EVALUATION SPECIALISTS (Various Profiles)

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• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background, and culture
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented member nations, and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply
• Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct and to uphold our values. FAO has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and FAO, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination
• All selected candidates, therefore, will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality
• The incumbent may be re-assigned to different activities and/or duty stations depending on the evolving needs of the Organization

Organizational Setting

The Office of Evaluation (OED) anchors the evaluation function in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Evaluation in FAO provides results accountability to member countries and FAO’s Director-General, providing the evidence base to guide their decision-making and oversight. Evaluation also contributes to corporate learning, by offering a basis for improvements in the Organization's programmes in terms of their relevance to countries, definition of objectives, their design and implementation. OED also participates in system-wide evaluation initiatives, thereby contributing to assessments of development effectiveness by the United Nations (UN) system.

Purpose of the call

In Southern Africa, food and nutrition security is threatened by recurrent and extreme climatic events, and this has been worsening over recent years due to climate change and related hazards. In 2019, the region was affected by several high-impact events, including Tropical Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, when most of the affected provinces were still recovering from previous climatic disasters.

Tropical Cyclone Idai made landfall in Mozambique from March 14 to 15, 2019. Strong winds and severe flooding from the heavy rains extended to inland regions of Malawi and Zimbabwe. Tropical Cyclone Kenneth hit northern Mozambique on April 25, 2019. Prior to making landfall in Mozambique, Kenneth passed through the Comoros archipelago causing widespread flooding. In addition to causing the deaths of over 1,200 people across the four affected countries, both climatic events occurred close to the harvesting period, resulting in extensive losses in food and cash crops. Thousands of livelihoods, houses and infrastructures were lost, leading to the displacement of many people and disruption of local food production systems.

The FAO Office of Evaluation is currently planning to conduct a strategic evaluation of FAO’s contributions to building resilience after Tropical Cyclones Idai and Kenneth. The scope also includes subsequent climatic and/or human-induced crises with devastating effects after the cyclones; i.e. conflict in the northernmost province of Cabo Delgado (Mozambique).

This evaluation will have a threefold purpose of i) providing a comprehensive account of FAO’s contributions to building resilience after Tropical Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, ii) identifying lessons that can strengthen FAO’s structures, mechanisms and capacities to support preparedness, response and recovery after natural disasters and climatic crises, and iii) assess FAO’s strengths and weaknesses in addressing the linkages between natural disasters/climatic crises and increasing socio-economic tensions, conflicts and displacement.

The evaluation will cover the period March 2019 - May 2021, and will be conducted over the period May 2021 - December 2021. Its conduct will pay due attention to all the risks, limitations and ethical implications related to the COVID-19 pandemic and other ongoing crises. The evaluation should adhere to the UNEG Norms and Standards for Evaluation and the UNEG Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation.

The FAO Office of Evaluation is looking for consultants to compose the evaluation team, namely:

• Senior Evaluation Specialist (Team Leader, 80 days): S/he will be in charge of coordinating the work of the team throughout the evaluation process; i.e. methodology refinement, data collection and analysis, presentation of intermediate findings, preparation of the evaluation report. S/he will be responsible for finalizing all the evaluation products, including inception and final reports.
• Evaluation Specialists (Team Members, 40 days): S/he will actively participate in the different phases of the evaluation process, including methodology refinement, data collection and analysis, and report writing. Ideally, the team will have one evaluation specialist based in Mozambique and another based in Zimbabwe. A third evaluation specialist might the recruited to work as an associate team leader.

Reporting Lines

The consultants will report to the evaluation manager. The team members will work in close collaboration with the team leader.

Technical Focus

• Emergency and resilience
• Disaster risk management in agriculture sectors
• Livelihoods support in agriculture, fisheries and food security
• Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus
• Humanitarian principles
• Gender and social inclusion

Tasks and responsibilities

SENIOR EVALUATION SPECIALIST

• Lead, coordinate and prepare all evaluation products and deliverables planned in the evaluation Terms of Reference.
• Coordinate data collection and analysis.
• Coordinate the work of the team members and provide quality assurance for their deliverables.
• Present evaluation findings to key stakeholders during debriefing sessions as required.

EVALUATION SPECIALISTS

• Contribute to all evaluation products and deliverables planned in the evaluation Terms of Reference, including with written inputs.
• Participate actively in data collection and analysis.
• Coordinate the work of enumerators who might be recruited to support them with data collection at community level, and provide quality assurance for their deliverables.
• Participate in debriefing sessions as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

SENIOR EVALUATION SPECIALIST

• Advanced degree in one of the subject matters listed under “technical focus” or related areas.
• At least 10 years of evaluation experience, particularly in evaluating complex humanitarian/resilience programmes.
• Experience in leading similar programmatic/strategic evaluations.
• Experience in leading evaluation teams.
• Experience in the Southern African context.
• Working knowledge of English and Limited knowledge of another UN official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) for COF.REG.

EVALUATION SPECIALISTS

• Advanced degree in one of the subject matters listed under “technical focus” or related areas.
• At least 5 years of evaluation and/or research experience, particularly involving humanitarian/resilience programmes.
• Experience in similar programmatic/strategic evaluations and/or researches.
• Experience in conducting remote interviews and focus group discussions with a variety of stakeholders.
• Knowledge of sense-making approaches in evaluations
• Experience in the Southern African context, particularly in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
• Experience in leading participatory rural appraisal and/or household surveys.
• Working knowledge of English. Limited knowledge of another UN official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) for COF.REG..

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Experience in emergency and resilience, particularly in areas of FAO’s mandate.
• Knowledge of issues related to gender and social inclusion in areas of FAO’s mandate.
• Knowledge of humanitarian principles and principles of human rights.
• Experience in conducting and facilitating remote data collection and analysis.
• Knowledge of tools and platforms for remote team collaboration, data collection and analysis.
• Understanding of the guiding ethical principles for the conduct of research and/or evaluations in emergency contexts, particularly those presented in the UNEG Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation.
• Work experience in Southern Africa, particularly in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe is desirable.
• Responsiveness and effective communication to enhance team collaboration and mitigate the limitations of remote work.

Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency