Evaluation Consultant - Inclusive Growth/Poverty and Inequality reduction at United Nations

Expected duration

• 2 months

Duties and Responsibilities

• The National consultant, under the leadership of the Evaluation Team Leader will support the evaluation process, working closely.  The national consultant will support the development of the methodology in a timely manner and the delivery of required deliverables to meet the objective of the assignment. The national consultant will also support the production of the inception report, the draft and final evaluation report, ensuring the assignments have been completed as per the established and agreed deadlines. Reporting Line: The national consultant will report to and work under the overall guidance of the evaluation team leader. However, approval of all the deliverables will be under the direct guidance of RCO Team Leader/Head of Office/Strategic Planner; and the Evaluation Manager.  
• Introduction  Sustainable development in South Africa is guided by the long-term National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 and the accompanying Medium-Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) 2019-2024, and the national development priorities are in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The MTSF serves as a five-year planning and implementation framework for the three spheres of government – national, provincial, and local – to work together towards achieving the 2030 Agenda. All development efforts across various levels must be aligned to the MTSF. The United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2020-2025) is the primary programming instrument in South Africa, based on these national plans and highlighting the UN's unique role in national development. The Cooperation Framework was created in collaboration with the Government of South Africa (GoSA) as the main implementing partner alongside other stakeholders. The realisation of the Cooperation Framework outcomes required strong collaboration and partnerships with Government, Civil Society, Private Sector, Academia, Development Partners, International Financial Institutions, and Society at large. To facilitate this collaboration, the Cooperation Framework established a governance structure comprising the Ministerial Steering Committee, the Technical Steering Committee, and the Results and Thematic Groups. These groups are co-led by the Government and the UN in South Africa. The implementation of the Cooperation Framework is operationalised through the Joint Work Plans and Joint Programmes which are developed by inter-agency Result and Thematic Groups under the leadership of the United Nations Country Team. The Monitoring and Evaluation Theme group plays an advisory role to these groups and ensures that results-based management principles are embedded in the implementation of Cooperation Framework.    
• The United Nations Country Team commissions the evaluation of the Cooperation Framework in the penultimate year of implementation, which is 2024 in the case of South Africa. The purpose of the evaluation is to enable learning, improve accountability, to build knowledge and support the acceleration of the implementation. This evaluation will assess the relevance, coherence, coordination, effectiveness, efficiency, orientation towards impact and sustainability of the UN’s programmes as a contribution to the national development agenda of the country. The evaluation findings will also inform the design of the new Cooperation Framework Programme cycle. The evaluation process will be participative and will involve all relevant stakeholders and partners. Evaluation results will be disseminated amongst and utilised by government, development partners, civil society, and other stakeholders. A joint management response will be produced upon completion of the evaluation.  

Background 

• Country Context  The forefront picture of the Common Country Analysis (CCA) prepared in 2019-20 for South Africa to inform the Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2020-2025, was that of an upper-middle income country exhibiting a variety of positive characteristics. That is, a picture of a country that can be considered the most diversified and financially integrated economy in Africa; a country with good infrastructure and that, at the time, was the second most-favoured investment destination on the continent after Egypt.     The Cooperation Framework 2020-2025 was construed as a firm commitment by the UN and the government of South Africa to responding to South Africa’s deep-rooted challenges of high levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality, to the governance issues that were undermining the confidence the country needed to forge ahead, and to the need to ensure the human-rights enshrined in the Constitution were applicable to and maintained  for every South African and all those non-South Africans residing in the country.
• The Voluntary National Review process which began in 2023 and will reach completion in May 2024 gives us a glimpse of where the country stands after four years of implementation of the Cooperation Framework. According to a preliminary draft of the VNR, the country continues to grapple with its complex socio-economic challenges. Among these, the VNR highlights the persistently high levels of unemployment, with youth unemployment remaining significantly higher than the national average. Factors behind this phenomenon that the review identifies include limited access to quality education, skills mismatches, and a lack of employment opportunities. Linked to the high levels of unemployment, the VNR stresses that the country continues to deal with both persistent poverty and a very high level of inequality.   
• More generally, recent analysis conducted by the UN in South Africa indicates that South Africa faces cascading and interlinked risks to its economic stability, social cohesion, and political stability, amid prevailing social discontent and increasing exposure to climate shocks. In addition to the scheduled power, severely disrupting economic activity, joblessness especially among the youth may feed into political and social tensions, which are rising amid widespread discontent over the ability of the governing party to respond to infrastructure and energy challenges, alongside increasing polarisation ahead of general elections in 2024. Xenophobia, corruption, criminality and violence, and lack of effective governance is eroding trust in government and institutions, contributing to political instability, and undermining social cohesion. There is growing politicisation of migrant populations and anti-foreigner sentiment bordering on hate speech. This was aggravated during the pre-electoral period. Extreme weather events including recurrent rainfall and floods are putting infrastructure, livelihoods, and economic stability under strain. The country’s disaster risk management system lacks capacity, with the UN increasingly requested to support disaster preparedness and response.    

Cooperation Framework Priority Areas   

• The Cooperation Framework was developed through a participatory process. Its overall goal is that people in South Africa live prosperous and healthy lives in a safe and cohesive society that protects and values environmental sustainability. To achieve these goals, the framework has four strategic priorities. These are: 1. Inclusive, just, and sustainable economic growth; 
• Human capital and social transformation;
• Effective, efficient, and transformative governance; and 
• Climate resilience and sustainably managed natural resources.    

Purpose and Objectives  

The purpose of the Cooperation Framework evaluation is two-fold:  

• Promote greater learning and operational improvement. The evaluation will provide valuable information for strengthening programming and results at the country level, specifically informing the planning and decision-making for the next Cooperation Framework programme cycle and for improving UN coordination at the country level. The UNCT, host government and other Cooperation Framework stakeholders can learn from the process of documenting good practices and lessons learned, which can then be shared with Development Cooperation Office (DCO) and used for the benefit of other countries.   
• Support greater accountability of the UNCT to Cooperation Framework stakeholders. By objectively providing evidence of results achieved within the framework of the Cooperation Framework and assessing the effectiveness of the strategies and interventions used, the evaluation will enable the various stakeholders in the Cooperation Framework process, including national counterparts and donors, to hold the UNCT and other parties accountable for fulfilling their roles and commitments. The objectives of the evaluation are:  To assess the contribution made by the UN in the framework of the Cooperation Framework to national development results through evidence-based judgements using evaluation criteria (accountability). 
• To identify the factors that affected the UN's contribution, answering the question of why the performance is as is and explaining the enabling factors and bottlenecks (learning). 
• To reach conclusions concerning the UN’s contribution across the scope being examined. 
• To provide actionable recommendations for improving the UN’s contribution, especially for incorporation into the new Cooperation Framework. These recommendations should be logically linked to the conclusions and draw upon lessons learned identified through the evaluation.   

Scope Time scope:  

• The programmatic scope of the evaluation will entail the assessment of all interventions carried out under the Joint Work Plans by resident and non-resident UN agencies from January 2020 to March 2024. It will cover all four strategic pillars and their associated outcomes as detailed in the Cooperation Framework. Special attention will be given to Joint interventions that have been ongoing for more than two years during the Cooperation Framework cycle.    
• The evaluation will address key Cooperation Framework programming principles such as a human rights-based approach, gender equality, environmental sustainability, results-based management, and capacity development. The evaluation will explicitly consider cross-cutting issues like gender equality, women's empowerment, human rights, non-discrimination, disability inclusion, and environmental sustainability through a comprehensive evaluation framework.  
•  In terms of timing, the evaluation will cover the period from January 2020 to March 2024 as said above. Regarding the geographic scope, the evaluation will primarily target the key stakeholders (UN entities; donors; national government; civil society) in Pretoria where the majority of institutions are. Following this, the evaluation team in consultation with the UNCT will identify two to three provinces. Priority will be given to implementing partners and beneficiaries in the identified districts.    
• The key users of the evaluation results include the UNCT, government and other stakeholders i.e., private sector, civil society, International Financial Institutions and other development partners. The secondary users of the evaluation will be the beneficiaries.   
• The Cooperation Framework evaluation is not intended to conduct the evaluations of individual UN agency programs or projects. Instead, it will utilize the evaluations conducted by each agency on their programs and projects to formulate a comprehensive evaluative assessment of the Cooperation Framework as a whole. 

Evaluation Criteria and Questions   

• The evaluation questions are in line with the purpose, objectives, and scope of the evaluation. They have been structured according to the OECD-DAC criteria of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, coordination, orientation to impact and sustainability.  
• The CF evaluation will also focus significantly on analysing cross-cutting issues such as gender equality and women’s empowerment, human rights and non-discrimination, disability inclusion and environmental sustainability, among others.   

Evaluation Approach and Methodology   

• The evaluation will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, including document reviews, analysis of quantitative secondary data, individual interviews with key informants and focus groups or other types of discussion to collect data. The Independent External Evaluators shall be guided by Annex 1 (standard methodology section) of Appendix 2 (Terms of reference) of the UNSDCF Evaluation Guidelines 2022 (sharepoint.com) to develop the evaluation methodology. The evaluation team will also develop the necessary tools to collect data and information to answer the overall evaluation questions.

Qualifications/special skills

• Required, minimum-master’s degree in development studies, Population Studies, Governance, Environment Monitoring and Evaluation, or any other Social Sciences related to the Cooperation Framework pillar. 
• Required, minimum 5 years’ experience in Evaluation in developing countries. 
• Documented experience in managing and leading complex Cooperation Framework evaluations, and a solid understanding of the use of evaluation methodologies. 
• Strong knowledge of development issues, especially related to Economics (Inclusive Growth/Poverty and Inequality reduction), Social Transformation, Governance and Environment as addressed by the Cooperation Framework, including an understanding of the development challenges faced in South Africa, is desired. 
• Substantive knowledge of Gender and Human Rights issues addressed by the Cooperation Framework; including strong skills and experience in applying with human rights based and gender mainstreaming approaches is desired. 
• Demonstrated capacity in strategic thinking, problem solving and policy advice.
• Strong inter-personal, teamwork and organizational skills, is required.  
• Excellent presentation and writing skills, especially writing evaluation reports (Sample reports done from previous evaluations is a mandatory requirement) skills are desired.