Evaluation Consultant for Strategic M&E Project Mid-Term Evaluation

Project Title

Using Strategic Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) to Accelerate the Implementation of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022 (Strategic M&E Project)

Background and context

The Government of the Philippines has established a new development agenda focusing on the Duterte Administration’s 0 to 10-point agenda. All priority national and international dimensions of development are reflected in the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022. Efficient implementation in the areas of planning, budgeting, and monitoring and evaluation are required to ensure the achievement of the national development goals.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Philippine country office have embarked on a partnership to support capacity development activities for NEDA and other agencies towards more effective evaluation of PDP and Public Investment Plan and Fiscal Plan implementation at the national and sub-national levels. Financed by NEDA and implemented with full UNDP country office support, the Strategic Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Project will help strengthen the capacities of NEDA and select government agencies to conduct evaluations that support the achievement of the PDP and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by enabling evidence-based decision making. Through the provision of technical advisory and project management services, the project aims to support NEDA and government in managing and conducting evaluations and result in improved public-sector management and ODA monitoring and evaluation.

The Strategic M&E Project has the following components: 1) managing the conduct of evaluations of key themes, sectors, and/or programs under the PDP; 2) assessing the evaluation capacity of and providing learning opportunities to NEDA and other government agencies; 3) supporting the implementation of the National Evaluation Policy Framework (NEPF) through the development of implementation guidelines and other advisory services; 4) project management; and 5) strengthening monitoring of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP).

Now on its third year of implementation and with a total contribution at PhP299.6 million (US$ 5.96 million), the Strategic M&E Project is looking for an individual consultant to conduct a mid-term evaluation of the project that will cover the implementation period from December 8, 2017 to December 8, 2021.

Evaluation purpose, scope, and objectives

The evaluation’s overall goal is to assess the Strategic M&E Project’s progress and identify strategies to improve its implementation towards the achievement of its intended results, and its contribution to outcomes and associated theory of change. Specifically, the mid-term evaluation aims to achieve the following objectives:

1. Assess the implementation of the Project, its activities and strategies, and capacity to achieve targets and planned results;
2. Identify indicative results and their contribution to the attainment of the project outcomes;
3. Identify cost-effectiveness and benefits of the Project to NEDA and select government agencies;
4. Identify the lessons learned, areas of success and improvement, and areas of higher impact; and
5. Determine the sustainability of the program, particularly its results.

Institutional Arrangements

1. The consultant shall be under the overall guidance of the UNDP Institutions and Partnerships Team Leader, and the NEDA Monitoring and Evaluation Staff (MES) Director and reporting directly to the Strategic M&E Project Coordinator, with whom all outputs shall be submitted and through whom all communications shall be coursed or copied.
2. The consultant shall report progress, provide updates, or raise issues to the Project Coordinator on a bi-monthly basis, or as the need arises.
3. In performing its functions, the consultant is expected to coordinate, consult, and/or collaborate with members of the Project Management Team and external stakeholders.  The NEDA and UNDP Project Team shall provide the necessary endorsements, including endorsement letters and calls, to the agencies to be covered by the evaluation.
4. NEDA and UNDP shall provide comments and provide outputs within ten (10) working days upon receipt of output.
5. UNDP Philippines shall be entitled to intellectual property and other proprietary rights over all materials that have direct relation to the project.
6. The Individual Consultant is expected to have his/her own equipment and workstation.

Duration of Work

The Individual Consultant will be engaged for 110 days from December 2021 to May 2022 unless revised in a mutually agreed upon timetable. Changes in the duration of the contract will be implemented through issuance of a contract amendment.

Duty Station

• The duty station is in Manila but with flexibility of working from home while Alert Levels are in place.
• The Consultant is not expected to report on a daily basis to the UNDP Office but he/she shall be notified within a reasonable period of time of face-to-face meetings where his/her presence is necessary, following IATF and UN House Manila guidelines.
• If face-to-face meetings are necessary, they will be held at the UNDP office in Mandaluyong City or NEDA office in Pasig City. Other venues in Metro Manila may also be agreed upon.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

The Individual Consultant must send a financial proposal based on an all-inclusive lump-sum amount for the delivery of the outputs below. The total amount quoted shall include all cost components required to deliver the services identified above, including professional daily fees X number of person-days and any other applicable costs (e.g., software and online tool/platform subscriptions) to be incurred by the Individual Consultant in completing the assignment.

Medical/health insurance must be purchased by the Individual Consultant at his/her own expense, and upon award of contract, the Individual Consultant must be ready to submit proof of insurance valid during contract duration.

Payments will be made upon satisfactory completion of the deliverables by target due dates. Outputs will be certified by the Programme Analyst of Institutions and Partnerships prior to payments.

Scope of Services 

Under the overall guidance of the UNDP Institutions and Partnerships Outcome Lead, and the NEDA Monitoring and Evaluation Staff (MES) Director, and reporting directly to the Strategic M&E Project Coordinator, the Evaluation Consultant shall be responsible for the following:

Preparatory work, including: 

1. Design an overall analytical framework and methodology for the mid-term evaluation of the Strategic M&E Project;
2. Collate, review, and synthesize relevant documents which shall inform the design of the methodology for the evaluation;  and
3. Prepare quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods and instruments

Data gathering and analysis, including:  

1. Conduct key informant interviews and focus group discussions; and
2. Undertake other data gathering and analysis tools to address the evaluation questions 

Reporting of Results: 

1. Draft and revise the Inception Report and Draft Evaluation Report in line with NEDA and UNDP quality assurance standards; 
2. Prepare and submit a Final Report, subject to a maximum of two (2) revisions, including the raw and processed data used in building the report; 
3. Present results to and consider feedback from NEDA and UNDP at key stages of the evaluation, and provide feedback on the evaluation process; and
4. Communicate and consult with NEDA and UNDP and other stakeholders and incorporate their comments in the evaluation report. 

Presentation and Use of Results 

1. Provide recommendations on actions and/or strategies for the improvement of project implementation;
2. Present the preliminary or final results of the evaluation in a public forum; and
3. Condense the findings in a one-page summary and a five (5)-page executive summary 

Evaluation criteria and key guiding questions

The evaluation can use some of the following key guiding questions based on OECD/DAC evaluation criteria and cross-cutting issues. The Evaluation Consultant is expected to propose, further prioritize, and refine the key guiding questions through a consultative process

Table 1: Key Guiding Questions

Methodology

Evaluation should employ a combination of qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods and instruments. The evaluator is expected to follow a participatory and consultative approach that ensures close engagement with the evaluation managers, implementing partners and male and female direct beneficiaries.  Suggested methodological tools and approaches may include:

• Document review. This would include a review of all relevant documentation, inter alia
  • Project document (contribution agreement).
  • Theory of change and results framework.
  • Programme and project quality assurance reports.
  • Annual workplans.
  • Activity designs.
  • Consolidated quarterly and annual reports.
  • Results-oriented monitoring report.
  • Highlights of project board meetings. 
  • Technical/financial monitoring reports.
• Interviews and meetings with key stakeholders (men and women) such as key government counterparts, donor community members, representatives of key civil society organizations, United Nations country team (UNCT) members and implementing partners:
  • Semi-structured interviews, based on questions designed for different stakeholders based on evaluation questions around relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability.
  • Key informant and focus group discussions with men and women, beneficiaries and stakeholders.
  • All interviews with men and women should be undertaken in full confidence and anonymity. The final evaluation report should not assign specific comments to individuals.
• Surveys and questionnaires including male and female participants in development programmes, UNCT members and/or surveys and questionnaires to other stakeholders at strategic and programmatic levels.
• Field visits and on-site validation of key tangible outputs and interventions.
• Other methods such as outcome mapping, observational visits, group discussions, etc.
• Data review and analysis of monitoring and other data sources and methods. To ensure maximum validity, reliability of data (quality) and promote use, the evaluation team will ensure triangulation of the various data sources.
• Gender and human rights lens. All evaluation products need to address gender, disability, and human right issues.

The final methodological approach including interview schedule, field visits and data to be used in the evaluation should be clearly outlined in the inception report and fully discussed and agreed between UNDP, key stakeholders and the evaluators.

Expected Output and Deliverables

The Individual Consultant is expected to accomplish the following:

Evaluation Ethics

This evaluation will be conducted in accordance with the principles outlined in the UNEG ‘Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation’. The consultant must safeguard the rights and confidentiality of information providers, interviewees, and stakeholders through measures to ensure compliance with legal and other relevant codes governing collection of data and reporting on data. The consultant must also ensure security of collected information before and after the evaluation and protocols to ensure anonymity and confidentiality of sources of information where that is expected. The information knowledge and data gathered in the evaluation process must also be solely used for the evaluation and not for other uses with the express authorization of UNDP and partners

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities skills;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Proficiency in the use of office IT applications and internet in conducting research;
• Outstanding communication, project management and organizational skills;
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
• Positive, constructive attitude to work;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Offers will be evaluated based on the combined scoring method :

• Technical qualifications = 70%

1. CV (Education and Professional Experience) – 45%
2. Portfolio of the offeror – 25%

• Financial Proposal = 30%

For the evaluation of the Technical Proposal, the selection of the successful consultant must be based on the following qualifications (with the appropriate obtainable points).

Only offerors who will obtain a minimum of 50 out of 70 obtainable points  will be shortlisted and considered eligible for evaluation of the financial proposal.

Recommended Presentation of Offer

Interested applicants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload of a maximum of one document.

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
2. Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experiences from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate
3. A portfolio of evaluation work, with at least (2) mid-term evaluations of the same scope stated in this TOR, conduction in the last five years. A hyperlink to the public location of the output should ideally be included in the submission.  
4. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. Medical/health insurance must be purchased by the individual at his/her own expense, and upon award of contract, the Individual Consultant must be ready to submit proof of insurance valid during contract duration. 

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

Interested applicants to note that personal Medical/health insurance (to be purchased by the individual at his/her own expense) is mandatory for the issuance of contracts. Upon award of the contract, the consultant must be ready to submit proof of insurance valid during the contract duration.

The following templates / Annexes and IC General Terms & Conditions can be downloaded from http://gofile.me/6xdJm/bE9TCw8fU:

• General Terms and Conditions for Individual Contract
• Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability
• P-11 form

In view of the volume of applications, UNDP receives, only shortlisted offerors will be notified.