Deadline: 4-Mar-22
The United Nations Multi-Partner Trust Fund for Reconciliation, Stabilization, and Resilience in South Sudan (RSRTF) is inviting consultancy firms to submit proposals for conducting an evaluation of:
- the RSRTF’s approach to thematic funding and
- the impact and performance of two of the Fund’s thematic grant projects
The main goals of this evaluation are to assess the relevance of the RSRTF’s Thematic Grants Window (TGW), particularly as it relates to the RSRTF’s focus on funding comprehensive ‘Area-based Programmes’ (ABPs), and to make recommendations as to any potential future applications of the TGW.
The RSRTF intends to reduce violence and conflict in hotspot and marginalised areas of the country. Through its Area-based Programmes (ABP) RSRTF partners deliver comprehensive interventions that reduce social acceptance of violence and simultaneously nurture a conducive environment where peace can be sustained. Often building on existing efforts to bridge political divides and reconcile community divisions, the approach ensures hard-won political agreements and community reconciliation initiatives are reinforced through tangible actions that shift incentives and raise the cost of resorting to violence.
As stipulated in the TGW Call for Proposals (CfP), the initiatives to be funded were expected to seize the window of opportunity opened by the formation of the R-TGoNU, and to contribute to the Fund’s Stabilization pillar, focusing on the following:
- Peace & Governance: Support the development of a robust political system and a more accountable, transparent, and responsive government by building governance capacity and fostering cohesion among political actors.
Thematic Grants
- UNMISS Civil Affairs Division (CAD): ‘Empowering the Grassroots: Linking the National and Subnational Processes’. The project runs from 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2022 with a total budget of USD 629,802. Its main aims are ‘to empower grassroots stakeholders and opinion leaders across South Sudan and broaden their space for engagement by providing a platform to enhance grassroots participation in national peace implementation, bridge subnational and national processes, facilitate dialogue between local constituencies and their national leaders, and influence national policy on sustainable peace themes’.
- UNMISS Political Affairs Division (PAD): ‘Targeted support to Peace Implementation: Enhancing Political and Civic Space’. The project ran from 1 April 2020 to 31 December 2021 (USD 500,000 budget). Its main aim was ‘to increase political understanding and dialogue amongst a multi-tiered audience in order to increase inclusive civic and political participation in the implementation of the peace agreement and in the political landscape, laying the foundation to support a credible election process during the transitional period’.
- International Organization for Migration (IOM): ‘Promoting Peace and Solidarity in the Face of COVID-19 in Juba, Bentiu and Wau’ running from 1 August 2020 to 31 October 2021. Utilizing the Thematic Grants Window modality and reflecting the Fund’s ability to quickly react to changes in an evolving context, the SC acted decisively to respond to the COVID-19 context allocating funds in support of the IOM project which aimed to enhance citizen participation in COVID-19 related governance processes and promote peaceful co-existence and social cohesion, while combatting stigmatization, and engendering the cooperation needed to limit and respond effectively to the spread of the disease.
Requirements
- The applicant firm will demonstrate:
- Extensive experience evaluating political, dialogue-facilitation, peacebuilding, and mediation projects
- Experience evaluating pooled multilateral funds, such as United Nations Multi-Partner Trust Funds
- Integrity and fairness, by modelling UN values and ethical standards
- Experience in integrating human rights and gender perspectives into evaluations
- Ability to design clean and meaningful graphics that support narratives, or direct access to graphic designers able to contribute to the Evaluation Team’s work
- Collectively, the Evaluation Team further will demonstrate:
- Cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
- Deep familiarity with South Sudan’s political context and key actors, R-ARCSS, the transitional period, and sub-national peacemaking dynamics
- Experience with and institutional knowledge of development, humanitarian, peace actors, including UN peacekeeping missions, UN Agencies, Funds, and Programmes, NGOs, civil society, or faith-based groups, preferably in South Sudan
- Familiarity with project management, particularly reporting, budgeting and procurement, preferably in a peacekeeping mission context
- An appropriate range of field experience
- Experience in facilitating consultative workshops involving a wide range of organizations and participants
- Excellent writing and communication skills in English
For more information, visit https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=88388