Liberia: Expression of Interest - Provision of Professional Services to Evaluate the UN Peacebuilding Priority Plans in Liberia for the UN Peacebuilding Fund

Apr 25, 2016 | UN Peacebuilding Support Office
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The United Nations Procurement Division (UN/PD) will shortly be issuing a solicitation for the provision of Professional Services to conduct an evaluative exercise for the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) of the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO).

The United Nations is seeking to identify a vendor to conduct an independent, final evaluation of the PBF's programmatic investments in Liberia.

The PBF supports the United Nations' broader peacebuilding objectives in countries emerging out of crisis or at risk of relapsing into conflict. It is intended to be a catalytic fund, driven by existing planning, coordination and monitoring mechanisms to support the peacebuilding strategies of in-country United Nations and Government leadership. The PBSO is responsible for the overall management of the PBF; UNDP’s Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) is the Fund’s Administrative Agent. At the country level, management of the Fund is delegated to a Joint Steering Committee (JSC), co-chaired by the national Government and the United Nations with a broader membership representing national and international stakeholders.

Liberia was declared eligible to receive PBF support in December 2007. It subsequently came onto the agenda of the Peacebuilding Commission in September 2010. Since 2008, the PBF has provided programmatic support through its Peacebuilding and Recovery Facility in three Peacebuilding Priority Plans (2008-2011, 2011-2013 and 2013-2016) for a total of about $50 million. A mid-term evaluation of the first Priority Plan was conducted in March 2010 and the report can be found here: http://www.unpbf.org/countries/liberia/.

The PBF is now commissioning a final, summative evaluation for the second and third Priority Plans, encompassing the period of 2011-2016. During this period, approximately $35 million has been approved thus far. The PBF support focuses on four broad outcome areas from the Priority Plans, which are aligned with a Statement of Mutual Commitments adopted by the Government of Liberia and the Peacebuilding Commission, namely: (1) justice and security, (2) national reconciliation, (3) management of natural resources and (4) sustainable livelihoods. The third and fourth outcome areas were introduced in the third Priority Plan.

A final evaluation of PBF's programmatic investments in Liberia is requested by PBSO's Senior Management as an independent evaluation of peacebuilding results of the PBF-funded work at country level. Its main objective is to provide evidence, findings and recommendations on these results for consideration and action by relevant actors, including the PBF staff, staff of the PBF's Administrative Agent, the United Nations Country Team, and national partners. It will also serve as relevant input to the PBF policies and guidance, and other reviews.

Final evaluations are conducted by independent evaluators and managed by the M&E Unit of the PBF, with support from in-country United Nations staff. While evaluations are fully independent, a PBF M&E Unit staff member may accompany the evaluation team during data collection for quality assurance. The evaluation manager will be supported by an evaluation reference group of key stakeholders, which will provide critical feedback on all evaluation deliverables, including the Inception Report, survey instruments and other data collection tools and the Final Report. The evaluation team is expected to work responsively with the reference group, while still maintaining independence.

The final evaluation's methodology should identify a range of data collection tools and ensure that both qualitative and quantitative methods are used appropriately in a mixed methods approach. Data will be derived from primary and secondary sources, direct observation in the field, key informant interviews, focus groups, and/or surveys with stakeholder groups. Other methodologies to consider include the development of case studies, cluster analysis, statistical analysis of data, social network analysis, etc. The evaluation team will produce a detailed methodological plan during the inception phase. This plan should also describe the triangulation strategy, gender analysis, and how stakeholder perceptions will be utilized for validation.

The outcome of the final evaluation will be a report that presents main findings and recommendations from the evaluation, as well as presentations to the PBF Senior Management and other stakeholders, as appropriate. The evaluation findings and recommendations are expected to be used to inform actions to further strengthen key aspects of the PBF's current and future work, both in New York and in Liberia. The evaluation report will provide actionable recommendations on how the PBF and its partners can improve their effectiveness and/or modify their activities in the specific areas being evaluated, taking into consideration any changes in the peacebuilding context. The final evaluation report will be made public.

The contract will be for the period covering the implementation and finalisation of the final evaluation report, expected to last approximately four months.

Fluency within the team in oral and written English is a mandatory requirement. Companies that answer this EOI need to have a minimum of 5 years of experience in conducting evaluations of peacebuilding interventions