OVERVIEW

Parent Sector : Culture Sector (CLT)

Duty Station: Other cities

Job Family: Culture

Type of contract : Non Staff

Duration of contract : From 1 to 6 months

Recruitment open to : External candidates

Application Deadline (Midnight Paris Time) : 26-AUG-2023

UNESCO Core Values: Commitment to the Organization, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, Professionalism

BAKGROUND

The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, or the 2003 Convention, was adopted by UNESCO in 2003 to safeguard the viability, continuity, and transmission of living heritage from generation to generation. The 2003 Convention’s International Assistance mechanism established the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Fund to support safeguarding practices in the States Parties. In line with Resolution 9.GA 10 and Decision 17.COM 11, the Secretariat of the 2003 Convention may request an independent evaluation of any International Assistance project for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage. In that sense, the 2003 Convention is creating a database of evaluators to evaluate international assistance projects funded by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.

This document provides a general view of the purpose, scope and plan for the evaluation of individual projects (from now on the evaluation) that have received International Assistance. International Assistance projects to be evaluated have been implemented in different region, meaning Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia Pacific, Africa and Arab Region. In that sense, the evaluation shall also consider the cultural, social, economic, and political context of projects and measure the results of individual projects using the indicators of the Overall Results Framework (ORF) of the 2003 Convention and UNESCO priorities.

Long Description

Work Location Remote. Please note this is a home-based position.

Expected duration 40 hours of work within 2 months per project.

Remuneration will be fixed in accordance with the total amount of the international assistance project to be evaluated and missions needed as demanded by project implementation conditions and results.

Work assignment

The goal of this evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of the International Assistance projects in contributing to UNESCO priorities, the implementation of the 2003 Convention and aligning its monitoring and evaluation with the Overall Results Framework of the Convention. The evaluation shall be carried out by incorporating the views of the project beneficiaries, reflecting the spirit of this Convention, which places communities, groups and individuals at the centre of its implementation.

Furthermore, the evaluation seeks to provide feedback and lessons learned on project implementation, to the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. In particular, the results of the evaluation are expected to lead to a strengthened International Assistance mechanism in line with the ‘Strategy for the monitoring, evaluation and identification of lessons learnt for International Assistance projects”. The combined safeguarding experience of different individual projects will in turn make up the ‘operationality’ of the mechanism in terms of its contribution to the implementation of the Convention as a whole.

Therefore, the evaluation shall:

• Identify the main results of the assistance granted as well as good practices, challenges and lessons learnt,
• Assess the relevance of projects given the cultural, social, economic, and political context of the project,
• Interconnect the objectives and results of the individual projects with the Overall Results Framework.

Long Description

Scope and principles of the evaluation

The scope of the evaluation shall:

1. – Assess whether and how the project has fulfilled the objectives set in the International Assistance request approve.
3. – The contribution of the project, including positive aspects and difficulties encountered, to safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage, to capacity-building of institutional actors and communities and to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
5. – Make recommendations for future action, to the Secretariat of the 2003 Convention regarding implementation, monitoring and evaluation of International Assistance Projects.
7. – Assess the project against the thematic areas of the ORF identified by the State(s) Party(ies) in the international assistance request.
9. – Use the standard evaluation criteria: relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, possible impacts, and sustainability of the project. The criteria and related evaluation questions should be contextualized and framed to the specifics of each intervention and to the intended use of the evaluation.
11. – Develop a detailed evaluation methodology including the data collection tools, to conduct data collection and analysis, as well as fieldwork and to prepare the draft and final reports in English or French.

The incumbent shall support following activities of importance to the Entity:

2. – Analyse and review all documents related to the granting of International Assistance for the project, such as implementation reports, the results framework, the monitoring data, and any other documentation that may assist in the identification of the key points of interest for the evaluation and its stakeholders.
4. – Analyse the project design methodology, its relevance and its appropriateness to the needs and priorities of the target groups,
6. – Examine the progress made in achieving the expected results, highlighting strengths and weaknesses, and analysing the factors that have positively or negatively affected the achievement of results.
8. – Revise coherence with the national context where the project takes place (policies, institutional structures and priorities of the State party, where the project was implemented, in the field of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage).
10. – Conduct interviews with the UNESCO Living Heritage Entity, UNESCO staff involved in the project, implementing partners, government representatives, beneficiaries or with other relevant informants and other stakeholders of the project.

Long Description

– Prepare and undertake, in close consultation with the designated national counterpart, an evaluation mission to participate in working sessions and field visits with the agencies responsible of the implementation of the concerned project, national authorities and other stakeholders, as appropriate. The objective is to carry out an in-situ evaluation of where project activities took place and discuss with all relevant stakeholders the implementation of project activities in the field (field teams, NGOs, community representatives and local authorities, etc.). The Secretariat of the 2003 Convention will coordinate the programme with the support of the main project partners in the different sites to be visited and assessed (i.e., meetings with various stakeholders and field staff, local authorities, local officials).

– Prepare the final report using the form for evaluation that will be provided by UNESCO and which shall describe:

• How the project reflected the 2003 Convention in relation to: a) The Operational Directives and Ethical Principles, b) Alternative approaches for safeguarding living heritage and capacity building practices and c) Thematic areas such as ICH and education, emergency situations, indigenous peoples, sustainable development, ICH in urban context, ICH and commercialization.
• How the project considered UNESCO’s action for global priorities (Africa, Gender equality, youth and Small Islands Developing States), priority groups and a human rights-based approach.
• How the project connected with the Sustainable Development Goals (identify goals where possible).
• The progress, main achievements, impacts and outreach of project activities implementation.
• The difficulties, challenges and lessons learnt from project activities implementation

COMPETENCIES (Core / Managerial)

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REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education and Work Experience:

• A minimum of three (3) years of experience in designing and conducting evaluations
• Experience in applying qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods.
• Technical expertise on culture sector, cultural process. Preferable candidates that understand the 2003 Convention.

Skills and competencies:

• Writing, communication, and facilitation skills in English and French mainly, and other languages according to the region where the evaluation will be implemented (Arabic, Spanish, others)
• Language skills, country or regional experience
• Excellent interpersonal skills in multicultural contexts;
• Good time management skills;
• Ability to work under pressure;
• Excellent IT skills (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)

Please attach a Curriculum Vitae.

Additional Information (if required)

• Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage : https://ich.unesco.org/en/convention
• Operational Directives : https://ich.unesco.org/en/directives
• Ethical principles for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage: https://ich.unesco.org/en/ethics-and-ich-00866
• International Assistance : https://ich.unesco.org/en/requesting-assistance-00039
• Overall results framework: https://ich.unesco.org/en/overall-results-framework-00984
• UNESCO Evaluation manual: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000383948/PDF/383948eng.pdf.multi

• UNESCO Evaluation Report Quality Checklist[1]
• UNEG Guidance on Integrating Human Rights and Gender Equality in Evaluation[2]
• UNEG Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation[3]

APPLICATION PROCESS

Please note that all candidates must complete an on-line application and provide complete and accurate information.

To apply, please visit the UNESCO careers website. No modifications can be made to the application submitted.

All these elements must be provided by INSERTING EXTRA PAGES WITH THE REQUIRED INFORMATION AT THE END OF THE EMPLOYMENT HISTORY FORM (WORD FILE) DOCUMENT.

The evaluation of candidates is based on the criteria in the vacancy notice.

UNESCO uses communication technologies such as video or teleconference, e-mail correspondence, etc. for the assessment and evaluation of candidates.

Please note that only selected candidates will be further contacted and candidates in the final selection step will be subject to reference checks based on the information provided.

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