The 2018-‘21 CSfor RMis implemented by the Swiss Cooperation Office in Moldova (SCO-M), which is the Swiss diplomatic representation in Moldova, under the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). SCO-M is part of the SDC Department for Cooperation with Eastern Europe (CEE), Eurasia Division.
The Swiss engagement in the Republic of Moldova has the following overall goal: To enhance the well-being of Moldova’s population and the cohesion of Moldovan society, with a special focus on the inclusion of excluded groups.
Switzerland will achieve the overall goal through interventions in three thematic domains:
- Domain 1: Health– Men/boys and women/girls effectively enjoy essential healthcare services and act responsibly with regard to their own health.
- Domain 2: Local Governance– Women and men, with a special focus on excluded ones, are actively involved in local governance, shaping the development process of their local communities and effectively enjoying quality services.
- Domain 3: Economic Development and Employment– Better functioning market systems in selected sectors and localities increase the quantity and quality of jobs and provide net additional income to women and men, specifically benefiting excluded groups.
Switzerland promotes gender equality, good governance as well as conflict-sensitive programme management (CSPM)transversally and addresses migration & development as a cross-cutting issue in its domains of interventions and its priorities.
The mid-term review of the CS is part of the cycle management of CS and is therefore part of the planning, monitoring and reporting processes. The ultimate responsibility for the management and supervision of the review rests with the SCO-Moldova.
Objectives and scope of the mid-term review
The mid-term review will strive to achieve the following objectives:
- To assess – through a mutual learning process – whether SDC and its partners reach the strategic objectives, as defined in the CS, and to appraise the efficiency of the strategic and operational steering mechanisms, including the ability to adapt to contextual changes;
- To timely build the foundation for defining the key elements for the new CS (domains, transversal themes, modalities), also taking into consideration the new Dispatch on international cooperation 2021-2024;
- To assess the relevance and coherence of the Swiss development cooperation in Moldova to national development results and as part of the development partners’ contribution (added value);
- To assess the Swiss contribution to strengthening the health sector in Moldova and advise on the future of this domain of intervention;
- To identify good practices and innovative approaches and to identify key factors, which enhance or hinder aid performance and results achievements as well as share experiences in managing CS.
The external consultant (team leader) shall:
- Coordinate the process, gather and analyse important information and data, provide important methodological elements, and assume overall responsibility for the quality of the result.
- Lead the review team, composed by the team leader (the consultant) and two internal SDC-peers. Suggest and agree with the SCO-M the optimal distribution of roles and tasks for the SDC-peers, according to their individual areas of competence. He / She will coordinate, control and supervise the work done by the team and facilitate exchange between the review team members in order to reinforce mutual learning.
- Conduct interviews with the headquarter staff of SDC, FDFA Political Division, Embassy in Kiev, the concerned staff of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Chisinau and as well as some key staff of key partner-institutions.
- Be responsible for the development of the Inception Report.
- Lead the field mission in Moldova (October), including a debriefing meeting at the end of the field mission (with the concerned staff based in Chisinau as well as relevant partners). The field mission consists of the validation of the results of the inception report and of gathering additional information through a mutual learning process. The field mission in Moldova consists of a series of peer exchanges, interviews, project visits and workshops involving the peers, SDC staff involved in implementing the CS, main international and national implementing partners, selected donors and government representatives.
- Be responsible for the preparation of the draft and final mid-term review report (incl. a discussion with the concerned SCO-M and SDC HQ staffon the draft report) and guarantee their high quality.
Required qualifications of the external consultant (team leader)
- Proven experience in designing and managing strategic reviews / evaluations, evaluation comparable in size, scope and complexity. Verifiable skills in review / evaluation methodology. Ability to manage complex reviews involving a multitude of stakeholders in a multi-cultural politically unstable environment. Ability to evaluate according to the OECD / DAC evaluation standards.
- Verifiable expertise (through work experience and education) in at least one of the thematic domains of the Swiss CS for Moldova: Health; Local Governance; Economic Development and Employment.
- Knowledge and verifiable expertise through work experience in multilateral and bilateral development cooperation.
- Experience with programme cycle management and quality assurance instruments.
- Practical experience in politically unstable contexts and in the CIS region.
- Experience in the following transversal themes: social inclusion, gender equality, governance & anti-corruption, migration & development, conflict / context sensitive programme management (CSPM).
- Sensitivity at enhancing learning processes.
- Excellent English language writing and presentation skills.
- Communication skills in Romanian and/or Russian would be an asset.
Experts, who have been involved directly in the design or implementation of projects covered by this review, are excluded from this assignment in order to avoid any potential conflicts of interests.
The offers should be submitted in English via email, with the message title “Offer – Mid-Term Review Swiss Cooperation Strategy for the Republic of Moldova”,to the review manager (caroline.tissot@eda.admin.ch) no later than 06 April C.O.B.
SCO-M will contract the external consultant and cover all related costs for the external consultant and SDC-peers. The assignment budget will be based on the agreed offer indicating separately the consultants’ fee/rates and expenses for travel, per-diem, hotels, local transport, etc. Reservation and payment for flights, hotels and transport in and to Moldova are the responsibility of the consultants.
SCO-M will prepare and provide the review team with the package of necessary documents / reference materials for the desk review: Swiss Federal Council Dispatch, Moldova’s national development strategy and sectorial strategies (where relevant and available for CS domains), SCO annual reports, CS monitoring system and data, regular SCO reports on the context changes, programmatic audit reports, project/program documents (if needed), executive summaries of project evaluations / reviews, end of phase / end of project reports, relevant sources of information from other donors / development partners, statistics of World Bank and UN (MDG monitoring), etc.
The SCO-M will support the Review Team in organizing the program of the mission (which has to be approved in advance by SDC), including meetings, visits, contact to the project’s partners, domestic logistics, etc.
For excel format of the budget template in Annex 2, please write to viorica.cretu@eda.admin.ch
ANNEXES
