UNFPA Timor-Leste is seeking two (2) International Consultants for the Evaluation of UNFPA Timor-Leste Country Programme 2021-2025
The UNFPA is the leading UN agency on sexual and reproductive health and youth and adolescents’ development. Its mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
UNFPA Timor-Leste’s programmes consist of targeting universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights and the three transformative results -ending preventable maternal deaths, ending the unmet need for family planning, ending gender-based violence and all harmful practices. Our priority actions are thus three-folded: reducing maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity, through the strengthening the primary health care system to deliver a high-quality integration of maternal and newborn health care including antenatal care (ANC) and postnatal care (PNC), Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) Services, Family Planning (FP), HIV/STI, and Gender Based Violence (GBV). Reducing the unmet need for family planning and ensuring the safety and dignity of all women, girls, adolescents, youth and key populations, through the strengthening of laws against gender-based violence and the implementation of comprehensive sexuality education programmes that promote human rights and gender equality. Advocating for the availability, quality, timeliness and accuracy of statistical data that serve policy and decision-makers in addressing population and development issues, through the strengthening of the national capacity for the production and dissemination of quality databases, studies and investment cases in demographic disparities, socio-economic inequalities, health economics analytics, adolescents and youth and gender-based violence.
The UNFPA Timor-Leste country programme is implemented from 2021 to 2025. At the penultimate year, it is mandatory for the country office to conduct a final country programme evaluation per UNFPA Evaluation Policy to assess progress and evaluate the areas where the UNFPA Timor-Leste’s implementation of the ICPD Plan of Action is lagging. The results of the evaluation will be a crucial step for designing the new country programme document, and consequently protecting the gains and identifying ways to accelerate transformative changes. The CPE will draw conclusions and provide a set of actionable recommendations for the next programme cycle.
The main audience and primary intended users of the evaluation are: (i) The UNFPA Timor-Leste CO; (ii) the Government of Timor-Leste; (iii) implementing partners of the UNFPA Timor-Leste CO; (iv) rights-holders involved in UNFPA interventions and the organizations that represent them (in particular women, adolescents and youth); (v) the United Nations Country Team (UNCT); (vi) Asia and Pacific Regional Office (APRO); and (vii) donors. The evaluation results will also be of interest to a wider group of stakeholders, including: (i) UNFPA headquarters divisions, branches and offices; (ii) the UNFPA Executive Board; (iii) academia; and (iv) local civil society organizations and international NGOs. The evaluation results will be disseminated as appropriate, using traditional and digital channels of communication.
The evaluation will be managed by the evaluation manager within the UNFPA Timor-Leste CO, with guidance and support from the regional monitoring and evaluation (M&E) adviser at the APRO, and in consultation with the evaluation reference group (ERG) throughout the evaluation process. A team of independent external evaluators will conduct the evaluation and prepare an evaluation report in conformity with these terms of terms of reference.
Duration and working schedule:
The consultants are expected to work up to 45 days upon signing of the contract until 31 July 2024.
Place where services are to be delivered:
The consultants will work both remotely and on mission to Timor-Leste.
The consultant is expected to be on one-time mission of 2 weeks.
When on mission, the consultant will be based at the UNFPA office. For remote-based support, the consultants will closely coordinate with the UNFPA M&E team and Management.
Delivery dates and how work will be delivered:
The Individual consultants expected to produce the following deliverables in electronic form.
Deliverables
Due Date
Payment (%)
Inception report using template annex 1
2 weeks upon the signing of the contract
20%
First draft of the evaluation report
1 week after the field mission
40%
Final evaluation report and a PowerPoint presentation of the evaluation results
4 weeks after the field mission
40%
Monitoring and progress control, including reporting requirements:
Regular consultation (face-to-face, online meetings, e-mails) and sharing of information and documents to the M&E and the technical review committee
Supervisory arrangements:
The consultant will be guided by the UNFPA Country Representative and closely coordinated by CPE team leader and the Evaluation Managers.
Inputs / services to be provided by UNFPA:
UNFPA will provide a work station when the consultants are on mission to Timor-Leste.
I. OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF THE EVALUATION
Objectives
The overall purpose of the Country Programme Evaluation (evaluation) for 2021-2025 is to: (i) enhance the accountability of UNFPA for the relevance and performance of the fourth country programme, (ii) provide the existing knowledge-base with evidence and lessons learnt to serve the design of the next programming cycle and the acceleration of the implementation of the ICPD PoA
The specific objectives of evaluation include:
Temporal scope
The Country Programme Document (CPD) and Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) cover the period between 2021 to 2025. The evaluation will cover the period starting from 2021 to Q2 2024 (until the data collection).
Geographical scope
The evaluation will cover all implementation activities by UNFPA and implementing partners at national and sub-national levels.
Programme scope
This evaluation will cover the following thematic areas of the CP4: Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights, Adolescents and Youth, Gender Equality and Women’s empowerment, and Population & Development and Humanitarian Action.
The evaluation will cover cross-cutting aspects such as human rights based approach, integration of the LNOB principle, disability inclusion, communication, partnerships and resource mobilization. Besides the assessment of the intended impact of the country programme, the evaluation also aims to assess UNFPA’s positioning in Timor-Leste to address the emerging issues and other megatrends such as youth bulge and ageing population.
III. UNFPA COUNTRY PROGRAMME
The UNFPA Fourth Country Programme Document (CPD4) for Timor-Leste for 2021-2025, detailing the planned collaboration between UNFPA and the Republic Democratic of Timor-Leste (RDTL) is aligned with the Timor-Leste’s Strategic Development Plan (SDP 2011 – 2030), the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action (ICPD PoA), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the 2021-2025 United Nations Strategic Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for Timor-Leste. The CPD4 was developed in consultation with government of Timor-Leste (GoTL) and partners taking into account the shift to a new business model of working in lower middle-income countries, such as Timor-Leste, i.e. focusing on advocacy and policy dialogue/advice, capacity development, knowledge management and some projects on service delivery.
The third country programme evaluation highlighted several key achievements: development of key technical and policy documents; development of in-school teaching materials on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), gender and gender-based violence (GBV) prevention; approval of the National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence (NAP-GBV); and undertaking of the 2015 population and housing census and 2016 Demographic and Health Survey.
The evaluation identified lessons learned and made recommendations for developing the capacity of the Ministry of Health in safe motherhood, family planning, addressing gender-based violence, and improving adolescent sexual and reproductive health. It also recommended for continued strengthening of integrated sexual and reproductive health systems, including the logistics management capacity of the Ministry of Health, and technical support on collecting data, with increased emphasis on raising data literacy to enable the Government to obtain, interpret and utilize the data for policy and planning.
Drawing on the experience of previous programmes, the CPD4 supports the UNSCDF strategic priorities 3 (Early Childhood Development and Life-long Learning Outcomes and Skills) and 4 (High-quality Healthcare and Well Being). The overall goal of the 4th CPD in Timor-Leste is to support national efforts to achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, in line with the UNFPA transformative results to end maternal deaths, unmet need for family planning, and gender based violence and harmful practices. It responds to the principle of leaving no one behind, focusing on women, adolescents and youth, particularly those living in rural areas, people with disabilities and key population groups.