National Evaluation Consultant Vietnam: Safe and Fair final evaluation

Terms of Reference

I. Background

Safe and Fair: Realizing women migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the ASEAN region (2018-2022) is part of the multi-year EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate Violence against Women and Girls. Safe and Fair is implemented by the ILO and UN Women, in collaboration with UNODC, with a total budget of Euro 25.5 million.

Safe and Fair delivers technical assistance and support with the overall objective of making labour migration safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region. Safe and Fair engages with ASEAN Member States’ government authorities; ASEAN institutions; workers’ organizations; employers and recruitment agencies; civil society organizations; community-based organizations; families and communities; research institutions and academia, media networks, youth, and the general public and supports programming in Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.

Programme Background

Roughly half of the approximately 10 million migrants in the ASEAN region are women. Women’s labour migration is an important aspect of labour mobility in the region and can be a crucial source of empowerment for women with women migrant workers making vital social and economic contributions to their communities and countries of origin and destination. However, the positive experiences and contributions of women migrant workers can only be fully ensured if their labour and human rights are fully protected.

Whether migrating through regular or irregular channels, women migrant workers face a risk of violence, trafficking and abuse from intermediaries and employers, as well as from partners and others, due to intersecting vulnerabilities and discriminative factors that compound each other, such as poverty, gender, ethnicity, immigration status, education and limited access to information.

Additionally, for women migrant workers survivors of violence, there are many barriers to access essential services such as health care, legal, justice, police and social services, even when they are legally working in the country.

Violence against women migrant workers is part of the broader spectrum of violence against women, and the cultural and gendered norms that drive it. Those cultural and gendered norms – including the use of gender specific bans – impact the migration experiences of women, including their decision to migrate and the opportunities available to them, restricting their ability to access regular migration into skilled, safe and well-paid employment. Migrant women commonly work in agriculture, manufacturing, services and construction, often in lower paid, informal employment with few if any labour protections. They are also significantly over-represented in domestic work.

Safe and Fair programme

Given the above, there was seen a need for a programme which addresses both the need for stronger gender-responsive migration governance in order to increase better and regular migration opportunities for women into protected labour sectors; and the need for improved information and enhanced coordinated quality services for women throughout the migration cycle to prevent and respond to VAW and trafficking. This programme was designed to promote gender-responsive labour migration laws, policies, practices and services, and support the organization, leadership, empowerment of women migrant workers. It aims to address the legal, policy and institutional gaps and barriers faced by women migrant workers, as well as enhance their access to fair and safe migration by addressing exploitation, forced labour and trafficking. To address violence against women migrant workers, the programme aims to strengthen peer networking, mobilize communities, enhance access to information on available services and support front-liners to provide coordinated services. Addressing the root cause of violence- gender inequality, gender stereotypical knowledge and attitudes, the programme aims at changing these. Collection of data and evidence – starting from labour migration flows to VAW data is fundamental to achieving programme results.

Final Evaluation objectives

Evaluation Purpose, Scope and Clients

The Final Evaluation has a dual-purpose: accountability and organizational learning. The evaluation will seek to determine the extent to which the programme has achieved its planned outcomes. The evaluation will also attempt to contribute to organizational learning by identifying lessons that have been learned and emerging good practices. This information can inform future designs of similar interventions.

The primary users of the evaluation findings will be the management team of the Safe and Fair programme, the programme’s donors (EU, and the Spotlight Initiative), ILO and UN Women evaluation units at headquarters, and the ILO, UN Women, and UNODC regional and field offices.  Secondary parties making use of the results will include tripartite constituents and civil society organizations who have partnered with the project, as well as other agencies working on labour migration and human trafficking at national and regional levels.

Final Evaluation objectives

• to focus on assessing the effectiveness, impact and transformative changes, and sustainability that the Safe and Fair Programme has brought about.  What have been the factors supporting those positive changes and what have been the challenges.
• to assess the coherence of the Safe and Fair Programme with respect to the UN system efforts and joint approach;
• to determine the extent to which the Programme is cost-effective and was implemented in the most efficient manner including the role of the management and coordination mechanisms in supporting and guiding the programme management team.
• to assess the extent to which the Safe and Fair Programme implemented a human rights and gender responsive approach in the design and implementation.
• To assess the extent to which the project outcomes can be sustainable.
• to identify lessons learned, good practices, and recommendations for future possible interventions of similar nature and as follow-up programmes after this one.

II. Duties and responsibilities

The final evaluation being led by two international consultants, who will be supported by two national consultants (in Thailand and Viet Nam). The national consultant in Vietnam will facilitate country level data collection as they have the advantage of location, language and required flexibility in undertaking data collection in this situation.

The sections below outline the specificities of this assignment in Vietnam:

Key tasks

• Participate in evaluation management meetings.
• In coordination with the international evaluation team, project management and country offices, schedule interviews and focus group discussions, in Vietnam. The contact information of constituents/stakeholders/partners to be interviewed will be made available by the project management and Vietnam teams of ILO and UN Women.
• Undertake KIIs/FGDs using the interview tool provided by the international evaluators. Make sure to follow ethical protocols during data collection, as outlined by the international evaluators. Share the notes of the interviews with the international evaluation team
• Provide translation during interviews conducted by the international evaluation team when requested.

III. Deliverables and schedule for payment

The National Evaluation Consultant is expected to support data collection for the final evaluation of the Safe and Fair Programme. The work will be done over a period of 15 days from 1 July to 31 December  2023.

The amount paid to the consultant for 15 days of work, shall be the sole remuneration and includes provision for any incidental expenses such as stenographic expenses, etc. The consultant shall not in any circumstances be entitled to any payments other than those expressly provided for above.

Payment will be made in one instalment upon satisfactory receipt and approval of the following deliverables:

**The consultant may be required to travel on official mission, and in such case, the travel will be arranged by UN Women and the costs will be covered based on UN Women travel policy.

IV. Supervision 

The consultant will be supervised by the UN Women Regional Evaluation Specialist in collaboration with   the ILO Evaluation Manager. 

V. Competencies  

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement

Functional Competencies:

• Good analytical skills
• Good knowledge of violence against women

VI. Required qualifications

• Master’s degree in relevant discipline or Bachelor’s degree + 2 additional years of relevant work experience (e.g., law, human rights, international development, gender studies, etc.);
• A minimum of 5 years of evaluation experience, with preference to those with experience working on evaluations of multi-stakeholder projects for multilateral organizations is required.
• Strong experience conducting interviews and focus group discussions, including with vulnerable populations.
• Strong experience in gender justice, gender equality, labour migration and human rights work within development cooperation preferred. 
• Experience in contributing to gender-responsive evaluation or experience in gender analysis, ending violence against women and human-rights based approaches is an asset.
• Knowledge in results-based programming in support of gender justice, labour migration and human rights is highly desirable.
• Working experience in Vietnam is required.
• Experience working with the UN system is a strong asset.
• Fluency in English and Vietnamese is required.

VII. Contract period and work location

The total duration of the engagement is from 1 July to 31 December 2023. The consultant will be based in Viet Nam (official duty station in Viet Nam).

Any travel costs related to travel will be authorized and arranged by UN Women prior the travel date according to its rules and regulations.

VIII. Evaluation

Evaluation Criteria

Applications will be evaluated based on cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the applications, with an evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

IX. Submission of application

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit an electronic application to [email protected] [1] not later than 9 June 2023, midnight New York time.

The submission package includes:

• Cover letter
• Sample of at least two evaluation reports, preferably in the areas of Labour migration, ending violence against women where the applicant was a team leader
• Personal History Form, using UN Women Personal History Form (P11) [2]
• Financial proposal: the financial proposal shall specify a lump sum amount in local currency  breaking down the professional fee for each deliverable.

X. UNW Statement on Diversity and Inclusion

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided?on the basis of?qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.?

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.?

UN Women?has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination.? All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel 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.)

ANNEXES

Annex 1: UNEG Norms and Standards for evaluation

• http://www.unevaluation.org/document/download/2787 [3]