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Job Title:   Evaluation Consultant Team Member: Evaluation of United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Uganda

Organisation: United Nations Resident Coordinator System (RCS)

Job Location:  Kampala, Uganda

About Organisation:

The UN Secretary-General launched on 1^st January 2019 a bold and new global reform which repositioned the UN Development System to deliver more effectively and efficiently with the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. As part of this reform, UN Resident Coordinator Offices (UN RCO), under the leadership of an empowered and independent UN Resident Coordinator – the highest-ranking official of the UN Development System and Representative of the UN Secretary-General at country level – support countries in the achievement of their development priorities and the attainment of the SDGs.

Introduction

The General Assembly Resolution A/RES/72/279 designated the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (CF) as “the most important instrument for the planning and implementation of UN development activities in each country, in support of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. The CF forms the centrepiece of UN reform and represents the collective response of the UN to help countries address national priorities and challenges in achieving the 2030 Agenda.  The evaluation of the UNSDCF in Uganda is critical for promoting learning and accountability. This evaluation aims to assess the framework’s contribution to Uganda’s national development goals as outlined in Uganda’s Vision 2040, its third national development plan and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It provides essential insights that will strengthen programming and results at the country level, informing the planning and decision-making process for the next CF programme cycle. The evaluation will cater to the UN Country Team (UNCT), the Government of Uganda, development partners, and other key stakeholders, thereby ensuring a broad-based understanding and utilization of the evaluation results. CF evaluation is a mandatory independent system-wide exercise that is separate from an annual review. It systematically assesses the contributions of the CF to national aspirations by focusing on achieved development results, as well as internal and external gaps and overlaps in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is an important learning opportunity that draws from past programmes, partnerships, operational arrangements, and experiences, ensuring accountability, and documenting good practices and lessons learned that can be shared across different contexts. The rationale for this evaluation is rooted in the need to provide evidence-based assessments of the strategies and interventions employed, enabling stakeholders to hold the UNCT accountable for fulfilling their roles and commitments. This CF evaluation is guided by the UN Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards for Evaluation (2016). The UN Country Team will ensure the credibility of the by grounding it on the principles of independence, impartiality, transparency, inclusiveness, and a rigorous methodology such that there is collective accountability with robust quality assurance. The evaluation results and recommendations will be derived from, and informed by the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of the best available, objective, reliable and valid data, as well as the accurate analysis of evidence. It will be conducted by a team of independent evaluators and managed by the Chair of the UN Deputies Group in Uganda (equivalent of the Programme Management Team) who must ensure the required ethical standard, professional and integrity are maintained throughout the exercise.  This evaluation will be strengthened with the provision of oversight and technical support by the UN Development Coordination Office (DCO) to guarantee the independence, credibility, and utility of evaluations. DCO also ensures accountability by tracking the implementation of recommendations, and public dissemination of the report and management response.  The evaluation is intended for use by decision-makers within the United Nations Country Team (UNCT); key government counterparts in Ministries, Departments, agencies (MDAs) and district local governments, respective executive boards of United Nations entities involved, international financial institutions and other bilateral and multilateral development partners, academia, private sector, the general public and  civil society organizations including those led by youth, women, people with disability, forcibly displaced and stateless people and their advocates. 1.1 Background 1.1.1 Country Context  Uganda’s outlook is dynamic, characterized by rapidly evolving economic, social, political, and environmental patterns. The country has made significant strides in its development journey, yet it faces enormous challenges that necessitate robust and adaptive development frameworks. The country’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery continued, achieving a growth rate of 4.6 per cent in 2023.   This growth was driven by increased national consumption expenditure. The agriculture sector, which employs a substantial portion of the population (63 per cent), contributes about a quarter to the country’s economy (23 percent of GDP) which is less than both industry and services (26.7 per cent and 41.7 per cent of GDP respectively). Since the current CF was launched in late 2020, the country’s population has swelled by approximately 5.5 million from 44.4 million in 2020 to 49.9 million in 2023. With a fertility rate of 5.2 births per female, the population is projected to reach 55 million by 2030, and 75 per cent of that population is under 30 years. With the high-level dependency as depicted by population growth rate, the Government continues to prioritize the provision of good and services targeting its youthful pollution. It has also undertaken fiscal consolidation measures aimed at ensuring stable inflation (on average 2.4 per), less volatile exchange rate fluctuations and a decreasing share of debt levels (from 50.6 per cent of GDP in 2021 to 48.4 per cent of GDP in 2023).   On March 11, 2024, the Chair of the CDP formally communicated that Uganda had fulfilled the criteria for graduation from the LDC category for the first time, underscoring the country’s efforts in diversifying the economy, building human assets, and addressing vulnerabilities. Graduation from the category of least developed country is a long and elaborate process that is not expected to come to fruition until 2030 and beyond. However, this prospect coincides with Uganda becoming a medium human development country as per the 2023/2024 UNDP Human Development Report.  It Human Development Index (HI) score improved from 0.545 in 2022/23 to 0.550 in 2023/24, driven by rises in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita as measured in its current US dollar value (current US$). The most recent data show an increase of US80.9 in GDP per capita from US$883.5 in 2021 to US$964.4 in 2022. Life expectancy at birth now stands at 63.6 years, adding two and a half months to life expectancy in Uganda between 2020 and 2023.  However, there are fears that the economic prosperity that comes with this may not be evenly spread or pro-poor. Economic inequality remains a significant challenge in Uganda compared to some of its neigbours, as evidenced by the economic measure of inequality, the Gini coefficient. Uganda’s Gini Coefficient of 42.7 per cent in 2023 was better than that of Rwanda (43.75) but worse than Kenya, and Tanzania with 38.7 per cent and 31.8 per cent respectively. It demonstrates considerable wealth disparity with the poorest 40 per cent holding only 16.1 per cent of the wealth, compared to the 34.5 per cent owned by the richest 10 per cent in the country. Poverty is still persistent with 21.4 per cent of the population living below the national poverty line (Uganda National Household Survey, 2016/17). More recent reports such as the UNHS 2019/20. In 2019/20, 20.3 percent of the population of Uganda is estimated to be poor, of whom nearly 85 percent is rural population. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated economic challenges, leading to job losses, reduced incomes, and disruptions to supply chains, especially impacting vulnerable populations. Despite strides in expanding healthcare and education access, significant disparities persist, particularly in rural areas. Challenges include inadequate infrastructure, shortages of skilled personnel, and gender-based discrimination, all of which hinder progress towards achieving sustainable development goals. Moreover, the presence of a youthful population underscores the importance of addressing youth unemployment through investments in education, skills training, and entrepreneurship to harness the demographic dividend. Governance challenges linked to corruption, rule of law, access to justice, human rights, and political uncertainty persist. Uganda still maintains an open-door policy to people fleeing conflicts, economic hardship, or persecution. It hosts more than 1.5 million refugees, the top refugee-hosting country in Africa. Its refugee population is mostly from South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burundi. The country also contends with a range of challenges including conflict in neighbouring countries, environmental hazards, service delivery and programme coordination challenges that impinge system-wide coherence in responding to needs and curtailing the full scale of possible impacts of interventions on the Sustainable Development Goals. 1.1.2 Cooperation Framework Priority Areas The design of the CF 2021-2025 for Uganda was informed by the UN Common Country Analysis (CCA), an iterative process initiated in 2020 and subsequently updated in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The CCA serves as the UN system’s impartial and collective assessment of the country’s situation, evaluating progress, gaps, opportunities, and bottlenecks concerning Uganda’s commitment to achieving the 2030 Agenda, UN norms and standards, and the principles of the UN Charter. The CF for the period 2021-2025 outlines three Strategic Priorities: Transformative and Inclusive Governance; Shared Prosperity in a Healthy Environment; and Human Well-Being and Resilience. These priorities guide efforts towards sustainable development in Uganda. These strategic priorities fully align with the objectives of the third National Development Plan (NDP III), and the interventions outlined in the CF contribute to the NDP III Programme Implementation Action Plans (PIAPs). The CF theory of change is based on the logic that sustaining transformative and inclusive governance is a precondition for the realisation of inclusive and sustainable development and social transformation across Uganda that includes promotion of shared prosperity and increased investment in human wellbeing and resilience . It is envisaged that sustaining transformative and inclusive governance is a requirement and an enabler for promoting shared prosperity in a healthy environment and building human wellbeing and resilience at all levels. Actualisation of these three conditions will lead to a transformed Ugandan society where people have improved quality of life and resilience. Peace and security are important preconditions for this change to happen. One of the key assumptions for this theory of change is that the Government will continue to demonstrate its political will and commitment towards sustained good governance. To translate the three strategic priorities into actions, UNCT agreed on five outcome areas: inclusive and accountable governance systems; increased productivity, decent      employment, and equal rights to resources; natural resources, environment, and climate change; basic quality social and protection services; gender equality and human rights. The UN programmatic focus is on capacity building at national and sub-national level.  The CF has a robust results framework that details the high-level results to achieve at strategic priority, outcome, and output levels. The output indicators were updated during the 2021 CF annual performance review where 15 additional UN Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG) indicators were added in the CF results framework. The UNCT developed a multiyear joint work plan (JWP) to streamline CF implementation. These plans operationalize the framework, reflect the programmatic and financial contributions of all agencies involved, maximise      synergies, and provide a basis for collective planning, monitoring, and reporting. Additionally, the JWP covers the entire spectrum of UN development contributions under the CF, including those delivered jointly or individually by entities, and incorporates the contributions of agencies not physically present in the country. The JWP is updated annually. To optimise      coordination and financing options for SDGs, the UNCT developed and has implemented three new joint programmes while leveraging existing ones. The implementation of the CF involves 29 UN entities, which have collectively endorsed a Joint Statement. This statement underscores the commitment to needs-based, demand-driven support for Uganda in line with the 2030 Agenda and aims to enhance coordination, transparency, efficiency, and impact of UN development activities. In addition, the CF governance structure has been established to facilitate implementation and coordination. This structure includes a joint national-government steering committee co-chaired by the Prime Minister and the UN Resident Coordinator, along with thematic groups such as the UN deputies’ team, SDG group, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning group, Communication and Partnership group, and Human Rights and Gender Advisory group. Through collaborative efforts involving the government, UN agencies, civil society, and other partners, the CF endeavours to catalyse sustainable development in Uganda.  Additionally, Uganda is in the final stage of preparing its third National Voluntary Review (VNR). The first and second VNRs were developed in 2016 and 2020 respectively. The CF evaluation will leverage the information in the VNR. 2.0

Job Summary: Purpose and Objectives  The CF evaluation has two primary purposes:  a) Promote greater learning and operational improvement. The evaluation will provide important information for strengthening programming and results at the country level, specifically informing the planning and decision-making for the next CF programme cycle and for improving UN coordination at the country level. The UNCT, government and other CF stakeholders will learn from the process of documenting good practices and lessons learned. Lessons learned will be shared with DCO and used for the benefit of other countries. b) Support greater accountability of the UNCT to CF stakeholders. By objectively providing evidence of results achieved within the CF and assessing the effectiveness of the strategies and interventions used, the evaluation will enable the various stakeholders in the CF 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:  a) Assess the contribution of the CF to national development results (accountability) as articulated in the National Development Plan III.  b) Analyse, for each year of implementation, the factors that have affected the CF contribution, responding to the question of why the performance is at it is and explaining the enabling factors and bottlenecks (learning).  c) Draw conclusions from the analysis concerning the UN’s contribution across the scope being examined.  d) Provide actionable recommendations for improving the CF’s contribution, especially for incorporation into the new CF programming cycle.  3.0 Scope Time scope: The evaluation will be nationwide focusing on UN footprint in Uganda covering the period from 1 January 2021 to 30 June 2024.  Programmatic scope: The CF evaluation will cover all UN development system (UNDS) programmes of UN entities who are signatories to the Cooperation Framework with or without physical presence in Uganda. While it is a systemwide nationwide evaluation of UN interventions in the country, it will not seek to conduct a full evaluation of individual programmes, project, or activities of UNCT members, but rather synthesise and build on the programme and project evaluations conducted by each agency . The evaluation will consider the national coverage of the Cooperation Framework interventions. The cross-cutting issues, operational considerations, and normative efforts of the UNCT (i.e., gender equality and empowerment of women, human rights, disability inclusion and environmental sustainability). It will also cover the humanitarian and cross-border initiatives supported by UNCT. The Evaluation Team will use appropriate evaluation methodologies to identify collective contributions at the outcome level and ascertain the plausibility of causal relationships between sub-outputs, outputs, and outcomes.

4.0 Evaluation Criteria and Questions   The evaluation will seek to respond to questions and assess based on the OECD-DAC criteria (relevance and adaptability, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, coherence. coordination and orientation towards impact. For analysis on the humanitarian interventions, the evaluation will also look at coverage and connectedness or the nexus with other parts of the UN work in the country. 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.  5.0 Evaluation Approach and Methodology  The evaluation will use a combination of document reviews, analysis of other quantitative  secondary data, individual interviews  with key informants and focus groups or other types of group discussion to collect data. The evaluation team will develop the evaluation methodology in accordance with the evaluation approach and design tools to collect appropriate data and information to provide strong, evidence-based answers to the overall evaluation questions. The methodological design will include: the sampling approach; the participation and inclusion; the theory of change analysis and reconstruction; the data collection tools; the evaluation matrix; the data collection strategy; data quality assurance (control and validation); data analysis and reporting. To this end, the evaluation team will be informed by Annex 1 (Standard methodology) of Appendix 2 (Terms of reference template – Template ToR for Cooperation Framework Eval Guidelines 2022.docx (sharepoint.com) of the UNSDCF Evaluation Guidelines – Engl – Revised July 2022. 6.1 Evaluation Team The independent evaluation team will consist of three members, with each member serving as a thematic expert dedicated to one of the strategic priorities of the CF. This team will comprise a Team Leader with extensive evaluation expertise and two evaluation members. To ensure diversity, two members will be Ugandan (one female; one male) national with comprehensive evaluation experience, providing valuable regional insight. Gender will also be factored into the team composition. Each evaluator will focus on their designated strategic priority, contributing specialised expertise to the evaluation process. Each team member will sign and adhere to the UNEG Code of Conduct for Evaluators, ensuring ethical conduct throughout the evaluation process.  6.1.1 Evaluation Team members (Uganda national consultants)  The evaluation team members (national consultants) will play a vital role in the evaluation process, actively engaging in data collection and analysis. They will collaborate on conducting desk reviews, interviews, and field visits to ensure comprehensive data gathering. additionally, they will provide substantial inputs across different stages of the evaluation, such as the inception report, presentation of preliminary findings, and drafting both interim and final reports. A designated team member (national consultant) will act as the technical expert for the Cooperation Framework priority area on transformative and inclusive governance, while another national consultant will specialize in the Cooperation Framework  priority area on human wellbeing and resilience.  Reporting line: The consultants will report to and under and the direct guidance of RCO Team Leader/Head of Office/Strategic Planner; and the Evaluation Task Manager.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• The applicant must hold an advanced university-level education in evaluation or fields relevant to one or more CF areas of work. (Required)
• Demonstrated track record of conducting evaluations for complex programs and themes, with a minimum of five years of experience. (Required)
• Experience in conducting evaluations related to inclusive and accountable governance systems, and/ or experience in conducting evaluations related to outcome areas such as basic social and protection services (including early childhood development, education, health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, and rights), and human rights and gender equality. (Required)
• Solid understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other relevant regional or global frameworks, and their implications for development cooperation;
• Familiarity with the role of the UN System; and UN Reform. (Desired)
• Previous involvement in conducting complex evaluations, including at least one Gender Equality and Human Rights responsive evaluation. (Desired)
• Languages: Fluency in English, with excellent oral, written, communication, and reporting abilities is required. Knowledge of local languages desired.

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified candidates who wish to join the United Nations in the aforementioned capacity should apply online at the link below.

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Deadline: 27^th June 2024 

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