Team leader - Evaluation of FAO’s role and work related to DRM/DRR in Asia

Background

The FAO’s Office of Evaluation (OED) is about to start a major evaluation of FAO’s role and work on Disaster Risk Management (DRM)/Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Asia. The evaluation will provide a rigorous evidence-based analysis of the current status of FAO’s work in the area of DRM/DRR, thus serving as an instrument for accountability and learning. The evaluation will be forward-looking and formative and aim at improving the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and impact of future FAO’s work in DRM/DRR through guidance and recommendations. 

The evaluation will cover FAO projects, activities and normative products and will be carried out through country case studies. The work will be conducted by a team of independent experts led by a Team Leader. The methodology will include various tools, among which, field visits in a sample of countries where FAO has projects and programmes related to DRM/DRR. 

OED is now seeking the Team Leader to conduct this evaluation. S/he will work in close collaboration with the Evaluation Officer responsible for this evaluation in OED and with FAO staff concerned. S/he should be a senior expert in evaluation with background relevant to DRM/DRR. Significant experience in Asia would be a plus. The Evaluation Team Leader will participate in the whole evaluation process, including the preparatory phase and the identification of the other evaluation team members. The Team Leader should not have been involved in the design or implementation of FAO DRM/DRR project activities in recent years in the concerned region and will be required to sign a non-conflict of interest declaration. 

Essential Qualifications 

- At least 15 years of experience in evaluation of programmes and projects for development agencies;
- Extensive and proven experience as a team leader;
- At least 10 years of international level experience relevant to DRM/DRR;
- Excellent writing and verbal communication skills in English. 

Desirable Qualifications 

- Extensive and proven experience in DRM/DRR interventions in Asia;
- Previous experience in programmes and policies related to FAO’s mandate;
- Knowledge of FAO structure and its organizational/institutional mechanisms.

Tentative schedule 

The Team Leader will be available for about 30 weeks from December 2011 to December 2012, when the evaluation report will have to be finalized. The report will be presented to FAO’s Governing Bodies at one of the 2013 sessions of the Programme Committee. 

The tentative schedule for the evaluation is as follows: 

- December 2011-January 2012, preparation phase (3 weeks)

• Discussion of a concept note on FAO’s role and work on DRM/DRR in Asia prepared by OED;
• Definition of the scope of the evaluation in collaboration with OED;
• Identification of the other evaluation team members;
• Development of the methodological tools in collaboration with OED. 

- January-July 2012, collection and analysis of information (20 weeks)

• Desk analysis of relevant documents;
• Briefing between the Expert Panel and the Evaluation Team;
• Interviews at FAO’s Headquarters and phone interviews with field stakeholders;
• 2 to 3 missions to a sample of countries (6-8 weeks) to conduct interviews with field stakeholders, including Regional and Sub-regional FAO’s offices;
• Final debriefings in the field and at Headquarters and discussion with the Expert Panel at Headquarters on first conclusions and recommendations reported from the field. 

- August-December 2012, reporting phase (7 weeks)

• Drafting of the evaluation report: own contributions and coordination/integration of other evaluation team members’ contributions;
• Discussion of the draft report with stakeholders and with the Expert Panel and integration of their comments into the report;
• Presentation of the final report to relevant stakeholders.