Senior Evaluation Consultants (for 2 positions)

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Job Title: Senior Evaluator (Developmental Evaluation of Rockefeller Grant for “Catalyzing good food through school feeding and school programmes” project)

Type of Contract: When Actually Employed (WAE)

Division: School-based Programmes

Duty Station (City, Country): Home-based, with travel at specified times

Duration: 220 days

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

WFP is partnering with the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) (November 2021-April 2025) on a portfolio which comprises the global project, titled ‘Catalyzing good food through school feeding and food-based programs’ and the regional project titled “ Scaling up fortified whole meal in school feeding programs in Rwanda and Burundi and supporting an innovation hub in Kenya” The overarching goal of this partnership is to improve the nutritional quality of diets, food-based safety net sustainability, equity of national food systems, and positive economic impact for local communities. This will be achieved by leveraging institutional food procurement mechanisms, strengthening supply chains, and influencing healthy eating behavior through food-based programmes, primarily school meals programmes.

The project will develop and test approaches to shift towards more nutritious options for school meals which boost local economic opportunity and increase environmental sustainability. Activities will address micronutrient deficiencies, improve schooling effectiveness, and improve intergenerational opportunity for vulnerable populations, particularly young girls. This will in turn have a ripple effect in the overall food system, as the demand for nutritious foods signals for supply chains to shift to be responsive. Through this influence, WFP will also support local value chain actors including smallholder farmers and caterers, the vast majority of whom are women, and have a significant impact on their inclusion in markets, economic empowerment, and livelihoods.

Both the global and regional projects comprise a combination of direct implementation to scale interventions and parallel work towards knowledge and evidence creation, testing of metrics and advocacy for changes in healthier diets.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The evaluation will take a developmental approach following the work of Dr Michael Quinn Patton. The main purpose of this developmental evaluation is to support learning in a process of continuous improvement, adaptation, and intentional change. More specifically, the evaluation aims at informing:

• Strategic learning by Country Offices to guide programme adjustments and real time change in the project implementation. In case time does not allow for course-correction (e.g. in Rwanda and Burundi which are half way in the implementation of the 3-year project), the learning could inform a subsequent phase.
• Progress towards Results – Documentation of results against the Theory of Change.
• Wider Learning – Evaluation learnings will be actively disseminated within WFP and externally through the Global School Meals Coalition and the Rockefeller Foundation.
• Horizontal Integration to improve project implementation, coordination, and cross-functional collaboration.

COMPOSITION OF THE EVALUATION TEAM

WFP is looking for experienced evaluators to lead the developmental evaluation as per the TORs (will be made available). The evaluators must have prior experience in conducting global corporate developmental evaluations and must have appropriate knowledge and facilitation skills to guide the strategic learning communities, harness collective experience/expertise and support learning in a safe space. The evaluators will adopt an approach of openness, receptiveness and flexibility, and willingness to adapt the evaluation process where needed. This will require the evaluator’s availability for swift and timely engagement over the course of the 2.5-year project (see tentative timeline in Annex 1). Rather than traditional evaluation reports, the evaluation will focus on real-time feedback through the production of learning pieces/milestone summaries, stories of change across themes and documentation of major changes and decisions in the programme’s design and implementation.

ACCOUNTABITLITIES / RESPONSIBILITIES:

Under the overall guidance of the Evaluation Steering Committee, and day-to-day coordination and direct supervision of the Evaluation Manager, the evaluation consultants will:

• Define the evaluation approach and methodology;
• Implement the evaluation from the inception phase until the dissemination phase;
• Draft the inception report that meets WFP’s requirements;
• Revise and finalize the inception report based on feedback from WFP’s quality assurance processes along with the Evaluation Steering Committee;
• Facilitate launch learning workshop where the strategic learning questions will be identified;
• Facilitate a number of virtual strategic learning sessions on a regular basis, bringing together the members of the strategic learning communities to collectively reflect on pre-defined strategic learning questions;
• Draw lessons, derive good practices and pointers for learning, through real-time feedback and the production of learning pieces/milestone summaries;
• Lead in-country learning missions;
• Produce context analysis, stories of change from beneficiaries and document major changes and decisions in the programme’s design and implementation through process observation, interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), etc.
• Provide stakeholders with preliminary analysis and advice at the end of country visits;
• Draft a final evaluation report, that meets WFP’s requirements,summarizing and triangulating information and learnings from the milestones summaries, stories of change, documentation of major changes/decisions in the programme implementation and any with primary and secondary information (e.g. evidence pieces completed by country offices, etc.)
• Revise the evaluation report based on feedback from quality support services and the Evaluation Steering Committee

DELIVERABLES QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

1. Evaluation plan with evaluation approach, methodology, schedule, learning workshop agenda;
2. Final Inception report that incorporates the validated evaluation plan along and strategic learning questions;
3. 6 In-person/remote strategic learning workshops including PowerPoint presentations;
4. 6 Milestone summary for each strategic learning question
5. 6 Context analysis and a Story of Change for each country;
6. Decision documents of the major decisions and changes made in the programme’s design and implementation;
7. Final evaluation report that has incorporated QS feedback and Steering Committee comments;
8. Other dissemination products as may be agreed and determined during the inception phase

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Strong and proven academic background in applied research and social sciences, with a PhD /Masters level degree or equivalent in a relevant field (international development; humanitarian assistance; public policy; social sciences).

Experience:

• Minimum of 12 years of experience in leading and implementing global corporate developmental evaluations in diverse humanitarian and/or development contexts.
• Specific experience in assessments and evaluations of social development programmes.
• Experience in working with UN agencies.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Specialist in evaluation, learning systems and methodologies including:
• In-depth knowledge of innovative evaluation concepts and the use of systems thinking approaches in evaluations;
• Expertise and track record of applying developmental evaluation design approaches and methodologies;
• Technical expertise in designing and delivering online and face-to-face training courses and workshops;
• Strong interpersonal skills, ability to work with different stakeholders and skills to promote good communication and a learning culture;
• Knowledge of UN system and the foundation for its work as well as the evaluation norms and standards of UN organizations;
• Ability to communicate complex technical detail with clarity, and ability to identify and focus on the key messages among competing detail.
• Leadership, facilitation and communication skills.

Languages:

English. Working knowledge of Spanish and French would be an asset.

Terms and Conditions

WFP offers a competitive compensation package which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidate’s qualifications and experience.

Please visit the following websites for detailed information on working with WFP.

http://www.wfp.org Click on: “Our work” and “Countries” to learn more about WFP’s operations.

Deadline for applications: 26 April 2023

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.

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