Purpose of consultancy:

The 2024 UNFPA Evaluation Policy encourages Country Offices to carry out country programme evaluations every programme cycle, and as a minimum every two cycles.

The UNFPA Serbia Country Office is initiating the Country Programme Evaluation (CPE) which will provide an independent assessment of the performance of the UNFPA 2nd country programme (2021-2025) in the Republic of Serbia and offer an analysis of various facilitating and constraining factors influencing programme delivery and the achievement of intended results. The CPE will draw conclusions and provide a set of actionable recommendations for the next programme cycle. This will be an external exercise conducted by an independent evaluation team in line with the 2024 UNFPA Evaluation Handbook. The Handbook provides practical guidance for managing and conducting CPEs to ensure the production of quality evaluations in line with the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) norms and standards and international good practice for evaluation.

The UNFPA Serbia Office is seeking to hire an Evaluation team member, the Population Dynamics Expert, to contribute to the programme evaluation providing specific expertise related to population trends and influencing factors.

Scope of work:

The evaluation will cover all interventions in the three thematic areas of the Country Programme, which have been implemented across Serbia during the programme’s period. The thematic areas are described in section 3 of the Terms of Reference UNFPA Serbia, Country Programme Evaulation (hereby attached).

Evaluation team member, the Population dynamics expert will require a multidisciplinary skillset and a deep understanding of various factors influencing population trends. The Population dynamics expert will provide specific expertise on population change relating issues, such as ageing, low fertility, migration, demographic resilience, and national statistical systems.
Under the leadership of Evaluation team leader, the Population dynamics expert is expected to participate in all CPE phases as described in the UNFPA Evaluation Handbook[1], including to:

• Contribute to the methodological design of the evaluation. 
• Take part in the data collection and analysis work, as well as report drafting with overall responsibility of contributions to the evaluation deliverables in her/his thematic area of expertise.
• Provide substantive inputs throughout the entire evaluation process by contributing to the development of the evaluation methodology, evaluation work plan and agenda for the field phase.
• Provide substantive inputs in preparation and participate in meetings with the CPE manager, UNFPA Serbia CO staff and the ERG.
• Undertake a document review and conduct interviews and group discussions with stakeholders, as agreed with the evaluation team leader.

The modalities for the participation of the evaluation team members in the evaluation process, their responsibilities during data collection and analysis, as well as the nature of their respective contributions to the drafting of the design report and the draft and final evaluation report will be agreed with the evaluation team leader. These tasks will be performed under team leader’s supervision.

Duration and working schedule: Approximately 25 working days during period June 2024 – November 2024.

The consultant will provide substantive contribution to development of the following key deliverables of the evaluation, by the deadlines listed below:

• Design Report for CPE, and powerpoint presentation of design report, preferably by 14 July 2024
• Preliminary powerpoint presentation of field phase for a debriefing meeting with the CO and the ERG, preferably by 25 August 2024.
• Draft Country Programme Evaluation Report, Recommendations worksheet. and powerpoint presentation of evaluation results, preferably by 30 September 2024.
• Final Country Programme Evaluation Report and powerpoint presentation of evaluation results, preferably by 31 October 2024.

The deliverables are expected to be submitted electronically.

How to apply:

Interested individuals with the required qualifications and experience should submit their application to serbia.office@unfpa.org with the subject line “Application for Population Dynamics Expert for 2nd  UNFPA Serbia Country Programme Evaluation”. 

The application should include:

• A cover letter, indicating the candidate’s motivation for this consultancy as well as relevant expertise and experience.
• An updated copy of the curriculum vitae (CV) and a duly completed P11 UN Personal History Form.
• Names and contact information of three references.
• A recent evaluation report or other type of writing sample in English (from a similar assignment) drafted by the candidate. 
• Availability and expected daily rate for consultancy services.

The closing date for the submission of applications is 6 June at 23:59 CET.

Only those candidates who meet all qualifications and experience will be contacted for further consideration. Incomplete applications will be automatically disqualified.

Disclaimer:

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