Outcome Evaluation of Programmes on Democratic Governance
 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
 Location: New Delhi and travel to sites

Date of Issue: 22nd March 2011
Closing Date: 6th April 2011

TERMS OF REFERENCE
(Reference NO. UNDP/SSA/2011/08) 

For “Outcome Evaluation of Programmes on climate change, energy, environment, poverty and sustainable livelihoods” 

A.             Introduction  

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) conducts outcome evaluations to capture and demonstrate evaluative evidence of UNDP’s contributions to development results at the country level as articulated in the country programme document. These are independent evaluations carried out within the overall provisions contained in the UNDP Evaluation Policy[1]. In line with the Evaluation Plan of UNDP India, an outcome evaluation will be conducted to assess the impact of UNDP’s development assistance in the Practice Areas of Energy and Environment and Poverty Reduction. The proposed evaluation will evaluate the relevant country programme outcomes and outputs as stated in the Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) and the Country Programme Document (CPD) for India both covering the period 2008-2012.  

Under these practice areas, the Country Office has been working to support the country to achieve MDGs and reduce human poverty. UNDP’s  on-going Country Programme Action Plan 2008-2012 (CPAP) is positioned within the overarching objective of the India‐United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2008‐2012, which is focused on “promoting social, economic and political inclusion for the most disadvantaged, especially women and girls.” The formulation of the UNDAF in turn has been guided by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the vision of the Eleventh Five Year Plan that places a high priority on inclusive growth.   

The purpose of the outcome evaluation is to: 

·         Provide substantive direction to the formulation of programme and project strategies

·         Support greater UNDP accountability to national stakeholders and partners in India

·         Serve as a means of quality assurance for UNDP interventions at the country level; and,

·         Contribute to learning at corporate, regional and country levels. 

The outcome evaluation will be conducted in 2011 towards the end of the current programme cycle of 2008-2012 with a view to contributing to the preparation of the new UNDP country programme starting from 2013 as well as the forthcoming United National Development Assistance Framework scheduled to start in the same year. 

B.      Background

The subject of this outcome evaluation will be the projects implemented within the framework of Poverty Reduction and Energy/environment portfolios are summarized in Annex D. In addition to assessing the overall result and development impact of the programmes in these two practice areas, this evaluation will also take into consideration the impact if these programs on cross-cutting issues identified in the CPAP such as gender equality and inclusion.  

During a recently completed Mid Term Review of the entire country programme, the environment and poverty portfolios were also reviewed, based on internal review and reflection as well as a external and independent assessments. The report of the MTR will be made available to the evaluation team.  

Poverty Reduction Programme: The Poverty Reduction Programme aims to improve the effectiveness of national poverty reduction and livelihood promotion programmes in partnership with Central and State governments in disadvantaged areas. It promotes the design and use of strategies that involve the poor, people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, migrants, minorities and displaced. UNDP fosters partnerships to enable disadvantaged households to improve their skills, diversify to non-farm activities and increase access to credit and markets. It assists organisations of the poor to develop livelihood plans in areas such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, land resource development, rural tourism and handicrafts. UNDP also works on the ground to empower disadvantaged communities. UNDP seeks to expand financial inclusion beyond access to financial products and services to providing new opportunities to diversify their livelihoods. The work on financial inclusion also aims to support innovation in product design and delivery of the entire range of financial services including remittance transfers, credit, insurance and market-based social security services such as micro-pensions. Some projects from the previous programme cycle were completed in the current cycle, including the National Strategy for Urban Poverty, Endogenous Tourism and ICT for Development. These projects were aligned to flagship government programmes of JNNURM, Rural Tourism Scheme and e-governance, and involved multi-level policy engagement and incorporation of measures to strengthen programme implementation. Knowledge products under the urban poverty project especially the National Strategy for Urban Poverty Reduction have long-term implications for urban poor.  The ICT project and Endogenous Tourism projects have been mainstreamed by the concerned Ministries at the Centre and in some States. The programme has succeeded in creating interest at the policy level in an outcome-based approach to poverty programming. The strategy of placing technical teams at state and district level has been successful in building credibility and enhancing engagement with stakeholders. The financial inclusion project has engaged with a wide range of stakeholders and has expanded NABARD's engagement with CBOs.

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