National Consultant on assessment of the results and impact of youth led initiatives conducted with UNDP support

BACKGROUND

On April 1, 2017, the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine under the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark launched the “Civil Society for Enhanced Democracy and Human Rights” project that will be implemented until the March 31, 2022.

The overall aim for this project is to enhance the institutional capacity of civil society actors in Ukraine in the areas of democracy and human rights to strengthen their impact on the reform processes in the country through better coordination and networking and to contribute to more inclusive, democratic and rights-based governance.

For this purpose, the project will strengthen capacities of the civil society organizations to promote democracy and foster participatory and result-driven Government-CSO dialogue at all levels in Ukraine. It will also develop capacities of human rights actors to promote and defend human rights in Ukraine and enhance civic youth engagement and youth participation in decision-making at all levels.

With regards to the youth civic engagement, the CSDR project has further supported number of civic initiatives for young man and women at the subnational level. The project plans to conduct an external assessment of the following civic initiatives for youth implemented in framework CSDR project during 2017-2020:

1) Civic initiatives implemented by the graduates of a specialised course under the Youth Worker Programme which was developed and piloted with UNDP support. The Youth Worker Programme launched in 2014 with the support of UNDP Ukraine and in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine (hereinafter – the Ministry) and the State Institute for Family and Youth Policy. In 2018 UNDP together with Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine has successfully piloted the specialised course ‘’Civic education for youth workers’’. The graduates learnt how to engage young people into policymaking, apply HRBA approach in youth policies, promote tolerance and non-discrimination, develop critical thinking and media literacy. 19 civic initiatives were supported through mini-grant competition for graduates of the course.

2) Initiatives implemented within two rounds of Youth Innovation Challenge U-Inn. UNDP in partnership with Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and renowned CSOs has developed and conducted the Youth Innovation Challenge U-Inn in 2018 and 2019. The challenge allowed to promote innovative approaches among young people in addressing human rights and democratization challenges at the subnational level. Initiatives of  7 youth organizations/youth groups were supported by CSDR.

3) Initiatives implemented within Youth Banks approach. UNDP in partnership with CSO “The Initiative Center to Support Social Action “Ednannia” launched the programme on development of the Youth Bank of Initiatives in local communities. Youth Bank is a unique model of comprehensive involvement of young people in civic activity in their community. Six youth banks implemented 33 initiatives in 6 regions of Ukraine through this initiative. The initiatives aim at educating young people and engaging them in addressing local community problems through pairing with local influential CSOs.

4) Mentorship programme for young people’s social and civic initiatives.  NGO Open space has developed a special mentoring programme “Change Now: Go Beyond Bounds” with UNDP support, which aims to help young people be champions of positive changes in their communities, among other things, through implementing their social initiatives online. The long-term online training programme resulted in 14 social initiatives of youth which were developed and implemented.

PURPOSE, SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

Through this assignment, UNDP seeks to engage services of a qualified consultant to conduct assessment of the results and impact of youth led initiatives implemented with UNDP support, namely civic education for youth workers, youth banks, U-Inn and mentorship programme for young people. The report will provide UNDP, stakeholders and implementing partners with the results achieved throughout 2017-2020. The main objective of the assignment is to assess relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact of implemented youth initiatives. The assessment should highlight strengths, weaknesses/gaps, good practices and provide recommendations for similar initiatives for youth in Ukraine with a special focus on recommendations to the Ministry of Youth and Sports on the ways to replicate the best practices through the youth  worker and youth centres’ network.

The scope of the assessment should cover all youth initiatives supported in the framework of the CSDR project.

The key product expected is a comprehensive evaluation report in English (up to 30 pages without annexes, single spacing, Myriad Pro font, size 11), which includes, but is not limited to, the following components:

• Executive summary (up to 3 pages).
• Introduction.
• Evaluation scope and objectives.
• Evaluation approach and methods;
• Development context and project background.
• Data analysis and key findings and conclusions.
• Lessons learned and recommendations for the stakeholders (including viable ideas on areas which could be sharpened and further optimized.
• Annexes:
  • TOR.
  • List of people interviewed disaggregated by sex, geography and age, interview questions, documents reviewed, audit trail detailing how comments, questions and clarifications have been addressed, presentations and other knowledge products etc.

The conclusions related to the implementation of the civic initiatives in 2017 – 2020 should be comprehensive and balanced, and highlight the strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and outcomes of the Programme. They should be well substantiated by the evidence and logically linked to the evaluation findings. They should respond to key evaluation questions and provide insights into the identification of and/or solutions to important problems or issues.

The recommendations need to be supported by an evidential basis, be credible, practical, action-oriented, and define who is responsible for the action – to have potential to be used in decision-making.

Methodology

The contractor will be required to use different methods to ensure that data collection and analysis deliver evidence-based qualitative and quantitative information. The contractor is expected to develop and present detailed statement of assessment methods/approaches in the inception report to show how each objective and evaluation criterion will be assessed. Young men and women, as key beneficiaries, should be included throughout data collection methods. 

The methodology should consist of the following:

• Desk research and initiatives reports review.
• At least 15 one-to-one or group interviews (including focus groups) with key stakeholders, young men and women, beneficiaries of youth civic initiatives, generating qualitative data (the list will be provided by UNDP).
• At least four online questionnaires among the beneficiaries of civic initiatives.

The concrete mixed methodological approach has to be detailed in the Inception report and stated in the final report. All data provided in the report should be disaggregated by gender and types of vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the evaluation methods and sampling frame should address the diversity of stakeholders affected by the project, particularly the most vulnerable ones. Ethical standards are required to be observed throughout the evaluation and all stakeholder groups are to be treated with integrity and respect for confidentiality.

Debriefing session will be arranged for discussing the evaluation findings, results and recommendations.

Aspects to be assessed during the assignment:

A. RELEVANCE

• Are civic initiatives supported by CSDR project in line with young people’s needs?
• Were the activities and engagement instruments for realization of civic initiatives appropriate to meet the planned objectives and to achieve the expected results?
• Were civic initiatives consistent and coherent with other local policies targeting young people?

B. EFFECTIVENESS

• Was the overall performance of the project carried out with the reference to its respective plans and objectives?
• What are the main lessons learned and what are the possibilities of replication and scaling-up?
• Were the civic initiatives sufficiently mainstreaming gender and human rights concerns in the activities? What is the anticipated influence of the intervention on human rights and gender equality?

C. EFFICIENCY

• Were the initiatives cost-effective? Could the outputs be produced with fewer resources or do they cost more than initially foreseen? Why?
• Were the initiatives implemented in a timely manner in line with the youth policy priorities?
• How do the youth initiatives supported by CSDR project correspond to each other and contribute to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda?

D. SUSTAINABILITY

• Are the achieved outcomes of the initiatives sustainable?
• Are there any risks that may hinder sustainability (institutional, legislative, environmental, societal, etc)?
• What measures could mitigate the identified risks?

E. IMPACT

• Has the civic initiatives supported by UNDP contributed to the implementation of youth policy and the level of youth engagement in Ukraine? The final list of the assessment questions and tools to be proposed by the consultant and agree with UNDP in the Inception report.
• To what extent have the results contributed to immediate or long-term change? 
• What worked? Why and how? Which are the civic initiatives with more impact?
• What were the factors affecting, positively or negatively, the impact?

Under supervision of the UNDP Civil Society Project Coordinator and UNDP Grant/Youth associate, the incumbent will be responsible for preparing the assessment report (up to 30 pages, including the description of the methodology).

DELIVERABLES

Specifically, the Consultant will be responsible for the following (deliverables should be accomplished in Ukraine, if not mentioned otherwise):

UNDP will provide payment upon provision of each deliverable duly certified by UNDP in accordance with the schedule below. UNDP will be the ultimate authority to control the quality of work results and assess the Contractor’s performance during the assignment.

In case any public events are planned jointly by the Consultant and UNDP as part of the present assignment, the consultant will not be responsible for logistics of events. UNDP will cover the conference costs (including possible printing, food, accommodation and etc.) on its own.

UNDP will provide payments upon provision of deliverables duly certified by UNDP in accordance with the table above. In particular, the payment schedule will be as follows:

Deliverable 1-2. 60%

Deliverable 3-4. 40%

MONITORING/REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

The Consultant will report to the UNDP Civil Society Project Coordinator about the completed activities on a regular basis via e-mail. The final report shall be submitted to UNDP no later than September 15, 2021.

Should any travel be needed for the assignment, the related costs will be covered by UNDP upon prior approval, therefore, the incumbent should not include this cost in his/her financial proposal.

Evaluation consultant will be held to the highest ethical standards and are required to sign United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Code of Conduct for Evaluation (http://www.unevaluation.org/document/detail/100) for upon acceptance of the assignment. UNDP evaluations are conducted in accordance with the principles outlined in the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) ‘Ethical Guidelines for Evaluations’ (http://www.unevaluation.org/document/detail/102 ).

CORPORATE COMPETENCIES

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling 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 favouritism;
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS REQUIREMENTS

• Master’s/ Specialist degree in social sciences, international relations, political science or related field;
• At least 4 years of experience in education/research, social work, youth work; experience with Youth Worker Programme or other youth civic initiatives or programmes will be considered as a strong asset;
• At least 3 years of experience in evaluations of projects/programmes or initiatives;
• Demonstrated experience in producing analytical products;
• Fluent writing, editing, and oral communication skills in Ukrainian. Knowledge of English would be an asset.  

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Applicants shall submit the following documents:

• Personal CV, including information about experience in similar projects / assignments as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references; 

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP including Financial Proposal;

• Writing sample of assessment of projects/ programmes or initiatives of no more than 15 pages demonstrating the candidate’s ability to produce analytical products (in Ukrainian) in the area of social or youth policy.

FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

Lump sum contract

The financial proposal shall specify the cost of Professional fee as a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in instalments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR.  A lumpsum payment is envisaged for this assignment based on the full provision of expected deliverable. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a Breakdown of Cost by Components.

Travel costs

Should any travel be necessary in connection to this TOR, UNDP will reimburse the expenses based on the duly authorized travel details, including travel and per diems. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources. In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Evaluation method:

Cumulative analysis

Contract award shall be made to the incumbent whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) having received the cumulative highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight: 70%

* Financial Criteria weight: 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70% from the maximum available technical score (49 points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal and will equal to 30. All other price proposals will be evaluated and assigned points, as per below formula:

30 points [max points available for financial part] x [lowest of all evaluated offered prices among responsive offers] / [evaluated price].

The proposal obtaining the overall cumulatively highest score after adding the score of the technical proposal and the financial proposal will be considered as the most compliant offer.