1. BACKGROUND

Pakistan began with a legacy of violence, dislocation of millions of people and various other neighbourhood issues in 1947. Since then, it has faced several man-made and natural disasters and crises including earthquakes and floods on the one hand and internal ethnic, religious and political disputes as well as wars and unstable relations with surrounding neighbours on the other. Military operation in FATA against militants exacerbated the situation resulting in over 2.2 million people affected and displaced. Various stakeholders have tried to make efforts for protection, prevention and participation of all groups including women in decision making to create a safe environment for the people residing in Pakistan. The Government has also implemented several legislative as well as support measures to enhance safety of Pakistani people. The impact of disasters on women has been sketchily researched but the impact of disputes has not been researched well in Pakistan from a gender perspective; nor has been women’s coping mechanisms and their agency role.

Considering this situation, UN Women (then UNIFEM) initiated consultations with CSO representatives in early 2009 to explore key entry points for action on women and peace in Pakistan. In accordance with one of its mandates of supporting the Government on its national and international commitments on GE and women’s empowerment, UNW had been facilitating the Ministry of Women Development as well as Women’s Development Departments/Directorates/sections on implementation of CEDAW since 2008 and was in continuous contact with the National Women’s Machineries (NWMs) in Pakistan including the National Commission on Status of Women. In this backdrop of mutual dialogue, MOWD requested support for developing a manual for gender training of peacekeepers, developing a PCI on gender and peacekeeping and development of a National Action Plan on international frameworks on women and peace. MOWD was initiating translation of a promise made by the Government in Pretoria workshop of February 2007 where Pakistan had offered to be one of the then four, pilot countries on gender and peacekeeping.

UNW then provided technical support on the areas identified by MOWD which also instituted an Inter-ministerial Task Force on Gender and Peacekeeping. UNW made efforts to build a bridge around this thematic area between the Government and CSOs by inviting the CSOs including parliamentarians and the Government representatives in a joint workshop with separate sessions in the morning.

Towards the middle of 2009, UNW had developed a programme on Women and Peace which was jointly but partially (approx 66%) funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Islamabad in September 2009 and by the Royal Embassy of Norway, Islamabad in December, 2009. The planned programme duration is 3 years ending in December 2012.

The programme revolves around implementation of national commitments and international frameworks on women and peace and includes advocacy, capacity enhancement, involvement of all stakeholders in women and peace-building concerns, communication campaign, development of a National Action Plan, provision of direct services and support to dislocated women due to crisis/disasters as well as knowledge building on various themes such as impact of disasters/crises on women and GBV.

UNW is currently working through 10 partners for achieving the objectives of the programme while conducting advocacy with the Government and politicians as well as parliamentarians so that the women and peace concerns remain on the development agenda. In this regard, the programme has also worked with national crisis frameworks such as Conflict early Recovery Initial Needs Assessment (CERINA), Malakand Development Strategy, Post Crisis Needs Assessment as well as Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plans and flood response plans for integration of GE issues. Technical support to UN system in Pakistan is also being offered for integration of GE concerns in all humanitarian and early recovery response.

Implementation delays: While the programme officially began in September 2009, several activities incurred delays for various reasons, one amongst which has been unavailability of experienced experts/managers on women and peace in Pakistan as this programme is the first one of its kind. Some other activities (planned to each detail) were postponed due to worsening security situation in the country e.g. launch of the programme, national conference with parliamentarians on women and peace. The development of National Plan of Action has been stalled due to political sensitivities even with strong advocacy efforts of UNW. Most of these delays have been outside the control of UNW. However, there may be lessons to be drawn out of this as well.

M&E: The programme did have an LFA and the activities have been guided by that. A monitoring framework has also been developed and the partners have been provided technical support for the monitoring system. The M&E system has been rolled out for a pre-test and will be fine-tuned and finalised by December 2011 after a 3 month period of pre-test. In parallel the baseline is being developed which would be completed by the end of the year. Another complexity of the programme is that within UNW system all funded project under women and peace unit are considered as part of the Women and Peace programme and the LFA for programme document approved by the Headquarters reflects that. Hence the programme reports include information on all funded projects of the Women and Peace Unit, UNW Pakistan. The MTR however will use the LFA developed for the programme and shared with donors for funding purposes.



2. DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

2.1 Beneficiary(ies)

The present MTR will guide UNW to strengthen implementation and delivery on the specific objectives of the Women and Peace programme by identifying lessons learnt and making specific recommendations on all aspects of the programme for not only effective and efficient delivery but also future programming including liaison with Government and CSO partners. The MTR results will not only feed into the current implementation of the programme but also into the second phase of Women and Peace programme of UNW Pakistan.

The MTR will also inform the donors (Norway and the Netherlands) on the challenges faced by the programme, the successes achieved and the lessons learnt for future programming on women and peace in Pakistan.

2.2 Objectives of the Women and Peace Programme as per the proposal document

The overall objective of the programme and the operational objectives and the expected results are stated below:

The objective of this programme is to contribute towards the development of a national framework on Women and Peace in Pakistan, enhancing the active participation of, and drawing on existing and potential resources of women in peace building activities while providing immediate responses and safe spaces.

The operational objectives of the programme are:
 Support the development of a national framework on women and peace in Pakistan through establishment of a national trust fund
 Respond to immediate needs of internally displaced people (IDPs) due to current conflict situation in Pakistan with focus on the security of women and girls and protection around gender based violence
 Provide technical support to National Women Machineries and the implementation of a pilot on gender and peacekeeping in Pakistan.

Expected results

The concrete results regarding interventions for Pakistan’s development of an international framework on Women and Peace are anticipated as:

 Immediate actions to ensure that women’s human rights are on the agenda of the humanitarian and emergency responses
 Establishment of four women centres in NWFP and Rawalpindi for informal education and prevention of GBV
 A Women and Peace Trust Fund to support ongoing and new initiatives carried out by CSOs
 A gender-sensitive training frame-work for Pakistani UN peacekeeping forces, including the establishment of an Inter Ministerial Task Force on Gender and Peacekeeping by MOWD
 Implementation of pilot mechanisms to address and reduce gender-based violence and protection of women and girls during and after conflicts
 Greater participation of women in peace negotiation and peace building institutions and groups.

2.3 Global and specific objectives of the MTR

The overall objective of the MTR is to determine to which extent the programme, implemented so far, has followed the commitments made under the programme proposal given the political and security situation and to draw out lessons learnt for further implementation as well as future programming on women and peace in Pakistan by UNW and the donors.

The specific objective is to assess if the approach adopted by the programme (addressing women and peace concerns in Pakistan through strengthening the institutional capacity of governmental and CSOs and using advocacy as a tool through concerted actions by NGOs and UNW provided a good framework for integrating women and peace issues in development as well as humanitarian response in Pakistan.

2.4 Requested services

The team of consultants/consulting firm will address the following issues, and are invited to add to their analysis any issues they feel relevant:

2.4.1 Design

The consultants will assess the following in the design of the programme:

a. the process adopted for the design of the programme;
b. strengths and weaknesses of the design;
c. whether the design of the programme provided an effective framework for the achievement of the programme's objectives. The consultants will also assess the challenges encountered by the programme and whether it was within UNW’s power to overcome those and how UNW restrategised around those.
The review here is expected to cover an overall assessment of the programme planning, strategy, design and resource management of the programme.

2.4.2 Relevance

The review will study the relevance of the programme’s objectives against the physical and policy environment.

2.4.3 Efficiency

Efficiency will focus on analysis by examining the aspects mentioned below by examining the performance of the programme.

 Organisational structure and capacity of the implementing agency (UNW), government agencies and of local NGOs, their roles and interactions
 Cost-efficiency
 Disbursement mechanisms
 Allocation of the material resources (including the division between UNW Islamabad and office in KP)
 Time frame for the implementation of the activities
 Co-ordination/links with other actors working on women and peace concerns (UN, CSOs, government/s)

2.4.4 Effectiveness

The consultants will assess how far the strategies used by the programme have contributed/have the potential to contribute to effective implementation and achievement of the objectives.

2.4.5 Results achieved so far

Considering that the duration of the programme is only of two years, currently, the consultants will assess the short-term results achieved by the programme.

2.4.6 Sustainability

The consultants will focus on sustainability in terms of UNW and its partners. The focus will be on financial and institutional sustainability and the possibilities of replication.

2.4.7 Methodology

The MTR will follow the logical framework approach as mentioned previously. It will
be based on:

i) A desk review of the relevant programme documents, including the programme proposal, six monthly reports submitted to the donor and UNW headquarters, UNW contracts with donors, UNW contracts with partners, reports submitted to UNW by the implementing partners, budgets and financial reports etc.

ii) Interviews of donor representatives, the programme focal persons from UNW, relevant GoP ministries and NGOs partners

iii) Visit/s to out-of-station implementing implementing partners


The consultants will liaise with the UNW for the assessment of implementing partners’ efficiency and performance.

These Terms of Reference may be elaborated further by UNW during discussions with the selected consultants. Attention is drawn to the fact that UNW reserves the right to have the reports redrafted by the consultants as necessary, and that financial penalties will be applied if delays indicated for the submission of the report (draft and final) are not strictly adhered to.



3. EXPERTS’ PROFILE

The MTR team will include two experts, a team leader and a consultant, preferably a male and a female. The following profiles will be required (and CVs will have to be provided in the technical offer):

a. Team Leader
S/he should have at least 15 years of experience of project implementation and conducting mid-term reviews in the field of gender equality and at least 5 years of experience of implementing/reviewing projects related to women and peace in development as well as humanitarian settings in developing world. S/he should also have a solid experience of the Pakistan specific women and peace issues and be familiar with international women and peace frameworks. Knowledge of the UN system would be an advantage as would mid-term review experience on women and peace projects/programmes. Knowledge of Urdu will be an asset.

b. Consultant
S/he should have at least 10 years of experience of project implementation and conducting mid-term reviews in the field of gender equality and at least 3 years of experience of implementing/reviewing projects related to women and peace in development as well as humanitarian settings in developing world. S/he should also have a solid experience of the Pakistan specific women and peace issues and be familiar with international women and peace frameworks. Knowledge of the UN system would be an advantage as would mid-term review experience on women and peace projects/programmes. Knowledge of Urdu is mandatory.

3.2 Working languages

Both experts are expected to be fully fluent in English.

4. LOCATION AND DURATION

4.1 Starting date

The tentative starting date of the assignment is January 10th, 2012.

4.2 Finishing date of the assignment

The duration of the assignment is 36 days.

4.3 Schedule and number of days for the assignment per expert (working days)

TASKS International expert Local expert Total
TOTAL 27 24 51
Preliminary work 2 2 4
Briefing at UNW 1 1 2
Meetings Islamabad, field visits 15 15 30
De-briefing at UNW with UNW and donors 1 1 2
Draft and finalisation of report 8 5 13

4.4 Location of assignment

Islamabad, Pakistan

The preparatory work including the desk review will be done at Islamabad. The briefing and debriefing and some of the interviews will be held also in Islamabad.

Field mission

The field visits to partners, depending on the sampling, may include visit/s to Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh.

5. REPORTING
5.1 Content, language, format and number of reports

Inception Report and workplan

On the basis of the preliminary work, desk review and the briefing with UNW, the consultants will prepare a work-plan for the MTR to be approved by UNW.

De-briefing matrix/report

The consultants will present UNW with a de-briefing report/matrix highlighting the main observations during the de-briefing session.

Draft MTR report

The consultants should present a concise draft report to UNW 10 days after the field visits are over. UNW will provide comments within 10 days of the receipt of the draft report.

Full report

The final report (5 hard copies and a soft copy on CD) should be submitted to UNW not later than 10 days after comments from UNW have been received. The report must include a 2/3 page executive summary, highlighting the main elements and findings.

Format of the MTR report is attached in Annex A

ANNEX A: Format of the MTR report

The report should not exceed 20 pages, excluding the annexes.

Executive summary: The Executive Summary should be clearly but tightly-drafted, to-the-point and free-standing. Not more than 2/3 pages, it should focus mainly on the key objective of the MTR, the main findings, lessons leant and recommendations. Cross-references to the corresponding page or paragraph numbers in the main text are preferable.

Main text: main text should start with an introduction describing the programme and MTR objectives. The body or core of the report should follow the guidance provided in the TORs.

Conclusions and recommendations: these should be presented in a separate final chapter of the report. Wherever possible, for each conclusion there should be a corresponding recommendation. Recommendations should be as realistic, context specific, operational and pragmatic as possible astThe ultimate value of the MTR depends on the quality and credibility of the recommendations offered. The consultants should take careful account of the circumstances currently prevailing in the context of the programme.

ANNEXES to the MTR report

1. Logical framework matrix
2. Terms of Reference
3. Methodology applied for MTR
4. List of persons/organisations consulted
5. Literature and documentation consulted
6. Any other technical annexes


Kindly Note:

The deadline for submission of proposals is COB 12:00 hrs Friday, 16th December 2011

The proposals hardcopies in sealed envelopes have to be delivered to the attention of Programme Officer WPP, UN Women Pakistan. Proposals sent by e-mail, soft copies and/or in unsealed envelopes will automatically be disqualified.

Clearly mark the envelopes RFP ‘Mid-Term Review of Women and Peace Programme’-

Unmarked Proposals will not be entertained

Address:
Operations Manager
UN Women Pakistan
Plot 5-11
Diplomatic Enclave # 2
Islamabad
PAKISTAN