Consultant (Evaluation Lead)

Call For Applications Position Title : Consultant (Evaluation Lead) Duty Station : Bangkok, Thailand (Homebased) Type of Appointment : Consultancy Contract Estimated Start Date : As soon as possible Closing Date : 31 August 2026 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. Core Functions / Responsibilities: This is a Category B consultancy for the conduct of a final evaluation of the regional project “Improving Migration Governance and Access to Services for Displaced Afghans in Pakistan and Central Asia”, implemented under the Canadian Immigration and Migration Capacity Building Program initiative funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The consultant will conduct an impartial, objective and evidence-based final evaluation of the project, assessing implementation progress, emerging results, relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability considerations, cross-cutting issues, and lessons learned. The evaluation will generate evidence-based recommendations addressed to IOM to support decision-making, adaptive management, future programming and organizational learning. Recommendations shall be prioritized and clearly linked to supporting findings and conclusions, indicating their operational and strategic relevance for IOM. Under the overall supervision of the Evaluation Manager, and in consultation with the Evaluation Reference Group, the consultant will be responsible for producing the following tangible and measurable outputs. Deliverable A: Inception Report and Data Collection Toolkit The consultant will prepare an inception report setting out the evaluation approach, refined evaluation questions, methodology, sampling strategy, workplan, data collection tools, stakeholder consultation plan, limitations and mitigation measures. The inception report shall include an evaluation matrix mapping evaluation questions to judgement criteria, indicators, sources of information, data collection methods, respondent groups and analytical approaches. The inception phase may include a workshop or structured discussion to validate or, where necessary, reconstruct the project’s Theory of Change. The final list of evaluation questions and the detailed methodology will be confirmed during the inception phase in consultation with IOM. The data collection toolkit shall include the relevant instruments for qualitative data collection, such as interview guides, focus group discussion guides and consultation tools, as well as any templates required for the review and analysis of project documentation, monitoring data, secondary data and other available evidence. Deliverable B: Final Evaluation Package The consultant will prepare and submit the final evaluation package, including: A draft evaluation report for review by IOM and the Evaluation Reference Group; A final evaluation report incorporating comments and including an audit trail; A concise evaluation brief, using the applicable IOM template where relevant; A presentation of key findings, conclusions and recommendations; A facilitated discussion with IOM on findings, conclusions and the co-creation or refinement of actionable recommendations; Any agreed annexes, including the list of documents reviewed, stakeholders consulted, data collection tools and supporting evidence. The final evaluation report shall include an executive summary, evaluation context and purpose, methodology, limitations, findings, conclusions and recommendations. Findings shall be clearly linked to evidence, conclusions shall be linked to findings, and recommendations shall be concise, feasible, prioritized, actionable and addressed to IOM. Evaluation Approach and Methodology The evaluation will apply a utilization-focused and theory-informed approach, using primarily qualitative methods, complemented by analysis of available project monitoring data, documents, reports and secondary datasets where relevant and feasible. The detailed methodology will be