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National Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate (NaMED) and UNICEF Sierra Leone, in close partnership with UNICEF West and Central Africa Regional Office (WCARO), seek to hire a National Senior Evaluation Consultant to better understand how to improve both the public health and the economic responses to COVID-19, while they are ongoing. More specifically, NaMED and UNICEF are interested in learning more what works and what does not about the current response delivery in order to: (i) reduce COVID-19 transmission; (ii) strengthen supply chain of drugs, equipment and other medical commodities for effective COVID-19 case management, while sustaining safe delivery of essential health and nutrition service; and (iii) support those in need of social protection, psycho-social support and protection measures. As a result, understanding the efficacy, coordination and effectiveness of the different response pillars (for more details see below) is key to improving the Government of Sierra Leone’s COVID-19 response in order to better serve and benefit women, children, and the most at risk and vulnerable populations in Sierra Leone.
To this end, NaMED and UNICEF are planning to launch and co-lead the “In-the-Middle-of-Action Rapid Evaluation” MARE). The National Senior Evaluation Consultant will work in a MARE evaluation team, supported by a National Junior Evaluation Consultant. The MARE is an innovative evaluation approach which builds upon two types of knowledge (explicit and tacit) that exist within any organization but are often not exploited as much as they should be. Explicit knowledge is generally well articulated, codified and shared, including through organisational procedures and activity monitoring reports. To the contrary, tacit knowledge encompasses the know-how derived from individual experiences and expertise of staff within an organization, which is often harder to identify and make accessible to all for the common good). The MARE approach aims to merge these two types of knowledge and intends to generate new knowledge and enhance organisational learning.
The WHO is in the process of conducting an Inter-Action Review (IAR) of the Government of Sierra Leone’s technical pillars of the public health emergency response at the national and district level. The IAR is a one-time qualitative review of actions undertaken so far to respond to the ongoing emergency as a means of identifying gaps, lessons, and best practices in order to improve the response plan. The MARE will benefit from retrospective IAR findings across the pillars and complement the findings by generating nuanced district and community level findings. The MARE will also engage with the pillar-level IAR action plans and evaluate progress over the three research phases.
Purpose :
The MARE COVID-19 response evaluation is expected to generate strategic and operational recommendations that will help NaMED, the Government of Sierra Leone, and the UNICEF Country Office (CO) as well as other in-country partners in Sierra Leone to put in place a response that is :
- More efficient ;
- Better adapted or focused to children’s, adolescents’ and women’s and men’s needs ;
- Able to ensure equitable access to basic services for the most disadvantaged children ;
- Capable of strengthening community interventions to tackle crisis impacts.
As is the case for all other UNICEF evaluations conducted in West and Central Africa region (WCAR), this COVID-19 response evaluation will have two purposes: accountability and learning :
- With respect to accountability, this evaluation will provide both the entities funding and responsible for the response (vertical accountability) and the expected beneficiaries (horizontal accountability) with solid evidence on the extent to which the COVID-19 response attained or not its envisaged objectives (in doing so, the evaluation will also shed light on the unintended or unexpected effects of the response) ;
- With respect to learning, which remains the primary focus of this exercise, this COVID-19 response evaluation is expected to promote the generation of actionable and operationally relevant evidence that could help those managing the response to better understand what works and what doesn’t with the ultimate goals to take corrective actions and make the necessary adjustments to enhance the quality and effects of the current COVID-19 response. Such newly created knowledge is also expected to inform the ability of the key response stakeholders to manage similar response programs more effectively and efficiently in the future.
Methodology and Technical Approach :
The evaluation will follow the in-the-Middle-of-the-Action-Rapid-Evaluation (MARE) approach. This is an innovative approach, developed by the Evaluation Unit of the Regional Office for West and Central Africa (WCARO), consists of a both simultaneous and sequential use of qualitative and quantitative methods (mixed methods). it is structured around six main phases: (i) Inception; (ii) Preliminary diagnostic; (iii) Identification of key factors influencing the response and of preliminary lessons learned; (iv) Intra-community Data collection; (v) Data analysis; and (iv) Dissemination. Phases iii, iv and v will repeat three times during the evaluation process at an interval of 2 months. These three repeated processes are referred to as Modules. Phase iv (intra community data collection) will build up and expand progressively over the three modules.
Evaluation team members :
The team undertaking the assignment will be made up of the following members :
- Two national consultants (one senior and one junior) ;
- Local enumerators or data collection agents ;
- Community members themselves (including children and youth).
The two national consultants will participate in all stages of the evaluation process. The Senior Consultant will lead the evaluation and will be responsible for developing research tools; coordinating and undertaking interviews; and will lead the analysis and report writing. The Junior Consultant will support with the desk review, support with the development of research tools; will coordinate and supervise the field data collection; and will develop community level analysis.
Please see attached ToR for detailed information 
ToR – Senior Evaluation Consultant.pdf
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
- Masters degree in social sciences or other relevant field with emphasis on public health/community development ;
- More than seven years of experience in programme evaluation and must have completed at least three high quality programme/project evaluation in that period (a copy of an evaluation report, which the applicant has been a primary author of, will need to be submitted as part of the application) ;
- Must be familiar with either social sector or public health programming and evaluation approaches ;
- Perfect command of quantitative and qualitative methods of research and evaluation methods based on equity, human rights and gender ;
- Demonstrated experience in the use of participatory appraisal techniques in data collection, sensitive to gender issues ;
- Demonstrated knowledge of the COVID-19 and other past humanitarian response situations ;
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and excellent command of Krio ;
- Excellent analytical, synthesis and writing skills ;
- Demonstrated work experience in rural communities of Sierra Leone ;
- Previous evaluations in risk communication and social protection-related areas will be an asset.
Interested applicants are requested to submit the following documents :
- A CV summarizing the qualification and technical capacity of candidate(s) ;
- A Technical Proposal (max 5 pages) including ;
- Timeline for deliverables specific to the Senior Consultant ;
- Methodology and approach for deliverables specific to the senior Consultant ;
- Three relevant reports of evaluations that the consultant has been involved in conducting in the past, which the applicant has been a primary author of ;
- A Financial proposal for daily professional fee in SLL.
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.
Remarks :
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.