National Consultant -Support ECO to conduct end line Evaluation for Phases I-IV

Position details

• Grade: Not Applicable
• Vacancy type: Individual Consultancy
• Education and experience: Master's Degree - 7 year(s) experience
• Application deadline: 2026-11-09T04:59:00+00:00

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.

UN Women Ethiopia Country Office has been implementing four (4) phases of the project “Strengthening institutional capacity of duty-bearers and empowering rights-holders for advancement of gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) in Ethiopia” through support from the Government of Ireland, International Development Programme. The project started in 2021 and will end in January 2027 with the completion of Phase IV extension.  The project is fully aligned with the UN Women Strategic Note (2021-2025) and Strategic Note (2026-2030) which is derived from and contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSCDF 2020-2025), and UNSDCF (2025-2030) which outlines the United Nation’s vision and strategic focus in Ethiopia. 

The overall goal of the project is to strengthen institutional capacity of duty-bearers and empower rights-holders to further advance gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) to promote cohesive, just, inclusive, and democratic society in Ethiopia with four outcomes, 

• Outcome 1: Improved multi-sectoral coordination mechanism and favorable policy environment to respond to violence against women and girls and HTPs in development and humanitarian settings
• Outcome 2: Women’s representation and participation in leadership is increased, and public offices, democratic institutions and women’s rights organisations are empowered to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE)
• Outcome 3: More women, including young women, meaningfully and effectively participate in peace building processes including through an enabling environment that supports key government stakeholders and women’s rights organizations to promote the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda and 
• Outcome 4: A comprehensive national policy framework on GEWE in place and effectively implemented through strengthened accountability mechanisms and enhanced engagement of women’s rights organizations

The first outcome aims to strengthen functional multi-sectoral coordination mechanism in place to respond to violence against women and girls (EVAWG) and harmful traditional practices (HTPs) and enhance capacity of institutions (health justice, and social sector) to providing quality, coordinated and accessible essential services to women and girl’s survivors of violence in accordance with global essential services package. The second outcome focuses on enhancing women’s representation and participation in politics and electoral processes. The third outcome aims to increase the number of women, including young women, meaningfully and effectively participate in peace building processes, through an enabling environment that supports key government stakeholders and women rights organizations to promote the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda. The fourth outcome aims for a comprehensive national policy framework on GEWE, which is effectively implemented through strengthened accountability mechanisms and enhanced engagement of women’s rights organizations. These interventions were implemented with a range of government and CSOs at the Federal level and in selected regional states, including through grants.

As the project timeframe is ending in January 2027, an independent final evaluation is planned to be undertaken as per the Project Document. The overall objective of the evaluation is to assess the overall results and the relevance, and efficiency of the project as well as its sustainability and high-level result, both intended and unintended. It also aims to identify successes and challenges of the project’s implementation. In addition, the final evaluation will also have a forward-looking focus and will aim to provide key recommendations for the implementation and scaling up opportunities of future work, based on the lessons learned identified through this evaluation by proposing opportunities for a potential additional phase of the project post 2027 and the approaches to be followed for a long-term project moving forward. The evaluation is expected to follow a participatory approach that will include consultations with key stakeholders including implementing partners, Government partners and community members. The UN Women Ethiopia Country Office is seeking to contract a national consultant to conduct an endline evaluation of Phase I-IV of the project. 

The evaluation should follow the guiding documents for evaluation at UN Women, including the Evaluation Policy, Evaluation Chapter of the Programme and Operation Manual (POM), the Global Evaluation Reports, Assessment and Analysis  System (GERAAS) evaluation report quality checklist, the United Nations System-Wide Action Plan Evaluation Performance Indicator (UN-SWAP EPI) and the UN Women Evaluation Handbook. These documents serve as the frame of reference for the Evaluation Manager and the evaluation consultant(s) for ensuring compliance with the various requirements and assuring the quality of the evaluation report. 

To conduct an independent endline evaluation of the project “Strengthening institutional capacity of duty-bearers and empowering rights-holders for advancement of gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) in Ethiopia” (Phases I-IV). The assignment will have the following specific objectives,

• Assess the relevance and coherence of the project to stakeholders, including rights holders and duty-bearers with respect to project design and implementation.
• Assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the approaches implemented in attaining the intended results and any potential unintended consequences.
• Assess the integration of human rights and the gender transformative approach in design and implementation; and
• Identify and document high level results achieved during the implementation of the programme
• Produce lessons learned and issue actionable recommendations for further iterations of the project or similar programming to ensure sustainability 

Evaluation Criteria and Key Evaluation Questions.

The evaluation will apply the the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) evaluation criteria of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability as well as the additional criterion of human rights and gender equality by addressing the key evaluation questions

• Relevance: To what extent did the intervention respond to the priorities and needs of rights holders and duty bearers? 
• Coherence: How well did the intervention complement national policies, UN frameworks and related interventions?
• Effectiveness: To what extent were intended outcomes achieved, and what factors enabled or constrained achievement?
• Efficiency: Were resources, partnerships and implementation approaches used appropriately to achieve results?
• Sustainability: Which results and institutional changes are likely to continue after project support?
• Impact/contribution: What significant intended and unintended changes can plausibly be associated with the intervention?
• Gender equality and human rights: To what extent did the intervention address structural barriers, exclusion and unequal power relations? To what extent have gender and human rights considerations been integrated into the programme design and implementation?
• Forward-looking: What should be retained, changed, scaled or discontinued in a possible future phase?

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the National Programme Coordinator and the Monitoring Evaluation & Reporting Officer, the national consultant will be required to carry out the following tasks,

• Develop a roadmap and inception report outlining the key steps in the evaluation and the methodology of undertaking the evaluation
• Conduct a desk review of relevant key documents including but not limited to international, regional and national legal and policy frameworks relevant to the project, United Nations Sustainable Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), UN Women’s Strategic Note project documents, project narrative reports, partner reports 
• Facilitate initial consultations with UN Women teams responsible for the implementation of the project to gather background information and develop the initial frameworks for the evaluation
• Collect primary data from key stakeholders including the donor, key implementing partners, and beneficiaries in the form of surveys, key informant interviews or focus group discussions 
• Analyze the primary and secondary data in line with the objectives and key questions of the evaluation to identify findings, conclusions and recommendations as detailed in the evaluation report.
• Draft reports from all consultations with staff and external stakeholders,
• Draft the first version of the evaluation report
• Facilitate the validation workshops with stakeholders
• Incorporate the comments from validation sessions with external stakeholders 
• Submit final evaluation report
• Take on any other task that may come up and are essential for the successful endline evaluation

Deliverables:

• Inception report 
• Report on the consultations with various stakeholders 
• First draft of the evaluation report
• Facilitation of validation workshop with stakeholders
• Final endline evaluation report 

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

• Strong commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment. 
• Strong organizational skills and self-direction; 
• Ability to prioritize and work under pressure with colleagues at all levels; 
• Strong communication and interactive facilitation skills; 
• Have excellent analytical, writing and synthesis skills; 
• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multiethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Demonstrate an ability to produce quality results on time outsourced and work under pressure. 
• Experience in similar evaluation assignment 
• Will be added separately for each position

Education and certification:

• Master's degree or equivalent in gender, human rights, development studies, sociology, demography, economics, law or other relevant disciplines is required;
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. 

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years of experience in evaluation conduct, with at least 5 years as a Team Leader of evaluations, including evaluations of multi-stakeholder projects for multilateral organizations is required;
• Extensive knowledge of qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods is required;
• Extensive experience of gender-transformative approaches, gender equality, women’s economic empowerment and human rights work within development cooperation preferred
• Proven experience in drafting and writing to produce and present concise and analyzed evaluation reports;
• Experience working with the UN system is a strong asset;

Languages:

• Fluency in Amharic and English is required

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

 

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.