Consultancy of Final Evaluation of Project: Coping with Drought and Climate Change

Background

The Republic of Mozambique is vulnerable to the effects of climate change characterized by the occurrence of extreme events such as severe tropical cyclones, floods and droughts. The most Vulnerable regions of the country include the Lower Limpopo Zone, Semi-Arid Interior Zones of Gaza and Inhambane, and the Upper Limpopo Zone. The combination of vulnerability to climate change and the need to create synergies with existing/ongoing efforts on drought mitigation, have favoured the selection of a pilot site within the Limpopo Basin area, namely the Guijá district. The implementation of this project will contribute to enhancing food security and the capacity to adapt to climate change in agricultural and pastoral systems in Mozambique, through activities generating the following outcomes: (1) Farmers/pastoralists in the selected pilot sites are able to cope with drought; (2) Early warning systems provide timely and relevant information to farmers/pastoralists to assist them in coping with drought; (3) Drought preparedness and mitigation policies support farmers/ pastoralists in coping with drought; (4) Farmers/ pastoralists inside and outside the pilot sites deploy and replicate successful approaches to cope with drought.The Government of Mozambique through the Ministry for Coordination of Environmental Affairs(MICOA) has requested the UNDP for technical and financial assistance in matters related withAdaptation to the climate changes, in consistency with the implementation of the local NAPA. UNDP provided MICOA with the required assistance in order to apply to GEF funding under the Climate Change Focal Area.   TheUNDP Evaluation Policy states that: "Project evaluations assess the efficiency and effectiveness of a project in achieving its intended results. They also assess the relevance and sustainability of outputs as contributions to medium-term and longer-term outcomes. Terminal evaluations (TE) provide a comprehensive and systematic accounting of performance at the end of the project cycle, considering the totality of the effort from project design, through implementation to wrap up, also considering the likelihood of sustainability and possible impacts. The target audience for a terminal evaluation is GEF Operational Focal Point, project partners and beneficiaries, UNDP at country, regional and HQ levels, UNDP Evaluation Office, GEF Secretariat and GEF Evaluation Office.   The project in question is funded by the Special Climate Change Fund, a UNFCCC fund managed by the GEF. The project title is: Coping with Drought and Climate Change and the project objective is to: Contribute to enhancement of food security and the capacity to adapt to climate change in agricultural and pastoral systems in Mozambique (specifically in the Gaza Province,Guijà District).The Coping with Drought project started implementation in February 2009, and is due run until June 2013.

Duties and Responsibilities

An 'evaluation mission' should be scheduled, providing an intensive 20 days to 30 days (4 weeks) for the evaluation team to hold interviews and visit project sites, including analyze of data collected and write up at the office. The evaluation mission should be planned far enough in advance to enable interviews to be properly set up, especially to request meetings with senior Ministry officials. A detailed plan for the mission should be included in the TE inception report, which should be revised based on CO, project team and OFP inputs.    The evaluation will properly examine and assess the perspectives of the various stakeholders. Interviews should include a wide array of interested persons including civil society, NGOs and the private sector, local ministry officials as relevant, and national ministry officials (in addition to the OFP).   Field visits are expected to the project site or a select sampling if there are multiple sites. The decision on which sites to visit should be done jointly with the CO and project team. Data analysis should be conducted in a systematic manner to ensure that all the findings, conclusions and recommendations are substantiated by evidence. Appropriate tools should be used to ensure proper analysis (e.g. including a data analysis matrix that records, for each evaluation question/criteria, information and data collected from different sources and with different methodology). By the end of the evaluation mission and prior to submitting a first draft evaluation report, a wrap up discussion should be organized with the country office and project team to present initial findings and request additional information as needed. Following the review of the draft evaluation report, the evaluation team should indicate how comments have been addressed in the revised evaluation report. The consultancy work is expected to start in the first week of April and final evaluation report to be submitted in the first week of May 2013 (upon submission and approval of the final evaluation report).   Give estimated lead time for UNDP or Project Implementing Partners to review outputs, give comments, approve/accept outputs, etc.    Explain special reason for urgency, if any, and serious consequence/impact of any form of delay in the completion of the work (e.g., deferment of the succeeding phase to the following year, cancellation of the budget allocation for the project, etc.) Provide a comprehensive and systematic accounting of performance; Conduct a financial audit; Assess project design, implementation, likelihood of sustainability and possible impacts. Conduct an assessment/ stock taking of the achievements and impacts of the Coping with Drought project with regards to the program objectives. Indicate drivers and constraints in CwD project efforts to achieve the intended objectives. Assess the sustainability of current achievements and identify measures and recommendations to ensure long term environmental sustainability in support of the national development process and poverty reduction priorities.  Present lessons learned and selected best practices / core strengths with relevance to future p-e mainstreaming efforts. Give recommendations to build on and/or scale up the best practices for future support to p-e mainstreaming to effectively support sustainable development. Conduct a needs-assessment with relevant institutions and sectors in order to identify future needs for support for p-e mainstreaming. Tasks to be conducted by the consultant: Desk review of relevant documents (Coping with Drought project reports, sector plans and strategies, Mozambique key Climate change and environmental documents and policies and other relevant documentation );  Interviews with strategic partners + focus groups + review of documents on site ;  Interviews and field work  Writing up the reports (draft reports and final report), including incorporating comments from stakeholders The following questions should be covered by the evaluation within the scope define in the current consultancy work: Project formulation: Were the project’s objectives and components clear, practicable and feasible within its time frame? Were the capacities of the executing institution(s) and its counterparts properly considered when the project was designed?  Were lessons from other relevant projects properly incorporated in the project design? Were the partnership arrangements properly identified and roles and responsibilities negotiated prior to project approval? Were counterpart resources (funding, staff, and facilities), enabling legislation, and adequate project management arrangements in place at project entry? Were the project assumptions and risks well articulated in the PIF and project document?  Assumptions and risks: An assessment of the stated assumptions and risks, whether they are logical and robust, and have helped to determine activities and planned outputs. Externalities (i.e. effects of climate change, global economic crisis, etc.) which are relevant to the findings. Project implementation: The logical framework used during implementation as a management and M&E tool Effective partnerships arrangements established for implementation of the project with relevant stakeholders involved in the country/region; Lessons from other relevant projects (e.g., same focal area) incorporated into project implementation Feedback from M&E activities used for adaptive management. Finance/co-finance An audit of the project accounts should be undertaken. This should assess the quality of budget management of the project. Variances between planned and actual expenditures for each project Outcome should be assessed as to whether they are commensurate with project outputs delivered and results, and reasons for any inconsistencies should be identified. The consultant should prepare recommendations for improving control mechanisms if necessary. The evaluation should include a table that shows planned and actual co-financing commitments, as set out in Annex 1 The evaluator should briefly describe the resources the project has leveraged since inception and indicate how these resources are contributing to the project’s ultimate objective.

Competencies

Functional Competencies: Capacity to organize and facilitate meetings; excellent oral and written communication. Corporate Competencies: Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards; Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP; Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability Treats all people fairly without favoritism; Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Master (MSs) degree in Natural resources management, Climate change, disasters risk management or environmental management. Experience: Minimum ten (10) years of relevant experience, preferably in areas of environment, climate change and or/disasters risk management; Previous experience in evaluating programmes/projects on Climate change adaptation and its impacts; Previous experience of carrying out evaluations for UNDP or other UN/multilateral agencies or GEF projects impact in reducing vulnerability will be a distinctive advantage;  Excellent analytical and reporting skills and fluency in written and spoken English are essential; Demonstrated ability to assess complex situations in order to succinctly and clearly distil critical issues and draw forward looking conclusions. Solid experience in consultancy of working areas of climate change adaptation and environment is essential;  Good knowledge of main climate change challenges and gender issues in Mozambique and the interventions at national level to address the challenges; Good knowledge of key institutions, national coordination mechanisms and their respective roles and responsibilities in the area of Climate Change and Gender Mozambique. Language Requirements: Portuguese and English.   FC: 62180

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

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