Procurement Notices

Mozambique is considered as a country highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate-related hazards, such as floods, drought, cyclones and epidemics. The number of people affected by one or more of these hazards has registered an annual increase of almost 5,000 every year over the period 1998 to 2009[1].  Of these hazards, floods occur with a frequency of 2 to 3 years as a result of the country’s location downstream of nine major river basins. Drought is also a major concern.  In 2009, it was estimated that approximately 1.3 million people within the country are exposed to this hazard[2]. The current El Nino triggered drought (2015/2016) has impacted over 1.5million people in the south and central regions of the country.  Additionally, more than 60% of the population lives in coastal areas[3] and are thus highly vulnerable to the effects of cyclone storms along the over 2770 km coastline.  With an elevated poverty rate of over 70%[4], a high dependency on rain-fed agriculture, and high HIV rate, the impacts of these extreme events increase the underlying vulnerability of a population already stretched to the limit of its coping strategies.

With climate change effects, it is predicted that these hazards will intensify, with increased rainfall variability resulting in more severe floods and droughts, and sea level rise inundating large areas of coastal land. The impacts will reach many different sectors, threaten development progress in the country and hinder progress towards meeting the then Millennium Development Goals and progress on the recently approved SDGs. Furthermore, current development processes such as construction of new infrastructure without disaster proofing or climate proofing measures may also compound the situation of increased vulnerability. As such, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction measures are essential to ensure sustainable development within the country.   In order to effectively support the government efforts to address these disasters and climate change issues toward achieving sustainable development, the programme was designed to contribute to strengthening national capacities and frameworks for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

The project  “Strengthening national capacities and frameworks for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation” represents UNDP’s contribution to the Government of Mozambique efforts on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, and was approved in 2012 in recognition that disaster preparedness, mitigation and risk reduction, as well as vulnerability reduction and climate change adaptation are fundamental factors contributing to sustainable development in Mozambique, a country that is affected by frequent natural disasters.  The design of the programme was informed by recommendations from the evaluation of the 2008-2011 DRR/CCA programme support to the government through INGC.  The programme was implemented within five years (2012-2016) in line with the UNDAF programme cycle (20120-2016). The purpose of the project was therefore to support government institutions, civil society and the general population to reduce disaster risk within the country and to adapt to the negative effects of climate change, in order to guarantee development gains for the country as a whole, and especially for those most vulnerable. To make contributions to the achievement of the above, the project will concentrate on 4 different thematic areas, in line with the UNDAF outputs, focusing on:1) the development of integrated and operational policy and regulatory framework for effective coordination and implementation of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation; 2) active participation of local communities in risk reduction activities and natural resources management in districts at risk; 3) integrated information management and monitoring systems for disasters; and 4) ensuring that communities in disaster prone areas benefit effectively from emergency preparedness, humanitarian assistance and early recovery actions. Geographical coverage includes three provinces – Gaza, Nampula and Cabo Delgado.  Nonetheless, activities were also implemented in provinces where such activities were found to contribute to DRR and CCA and thus in building disaster resilience.  The total planned budget for the implementation was estimated in $15,339,000. The main intervention partners were INGC, MITADER, INAM and MEF.

Within this overall framework, UNDP is selecting an Evaluation Team composed by 2 experts to conduct the Final Evaluation of the project. These Terms of Reference provide information on the evaluation purpose and scope, the methodology and expected deliverables as well as on the profile of the team and the selection process.

[1]  2011 Global Assessment report on disaster risk reduction; Revealing risk, redefining development

[2] Global Assessment report 2009

[3] INGC synthesis report on climate change 2009

[4] 2010 UNDP Human development report

Purpose of the evaluation

The purpose of this evaluation is to assess the overall performance against the project objective and outcomes to inform future Disaster Risk Reduction programme interventions in Mozambique relating to both soft (policy and advocacy) and technical programming (implementation of policy through institutional support) at all levels. In this context, the evaluation will assess the impact of UNDP Mozambique’s contribution to strengthening capacity for disaster risk reduction at all levels in Mozambique and document the factors that contributed to the achievement (or not) of related results with specific reference to the value added of UNDP Mozambique. The evaluation results and recommendations will inform UNDP Mozambique in its new disaster resilience and climate change adaptation programming in alignment with the government agenda on disaster resilience, new UNDAF and CPD as well as with other global policies. 

An additional purpose of the evaluation is to draw lessons and identify good practices that can be replicated in future interventions.

Scope of the evaluation

In accordance with UNDP evaluation policy procedures, the Government of Mozambique through the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC) and UNDP have agreed to undertake an evaluation of the DRR/CCA project (2012-16) to assess the project’s performance in achieving the intended results in Mozambique, in terms of its relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, appropriateness,  impact and sustainability, translated into:

• assess the relevance of the design and choice of UNDP areas of response based on its mandate and comparative advantage;
• assess progress towards achieving the stated programme outcomes and outputs, considering cross cutting-issues such as capacity development, institutional strengthening and gender;
• assess the relevance of activities carried out under each of the programme components, especially with regards to developing capacities at central and decentralised level;
• assess the extent to which the programme results have contributed to the achievement of the UNDAF/CPD (2012-2016) objectives and overall support to the operations of the UN system in Mozambique;
• assess the relevance and efficiency of implementation arrangements, including but not limited to, organizational structure, managerial support and coordination mechanism used by UNDP to support the project/programme;
• document challenges encountered and enumerate what needs to be done, how and by who, to make the project more responsive and better aligned to national development priorities while at the same time making greater contribution to the UNDAF (2017-2020) and ensuring sustainability of the programme;
• Document lessons learned and identify good practices that can be replicated in future interventions;
• consider future potential synergies other than those being explored currently, for example, with the environment portfolio and the UNDP Project on Decentralisation, extractive industries;
• identify operational issues and bottlenecks in the implementation of the programme, implementation modalities and frameworks, and advise on any required change in terms of outputs, implementing partners, and allocation of resources and make recommendations;

Evaluation Questions

• The evaluation seeks to answer the following questions, focused around the evaluation criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact:

Relevance:

• To what extent are the project objectives aligned with national priorities, context and needs?
• To what extent is UNDP intervention under the project is responding to the project outputs?
• To what extent has the project’s selected method of implementation been appropriate to the development context?
• To what extent is the project interventions being acceptable and feasible within the local context?

Effectiveness

• What evidence is there that UNDP support has contributed towards an improvement in national government capacity, including institutional strengthening?
• Has UNDP worked effectively with all implementing partners and other international and national delivery partners to achieve project result’s?
• Considering the technical capacity and institutional arrangements of both UNDP and implementing partners, is the project well suited to provide support to national and local governments in Mozambique in its intervention area’s?
• What contributing factors and impediments enhance or impede project’s performance in these areas?

Efficiency

• Has project’s strategy and execution in the intervention areas been efficient and cost effective?
• Has there been an economical use of financial and human resources?
• Are the monitoring and evaluation systems that the project has in place helping to ensure that programmes are managed efficiently and effectively?

Sustainability

• What is the likelihood that UNDP interventions are sustainable?
• What mechanisms have been set in place by the project to support the government of Mozambique to sustain improvements made through these interventions?
• How should the project interventions be enhanced to support central authorities, local communities and civil society in improving living conditions in a longer term?
• What changes should be made in the current set of partnerships to promote long term sustainability?

Impact

• Has the project been effective in helping improve living conditions at the local level in Mozambique? 
• What progress was made towards achievement of UNDAF Outcome 3?

The evaluation will also include an assessment of the extent to which programme design, implementation and monitoring have taken the following cross cutting issues into consideration:

Human rights

• To what extent have poor, indigenous, women and other disadvantaged and marginalized groups benefitted from project’s interventions?

Gender Equality

• To what extent has gender been addressed in the design, implementation and monitoring of project’s interventions? 
• To what extent has UNDP support promoted positive changes in gender equality? Were there any unintended effects? 
• Based on the above analysis, the evaluators are expected to provide overarching conclusions on the project results in support to UNDAF/CPD Outputs, as well as recommendations on how the UNDP Mozambique Country Office could adjust its future programming, partnership arrangements, resource mobilization strategies, and capacities to ensure that the new project design 2017-2020 achieves planned outcomes/outputs and is positioned for sustainable results. 

Methodology

It is proposed that a combination of methodological approaches be used to ensure that the most appropriate methods will be applied throughout the exercise. These approaches include, but are not limited to the following:

• Desk review of all the relevant documents including the UNDAF, CPD, CPAP, AWP’s, Five-Year Government Plan (PQG), the 10-year Master Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction, the various Project Documents, RRF, field visits/monitoring reports, programme/project management meeting reports, reports of Steering Committee Meetings and other project and programme review meetings.
• Interviews with key informants and counterparts (central/provincial/district/community levels);
• Analyses and synthesis of all relevant data and information and subsequent compilation of succinct report addressing the full range of scope of work outlined above
• The evaluation team will be expected to clearly document and explain its justification for the choice of methodological approach(es) to be used in this process, including planned surveys and questionnaires.  The team shall visit the provinces and some selected project sites at district level as needed, interviewing project stakeholders/beneficiaries and visiting project activities.
• The evaluators are expected to take a “theory of change’’ (TOC) approach to determining causal links between the interventions that UNDP has supported, and observed progress in UNDP areas of intervention at national and local levels in Mozambique. The evaluators will develop a logic model of how UNDP interventions are expected to lead to improved national and local government. In the case of this UNDP project, a theory of change was not explicitly defined. The evaluators are expected to construct a theory of change for the project based against stated objectives and anticipated results, and more generally from UNDPs Strategic Plan 2014-2017 and capacity development strategies and techniques.
• The methodology and the work schedule prepared by the team shall be discussed and agreed with the DRR/CCA team of the CPR/Env. Unit and INGC at the beginning of the mission before proceeding with the collection of data and interviews with the project stakeholders/beneficiaries.

Planning and implementation arrangements

The consultants will report and be accountable to UNDP, through the Country Director and the HoU CPR/E&P. They will work with programme staff from UNDP, the Government Coordinating Agency in this case INGC, other Government Departments and national institutions implementing various components of the DRR/CCA project. UNDP will organize all logistical arrangements including field travel, as and when required.

UNDP Mozambique will:

• Provide the consultants with all the necessary support (not under the consultant’s control) to ensure that the consultant(s) undertake the evaluation with reasonable efficiency.
• Appoint a focal point in the programme section to support the consultant(s) during the evaluation process.
• Collect comprehensive background documentation and inform partners and selected project counterparts.
• Support and identify key stakeholders to be interviewed as part of the evaluation.
• The programme staff members will be responsible for liaising with partners, logistical backstopping and providing relevant documentation and feedback to the consultants
• Organize inception meeting between the consultants, partners and stakeholders, including Government prior to the scheduled start of the assignment.

Deliverables

The consultants will be expected to prepare and present the following set of deliverables within a total of 30 working days.

International consultant deliverables will be supported by 21 working days input from the national consultant:

• Inception report:  It should contain the proposed theory of change for UNDP work under the project. The inception report should include an evaluation matrix presenting the evaluation questions, data sources, data collection, analysis tools and methods to be used. Annex 3 provides a simple matrix template. The inception report should detail the specific timing for evaluation activities and deliverables, and propose specific site visits and stakeholders to be interviewed. Protocols for different stakeholders should be developed. The inception report will also include the proposed theory of change for the project. The inception report will be discussed and agreed with the UNDP country office before the evaluators proceed with site visits.  (5 days-home based)
• Draft DRR Project evaluation report: The report shall analyse the areas presented in the present ToRs, evaluate and provide clear and practical recommendations where necessary to inform the new DRR/CCA programming.  The two copies of the draft reports (English and Portuguese versions) shall be submitted ten days before a presentation with UNDP, the Government Coordinating Authority and other stakeholders who have been part of the evaluation process.  (15 days in country)
• Final project evaluation report, which should include (10 days home based):
• An assessment of the progress in achieving the project outcomes and outputs and their contributions to, and associated impact on UNDAF (2012-2016) outputs and outcomes and, importantly, national development and DRR/CCA priorities;
• Documentation of best practices and challenges encountered in the implementation of the DRR/CCA project, including an assessment of the appropriateness of the project’s implementation arrangements;
• An assessment of present and emerging national development and DRR/CCA priorities and how the project can be better positioned to respond to these priorities.

The report must be produced in line with UNDP evaluation report format and quality control checklist for its content, with an executive summary describing key findings and recommendations. The assessment will entail, inter alia:

1) A report containing (Hard copy, a soft copy in MS Word and Acrobat reader, Times New Roman, Size 12, Single Spacing):

The suggested table of contents of the evaluation reports is as follows (more guidance on the report template is provided under annex 2):

• Title;
• Table of contents;
• Acronyms and abbreviations;
• Executive Summary;
• Introduction;
• Background and context ;
• Evaluation scope and objectives;
• Evaluation approach and methods;
• Data analysis;
• Findings and conclusions;
• Lessons learned;
• Recommendations;
• Annexes: ToRs, field visits, people interviewed, documents reviewed, etc.

Selection process

• The selection of the evaluation team will be done following UNDP procurement rules and regulations. UNDP will assess the consultants’ profile, qualifications and skills to ensure high level consultants are recruited using the below evaluation criteria. Consultants are requested to submit a technical proposal illustrating the methodology and approach that will be used to conduct the assignment. 

Work Plan and Timetable

• The duration of the contract will be 30 working days for the international consultant and 21 days for the national consultant, including the preparation of the work-plan, collection of data, interviews, analysis, report drafting, feedback, editing and report finalisation.

Application Evaluation Process

• Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis methodology (weighted scoring method), where the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
  • Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
  • Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
  • Technical Criteria weight: [70%].
  • Financial Criteria weight: [30%]
• Only Individual Consultants obtaining a minimum of 70 points on the Technical evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Financial Criteria

• The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:
• p = y (µ/z), where
• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
• y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated.
• UNDP is applying fair and transparent selection process that would consider both the technical qualification of Individual Consultants as well as their price proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores.
• UNDP retains the right to contact references directly.
• Payments will be made only upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.
• Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org
• Due to large number of applications we receive, we will be able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Presentation of Offer

• Duly accomplished letter of confirmation of interest and availability
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology on how they will approach and complete the assignment.
• Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs. If an offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP. 
• The international consultant will lead the evaluation and the national consultant will provide necessary support. The evaluation team must be independent from both the policy making process and the delivery and management of assistance.
• Offer to be uploaded as one document in the following link: http://jobs-admin.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?job_id=71981

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Demonstrates experience in gender equality.
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills.
• Demonstrates substantial experience in gender equality. Actively promotes gender equality in all Project activities.

Functional Competencies:

• Demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter.
• Maturity and confidence in dealing with senior and high-ranking members of international, regional and national institutions.
• Excellent written communication skills, with analytic capacity and ability to synthesize project outputs and relevant findings for the preparation of quality project reports.
• Demonstrates transparency and provides feedback to all those who will contribute to the evaluation.
• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Ability to work independently as well as part of a big team.
• Ability to operate under strict time limits.

Academic Background:

• Relevant advanced university degree or first level degree combined with at least 5 years of progressive experience in Disaster Risk Reduction.

 Experience:

• Five (5) years of progressively responsible position in DRR/CCA;
• Extensive experience in implementation of donor funded projects;
• Five (5) years’ Experience in project evaluations (Experience with evaluation of DRR projects would be an advantage);
• Adequate experience in working in multi-cultural environments, with Government officials as well as civil society organizations;

Language:

• Fluent Portuguese (spoken and written) is highly desirable;
• Good command of written and spoken English is an advantage.