Result of Service

This evaluation will be an independent and forward-looking appraisal of the project, its achievements, opportunities and challenges, and provide recommendations on how UN-Habitat and its partners could improve performance of similar projects in future. Key audiences of the evaluation are: the World Bank; UN-Habitat (ROAf, PLGS, PFES); National Governments of Comoros through the Unité de Gestion de Projet (UGP); the Ministry of Urbanism (MATUAFTT).

Work Location

Home-based with anticipated field visits

Expected duration

2 Months

Duties and Responsibilities

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the specialized programme for sustainable urbanization and human settlements in the United Nations system. Its mission is to promote socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements development and the achievement of adequate shelter for all. Pursuant to its mandate, UN-Habitat aims to achieve impact at two levels. At the operational level, it undertakes technical cooperation projects. At the normative level, it seeks to influence governments and non-governmental actors in formulating, adopting, implementing and enforcing policies, norms and standards conducive to sustainable human settlements and sustainable urbanization. The current UN-Habitat strategic plan for 2020-2023 is in line with its new vision of “a better quality of life for all in an urbanizing world”. The vision is encapsulated in the Plan’s four domains of change namely: 1. Reduced spatial inequality and poverty in communities across the urban – rural continuum. 2. Enhanced shared prosperity of cities and regions. 3. Strengthened climate action and improved urban environment. 4. Effective urban crisis prevention and response. The project ‘UN-Habitat technical assistance to the MATUAFTT’ was developed and is currently managed by the UN-Habitat Regional Office for Africa (ROAf) with the collaboration of other UN-Habitat offices (i.e., PLGS and PFES), under the Task Management for the Union of Comoros. The project contributes to domain 2 of the strategic plan with its EA2: “By 2026, public institutions are more inclusive, efficient, accountable and resilient and strengthen citizen participation in public life, social cohesion, human rights, gender equality and democracy.” and domain 4 with its EA1: “By 2026, state and non-state actors, the Comorian population, especially the most vulnerable groups, strengthen their resilience in the face of climate change, natural disasters and crises and ensure the management sustainable and integrated land and marine ecosystems as well as goods and services associated ecosystems in a context of promotion of sustainable habitat with low environmental footprint.” BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT: The Union of the Comoros is located in the South-Eastern part of the African continent, which is a region highly vulnerable to extreme cross-border climatic events, in particular floods, droughts and cyclones. The Union of the Comoros was hit on April 24, 2019 by Cyclone Kenneth, one of the most devastating tropical cyclones in the country’s history. A total of 345,131 people across the three islands, or more than 40 percent of the population, have been affected. The damage and losses caused by the Cyclone amount to US $ 185.4 million and are associated with a major disruption to public services. Impact assessments have shown that damage and losses are concentrated in the housing sector (US $ 67.5 million), agriculture, livestock and fisheries (US $ 53.0 million), and infrastructure and transport (US $ 21.1 million). These results reflect damage to around 11,900 houses, 60 percent of subsistence crops (mainly bananas, cassava) and 30 percent of cash crops (vanilla, ylang-ylang, cloves), a loss of over 13 500 head of cattle and poultry. In addition, the Cyclone damaged a significant part of critical infrastructure, including roads, ports and airports, dikes, water and electricity networks, health centres and schools. As part of the recovery of the Union of the Comoros, the Government supported by the World Bank is undertaking the implementation of the Post-Kenneth and Resilience Recovery Project (PRPKR) in the amount of USD 45 million. The development objective of the project is to support the post-Kenneth rehabilitation of targeted public and private infrastructure in the areas affected by Cyclone Kenneth, and to increase their resilience to natural and climatic disasters over the long term. The UN-Habitat approach will focus on reducing vulnerability, strengthening resilience, promoting climate action and creating an environment conducive to the implementation of housing programmes and will be able to rely on a methodology that allows for real transfer of skills. Based on this approach, the planned activities are distributed under the two main components: • Component A] Strengthening of the national framework in terms of disaster- and climate related resilience building and resilient housing, land and property policies; o The main deliverables under this component are the National Urban and Housing Policy (NUHP) and the Town Planning and Construction Code (CUC). • Component B] Strengthening land planning and management capacities, with a particular focus on disaster- and climate-related resilience. o The main deliverables under this component are the capacity-building of MATUAFTT and other government institutions and the review of the terms of reference for the urban development plans of Moroni and Mutsamudu. The main expected accomplishments of this programme are: A] Strengthening of the national framework in terms of disaster- and climate related resilience building and resilient housing, land and property policies. • Development of the National Urban Planning and Housing Policy (NUHP) • Revision of the Town Planning and Construction Code (CUC) B] Strengthening land planning and management capacities, with a particular focus on disaster- und climate related resilience. • Capacity building for MATUH and other government institutions • Review of terms of reference for the urban development plans of Moroni and Mutsamudu PURPOSE, SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE EVALUATION The final project evaluation is mandated by the project manager. It is in-line with UN-Habitat Evaluation Policy (2013) and the Revised UN-Habitat Evaluation Framework (2016) which requires that programmes and projects over USD 300,00 to have budget provision for evaluation, and end-of-project evaluation is optional to be conducted by external evaluator. The evaluation will focus on the life cycle of the project, covering the period from 10th February 2022 to 30th December 2023. It will assess the planning, funding, implementation and, monitoring and reporting on the project. It will assess achievements of outputs and expected accomplishments (outcomes), identify and analyze constraints, challenges and opportunities. Further, it will include assessment on how crossing cutting issues of gender equality, human rights, youth, and social and environmental safeguards have been integrated in the planning and implementation of the project. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: Under the supervision of the Chief, Evaluation Unit, UN-Habitat and in line with the UN-Habitat Evaluation policy (2013), the Evaluation Expert will: i) Assess project performance towards the achievement of the expected results at output and Expected Accomplishments (Outcomes) levels. ii) Assess the relevance and coherence, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and impact outlook; iii) Assess capacities of the government of Comoros in terms of land planning and management capacities with a focus on disaster and climate-related resilience as well as strengthening the national normative framework in terms of disaster- and climate related resilience building and resilient housing, land and property policies. iv) Assess the planning, management, adequacy of resources, working arrangements and how these may have impacted the effectiveness of the project. v) Assess how cross-cutting issues such as gender equality, human rights, youth, and social and environmental safeguards were integrated in the project. vi) Identify lessons learned and best practices and provide recommendations to improve performance for future projects related to developing land planning and management capacities.

Qualifications/special skills

• 7 years of experience on project evaluation/review and knowledge of Results-Based Management and strong methodological and analytical skills alongside the design and/or implementation of projects related to Urban Policies, Governance and Legislation as well as Urban Planning is required. • Within the 7 years, 5 years of experience working in Sub Saharan Africa is required. • Two specific experiences that demonstrate to have the knowledge of project cycle of the World Bank or similar. • Two specific experiences that demonstrate the application of result-based management evaluation methodologies that include the application of SMART indicators and reconstructing or validating baseline scenarios. Education Master’s degree in Urban Policies, Governance and Legislation, Urban Planning, or another relevant field is required. A first-level University degree in Urban Policies, Governance and Legislation, Urban Planning or related discipline in combination with two years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this post, fluency in written and oral English is required.

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.