Syria Programme Evaluation assessment

It envisions a world where human rights for women, men, girls boys and non-binary
persons are respected, and all people can feel safe and secure regardless of gender,
age or ethnicity. Kvinna till Kvinna has an
inclusive (feminist) approach
to cooperation in all contexts in which it operates and considers that women
should have power and influence over decisions and  be involved as equal actors in the economic and political development of society to the same extent as men. This vision is permeated and further developed in the global strategy
Kvinna till Kvinna for 2016-2021, with four complementing focus areas; gender-based violence, participation, peacebuilding and organisational development.

 

 

Kvinna till Kvinna has
supported women human rights defenders and partner organisations in Syria since
2009 and is currently implementing the final year of a 5-year programme for
Syria, titled “Advancing the role of women as agents for peace and
development in Middle East and North Africa” supported by the Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency through the Swedish Embassy in
Beirut, Lebanon and the Sweden’s Regional Strategy for the Syria crisis
2016-2020 (extended until 2023)[1].

 

The programme aims to
support Syrian partner organisations with a women’s human rights agenda in
sustaining their visions, management of resources, and adaptations to the
changing contexts and needs of constituencies, to safeguard efforts towards the
elimination of discriminatory norms, and drafting gender sensitive laws and
policies. The overall objective is for partners to have increased capacities for
promotion and greater awareness about women’s rights and generation of a
sustained level of empowerment in different areas of engagement. The programme
has three outcomes, focusing on (1) organisational sustainability and capacity
building, (2) advocacy for changes to law, policy and practice that promote
women’s rights and gender equality and an enabling environment for women human
rights defenders as well as prevention of and protection against gender-based
violence and (3) support for ensuring women’s meaningful participation in all
levels of society and access to decision-making arenas.  

 

In the perspective of the efforts
that Kvinna till Kvinna and partner organisations have put into strenghtening organisational
capacities and promoting women’s human rights and gender equality in the Syrian
context on various levels, Kvinna till Kvinna is now looking for consultant/s to carry out an external final
evaluation as the programme, with special focus on impact, contextual challenges and dilemmas and
for extracting the learnings from this process, which will also be used to
inform the design of the next programme phase.

 

 

Objectives and scope of
the evaluation assignment

The
consultant/s is to perform an assessment to evaluate the impact of Kvinna till
Kvinna’s support to partner organisations, as well as the impact of the initiatives
performed by partners supported by Kvinna till Kvinna.

 

More
specifically, the objectives are to:

(1)   Assess the progress that
has been made towards the outcomes of Kvinna till Kvinna´s Syria programme with
only a few months left of the programme.

(2)   Evaluate the programme´s
relevance in the Syrian context, assess the partner organisations approach and
contributions to the programme, thematic priorities, programming methods and
approaches, and identify lessons learned and good practices.

(3)  
Assess and analyze relevance and impact of Kvinna till Kvinna's support
to partner organisations (capacity building, networking, advocacy and project
funding support),

(4)   Identify and document
lessons learned and good practices to inform and strengthen Kvinna till Kvinna
programming and on leveraging partnerships and grants more effectively

(5)   Formulate recommendations
for Kvinna till Kvinna’s Syria Programme team on how to best focus its work and
inform the next Syria Strategy and Programme phase from 2022 and onwards.

 

The evaluation should
identify lessons learned, good practices and give recommendations to Kvinna
till Kvinna in relation to the next programme´s focus, approach and design,
taking into consideration other relevant evaluations done in relation to the current
programme (Mid-term Review, Evaluation of programme component focusing on
support to Women’s Political Participation). The evaluation scope includes the
entire project period and all relevant geographic locations included in the
project.

 

The
consultant/s should take into consideration the aggravating circumstances of
the shrinking space for Syrian civil society both inside Syria-, and outside
the country.

 

Guiding
questions

 

The overall
objective is to evaluate the project in relation to OECD/DAC Criteria[2]
of overall effectiveness, relevance, efficiency, sustainability, as well as the
cross-cutting gender equality and human rights criteria:

 

Evaluation questions
can be added and/or refined by the evaluator(s). A more elaborated list of evaluation
questions with adjustments made for the specific programme and different target
groups can form part of the inception report. As in the examples below,
questions often refer to more than one evaluation criteria, and are as such not
grouped below;

 

·       To what extent has the programme achieved its expected outcomes and
results, and how likely is it that the expected targets will be achieved or
partly achieved by the end of 2021, what has contributed to this and how has
the change occurred?

 

o   
Are there any
key factors and/or unintended outcomes?

o   
Have
thorough identification of contextual and programmatic risks and adequate
mitigation and management measures, and monitoring of implementation resulted
in adaptive management for achievement of outcomes?

o   
To what
extent was the project efficiently and cost-effectively implemented? What
observations can be made about the project organisational set-up including
staff resources in terms of efficiency?

o   
How has
Kvinna till Kvinna, in partnership with partner organisations, managed to
maintain flexibility towards adjustments to the development of the context?
What factors have enabled and/or prevented flexibility and adequate response?

 

·      
How
purposeful and effective is the Syria programme overall in its’ current
context?

 

o   
To what
extent do the achieved results (project objectives, outcomes, and outputs)
continue to be relevant to the needs of women and girls in Syria, and to the
overall advancement of women’s rights?

o   
In what way
has the choice of thematic focus (participation in decision-making and
peacebuilding, prevention, response to gender-based violence and women´s
economic empowerment) been relevant?

o     How and to what extent has the
programme contributed to the achievement of results towards ending violence
against women, gender equality and/or women’s empowerment (economic and
political)? (both intended and unintended impact)?

o   
How has the
programme (Kvinna till Kvinna and partners) worked with conflict
sensititvity, human rights-based and gender-responsive  approaches and gender-, and
power-perspectives? (applied within the project as well as related to
contribution to wider results)

 

·      
What is the
added value of Kvinna till Kvinna/the programme in terms of developing the
capacity, and how is the support received by Kvinna till Kvinna perceived by
the targeted partner organisations, in terms of process/methodology, as well
as impact in their organisational development? (Effectiveness, Impact and
Relevance)

 

o   
How and to
what extent has the programme contributed to organizational capacity
enhancement and learning of targeted Syrian partner organisations, and which
support is perceived as relevant and/or not relevant for the Syrian partner
organisations work and why?

o   
Has the
choice of partner organisations and activities been relevant and strategic
for achievement of the set goal and expected results? If not, why?

o   
Are the
partner organisations´ supported programmes/projects consistent with
needs/priorities and gaps in the Syrian context as identified by other key
stakeholders (Local grassroots/CSOs/NGOs/UN & INGOs/Donors) and to what
extent have their initiatives the potential for continuity and scale-up?

o   
To what
extent are the partner organisations’ project structures and interventions
likely to be sustainable in the long run and how is that linked to the
support provided from Kvinna till Kvinna?

 

·      
What are the
learnings/insights of target groups of Kvinna till Kvinna and/or partner
organisations and/or critical areas for Kvinna till Kvinna and/or partners to
take into consideration for a future programme phase?

 

o    What can be further improvements of the process and the ways of
working, in terms of methods used, level of participation, right-based
approach etc, context-based thematic focus etc.?

o   
Are there
stakeholders relevant for target/support and/or other areas that the partner
organisations work in, currently not supported by Kvinna till Kvinna, that
would be more strategic for Kvinna till Kvinna to support in view of context
developments and framework?

o   
What
challenges/lessons learnt/recommendations related specifically to set-up and
management of implementation worked/not worked so well in terms of project
management, remote management, monitoring, follow-up and reporting can be
extracted?

 

 

Methodology

The
assignment will be conducted in accordance with Sida’s principles and criteria
for evaluations[3]
and the OECD/DAC Evaluation Criteria[4].

 

The
assignment will ensure that the methodology approach includes an understanding
of:

• A Feminist
approach, based on key values of: transparency, intersectionality,
inclusiveness, sensitivity and a right-based approach; and

• The
values set forth in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and Accra Agenda
for Action[5]
including ownership, harmonisation, alignment, results and mutual
accountability.

 

The
consultant(s) shall develop and propose a methodology for the evaluation, which
should include both a desk review of relevant documentation, as well as
distance (on-site if situation allows) visits and interviews with
representatives from Kvinna till Kvinna’s offices, partner organisations,
target groups and other stakeholders during the process and/or holding focus
group discussions (FGD’s), developing online surveys etc.

 

The evaluation
should as far as possible be based on a combination of qualitative and
quantitative methods and participatory, involving the partner organisations and
their target groups to the greatest extent possible. The selection of
interviewees is performed in consultation with Kvinna to Kvinna, for the sake
of transparency. Any limitations of the stakeholders defined as relevant by the
consultant(s) shall be made explicit and their consequences shall be discussed
with Kvinna till Kvinna as soon as possible including any ethics considerations
that these are based on.

 

It is the
responsibility of the consultant(s) to schedule appointments for interviews/FGDs
etc., and to conduct all logistic arrangements for the assignment. Contact
details and key support documents will be provided by Kvinna till Kvinna.

Deliverables and tentative
timeline

Start of Assignment (including start-up meeting)

1 July

Inception Report/Work Plan including activities,
documents to be reviewed and timetable (to be developed in close consultation
with Kvinna till Kvinna staff)

10 days after assignment starts

Desk review, visits/interviews, FGDs etc.  

After approval of inception report, no later than 1
month after start of assignment (end-July/beginning of August)

Draft Evaluation Report

1 month after start of data collection

Final Evaluation Report

2 weeks after draft

Workshop delivered for Kvinna till Kvinna presenting
and discussing lessons learned and recommendations

One week after approval of final report

 

Tender
proposal content

 

·       CV(s) and
descriptions of the evaluator(s) involved in the assignment, including information
on evaluator(s) language skills & country of residence and contact
information.

·       Brief
methodology and work plan for implementation of the assignment, including time
frame in accordance with this ToR and including methods for data collection and
ensuring quality and a participatory approach (approx. 4-6 pages)

·       Budget incl.
VAT and all expenses in accordance with the financial framework of this ToR

·       References to
previous assignments similar to the assignment presented in this ToR

 

Financial
Framework

 

The consultant/s’
fees shall be specified as fees per day (per person, if applicable) including
taxes, social security contributions and VAT. The total budget for the
assignment shall cover all the costs, including salaries, travel and per diem
and any other expenses related to the assignment.

 

Contracted
consultants cannot further subcontract the assignment. In case the proposal
includes a team of evaluators, the division of work shall be presented.

 

Qualifications

 

The Consultant(s) must have:

 

·      
English
and Arabic (spoken) language proficiency  

·      
Solid
experience of working with gender, civil society and development cooperation,
preferably from the MENA-region and with proven knowledge of the Syria context

·      
Previous
experience of rights-based analytical evaluation work in the context of
international development cooperation and civil society

·      
Experience
with programme design and theory of change, participatory approaches and
stakeholder engagement

·      
Master’s
degree or equivalent experience in social sciences or other related
disciplines;

·      
Excellent
analytical-, and communication skills with strong commitment to delivering
timely and high-quality results