should be supported with evidence. Triangulation will be used to ensure that the information and data collected are valid. A report will be prepared including identified constrains, lessons and challenges in relations to the priority interventions as well as specific recommendations made both to the UNCT and to individual agencies. In addition, a participatory approach to involve key stakeholders and boost ownership of the evaluation shall be adopted, ensuring the involvement of civil society organizations, youth, and private sector representatives. Post-evaluation stakeholder workshop should be conducted to provide an opportunity to present findings, validate results and engage stakeholders in discussions regarding evaluation recommendations and next steps. RCO will support the workshop through invitation of a broad range of stakeholders involved into the evaluation. In general, the evaluation approach shall follow the UNEG guidance on integrating human rights and gender equality, UNEG norms and standards and international principles for development evaluation. The UNSDCF final evaluation will entail both an internal and external participatory process. The Evaluators will be working closely with the RGs Co-Chairs and UNSDCF Results Groups focal points from the UN, UNSDCF MEL Group, members of the UNCT’s other theme groups, under the overall leadership of the UNCT and with support of the RCO. The final report shall be compliant with UNEG quality checklist for evaluation reports and acknowledge how inclusive stakeholder participation was ensured during the evaluation process and any challenges in obtaining the information on cross-cutting concerns (i.e. gender equality and empowerment of women, human rights, non-discrimination, disability inclusion and environmental sustainability) or to addressing these issues appropriately. The report shall be written in line with the UNEG UNSDCF Evaluation Guidelines, with further detail on evaluation conduct and quality assurance found in the UNEG Evaluation Report Quality Checklist and UNEG Norms and Standards for Evaluations. XI. Management, governance, and quality assurance mechanisms The UN Resident Coordinator and UN Country Team (UNCT) hold the overall responsibility of commissioning the evaluation and any follow up actions. UNSDCF Evaluation will be governed by: Evaluation Manager (EM): UNICEF (Deputy Representative) With the support from RCO the EM will: ● be responsible for the day-to-day oversight and management of the evaluation and for the management of the evaluation budget. ● prepare the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the evaluation in a consultative manner. ● manage interactions and serve as interlocutor between the Evaluation Team and the Evaluation Management Team; ● Coordinate comments and ensure the quality control of deliverables submitted by the Evaluation Team ● Send all evaluation products to DCO for approval Evaluation Management Team (EMT) This is a technical level working group, comprising the technical representatives from UNSDCF MEL group and other program staff from UN entities. Key responsibilities of the Evaluation Management Team are: ● Support the evaluation process, guide the Evaluation Team and facilitate access to stakeholders and information. ● Provide input to the evaluation TOR, and select evaluation issues and questions. ● Facilitate stakeholder identification and consultations and provide access to information sources to support data collection. ● Provide overall comments on the main deliverables of the evaluation, including the inception report and draft evaluation report. ● Prepare a management response to the evaluation, in consultation with the UNCT members. ● Ensure the evaluation report and its results are disseminated promoting the use of evaluation and lessons. Evaluation Reference Group (ERG) This is the senior level group comprising of Co-chairs of UNSDCF Result Groups. Evaluation Reference Group is expected to provide strategic guidance to the evaluation including: ● Provide feedback and comments on the inception report, the draft and final evaluation reports; ● Advise internal and external stakeholders to be consulted during the evaluation process; ● Participate in review meetings. Composition of the Evaluation Team Given the importance of UNSDCF evaluation and the need for objective, non-biased assessment of the results of UNSDCF implementation, an independent Evaluation Team will be deployed for the UNSDCF evaluation. The Evaluation Team will consist of an international Team Leader and two national team members, who are evaluation experts. Evaluation Team will be composed of members with a diverse mix of qualifications and expertise covering the UNSDCF outcome areas to the extent possible. The Evaluation Team needs to be balanced in terms of gender. The Evaluation Team leader will lead the entire evaluation process, working closely with all team members. He/she will conduct the evaluation process in a timely manner and communicate with the evaluation manager, EMT on a regular basis and highlight progress made/challenges encountered. The team leader will take overall responsibility for providing guidance and leadership, and in coordinating the draft and final report. He/she will be responsible for the production and timely submission of all expected deliverables in line with the ToR. If necessary, the team leader will act as a technical expert for one UNSDCF strategic area. The Team Leader will take the overall responsibility for the methodological design and implementation of the evaluation. The team members will contribute to the evaluation process substantively through data collection and analysis. They will share responsibilities for conducting desk review and interviews and conduct field visits to the project sites (if any) identified during the inception phase and collect data. They will provide substantive inputs to the inception report as well as to the draft and final evaluation reports. All the members of the Evaluation Team should be independent from any organizations that have been involved in designing, executing, or advising any aspect of the UNSDCF subject of the evaluation. The Evaluation Team should adhere to and be guided by the UNEG Norms and Standards (2016) and the UNEG Ethical Guidelines (2020) at every stage of the evaluation process. Quality assurance will be carried out at different levels starting from recruitment process, design phase, field phase and reporting phase. A clear quality assurance considerations and system must be presented in the proposal and ensured throughout the evaluation. The data collected should be subjected to a rigorous quality assurance for validation outputss, using a variety of tools including triangulation of information sources. As a minimum, the Evaluation Manager, together with the EMT will be the second layer of quality assurance. The ERG together with the Regional DCO with the support from DCO HQ will add a third layer of technical and strategic feedback. Each deliverable will undergo a thorough process of quality assurance. Quality assurance will focus on the technical soundness of the deliverables, as well as on ensuring the deliverables meet the reporting standards set out by the UNSDCF Evaluation Guidance and UNEG guidelines.

Qualifications/special skills

– Bachelor Degree in Social, Political Sciences, International Development, Development Economics, Sociology of Development, Development Communications, Public Administration, Public Policy, Statistics, Project Management, or a closely related discipline is required. Master’s Degree (or equivalent) in the related areas will be considered as an advantage. – At least 7 years of relevant professional experience, including previous substantive involvement in doing evaluations/review of UNSDCFs/UNDAFs, complex programmes, projects, and strategic plans involving multiple stakeholders is required. – Profound knowledge of the UN and its systems, processes and policies, UN common country programming processes, the Global Agenda 2030. – Understanding of the implementation of UN Programmes and importance of the strategic partnerships for their implementation. – Good knowledge and experience with the national development frameworks, especially Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). – Experience in data collection/interviewing and writing analytical reports is required. – Knowledge of Human rights-based approach to Programming, Gender, Participatory process and RBM. – Ability to compile data and strong understanding of its quantitative and qualitative analysis within a logical framework. – A demonstrated ability to clearly communicate development ideas and experiences. – Experience in facilitating multi-stakeholder workshops and meetings is desirable. – Familiarity with the political, economic, and social context of Turkmenistan is desirable.

Languages

– Fluency in Russian and Turkmen (written and oral) is required, while knowledge of English is desirable.

Additional Information

Not available.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.