National Consultant on Monitoring and Evaluation for UN Women component under the Peacebuilding Fund Project

Background: Under the Peacebuilding Fund, UN Women, in partnership with OHCHR and UNDP, is implementing a two-years project “Building sustainable and inclusive peace, strengthening trust and social cohesion in Moldova” (hereinafter – PBF project) on both banks of Nistru river. The project seeks to facilitate an enabling environment for improved cross-river cooperation, reduced social tensions and the continuation of the fragile Transnistrian region settlement process in the context of growing regional and domestic geopolitical tensions exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, through the advancement of, and cross-river collaboration on human rights, Women, Peace and Security, and the promotion of equal access to services and through ensuring early intervention to prevent deepening divisions between the populations on either side of the conflict divide which are currently being affected by highly divisive narratives and misinformation.  

In the framework of UN Women’s work on advancing the implementation of WPS Agenda and in line with the recommendations from CEDAW committee¹  and OSCE chairpersonship²  towards increased inclusion of GE issues in the peace settlement process, UN Women initiated a dialogue with representatives from civil society and gender equality advocates from both sides of Nistru river. 

Although they play an important role in contributing to social inclusion and community engagement, there is a limited engagement of CSOs, particularly those at grassroots, in advancing WPS agenda, human security and related initiatives mostly because of their often-weak institutional capacity. While CSOs can purposively mobilize community members around issues of common interest, many of them do not have sufficient organizational capabilities to mobilize (financial) resources to deliver community projects or initiatives addressing the needs on the ground. Moreover, institutional capacity limitations often hinder CSOs from entering and implementing long-lasting partnerships with community actors in advancing WPS agenda and Peace-driven initiatives at the local level, and finally, it makes women’s and girls’ voices less heard in community planning, decision-making, and overall peacebuilding processes at community level, and beyond. 

In the light of the above-mentioned considerations and under the PBF project, UN Women intends to support the institutional capacity development of 6 (six) grassroot women-led CSOs from both banks of Nistru river (3 CSOs from the left bank and 3 CSOs from the right bank) through a small grants programme to increase their capacities to advocate on women’s rights and gender equality and human security in the peacebuilding context. The envisaged grants will bring a transformative change to the CSOs that will be supported to develop gender-sensitive internal policies and integrate gender equality in their internal structures, increase staff’s awareness on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, human security and gender-responsive peace building and will subsequently promote a culture of tolerance, equality, and non-discrimination in the country. 

To support the UN Women project team in the close monitoring of the PBF project implementation, including in supporting and monitoring the implementation of the Small Grants Programme for institutional capacity development of CSOs from both banks of the Nistru river, UN Women is seeking the services of a National Consultant with relevant experience in monitoring and evaluating projects and implementing institutional development grants/activities who will provide overall support to civil society organizations in strengthening their institutional capacity. 

Scope of work:

Under this announcement, the UN Women within the Peacebuilding Fund’s Project seeks to contract a National Consultant on Monitoring and Evaluation to support UN Women component of PBF Project, who as well will provide comprehensive support to CSOs in the implementation of the Small Grants focused on strengthening the institutional capacities of the selected organizations. The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Project Officer on Gender Equality in Peacebuilding, and overall guidance of the Programme Officer on Women, Peace and Security and Programme Analyst on Women in Leadership and Governance (WILG).  

The consultant will be responsible for the following main tasks: 

Output 1. Small Grants management support. 

Task 1: Support UN Women Team in evaluation of grants applications, provide expert analysis of the institutional capacity of the CSOs - beneficiaries of the Small Grants Programme for Institutional development. 

Task 2: Support CSOs in the development of the Small Grant Utilization Plan including the list of eligible activities, completion dates, budget and monitoring plans. 

Task 3. Offer the necessary technical support to the CSOs in all aspects of the implementation of the small grant in accordance with the Small Grant Agreement. 

Task 4. Guide and mentor the CSOs in writing narrative reports including developing result-based narrative reporting formats, collecting and summarizing the grantee’s narrative reports, and providing consolidated reports to UN Women as per periodicity agreed, as well as providing grantees with assistance in financial reporting and tracking of expenditures. 

Task 5. Provide final report on grants implementation covering the entire grant implementation period - with insights, lessons learned, conclusions, and recommendations. 

Output 2. Support the monitoring and evaluation of the UN Women component of the PBF project 

Task 1: Based on the PBF Project M&E plan, the incumbent will develop and use detailed activity monitoring tables to track progress towards output targets, respecting the requirement of percent of budget per activity allocated to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE). 

Task 2: Undertake monitoring visits at various project events/activities, monitor the implementation of the local initiatives, provide support to data collection to the baseline and endline studies, perception surveys, and participate in community-based monitoring related to the project. 

Task 3: Make use of feedback forms and pre/post-knowledge assessment questionnaire to be filled in by participants at technical capacity-building activities. 

Task 4: Support the UN Women project team in the close monitoring of the project implementation, including by participating, when appropriate, at meetings between implementing UN agencies’ staff, but also with other stakeholders and project beneficiaries, to keep track of progress achieved, flag issues and identify corrective actions. 

Task 5: Support UN Women team in semi-annual, annual, and final progress reports. 

Task 6: Carry-out other ad hoc tasks to support M&E function across UN Women project activities. 

Expected deliverables 

The first output assignment should be carried out within a period of 8 months, not exceeding 65 working days, whereas the second output expands on the all-project duration, up to 60 working days, with the incumbent being responsible for delivering services in agreement with the deliverables stated in the table below. 

Requirements for experience:

Education:  

• University degree in social or political science, statistics, anthropology, sociology or related field. 
• Post-graduation education/courses and other learnings on assessment, monitoring and evaluations are considered an asset 

Experience  

• At least 5 years of experience in working with/in the non-governmental sector with responsibilities in programme design, implementation and monitoring  
• At least three (3) years of professional experience in monitoring and evaluation with non-governmental humanitarian or development organizations; consultancies; or with the government;
• Experience in data collection planning, implementation, data cleaning, data analysis;
• Experience in working with local-level organizations (CSOs, mass media, LPAs, etc.) is an asset;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems and advanced programs and tools for data analysis. 

Language skills:  

• Fluency in written and oral Romanian, Russian, English are required 
• Knowledge of one or more additional languages relevant for Moldova, including Bulgarian, Gagauz, Romani, Ukrainian or sign language is an asset

Application Procedure:           

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document: 

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc);
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
• Letter of Intent to include a brief overview of the consultant’s previous experiences makes the candidate the most suitable candidate for the advertised position. It should reflect the above-mentioned required skills and experience.
• Financial proposal – specifying a total lump sum amount for the task specified in Terms of References. The Financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (daily rate). Please see ANNEX I and ANNEX II.
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Starting date: 01 February 2023  

Expected Duration of Assignment: 125 working days, February 2023 – August 2024

The deadline for submission is 20.01.2023, 23:00 Moldova local time, GMT+2.

Any clarification questions may be submitted to the email: iulia.terpan@unwomen.org

All applications should be sent by email to the following secure email address: tender.md@unwomen.org

More details and supporting documents could be found following the link: https://sc.undp.md/jobdetails/2652/