The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the United Nations’ global development network. It advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life for themselves. It provides expert advice, training and grants support to developing countries, with increasing emphasis on assistance to the least developed countries. It promotes technical and investment cooperation among nations.

Headquartered in New York City, the status of UNDP is that of an executive board within the United Nations General Assembly. The UNDP is funded entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member states. The organization operates in 177 countries, where it works with local governments to meet development challenges and develop local capacity.

We are recruiting to fill the position of:

Job Title: Consultant (Project Evaluation)

Location: Abuja
Additional Category: Democratic Governance and Peacebuilding
Type of Contract: Individual Contract
Post Level: National Consultant
Starting Date: The date, when the selected candidate is expected to start, is 13-Dec-2021
Duration of Initial Contract: 30 Working Days within Two Months
Expected Duration of Assignment: 30 Working Days within Two Months

Background

• UNDP and the Norwegian Government have collaborated on the development and implementation of conflict prevention initiatives. The intervention is designed to address gaps in infrastructure and capacities for conflict prevention, management and peacebuilding in Nigeria through strategic research into root causes of violent conflicts; integrated early warning and early response system and grievance redress mechanisms, as well as, national infrastructure for peace at national and state levels; capacities for conflict prevention and community-level platforms for dialogue, peacebuilding and reconciliation; strengthen institutional capacities to fulfil strategic conflict prevention roles in the Niger Delta; and youth, women and victims of violence empowered to enhance peacebuilding at the community level.
• The evaluation will largely focus on the support provided by UNDP and the results engendered through this support. This evaluation also provides an important opportunity to assess the place of UNDP’s implementation strategy which is through Direct Implementation Modality (DIM) whereby the UNDP leads the implementation because of the sensitive nature of the project and more importantly the convening power, trust and confidence it enjoys among the stakeholders in the country.

Duties and Responsibilities
Purpose and scope of the Evaluation:

• The purpose of this evaluation is to assess the contribution of the project in preventing and reducing conflict as well as building peace in the target communities. This will be done, primarily, by assessing the degree to which the outputs outlined in the project proposal have been successfully delivered, and whether these outputs were well-targeted to best support the UNDP’s conflict prevention engagement.
• While taking into consideration the support provided by other similar projects, the evaluation will focus on the project period 2018 to 2020, reflecting on the contribution made since the reformulation of the partnership.
• The evaluation will primarily consider contributions made by the project in building the capacity of the national level, including through results supported by state beneficiaries, and identify recommendations and next steps to further strengthen these efforts.
• It is expected that the evaluation findings will assist the project in strengthening UNDP’s conflict prevention engagement and in further refining the design and implementation of appropriate strategies, policies and project approaches to peacebuilding and conflict prevention, while also strengthening the UNDP’s contribution to the UN’s system-wide conflict prevention architecture

Evaluation Objectives and Criteria

• The key evaluation objective is to examine the project’s contribution to building the Nigerian Government and UNDP’s capacity to engage in conflict prevention and enhance the capacity of the country to respond in complex political situations.
• The following criteria will be used in support of this objective: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability.

The evaluation will be guided by the following questions pertaining to these respective criteria:
Effectiveness:

• Are the objectives and outputs of the project clear, practical and feasible within its frame?
• To what extent did the project contribute to the country programme document (CPD) outcomes and outputs, the SDGs, the UNDP Strategic Plan and national development priorities?
• To what extent were the project outputs achieved?
• What factors have contributed to achieving or not achieving intended country programme outputs and outcomes?
• To what extent has the UNDP partnership strategy been appropriate and effective?
• What factors contributed to effectiveness or ineffectiveness?
• In which areas does the project have the greatest achievements? Why and what have been the supporting factors? How can the project build on or expand these achievements?
• In which areas does the project have the fewest achievements? What have been the constraining factors and why? How can or could they be overcome?
• What, if any, alternative strategies would have been more effective in achieving the project’s objectives?
• To what extent have stakeholders been involved in project implementation?
• To what extent are project management and implementation participatory and is this participation contributing towards the achievement of the project objectives?
• To what extent has the project been appropriately responsive to the needs of the national constituents and changing partner priorities?
• Has the project been supporting efforts to enhance linkages between conflict prevention and other projects supported by development partners, such as governance, peacebuilding, education, poverty reduction etc.?
• To what extent are the current support services provided by the project to government and communities perceived as being effective and how could they be changed or improved?
• To what extent have the project’s efforts to build system-wide capacity on conflict prevention and conflict analysis contributed to the country’s effectiveness in engaging in conflict prevention?
• To what extent has the project contributed to gender equality, the empowerment of women and the realization of human rights?

Efficiency:

• Are beneficiaries including persons trained to manage infrastructure for peace, early warning and early response systems and grievances redress mechanisms, etc. provided with the adequate resources and support necessary to enable them to efficiently undertake their assignments?
• Are there any unanticipated circumstances, events, opportunities or constraints that limit the value of the project support?
• Was the objective and nature of support/engagement of the project effectively communicated to beneficiaries, government, partners and donors?
• Sustainability
• Are there mechanisms put in place by the government to ensure the long-term presence of relevant skills and capacities to manage infrastructure for peace, early warning and early response systems and grievances redress mechanisms, etc. set up by the project?
• Are there any financial risks that may jeopardize the sustainability of project outputs?
• 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 the sustainability of project outputs and the project’s contributions to country programme outputs and outcomes?
• Do the legal frameworks, policies and governance structures and processes within which the project operates pose risks that may jeopardize the sustainability of project benefits?
• To what extent did UNDP actions pose an environmental threat to the sustainability of project outputs?
• What is the risk that the level of stakeholders’ ownership will be sufficient to allow for the project benefits to be sustained?
• To what extent do mechanisms, procedures and policies exist to allow primary stakeholders to carry forward the results attained on gender equality, empowerment of women, human rights and human development?
• To what extent do stakeholders support the project’s long-term objectives?
• 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 do UNDP interventions have well-designed and well-planned exit strategies? Are these exit strategies being appropriately implemented?
• What could be done to strengthen exit strategies and sustainability?
• Are there other initiatives and measures that could be part of the project that would further the sustainability of the conflict prevention engagement?

Relevance:

• To what extent was the project in line with the national development priorities, the country programme outputs and outcomes, the UNDP Strategic Plan and the SDGs?
• To what extent does the project contribute to the theory of change for the relevant country programme outcome?
• To what extent were lessons learned from other relevant projects considered in the project’s design?
• To what extent were perspectives of those who could affect the outcomes, and those who could contribute information or other resources to the attainment of stated results, considered during the project design processes?
• To what extent does the project contribute to gender equality, the empowerment of women and the human rights-based approach?
• To what extent has the project been appropriately responsive to political, legal, economic, institutional, etc., changes in the country?
• Has UNDP been able to help design conflict prevention and peacebuilding interventions in line with local and national realities and priorities and other development strategies?
• Does the support provided through the project serve the needs of targeted beneficiaries?

Impact:

• Has the intervention caused a significant change in the lives of the intended beneficiaries?
• How did the intervention cause higher-level effects (such as changes in norms or systems)?
• Did all the intended target groups, including the most disadvantaged and vulnerable, benefit equally from the intervention?
• Is the intervention transformative – does it create enduring changes in norms – including gender norms – and systems, whether intended or not?
• Is the intervention leading to other changes, including “scalable” or “replicable” results?
• How will the intervention contribute to changing society for the better?

Methodology

• The Evaluation will be undertaken by an independent consultant with expertise in peacebuilding and conflict prevention. The evaluation should employ a combination of both qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods and instruments.

Evaluation of Consultants

• Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal.

The award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only the highest-ranked candidates who score 70 points would be found qualified for the job will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Required Skills and Experience
Minimum qualifications required:

• Master’s Degree in Conflict Resolution, or related discipline.
• Experience in peacebuilding, reconciliation, strengthening institutional capacities and in evaluation.
• Fluency in English is required.
• Full computer literacy.

General Professional Experience:

• Extensive experience in fields of employment and youth.
• Solid knowledge of the Nigeria conflict resolution, peacebuilding, reconciliation, strengthening institutional context, government structure and relevant state policies.
• Five-year experience in evaluation.

Competencies:
The candidate should be able to:

• Work under pressure against strict deadlines,
• Think out-of-the-box,
• Present complex issues persuasively and simply.
• Contextualize global trends in accordance with the dynamics of the operating (working) environment.

Evaluation Criteria:

• Technical Criteria – 70% of total evaluation (maximum. 100 points:)
  • Technical expertise – maximum points:-maximum points 10
  • Evaluation Methodology: maximum points- 20 points
  • Relevant professional experience – maximum points: 30
  • Knowledge and experience in international development – maximum points: 10
  • Relevance of the technical proposal to assignment – maximum points: 30
• Financial Criteria – 30% of total evaluation – (maximum 30 points).

Method of Application

Submit your CV and Application on Company Website: Click Here

Template for Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Application Instruction

• Individual consultants interested in applying for this position must complete their application using the Template for Offeror’s Letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) assignment.
• The methodology, other documents and the Financial Proposal files Must Be Completely Separate. The financial proposal (Offeror’s Letter to UNDP confirming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) assignment) shall be encrypted with different passwords and clearly labelled. Financial Proposals without passwords will be disqualified.
• The password for opening the Financial Proposal should be provided only upon request of UNDP. UNDP will request passwords only from bidders whose Technical Proposal has been found to be technically responsive. Failure to provide the correct password may result in the proposal being rejected.