Consultant (Evaluation Lead)

About the Company

Established in 1951, IOM is the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners. IOM is dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all. It does so by providing services and advice to governments and migrants.

The IOM Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) in Bangkok, Thailand is covering 40 countries across the Asia and Pacific region. The key responsibility of the ROAP is to formulate regional strategies and plans of action and to provide programmatic and administrative support to the countries within the region.

Context

The project is implemented across Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, reflecting the diverse migration dynamics across South and Central Asia. It forms part of a regional programme supporting countries affected by protracted Afghan displacement and mixed migration movements, combining institutional capacity strengthening with community-based interventions to improve migration governance, protection systems, access to essential services and long-term resilience for Afghan populations and host communities.

The programme seeks to strengthen national and local institutions responsible for migration governance while improving access to protection, health, livelihoods, legal assistance and other essential services for Afghan migrants and vulnerable host communities. It also promotes evidence-based decision-making through strengthened migration data systems and analytical capacities, enabling governments, IOM and humanitarian and development actors to respond more effectively to evolving migration trends.

The project is structured around three mutually reinforcing outcomes:

• Outcome 1: Government institutions, law enforcement agencies, civil society organizations and service providers possess strengthened institutional and technical capacities to improve migration governance, protection systems, emergency preparedness and service delivery for Afghan populations and host communities.
• Outcome 2: Afghan populations and host communities experience improved access to protection, health, livelihoods, education, legal assistance, community development opportunities and social integration, contributing to enhanced resilience and social cohesion.
• Outcome 3: Government institutions and humanitarian and development actors have improved access to reliable migration data, displacement analysis and evidence to support informed policy formulation, operational planning and resource allocation.

The evaluation will cover the project implementation period from April 2023 to December 2026, assessing implementation from project inception until the agreed evaluation reference period. It will examine progress across all project outcomes, outputs and major intervention areas, with attention to implementation quality, operational efficiency, institutional strengthening, partnership effectiveness and the continued relevance of the intervention within the evolving regional migration context.

The consultant will contribute to the final evaluation commissioned and managed by IOM’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, in coordination with the Regional Office in Vienna and the participating Country Offices implementing the regional programme. The consultant will work under the supervision of the designated Evaluation Manager and in coordination with an Evaluation Reference Group, which will provide technical inputs and review key deliverables in line with IOM Evaluation Policy, IOM Evaluation Guidelines, and the norms and standards of the United Nations Evaluation Group.

The evaluator shall maintain impartiality throughout the assignment and shall be responsible for the analysis, findings, conclusions and recommendations presented in the evaluation outputs. The evaluator must not have participated in the design, formulation, implementation or management of the project and must not have any conflict of interest related to the intervention under review.