UNDP looking for a CSO to assess 15 projects
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is looking for a civil society organization (CSO), including research institutions proficient in monitoring and evaluation.
According to the UNDP website, the CSO will assess 15 projects within the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme and should be based in Eswatini. The projects are yet to be announced by the UNDP. This support in monitoring and evaluation aims to ensure projects are progressing towards their goals, meeting compliance standards, and mitigating risks to achieve desired outcomes.
The civil society organization will be expected to perform several duties and responsibilities which include developing a procedure for monitoring and evaluation of the 15 projects until December 2025.
This must include a field visit schedule that reflects that the monitoring will be conducted systematically and continuously.
The CSO will also conduct needs-finding to understand the range of barriers that grantees face to reach success in their endeavours as well as reporting on emerging trends and obstacles relevant to the project implementation for each granted project.
It will also be responsible for establishing sufficient controls over awarded grantees to ensure that they are on track toward the achievement of objectives and results, further assessing if project objectives are being reached.
“The CSO will be responsible for documenting the impact of activities on beneficiaries and the feedback. Also conduct joint field visits with the National Steering Committee and national coordinator,” reads the website.
Furthermore, to conduct quality control of grantee progress reporting, the CSO will assist grantees in completing the progress narrative report and provide individualised assistance to the grantees.
Each grantee will submit three narrative reports during the project, during which the CSO will report on the monitoring activities for each grantee who visited monthly and attended monthly virtual meetings with the national coordinator.
The website further states that the CSO will inform the national coordinator of issues observed during field visits and proposed corrective measures and attend the National Steering Committee meeting to present on progress on the ground on invitation.
Further conduct quality monitoring against the project timeframe and GEF SGP Project Indicators provided in Annex A of the grantees’ project proposal, data collection, and storage responsibly and with due sensitivity and care, design and conduct performance evaluations, and recommend changes needed for greater impact of granted projects.
In terms of evaluation, the CSO must assess the impact of the project on the local community, the environment, and the livelihoods of direct beneficiaries.
This then ought to be documented result of participation in the project.
Also to assess beneficiaries’ expression of continued interest in the project after as
aparticipation in the implementation, as well as the achievements of each granted project concerning the set project milestones and at the end of the project.