Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. UN Women provides support to Member States’ efforts and priorities in meeting their gender equality goals and for building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women operationalizes this through Flagship Programming Initiatives (FPIs) developed to achieve transformative results for gender equality and women empowerment. One such FPI is the Leadership, Empowerment, Access & Protection (LEAP in crisis response). Project implemented in Turkana County – which hosts Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement, and in Garissa County – which hosts Dadaab Refugee Camp.

In May 2021, UN Women received funding from the Government of Japan to implement a two-year LEAP program that aimed at ensuring that women in refugee and host communities lead and participate in peace, security and humanitarian processes, and vulnerable women and girls benefit from protection mechanisms and enhance resilience and self-reliance through women’s economic empowerment. The project builds on the results achieved and lessons of previous projects supported by the Government of Japan through the Japan Supplementary Budget, specifically “Women’s Leadership, Empowerment, Access and Protection (LEAP) in Crisis Response: Regional Response to the South Sudan Displacement and Refugee Crisis (Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan)”(2018-2019) and “Women’s Leadership, Empowerment, Access & Protection in Crisis Response (LEAP): Promoting the Empowerment of Women and Girls within the Humanitarian- Development Nexus in Kenya”(2019-2020). The project contributes to the goal of gender, peace and security as envisioned in the 2030 Development Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – particularly SDG 1 (no poverty), 2 (zero hunger), 5 (gender equality), 8 (on decent work and economic growth), and 10 (reducing inequality), 16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions) and 17(partnerships). The Programme also responds to the UN Secretary General’s Comprehensive Regional Prevention Strategy for the Horn of Africa and the UN Priority Agenda on Prevention and Sustaining Peace. It also contributes to the UN Women Kenya Country Strategic Note (2019-2022) strategic objective 4, Women in Peace and Security and Humanitarian Sector and is premised on UN Women Global Strategic Plan, Outcome 5, “Women and girls contribute and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience and benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action”.

At the national level, the project has a strategic alignment to national development priorities of Kenya Vision 2030, the Medium-Term Plan (MTP) III (2018-2022), and the Big Four Government development agenda28, which is translated in the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) Strategic Result Area (SRA) I on Transformative Governance; outcome 1.3: “People in Kenya live in a secure, peaceful, inclusive and cohesive society” and SRA II on Human Capital Development, Outcome 2.8: “By 2022, individuals and communities in Kenya have reduced exposure to risks and are more resilient to disasters and emergencies”.

II. Program Overview / Description of Results

Kenya has been affected by regional instability and spill-over effects from politically unstable countries in the region, Somalia, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Eritrea. These counties have remained in the top origins of international forced displacement for approximately three decades, resulting in the long-term existence of refugee camps in Kenya[1].Kenya currently hosts two refugee camps: Dadaab Refugee Camp, established in 1991 with 218,873 refugees as of July 2020; and Kakuma Refugee Camp, established in 1992 with 196,666 refugees[2]. The duration of displacement is becoming longer, and refugees spend 17 years on average living in refugee camps in Kenya[3].

This project is the third phase of interventions in refugee and host communities in Kenya and contributes to strengthening women’s engagement in peace and security and economic capacities for sustainable development for both refugee and host communities, which will lead the country to a more stable and sustainable society.

“The Project for Enhancing Women’s Resilience in Refugee and Host Communities” was designed to contextualize the global LEAP (Leadership, Empowerment, Access & Protection in Crisis Response) framework, UN Women’s flagship programme, into Turkana County – which hosts Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement, and in Garissa County – which hosts Dadaab Refugee Camp. The two counties recorded the highest poverty and gender inequality levels in Kenya[4], are prone to inter-communal and transboundary violent conflicts, as well as food insecurity and displacements.

The project builds on gains, results and lessons learned from the implementation of the “Women’s Leadership, Empowerment, Access & Protection in Crisis Response (LEAP) -South Sudan Displacement and Refugee Crisis” (through JSB FY 2018), namely LEAP I, and “Women’s Leadership, Empowerment, Access & Protection in Crisis Response (LEAP): Promoting the Empowerment of Women and Girls within the Humanitarian- Development Nexus in Kenya” (through JSB FY 2019), called LEAP II, in cooperation with the Government of Japan. Specific lessons factored in designing this project include: i) the need for UN Women to continue empowering women economically to increase their resilience and ii) the need to strengthen protection mechanisms for SGBV victims and (iii) evidence generated on the need for gender-responsive preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) efforts to overcome vulnerability of women in Dadaab refugee camp and host community to violent extremism.

This project is the third phase of the intervention in refugee and host communities in Kenya and will contribute to strengthened women’s engagement in peace and security and economic capacities for sustainable development for both refugee and host communities, which will lead the country to a more stable and sustainable society. The project will be implemented in partnership with a wide range of strategic partners to sustain project outcomes beyond the project period.

The partners include the Government of Kenya, County Governments in Turkana and Garissa, UN agencies as well as non-state actors, including women’s organizations, civil society organizations (CSOs), media and the private sector.

THEORY OF CHANGE:

If (1) women participate and influence decision-making processes related to peace and security and humanitarian action; and If (2) women and girls have access to services and economic opportunities during and post-conflict and disasters and in humanitarian settings; If (3) mechanisms are in place to protect women and girls’ basic human rights and are free from sexual and gender-based violence; Then (4) women and girls will be resilient to the impact of disasters/emergencies and conflicts; Because (5) peace and security efforts and humanitarian response will address the rights and needs of women and girls who will be at the centre of peace and security and humanitarian assistance, livelihood opportunities and GBV protection. This will in turn contribute to women being empowered to play crucial roles in the establishment of peaceful, sustainable, resilient, and cohesive societies.

Overall Goal:

The overall goal of the proposed project is “Women in refugee and host communities will lead and participate in peace, security and humanitarian processes, and vulnerable women and girls benefit from protection mechanisms and enhance resilience and self-reliance through women’s economic empowerment.

The program aims at achieving the following Outcomes:

Outcome 1: Women meaningfully participate and influence peace and security initiatives and humanitarian processes.

Output: 1.1: Women’s capacity to participate and influence policymaking and programming on conflict prevention, peace and security and humanitarian action increased.

Sub-Output 1.1: An enable environment is created for women to participate and influence policy making and programming on conflict prevention, peace and security and humanitarian action increased.

Outcome 2: Women are economically empowered, have access to humanitarian services, and their protection and safety is strengthened against all forms of violence and exploitation.

Output 2.1: Refugee and host communities’ women and girls have new sources of income and economic opportunities through skills and livelihoods development.

Output 2.2: Vulnerable women and girls have increased access to effective services & protection mechanisms through social spaces in refugee and host communities.

III. Purpose of the Evaluation

The UN Women Evaluation Policy is the main guiding document that sets forth the principles and organizational framework for evaluation planning, conduct and follow-up in UN Women. These principles are aligned with the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards for Evaluation in the UN System. The key principles for gender-responsive evaluation at UN Women are: 1) National ownership and leadership; 2) UN system coordination and coherence with regard to gender equality and the empowerment of women; 3) Innovation; 4) Fair power relations and empowerment; 5) Participation and inclusion; 6) Independence and impartiality; 7) Transparency; 8) Quality and credibility; 9) Intentionality and use of evaluation; and 10) Ethics.

The two-year LEAP Japan project whose implementation commenced in May 2021 will come to an end in December 2023 having received a no-cost extension from April 2023. In line with the project requirements and the UN Women evaluation policy, an end of Programme evaluation is to be conducted to assess the performance of the Project, provide accountability, and enhance learning. The purpose of this independent end-term evaluation is to assess the project’s achievements against the set objectives, identify and document lessons learnt (including design issues, lessons, and best practices that can be upscaled or replicated), and assess how the program contributed to gender equality and economic empowerment of women in Kakuma Refugee Camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement Turkana County, and in Dadaab Refugee Camp, Garissa County.

It is a priority for UN Women that this end line program evaluation will be gender-responsive and will actively support the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment, with emphasis on UN Women key areas central to supporting women and girls’ empowerment in humanitarian action: Leadership and participation, Protection and safety, and Economic well-being.

The primary intended users of this evaluation are:

• Relevant staff in target ministries, local government, and targeted government institutions, and participating CSOs
• Target beneficiary communities/groups
• Members of community leadership structures
• Relevant staff in participating UN-agencies.
• Staff of implementing partners
• Sector leads in the participating UN-agencies and refugee response coordination.
• Development partners.

Primary intended uses of this evaluation are:

1. Information on the project’s effectiveness will be used to inform decision making for the design, review and scale up of Women, Peace and Security Interventions and LEAP in particular;
2. Feedback, participation, and accountability to affected communities;
3. Accountability for the development effectiveness of the LEAP to the donors and other stakeholders;
4. Capacity development and mobilization of national stakeholders to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women.

IV. Evaluation criteria and key questions

The Overall Objective of the final evaluation is to assess the extent to which the Project has achieved the intended and/or unintended outcomes, provide in-depth analysis and understanding of why certain intended or unintended outcomes have or have not occurred, analyse the challenges encountered, and document lessons for improving future projects in the area.

The specific objectives of the evaluation are to:

1. Assess the relevance of LEAP intervention in addressing the needs of refugee and host community women in alignment with gender equality and women’s empowerment;
2. Assess the effectiveness and efficiency of UN Women’s approach for achievement of results, as defined in the logical framework, including the Projects Theory of Change;
3. Analyse how the human rights approach and gender equality principles were integrated in LEAP and humanitarian action programming;
4. Identify and validate lessons learned, promising practices and innovations of work supported by LEAP Program within the context of the aid effectiveness agenda;
5. Assess the added value of the LEAP strategy and related interventions to UN Women’s mandate and to the overall UN System presence in project locations;
6. Assess the inter-connectedness and sustainability of UN Women’s initiatives on increasing leadership, protection and economic opportunities for refugee women and analyse possible weaknesses in order to improve next steps for scale-up programming;
7. Provide actionable recommendations with respect to the strategy, and overall approach to UN Women’s programming in humanitarian settings.

Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation will apply six UN Evaluation Group (UNEG) evaluation criteria (relevance, effectiveness-including normative, and coordination mandates of UN Women- efficiency, coherence and sustainability), as well as standards based on Human Rights and Gender Equality.

The evaluation will seek to answer the following key evaluation questions and sub-questions:

[1] UNHCR, “Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2019”, https://www.unhcr.org/5ee200e37.pdf

[2] UNHCR, Registered refugees and asylum-seekers, https://www.unhcr.org/ke/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/Kenya-Infographics-31-July-2020.pdf

[3] UNHCR, Kalobeyei Settlement, https://www.unhcr.org/ke/kalobeyei-settlement

[4] World Bank, “Desk Review on Livelihoods and Self-Reliance for Refugees and Host Communities in Kenya,” http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/685581553241680189/pdf/135485-WP-P169281-PUBLIC-Livelihoods.pdf

Duties and Responsibilities

The evaluation is an end-of-project evaluation and will cover all project activities implemented from May 2021 – December 2023, following a no-cost extension from April 2023, in line with the results framework and the theory of change and against the UN Women Evaluation Policy and adhere to the United Nations norms and standards and criteria (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, impact, sustainability, and gender equality and human rights). This is an end-term evaluation focusing on the achievements as well as recommendations for sustainability, learning and course correction for future programming. The evaluation will cover key stakeholders and beneficiaries’ representatives including members of host communities in the project counties.

The consultant is expected to undertake a rapid evaluability assessment in the Inception. This should include the following:

1. An assessment of the relevance, appropriateness, and coherence of the implicit or explicit theory of change, strengthening or reconstructing it where necessary through an inception interview;
2. An assessment of the quality of performance indicators in the program, and the accessibility and adequacy of relevant documents and secondary data;
3. A review of the conduciveness of the context for the evaluation;
4. Ensuring familiarity with accountability and management structures for the evaluation.

VI. Evaluation Approach and methodology

The evaluation will be an external, independent, and participatory exercise, which should be completed within a timeframe of 40 days spread over a period of two months beginning 15th September 2023. The final evaluation methodology will document and analyze the distinct achievements of outputs and outcome, while also assessing the ways in which efforts contributed to national implementation and program-level work influenced country advocacy and policy.

The evaluation shall provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable, and useful and will be based on gender and human rights principles, as defined in the UN Women Evaluation Policy and adhere to the United Nations norms and standards for evaluation.

The evaluation methodology will employ mixed methods and an innovative approach for capturing results, while ensuring that the views of the most excluded groups of women are represented in the evaluation. An initial desk review and brief discussions with key stakeholders will support the refinement and finalization of the methodology and analytical framework. An important component of this evaluation will be the assessment of the LEAP Program’s Theory of Change and results framework to assess whether the project remained on track to achieve expected outcomes. The UN Women Rapid Assessment Tool for Evaluation of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Results in Humanitarian Context will be used as part of the data collection instruments.

The evaluation is expected to follow a collaborative and participatory approach ensuring close engagement with Project beneficiaries, implementing partners, county local government leadership, Humanitarian actors and other key stakeholders as will be informed by the stakeholder mapping process. The analysis of the application of human rights and gender equality principles in LEAP interventions will be an integral part of the evaluation. Integration of human rights and gender equality issues into the evaluation requires adherence to three main principles – inclusion, participation, and fair power relations.

The main recommended phases of the evaluation methodology are:

a) Inception Phase:

• Conduct an initial desk review of available documents, gather, and analyse programme data, conceptualize the evaluation approach, and develop an evaluation matrix, consult internally on the approach, develop data collection tools, stakeholder mapping, sampling strategy, engage reference group.
• Conduct inception interviews with key stakeholders to refine the evaluation scope and methodology.
• Draft an Inception Report that will be reviewed by the Evaluation Reference Group.
• Refine the evaluation methodology/question matrix based on Evaluation Reference Group’s feedback and integrate proposed changes (as appropriate) into the final evaluation report.

b) Data collection Phase

• Collect survey data from beneficiaries and key stakeholders as informed by the stakeholder analysis.
• Conduct in-depth interviews with UN Women staff, partner organizations, donor representatives, and others as necessary.
• Deliver PowerPoint presentation of preliminary field key findings to Evaluation Reference Group.

c) Analysis and Report Writing Phase:

• Review and analyze all available data including staff, partner, and stakeholder survey(s), and interpret findings.
• Prepare the first draft of the evaluation report and submit it to the Evaluation Reference Group for comments and possible endorsement.
• Revise the report based on the feedback from the Evaluation Management Group and debriefing session (as appropriate).
• Compile final report. The report should not be longer than 40 pages in the following format:
  • Title and opening pages
  • Executive summary
  • Background and purpose of the evaluation
  • Programme/object of evaluation description and context
  • Evaluation objectives and scope
  • Evaluation methodology and limitations
  • Findings
  • Conclusions
  • Recommendations
  • Lessons learned
  • Annexes (Terms of reference, documents reviewed, list of interviews conducted)

VII. MANAGEMENT OF THE EVALUATION

The evaluation and quality assurance will be managed by UN Women Kenya Country Office (KCO). The Consultant will be accountable to UN Women on behalf of the team and report to the Kenya CO Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist. The evaluation will be conducted in accordance with UN Women evaluation guidelines and UNEG norms and standards. Upon completion of the evaluation, UN Women has the responsibility to prepare a management response that addresses the findings and recommendations to ensure future learning and inform implementation of their relevant programmes, especially the Leadership, Empowerment, Access and Protection in Crisis Response. For quality assurance, the evaluation report will be rated against the Global Evaluation Report Assessment & Analysis System (GERAAS).

The evaluation management structure will comprise of one coordinating entity and two consultative bodies: The Evaluation Management Group and the Evaluation Reference Group. The Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist will manage the day-to-day aspects of the evaluation. This evaluation will be a participatory process and the evaluation manager will ensure consultations with all the key stakeholders as required.

The Evaluation Management Group will be responsible for management of the evaluation. It will coordinate the selection and recruitment of the evaluation team, manage contractual agreements, budget and personnel involved in the evaluation, support the reference groups, provide all necessary data to the evaluation team, facilitate communication between the evaluation team and the reference group.

The Evaluation Management Group will include UN Women Deputy Country Representative, PME&R Specialist, the Project’s M&E Focal Point (Task Mana