CONSULTANCY: MIDTERM REVIEW OF UNFPA MALAWI 8TH COUNTRY PROGRAMME (2019 – 2023)
1.0 Introduction and Background
In 2018, the Government of Malawi and the United Nations Population fund (UNFPA) Country Office developed 8th Country Programme Document (8th CPD) covering the period from 2019 till 2023. The 8th CPD was developed in consultation with various stakeholders; and was submitted to the UNFPA Executive Board in September 2018 for its approval. The 8th CPD has been aligned to the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy III, United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2019 -2023 and to the UNFPA 2017-2022 Strategic plan.
The 8th Country Programme is in its third year of implementation and since its inception, there have been significant developments at national and global levels. Most notably, Malawi was first hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in April,2020, and this resulted in shifting priorities and modalities of programme implementation. By 2020, the national vision 2020 came to its closure and lessons drawn from its evaluation fed into Malawi Vision 2063 launched in January 2021, and its ten-year implementation plan is currently being developed. There has been a shift in national priorities and enablers for attaining the new vision. Against this backdrop, to ensure that the 8th County Programme remains focused and addresses the needs of Malawi’s population, the Country Office has the need to conduct a mid-term review (MTR).
2.0 Purpose of the MTR:
The purpose of the MTR is to establish progress made towards achievement of results indicated in the CPD, to document challenges and lessons learned, to assess the suitability and appropriateness of the initial objectives and strategies set at the programme design stage. As per UNFPA corporate requirements, the country programme needs to be aligned to UNFPA strategic plans, the business model and resource allocation system (RAS). Hence, the MTR will analyze how best the 8th Country Programme is aligned to these strategic frameworks, while also taking into account the new developments.
The 8th Country Programme is focused on adolescents and youth, and women’s reproductive health, HIV prevention, fistula treatment which was underpinned by human rights, gender equality and population dynamics.
In line with the Delivering as One principle and the UN Development System reform, UNFPA further partners with other United Nations agencies to implement joint programmes in the area of evidence generation, family planning and adolescent sexual and reproductive health. In the course of the 8th CPD, districts of Mzimba, Dowa, Ntchisi, Machinga an Nsanje have been strategically added for implementation of a joint UN Spotlight Initiative tackling violence against women. Under a joint UN Project on Together for SRHR, which has been extended from 7th CPD another additional district is Mulanje (with Nkahata-bay and Mangochi being retained. Finally, Salima district where a Joint Programme on Girls Education has also been maintained for support together with 2 others already supported districts; Mangochi and Dedza. Thus, in Total UNFPA supports 12 districts out of a total 28 districts in the country.
3.0 Objectives of the Review
- To generate evaluative evidence and draw lessons learned of how UNFPA has positioned itself and responded to the emergency response and recovery needs in the context of COVID-19 pandemic in its mandate areas that emerged during the period of the 8th Country Programme for Malawi.
- To determine the adequacy of the design, effectiveness of the implementation of the Country Programme and its alignment to UNFPA strategic plan (2017-2022), business model, resource allocations system and national development plan including Malawi Vision 2063, and as a result develop a plan of action for remaining period (2 years) of the 8th Country Programme that will maximise the impact, efficiency and effectiveness of programmatic interventions and other operational and managerial measures, and to formulate initial directions for developing the next Country Programme.
3.1 Scope of the MTR
- The MTR will focus on the implementation process, achievements and challenges at both output level of the 8th country Programme 2019- 2023. In addition to assessing the impact of UNFPA investment at the national level, the MTR exercise will take a closer look at the results in the five UNFPA focus districts of Nkhata Bay, Mchinji, Dedza, Mangochi and Chiradzulu and other 7 districts supported through the Spotlight Initiative and JPGE.
- The MTR will cover the four technical areas of the country programme (adolescent and youth, population and development, reproductive health and gender). In addition, the evaluation will cover cross cutting aspects such as human rights-based approach, gender mainstreaming, adolescent and young people, coordination, monitoring and evaluation, data systems and partnerships.
In particular, the 8th Country Programme document highlight the following priorities:
a) Reproductive health with emphasis on:
(i) the supply chain, forecasting and availability of commodities at service delivery points level,
(ii) capacity development for provision of SRH services as well as creation of demand for these
services with an emphasis on family planning services for adolescent’s girls, HIV prevention services (Including the marginalized groups) and fistula treatment,
- Safeguarding young people including adolescents sexual and reproductive health,
- Gender, covering aspects of improving a policy environment and building capacities for gender-based violence prevention and management,
- Population and Development, looking at aspects of ensuring availability of disaggregated data, availability and use of evidence for programming and status of population dimension integration in key development policies, plans and frameworks develop during the period under review.
4.0 Schedule and cost:
The consultants are expected to take 12 weeks
5.0 Composition of the Midterm Review Team
The MTR team will consist of:
- A Team leader (consultant), who will lead the team and coordinate the process and provide expertise in one of the four programmatic areas of the review (reproductive health and rights, humanitarian, youth and gender and population and development/data). She/he will take part in the data collection and analysis work during the design and field phases. She/he will be responsible for drafting key sections relating to her/his area of expertise. She/he will be responsible for putting together the design report, the draft and final reports based on inputs from other team members.
- One reviewer (consultant), who will each provide expertise in (at least) one programmatic area of the review (reproductive health and rights, humanitarian, youth and gender and population and development/data). The reviewer will take part in collection and analysis work during the design and field phases. The reviewer will be responsible for drafting report, including (but not limited to) sections relating to her/his area of expertise.
Qualification of Review Team Members (Experts)
Team Leader: The Team Leader must have the following:
- An advanced degree in medical sciences, social sciences, political science, economics or related fields;
- Extensive previous experience in leading complex reviews and evaluations, especially in the field of development aid for UN agencies and/or other international organizations;
- Specialization and significant experience in one of the programmatic areas covered by the review (reproductive health and rights, humanitarian, youth/gender and population and development);
- Familiarity with UN and/or UNFPA mandate and activities;
- Experience regarding operations in humanitarian settings;
- Excellent management skills and ability to work with multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams;
- Excellent analytical, communication and writing skills.
Review Team Member: The Review Team member must have:
- An advanced degree in social sciences, political science, economics, gender or related fields;
- Specialization and significant experience in one of the programmatic areas covered by the evaluation (reproductive health and rights, humanitarian, youth/gender and population and development);
- Significant knowledge and experience of complex reviews and evaluations in the field of development aid for UN agencies and/or other international organizations;
- Familiarity with UN and/or UNFPA mandate and activities;
- Experience regarding operations in humanitarian settings;
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work in a multi-cultural team;
- Excellent analytical, communication and writing skills.
6.0 Expected Outputs/Deliverables
The review team will produce the following deliverables:
- a design report including (as a minimum): a) a stakeholder map; b) the review matrix (including the final list of review questions and the corresponding judgment criteria and indicators); c) the overall review design and methodology, with a detailed description of the data collection plan for the field phase; (maximum 25 pages, plus annexes)
- a debriefing presentation document (Power Point) synthesizing the main preliminary findings, conclusions and recommendations of the review, to be presented and discussed with the CO during the debriefing meeting foreseen at the end of the field phase;
- a draft final report (potentially followed by a second draft, taking into account potential comments from UNFPA);
- a power point presentation of the results of the review for the in-country stakeholder workshop; and
- a final report, based on comments expressed during the in-country stakeholder workshop. (Maximum 70 pages, plus annexes)
7.0 Application Requirements:
- Cover letter: A short letter addressing the evaluation criteria
- Technical Proposal:
- Understanding of the TOR, review framework, methodology, work plan, team structure with specified individual roles and timeline
- Background information about the organization/ individual registration, registration certificate and financial capacity statements (in case of organization) other projects handled and CVs of the persons who will be engaged in the assignment.
Iii. Financial Proposal:
Detailed budget for the work plan including total fee for the assignment (should specify various components like manpower, travel, miscellaneous).
8.0 Method of Application
How to Apply: Candidates who have the required/relevant qualifications and experience should submit their applications including Application Requirements listed above to the following address: recruitment.malawi@unfpa.org. Please specify in the email subject ‘Midterm Review Consultant’. Applications should be received not later than 27th July 2021.
