Consultant – Team Lead for evaluation of UNICEF early childhood development programme in Thailand (2020-2024), UNICEF Thailand Country Office, Bangkok, Job No #577645

oversight and management of the evaluation process and budget. The EMT will lead on assuring the quality and independence of the evaluation throughout the process, its alignment with UNEG Norms and Standards and Ethical Guidelines, and that the evaluation findings and conclusions are relevant and recommendations are implementable, and contribute to dissemination of findings and follow-up on the management response to recommendations.

An evaluation Reference Group (ERG) will be established composed of representatives from the UNICEF Thailand ECD team, EAPRO Regional ECD Adviser, EAPRO Regional Evaluation Adviser, representatives of key ministries, civil society organizations, UN partner agencies, and any technical experts as required. The ERG will be convened by the EMT during key review milestones to provide comments and substantive feedback to ensure the technical quality of products, including methodology and design, evaluation instruments, the inception, draft and final reports. The ERG will also assist in identifying internal and external stakeholders to be consulted during the evaluation process, provide documentation to the evaluator as needed, participate in review meetings organized by the EMT as required, play a key role in learning and knowledge sharing from evaluation results, contribute to disseminating the findings of the evaluation and follow-up on the implementation of the management response.

Quality assurance plays a vital role in the evaluation and involves a wide range of people. The evaluator is the first level quality assurance for the evaluation products, and clear quality assurance considerations and system must be presented in the proposal and ensured throughout the evaluation. The EMT and the ERG are the second and third level quality assurance mechanisms respectively. Each deliverable will undergo a thorough process of quality assurance. Quality assurance will focus on the technical soundness of the deliverables, as well as on ensuring the deliverables meet the reporting standards set out by GEROS and other UNICEF and UNEG guidelines as mentioned above. The EMT will make such guidelines available, as well as examples of highly satisfactory evaluation reports to guide the evaluator.

Quality assurance turnaround times: The inception report and final report will go through various rounds of quality assurance, starting with a first review by the EMT (1 week). After this review the evaluator will have one week turnaround time after which the report must be returned together with the comments matrix. This will then be shared with the ERG, who have two weeks to review the report and revert with comments. Other deliverables will require shorter review and revision times.

Assignment 1:  Inception

Expected deliverable 1:

• Final Inception Report (In accordance with UNEG Inception Report guidelines)
• Comments matrix addressing all comments on inception report
• Ethical approval for the evaluation from an accredited ethics review board, as necessary

Delivery Schedule: February 2025

Assignment 2:  Data collection

Expected deliverable 2:  Approved data collection summary

Delivery Schedule: April 2025

Assignment 3:  Data analysis, validation and reporting

Expected deliverable 3:

• Zero draft evaluation report
• First draft report
• Revised draft report
• Penultimate draft report
• Final evaluation report (In accordance with UNICEF Evaluation Report guideline and GEROS quality evaluation standards)
• Comments matrix addressing all comments (A template for the comments matrix will be provided by the EMT)
• Powerpoint of final report

Delivery Schedule: July 2025

Duration of Contract:    January – July 2025

• The assignment is expected to be completed within 7 months after the signing of the contract, tentatively from January 2025 to July 2025, including time for review of deliverables by the evaluation management team and the ERG. Approximately 45 days will be required from the team lead on the assignment.
• A detailed workplan and work allocation will be agreed between UNICEF and the awarded contractor.

Duty Travel:  

• The assignment will be completed at the contractor’s premises. The contractor will be responsible for acquiring resources and facilities required for its completion, including any travel arrangements.
• Regular virtual or in-person meetings are expected.
• Travel is expected for this assignment. The bidder is required to include the estimate cost of travel in the financial proposal noting that i) travel cost shall be calculated based on the most direct route and economy class travel, regardless of the length of travel and

ii) costs for accommodation, meal and incidentals shall not exceed applicable daily subsistence allowance (DSA) rates, depending on the location, as promulgated by the International Civil Service Commission (https://icsc.un.org/).

Payment Schedule:

• The payment schedule must be based on completed deliverables.
• If the bidder wishes to propose an alternative payment schedule, it must be included in the financial proposal. The final payment schedule is to be reviewed and agreed with UNICEF.
• Payment terms 30 days net upon receipt of approved invoice.

Criteria for evaluation of proposal:

• Bidders are requested to provide a detailed technical proposal in Annex A  Annex A - Technical Proposal - TCO ECD Prog Eval.docx – Technical response form. The technical proposal must include all information needed to fully evaluate the proposal.
• Bidders must ensure not to include any financial information in the technical proposal.
• Bidders are requested to submit a separate financial proposal with their application. The financial proposal should be a lump sum amount for all the deliverables and should show a break down for the following:
  • Monthly / Daily fees– based on the deliverables in the Terms of Reference above
  • Travel, living allowance, and terminal costs, where travel is required
  • Miscellaneous – if applicable
• The estimate cost of travel in the financial proposal i) shall be calculated based on the most direct route and economy class travel, regardless of the length of travel and ii) costs for accommodation, meal and incidentals shall not exceed applicable daily subsistence allowance (DSA) rates, depending on the location, as promulgated by the International Civil Service Commission (https://icsc.un.org/).
• If the bidder wishes to include additional or optional elements outside the defined deliverables as per this TOR, these should be clearly marked and separated as such in both, the technical and financial proposal.
• The evaluation team lead is expected to engage and work with a local and qualified evaluation team member in Thailand. The team member position is currently under recruitment.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• A minimum of 10 years of evaluation experience with excellent understanding of evaluation principles and methodologies, evidence of research or implementation expertise in early childhood development programmes, an awareness of human rights (incl. child rights), gender equality and equity in evaluation and UNEG norms and standards.
• At least master’s degree in international development, education, development programme evaluation, or any ECD related social science discipline
• Specific evaluation experience in the ECD or education area is strongly desirable.
• Experience in leading and managing evaluations of UNICEF or other UN organizations or international NGOs.
• Substantial experience in implementing a range of qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques and methods in programme evaluations, including survey implementation and field studies.
• Diplomacy and tact in carrying out and presenting findings of evaluations in sensitive contexts.
• Experience in Thailand would be strongly preferred, together with understanding of the local context and cultural dynamics.
• Adaptability and flexibility, client orientation, proven ethical practice, initiative, concern for accuracy and quality.
• Excellent analytical, facilitation, and communication skills.
• Excellent and proven English communication and report writing skills.

Interested candidates are requested to submit CV, full contact information of minimum 3 references, availability, technical proposal, and financial proposal by 31 December 2024.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

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. Consultants 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. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.