Procurement Notices

Purpose

The UNCT Serbia invites applications from qualified international consultants in order to perform the Final Evaluation of the Development Partnership Framework 2016-2020. Development Partnership Framework (DPF) for Serbia 2016-2020 is a strategic document developed in the close cooperation and through a partnership between the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the United Nations Country Team in Serbia[1].

The Development Partnership Framework Evaluation is an external, independent exercise aimed at generating an independent assessment of results, successes, challenges and lessons learned to inform the DPF stakeholders and feed into the next DPF programming cycle. The DPF Evaluation will provide information primarily to the Government of the Republic of Serbia, the United Nations Development System and the UN Country Team in the RS, as well as to the Serbia’s civil society organizations, international institutions, donors and the Serbian public at large about the key achievements of the Development Partnership Framework between the United Nations Country Team in Serbia and the Government of the Republic of Serbia in the period 2016-2020.

According to the Development Partnership Framework 2016-2020 document “an evaluation in the penultimate year of the programme cycle will be conducted to support the formulation of the next DPF. The evaluation will assess the relevance of the DPF outcomes, the effectiveness and efficiency of implementation by partners, and their sustainability and contribution to country priorities. The evaluation will also gauge the performance of the Joint National Steering Committee and Results Groups”.[2]

Objective

The final evaluation will seek to answer the fundamental results-oriented questions: what difference did the DPF intervention make in Serbia’s development? How did it make this difference, and what other factors were relevant? To provide answers, the final evaluation will assess the contribution made by the UNCT in the framework of the UNDAF to national development results using evaluation criteria based on available evidence (please refer to the attached Final DPF Evaluation TOR).

Composition of the Evaluation Team

Given the importance of DPF evaluation and the complexities involved in its design and implementation, it is critical that due time and effort is accorded to recruiting an external evaluation team which will meet the standards to conduct the evaluation. The evaluation team will consist of one international team leader and one additional team member (national expert).

The evaluation team leader will lead the entire evaluation process, working closely with UNCT and its partners in the Republic of Serbia. She/he will conduct the evaluation process in a timely manner and in line with the attached DPF Evaluation TOR. The national consultant will contribute to the evaluation process substantively through data collection and analysis.

The two team members will share responsibilities for conducting the initial desk review, the field phases of the evaluation and preparation of the final report.

Duties and responsibilities

The selected international consultant (team leader) will fully adhere to all aspects of the attached Final DPF (2016-2020) Evaluation Terms of Reference.

The final DPF evaluation team will report to the UNCT through the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator and will receive their overall guidance and support. At the technical level, the final DPF evaluation team will work closely with Evaluation Management Group (Section 10 of the attached TOR provides complete details on Management of the DPF Evaluation).

The team leader will take a lead role during the evaluation, develop a comprehensive evaluation methodology based on the Final DPF Evaluation Terms of Reference (Section 8 of the TOR), and coordinate the work of other team members (national consultant).  The team leader will ensure the quality of the evaluation process, outputs, methodology and timely delivery of all products.  The team leader, in close collaboration with the UNCT and the Evaluation Manager, will take the lead role in conceptualization and design of the evaluation and shaping the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the report. The tasks of the team leader include:

• Develops an inception report and details the design, methodology (including the methods for data collection and analysis criteria for selection of examples, required resources), and work plan of the evaluation team;
• Directs and conducts the research and analysis of all relevant documentation;
• Decides the division of labor within the evaluation team and coordinates team tasks within the framework of the TORs;
• Oversees and quality assures the preparation of the report and takes a lead in the analysis of the evaluative evidence;
• Oversees the administration, and analysis of the results of the data collection exercise;
• Drafts the evaluation report, and coordinates the inputs from team members;
• Prepares periodic inputs to the meetings (consultations and de-briefings) with JNSC, UNCT and other stakeholder to review findings, conclusions and recommendations;
• Leads the stakeholder feedback sessions on the evaluation through formal and informal sessions and finalizes the report based on feedback from the quality assurance process;
• Delivers the final evaluation report.

Products expected from the evaluation

The full evaluation report (minimum 35 pages excluding the Executive Summary and Annexes), covering the issues outlined in the terms of reference and inception report including evaluation findings and conclusions, lessons and recommendations.

The Final Evaluation Report should at a minimum include the following components:

• Executive summary
• Introduction
• Description of the evaluation methodology
• Analysis of the situation with regard to outcome, outputs, resources, partnerships, management and working methods and/or implementation strategy
• Key findings
• Conclusions and practical, actionable recommendations for the DPF successor document implementation

Annexes including:

• Evaluation ToR;
• The evaluation matrix;
• Inception report (including gap and stakeholder analysis);
• List of persons interviewed;
• Summary of field interviews;
• List of documents reviewed;
• Online survey and/or questionnaire (if any) used and summary of results.

[1] The UN Country Team (UNCT) refers to the totality of UN development operations in Serbia by resident and non-resident agencies, funds and programmes.

[2]Development Partnership Framework (DPF) for Serbia 2016-2020

Deliverables abd Timeline

Tentative Evaluation schedule
 

In the financial offer the international consultant should indicate the number of working days per deliverable. The consultant will receive the payments by deliverable based on the lump sum provided in the consultant’s proposal. The indicated number of working days in the table above is reflective of the DPF Evaluation TOR timeline and should be used for orientation only.

The criteria of utility, credibility, and relevance/appropriateness will be used for assessing the quality of the evaluation report:

• The report has to be written in professional and clear English language;
• The Executive Summary (in both English and Serbian) should be a concise chapter (not exceeding five pages), highlighting the evaluation mandate, approach, key findings, conclusions and recommendations;
• The information in the report has to be complete, well structured, concise and clearly presented;
• All information in the report has to be adequately documented and supporting the findings;
• The information in the report has to addresses priority or strategic information needs;
• Findings and recommendations have to be evidenced, concrete and implementable;
• Human rights and gender equality perspective has been taken into account.

Overall, the evaluation has to be conducted in accordance with the principles outlined in the Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation.

Required skills and experience:

• Master’s Degree in a relevant discipline;
• At least 10 years of working experience in evaluation of UN’s strategic documents and UN agency country programmes;
• Previous experience with regional organizations and the UN system;
• Experience with participatory approaches, organizational assessments partnership strategies and capacity development;
• Knowledge of relevant human rights issues and ability to identify related problems in their political, ethnic, racial, gender equality and socio-economic dimensions;
• Ability to evaluate and integrate information from a variety of sources and assess impact on the human rights and gender equality;
• Ability to incorporate gender perspectives in all aspects of the evaluation report;
• Regional expertise in either Serbia or Western Balkans;
• Proven experience as an evaluation team leader with ability to lead and work with other evaluation experts;
• Facilitation skills and ability to manage diversity of views in different development contexts;
• Ability to produce well written reports demonstrating analytical ability and communication skills;
• Excellent knowledge of written and spoken English.

Application procedure:

Qualified and interested candidates are asked to submit their applications via the UNDP website: UNDP in Serbia no later than 10 June 2019.

Application should include: 

• CV containing date of birth and contact information;
• Offeror’s Letter (only PDF format will be accepted) confirming Interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) Assignment. Can be downloaded from the following link: http://www.undp.org.rs/download/ic/Confirmation.docx. The Offeror’s Letter shall include financial proposal specifying a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this announcement with a breakdown of costs. Offeror’s Letter must also include the following:

• Methodology concept containing a preliminary plan of work (no more than two pages).
• Example of an evaluation report written by the applicant (ideally UNDAF evaluation).

Methodology concept and example of an evaluation report should be merged into Offeror’s Letter and submitted as one document. 

More detailed information on the Terms of Reference for the Final Development Partnership Framework 2016-2020 Evaluation could be found at the link: http://www.rs.undp.org/content/serbia/en/home/jobs.html

Any request for clarification must be sent by standard electronic communication to the e-mail Vacancy Serbia <vacancy.rs@undp.org>

The procuring UNDP entity will respond by standard electronic mail and will send response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all consultants.

Financial proposal

Lump sum contract

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR.  In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

Travel

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal.  Travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket will not be considered. The travel costs must include transfer to/from the airport in Belgrade. Travel within Belgrade will be organized and covered by the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Serbia.

Evaluation of the proposals

1. Cumulative analysis

The proposal will be evaluated using the weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight; 70%

* Financial Criteria weight; 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

Engagement of Government Officials and Employees

• Government Officials or Employees are civil servants of UN Member States.  As such, if they will be engaged by UNDP under an IC which they will be signing in their individual capacity (i.e., engagement is not done through RLA signed by their Government employer), the following conditions must be met prior to the award of contract:

(i)       A “No-objection” letter in respect of the individual is received from the Government employing him/her, and;

(ii)     The individual must provide an official documentation from his/her employer formally certifying his or her status as being on “official leave without pay” for the duration of the IC.

• The above requirements are also applicable to Government-owned and controlled enterprises and well as other semi/partially or fully owned Government entities, whether or not the Government ownership is of majority or minority status. 

• UNDP recognizes the possibility that there are situations when the Government entity employing the individual that UNDP wishes to engage is one that allows its employees to receive external short-term consultancy assignments (including but not limited to research institutions, state-owned colleges/universities, etc.), whereby a status of “on-leave-without-pay” is not required.  Under such circumstance, the individual entering into an IC with UNDP must still provide a “No-objection” letter from the Government employing him/her.  The “no objection” letter required under (i) above must also state that the employer formally certifies that their employees are allowed to receive short-term consultancy assignment from another entity without being on “leave-without-pay” status, and include any conditions and restrictions on granting such permission, if any.  The said document may be obtained by, and put on record of, UNDP, in lieu of the document (ii) listed above.