Evaluation Consultant

Job Posting Organization:
UN Women was established in July 2010 as the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The organization was created as part of the UN reform agenda to consolidate resources and mandates for greater impact on gender equality and women's empowerment. UN Women merges and builds upon the work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system that focused on gender issues: DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW, and UNIFEM. The organization operates globally, with a mission to eliminate discrimination against women and girls, empower women, and achieve equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action, and peace and security" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">security. UN Women emphasizes accountability on gender equality through evaluation and learning, and it has a significant role in promoting gender equality at country, regional, and global levels. The Independent Evaluation Service (ES) within UN Women is responsible for the evaluation function, ensuring adherence to the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards, and it plays a crucial role in enhancing accountability and informing decision-making regarding women's empowerment and gender equality.

Job Overview:
The Evaluation Consultant will report directly to the Regional Evaluation Specialist and work under the supervision of the Chief of the Independent Evaluation Service (IES). The primary responsibility of this position is to support decentralized evaluations at regional and country levels. This includes strengthening decentralized evaluation systems, conducting evaluations of regional and country portfolios, ensuring the effective use of evaluation findings and recommendations, and providing capacity development for internal and external stakeholders. The consultant will be expected to manage evaluations from inception to dissemination, provide methodological advice, and ensure that evaluation results are integrated into project design and implementation. The role also involves promoting gender-responsive evaluation practices and collaborating with various UN entities to enhance the evaluation capacity within UN Women and across the UN system.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Conduct and manage evaluations across the East and Southern Africa Region, including regional and country portfolio evaluations. Lead evaluations from scoping and inception through data collection, analysis, reporting, and dissemination.
• Provide sound methodological advice and quality assurance for decentralized evaluation processes, including preparing Terms of References (TORs), evaluation studies, final evaluation reports, and dissemination strategies.
• Offer technical support for planning, monitoring, and implementing evaluation plans in UN Women’s regional and country offices.
• Ensure follow-up on evaluation findings and recommendations by preparing reports and briefing materials for stakeholders.
• Organize meetings, workshops, and discussion forums to contribute to knowledge management.
• Liaise with project/programme managers to monitor the implementation of evaluation recommendations and ensure they are integrated into project design.
• Strengthen evaluation capacity development by providing training and coaching on UN Women evaluation policies and guidelines.
• Collaborate with UN regional inter-agency evaluation working groups to integrate gender equality perspectives into evaluations.
• Contribute to UN Women’s participation in United Nations Evaluation Group taskforces and ensure the inclusion of gender equality dimensions in system-wide evaluations. 1
• Perform other related duties as assigned by the supervisor.

Required Qualifications:

• Education: A Master’s degree or equivalent in evaluation, social science, or a related field is required. A first-level university degree combined with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced degree.
• Experience: At least 7 years of progressively responsible work experience in evaluation, preferably within development or humanitarian contexts. Proven hands-on experience in leading or conducting evaluations is required. Experience in gender equality analytical work and programming, as well as familiarity with current development issues, is desirable. Experience working in an international organization or similar complex organization is also desirable. Knowledge and experience in evaluation use and knowledge management are required, and experience in the East and Southern Africa region is an asset.

Educational Background:
The position requires a Master’s degree or equivalent in evaluation, social science, or a related field. Candidates with a first-level university degree may be considered if they have two additional years of qualifying experience, demonstrating that they possess the necessary skills and knowledge for the role.

Experience:
Candidates must have at least 7 years of progressively responsible work experience in evaluation, ideally in development or humanitarian contexts. They should have proven experience in leading or conducting evaluations and should be familiar with gender equality analytical work and programming. Experience in evaluation use and knowledge management is essential, and familiarity with the East and Southern Africa region is considered an asset.

Languages:
Fluency in English is required for this position. Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable, which would enhance the candidate's ability to communicate and collaborate in a multilingual environment.

Additional Notes:
This consultancy is home-based, allowing for flexibility in work location. The position may involve official travel as required for evaluations and capacity development activities. UN Women is committed to diversity and inclusion, ensuring that recruitment and employment decisions are made based on qualifications, competence, integrity, and organizational needs. The organization has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct incompatible with its aims and objectives, including discrimination and harassment. Selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks, including verification of academic credentials and employment history.