Vacancy Announcement Details

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 and also is an official financial mechanism to carry out the goals of several multilateral environmental conventions such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These grants are implemented on ground through a network of 18 accredited agencies (GEF Agencies). The GEF Independent Evaluation Office (GEF IEO) has a central role in ensuring the independent evaluation function within the GEF. Based in Washington DC and administered by the World Bank, the GEF IEO is independent of its management as well as the management of the GEF. Its Director reports to the GEF Council, the GEF governing body. All contracts with the IEO are World Bank contracts.

The IEO undertakes independent evaluations on a wide array of issues related to the relevance, performance and results of GEF support. One such evaluation is the Strategic Country Custer Evaluation (SCCE): GEF Support to Dryland Countries. The purpose of the Drylands SCCE is to provide country-level evaluative evidence on the performance of GEF interventions focused on environmental issues related to drylands in countries with a large drylands’ extent. The objectives are: a) assessing the relevance and coherence of GEF investments in dryland countries, and b) assessing GEF results and sustainability in terms of environmental benefits and associated socioeconomic co-benefits in dryland countries. Gender will be assessed as cross-cutting issue, in consideration of the widely recognized importance of supporting women's empowerment in dryland regions. Cross-cutting issues also include the private sector role in dryland restoration, rehabilitation and Sustainable Land Management (SLM), and resilience to both climate and non-climate related shocks and stresses. Other areas of interest for the evaluation include fragility settings, natural resource governance and environmental policy coherence.

The above evaluation purpose and objectives translate into the following key evaluation questions:

1. To what extent has GEF support been relevant to the specific environmental challenges in dryland countries, and are there any gaps?
2. How have GEF interventions interacted thus far with similar government- and/or donor-funded activities in terms of either contributing to or hindering policy coherence in dryland countries?
3. To what extent have GEF interventions in dryland countries produced their targeted environmental outcomes and associated socioeconomic co-benefits?
4. Have natural resource governance and other socio-economic factors been considered in the design and implementation of GEF drylands interventions, and if yes, with what results and sustainability?
5. To what extent have the cross-cutting issues of gender, resilience and the private sector been taken into consideration in GEF programming and implementation in dryland countries?

The evaluation is being conducted by applying a mixed methods approach that encompasses both qualitative and quantitative data and information gathering and analyses. The Drylands SCCE Approach paper provides (i) a detailed description of the evaluation design, (ii) the complete list of projects under analysis and (iii) a comprehensive evaluation matrix. Tools and approaches are currently under development. Relevance analysis will use geospatial data to assess whether the targeted locations at the national and sub-national level correspond to the critical areas of environmental degradation targeted by GEF interventions in dryland countries. Country level geospatial analysis will inform the design and in-country conduct of case studies. Other evaluation components include interviews, desk reviews, and in-depth country case studies selected based on the presence of both completed and ongoing projects in the country.

The GEF IEO invites expressions of interest from qualified firms to support the office in the conduct of this evaluation. The evaluative work will be undertaken from November 2022 to August 2023. Preliminary findings will be formulated by June 2023.

Responsibilities and Accountabilities

The firm will perform the following tasks:

1. Prepare an inception report detailing the review, design and approach and a detailed work plan with clearly identifiable deliverables and milestones
2. Conduct document reviews, quality at entry and portfolio analyses using tools and templates developed by GEF IEO
3. Conduct interviews using interview guidelines developed by the GEF IEO
4. Perform geospatial data processing using global environmental datasets using methodologies developed by the GEF IEO
5. Conduct case studies through field observations and interviews on countries and projects selected by the GEF IEO
6. Actively contribute to the systematic triangulation sessions led by GEF IEO at the end of the data gathering and analysis phase, to extract main findings from all the quantitative and qualitative data and information gathered, and perform subsequent gap filling and any other eventual additional analyses as needed
7. Report writing (interview minutes, desk analyses, country case study reports, and specific contributions to the main evaluation report)

Full details available on the GEF website. Application deadline 5th October.