Evaluation Consultant at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Result of Service

The Evaluation consultant will submit an approved inception report, an approved draft main evaluation report and an approved final main evaluation report

Expected duration

The consultant will be hired over a period of 8 months from October 2022 to May 2023.

Duties and Responsibilities

Project

The Terminal Evaluation is undertaken at operational completion of the project to assess project performance (in terms of relevance, effectiveness and efficiency), and determine outcomes and impacts (actual and potential) stemming from the project, including their sustainability. The Evaluation has two primary purposes: (i) to provide evidence of results to meet accountability requirements, and (ii) to promote operational improvement, learning and knowledge sharing through results and lessons learned among UNEP and main project partners, namely Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics  University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics  University of Peradeniya (Department of Animal Science), Sri Lanka  National Institute of Animal Husbandry (NIAH), Vietnam.

Evaluation

The Consultant will be responsible, in close consultation with the Evaluation Office of UNEP for overall management of the Evaluation and timely provision of its outputs. The Consultant will make substantive and high quality contributions to the evaluation process and outputs. The evaluation team will ensure together that all evaluation criteria and questions are adequately covered.

In close consultation with the Evaluation Manager, the Principal Evaluator will be responsible for the overall management of the Evaluation and timely provision of its outputs, data collection and analysis and reportwriting. More specifically:

1. Inception phase of the Evaluation, including:
2. preliminary desk review and introductory interviews with project staff;
3. draft the reconstructed Theory of Change of the project;
4. prepare the evaluation framework;
5. develop the desk review and interview protocols;
6. draft the survey protocols (if relevant);
7. develop and present criteria for country and/or site selection for the evaluation mission;
8. plan the evaluation schedule;
9. prepare the Inception Report, incorporating comments until approved by the Evaluation Manager
10. Data collection and analysis phase of the Evaluation, including:
11. conduct further desk review and indepth interviews with project implementing and executing agencies, project partners and project stakeholders;
12. (where appropriate and agreed) conduct an evaluation mission(s) to selected countries, visit the project locations, interview project partners and stakeholders, including a good representation of local communities. Ensure independence of the Evaluation and
13. confidentiality of evaluation interviews.
14. regularly report back to the Evaluation Manager on progress and inform of any possible problems or issues encountered and;
15. keep the Project/Task Manager informed of the evaluation progress.

Reporting phase, including:

1. draft the Main Evaluation Report, ensuring that the evaluation report is complete, coherent and consistent with the Evaluation Manager guidelines both in substance and style;
2. liaise with the Evaluation Manager on comments received and finalize the Main Evaluation Report, ensuring that comments are taken into account until approved by the Evaluation Manager
3. prepare a Response to Comments annex for the main report, listing those comments not accepted by the Evaluation Consultant and indicating the reason for the rejection; and
4. (where agreed with the Evaluation Manager) prepare an Evaluation Brief (2page summary
5. of the evaluand and the key evaluation findings and lessons)

Managing relations, including:

maintain a positive relationship with evaluation stakeholders, ensuring that the evaluation process is as participatory as possible but at the same time maintains its independence;
communicate in a timely manner with the Evaluation Manager on any issues requiring its attention and intervention.

Qualifications/special skills

1. Academic Qualifications: A university degree in animal sciences, livestock production or animal husbandry, international development, public policy or other relevant political or social sciences area is required and an advanced degree in the same areas is desirable;
2. Experience: A minimum of 7 years of technical / evaluation experience is required, preferably including evaluating large, regional or global programmes and using a Theory of Change approach; and a good/broad understanding of Animal Genetic Resources and policy formulation is desired.

Working knowledge of the UN system and specifically the work of UNEP is an added advantage.
Language: English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this consultancy, fluency in oral and written English is a requirement and a working knowledge of French is desirable.