Evaluation objectives:
The main objective of this mid-term evaluation is to provide the project partners i.e. UNDP & Supreme Court with an independent review of the success in achieving desired outputs, lessons learned, findings and recommendations.
The evaluation results are envisaged:
Scope of evaluation
Geographic scope:
At present, JUST project operates in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and in 6 pilot district courts of Dhaka, Kishoregonj, Rangamati, Rangpur, Rajshahi and Comilla.
Target Group:
The ultimate beneficiaries of the project are the citizens of Bangladesh, in particular, court users and their families in pilot districts. The judiciary, as a recently strengthened pillar of the state is also the direct beneficiary of the project.
The scope of the evaluation will cover the success in:
Utilization of resources allocated in this project;Case management, establishing modern case management and court administration;Strengthening the technical capabilities/ capacities of judiciary;Appropriateness/ validation of reform initiatives;Addressing the barriers in current court system;Increasing disposal rate in pilot district courts;Impact and sustainability of activities and outputs.Issues to be addressed by the evaluation
To achieve the above objectives the Mid-Term Evaluation is to address the following:
Relevance of outcome/output;Strategic positioning of UNDP;Partnership strategy and formulation;Production of outputs (possibly with partners);Possibly status of outcome and factors affecting it;Assessment of the project progress towards attaining its expected objectives and outcomes and recommend measures (if any);Investigation of the relevance of these objectives to the national development objectives and priorities, the UNDP/Supreme Court areas of interest and the demand of beneficiaries. Hence recommend means of incorporating those priorities;Reviewing the roles and responsibilities of key justice stakeholders and the level of coordination between themselves;Review of the project concept and design with respect to the clarity of the addressed problems by the project and suitability of the approaches adopted by the project to solve these problems;Assessment of the performance of the project in terms of timeliness, quality, quantity and cost effectiveness of the activities undertaken including project procurement: experts and equipment, training and workshop programs, etc.Review of the Result Framework matrix and the indicators to assess the periodic result based progress for the result and resource management of the project;Assess the prospects of the sustainability of the project outcomes and benefits and recommend prospective scope of work for further development endeavors;Identify and describe the main lessons learned from the project performance in terms of awareness raising, strengthening of technical and financial capacity, efforts to secure sustainability and approaches and methodologies used.Lessons learned in the following areas should be highlighted:
Effectiveness of the training activities and its impact on the quality of individual performance. The sustainability of these training activities should take into consideration the role of the training institutes and its commitment to replicate the introduced training curriculum for the judges from subordinate judiciary;Appropriateness of the current inter-linkages between the major stakeholders and recommend measures for their improvement;The future of sustainability of different project achievements in relation to the roles and linkages among the stakeholders.Methodology:
The evaluation will be based on the findings and factual statements identified from review of relevant documents including the project document, quarterly progress reports (QPRs), Annual Result Reports (ARR), in addition to the technical reports produced by the project and the different promotional materials. A list of the above reports will be shared with the consultants before the beginning of the mission. The mission will also undertake field visits and interview the stakeholders including the target beneficiaries, government officials. Participation of stakeholders in the evaluation should be maintained at all the times, reflecting opinions, expectations and vision about the contribution of the project towards the achievement of its objectives.
The consultant understands of the programme design and its emerging findings and recommendations will be drawn through a structured dialogue with the programme stakeholders and the service users in a series of interviews, focus group discussions and facilitated kick off and debriefing workshops.
More specifically, the methodology involves the following four steps:
Ascertaining the status of the outcome;Examining the factors affecting the outcome;Assessing the contribution of UNDP;Assessing partnerships for changing outcome;Apply the evaluation methodology in the field through a sequence set out in the fieldwork calendar.The sequence of evaluation steps are as follows:
Desk Review/ Pre-mission briefing:
Review of background literature and project documentation lead by the Evaluation Team Leader in consultation with his/her team. It will involve necessary clarifications by UNDP and SC, JUST Project Personnel and other national and international staff, Assistant Country Director and senior management of justice institutions;This phase will culminate in the preparation of a brief Inception Report to be forwarded to JUST / UNDP for comments. The Inception report should incorporate the information from the desk review, present the reconstructed intervention logic, spell out the evaluation questions and a plan for how these will be tackled by the team including draft interview questions;This phase will help the team to prepare for the team hypothesis meeting that is held when the team assembles in Dhaka and for the Inception Workshop with stakeholders.Mission in the Supreme Court:
Evaluation hypothesis meeting and preparation for fieldwork;Kick- Off meeting to share evaluation approach and questions and receive feedback;Briefing of the Evaluation consultants by UNDP, and project personnel;Initial consultation with the NPD, UNDP Country Director/Deputy Country Director (Programme) and government / other relevant national institutions;Inception workshop for key stakeholders set up to interact with the consultants;Interviews by the consultants with key stakeholders such as judges, lawyers and Bar Association members; initial consultations in Dhaka with UNDP JUST teams, High Court Judges, Lawyers, Bench Officers.Field visits to the Pilot District Courts – (visits to intervention areas generally considered the minimum requirement):
Interviews with judges, lawyers, CMC members and court officials;Interviews/focus group discussions with key stakeholders;Interviews with knowledgeable informants;Focus Group Discussions with group representative of broad population and with a group representative of the very poor (representatives of women, youth, etc.);Collection and analysis of case disposal, pending case data in pilot district courts;Assessment of project schemes (Mediation, Case Management Committee etc.);Feedback meeting to present preliminary findings.Debriefing:
Debrief UNDP, JUST, Supreme Court and Pilot District Judges;Debriefing workshop with key stakeholders to present and discuss findings & recommendations – this workshop will generally review which presents the key findings, recommendations (conveyed in power point) and collect feedback from stakeholders;Incorporate feedback as well as observations from stakeholders during the MTE.Evaluation Products (Deliverables):
The final report should contain a matrix of recommendations to be used for the Management Response and action, and recommendations for the next phase of the programme. The team leader will also be requested to provide a 1000-word synopsis of the evaluation and key findings and recommendations.
The mission will be responsible for submitting the following deliverables:
Inception report of the MTE, which includes a finalized ToR including a comprehensive approach and methodology; review questions, the main elements of the evaluation and a detailed work plan; schedule of tasks and activities and deliverables for evaluation process. The inception report needs to reflect the evaluators understanding of the assignment;An executive summary and preliminary recommendations at a debriefing meeting with JUST/UNDP, Key stakeholders;Power point presentation for briefing and debriefings workshop;A draft MTE report with findings (highlighting achievements and challenges), project relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact of project activities, sustainability, lesson learned and recommendations.Recommendations on possible project document revisions;Brief synopsis of evaluation and key findings (1000 words for corporate communications use);A final MTE report with Executive Summary, Introduction, The Development Context, Findings and Conclusions (including reflection of 1. Status of the outcome, 2. Factors affecting the outcome, 3. UNDP contributions to the outcome through outputs, 4. UNDP partnership strategy), Recommendations, Lessons Learned, Annexes (TOR, Itinerary, List of people met, List of documents reviewed); incorporating earlier feedback.Supervision and performance evaluation:
The MTE Team’s work progress will be monitored and coordinated by the Chief Technical Advisor and the overall supervision by the National Project Director of the JUST Project. The NPD and the ACD will be responsible for reviewing the performance of the consultant and approve their deliverables.Reports:
The international consultant will report to the Chief Justice of Bangladesh and the Government of Bangladesh through ERD represented by the National Project Director, and UNDP, represented by the Assistant Country Director (Programme). The MTE Team leader will first present his/her results to the JUST Management Team. A presentation will also be delivered to the UNDP Management and RRMC. The Monitoring Officer, JUST will be the project focal point person and will coordinate activities under this contract.Tentative payment schedule:
50% upon submission of draft report;50% upon submission of final report.Evaluation team composition and required competencies:
The Mid-term Evaluation is an independent evaluation carried out by UNDP. The exercise will be conducted by a team of two. Evaluation team, led by an Evaluation Team Leader, with overall responsibility for providing guidance and leadership for conducting the assessment, and for preparing and revising draft and final reports. The Evaluation Team Leader will be an international professional with significant experience across a broad range of development issues. It is estimated that workload of the team leader would be 25 days. The Evaluation National Consultant (expert in judiciary) will support the Evaluation Team Leader and provide the expertise in specific subject areas of the evaluation, and may be responsible for drafting relevant parts of the report, one Evaluation National Consultant will be contracted to cover the following areas: local justice, and broadly human rights and governance, and cross-cutting issues. It is estimated that workload of the National Consultant would be approximately 30 days.Implementation arrangements:
The consultant should work towards timely submission of the evaluation report and work closely with the national consultant contracted for this mid-term evaluation. The consultant will be contracted by UNDP Country Office in consultation with Supreme Court and JUST. The evaluation team will be working closely with JUST staff, Judges and lawyers of the Supreme Court and Pilot District Courts, UNDP Democratic Governance Cluster and Results and Resource Management Cluster (RRMC).The Project Management shall arrange for the consultant all necessary field visits and meetings in the project sites according to the ToR. The UNDP JUST will fix the date for all types of meeting and will set the meeting as per the schedule and will arrange the inception workshop, briefing and de-briefing.Time frame for the evaluation process:
This contract is for a period of up to 25 days including the final report submission. The consultant will stay minimum 21 days in Bangladesh. The consultants should submit work plan of how the following activities will be implemented within two calendar months from the day of signing of the contract:
Briefing; meeting with UNDP/JUST and other staff, common approach and framework; tasks, work plan and initial desk review of key documentation. – Day 1;Review kick-off meeting with team to the JUST/UNDP/Supreme Court. – Day 2;Comprehensive desk review and consultation to gather and review the existing literature, rules of business, orders and laws as regards to courts procedure, tools, formats and plan and process mapping as done by the national consultants. – Day 3-5;Presentation by the Evaluation team to the JUST /UNDP/Supreme Court on the inception report. – Day 6;Interviews and consultation with relevant actors and stakeholders. Visit to different settings and field locations (district courts). – Day 7-13;Preparation for the draft report and recommendations by the Evaluation team. – Day 14-16;Briefing the draft MTE Report and preliminary presentation of the findings to the UNDP/JUST Management and Supreme Court. – Day 17;Review and upgrade the draft MTE Report to ensure accommodation of the findings made by the Supreme Court and UNDP and validate the information through cross verification, system scan and triangulation. – Day 18-19;Debriefing with key stakeholders (UNDP, JUST, Supreme Court and Pilot District Judges ) to present and discuss findings & recommendations – this workshop will generally review which presents the key findings, recommendations (conveyed in power point) and collect feedback from stakeholders. – Day 20; Ensure accommodation of the feedbacks from debriefing workshop and get the concerned sections endorsed by relevant stakeholders. – Day 21;Review and upgrade the final draft and submit to the Supreme Court and UNDP for final review. – Day 22-23;Ensure accommodation of the comments and make final review of the document. – Day 24;Final MTE Report with the approval of the Supreme Court and submit to UNDP. – Day 25.Inputs:
UNDP will provide office space (no computer) and will also arrange various meetings, consultations, interviews and ensure access to key officials as mentioned in proposed methodologies. UNDP will bear the cost of such meetings.View the original article here
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