National Consultant: Thematic Expert

**Background**:
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. Its mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. Within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), UNFPA is working towards three transformative results: (i) zero preventable maternal deaths; (ii) zero unmet need for family planning; and (iii) zero gender-based violence and harmful practices, including female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage.

The UNFPA Viet Nam Country Office (CO) is currently implementing the 10th Country Programme (CP) (2022 - 2026) with the Government of Viet Nam and other partners. The goal of the CP is to achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, and accelerate the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, to improve the lives of women, adolescents and youth. In pursuit of this goal, the UNFPA Viet Nam CO seeks to achieve results in the following thematic areas of programming under the CP: (i) policy and accountability; (ii) quality of care and services; (iii) gender and social norms; (iv) population change and data; (v) humanitarian action; and (vi) adolescents and youth].

UNFPA Vietnam is seeking to hire **two (02) national thematic experts**to evaluate the thematic areas of the 10th CP.

**Purpose, objectives and scope**:
In line with the 2024 UNFPA Evaluation Policy, the UNFPA Viet Nam CO is planning to conduct an evaluation of its 10th CP (2022 - 2026). The purpose of the Country Programme Evaluation (CPE) is to strengthen accountability to stakeholders, support evidence-based decision-making, and improve learning. The overall objective of the CPE is to provide an independent assessment of the performance of the CP and to broaden the evidence base for the design of the next programme cycle.

The evaluation will cover all interventions in the 6 thematic areas of the CP, which have been implemented across Viet Nam during the programme’s period. The thematic areas are described in section 3 of the terms of reference. In addition, the evaluation will also cover cross-cutting issues, such as human rights, gender equality, disability, and transversal functions, such as coordination, monitoring and evaluation, innovation, resource mobilization, strategic partnerships, etc.

**Evaluation team**:
The CPE will be conducted by a multidisciplinary team of consultants. They should collectively have the qualifications and experience to design and implement a methodologically robust evaluation and cover all the above-mentioned thematic areas of the CP. The evaluation team will consist of:

- Team leader: An international consultant with primary responsibility for the design of the evaluation methodology and the coordination of the evaluation team, as described in section 12.1 of the terms of reference. The team leader will also demonstrate the qualifications, experience and skills required to serve as a technical expert for one of the thematic areas.
- Thematic experts: National consultants who should demonstrate the qualifications, experience and skills required to serve as technical expert in at least one of the thematic areas, as described in section 12.1 of the terms of reference.
- A Young and Emerging Evaluator (YEE) who will provide support to the evaluation team throughout the evaluation process.

The evaluation team will conduct the CPE under the supervision of the CPE manager in the UNFPA Viet Nam CO from May 2025 to November 2025, as indicated in the timeframe of the evaluation in the ToR: section 10 and Annex D.

**Please see the attached**terms of reference**for more details on the CPE as well as on the required qualifications and experience of the team leader and team members (section 12.2). Section 10 indicates the evaluation timeline and the expected evaluation deliverables are described in section 8.

**How you can make a difference**:
UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our