Evaluation Consultant for the Summative Evaluation of the National Evaluation Policy Framework (NEPF)

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 rationale

On 15 July 2015, the National Economic and Development Authority – Department of Budget and Management issued the Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 2015 – 01 or the National Evaluation Policy Framework of the Philippines (NEPF). The JMC is widely considered as one of the reform initiatives to engender results-orientation in the Philippines bureaucracy. More specifically, the policy sets the framework for the conduct of evaluation of all government programs and projects in the public sector to (1) support good governance and evidence-based decisions; (2) promote program improvement; and, (3)  ensure accountability and transparency. 

The policy document was a result of engaging and highly participatory approaches including a review of existing evaluation policies of the Philippines and other countries, interviews with different stakeholders, and presentations of outputs in various meetings (e.g., consultation meetings, inter-agency committees, and public fora). 

Furthermore, the NEPF provides clear guiding principles and evaluation standards that should serve as a guidepost in the conduct of public sector evaluation, namely: setting evaluation criteria, ensuring evaluation competencies, observing ethical standards, planning for evaluation that is aligned with the industry’s best practices, promoting impartiality, and ensuring the dissemination and use of evaluation outputs. 

The implementing agencies of the NEPF are expected to: formulate and maintain a rolling six-year agenda; create neutral evaluation units at the national level; submit evaluation plans in time with the budget submission; and, ensure management response to evaluations and the use of evaluations.

NEDA, DBM, and OP-PMS were identified as the members of the Evaluation Task Force that will provide overall direction and coordination in the public sector evaluation. The Evaluation Task Force Secretariat and Interim Technical Working Groups were also identified as important stakeholders in the NEPF.

After six years since the issuance of the policy, the Strategic M&E Project is looking for an individual consultant to conduct a summative evaluation of the NEPF that will identify key accomplishments in the implementation of the NEPF, the challenges encountered in its implementation, and actions needed to fully attain its objectives.

Specifically, the summative evaluation shall assess how effective the policy document is in: 

• improving monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacities (knowledge, skills, competencies, and practices) across government agencies;
• enhancing national government agencies’ capacities to plan, manage, and conduct public sector evaluations;
• ensuring dissemination, management response and use of evaluation outputs; and
• establishing organizational structure alignment to the policy through the creation of neutral evaluation units at the national level

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 conduct field consultations, and/or coordinate with members of the Project Management Team, relevant implementing agencies, 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 1, 2021 to April 30, 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. Field consultations shall also be held in the offices of relevant implementing agencies and external stakeholders within Metro Manila. Other venues 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 Work

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 summative evaluation of the National Evaluation Policy Framework;
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 

As a way forward, the evaluation aims to generate lessons learned, good practices, and evidence-based recommendations to further strengthen the implementation of the NEPF.

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

Expected Output and Deliverables

The Individual Consultant is expected to accomplish the following:

• 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%
• 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 49 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. Portfolio of evaluation work, with at least (2) summative 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.