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Junior Evaluation Consultant: Sida-UN-Habitat (Programme Cooperation Agreement 2020-2025)
The United Nation Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all and sustainable development. It supports Member States in the development of sustainable cities and human settlements through its normative and operational work at global, regional and local levels. UN-Habitat also leads and coordinates the monitoring of and reporting on global progress in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development goal (SDG)11. To fulfil its mandates, UN-Habitat enters into funding arrangements with a number of donors and Sweden, through Sida, has been a major donor of UN-Habitat since the establishment of the UN-Habitat as a centre in 1978. From 2009, Sida has been funding UN-Habitat through multi-year cooperation agreements. The first Programme Cooperation Agreement (PCA) The first Programme Cooperation Agreement (PCA) covered 2009-2011, followed by the 2012-2015, then 2016-2019 and the current one 2020-2025 PCA. This Terms of Reference (TOR) concerns the independent evaluation of the 2020-2025 cooperation agreement. It is conducted in line with the UN-Habitat evaluation policy, that requires all evaluations with a value of above US$1 million to be evaluated by external evaluators. Although this external evaluation was not a requirement specified in the cooperation agreement, it was discussed and agreed upon with Sida and was included in the UN-Habitat Independent Evaluation Unit’s Workplan for Plan 2025. It is planned to be conducted before the cooperation agreement ends, in December 2025, to feed into decision-making processes regarding Sida’s future cooperation with UN-Habitat and potential funding agreements.
BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
In 2001, when UN-Habitat was elevated from a centre to a fully- fledged programme, its focus on integrating its normative and technical operational activities expanded. Global advocacy, including establishment of WUF, promotion of gender and empowerment of women as well as the integration of other crossing issues in UN-Habitat’s work including youth, human rights and climate change as well disaster and humanitarian response, became priorities for the Organization. The in-depth evaluation of UN-Habitat in 2005 conducted by Office of the Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), called for a reform of UN-Habitat, with the specific recommendation to sharpen its programme focus and broadening its funding base in order to have greater impact. This led to the formulation of the multiyear - six-year Medium-term and Institutional Plan (MTSIP) 2008-2013, which was developed with the intent to ensuring effective contribution to sustainable urbanization. Since 2009, and in alignment with the MTSIP, Sida started funding UN-Habitat, through multi-year programme cooperation agreements. The first PCA for 2009-2011 was funded with SEK 70 million (USD8.4 million). The second, 2012-2015, was funded with USD 14,163,018, the third, 2016-2019, was funded with SEK134,000,000 (USD16,000,000) and the current agreement, 2020-2025, funded to the maximum of SEK 295,750,000 (approx. USD 30 million). The 2020-2025 programme cooperation agreement takes into consideration UN-Habitat’s mandate and its responsibilities as UN-focal point for SDG 11 and other Urban related SDGs and reporting on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) in the context of Sweden’s policies, priorities and strategies for development cooperation; the new UN-Habitat’s governance architecture and organizational structure; efforts of the UN-Habitat to improve the transparency, accountability, efficiency and relevance; and to align UN-Habitat to UN wide system reforms and the position of the organization as a prime global knowledge organization on urban matters. It was also informed by results achieved as result of the previous cooperation and agreements. The Strategic Plan 2020-2025 aims at repositioning UN-Habitat as a major global entity, a centre of excellence and innovation for urbanization. In this respect, the Organization is refocusing its niche as the thought leader and go-to agency that sets the global discourse and agenda on sustainable urban development. The Strategic Plan envisions “a better quality of life for all in an urbanizing world”, which is encapsulated in the Plan’s 4 subprogrammes:
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Although the PCA covers the period of July 2020 to December 2025, the evaluation will cover the period from July 2020 to December 2024. The shorter coverage period was chosen in order to complete the evaluation ahead of the 2025 Annual consultations meeting scheduled for April 2025. The evaluation will focus on the normative and operational work supported by the Sida PCA under the four subprogramme; In addition, the performance enablers, social inclusion issues and Global Land Tool Network programme (including its work in rural and urban contexts) will be assessed. Regional architecture and support to the COVID-19 response will also be covered. In addition, the evaluation will integrate considerations of social inclusion and human rights, gender quality, and environment to ensure a comprehensive and equitable assessment. Under the supervision of the Chief, Independent Evaluation Unit, the Consultant will perform the following key objectives of the evaluation:
- Assess the design, implementation and the extent of the PCA in achieving its planned results through Sida -supported normative and operational work.
- Assess the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact outlook, and potential sustainability of the cooperation agreement.
- Assess how policy perspectives of Sida, including the urban poor, human rights-based approach, gender equality, disability, environment, are being integrated in the design and implementation of the cooperation agreement.
- Identify lessons learned and provide recommendations for improving future cooperation agreements for the intended users of the evaluation.
Full details available on the UN website. Application deadline 27 January.
