International Consultant / Evaluator for the UN Women Regional Project “Women's Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus“

1. Background:

UN Women exists to advance women’s rights, gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. As the lead UN entity on gender equality and secretariat of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, we shift laws, institutions, social behaviours and services to close the gender gap and build an equal world for all women and girls. Our partnerships with governments, women’s movements and the private sector coupled with our coordination of the broader United Nations translate progress into lasting changes. We make strides forward for women and girls in four areas: leadership, economic empowerment, freedom from violence, and women, peace and security as well as humanitarian action. UN Women keeps the rights of women and girls at the centre of global progress – always, everywhere. Because gender equality is not just what we do. It is who we are.

A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes, and services needed to implement these standards. It stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on five priority areas: increasing women’s leadership and participation; ending violence against women; engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes; enhancing women’s economic empowerment; and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in advancing gender equality.

UN Women in Georgia supports state and non-state partners towards the achievement of substantive gender equality in Georgia. In line with national and international commitments, UN Women works on the levels of policies and legislation, institutions and grassroots, in order to achieve transformative results for increased gender equality and greater protection of the rights of women and girls.

Women’s economic empowerment (WEE) is a transformative, collective process through which economic systems become just, equitable and prosperous, and through which all women enjoy their economic and social rights, exercise agency and power in ways that challenge inequalities and level the playing field and gain equal rights and access to ownership of and control over resources, assets, income, time and their own lives. The key elements of economic empowerment are equal rights and access to ownership and control over resources; agency, power and autonomy; and policies, institutions and norms (UN Women, Women’s Economic Empowerment Strategy. Available at: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2024-03/un-women-womens-economic-empowerment-strategy-en.pdf ). 

Women’s rights to economic equality and opportunities are enshrined in a number of multilateral normative frameworks, including CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action.  The economic empowerment of women—to succeed and advance economically and to make and act on economic decisions - is a cornerstone of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as reaffirmed also by the Agreed Conclusions of the 61st Commission on the Status of Women (2017). The UN Secretary General’s High Level Expert Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment has outlined an action agenda to accelerate progress, with key steps tailored to different sets of actors and seven drivers that can create enabling environment to accelerate the impact (2018); (UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. Available at: https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2018/01/hlp-wee-reports-and-toolkits).

UN Women Country Office in Georgia with the generous support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Austrian Development Agency (ADA) is implementing the third phase of the “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus” (WEESC) project. The project’s overarching goal is to ensure that women, particularly the poor and socially excluded, in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are economically empowered and participate in relevant decision-making. The WEESC project applies a holistic approach to reach this goal, enabling linked interventions at three levels: grassroots, policies and legislation, and institutions. The chosen approach and the implementation of the WEE agenda in the South Caucasus during Phase I (2018-2021) and Phase II (2021-2024) of the WEESC project served as a catalyst for action at all levels and supported the state and non-state partners towards the achievement of substantive gender equality in all three countries (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan). Phase III of the project is implemented for two years, from 2024 till 2026. 

UN Women has implemented the first and second phases of this project in line with international and national commitments, on the levels of policies and legislation, institutions and grassroots. The project has been working towards transformative results for increased gender equality and greater protection of the rights of women and girls. To achieve the project’s ambitious goal and for the sustainability of the results, Phase III of the WEESC project aims to increase economic security and improve access to livelihood and development opportunities for women, particularly the poorest and most excluded in the South Caucasus through interventions on policy, institutions, and grassroots levels.

In order to contribute to the set overarching goal/impact, the third phase of the project aims to contribute to the following three outcomes: 

The overall objective ofthis final evaluation is to assess the achievement of programme results and performance of the above-described intervention.

The specific evaluation objectives are as follows:

• Analyze the relevance and coherence of the implementation strategy and approaches of the project.
• Assess effectiveness and organizational efficiency in progressing towards the achievement of the project’s results as defined in the intervention.
• Validate the project results in terms of achievements and/or weaknesses toward the outcome and outputs.
• Assess the potential for sustainability of the results achieved by the project.
• Identify strategies for replication and up-scaling of the project’s best practices.
• Provide actionable recommendations to guide the implementation of future Women’s Economic Empowerment initiatives and modalities in the project countries, ensuring the sustainability of interventions.
• Assess how the project applies the Leave No One Behind (LNOB) and Do-No-Harm principles throughout its design, implementation, and exit, particularly with regard to sustainability and institutionalization
• Assess how the project and its results relate and contribute to commitments and achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia with a focus on SDC 5 and 8.
• Analyse how human rights approach and gender equality principles are integrated in implementation
• Identify and validate lessons learned, good practices and examples and innovations of efforts that support gender equality and human rights areas of work.

The evaluation will address the criteria of Project Relevance, Coherence, Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Sustainability. More specifically, the evaluation will address the key evaluation questions:

• To what extent does the project fit within UN Women’s Strategic Plan, interrelated threefold mandate and UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks in the targeted countries?
• Are there any synergies and inter-linkages between the project and other interventions of UN Women?
• To what extent is the project in complementarity, harmonization and coordination with the interventions of other actors’ (including government and other un agencies) interventions in the same context while avoiding duplications? 
• What is UN Women’s comparative advantage in this area of work compared with other UN entities and key partners in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan? 

• To what extent the planned objectives at outcome level have been achieved taking into account their relative importance? If possible, distinguish the quality and quantity of results achieved.
• How effective have the selected programme strategies and approaches been in progressing towards achieving programme results? 
• Has the project achieved any unforeseen results, either positive or negative? For whom? What are the good practices and the obstacles or shortcomings encountered? How were they overcome?
• To what extent have capacities of relevant duty-bearers and rights-holders been strengthened at this stage of implementation? 
• Does the project have effective monitoring mechanisms in place to measure progress towards results?
• How adaptably and rapidly has the WEESC Phase III project reacted to changing country contexts, and to what extent does the intervention contribute to poverty reduction, inclusion, and/or reduction of vulnerabilities? (Dimensions for consideration are a) economic (income and assets); b) human capacities (health, education, nutrition); c) ability to take part in society (status and dignity); d) political capacities (institutions and policies); e) resilience to external shocks.)

The evaluation process is divided in five phases: 1) Preparation, mainly devoted to structuring the evaluation approach, preparing the TOR, compiling programme documentation, and hiring the evaluation team; 2) Inception, which involves reconstruction of theory of change, organizing online inception meetings with the WEESC team, drafting inception report and finalizing the evaluation methodology; 3) Data collection including desk research, meetings  with key stakeholders and preparation of field missions, visits to project sites; 4) Data analysis and synthesis stage, focusing on data analysis, interpretation of findings and preparation of an Evaluation Report; and 5) Dissemination and follow-up, which will entail the development of a joint Management Response by UN Women.

The International Consultant/Evaluator will work as part of a team with two National Consultants/Evaluators (one in Armenia and one in Georgia) and will be responsible for the inception, data collection, and data analysis and synthesis phases across all three countries (Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia):

The Evaluation will be a consultative, inclusive and participatory process and will ensure the participation of project beneficiaries. The evaluation will be human rights and gender responsible. 

UN Women Georgia CO will appoint an officer who will serve as the Evaluation Task Manager and who will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the evaluation and ensures that the evaluation is conducted in accordance with UN Women Evaluation Policies, United Nations Evaluation Group Ethical Guidelines and Code of Conduct for Evaluation in the United Nations system and other key relevant guidance documents. The evaluation process will be supported by the UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Evaluation Specialist.

Moreover, an Evaluation Management Group (EMG) comprising of senior managers from UN Women Georgia Office and relevant technical project staff from UN Women Georgia will be established to oversee and support the evaluation process, make key decisions and quality assure the different deliverables. The EMG will quality assure and approve all deliverables. EMG will be responsible for the coordination in the field including logistical support during field missions.

In light of the foregoing UN Women would like to hire an International Consultant/Evaluator who in a team with two National Consultants/Evaluators (one in Georgia and one in Armenia), will be responsible for conducting Evaluation of the WEESC Project. The Team Leader will oversee the assignment and coordinate the work of the two National Consultants throughout its implementation.

This evaluation will be conducted in accordance with the principles outlined in the UNEG ‘Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation’. The consultant must safeguard the rights and confidentiality of information providers, interviewees, and stakeholders through measures to ensure compliance with legal and other relevant codes governing collection of data and reporting on data. The consultant must also ensure security of collected information before and after the evaluation and protocols to ensure anonymity and confidentiality of sources of information where that is expected. The information knowledge and data gathered in the evaluation process must also be solely used for the evaluation and not for other uses with the express authorization of UN Women.

The international consultant/evaluator will benefit from technical and operational support of UN Women Country Office in Georgia. Furthermore, the international consultant will be supported by two national evaluators (one in Georgia and one in Armenia) and will be responsible for the following tasks: 

• →Overall coordination and management of the evaluation team, including providing direct advice, guidance, and support to the national evaluators in Georgia and Armenia; coordinating their work and the overall evaluation process; reviewing and providing feedback on materials developed at all stages; and consolidating all inputs from national consultants into final deliverables. The International Consultant will be responsible for the submission of all deliverables.
• →Develop Inception Report, presenting a refined scope, a detailed outline of the exercise design and methodology, evaluation questions, and criteria for both the in-depth desk review and the selection of Case Studies, as well as for interviews in the data collection phase. The report should include an evaluation matrix and detailed work plan. A first draft report will be shared with the Management Group and, based upon the comments received the Consultant/Evaluator will revise the draft. The Consultant/Evaluator will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the final inception report.
• →Identify and develop the list of key stakeholders in consultation with UN Women. Conduct online interviews and focus group discussions (if needed) with key stakeholders in all three countries to collect and analyse data. The Task Manager will support the Consultant/Evaluator in liaising with the key stakeholders to schedule interviews as necessary.
• →Prepare, submit and present (online) a PowerPoint Presentation of preliminary findings, including the emerging findings of the project evaluation and selected case studies, to the Management Group for feedback. The Consultant/Evaluator will incorporate the feedback received into the draft report.
• →Draft and submit the EvaluationReport and case studies which will be shared with the Management Group for initial feedback to identify factual errors, errors of omission and/or misinterpretation of information. The revised report will incorporate this feedback and shared with the Management Group for final validation. The Consultant/Evaluator will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the revised draft.
• →Produce Evaluation Report, including case studies taking into consideration comments and feedback collected from UN Women. The report shall include the following chapters: Executive Summary, Introduction and Background, Approach and Methodology (including limitations), Findings, Conclusions, Lessons learnt, Recommendations, relevant Annexes and case study summaries.

• Deliverable 1: Desk review completed by 1 June 2026 (4 working days)
• Deliverable 2: Inception Report developed and submitted by 8 June 2026 (4 working days)
• Deliverable 3: In-depth desk review, interviews and focus group discussions (if needed) with key stakeholders conducted in all three countries by 4 September 2026 (12 working days)
• Deliverable 4: Power Point Presentation of preliminary findings, including findings of the selected case studies developed, submitted and presented by 11 September 2026 (5 working days)
• Deliverable 5: Draft evaluation report (including two rounds of revision) and case study summaries developed and submitted by 30 September 2026 (15 working days)
• Deliverable 6: Final Evaluation Report, final case study summaries and evaluation communication products (brief PPT, two-pager) developed and submitted by 15 October 2026 (8 working days)
• Deliverable 7: Final presentation of the evaluation by 30 October 2026 (2 working days)

This is a home-based consultancy; no travel is required.

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

• Commitment to continuous improvement 
• Risk management
• Partnerships building 
• Resilience 
• Negotiation 

• Advanced (at least Master) degree in one or more following areas: economics, social sciences, gender studies, political science, social policy, development studies or another related field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with nine (9) additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

• At least 7 (seven) years of practical experience in conducting evaluations of strategies, policies, and projects, in lieu of advanced degree, or 9 (nine) years of similar experience in case of first level university degree.
• At least 7 (seven) years of experience and knowledge on women’s economic empowerment (including gender responsive policies, gender responsive planning and budgeting), gender equality, gender mainstreaming, gender analysis in lieu of advanced degree, or 9 (nine) years of similar experience in case of first level university degree.
• Proven experience in conducting evaluations for international organizations, International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs), and similar entities.
• Proven experience/knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues in Armenia, Azerbaijan or Georgia and/or in the region.
• Excellent report-writing skills and ability to produce clear, well-structured analytical reports.
• Excellent analytical, facilitation and communications skills and ability to negotiate amongst a wide range of stakeholders.
• Prior experience in conducting tasks similar to the ones outlined in this ToR with UN/EU agencies will be considered a distinct advantage.

Fluency in English is required. 

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

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