Date/Time
Date(s) - 08/06/2023
0:00
Categories
International Trade Centre (ITC)
Closing Date: Thursday, 8th June 2023
Contract Type: Consultancy contract
Salary: TBD
Location: Home-based
Description: The consultant will work under the supervision of ITC’s Associate Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and the overall guidance of the Head of the IEU, OED/SPPG, and will be responsible for the following duties:
• Deliverable 1 – Draft inception report
– The consultant completes an initial round of desk research and preliminary review of documentation to determine the evaluability of the programme, including initial interviews to determine the methodology.
– The inception report is a strategic and technical analysis that paves the way for the evaluation process. It will build on and be coherent with the TOR of the midterm evaluation. It sets the context for the evaluation, particularly the conditions related to evaluability. The inception report defines what will be evaluated (evaluation questions and matrix) and how the process for conducting the evaluation will be deployed (evaluation methods, sources of data, and a workplan), and possible remote field visits (including a list of identified beneficiaries, with relevant contact details for interviewees and recipients of the questionnaire and focus group discussions, and interview schedules). The inception report will include an assessment as to whether the recruitment of a national data collector(s) would be required.
– It will include an analysis of possible risks encountered during the evaluation process together with a mitigation plan and a strategy for communication/dissemination of the evaluation report.
– The inception report will be based on the evaluation questions in the TOR of the midterm evaluation, desk research, and early interviews. It will provide a complete and finalized set of evaluation questions with an indication of specific judgment criteria and indicators, as well as the relevant data collection sources (including remote data collection) and tools in an evaluation matrix. The inception report will address how the data is collected on each sector, and its analysis will be distilled and synthesized to evaluate the project and produce a single and coherent evaluation report.
– The inception report will include a contextual and diagnostic analysis covering each of the project sectors that are benefiting from the project. This is important because of the current disruption caused by the war in Ukraine and as it should guide the forward perspective of the evaluation. Accordingly, this analysis will identify possible scenarios for further repurposing or even scaling up of the project to meet new realities and prospective needs in Ukraine’s trade situation. From an operational perspective, it will also be used to identify the most appropriate methodological approach for each sector, including mitigation measures should local data collection not be feasible.
– The selected consultant will submit the draft inception report one month after the contract has been signed.
• Deliverable 2 – Final inception report
– The IEU will review the draft inception report to ensure its conformity with the TOR and quality requirements. Should these requirements not be met, the IEU will liaise directly with the consultant to rectify any issues identified. The IEU circulates the draft inception report to all key stakeholders for comments and feedback. Comments and feedback are sent to the IEU, and the IEU will compile all comments and feedback and relay them to the consultant.
– The consultant answer questions, provides justifications, and/or incorporates changes into the draft inception report. At the end of this period, the consultant submits the final inception report to the IEU, which will include the approved ToC, methodology, data collection instruments, and the complete analysis of data collection methods, for approval. The IEU will circulate the final inception report to all key stakeholders.
• Deliverable 3 – Update and Validation Workshop
– The consultant carries out the evaluation and implements the agreed methodology as set out in the inception report. At the end of this period, the consultant sends an update to the IEU on the collected findings and preliminary observations. In addition, the consultant will provide a presentation to be discussed during a validation workshop, organized by the consultant. This workshop shall allow the consultant to present and discuss preliminary findings, conclusions, and recommendations with key stakeholders.
• Deliverable 4 – Draft Midterm Evaluation Report
– Following the validation workshop, the consultant completes the write-up of the draft midterm evaluation report, which will be the core product of the evaluation process. The draft midterm evaluation report should be relevant to decision-making needs, written in a concise, clear, and easily understandable language, and of high scientific quality.
– The final report should highlight the purpose, scope, and limitation of the evaluation, and should contain an Executive Summary, a description of the applied methodology, evidence based findings, conclusions, lessons learned, and recommendations directly derived from the evaluation findings and conclusions. The analysis should also highlight constraints, strengths on which to build, and opportunities for the project. Lessons learned should allow the users to know what is doable in the future and what should not have been part of the project, and guide future phases on how development cooperation work should look. Particular attention to be devoted to lessons learned that could be useful to enhance project’s coherence with the Swedish 2021-27 Strategy for Eastern Europe.
– The recommendations should give a forward-looking attention to needs as emerged through the Ukrainian war response and recovery planning; which in turn will guide activities in Ukraine of the ITC in its support to the development of agricultural value chain as well as the operational aspects of implementing the Swedish strategy mandate.
– The report will be prepared in English and will preferably comprise not more than 40 pages, excluding the Executive Summary and annexes. The IEU will review the draft midterm evaluation report to ensure its conformity with the TOR, the inception report, and quality requirements. Should these requirements not be met, the IEU will liaise with the consultant to rectify any issues identified. The IEU circulates the draft evaluation report to all key stakeholders for comments and feedback. Comments and feedback are sent to the IEU, and the IEU will compile all comments and feedback and relay them to the consultant.
• Deliverable 5 – Final Midterm Evaluation Report, Audit Trail, and Evaluation Briefing
– The consultant(s) will incorporate changes into the midterm evaluation report and provide answers to questions and justifications, and accounts for these in an Audit Trail. At the end of this period, the consultant(s) submits to the IEU the final midterm evaluation report, including the Audit Trail, and an Evaluation Briefing which may be comprised of a Communication Note or a Presentation for briefing purposes, or both. In the case of a Presentation, the presentation slides will be submitted to the IEU for future purposes.