Country: South Sudan
Closing date: 14 Jul 2015
[the complete Call for Expression of Interest can be found on http://www.fao.org/evaluation/oed-consultancy-jobs/en/]
Evaluation Background
During May and June 2015, OED conducted a project evaluation of the “Agriculture and Food Information System” (AFIS) project in South Sudan and a qualitative impact assessment looking at the preliminary impact of FAO’s emergency activities on livelihoods and coping strategies of targeted beneficiaries.
The South Sudan Response Evaluation will focus on the results achieved by FAO in the response, using the following overarching questions:
- Is FAO doing the right things vis-à-vis the national context, needs and priorities; FAO values and FAO’s comparative advantages?
- Is FAO making a difference considering its strategy and the achieved outcome/results from its Response Programme?The FAO South Sudan Response Evaluation will cover selected areas of FAO’s programme
and a range of cross-cutting issues, building upon the findings of the aforementioned evaluations. The evaluation will aim to assess FAO’s performance in responding to the crisis in South Sudan, both looking at the 2014 and 2015 response plans. In particular, the evaluation will focus on:
- Coordination – Looking at the role of FAO as co-leader of the Food Security Cluster, andas part of the broader humanitarian architecture, both at national and state levels. Moreover, the evaluation will assess to what extent FAO projects have beencoordinated with the work of other stakeholders involved in the response.
- Connectedness and Coherence – Assessing the coherence of FAO development strategy and looking at possible synergies between the emergency activities and the long-term projects.
- Relevance – Building upon the information collected from the impact assessment,the evaluation will aim to assess the appropriateness and timeliness of both FAOemergency and development projects.
- Efficiency – The evaluation will look at the systems and procedures FAO South Sudanput in place to implement the emergency programme (including FAO work with the partners, theair operations and the projects directly implemented by FAO).
- Cross-cutting issues – The evaluation will assess to what extent gender issues have been mainstreamed and considered in FAO programme. The evaluation will look also at effectiveness of the capacity development activities carried out within the emergency programme. Lastly, the partnership relations will be reviewed in order to assess their efficacy and identify areas for improvement.
The evaluation will require also an analysis of the political economy of South Sudan and the relationship between agricultural activities and conflict in the country.
Timeframe
The engagement in the evaluation activities will start in September 2015 until February 2016, with an inception and/or main mission (main commitment) between November and December 2015, with some degree of flexibility, especially for the Lead Evaluator.
The evaluation will require around 60 working days - including travel and work at home-station; the applicants are invited to submit their availability in the proposed timeframe in their application.
Evaluation Team
The Evaluation will be conducted by a multidisciplinary team of independent experts, national and international. Gender equity and geographical balance will be pursued in so far as possible in the team composition, to ensure diversity of perspectives. Good knowledge of the country and experience in managing/evaluating humanitarian responses in the context of complex emergencies will be important.
OED is currently seeking applications for the following positions:
- A Lead Evaluator with good experience in conducting complex evaluation, at least 15 years of experience in the humanitarian sector, and knowledge of the East African region.
- An agricultural expert, with experience in agricultural projects in emergency settings, capacity building and crop production in Africa.
- A livestock expert with proven experience in working in the East African region and excellent knowledge of pastoralist systems.
- An expert in cash transfer modalities, with in-depth knowledge of the operational challenges and most recent debates, especially in relation to the implementation of Cash programmes in complex settings.
- An operations expert, with particular responsibility for issues relating to programmeoperations and coordination of the emergency food security security sector.
How to apply:
International and national experts with expertise in one or more of the technical areas indicated above and experience in undertaking independent evaluations of complex programmes are invited to apply.
Please send your application with your CV, expected daily fee rate (exclusive of expenses), and availability between September and December 2015 to giacomo.laracca@fao.org