| Description |
Detailed Terms of Reference, including evaluation criteria, are available at www.undp.ro/job
Final Evaluation of the UNDP/GEF Project
“Strengthening Romania’s Protected Area System by Demonstrating Best Practices for Management of Small Protected Areas in Macin Mountains National Park (MMNP)”
UNDP/GEF Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) policy
The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) policy at the project level in UNDP/GEF has four objectives: - to monitor and evaluate results and impacts;
- to provide a basis for decision making on necessary amendments and improvements;
- to promote accountability for resource use; and
- to document, provide feedback on, and disseminate lessons learned.
A mix of tools is used to ensure effective project M&E. These might be applied continuously throughout the lifetime of the project – e.g. periodic monitoring of indicators -, or as specific time-bound exercises such as mid-term reviews, audit reports and final evaluations.
In accordance with UNDP/GEF M&E policies and procedures, all regular and medium-sized projects supported by the GEF should undergo a final evaluation upon completion of implementation. A final evaluation of a GEF-funded project (or previous phase) is required before a concept proposal for additional funding (or subsequent phases of the same project) can be considered for inclusion in a GEF work program. However, a final evaluation is not an appraisal of the follow-up phase.
Final evaluations are intended to assess the relevance, performance and success of the project. It looks at early signs of potential impact and sustainability of results, including the contribution to capacity development and the achievement of global environmental goals. It will also identify/document lessons learned and make recommendations that might improve design and implementation of other UNDP/GEF projects.
Project objectives
The objective of the Macin Mountains National Park (MMNP) project is to demonstrate a landscape-oriented method of managing small protected areas and improving the conservation effectiveness of protected areas and to serve as a basis for replication across the emerging national system of protected areas in Romania.
A modern, national protected area (PA) system is emerging in Romania. The challenge of maintaining and conserving biodiversity in landscapes dominated by human land-use is of paramount concern to this emerging protected area system. Small protected areas, when managed as “islands” in a productive landscape “sea,” lose biodiversity over time. This project is designed to catalyze the adoption of best practices to meet this challenge by focusing on the Macin Mountain National Park (MMNP) and its surrounding landscape.
The problem of MMNP is that - as a small protected area - it loses biodiversity over time when managed as “islands” in productive landscape. The main threat to the biodiversity in these small protected areas is the forest and grassland habitat degradation and low-level species loss to the surrounding landscape. The main barriers for an effective management of small protected areas include: absence of established PA management practice; top-down, narrow management, lacking participatory and cross-sectoral protected area management approach; economic and financial with a narrow valuation of forest products and benefits; and, regulation and policy providing management practitioners with few tools that can help to apply new approaches.
The project is to demonstrate in MMNP the application of landscape ecology and biology-inspired conservation tools, with emphasis on community and civil society participation and cross-sectoral collaboration, and prioritization of the replication of lessons learned and best practices across the emerging network of over 800 protected areas of various types in Romania.
Project location: Macin Mountains National Park
The main expected outcomes of the project are:
- The productive landscape around Macin Mountains National Park is made more biodiversity friendly;
- Macin Mountains National Park management capacity and conservation effectiveness is secured;
- Replication of small protected area management best practices across national PA system is ongoing.
The UNDP/GEF project “Strengthening Romania’s Protected Area System by Demonstrating Best Practices for Management of Small Protected Areas in Macin Mountains National Park (MMNP)” is funded by the GEF, UNDP, the National Forest Administration (NFA) and others partners. The UNDP Country Office in Romania is the implementing agency and the NFA is the National Implementing Agency for this project. The Project was signed in November 2005 and will end in December 2009. It has a total budget of US$3.64M of which US$1.0M is funded by GEF; including $23,970 to fund the PDF-A phase and US$2.66M co-financed by project partners. | Duties and Responsibilities | This Final Evaluation is initiated by the UNDP Romania as the Implementation Agency for this project and it aims to provide managers (at the Project Implementation Unit, UNDP Romania Country Office and UNDP/GEF levels) with a comprehensive overall assessment of the project and an opportunity to critically assess administrative and technical strategies, issues and constrains associated with large international and multi-partner initiatives.
The purpose of the Evaluation is:
- To assess overall performance against the Project objectives as set out in Project Document and other related documents
- To assess the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the Project
- To critically analyze the implementation management and evaluation arrangements of the Project
- To assess the sustainability of the Project’s outcomes
- To assess the catalytic or replication effect of the project
- To assess the processes that affected the attainment of the project results
- To present lessons and recommendations on all relevant aspects of the project
Project performance will be measured based on Project’s Logical Framework, which provides clear performance and impact indicators for project implementation along with their corresponding means of verification.
The Report of the Final Evaluation will be stand-alone document that substantiates its recommendations and conclusions.
EXPECTED DELIVERABLES - Short strategy and approach of the assignment (max 5 pages) , after the desk review of relevant project documents (to be delivered prior to the in-country mission)
- Draft evaluation report, after the in-country mission
- Final evaluation report, after the incorporation of stakeholders comments
The evaluation report outline should be structured along the following lines: 1. Executive summary
2. Introduction
3. The project(s) and its development context
4. Findings and Conclusions
- Project formulation
- Implementation
- Project Finances
- Results
5. Recommendations
6. Lessons learned
7. Annexes
The length of report normally should not exceed 50 pages in total. The draft report will be submitted to UNDP/GEF and the National Forest Administration no later than October 10th, 2009. Based on the feedback received from stakeholders a final report will be prepared by October 30th, 2009.
TENTATIVE TIMEFRAME (Estimated consultancy time = 25 work-days)
- Briefing for the evaluator and desk review, with the submission of the short consultancy strategy and approach (home-based work) = 15 June – 15 July
- Mission to Romania (5 days), with a trip to the project site, interviews with stakeholders, questionnaires = 1-5 August
- Validation of preliminary findings with stakeholders through circulation of the draft evaluation report for comments, (home-based work) = 25 September – 10 October
- Preparation of final report (home-based work) = 10 October- 30 October
The report will be submitted both electronically and in printed version, in English.
The report will be supplemented by Rating Tables (see Annex 3).
Special Requirements The evaluation will be undertaken in-line with GEF principles :
- Independence
- Impartiality
- Transparency
- Disclosure
- Ethical
- Partnership
- Competencies and Capacities
- Credibility
- Utility
The evaluator must be independent from both the policy-making process and the delivery and management of assistance. Therefore applications will not be considered from evaluators who have had any direct involvement with the design or implementation of the project. This may apply equally to evaluators who are associated with organizations, universities or entities that are, or have been, involved in the MMNP policy-making process and/or delivery of the project. Any previous association with the project, the MMNP Administration, the National Forestry Administration, or other partners/stakeholders must be disclosed in the application. This applies equally to firms submitting proposals as it does to individual evaluators.
If selected, failure to make the above disclosures will be considered just grounds for immediate contract termination, without recompense. In such circumstances, all notes, reports and other documentation produced by the evaluator will be retained by UNDP. | Competencies | The evaluation will be carried out by an International Consultant.
- The consultant must have not only relevant qualifications but especially prior experience in evaluating similar projects. Former cooperation with GEF/UNDP is an advantage.
- The Consultant must have recent experience with result-based management evaluation methodologies
- The Consultant must have experience in applying participatory monitoring approaches;
- The Consultant must have experience applying SMART indicators and reconstructing or validating baseline scenarios;
- The Consultant must have recent knowledge of the GEF Monitoring and Evaluation Policy;
- The Consultant must have recent knowledge of UNDP’s results-based evaluation policies and procedures
- The Consultant must have competence in Adaptive Management, as applied to conservation or natural resource management projects;
- The Consultant must have expertise in the management and sustainable use of protected areas, desirable in the Central and Eastern Europe and CIS region;
- It is desirable that the Consultant be familiar with protected area policies and management structures in Romania;
- It is desirable that the Consultant have demonstrable analytical skills;
- It is desirable that the Consultant have experience with multilateral or bilateral supported conservation projects;
- It is desirable that the Consultant have knowledge/understanding of Romanian/EU conservation policies and legislation, forestry management policies and institutional system, protected areas system, additional knowledge on NGO/local community would be an asset.
| Required Skills and Experience | Education:
- Advance degree in environmental/natural sciences or related fields
Work Experience
- At least 10 years of work experience in relevant areas..
Languages
- The Consultant must have excellent English oral and written communication skills.
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