BACKGROUND
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the lead United Nations agency for cities and human settlements. The agency was established as the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS), through the General Assembly Resolution 32/162 of December 1977, following the first global Conference of United Nations on Human Settlements that was held in Vancouver, Canada, in 1976. By resolution 56/206, the United Nations Generally Assembly elevated the UNCHS to Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).
UN-Habitat, being the focal point for all urbanization and human settlement matters within the UN system, has a role in delivering the global sustainable development agenda – 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, adopted by Member States in 2015, specifically of goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
UN-Habitat’s work is delivered through six-year Strategic Plans. The previous Medium-Term Strategic and Institutional Plan (2008-2013) was delivered with reform processes initiated in 2011 that lead to the adoption of the current strategic plan 2014-2019. In the strategic plan, UN-Habitat is delivering its work through seven sub-programmes / focus areas that correspond to seven organizational branch entities.
During the period since 2012, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the debate on the New Urban Agenda have taken place and a reciprocal influence has resulted within the UN-Habitat set-up, given the important positioning of urban planning and design in both documents.
The focus of this evaluation is the city planning and design strategy, including the public space programme and urban planning and design lab implemented under Focus Area 2, expected accomplishment (EA) 2.2, which is to deliver “improved policies, plans and designs for compact, integrated and connected, socially inclusive cities and neighbourhoods adopted by partner cities”. The City Planning Extension and Design Unit (CPEDU) is in charge of delivering EA 2.2.
CPEDU provides normative, capacity building, technical and advisory support to partner cities to produce better plans, designs and policies that are compact, connected, integrated, inclusive and resilient to climate change. The Unit uses an implementation strategy for city planning and a public space, which has been in use since 2012 and to date reflects the overall strategy of the Unit.
The Unit has structured its work in a Public Space Programme, a Urban Planning and Design Lab, and a core coordinating office responding to the mandate and demand from external partners and to organize the work, with different focal persons and reflecting budgeting arrangements, and supported by several projects and a variety of donors and clients. The urban planning and design lab and public space programme offer services that include city specific planning tools, principles, standards and methods; training and capacity development events based on training tools, advisory and technical support to produce city wide strategy, plans and neighbourhood designs (i.e., planning charrette with stakeholders, plan review support); facilitation of participatory planning process; feedback on planning contents; design and implementation of pilot projects on public spaces and city wide public space strategy.
Justification / Mandate of the Present Evaluation
This evaluation is undertaken at the request of UN-Habitat Management. This evaluation is considered an interim evaluation of the city planning and design strategy and delivery towards the relevant expected accomplishment of the strategic plan. The recent adoption of the SDGs and the adoption of the New Urban Agenda at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in October 2016 also represent important drivers for a review of the strategy and business model currently used by CPEDU.
The forward-looking elements of the evaluation will play an instrumental role in shaping the focus for UN-Habitat in planning, organizing/institutionalizing and implementing future urban planning activities.
Purpose and Objectives of the Evaluation
UN-Habitat is undertaking this evaluation of the city planning and design strategy including the public space programme and urban planning and design lab, to assess to what extent the overall support and services provided since 2012 by the City Planning, Extension and Design Unit are relevant, efficient and effective, and sustainable, and overall all effects/changes projects implemented.
It will inform improvements to delivery in terms of organizational and substantive aspects both at unit and Organization levels, and may also provide inputs for the expected revision of the strategic plan.
The evaluation is as part of UN-Habitat’s efforts to perform systematic and timely evaluations and ensure that UN-Habitat evaluations provide full representation of its mandate and activities, including sub-programmes, and work at Headquarters, regional and country levels.
Scope of the Evaluation and Sampling
The evaluation is expected to assess achievement, challenges and opportunities from the planning to the implementation of the city planning and design strategy through an interim programme evaluation.
The focus is on the city planning and design strategy and related urban planning lab and public space programme under the purview of the CPEDU, and assessing both completed and ongoing activities implemented since the creation of the Unit in 2012 up to 2016.

RESPONSIBILITIES
The three primary deliverables for the evaluation that are expected from the international consultants: 1) inception report with evaluation work plan, 2) draft evaluation report and 3) final evaluation report.
The evaluators will review the assignment outlined in the terms of reference (TOR) (http://mirror.unhabitat.org/downloads/docs/TOR2016.pdf) and undertake an initial desk review, identify information gaps, redefine the methodology to be used in the evaluation and develop an inception report and evaluation work plan that will guide the evaluation process. The draft evaluation report must meet minimum requirements for draft reports. The evaluation report should follow the standard format of UN-Habitat Evaluation reports, putting forward the purpose, focus, scope, evaluation methodology, evaluation findings (with assessment of achievements and rating of performance according to evaluation criteria), lessons learned and recommendations.
The implementation phase of the evaluation will involve the overall data collection and analysis of the evaluation. The international consultants will conduct a mission to the UN-Habitat Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and to various project field sites. The evaluation team, consisting of two international consultants (team leader and senior evaluator will be expected to undertake field visits, which will include consultations with partners and beneficiaries of projects as well as visits to projects. National consultants may be included in the evaluation team if it is deemed necessary to support data collection and analysis.
The two international consultants are jointly responsible for meeting professional and ethical standards in planning and conducting the evaluation, and producing the expected deliverables.
Responsibilities and Evaluation Management
This evaluation is commissioned by UN-Habitat CPEDU, and managed by the Evaluation Unit. The Evaluation Unit will manage the evaluation in close consultation with PCEDU ensuring that the evaluation is contracted to suitable candidates; providing advice on code of conduct of evaluation; providing technical support as required; ensuring that contractual requirements are met; and approving all deliverables (evaluation work plan, draft and final evaluation reports).
The two international consultants will be selected by the Evaluation Unit through a consultative process with CPEDU. The national consultants, if deemed necessary, will be contracted through the CPEDU.
CPEDU will provide substantive and logistical support to the evaluation team. The Evaluation Unit will be responsible for contracting of the two international consultants through UNOPS.
An Evaluation Reference Group with members from the Evaluation Unit, Urban Planning and Design Branch (UPDB), CPEDU, and the Programme Division will be responsible for comments on the inception report and drafts of the evaluation report.
The evaluators are responsible for meeting professional and ethical standards in conducting the evaluation, and producing the expected deliverables as described in the terms of reference.

EDUCATION
Advanced academic degree in urban planning, housing and infrastructure, urban development and local governance or similar fields.

WORK EXPERIENCE
The international consultants are expected to have:
• Over 15 years of programme management, monitoring and evaluation experience building on the results-based management approach.
• Extensive, proven, evaluation experience. The consultant should have ability to present credible findings derived from evidence and putting conclusions and recommendations supported by the findings. Examples of evaluation reports should be submitted with the letter of interest from candidates.
• Please refer to the full TOR for additional requirements.

LANGUAGE SKILLS
Excellent English writing and communication skills are required. Knowledge of another UN language (French or Spanish) is desirable.
REMUNERATION
Payments will be based on deliverables over the consultancy period. There are set remuneration rates for consultancies. The rate is determined by functions performed and experience of the consultant. The fees will be paid upon satisfactory delivery of outputs as per agreement. Where applicable, travel costs of the consultant (airplane ticket economy class), transfers, and daily allowance as per the UN rate is payable in addition to the daily fee.

HOW TO APPLY:
Applications should include:
• Cover memo (maximum 1 page)
• Summary CV (maximum 2 pages), indicating the following information:
1. Educational Background (incl. dates)
2. Professional Experience (assignments, tasks, achievements, duration by years / months)
3. Other Relevant Experience and Expertise (e.g. Internships/ voluntary work, etc.)
4. Expectations regarding remuneration (daily rate for period of up to 25 days)
5. List of referees
• Optional: Applicants are encouraged to include a document (i.e., evaluation report) that describes or demonstrates her/ his ability to perform the tasks given above.

Please also be advised that since April 15th 2010, applicants for consultancies must be part of the
UN-HABITAT e-Roster in order for their application to be considered. You can reach the e-Roster
through the following link: http://e-roster.unhabitat.org
All applications should be submitted to:
Ms. Lucy Waikwa-Omondi
UN-HABITAT
P.O.Box 30030, 00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Email: Lucy.Waikwa-Omondi@unhabitat.org
Deadline for applications: 30 December 2016
UN-HABITAT does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process. If you have any questions concerning persons or companies claiming to be recruiting on behalf of these offices and requesting the payment of a fee, please contact: recruitment@unon.org
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Deadline for applications: 30 December 2016