Evaluation Consultant for Terminal Evaluation of the UNEP Project "Capacity Building for National and Regional Environmental Information and Knowledge Management" at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES 
In close consultation with the Evaluation Manager, the Evaluation Consultant will be responsible for the overall management of the Evaluation and timely provision of its outputs, data collection and analysis and report-writing.

• The consultant will ensure that all evaluation criteria and questions are adequately covered.

More specifically:  

• Inception phase of the Evaluation, including: preliminary desk review and introductory interviews with project staff;  
• draft the reconstructed Theory of Change of the project;  
• prepare the evaluation framework;
• develop the desk review and interview protocols;  
• draft the survey protocols (if relevant);  
• develop and present criteria for country and/or site selection for the evaluation mission;
• plan the evaluation schedule;
• prepare the Inception

Report, incorporating comments until approved by the Evaluation Manager  Data collection and analysis phase of the Evaluation, including:  

• conduct further desk review and in-depth interviews with project implementing and executing agencies, project partners and project stakeholders;  (where appropriate and agreed) conduct an evaluation mission(s) to selected countries, visit the project locations, interview project partners and stakeholders, including a good representation of local communities.
• Ensure independence of the Evaluation and confidentiality of evaluation interviews. regularly report back to the Evaluation Manager on progress and inform of any possible problems or issues encountered and; keep the Project Manager informed of the evaluation progress.  
• Reporting phase, including:  draft the Main Evaluation Report, ensuring that the evaluation report is complete, coherent and consistent with the Evaluation Manager guidelines both in substance and style; liaise with the Evaluation Manager on comments received and finalize the Main Evaluation Report, ensuring that comments are taken into account until approved by the Evaluation Manager prepare a Response to Comments annex for the main report, listing those comments not accepted by the Evaluation Consultant and indicating the reason for the rejection; and (where agreed with the Evaluation Manager) prepare an Evaluation Brief (2-page summary of the evaluand and the key evaluation findings and lessons)  Managing relations, including: maintain a positive relationship with evaluation stakeholders, ensuring that the evaluation process is as participatory as possible but at the same time maintains its independence; communicate in a timely manner with the Evaluation Manager on any issues requiring its attention and intervention.  The Evaluation Consultant shall have had no prior involvement in the formulation or implementation of the project and will be independent from the participating institutions. The consultant will sign the Evaluation Consultant Code of Conduct Agreement Form.    The Evaluation Consultant will be selected and recruited by the UNEP Evaluation Office through an individual consultancy contract.  

Comprehensive terms of reference will be shared with the consultant separately.
Qualifications/special skills

• A first level university degree in environmental sciences, international development or other relevant political or social sciences area is required and an advanced degree in the same areas is desirable.  
• A minimum of 9 years of technical / evaluation experience is required, preferably including evaluating large, regional or global programmes and using a Theory of Change approach;
•  A good/broad understanding of environmental science-policy is desired.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this consultancy, fluency in oral and written English is a requirement and proficiency in /knowledge of French is desirable.