Mid-Term Review Consultant for the WeEmpowerAsia Programme

Background

I.Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.  Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

A key area of concern for UN Women is women’s economic empowerment as expressed in UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2018-2021 as well as in the targets and indicators of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 for gender equality and women’s empowerment and of several other SDGs relating to inclusive growth, decent work, ending poverty, and reducing inequality, and revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development.

The WeEmpowerAsia programme

The WeEmpowerAsia (WEA) programme is a collaborative effort between the Regional Office of UN Women for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) and the European Union (EU), which is funding the action under its Partnership Instrument. With this programme the two entities will leverage their joint commitment to enhance women’s economic empowerment globally. They each have longstanding experience and partnerships in the Asian region. UN Women will apply its triple mandate of normative, operational and coordination actions and use its convening power to bring multiple stakeholders together for effective collaboration. EU brings valuable private and public sector partnerships across sectors as well as its solid expertise in trade and economic development.

The overall objective of the WEA programme is that more women lead, participate, and have access to enhanced business opportunities and leadership within the private sector to advance sustainable and inclusive growth. The programme will achieve this through three complementary outcome areas to be implemented in seven selected middle-income countries (China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) in Asia:

• ADVOCACY: Women’s networks, public institutions, and the private sector will collaborate and share expertise and knowledge to build an enabling business environment for women’s economic empowerment in the workplace and in the marketplace,
• ENTREPRENEURSHIP: The capacity of women-owned businesses and women entrepreneurs will be developed to enable them to engage with government and private sector corporations in policy development and dialogues for advancing women’s economic empowerment, and
• BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT: The private sector will be supported to implement gender-sensitive practices and culture within their businesses through the take-up of the Women Empowerment Principles (the WEPs – a set of guiding principles to achieve gender equality within companies).

Ultimately, the programme will contribute to the achievement of gender equality through enabling women’s increased participation in the labour force and in the market place, improved opportunities for women entrepreneurship and business start-ups, and through strengthening of corporate sector’s commitment and action to ensure gender equality in business culture and practices. 

The guiding platform for the programme is the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), a set of seven principles for businesses offering guidance on how to strengthen gender equality in the workplace, in the marketplace and in the community. The WEPs are jointly developed by UN Women and UN Global Compact and seeking the commitments and concrete implementation by private corporations around the globe.

Objectives of the Mid-Term Review

The overall objectives of the midterm review is to assess the mid-term progress and assess the relevance, efficiency, and evaluability of the programme as well as the sustainability and impact of the program. The MTR also aims to identify successes and challenges to take potential corrective programmatic actions and provide guidance for further programme implementation till the end of project. In addition, the midterm review also aims to identify opportunities, requirements and determining factors for a second programme phase post 2022. The MTR is primarily seeking guidance for WEA but also seeks to identify learnings and linkages to WEA’s sister programs, namely Win Win and G7 as well as UN Women Headquarters.

 

The midterm review aims to answer the following research questions:

1. To what extent have the programme knowledge-based products, knowledges exchanges platform and pool of champion been created to advance women’s economic empowerment?
2. To what extent have the programme activities strengthened women entrepreneurs’ capacity and opportunities?
3. To what extent have the programme activities and products been created to raise awareness of the WEPs and strengthened the network of private sector companies and WEPs signatories to enhance implementation of WEPs and gender-sensitive business practices?
4. To what extent have the programmes activities at regional level (i.e. researches and policy reviews) contributed to the national level implementation in advancing women’s economic empowerment?
5. From the midterm review finding, what are the necessary conditions and factors for WEA in formulation of the programme’ second phase? Also taking into consideration of the ending implementation of WEA sister programmes (Win Win and G7), what are the possible tasks for WEA to take forward during the second phase of implementation?
6. To what extent has the program been true to its ambition and set-out principles [ CSI – Principles]?  
7. To what extent has the program been recognized and strengthened the EU visibility in Asia and Europe around gender-equality?

Duties and Responsibilities

I.Duties and Responsibilities

Under the leadership of the WEA M&E Officer and supervision of the WEA Regional Programme Manager, an independent expert will be hired to undertake the Programme’s Midterm Review. The expert will be responsible for the following:

• Perform desk review of the project’s key documents including Program Document, Inception Report, First Annual Reports, Annual Workplans and Budget, all knowledge products including studies, research and outcome documents from all conferences and workshops that have been conducted within the framework of the projects.
• Conduct meeting to interview the project team members and key stakeholders involved in the project, at regional level, and in all the programme countries and at EU level. WeEmpowerAsia will provide a list of stakeholders and will assist with liaising and coordinating the meeting schedules as needed.
• Assess the evaluability of the programme to understand the extent the programme indicators will measure the outputs and outcomes of the programme. This would include the assessment of the programme Theory of Change and Logical Framework.
• Analyze and examine current programme achievement, challenges, and opportunities
• Assess the programme’s relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency in the progress towards the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment results as defined in the action
• Examine the programme design, objectives, strategies, and implementation arrangements
• Prepare draft report, summarizing key findings and recommendations in hard and soft copy.
• Prepare a Power-Point presentation on the key findings and lessons learned as well as provide a set of clear and forward-looking actionable recommendations to inform management decisions, including the member of Project steering committee and key stakeholders.

The midterm review will be used by the WEA Regional Programme manager and all concerned staff to make decisions and inform the next steps. It will also inform the donors and key partners in seven programme countries as well regional level on the focus and direction of the programme.

Scope of Mid-Term Review

The scope of the midterm review includes the assessment of the programme, design, implementation and management, lessons learned, and recommendation for future programme implementation.

Timeframe: The programme started on 1 April 2019 and will end on 31 March 2022. The midterm review will cover the time period 1 April 2019 to November 2020, with the analysis to be conducted in December 2020 in order to have the report ready by January 2021. Through this timeframe, the report should cover the period of around the halfway through the programme implementation.

Geographic scope: The midterm review will cover the implementation of WeEmpowerAsia (WEA) activities in all seven WEA countries, namely China, India, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, as well as Asia regional level and global per the linkages with stakeholders in the European Union and WEA sister programmes (Win Win and G7).

Programmatic coverage: The midterm review will cover ongoing programme activities, as well as its the future implementation, both within the current phase and potentially second phase of the programme.

Thematic coverage: The midterm review will cover various topics related to women’s economic empowerment and gender equality, specifically in the world of work; private sectors and women entrepreneurs.

Review Questions

Criterion	Midterm review Questions	Specific Action/ Questions
Relevance and Innovation	To what extent the design and expected results (goal and outputs) of the WeEmpowerAsia programme are consistent with key stakeholders requirements (private sector and women entrepreneurs) , countries and region’s needs, particularly during the current context of COVID-19, as well as donor priorities?   To what extent is the program embracing an innovative approach to women’s empowerment?	Review the relevance of the implementation strategy and assess whether it provides the most effective route towards expected results, both in connection to the initial programme design and the programme adaptation to the COVID-19 context   Review if there are clear baselines indicators and/or benchmark for performance? How are these being used in programme management?   Examine how the programme has met the needs of the key stakeholders? Why or why not? What could have been done differently?   To what extent are the programme’s activities supporting or contributing to relevant national and regional policies or strategies, as well as donor priorities. Please specify the areas of relevance. Please provide specific examples of good contributions to date.   Review with what partners, implementers and service providers WEA works with and to what extent this meets the aspirations of being an innovative program?
Effectiveness	To what extent were the expected outputs achieved and how did WeEmpowerAsia contribute towards these?	Review the log-frame indicators against progress made towards the targets using the Results Matrix and make recommendations from the areas marked as “Not on target” or “On track”.   By reviewing the aspects of the programme that have already been successful, identify good practices and upscaling opportunities.   To what extent are the intended stakeholders participating in and benefiting from the programme?   To what extent is it foreseeable that the capacities of programme key stakeholders (women entrepreneurs, private sectors, WEPs signatories, policy makers, governments) be strengthened as a result of the programme activities?   To what extent that the private sectors are committed to the WEPs and initiated action to ensure gender equality in business culture and practices? What could be done to improve their commitment and action?   To what extent is it foreseeable that the ongoing programme activities and its knowledges products would contribute to the enabling environment for women economic empowerment and gender equality?
Efficiency	To what extent does the management structure of the action support efficiency for programme implementation?   What are the drivers and barriers for achieving the programme objectives in the remainder of the implementation timeframe?   To what extent has the programme used the least costly resources possible to achieve the desired results?   Has the programme activities been implemented in a timely manner?   Timeliness and appropriate to the changing situation, particularly in connection to the COVID-19 outbreak situation.	Management Arrangements: Review the coordination mechanisms, implementation arrangements/relationships between WEA Programme Management Team (PMT) and Programme Country Offices. Outline good practices and recommend areas for improvement. How has WEA used their human and financial resources to date? Are the resources used in a catalytic and impactful way?   Work Planning: Review any delays in programme start-up and implementation, identify the causes, and examine if they have been resolved. Examine the use of the results framework/log-frame as a management tool and review any changes made to it since programme inception.   Programme-level Monitoring and Evaluation Systems: Review the monitoring tools: Do they provide the necessary information? Are they efficient? Are additional tools required? How could they be made more participatory and inclusive?   Stakeholder Engagement: Has the programme enabled and/or leveraged strategic partnerships with relevant stakeholders at global, regional and country levels?   Communications: Review external programme communication: Are proper means of communication established or being established to express the programme progress and intended impact Timeliness What is the likelihood that the programme outputs be delivered in a timely manner? If there are expected delays, what could be the reasons? What solutions could be found to ensure that project implementation will be on track? Funds: Were funds used and utilize in a timely manner? How has it been used and utilized? Are additional resources are raised to increase the impact of the program? What recommendations can be given to increase resources?
Impact	To what extent are the programme outputs on track to contribute to the programme outcomes/impact?   To what extent could the WeEmpowerAsia programme contribute to achieving enabling environment to support women economic empowerment and gender equality?   To what extent has the program created programs that have catalytic impact and have the potential to be scaled and replicated.   What were the unintended effects, if any, of the action?	Has the program a clear ambition set-out on how to maximize the impact with the current resources and how does the program perform against these? To what extent do government officials and key stakeholders, such as the private sectors recognize the important of women economic empowerment and gender equality at of evaluation time? To what extent are women entrepreneurs, private sectors employees enjoy the equal opportunity in achieving the economic empowerment and equality? What could/ should the WeEmpower Asia teams and UN Women do to ensure the success of the impact of the project?
Sustainability	How will the benefits of the action be secured for the programme stakeholders?   How could the WeEmpowerAsia programme be resourced beyond 2022 and what areas would be the most important ones to invest in to maximize impact from phase 1?   Which additional and new areas were incubated during the first phase of the program and are most impactful beyond 2022?	Is there a potential to sustain, scale and replicate WEA as a whole or specific areas at regional/ national/local level? Why or why not?   What indications are there that the government, private sectors, or other partners will be involved in supporting/ scaling WEA efforts after the programme end?     What financial opportunities and risks at the end of the program? How likely is it to be able to mobilize additional/new resources (consider potential resources from multiple sources that will be adequate for sustaining programme outcomes) to further sustain WEA in the original countries and/or scale-up to other geographies?   What has been done by the programme team to ensure programme sustainability? What should be done differently to ensure sustainability is embedded in the project as of now?   Are there any social or political risks that may jeopardize sustainability of programme outcomes?     What are the supporting conditions and challenges for WeEmpowerAsia to continue implementation its phase two, post the original programme in 2022? What is needed and what may prevent the programme to do so? What could be the aspects that WeEmpowerAsia taking forward from its sister programmes, once they are completed? How?

 

Methodology Approach

The mid-term review consultant will review all relevant sources of information and any other materials considered useful for this review. The consultant is expected to follow a collaborative and participatory approach ensuring close engagement with the WeEmpowerAsia team, concerned UN-Women programmes and personnel engaged in the programme delivery as well as other key stakeholders.

The midterm review consultant will include a section of the report setting out the midterm review's evidence-based conclusions, in light of the findings. Recommendations should be succinct suggestions for critical intervention that are specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant. A recommendation table should be included in the executive summary of the report. The consultant is expected to review relevant material about the Partnership Instrument and Monitoring System from the EU and align midterm report accordingly.

The final mid-term review report should describe the approach taken and the rationale for the approach making explicit the underlying assumptions, challenges, strengths and weaknesses about the methods and approach of the review.

The midterm review will be a mixed-methods approach using the following:

• Review of existing reports (Inception Report, First Progress Report), project document, action fiche, including the Annual Work Plan
• Desk review of existing documents and sources related to the programme (event and meeting concept notes, links to events available on websites, social media reports, financial documents, etc.)
• Key informant interviews/focus groups of relevant stakeholders

 

In collecting data and information, the midterm review consultant will Include a plan on how to guarantee the protection of subjects and respect for confidentiality. The consultant should develop a sampling frame such as the rationale for selection, area and population represented, mechanics for selection and limitations of the sample, and specify how it will address the diversity of stakeholders in the action. The consultant should take measures to ensure the quality and appropriateness of data collection tools and methods and their responsiveness to gender equality and human rights. Limitations of the sample, if any, must be clearly stated and the data cross checked against other sources to ensure robust results.

Proposed Outline of the Midterm Review:

• Executive Summary
• Programme Description
• Purpose and Objectives of the Evaluation
• Evaluation Methodology
• Findings
• Conclusions
• Lessons learned
• Recommendations
• Annexes (key documents consulted, interviewee list, interview questions, Terms of Reference)

 

Stakeholder participation

 

The following have been identified as potential stakeholders:

• EU FPI Regional team and Delegations in the programme countries
• Key Implementing Partners
• Key stakeholders of the programme (private sectors, women entrepreneurs, governmental agencies)
• Women’s Empowerment Principles Signatories
• Internally: UN Women, (Win-Win and G7)

 

The midterm review reference group will be composed of the following people who will provide feedback at each stage of the midterm review process:

• EU FPI Focal Person at EU Delegation in Bangkok, Thailand 
• EU Delegations in India, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia
• WeEmpowerAsia Programme Manager at UN Women Regional Office for APAC in Bangkok, Thailand
• WeEmpowerAsia Country Programme managers in all seven programme countries

 

The Midterm Review Consultant is constituted by the WeEmpowerAsia team with the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer as the key focal point and coordinator of the midterm review.

I.Expected Deliverables

 

No.	Tasks	Deliverables	Delivery Date
1	Draft proposal, which include the outline of midterm review report. With inclusion of detailing the evaluators’ understanding of what is being evaluated and why, showing how each evaluation question will be answered by way of: proposed methods; proposed sources of data; and data collection and analysis procedures The midterm review proposal should also include a proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables, designating a team member with the lead responsibility for each task or product.	Draft proposal	15 October 2020
2	tools for data collection, including interview guides and/or questionnaires	Data collection tools	15 October 2020
3	A presentation file detailing review findings and recommendations to be submitted and be able to present to the Steering Committee and other concerned key stakeholders.	PowerPoint presentation – findings and recommendation	1 December 2020
4	The draft mid-term review should summaries key findings and recommendations of the mid-term review questions should be submitted to WeEmpowerAsia at regional and country levels and concerned person and offices at UN Women	Draft Midterm review report	20 December 2020
5	Final Midterm Review Report incorporating comments from all stakeholders and finalizing the Review, as well as any annexes.	Final Midterm review report	31 January 2021

*Payment will be made upon submission of deliverables with an approval of the Regional Programme Manager

 

Competencies

 

IV. Competencies and Qualifications

Core Values:

• Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
• Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
• Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

 

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the United Nations' values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of the UN and UN Women;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Ability and willingness to work as part of a team to meet tight deadlines and produce high quality work.

 

V. Contract period and work location

The Consultant will be home-based for the duration of the consultancy from Sep 2020 – Jan 2021.

 

Required Skills and Experience

VI. Required qualification

• Master’s degree in gender studies, business management, sustainable development, social studies, economics, international affairs, and/or any relevant field directly related to women’s economic empowerment.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience (and accomplishment) undertaking evaluations including leading evaluations of multi-stakeholder projects for multilateral organizations is required
• Extensive knowledge of qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods is required.
• Knowledge in results-based programming in support of women’s economic empowerment and gender equality is highly desirable.
• Previous evaluation experiences with UN Women or other UN agencies programmes in related to women economic empowerment and gender equality is preferred.
• Working and evaluation experiences in Asia, especially the WEA programme countries would be considered as an asset.
• Excellent drafting and writing skills to produce and present concise and analytical reports is highly desirable.
• Fluency in English, with knowledge of other UN languages an advantage

 

VII. Evaluation

 

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

 

A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

 

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

 

Technical Evaluation Criteria	Obtainable Score
Education Master’s degree in gender studies, business management, sustainable development, social studies, economics, international affairs, and/or any relevant field directly related to women’s economic empowerment.	20 %
Knowledge and skills A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience (and accomplishment) undertaking evaluations including leading evaluations of multi-stakeholder projects for multilateral organizations is required Extensive knowledge of qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods is required. Knowledge in results-based programming in support of women’s economic empowerment and gender equality is highly desirable. Previous evaluation experiences with UN Women or other UN agencies programmes in related to women economic empowerment and gender equality is preferred. Working and evaluation experiences in Asia, especially the WEA programme countries would be considered as an asset.	60 %
Language and report writing skills Excellent drafting and writing skills to produce and present concise and analytical reports is highly desirable. Fluency in English, with knowledge of other UN languages an advantage	20 %
Total Obtainable Score	100 %

 

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically qualified candidates who may be contacted for validation interview.

 

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allocated for the price component is 100.
• The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

 

VIII.  Ethical Conduct

Evaluations in the UN will be conducted in accordance with the principles outlined in both UNEG Norms and Standards for Evaluation in the UN System and by the UNEG ‘Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation’. These documents will be attached to the contract. Evaluators are required to read the Norms and Standards and the guidelines and ensure a strict adherence to it, including establishing protocols to safeguard confidentiality of information obtained during the evaluation.

IX. Submission of application

Interest candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org with cc to nutnita.limpanonda@unwomen.org , no later than 17 July 2020, COB (Bangkok time).

 

Submission package includes:

·Updated CV

·Personal History Form (P11) which can be downloaded

http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs

• Writing examples/publications

·Financial proposal

 

Items	Amount (USD)
1. Lump Sum fee (equivalent to daily fee x no. of days)
Tasks & Deliverables
Deliverable 1
Deliverable 2
2. Others (please provide details as applicable)
Total Financial Proposal

 

X. Payments

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated deliverable within the indicated timeframes.