Team Leader/ International Consultant for UNSDCF evaluation

Result of Service

The Team Leader/International Consultant will lead the evaluation of the Kyrgyzstan United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2023–2027, ensuring strategic oversight, methodological rigor, coordination of the evaluation process, and delivery of high-quality evaluation products in line with UNEG norms and standards. The consultant will manage and coordinate a small evaluation team composed of three members, including national and/or thematic consultants, and will ensure effective collaboration with the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), government counterparts, civil society organizations, development partners, and other key stakeholders throughout the assignment. The consultancy will include the design and implementation of the evaluation methodology, data collection tools, stakeholder consultations, field visits, analysis, validation workshops, and preparation of evaluation deliverables, including inception, draft, and final reports. Field missions to selected regions of Kyrgyzstan are expected in order to conduct consultations with local authorities, UN implementing partners, beneficiaries, and communities, and to assess results achieved at the decentralized level. The Team Leader will specifically focus on the evaluation of the UNSDCF 2023–2027, while the evaluation component related to the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) Portfolio 2021–2026 will be conducted in parallel by a separate evaluation team. Close coordination and alignment between both evaluation streams will nevertheless be required to ensure coherence of findings, methodologies, and recommendations. The evaluation is expected to generate evidence-based findings, lessons learned, and actionable recommendations to support accountability, organizational learning, and the development of the next Cooperation Framework cycle, including strategic positioning of the United Nations in Kyrgyzstan in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Evaluation Approach and Methodology The evaluation will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and adopt participatory approach in which discussions with key stakeholders provide/verify the substance of findings This includes document reviews, analysis of quantitative secondary data, UNINFO (Joint Work Plan) data, individual interviews with key informants and focus groups, existing evaluations and the synthesis of evaluative evidence e.g. project evaluations, agency-specific evaluations, or other types of discussion to collect data. The Independent Evaluation Consultants shall be guided by UNSDCF Guidelines to develop the evaluation methodology (standard methodology section). They shall also develop the necessary tools to collect data and information to answer the overall evaluation questions. All the approaches and methodologies need to be discussed between the Evaluation Consultant and the Evaluation Manager. The methodology should enhance the national ownership of eva...