Scope of the assignment:

UNIFEM oPt implements, in partnership with the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs, a pilot project aimed to consolidate the capacity of a national, multipurpose center, "Mehwar", whose goal is to address the phenomenon of VAW in a holistic way and to set professional, human rights-based standards for protection policies and services addressing women and children victims of violence in the occupied Palestinian territory.
According to this vision, UNIFEM, in partnership with the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs, intends to promote and lead a process of evaluation of Mehwar Center's policies and procedures that were drafted in the period 2005/6 as a professional, initial reference for the Center’s team, open to future developments based on the needs of the actual work and aiming to become a national guide for all organizations working in the field of protecting the Palestinian family from all forms of violence.
The objectives of this evaluation are: 1) to define a process for developing indicators and a baseline for future evaluations of Mehwar policies and procedures; 2) to contribute to shaping a continuative (internal) M&E mechanism; 3) to develop recommendations for:
 ensuring compliance of Mehwar P&P to human rights standards,
 enhancing P&P effectiveness,
 ensuring availability of specialized capacity to implement Mehwar policies and procedures.

Responsibilities:

• Work in close cooperation and coordination with National Consultant(s) as part of the evaluation team;
• Develop, finalize and present the evaluation methodology and tools, and the evaluation plan according to the general guidelines developed by UNIFEM;
• Conduct a documentation analysis of key project documents related to national strategies and relevant Palestinian Authority international commitments;
• Lead and conduct an analytical review of Mehwar policies and procedures, highlighting any gap and/or compliance to women’s human rights standards;
• Develop the methodology and guidelines for focus groups discussion and semi-structured interviews;
• Participate in selected bilateral / group meetings and focus groups with key actors implementing Mehwar policies and procedures, Mehwar staff and beneficiaries, as well as project partners;
• Report on feasibility and compliance to human rights standards of Mehwar policies and procedures  and develop recommendations to ensure those requirements in the future;
• Recommend a process for developing indicators and a baseline for future evaluations of Mehwar policies and procedures;
• Provide recommendations regarding the development of an M&E system and contributions of relevant parties to its implementation;
• Develop, through a participatory approach, and finalize a comprehensive evaluation report ;
• Upon recommendations contained in the evaluation report, amend Mehwar policies and procedure;

Requirements:

• Senior (minimum five years) experience as researcher and/or evaluator in the areas of gender and human rights. Specific expertise on VAW and anti-violence services an asset;
• Extensive knowledge and senior (minimum five years) professional experience in applying qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods;
• Track records in policy development and evaluation;
• Strong analytical skills;
• Strong communication skills, oral and in writing;
• Perfect spoken and written English; fluency in Arabic will be considered an asset;
• Previous working experience within the UN system and previous working experience in the Arab Region will be considered assets.