TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR EVALUATION
CEDAW Programme, UN WOMEN Pakistan

Programme Title Beyond CEDAW - Facilitating the Implementation of International and National
Commitments to Realize Women’s Human Rights in Pakistan

Programme Duration Dec 2008- Dec 2009
Budget (USD) Source: Non -CORE Amount : USD 750,000




1. Introduction

Since its return to Pakistan in 2007, UN WOMEN has been providing technical advice and support to the Government of Pakistan and the civil society in institutionalizing the CEDAW reporting process and developing CEDAW implementation and tracking mechanisms.
From the outset, UN WOMEN focused on building the capacity of the stakeholders – national women machineries at federal and provincial, women’s organizations and CSOs - in CEDAW reporting and developing an institutionalized implementation and tracking mechanism in Pakistan.
The process as is being supported by UN WOMEN, in collaboration with the MoWD and the GTZ, entails the following strategies:

 Support and strengthen leading role of MoWD in process of implementation, monitoring and reporting;
 Facilitate and monitor collaboration between government and civil society in the CEDAW implementation process.
 Strengthen inter-ministerial ownership of the CEDAW process in particular around key line ministries
 Support NGOs shadow reporting process

UN WOMEN is mindful of the existing constraints, gaps and weaknesses in the public sector and civil society in CEDAW implementation in Pakistan. It is, therefore, working towards assisting Pakistan in developing strategic directions to internalize CEDAW implementation processes. UN WOMEN further aims at going beyond CEDAW in ensuring women’s human rights through supporting other national and international instruments in accordance with the commitments of the Government of Pakistan.

The CEDAW Phase I Programme is for the period November 2008 to December 2009 and received joint funding by Dutch, CIDA and SDC for a total of 750,000 USD. The donors agreed on the same document and budget and on a joint reporting process.

2.Programme overview and expected results

The programme in questions builds on UN WOMEN’s main comparative advantage at country level: supporting the implementation of CEDAW through support to reporting and institutionalization of monitoring and implementation mechanisms

It builds at the same time on the assumption that the national women machineries are the ones to spearhead this process and ensure ownership by the rest of the government and line ministries/departments as well as provide the technical guidance and advice. It is understood at the same time that capacity of these institutions is very weak and their positioning even more and the process needs to look at strengthening capacities and roles.

Another assumption is that in country like Pakistan where geographic and political differences and variances as well as complexity of situations ranging from conflict to development the identification of gender strategies and therefore priorities in addressing the immense women’s right issues is needed in order to achieve specific results and changes in the lives of women and girls, men and boys. CEDAW and the latest CEDAW Concluding Observation issued for Pakistan in 2007 by the CEDAW Expert Committee can be used to further advance this approach and help prioritizing and strategizing around areas of interventions and required human and financial resources.

The main focus is therefore is on duty bearers and the capacity to advance the CEDAW agenda. The right holders are targeted through the women’s organizations/gender advocates and their capacity around CEDAW implementation and advocacy.

The geographic focus is
- federal level
- provincial level (4 provinces plus AJK and FANA)

The logical framework is as follows:
Project outcome - Implementation of CEDAW strengthened

Project Output 1.1. National Machineries for women have increased their capacity to lead CEDAW reporting and set up implementation process
This links to the UN WOMEN Strategic Plan Output – National Machineries for women have increased their capacity to mainstream gender equality into National Development strategies, laws, and policies

Activities
 provide technical advice at both federal and provincial levels to the Ministry of Women Development (GRAP and NCSW included) and the provincial WDDs (provincial GRAPs included) to enhance institutional implementation and reporting on CEDAW:

o Consultations to enhance inter ministerial and inter departmental process around gender equality commitments:

Project Output 1.2 - Gender equality experts, advocates and their organizations or networks have strengthened their capacity to advocate for gender responsive laws, policies and strategies at national, regional and global level.
UN WOMEN Strategic Plan Output - Gender equality experts, advocates and their organizations or networks have strengthened their capacity to advocate for CEDAW implementation process

Activities
 Capacity building of key stakeholders such as civil society organizations and women’s organizations in particular, judiciary, parliamentarians etc around CEDAW and its implementation


3. Objectives of the Evaluation

UN WOMEN will employ an independent evaluation team to undertake an Evaluation of the CEDAW Programme, for the following reasons:

1. This is an important programme for UN WOMEN’s work in Pakistan and is key in defining the positioning of UN WOMEN and the work on gender equality and women’s empowerment in Pakistan
2. Three donors jointly supported it showing strategic importance and interest for a total budget of 750,000 USD for 12 months period
3. UN WOMEN has come back to Pakistan in 2007 after many years of not having a full fledge presence in Pakistan and had to position itself with the GoP, the CSO and the wider international community (including the UN Delivering as One pilot)

The evaluation will address the following questions
What are the initial results of UN WOMEN’s work in Pakistan on contributing to the CEDAW implementation in Pakistan?
To what extent the work with the national women’s machineries was effective in advancing the CEDAW agenda at federal and provincial level?
To what extent did the programme build on partnerships and collaborations amongst governmental and non governmental partners to enhance the achievement of outputs and the contribution towards the outcome

The objectives of such evaluation are as follows:
- To evaluate UN WOMEN’s initial positioning and strategy in Pakistan in relation to the implementation of CEDAW
- To inform UN WOMEN’s strategic planning and programme development of UN WOMEN Pakistan in light of the implementation of the One UN Programme
- To identify lessons learnt and challenges around the work with national women machineries at federal and provincial level in Pakistan in the CEDAW framework and updating the theories of change, identifying indicators and providing monitoring tools

Following on the above indicated objectives, the evaluation will be used to
a. advance UN WOMEN Pakistan strategic planning and programme development as well as
b. further strategize on the capacity enhancement process for CEDAW implementation of gender advocates such as the national women’s machineries as per UN WOMEN SRS for South Asia

The target audience for such evaluation will be:
 UN WOMEN Pakistan
 Ministry of Women Development and Women Development Departments
 National Commission on Women
 Women’s organizations members of the CEDAW WG (Aurat Foundation, ASR, Shirkat Gah and NCJP)
 United Nations agencies/programmes and funds

4. Scope of the Evaluation

The programme strategies and achievements will be tested against following evaluation criteria:
(i) Relevance – the extent to which the activity is suited to local and national development priorities and organizational policies, including changes over time.
(ii) Effectiveness – the extent to which an objective has been achieved or how likely it is to be achieved.
(iii) Efficiency – the extent to which results have been delivered with the least costly resources possible.
(iv) Sustainability – the likelihood of an intervention to continue to deliver benefits for an extended period of time after completion. Programmes need to be environmentally as well as financially and socially sustainable.


4.1. Document Lessons Learnt
The mission will identify and document lessons learned (including lessons that might improve design and implementation of other UN WOMEN programmes). In particular, the mission should describe the main lessons that have emerged in terms of:
 Strengthening country ownership/drivenness;
 Strengthening stakeholder participation;
 Application of adaptive management strategies;
 Efforts to secure sustainability;
 Knowledge transfer; and
 Role of M&E in programme implementation and its effectiveness.

4.2. Recommendations
The team should come up with recommendations regarding specific actions that might be taken to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and impact and management arrangements of next phase of the programmes.

5. Evaluation Approach and deliverables

Given that the UN WOMEN Pakistan country office has been in place only since August 2007 and the programmatic and operational set up is still in progress, the evaluation will be the first one for the country office and as such a very useful process to learn, reflect and revise existing strategies and approaches

The evaluation was considered in the programme design but not specifically designed. The programme as mentioned above was designed as an initial set up phase for the longer term programmatic framework of the CEDAW programme in Pakistan and the evaluation was envisaged to be …. carried out with a national external evaluator at the end of the project year to ensure that lessons learnt will guide and support the implementation of the longer term CEDAW intervention.
The M&E design is very simple given that realistically this is a one year intervention and very much at the set up level. Indicators as such were built in more in terms of building baseline data and work is just initiatied in this regard
Outcome
1. Evidence that GE advocates call for decision’s makers accountability to national commitments to GE and WHR
Outputs
2. Capacity assessments that demonstrate changes in knowledge, skills and abilities of MoWD and WDDs
3. Evidence of changes in capacity of gender equality experts/advocates/organizations networks to advocate for gender responsive laws/policies, strategies to advance gender equality
4. capacity assessments and surveys indicating increase in knowledge and skills in mainstreaming gender equality And women’s human rights in policy, service delivery or media institutions

The set up at federal and provincial level especially has taken much more time than originally planned and therefore some of the baseline and indicators are just being put together after more than 6 months implementation. It is planned that the evaluation will inform the process of reviewing and planning around monitoring methodologies and their implementation in UN WOMEN Pakistan.

In general in Pakistan there is a lack of gender data: while there is some level of sex disaggregated data there is hardly any analysis and specifically gender data. In this regard, UN WOMEN Pakistan is at the same time supporting the establishment of the SAARC Gender Information Base which is working around these areas of indicators (violence against women, Feminization of Poverty and health including HIV and AIDS) and which closely links to this process and the need of the GoP to have a monitoring system for CEDAW process in Pakistan.

The Evaluation should consider both qualitative and quantitative with a focus around this latter given the initial stage and the lack of baseline and data.

The deliverables include:

5.1. Inception Report
The Inception Report will detail the preliminary approach to the study, study tools to be used and the evaluation framework. The Inception report will be used to confirm a common understanding of the purpose, objectives, scope, timescales, and methodology for the evaluation between UN WOMEN and the evaluation team. It will include:
• Overview of the evaluation purpose and objectives
• Team - Roles and Responsibilities
• Evaluation Framework and Methodology
• Information Collection and Analysis
• Work Scheduling – including Reporting timelines

5.2. Two Power Point presentations

At the time of the Inception Report, the team will also submit a Power Point detailing the salient features of the evaluation, which the team will be sharing with key stakeholders during the evaluation.

The second Power Point is expected from the team during the presentation of the Draft Final Report at the end of the Evaluation Period.

5.3. Draft Final Report

At the end of the evaluation, the team leader will submit the draft evaluation report to UN WOMEN in the structure specified in section 5.4. below. The outline and main finding of the evaluation mission should be completed and handed to UN WOMEN during the final de-briefing session.

5.4. Final Evaluation Report

Based on the spoken and written comments of the stakeholders during this de-briefing and subsequently, the team will finalize and submit the final version of the report to UN WOMEN Pakistan within ten days of receipt of comments.

The length of the report should not exceed 25 pages, exceeding Annexes. While the Consultants are free to use any detailed method of reporting, the Evaluation Report should contain at least the following:
• Title Page
• List of acronyms and abbreviations
• Table of contents, including list of annexes
• Executive Summary
• Introduction: background and context of the programme
• Description of the program – its logic theory, results framework and external factors likely to affect success
• Purpose of the evaluation
• Key questions and scope of evaluation with information on limitations and de-limitations
• Approach and methodology
• Findings
• Summary and explanation of findings and interpretations
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• Lessons, generalizations, alternatives

In the Final Report, the Mission is expected to provide details in respect of:
• Documents reviewed;
• Interviews;
• Field visits;
• Questionnaires, if any;
• Participatory techniques and other approaches for gathering and analysis of data; and
• Participation of stakeholders and/or partners.

In addition, the final report should contain the following annexes:
- Terms of Reference for the evaluation
- Itinerary (actual)
- List of meetings attended
- List of persons interviewed
- List of documents reviewed
- Any other relevant material

5.5. Good practices and lessons learnt Document

The team is also expected to submit a separate document on good practices and learnings gleaned during the evaluation, which emphasize the conclusions drawn in the Final Report.


6. Evaluation Methodology

6.1. Methodology
The evaluation will be conducted in a participatory manner starting with a review of the key programme documents.

The evaluation approach will combine methods such as documentation study (desk review); interviews and field visits. All relevant programme documentation will be made available to the evaluation team by UN WOMEN. After studying the documentation the Consultants will conduct interviews with all relevant partners.

The consultants are expected to hold discussions with the institutions/ partners.

Validation of findings with stakeholders should happen through circulation of initial reports for comments or other types of feedback mechanisms.

Throughout the period of the evaluation, the Consultants will liaise closely with the UN WOMEN Country Director and programme officer, the concerned agencies and other relevant stakeholders, any other experts associated with the programme. The consultants can raise or discuss any issue or topic they deem necessary to fulfill the tasks. The Consultants, however, are not authorized to make any commitments to any party on behalf of UN WOMEN.


The exact methodology and evaluation framework used will be finalized in close collaboration with relevant UN WOMEN officer.

6.2. Ratings
The Programme will be rated against individual criterion of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and results based on the following scale:
• Highly Satisfactory (HS): The programme has no shortcomings in the achievement of its objectives.
• Satisfactory (S): The programme has minor shortcomings in the achievement of its objectives.
• Moderately Satisfactory (MS): The programme has moderate shortcomings in the achievement of its objectives.
• Moderately Unsatisfactory (MU): The programme has significant shortcomings in the achievement of its objectives.
• Unsatisfactory (U): The programme has major shortcomings in the achievement of its objectives.
• Highly Unsatisfactory (HU): The programme has severe shortcomings in the achievement of its objectives.

As for sustainability criteria the evaluator should at the minimum evaluate the “likelihood of sustainability of outcomes at programme termination, and provide a rating for this.

7. Evaluation Team and its tasks
The evaluation team should be familiar with, and use, the results based monitoring approach of UN WOMEN. The evaluation team will comprise of a team of 2-3 local consultants. These consultants coordinate the consultancy to ensure quality of the report and timely submission and provide supportive roles both in terms of professional back up, translation etc.

7.1. Composition, skills and experience of Team
The time period for the evaluation is fairly limited therefore the team must be equipped to undertake multiple tasks simultaneously. Consultants must have a mix of relevant experience linked to gender, experience in leading evaluations, knowledge of evaluation methodology, and UN and/or NGO experience. The team members should have experience of working cross-culturally in development and/or humanitarian action.

As a whole, the Evaluation team must offer the following demonstrated experience, knowledge and competencies:
• Significant knowledge and experience of evaluation concepts and approaches;
• Good knowledge of the UN system, national programmes, INGOs and IGOs;
• Recent experience with gender equality issues and knowledge of mainstreaming gender equality into policies/programming/development; knowledge of gender related strategies in like organisations;
• Sound understanding of human rights based approaches;
• Consultancy experience in developing countries;
• Facilitation skills, particularly design of stakeholder consultations exercises;
• Strong quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis skills;
• Excellent analytical skills and communication skills;
• Demonstrated writing skills in English;
• Computer literacy with specific regard to Word, Excel and Power Point;
• Post-graduate degree in social sciences or international development.
• An understanding of local languages and culture is a must.

The Team leader must have demonstrated capacity in evaluation and strategy development, especially related to gender equality and gender mainstreaming. Ideally the team leader will be a known leader in the field. The team leader should have:
• Minimum eight years working experience in international development and very good understanding and experience of the UN system;
• Experience in conducting and leading corporate/organizational evaluation;
• Experience in assessing institutional capacities on gender;
• Sound knowledge of and/or experience with mainstreaming gender equality to policies/programming/development, and human rights based approaches;
• Excellent analytical skills and communication skills;
• Demonstrated excellent report writing skills in English;
• Computer literacy with specific regard to Word, Excel and Power Point;
• Post-graduate degree in social sciences or international development.
• An understanding of local languages and culture is a must.

The team members should have five years experience in development, with specialisation in gender, social development, women’s rights, and international human rights instruments, especially the CRC and CEDAW.


7.2. Team Responsibilities
Under the guidance of the UN WOMEN CPD and CEDAW team, the Evaluation Team will be responsible for:
1. Further developing and agreeing the final TOR and methodology;
2. Implementing the Evaluation with adequate attention to building ownership of common analysis and recommendations;
3. Development and testing of data collection tools, including questionnaires, interview questions and focus group protocols;
4. Development of any databases needed for processing quantitative and qualitative data;
5. Systematic data collection and data processing;
6. Design and facilitation of workshops or meetings;
7. Preparation and delivery of draft and final reports and presentations;
8. Completing the evaluation on time and within budget;


7.2. Specific tasks of the evaluators
In particular, the team will be responsible for:

7.2.1. Desk review of documents

7.2.2. Conduct fieldwork together with counterpart and interview stakeholders, implementing agencies and institutions to generate authentic information/opinions. Specifically, the Mission will conduct interviews with :
• Relevant UN WOMEN staff
• Other UN agencies
• Government officials
• Donors
• Independent experts, as necessary.

The team may also, as part of the Evaluation, conduct workshops, roundtables and Focus Group Discussions (FGD) as follows:
• Workshop with Partners
• FGD with partners

7.2.3. Write and compile reports specified in this document.

7.2.4. Make a presentation of the entire findings highlighting achievements, constraints and realistic recommendations to decision makers and stakeholders.

7.2.5. Submit a Draft and a Final Evaluation report well within the time specified, fully meeting the quality aspects specified in this document.

8. Implementation Arrangements

8.1. Evaluation schedule

The total duration of the review and the finalization of report is 30 days, including the visits to programme sites and interaction with the implementing agencies and other stakeholders. The Evaluation team shall finalize the exact schedule of the various stages of the Evaluation in consultation with UN WOMEN. At the end of 4weeks, the team leader will submit and present, for comments, his/her draft report to a meeting consisted of UN WOMEN and other stakeholders. After incorporating the comments, the team leader will submit the final report to UN WOMEN, Pakistan (including an electronic copy).

If there are discrepancies between the impressions and findings of the evaluation team and the aforesaid parties, these should be explained in an Annex attached to the final report.

The suggested schedule for the Evaluation could be as follows:
Deliverables Time Schedule
Signing of contract by Evaluation Team Week 0
Submission of Inception Report (not more than 20 pages) containing: Week 1
• Overview of the evaluation purpose and objectives
• Team - Roles and Responsibilities
• Evaluation Framework and Methodology
• Information Collection and Analysis
• Work Scheduling – including Reporting timelines
Inception Workshop – presentation of following by Evaluation Team: Week 1
• Evaluation Framework
• Powerpoint presentation on salient features of the evaluation that will be shared with key stakeholders
Field Work – including interviews, field visits in various locations Week 2
Draft Final Report – in the structure detailed in this TOR Week 3
Comments by UN WOMEN and other Stakeholders Week 3
Final Report – incorporating comments from UN WOMEN and other key stakeholders Week 4
Best Practices Document – Separate document on best practices and learnings gleaned during the evaluation, and emphasising / reinforcing the conclusions drawn in the Final Report. Week 4
8.2. Mode of payment

The payment for the consultants will be as per approved budget. 50% of the payment will be made on signing of the contract agreement, 40% on submission and acceptance of the first draft report and the rest of 10% will be made after delivery of all products.

8.3. Quality Assurance of Evaluation
The Quality of the Evaluation will be monitored through Reference Group (RG). The RG will be chaired by UN WOMEN’s CPD. The RG is responsible for advising the Chair on the following:
• Agreement of the Terms of Reference
• Oversight of the consultants short-listing and selection processes
• Approval of Evaluation design and processes and any adjustments to TORs
• Ensuring the Evaluation process (internal and external phases) involves key stakeholders adequately, to ensure ownership of analysis and recommendations
• Approval of Evaluation products
• Decision on a post-Evaluation dissemination strategy
• Approval of the final report




9. Application details

Consultants are required to apply online for this position while companies are required to send proposals ( 5 -7 pages) including but not limited to:
 Organization contact details
 Past experience of conducting rights based and gendered evaluations
 Evaluation plan and methodology
 3 questions on the 5 evaluation criteria – efficiency; effectiveness; relevance, results and sustainability

Budget should be attached in Excel with detailed budget notes – break-up by item with necessary calculations for each cost item and company profile within two weeks of advertisement.

The deadline for submission of application is 26th October 2009 by 5 pm.
Mark the envelope 'Evaluation of CEDAW Programme',