Vacancy Announcement Details

Consultants: Quality Assessments of Decentralised Evaluation Reports, Independent Evaluation Office

18 Jul 2022

UNDP

 

Background

The Independent Evaluation Office is a functionally independent unit within UNDP that supports the oversight and accountability functions of the UNDP Executive Board and the management of UNDP. The work of the office includes conducting thematic, programmatic and other independent evaluations; developing evaluation standards, procedures criteria and methodological guidance for UNDP evaluations; and annually assessing and reporting on the quality of decentralized evaluations commissioned by the various UNDP Bureaux and offices.

UNDP Bureaus and Country Offices develop and implement evaluation plans following the requirements detailed within the 2021 updated UNDP Evaluation Guidelines. These decentralized evaluations include programme-level evaluations, outcome evaluations, thematic evaluations, and project evaluations. Approximately 300decentralized evaluations are carried out world-wide each year, of these around 120 are Global Environment Facility (GEF) final or mid-term evaluations.

UNDP Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) assesses the quality of the decentralized evaluations carried out in any given year on a quarterly basis. These quality assessment findings are made available to the relevant UNDP Bureaus and programme units to support learning and improvements in evaluation quality. Quality assessment results are also reported to the UNDP Executive Board as part of the IEO Annual Report on Evaluation.  The IEO has developed a quality assessment system for decentralized evaluations to assess the quality of evaluation reports and give feedback to evaluation commissioning units. 

This advertisement sets out the expected responsibilities of a pool of evaluation consultants selected for work on the quality assessment of decentralised evaluations.

Selected candidates will be issued a long-term agreement (LTA) which will be valid initially for a period of one year, and may be renewed up to a maximum of two additional years. Each consultancy will vary depending on the number of decentralised evaluations undertaken during a given year by UNDP country offices, but is expected to range between 10 and 40 work days annually. The selected consultants will, therefore, be given intermittent work on an "on call" basis.

 

 

Duties and Responsibilities

Evaluation consultants are sought from all regions and across technical areas, including GEF evaluation implementation experience. Consultants are being sought who can utilise their technical expertise and knowledge to assess the evaluation work of UNDP across multiple development sectors. 

Under the supervision of the respective IEO decentralised evaluation quality assessment manager, consultants will perform the following tasks:

  • Familiarize him/herself with current guidelines and standards of the Quality Assessment System.
  • With other selected consultants, carry out a calibration exercise to ensure common understanding of definitions and rating scales under the quality assessment tool.
  • Carefully read each assigned evaluation, and when required, any additional background documentation provided by the IEO, and carry out the quality assessment using an on-line assessment tool. 
  • It is estimated that evaluation reviews will take between 0.5 and 1 day depending on the complexity of the programme, and evaluation being quality assessed and the amount of supporting documentation.
  • Summarize key findings and common issues related to the quality of decentralized evaluations, when required. 
  • Consultants with gender expertise may also be asked to assess a set of UNDP evaluations in accordance with the guidance contained in the UNEG Guidance Document entitled “UN System Wide Action Plan on Gender Mainstreaming (UN-SWAP) Evaluation Performance Indicator Technical Note (April 2018)” and prepare a short report.
  • Consultants will support IEO in the selection process of the Evaluation Excellence Awards, for examples, identifying innovative evaluations.

Full details available on the UNDP website. Application deadline 27th July.