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. 

The project “Let It Not Happen Again: Safeguarding the Rights of GBV Survivors Through Access to Justice” is a three-year initiative implemented by UN Women, with support from the Government of Italy. The project builds on earlier phases of GBV prevention and response programming and focuses on strengthening survivor-centred access to justice in Kenya. The project is being implemented in six select counties, namely Nairobi, Kilifi, Bungoma, Vihiga, Kisumu, and Isiolo. The project addresses systemic barriers that prevent women and girls, particularly survivors of gender-based violence, from accessing timely, affordable, and gender responsive justice and essential services. It combines upstream legal and institutional reform with downstream community engagement and women’s empowerment to ensure sustainable and transformative change.  At the macro level, the project promotes an enabling legal and policy environment aligned to international standards, supports reform and implementation of laws and budgets, strengthens justice institutions to be accountable and gender responsive, transforms harmful social norms, and empowers women and girls socially, legally, and economically to claim their rights and break cycles of violence. With the project concluding in 2026, a final evaluation is commissioned to assess its performance, document lessons learned, and inform future access to justice and GBV programming.

The consultant will be reporting to EVAWG team lead and will be supported by the M&R Analyst, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues.  

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

The evaluation will cover the full implementation period of the project from May 2023 to July 2026. It will assess performance against the project’s results framework and theory of change, applying the standard evaluation criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, impact, sustainability, and gender equality and human rights. This is an end-term evaluation that will focus on the achievement of intended and unintended results, as well as generate forward-looking recommendations to support sustainability, institutional strengthening, learning, and course correction for future programming. The geographic scope of the evaluation will include engagement with key stakeholders and beneficiaries in the project counties of Kisumu, Isiolo, Bungoma, Vihiga, Kilifi, and Nairobi. In consultation with the Evaluation Management Group and the Evaluation Reference Group, the national consultant will further refine the evaluation scope and sampling strategy during the inception phase. This will include defining the boundaries of the evaluation, identifying stakeholders to be consulted, and determining which interventions and initiatives will be included or excluded.

Evaluability Assessment 

During the inception phase, the national consultant will undertake a rapid evaluability assessment. This will include:

• An assessment of the relevance, clarity, and coherence of the project’s theory of change, including strengthening or reconstructing it where necessary through stakeholder consultation;
• A review of the quality and measurability of performance indicators, as well as the availability, accessibility, and adequacy of relevant documentation and secondary data;
• An assessment of contextual factors that may affect the conduct of the evaluation and interpretation of findings;
• A review of the project’s accountability, governance, and management structures to ensure clarity of roles and responsibilities relevant to the evaluation.

The evaluation will be conducted in four main phases:

Inception Phase

During the inception phase, the consultant will:

• Undertake a comprehensive desk review of project documents, including the proposal, results framework, theory of change, monitoring data, progress reports, and relevant national GBV frameworks;
• Design the evaluation approach and develop an evaluation matrix aligned to the DAC criteria and project outcomes;
• Develop data collection tools, map stakeholders, and prepare a sampling strategy covering national and county-level actors;
• Conduct preliminary consultations with key stakeholders to refine the scope, methodology, and evaluation questions;
• Prepare and submit a draft Inception Report for review by the Evaluation Reference Group.
• Revise and finalise the methodology and evaluation matrix based on feedback from the Evaluation Management and Reference Groups.

Data Collection Phase

During this phase, the consultant will:

• Collect qualitative and quantitative data from identified stakeholders, including justice actors, oversight institutions, civil society organisations, survivors’ networks, women human rights defenders, and government representatives;
• Conduct key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and surveys where appropriate, ensuring ethical and survivor-centred engagement;
• Visit selected project counties to gather field-level evidence on institutional strengthening, coordination mechanisms, and access to justice and essential services;
• Present preliminary findings to UN Women and the Evaluation Reference Group to validate emerging results;
• Submit all raw data collected to UN Women in machine-readable format. This shall include quantitative data sets in Excel (.xlsx) or CSV (.csv) format; Interview and focus group transcripts in Word (.docx) format; and anonymised master dataset where required to ensure confidentiality and data protection.

Analysis and Report Writing Phase

During this phase, the consultant will:

• Systematically analyse and triangulate all collected data against the evaluation criteria and project results framework;
• Prepare a draft evaluation report and submit it to the Evaluation Reference Group for review and comments.
• Revise the report based on consolidated feedback and validation discussions.

Finalisation Phase

• Submit the final evaluation report and evaluation brief incorporating all agreed revisions.
• Provide a presentation of key findings, conclusions, and recommendations to UN Women and relevant stakeholders.

Structure of the Evaluation Report

The final report shall not exceed 40 pages, excluding annexes, and will include the following sections:

1. Title and opening pages
2. Executive summary
3. Background and purpose of the evaluation
4. Programme description and context
5. Evaluation objectives and scope
6. Evaluation methodology and limitations
7. Findings
8. Conclusions
9. Recommendations
10. Lessons learned
11. Annexes, including Terms of Reference, documents reviewed, and a list of stakeholders consulted

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy with field travel to the project implementation locations. 

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:

• Knowledge of gender equality analytical work and programming;
• Strong understanding of various methodologies in evaluation, both qualitative and quantitative, such as surveys, record reviews, focus groups and case studies;
• Ability to contribute to the development of the most efficient and effective methodology for the design, with minimal guidance.
• Strong understanding of gender responsive evaluation approach; 
• Strong understanding of various sampling techniques and their applications, and ability to develop the most accurate sampling technique for the methodology;
• Strength of how to address gender equality in evaluation design;
• Strong understanding of questionnaire design and ability to develop questionnaires and other review instruments that will address issues identified in the design, independently.
• Strong interviewing skills and ability to conduct interviews independently;
• Ability to collect reliable, valid and accurate information objectively;
• Strong knowledge of gender equality and women’s human rights;
• Strong training and coaching skills
• Ability to develop partnerships to promote gender responsive evaluation in the UN system and with national partners.

 Required Qualifications

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in evaluation or a relevant social science or related field 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.
• A project/programme management certification (such as PMP®, PRINCE2®, or MSP®) would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible professional experience in conducting evaluations is required.
• Experience working on gender equality and human rights is required.
• Experience working in international relations is required.
• Experience working in the field is required.
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems is required.
• Experience in the use of a modern web-based ERP System, preferably Oracle Cloud, is desirable.

Languages:

• Fluency in English and Kiswahili 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, colour, 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 organisational 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 credentials 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.