TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE RECRUITMENT OF LOCAL CONSULTANT TO CONDUCT THE MID-TERM REVIEW FOR THE JOINT PROGRAMME ON GENDER, ENTITLED “LEVERAGING THE FULL POTENTIAL OF GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT TO ACHIEVE RWANDA’S TRANSFORMATION”

Rwanda is among eight pilot countries selected in January 2007 to implement the One UN Reform, which enables the UN System to provide a more effective and coherent response to the needs of the Government of Rwanda and its Development Partners. As part of the UN Country Team, UNDP works with other sister agencies to implement the “One UN – Delivering as One” process.

Terms of Reference for the recruitment of Local consultant to conduct the Mid-Term Review for the Joint Programme on Gender, entitled “Leveraging the full potential of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment to achieve Rwanda’s transformation”

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT 

Rwanda has adopted its new National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) to guide its national transformation programme over seven years (2017 – 2024) and accelerate the implementation and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Aligned to this strategy, the United Nations Development Assistance Plan 2018 – 2023 (UNDAP II) provides a guiding framework for support to the Government of Rwanda’s transformational agenda, including to furthering gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE). In this framework, the Joint Programme on Gender was developed by the One UN together with the Government of Rwanda, to advance Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) under the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) and through the UNDAP II pillars of Economic Transformation, Social Transformation and Transformational Governance.

The overall goal of this Joint programme is to ensure that “Women and girls, especially the most vulnerable, participate in, contribute to and benefit from the political, economic and social transformation in Rwanda” through leveraging the comparative advantages of the participating UN agencies – UN Women (Lead), UNDP, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM and OHCHR – and its implementing partners, namely Government Institutions under the leadership of the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF), CSOs, and the Private Sector.

This joint programme is funded by the Embassy of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation as well as the Royal Netherlands Government through the Netherlands Embassy to Rwanda although financial gaps still exist which lead to the resizing of the programme.

The programme interventions are structured around three main priority areas (1) Enhancing women’s leadership and participation in governance institutions at local and national level; (2) Strengthening women’s economic empowerment and access to economic opportunities; (3) Ending Violence against women and girls.

The Joint Program on Gender has been under implementation since 2019 by the National Gender Machinery (NGM) institutions namely MIGEPROF, GMO, NWC, FFRP and other participating UN Agencies namely UN Women, UNDP, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM, OHCHR as well as other implementing partners from government and CSOs to ensure that the programme builds synergies and makes tangible contributions to the promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women and the fight against gender-based violence.

It is within this background that the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion in collaboration with UN Women as lead institutions of this Joint Programme would like to hire the service of a consultant to conduct its mid-term review to take stock of the achievements, lessons learnt, challenges which will inform future programming for the remaining programme implementation period.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY

The overall objective of the consultancy is to take stock of the results (outcome level) achieved during the last 3 years of the program period whilst borrowing lessons from the same experience to inform future program undertakings. The MTR will also guide the way forward given the numerous challenges the Joint program faced including resource mobilization gaps and Covid-19 pandemic. The evaluation will assess the relevance, effectiveness, and sustainability of the programme within the country context of the implementation of the One Plan and UN Women Annual Work Plan

Duration of the consultancy

The consultancy will be carried out for a period of 30 days from the time of the contract signature by both parties.

Mode of application

All interested and qualified local consultants may download the detailed terms of reference at link and are requested to submit all required documents to rwanda.offers@unwomen.org not later than 27 April 2022 at 5pm Kigali time. Only pre-selected candidates will be notified.