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CAR: International Project Evaluation Consultant

May 18, 2021 | UN Women
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The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity working for the empowerment of women. 

The Central African Republic (CAR) has known for more than two decades recurrent crises which have contributed to the weakening of the State's capacities, to the destruction of the social and economic fabric, and to the extreme poverty of the populations both in rural areas than urban.   

On the political front, since the escalation of the crises in the country in 2012 and 2013, the CAR has concluded several peace and reconciliation agreements. These are mainly the Libreville Agreement (January 2013), the N'Djamena Declaration (April 2013) and the Brazzaville Agreement (July 2014), the Rome Agreement (December 2016). All these agreements, which were silent on gender and particularly silent with regard to women, ended in failure and did not allow a return to lasting peace in the CAR. 

Under the leadership of President Touadera, head of state since December 2016, the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation (APPR) in the CAR, negotiated in Khartoum from January 24 to February 5, 2019, was signed in Bangui on February 6, 2019 by the 14 armed groups and the Government. The APPR recognizes the importance of the involvement of women and youth in the peace processes and recovery and peacebuilding mechanisms in the CAR. However, this notable advance should not, however, lose sight of the constant reality that women and young people are underrepresented in decision-making bodies in the CAR, including in the implementation of peace and recovery processes. 

Many civil society organizations which had already criticized the exclusive nature of the Dialogue between the Government and the Armed Groups have regularly denounced the opacity and silence around the APPR-RCA. Also, in many media (Radio, written press and cybernetics), we witnessed numerous outings of opinion leaders who sometimes have nothing to do with the content of the Agreement. The press and media in particular excelled in rumors and incitement to hatred, which was a major obstacle in the implementation of the APPR. 

In order to address this lack of information and strengthen ownership of the peace process by the population, and particularly women and young people, the Ministry of Communication and Media, with the support of international partners, has developed a communication strategy relating to the APPR. This strategy should mainly make it possible to “facilitate the appropriation of the APPR-RCA by the Central African population, the Diplomatic Corps and other CAR partners.  

In order to support the efforts of the government in the process of popularizing the APPR, UN Women, UNFPA and SFCG and the Ministry of Communication and Media have initiated a project " Communication and awareness for cohesion social in CAR ”subject of this evaluation. The project was funded by the PBF for a total budget of $ 3,557,390.00 USD over a 24 month period. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Project description

The Joint UN - Women, UNFPA and SFCG Project “  Communication and Awareness for Social Cohesion in the CAR”   proposes to support the Central African Government in the process of popularizing the APPR. Social cohesion and community reconciliation actions will be developed so that the populations of the cities of  Bangui, Bambari, Bangassou and Paoua  receive the peace dividends following the signing of the Agreement.

Three major results would be achieved at the end of the Project: (i) The target populations (men / women / young people) have a better understanding of the content and process of the implementation and monitoring of the Peace Agreement as well as of the other consolidation of peace and recovery in CAR, (ii) the needs and aspirations of young people and women are better integrated in the implementation and monitoring of the Accord and other recovery processes (iii): Ex-combatants , political and administrative authorities, religious and community leaders, young people and women are involved in the creation and management of community assets which are factors in the consolidation of peace.

It is planned for a period of 24 months, from June 13, 2019 to June 12, 2021.

The Project's theory of change is articulated as follows:  IF a better knowledge of the APPR is promoted, two-way communication, creating a bridge between the state and the population, is established; and the aspirations of young people and women are better integrated into the implementation of the APPR, THEN, expectations and frustrations will be better managed and anticipated, and the risks of falling back into a situation of violent conflict reduced.

Result 1: By the end of the project, the target populations (men / women / young people) have a better understanding of the content and process of the implementation and monitoring of the Peace Agreement as well as other recovery mechanisms in RCA

This involves carrying out a set of community activities and radio productions which aim, among other things, to popularize the texts of the APPR and to strengthen social cohesion.

Institutional support to certain radio stations in the area and to the High Council for Communication (HCC) is part of this strategy. 

Result 2  :   By the end of the project, thanks to increased participation, the needs and aspirations of young people and women are better integrated into the implementation and monitoring of the APPR and other recovery processes

The result mainly concerns the advocacy of women's and youth organizations for a fair and equitable representativeness of women and young people in the formal bodies for the implementation and monitoring of the Agreement. It also provides for the capacity building of women's and youth organizations on citizen mechanisms for monitoring public action and for popularizing the APPR and other recovery mechanisms. 

Result 3: Former combatants, political and administrative authorities, religious and community leaders, young people and women are involved in the creation and management of community assets, factors in peacebuilding

It is a question of making operational the CLPRs through institutional support for their deployment. The project will also develop a strategic partnership with community and religious leaders, ex-combatants and local administrative authorities for the joint implementation of social cohesion activities.

Objectives and purpose of the evaluation

The final evaluation of the project is in line with the guidelines of the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund and the United Nations Agencies responsible for the implementation of the Project which recommend systematic final evaluations at the end of the project. implementation of Projects / Program. After 24 months of implementation, the contracting parties agreed to start the final evaluation process in order to carry out an analysis of the achievements, taking into account the evaluation criteria mentioned below. To this end, the evaluation will determine to what extent the project has contributed to the consolidation of peace in the CAR.

The assessment will identify strengths, areas that could have been improved and lessons learned from Project activities.

Specifically, the objectives of the evaluation are as follows:

  • Assess the relevance and adequacy of the project in terms of: 1) taking into account the main factors of conflict and the most relevant issues in peacebuilding; 2) alignment with the national peacebuilding policy and the country's national priorities; 3) whether the project capitalized on the added value of the UN in the country; and 4) the extent to which the project addressed cross-cutting issues such as conflict and gender sensitivity in the country;
  • Evaluate to what extent the project has concretely contributed to the reduction of a conflict factor in CAR.
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of the project, including its implementation strategy, its institutional arrangements as well as its management and operating systems and its value for money;
  • Assess whether the support provided by the project has promoted the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, has made it possible to place a specific emphasis on the participation of women in peacebuilding processes;
  • Assess whether the project has been implemented using a conflict sensitive approach;

The final evaluation report as well as the recommendations will serve as a basis for possible readjustments or new orientations in order to feed the programming and / or the implementation of future initiatives relating to political participation and peace consolidation ( Governance, Woman Peace and Security).

The evaluation will be gender sensitive and will adopt the norms and standards of the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG). It will try to answer questions related to the evaluation criteria of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of the intervention, and will assess the program. on the principles of Gender, Equity, Human Rights and Inclusion. The evaluation exercise is supposed to focus on how it will be used while identifying key lessons as well as clear, concrete and achievable recommendations.

The general objective will be to provide answers to the  following evaluation questions [1] :

Relevance

  • To what extent is the intervention relevant to the needs and priorities defined by the beneficiaries? Were they consulted during the design and implementation of the project?
  • To what extent is the project aligned with national peacebuilding priorities?
  • Was the project relevant to address the conflict factors and the peace factors identified in a conflict analysis?
  • Was the project appropriate and strategic in relation to the main objectives and challenges of peacebuilding in the country at the time of its design? Was relevance maintained throughout implementation? Are the planned outputs and outcomes relevant and realistic to the situation on the ground?
  • To what extent has the implementation of the project and the achievement of expected results benefited from the partnership and joint approach between UN Women and UNFPA and other United Nations organizations?
  • Were there any major risks that were not taken into consideration by the project teams?
  • To what extent has the project responded to the gaps in peacebuilding?

Efficiency

  • To what extent have the expected results been achieved? What are the reasons for the achievement or non-achievement? How did each of the UN partner agencies contribute?
  • To what extent does the coordination mechanism promote the efficiency of project implementation?
  • Have the resources been used efficiently? Have the activities supporting the strategy been profitable?
  • Were project funds and activities provided on time? If not, what were the bottlenecks encountered?
  • Are there sufficient resources (financial, temporal, human) allocated to integrate human rights and gender equality in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the project?
  • Were there any constraints (eg, policy, practice and bureaucracy) that prevented effective addressing of women's rights during implementation? What level of effort has been expended to overcome these difficulties?
  • To what extent did the target population, citizens, participants, local and national authorities take ownership of the program and play an active role in it?

Efficiency

  • What measures have been taken to ensure that resources (funds, expertise, time, etc.) are used efficiently and converted into concrete results, particularly in relation to the governance structure of the program?
  • Were products and services delivered on time at a lower cost through the adoption and / or use of specific mechanisms and approaches?
  • To what extent were the components of the joint program coordinated to jointly achieve the expected results?
  • To what extent is the project compatible with other interventions in the field of peacebuilding carried out in CAR, both at the sectoral and institutional level?
  • To what extent has the project been implemented in synergy with different entities, in particular with other United Nations actors?
  • To what extent was the project targeting strategy appropriate and clear in terms of geographic targeting and targeting of beneficiaries?
  • Did the project monitoring system adequately capture data on peacebuilding outcomes at each appropriate outcome level?
  • To what extent does the project have a useful and reliable monitoring and evaluation strategy that has helped to measure project results?
  • To what extent are the indicators described in the project document appropriate and useful for assessing project progress? Are the target values ​​of the indicators realistic and can they be tracked? If necessary, how should they be modified to be more useful? Are the means of verification of the indicators appropriate?

Impact

  • Is the intervention logic coherent and realistic? What needs to be adjusted? (see the project results matrix).
  • Does the project's theory of change clearly articulate the assumptions about why the project approach should produce the desired change?
  • Was the theory of change evidence-based?

Durability

  • Did the intervention design include an appropriate sustainability and exit strategy (including promotion of national / local ownership, use of national capacity, etc.) to support positive changes in consolidation? peace after the end of the project?
  • To what extent have the different partnerships between the recipient agencies and government entities including civil society organizations led to lasting changes in the perspective of the objectives of the joint project?
  • What is the level of government and other stakeholders' commitment to sustaining the results of project support and pursuing initiatives, in particular the participation of women in decision-making processes, supported by the PBF project?
  • What is the evidence of lasting transformations initiated by the joint program, at local and national level?
  • To what extent has the project given rise to synergies between the various stakeholders so as to make lasting collaboration possible beyond the time limits of the project? What are the catalytic effects of the project? Is the project risk tolerant?
  • How has the program strengthened ownership and contributed to the development of national capacities to ensure sustainability of efforts and benefits?
  • Did the project have a catalytic effect financially and / or programmatically?
  • Has project funding been used to scale up other peacebuilding activities and / or helped create broader platforms for peacebuilding?

Gender, Equity and Human Rights

  • To what extent have the principles of gender equality been incorporated into project objectives and processes?
  • To what extent has the project substantially integrated the gender dimension and supported gender-sensitive peacebuilding?
  • Was the project implemented on the basis of human rights principles and development effectiveness through participation / empowerment; inclusion / non-discrimination; national accountability / transparency?
  • Was the program design, implementation and monitoring process participatory?
  • Have stakeholders had the opportunity to give their opinion? How useful was the process?

Conflict Sensitivity

  • Did the project have an explicit approach to conflict sensitivity?
  • Were the internal capacities of RUNOs and NUNOs adequate to ensure an ongoing approach to conflict sensitivity?
  • Was the project responsible for any unintended negative impacts?
  • Has an ongoing context monitoring process and a tracking system that tracks unintended changes been established?

Disability inclusion

  • Were people with disabilities involved in the design and implementation of the project?
  • What part of the beneficiaries are people with disabilities?
  • What are the barriers people with disabilities have faced?

The questions proposed are only indicative. Selected evaluators will be able to refine these questions in close consultation with key stakeholders to ensure appropriate answers are provided to key evaluation questions. On the basis of these consultations, the evaluation team will develop an evaluation matrix which will include the key questions, evaluation criteria, indicators, sources of information to be used as well as means of cross-reference.