The Global Environment Facility (GEF) provides support to address global environmental concerns related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants. Since its inception in 1991, the GEF has provided developing countries and countries with economies in transition US $20 billion in grants. These grants are implemented on ground through a network of 18 accredited agencies. The GEF receives its funds through a four-year replenishment.
The GEF Independent Evaluation Office (GEF IEO) has a central role in ensuring the independent evaluation function within the GEF. The GEF IEO is based in Washington DC. It is administered by the World Bank but is independent of its management as well as the management of the GEF. Its Director reports directly to the GEF Council, the GEF governing body. All contracts with the IEO are World Bank contracts.
The IEO is conducting an evaluation of the GEF’s interventions in water security, seeking to both assess GEF projects that address water security and those which do not but may have impacted water security in their project areas. This evaluation will seek to provide evidence against the following initial evaluation questions:
- To what extent have GEF interventions with a significant focus on water security responded to beneficiaries’ (communities, resource users, governments, etc.) needs, policies and priorities relating to freshwater?
- In what ways and using what frameworks and strategies has GEF addressed water security and its four dimensions (sufficient and clean water for human consumption and well-being, livelihoods, ecosystems and protecting against water-related natural disasters)?
- How does GEF’s approach and activities related to water security interact with similar activities and initiatives at the country level?
- How does GEF’s approach and activities related to water security compare to best practices among peer organizations and the larger international water community of practice?
- To what extent have GEF interventions been effective in improving water security within the GEB framework and as co-benefits (or inadvertently decreased water security) and sensitized policy makers to the challenges and opportunities associated with water security?
- How has GEF addressed key cross-cutting themes related to water security, especially stakeholder inclusion and fragility?
- To what extent are GEF outcomes related to water security sustained or continued beyond the end of the implementation period?
The senior consultant will become part of the Water Security Evaluation Team.
Responsibilities and Accountabilities
The consultant will perform following tasks:
- Benchmarking study
- Perform an extensive literature review of water security best practices in international development, focusing on fragility, conflict and violence (FCV) contexts and stakeholder engagement (including strategies and project activities with a track record of success in improving water security and ensuring water security does not decrease due to project activities), including technical reports, scientific manuscripts and any other key documents.
- Research GEF strategy documents related to aspects of water security, fragility and stakeholder engagement.
- Design pieces of GEF project document, interview and survey protocols related to FCV contexts and stakeholder engagement, and use results to better understand GEF’s approach to the topics in water security themed interventions.
- Create protocols for and interview several thought leaders in the international water security community of practice.
- Synthesize and collate best practices for improving and preventing loss of water security through international development interventions with a focus on FCV contexts and stakeholder engagement and compare with GEF strategies and activities.
- Write report summarizing results and contribute to final evaluation report writing.
- Interpretation of GEF project portfolio review results
- Review results of GEF project portfolio review (completed by other members of the evaluation team).
- Provide contextualization of portfolio review results based on conclusions drawn from the benchmarking study.
- Synthesize evaluative evidence gathered from previous tasks and contribute to final evaluation report writing.
- Assist with other results interpretation and contextualization as necessary, serving as the team’s water security sector specialist.
- Assist with summary and report writing tasks as necessary.
Qualifications
The candidate should have following qualifications:
- Advanced degree in a subject matter related to water resources management, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), disaster risk management or another related environmental field.
- At least 15 years of experience in development projects related to water resources management, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) or disaster risk management.
- Experience in project evaluation, especially in environmental and natural resource management preferred.
- Preferred knowledge of and/or direct experience with the GEF and its Agencies.
- Excellent desk research skills, with experience in quantitative and qualitative research software.
- Demonstrated ability to work in multidisciplinary teams.
- Excellent presentation and communication skills; spoken and written English. Additional professional communication skills in UN languages, especially French, will be considered an added advantage.
Compensation, payments and other arrangements
The duration of the consultancy will be for a maximum of 40 days from January to November 2022. Most work will take place from February to September 2022.
The consultancy will take place at the consultant’s own place of work or the GEF IEO office in Washington, D.C. Travel to field locations is possible.
Submission requirements
Interested consultants are hereby invited to submit a CV and a cover letter expressing how their work experience fits the qualifications above in English, to [email protected] with “Water Security Evaluation-Senior STC” in the subject line. The application deadline is January 24, 2022.
The GEF IEO is proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce and does not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.
