UN Women: National Consultant – (x2 Positions) – Evaluation of the WRD Programme

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.

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 Fiji Multi Country Office (MCO) covers 14 Pacific countries, with field offices/presence in 6 countries. Each field presence is led by a national Country Programme Coordinator. UN Women, in partnership with Pacific Islands Governments, regional organizations, CSOs, donors and UN agencies, focuses on delivering within four interlinked programme areas:

• Ending Violence against Women and Girls (EVAWG);
• Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE);
• Gender and Protection in Humanitarian Action; and Disaster Risk Reduction
• Governance and Participation in Public Life (GPPL)

Independent Evaluation Service / IES

The UN Women Independent Evaluation Service (IES) evaluates the work of UN Women to enhance organizational accountability, provide evidence-based information for decision-making and to contribute to learning on gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women IES is conducting the final evaluation of the Women’s Resilience to Disasters (WRD) Programme to conduct the evaluation more efficiently and ensure key lessons learned on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) inform programming at both regional and global levels moving forward.

The Women’s Resilience to Disasters (WRD) Programme, with a budget of approximately 13.5 million AUD funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of the Government of Australia, was launched as UN Women’s flagship initiative on disaster risk reduction (DRR)r, putting women and girls at the centre of DRR and resilience. The program aims to strengthen women’s voice, agency, and leadership by securing gender-responsive decision-making, governance, and systems, enabling targeted action for building the resilience of women and girls to current and future disasters and threats. The key strategies of the Programme include policy and technical support, capacity-building initiatives, and partnerships, aimed at ensuring that women, particularly those from marginalized communities, are actively involved in disaster prevention and preparedness, response, and recovery.

The WRD Programme is implemented in four countries: Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. In the Pacific, disaster risks converge with critical socio-economic vulnerabilities, environmental degradation, and climate change. The remoteness, socio-economic status, and fragile biodiversity of Pacific countries make them highly vulnerable to hazards and exacerbate existing development challenges in the region, affecting women and people with disabilities the most. This is complemented by regional and global components, which focus on supporting gender-transformative, disability-inclusive, and human-rights-based disaster and climate-resilient systems and governance. It was designed to be driven at the country level and supported by a regional Pacific and a streamlined global component. The WRD Programme supports two primary outcome areas:

OUTCOME 1: BUILDING THE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT. Prevention, preparedness, and recovery systems, plans, processes, and tools are gender-responsive.

OUTCOME 2: TARGETED ACTION. Women and girls are prepared to withstand multiple hazards, recover from disasters, and increase their resilience to future disasters and threats.

The programme was launched in the Pacific after a two-year inception phase (2019-2021) for a period of four years, 2021-2025 (ending on 30th June 2025, with a probable no-cost extension of several months). The programme Mid-Term Review was completed in February 2024 with the objectives to assess progress, identify challenges, refocus priorities, enhance accountability, and ensure the sustainability of the Programme.

The WRD Programme has a diverse array of stakeholders across Fiji, Kiribati, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu, including governmental bodies, women’s organisations, civil society organisations (CSOs), women and girls in local communities, including those with disabilities and those in the LGBTQI+ community.

Purpose, Objectives and Scope of the Evaluation

The evaluation aims to assess UN Women’s overall performance in implementing the WRD Programme at a global, regional, and national level, foster accountability to its key stakeholders, and enhance learning within UN Women and among the Programme’s key stakeholders.

The findings, lessons learned, and good practices provided by this evaluation will contribute to the improvement of similar disaster risk reduction and climate resilience programmes in the future. The primary intended uses of this evaluation are:

• Accountability for the development effectiveness of the WRD Programme results in terms of UN Women’s contribution to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Learning on effective, promising and innovative strategies and practices with respect to gender responsive disaster risk reduction and climate resilience.
• Capacity development and mobilization of national stakeholders to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women.
• Improved planning, design, and implementation, and partnerships in country-led, locally owned initiatives.

Objectives

The main objectives of the evaluation are to:

1. Assess whether the WRD Programme responds to the needs and priorities of rights holders within the scope of the Programme and whether it had the appropriate design and strategies to achieve the intended results.
2. Assess organizational efficiency, including whether resources are strategically allocated and efficiently used to deliver expected outputs and outcomes in a timely manner.
3. Assess whether the expected results have been effectively achieved at all levels of the Programme and the Programme’s contribution to achieving the UN Women Fiji MCO Strategic Note and UN Women Strategic Plan, global and regional frameworks and commitments, and DFAT priorities.
4. Identify and validate lessons learned, good practices, challenges, and innovations of efforts that support gender equality, human rights and women’s resilience to disasters.
5. Provide actionable recommendations for future programmatic actions in the area of disaster risks reduction and climate resilience.

Scope of the Evaluation

The final evaluation will cover all aspects of the WRD Programme, including both technical and financial components over the entire programme duration from June 2021 to June 2025, analyzing key milestones, strategic shifts, and WRD interventions across different levels.

The final evaluation will assess WRD’s implementation in Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu, examining country-specific and regional gender-responsive DRR and resilience-building as a result of the WRD interventions. Additionally, the evaluation will review WRD’s influence on global DRR policies and coordination mechanisms, considering its contributions to global disaster resilience efforts.

Evaluation Methodology

The evaluation is employing a non-experimental, theory-based approach using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods. A re-constructed Theory of Change will be used as the basis for contribution analysis. Case studies will be the primary source of information for the assessment of contributions to outcomes in the selected thematic or operational area.

The possibility of employing participatory data collection methods will be explored during the inception stage. At least two of the four countries will be visited for data collection: Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. Given the accessibility to remote locations and communities covered by the Programme, face-to-face primary data collection may be limited. The evaluators will consider using online data collection tools or other applicable tools to the extent possible to mitigate the risk of limited data access. The evaluation will engage the UN Women programme team, government counterparts, implementing partners, direct rights holders (beneficiaries), and other stakeholders.

The evaluation team will develop a purposive sampling frame for data collection. The evaluation will employ the following methods of analysis and data collection:

1. Interviews with key informants identified through the stakeholder analysis (across all stakeholder groups).
2. Surveys of UN Women personnel and external partners (UN partners and regional partners).
3. Observation of meetings, facilities or specific project interventions during potential field visits.
4. Focus Group Discussions to the extent possible outcome harvesting or storytelling with key stakeholders and partners and potentially women and male rights holders that have participated in programming efforts of UN Women related to the selected case studies.
5. Case studies may be identified for a more in-depth look into priority areas.

Key document analyses undertaken primarily during the inception phase will inform the evaluation approach and help to contextualize findings, conclusions and recommendations. The team may utilize different analytical frameworks such as from a diverse SOGIESC perspective, the building block framework to look at the integrated mandate, and gender at work framework. The following analyses will also inform the overall evaluation:

1. Evaluability assessment: to help determine the evaluation approach and gaps in data, the quality of the Programme logic (linkages between the outcomes, outputs and indicators) as articulated in the programme results framework and organizational effectiveness and efficiency framework, the availability of baseline data, and the availability of documents necessary for the evaluation will be assessed.
2. Contextual analysis: this will include an analysis of the key external influencing factors identified above and how they may affect realization of women’s rights in the Pacific.

The methods will include a wide range of data sources (including documents, potential field visits and observation, institutional information systems, financial records, beneficiaries, staff, funders, experts, government officials, community groups, etc.). NVivo qualitative analysis software will be used to analyze interviews and focus group discussions. Multiple lines of evidence will inform the contribution analysis. Sources and methods of information will be triangulated to ensure robust findings that can be used with confidence.

The inception report will provide more details on the selected approach and methods based on desk review and evaluability assessment, scoping interviews, and consultations with the Evaluation Management Group (EMG) and Evaluation Reference Group (ERG).

Data collection methods and processes should be gender-responsive10 and data should be systematically disaggregated by sex and, to the extent possible, disaggregated by age, geographical region, ethnicity, disability, migratory status and other contextually relevant markers of equity11. Specific guidelines should be observed, namely the UNEG guidance on Integrating Human Rights and Gender Equality in Evaluations (2024) and UN Disability Inclusion Strategy Evaluation Accountability, 2019. The evaluation should adhere to and be guided by the UNEG Norms and Standards (2016) and the UNEG Ethical Guidelines (2020) at every stage of the evaluation process, observing the principles of integrity, accountability, respect and beneficence.

Stakeholder Participation

A human rights-based stakeholder mapping will be completed by the evaluation team during the inception phase. The evaluators are expected to discuss during the Inception Workshop how the process will ensure participation of a diverse range of stakeholders at all stages:

1. Design (inception workshop);
2. Consultation of stakeholders;
3. Interpretation;
4. Reporting and use.

The evaluators are expected to validate findings through engagement with stakeholders at stakeholder workshops, debriefings or other forms of engagement.

A reference group will be established representing UN Women key government, civil society, donor and UN system partners. The reference group will be asked to engage and provide input at every stage of the evaluation process, from design to preliminary results and final draft report. The reference group plays a critical role through remote and in-person meetings in ensuring a high quality, transparent process, providing insights on the key questions and approach, ensuring factual accuracy, ensuring gaps and misinterpretation of information is avoided. They will also be key informants. The reference group also plays a key role in the dissemination of the evaluation findings and recommendations and ensuring the use of the information by UN Women and key partners.

Evaluation Timeline

Deliverable

Indicative Time Frame for Submission[1]

Inception Phase: Inception Presentation and Report

The evaluation team will draft an inception report upon reviewing available documents and conducting initial discussions with the Evaluation Management Group (EMG). The team will present the inception report to the Evaluation Reference Group (ERG). The inception report will outline the final evaluation questions and sub-questions, methodology, samples, data collection techniques, and tools. It will also include limitations of the chosen methodology and of the final evaluation. The report will align with UN Women’s evaluation guidelines and be reviewed by the EMG and ERG and cleared by the Chief Independent Evaluation Service and Director Independent Evaluation, Audit and Investigations Service.

Mid- August 2025

Data Collection Phase

The evaluation team will undertake the data collection and provide a briefing for the WRD Programme team and Fiji MCO upon finalization of in-country data collection.

September 2025

Reporting Phase: Preliminary Findings presentation to the Evaluation Reference Group

The evaluation team will prepare preliminary evaluation finding presentation and present them to key stakeholders for validation, ensuring alignment with Programme realities. WRD Programme team will provide administrative and logistical support for the workshop.

Early October 2025

Draft Evaluation Report

The draft evaluation report will be prepared in accordance with UN Women’s evaluation guidelines, ensuring clarity in findings, conclusions, and recommendations. EMG and ERG will provide consolidated feedback using Evaluation product comment template provided, which the evaluators will incorporate into the revised report.

Early November 2025

Final Evaluation Report and Brief

The final report will integrate all feedback EMG and ERG and be formatted according to UN Women’s evaluation standards. It must generally include an executive summary, methodology, key findings, lessons learned, and recommendations. The evaluation report will be approved by UN Women IEAIS and disseminated to stakeholders on the GATE website.

Dec 2025

Consultancy Deliverables

Each National Consultant will contribute to the WRD final evaluation in either Fiji or Vanuatu by supporting the inception phase, adapting data collection tools, conducting field-based qualitative data collection (e.g., interviews, FGDs), and summarizing key findings. They will also provide contextual insights to inform the evaluation’s analysis and reporting.

The National Consultants will work closely with the core evaluation team to ensure the cultural, linguistic, and contextual appropriateness of the evaluation approach. They will report to the Lead Consultant and operate under the supervision of the UN Women Independent Evaluation Service, contributing inputs to the overall synthesis.

No.

Deliverable

Description

Timing

Desk review and inputs to inception report.

Consultant to review data collection tools and provide feedback to ensure they are culturally relevant and translated into local languages.

5 days

Data collection and analysis .

Consultant to undertake on-site data collection in local languages and/or interpret for the Team Leader:

1. provide all notes based on the template in English;
2. summary report of key findings from the site visits completed.

15 days

Provide inputs to the preliminary findings and draft report and draft synthesis report and presentations.

Consultant to provide inputs to the preliminary findings and draft synthesis report and presentations.

5 days

Total

25 days

Note:

• Options for site visits will be provided in the evaluation Inception Report.
• Payment will be made upon submission of deliverables with 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.
• If requested, 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.[2]

All deliverables, including their design, scope and prioritization will comply with survivor-centered standards for administrative data management.

The mentioned number of working days has been estimated as being sufficient/feasible for the envisaged volume of work to be completed successfully and is proposed as a guideline for the duration of assignment. It cannot and shall not be used as criteria for completion of work/assignment. The provision of envisaged deliverables approved by the UN Women designated official shall be the only criteria for Consultant’s work being completed and eligible for payment/s.

Institutional Arrangement

The selected consultant will report to and work under the direct supervision of the Regional Evaluation Specialist of the Independent Evaluation Service, a UN Women staff member. They will work closely with UN Women colleagues at global, regional and country levels.

Travel within the countries (Fiji and Vanuatu) is anticipated.

Travel costs, including daily subsistence allowance (DSA) will be covered by UN Women in line with existing UN Women Duty Travel Policy.

Duration of the Work

The duration of this assignment will be for 6 months’ work assignment (with 25 working days), with a tentative start date from 1 July 2025 until 31 December 2025.

Duty Station

The consultancy is home-based. The consultants are expected to work during standard working hours Fiji/Vanuatu time. The consultants may need to work with UN Women colleagues based in Bangkok and Geneva, which may require some flexibilities for the working hours.

Performance Evaluation

The Consultant’s performance will be evaluated based on timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered.

Financial Arrangements

Payments will be disbursed to the consultant on a deliverable-based arrangement aligned to the “Expected Deliverables” of section of the ToR and certification by the Regional Evaluation Specialist and WRD Programme manager that services have been satisfactorily performed.

[1] This will be finalised during the inception phase.

[2]https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Evaluation/Evaluation-GERAASMethodologyMatrix-en.xlsx

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:

• Strong knowledge of programme formulation and implementation and Results Based Management
• Strong knowledge of monitoring and evaluation, evaluation design, data collection and analysis, and reporting
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports
• Strong analytical and report writing skills
• Good knowledge of UN programme management systems

Required Qualifications:

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Gender Studies, Social Work, Social Sciences, Public Health or a 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.

Experience:

• At least 5 years (Masters) and/or 7 years (Degree) of progressively relevant experience in programme evaluations or research in gender, DRR, or climate resilience.
• Familiarity with national disaster response, gender equality, and climate resilience policies.
• At least 5 years of experience working with and in Pacific Island States.
• Strong experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, conducting interviews, focus group discussions, and stakeholder consultations.
• Experience with data management and visualization software such as Excel or Power BI is a strong asset.
• Experience working with government agencies, women’s organizations, and marginalized communities.
• Excellent analytical skills with strong drive for results and capacity to work independently.
• Excellent English communication and writing skills.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Fluency – spoken and written – in the National local language (Fijian and Bislama -Vanuatu)

Ethical Code of Conduct:

UN Women has developed a UN Women Evaluation Consultants Agreement Form for evaluators that must be signed as part of the contracting process, which is based on the UNEG Ethical Guidelines. These documents will be annexed to contracts. All data collected by the team members 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.

The UNEG guidelines note the importance of ethical conduct for the following reasons:

1. Responsible use of power: All those engaged in evaluation processes are responsible for upholding the proper conduct of the evaluation.
2. Ensuring credibility: With a fair, impartial and complete assessment, stake- holders are more likely to have faith in the results of an evaluation and to take note of the recommendations.
3. Responsible use of resources: Ethical conduct in evaluation increases the chances of acceptance by the parties to the evaluation and therefore the likelihood that the investment in the evaluation will result in improved outcomes.

In addition to upholding UN Women’s ethical guidelines, National Consultants are expected to apply Do No Harm principles, demonstrate conflict sensitivity, and adhere to safeguarding protocols, especially during interviews, focus group discussions, and community engagements in disaster-affected or vulnerable contexts. Consultants must ensure that all interactions are conducted in a way that protects the dignity, rights, and safety of all participants, particularly women, children, and marginalized groups.

The evaluation value added is its impartial and systematic assessment of the programme or intervention. As with the other stages of the evaluation, involvement of stakeholders should not interfere with the impartiality of the evaluation. The evaluation team has the final judgment on the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation report, and the team must be protected from pressures to change information in the report.

Annex 1 UN Women GERAAS evaluation quality assessment checklist

• http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/aboutper cent20us/evaluation/evaluation-geraasmethodology-en.pdf

Annex 2 UN Women Evaluation Consultants Agreement Form

• UN Women Evaluation Consultants Agreement Form
• UNEG Ethical Guidelines and Code of Conduct.

Annex 3 UNEG Norms and Standards for evaluation

• http://www.unevaluation.org/document/download/2787

Annex 4 Resources for data on gender equality and human rights

• UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) – Universal Human Rights Index: http://uhri.ohchr.org/en
• UN Statistics – Gender Statistics: http://genderstats.org/
• UNDP Human Development Report – Gender Inequality Index: http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/gender-inequality-index-gii
• World Bank – Gender Equality Data and Statistics: http://datatopics.worldbank.org/gender/
• Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Social Institutions and Gender Index: http://genderindex.org/
• World Economic Forum – Global Gender Gap Report: http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-gender-gap
• A listing of UN reports, databases and archives relating to gender equality and women’s human rights can be found at: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/directory/statistics_and_indicators_60.htm

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.)

How to Apply:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process
• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

UN Women Hiring Manager may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns, or other materials.

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.

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