Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, it was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.[1]

 

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.? It is currently undertaking a Country Portfolio Evaluation (CPE) of the UN Women Country Office in Brazil’s Strategic Note for 2017-2021.

 

The CPE is a systematic assessment of the contributions made by UN Women to development results with respect to gender equality at the country level, through its Strategic Note. This CPE is led by IES as a primarily formative (forward-looking) evaluation to support the UN Women Brazil and its key stakeholders in strategic learning and decision-making for the next Strategic Note, due to be developed in 2021. The evaluation is expected to also have a summative (backwards looking) perspective, to support enhanced accountability for development effectiveness and learning from experience.

 

The IES Regional Evaluation Specialist for the Americas and Caribbean region has been appointed the Team Leader for the evaluation, who will be supported by an external Evaluator and a Research Assistant. The evaluation is required to adhere to UN Women’s Evaluation Policy and UNEG Norms, Standards, Ethical and other relevant guidelines.

 

[1] UN Women website: http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us

Duties and Responsibilities

The Research Assistant will be expected to support the Team Leader and Evaluator in:

  • the scoping and design of the evaluation by supporting document and data collection, management and review, stakeholder mapping and analysis, as well as preliminary drafting of sections of the Inception Report and Evaluation Report;
  • the development and implementation of data collection instruments, including participating in data collection through interviews, focus groups and other consultation as well as their logistics, organization, and data management;
  • conducting analysis of data collected to support the development of preliminary findings and audit of comments;
  • supporting final analysis of all data, conducting additional research as required and support to drafting of sections of the report, including drafting and compilation of Annexes and audit of comments;
  • participate in evaluation team meetings and communicate with evaluation team members; and
  • selected communications with stakeholders, meeting and interview organization, drafting communications, and support for the development of visuals and graphics.

 

Timeframe and Key Deliverables

 

Key Deliverables for Research Assistant

Estimated working days

1. Design and Inception Report:

  • Orient him/herself to the assignment by conducting a review of core documents required for undertaking the assignment.
  • Substantively contribute to the development of the final design of the evaluation, the draft and final Inception Report, and the audit of comments, including through: support to desk review and portfolio analysis, additional research and preliminary data collection, stakeholder mapping and analysis, establishing data management procedures and coding structures, drafting preliminary sections of the report and supporting the development of graphs/visuals and PPTs.

10 days

2. Data Collection:

  • Support the development and implementation of instrumentation including online surveys tailored to different stakeholder groups and contribute to the refinement of other data collection tools.
  • Participate in implementing the methodology in selected virtual/site visits and support the conduct remote-data collection.
  • Follow data management procedures established, including ensuring transcription of all interview, focus group discussions, and other data collected is shared in the NVivo project in a timely manner.
  • Maintain UNEG ethical code of conduct throughout data collection stage and alert the Team Leader to any potential risks.

12 days

3. Preliminary Data Analysis, Findings and Briefing:

  • Participating in coding and refinement of the coding structure.
  • Identifying and addressing relevant data gaps emerging.
  • Contributing to analysis of collected data and development of preliminary findings paper/PPT to be presented to stakeholders that meets IES quality standards.
  • Developing an audit of comments received from stakeholders.

12 days

4. Final Data Analysis, Evaluation Report and Brief:

  • Contribute to the development and finalization of a draft and final Evaluation Report, Brief and all necessary Annexes.
  • Support to drafting and editing sections of the draft report and revision based on comments received from the Team Leader.
  • Conduct any additional research and analysis required to address relevant comments received or gaps identified.
  • Support the development of graphs/visuals and PPTs on the draft and final version of the report.
  • Lead the compilation of specific Annexes and the audit of comments.

11 days

 

 

Payment Plan:

A lump sum fee will be paid in two (2) tranches, based on satisfactory certification of the following deliverables:

 

Deliverable for payment

Proportion of total lump sum fee

  1. Inception Report, Preliminary Findings and Briefing

50%

  1. Final Evaluation Report and Evaluation Brief

50%

Competencies

The Research Assistant is required to adhere to the UN Women core values and competencies and have the following specific qualifications:

 

Core values / guiding principles

  • Respect for diversity
  • Integrity
  • Professionalism

 

Core competencies

  • Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
  • Accountability
  • Creative Problem Solving
  • Effective Communication
  • Inclusive Collaboration
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Leading by Example

 

To learn more about UN Women values and competencies, please follow the link: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

 

 

Required Skills and Experience

  • Master’s degree in international affairs, social sciences, or related fields.
  • At least 2 years of experience conducting evaluation or research, with experience in the country.
  • Knowledge of evaluation approaches and methods (e.g. surveys, interviews and focus groups), including those relevant to gender equality and human rights responsive evaluation (e.g. participatory and inclusive approaches).
  • Knowledge of gender mainstreaming and gender analysis, human rights-based approaches and human rights analysis; experience in ending violence against women, women’s economic empowerment, and disaster risk resilience in the country a plus.
  • Strong knowledge qualitative and quantitative analysis methods, including data analysis software, and ability to analyze and analytical and report writing skills and knowledge of NVivo or other similar data analysis software.
  • Knowledge of United Nations programming context highly desirable.
  • Experience and knowledge of the Brazil context highly desirable.
  • English and Portuguese required.

 

ANNEX 1: UN Women Evaluation References

 

ANNEX 2: UNEG References