Background:

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (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 for all women and girls.  UN Women, through its Strategic Plan 2022-2025, identified four impact areas through which the organization strives to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment: 

• Governance and Participation in public life
• Women Peace and Security, Humanitarian Action, and Disaster Risk Reduction
• Ending Violence Against Women
• Women’s Economic Empowerment

The UN Women Country Office is based in Yangon, Myanmar and works alongside over 20 other UN agencies. The Myanmar CO is undertaking a Country Portfolio Evaluation and requires two national consultants to support the conduct of this evaluation. 

Expressions of interest are sought from qualified individuals for the National Evaluation consultants to support evaluation team leader in the conduct of the evaluation. Please specify in your expression of interest where you are based and your language proficiency. 

Duties and responsibilities

Evaluation consultants are integral members of the evaluation team. The work of the consultants will be in-person and home-based and they will need to connect with the team during Asia and the Pacific working hours via online platforms. 

Under the overall oversight of the Regional Evaluation Specialist, the Evaluation consultant may contribute to the following phases of evaluations:

• Evaluation Planning stage:
  • Reviewing all relevant documents (i.e. Strategic notes, project documents, donor and/or other monitoring reports, evaluation and audit reports, etc.) to identify efforts relevant to the evaluation topic.
  • Providing support to the portfolio analysis to provide an overview of the different efforts undertaken by the CO for the thematic area.
  • Providing translation/interpretation support as necessary.
• Evaluation Inception phase:
  • Support the Human rights-based stakeholder analysis from a thematic perspective.
  • Contribute to the development of an inclusive Evaluation methodology which is tailored to relevant inquiry in the thematic area (including through the evaluation matrix, data collection tools etc)
• Evaluation Data collection:
  • Support interviews, focus group discussions, and consultations by taking detailed notes and ensuring adherence to ethical guidelines.
  • Contribute to evaluation analysis by capturing results, challenges, gaps and learning pertinent to the evaluation topic.
  • Providing translation/interpretation support as necessary.
• Reporting phase:
  • Provide substantive inputs to the final synthesis report.
  • Potential support to case study through inputs on the thematic areas.
• Other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.

3. Tasks and deliverables

The evaluation consultants will be key member of the evaluation team, engaged in all phases of the evaluation process and in each type of evaluation to produce concise and analytical evaluation reports. Deliverables for the evaluation consultants include the following: interview notes, qualitative and quantitative data analyses, contributions to the inception report, presentations and final synthesis reports and annexes for evaluations. These deliverables must be high quality and in line with the GERAAS criteria established by UN Women.

 4. Supervision

The consultants will be directly supervised by the Regional Evaluation Specialist for Asia and the Pacific who is based in the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand. However, based on the evaluation assignment, the national consultants may also receive guidance from the international evaluation consultant engaged. The Regional Evaluation Specialist reports to the Chief of Independent Evaluation Service at UN Women headquarters.

Note: 

• Potential travel will be paid for separately.
• Payment will be made upon submission of deliverables and approval of the supervisor.
• All deliverables should be in line with the UN Women Editorial Style Guide. 
• All deliverables should be written and generated in English.
• All data collected by the evaluation consultant must be submitted to the supervisor in Word, PowerPoint, or Excel format.  Proper storage of data is essential for ensuring confidentiality and should be in line with UN Women Policy on data management and security. 
• All deliverables submitted by the consultant are subject to quality review in line with the UN Women Evaluation Report Quality Assurance. The report will only be considered final when it meets the UN Women GERAAS quality standards.[1]

1. Ethical Considerations

   UN Women has developed a UN Women Evaluation Consultant Agreement Form for evaluator that must be signed as part of the contracting process, which is based on the UNEG Ethical Guidelines and Code of Conduct. All data collected by the consultant must be submitted to the evaluation manager in Word, PowerPoint or Excel formats and is the property of UN Women.  Proper storage of data is essential for ensuring confidentiality and a data protection plan will be developed during the inception phase. The evaluation’s value added is its impartial and systematic assessment of the project. As with the other stages of the evaluation, involvement of stakeholders should not interfere with the impartiality of the evaluation. The evaluators have the final judgment on the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation report, and the evaluator must be protected from pressures to change information in the report. Proper procedures for data collection with rights holders who may have been affected by violence must be adhered to as outlined in the Improving the collection and use of administrative data on VAW  and WHO Ethical and Safety Recommendations for research on violence against women. Additionally, if the evaluator(s) identify issues of wrongdoing, fraud or other unethical conduct, UN Women and UNDP procedures must be followed and confidentiality be maintained. The UN Women Legal Framework for Addressing Non-Compliance with UN Standards of Conduct, and accompanying policies protecting against retaliation and prohibiting harassment and abuse of authority, provide a cohesive framework aimed at creating and maintaining a harmonious working environment, ensuring that staff members do not engage in any wrongdoing and that all allegations of wrongdoing are reported promptly, investigated and appropriate action taken to achieve accountability.

   The evaluation will adhere to the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Guidelines on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Evaluation. All AI tools and methods applied will comply with principles of transparency, accountability, fairness, and data privacy. Ethical considerations will be prioritized to ensure that AI use does not introduce bias, compromise confidentiality, or undermine human oversight. The evaluator will document AI-related processes and decisions to maintain integrity and trustworthiness throughout the evaluation. 

2. Requirements/Qualifications for the consultants:

• An advanced degree in relevant disciplines (e.g., gender, development and social studies, sociology, political science, etc.); 
• At least 5 years of experience in evaluation, review and assessment assignments with  multilateral and bilateral organizations.
• Experience as a team member conducting complex reviews in the development field with international organizations (at least 5 reviews);
• Proven working experience in the area of gender equality, women’s economic empowerment, women’s rights, and gender;
• Good knowledge of development strategies, policies, frameworks, and international law.
• Work experience in/good knowledge of Myanmar where UN Women operates  but should have not been involved in the design and/or implementation of UN Women-supported interventions during the period covered by the evaluation;
• Ability to ensure ethics and integrity of the evaluation process, including confidentiality and the principle of do no harm.
• Ability to consistently integrate human rights and gender perspectives, and disability inclusion in all phases of the evaluation process.
• Solid knowledge of evaluation approaches and methodology and demonstrated ability to apply both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods.
• Familiarity with UN Women or other United Nations organizations’ mandates and activities will be an advantage.
• Ability to communicate in local languages.
• Fluency in written and spoken English.
• Knowledge and experience in a range of review methods.
• Experience working in Myanmar.
• Experience working with the UN system an asset.
• Ability to facilitate multi-stakeholder discussions; and 
• Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills
• Respect for confidentiality and political sensitivities 

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct. 
• Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work. 
• Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;

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

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent ability to communicate in English and to write in English. 

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.