BACKGROUND
The Governing Council (GC) of the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) approved the strategic plan for 2014-2019, together with the biennial programme budget for 2014-2015, at its 24st Session, through Resolution 24/15 of 19 April 2013. In the same resolution, the GC further requested the Executive Director to continue strengthening implementation of the results-based management in all the programmes, projects, policies and activities of UN-Habitat.
The UN-Habitat Strategic Plan for 2014-2019 was approved with an evaluation framework. Specifically, paragraph 95 states that all projects with a budget of over US$3 million will be subject to external evaluation upon completion, and the budgets for all such projects will, as a matter of principle, include funds for evaluation. All focus areas of the strategic plan (or sub-programmes of the work programme) will be evaluated at least once during the life of the plan.
The development of the strategic plan 2014-2019 drew from the lessons learned from the implementation of the MTSIP 2008-2013. It is being implemented through programme of work and budget of the biennium 2014-2015, 2016-2017, and 2018-2019. UN-Habitat is implementing the strategic plan and delivering its work in seven focus areas through an organisational structure that is aligned to the focus areas with seven Branches and coordinated with the regional and country level through Regional Offices, liaison offices, and Project Management and Coordination Desks (HPMs) at country level.
The plan’s results framework specifies the overall UN-Habitat strategic result as “Environmentally, economically and socially sustainable, gender-sensitive and inclusive urban development policies implemented by national, regional and local authorities have improved the standard of living of the urban poor and enhanced their participation in the socio-economic life of the city”, and focus area strategic results and their indicators of achievement.
Justification / mandate of the evaluation This mid-term evaluation will include an assessment of the first reporting on the indicators of achievement of the plan’s overall strategic result. The strategic plan will be adjusted on the basis of this midterm evaluation, the outcome of Habitat III, and any changes in the governance structure of UN-Habitat. A final evaluation of the strategic plan, including assessment of the second reporting on the overall strategic result’s indicators of achievement, will be carried out during 2019.
GC resolution 24/15 outlines plans for both mid-term and final evaluation of the strategic plan. Further, the evaluation of UN-Habitat in 2015 by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) recommended that UN-Habitat should commission evaluability, mid-term and final evaluations of the strategic plan. The recommendation was accepted by UN-Habitat Management with the mid-term review scheduled to be conducted in early 2017. The mid-term evaluation will inform the readjustment of the strategic plan within the timeframe of the 26th Governing Council scheduled to be held 3-7 April 2017.
Purpose and objectives of the evaluation The purpose of the mid-term evaluation is to assess the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of UN-Habitat in the implementation of the strategic plan. The evaluation will assess progress towards on achievement of focus areas’ strategic results to inform the revision of the 6-year strategic plan and implementation of the remaining period of the strategic plan taking into account expectations expressed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development target 11 and the New Urban Agenda.Scope of the evaluation and methods The evaluation will assess progress in the implementation of the strategic plan with emphasis on the progress in achievement of focus area strategic results over the period 2014-2016. The mid-term evaluation will build on existing strategic plan progress reports and monitoring reports and other strategic plan related assessments / evaluations that have been carried out so far, as well as reports of related institutional processes. In addition to document review, a variety of other methods will be applied to collect information during the evaluation. These include key informant interviews and consultations, including group meeting, and (if deemed feasible) surveys. The evaluation will be conducted over the period from ultimo January to March 2017.
RESPONSIBILITIES The Evaluation Unit will manage the mid-term evaluation process, including preparation, technical support, follow up and dissemination. Branches assisted by the Programme Division and the Quality Assurance Unit within the Management and Operations Division will be responsible for providing monitoring reports that will be provide the basis for the assessment of progress. Offices, Branches and Regional Offices will support and provide other documents as requested and review the draft report. A small reference group will be established to oversee the evaluation process with members from the Programme Division, Division of Management and Operations and OED, including the Evaluation Unit. The Reference Group will responsible for review and approval of main evaluation deliverables including the inception report, drafts and final mid-term evaluation report.
The evaluation will be conducted by two independent external consultants. The consultants must combined form a team with proven and extensive experience in carrying out institutional, programme and project evaluations and have working experience and/or solid technical knowledge of UN-Habitat. One consultant will be the lead consultant with overall responsibility for delivery of a quality evaluation report in accordance with norms and standards for evaluation in UN-Habitat.
Among the deliverables expected, there will be:
Inception Report with Evaluation Work plan;
Evaluation Reports Drafts;
Final Evaluation Report not exceeding 40 pages not including executive
summary and annexes. Compliance with United Nations Evaluation Group standards and UN-Habitat evaluation report format is expected. Examples of evaluation reports are available from the website of the UN-Habitat Evaluation Unit: (http://www.unhabitat.org/evaluation). Details of the evaluation are provided in the full Terms of Reference. **
EDUCATION Advanced academic degree in political sciences, social economy, governance, planning, local public administration, or similar relevant fields.
WORK EXPERIENCE Fifteen years of relevant programme management experience in results-based management working with international development and/or sustainable urbanization. Extensive evaluation experience. The consultant should have ability to present credible findings derived from evidence and putting conclusions and recommendations supported by the findings. The consultant should have specific knowledge and understanding of UN-Habitat and its mandate. Recent and relevant experience in working in developing countries and with the United Nations is a requirement. It is envisaged that the consultants would have a useful mix of evaluation experience and familiarity with UN-Habitat.
LANGUAGE SKILLS Fluency as well as excellent writing skills in English is required.
REMUNERATION Payments will be based on deliverables over the consultancy period. There are set remuneration rates for consultancies. The rate is determined by functions performed and experience of the consultant. The fees will be paid upon satisfactory delivery of outputs as per agreement. Where applicable, travel costs of the consultant (airplane ticket economy class), transfers, and daily allowance as per the UN rate is payable in addition to the daily fee.
