Consultancy for Conducting 60 Key Informant Interviews

Location: Across Lebanon (24 municipalities across Upper Shouf, West Beqaa, Zahle, Maten, South Baalbeck, and Hasbaya)

Project: Rigorous Impact Evaluation (RIE) of "Strengthening Inclusive Local Governance and Vertical Social Cohesion in Lebanon"

1. Background: Berghof Foundation, in collaboration with the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB) and supported by GIZ, is implementing a Rigorous Impact Evaluation (RIE) to assess how participatory planning processes influence citizens' trust in local governance structures in Lebanon.

In fragile settings, vertical social cohesion—the trust and cooperation between citizens and local authorities—is critical for community resilience, yet remains understudied. Lebanon, facing prolonged political paralysis, economic deterioration, and erosion of public institutions, provides a unique environment to rigorously assess how participatory governance interventions may impact levels of trust in local governance. In the context of widespread disenchantment with political institutions, this project seeks to understand whether inclusive, participatory decision-making processes at the municipal level can foster renewed trust between citizens and authorities.

The RIE project focuses on 24 municipalities located in Upper Shouf, West Beqaa, Zahle, Maten, South Baalbeck, and Hasbaya. The evaluation employs a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative surveys and qualitative methods to establish causal pathways between participation and trust building.

The Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) represent an essential qualitative component, providing nuanced insights into participants' experiences, perceptions, and behavioural changes that quantitative surveys may not fully capture. The findings from these interviews will enrich the understanding of mechanisms behind trust building and help refine strategies for future participatory governance initiatives.

2. Purpose of the Assignment: The KIIs aim to:

• Assess in-depth whether levels of trust in local governance have increased as a result of citizens' participation in decision-making processes.
• Obtain nuanced explanations of how and why trust was impacted.
• Identify specific factors influencing trust building (positive or negative).
• Capture participants' inputs on the participatory planning process and if it served their needs and purpose.
• Gather recommendations for enhancing the participatory planning process.
• Identify political, social, and external dynamics that have affected trust levels since the baseline.
• Explore any behavioural changes or external factors not captured by the quantitative survey.

3. Scope of Work: The consultancy firm will be responsible for:

• Designing a qualitative data collection approach in line with RIE objectives.
• Conducting 60 high-quality, in-depth KIIs across the designated municipalities.
• Ensuring a representative coverage of treatment and control group participants where applicable.
• Adhering to ethical standards, including confidentiality, informed consent, and data protection.
• Preparing detailed transcripts or structured interview summaries.
• Delivering a comprehensive analysis report summarizing findings by themes relevant to trust, participation, behavioural changes, and external dynamics.

The assignment is expected to mobilize a tiered research team structure comprising senior and junior researchers to handle preparatory, field, and reporting tasks effectively. Transportation and logistics to all 24 municipalities should be factored in.

4. Deliverables

• Inception report (methodology, sampling plan, interview guide, and schedule).
• Clean transcripts or structured summaries of 60 KIIs.
• Consolidated analysis report summarizing key findings.
• Presentation of preliminary findings to Berghof Foundation team.

5. Timeline The assignment is expected to be completed over a period of 10 weeks from contract signature.

Indicative Timeline:

• Inception Phase (desk review, planning, training): 2 weeks
• Data Collection Phase (field visits): 5 weeks
• Data Analysis and Reporting Phase: 3 weeks

6. Qualifications and Requirements The selected consultancy must demonstrate:

• Proven experience in qualitative research, particularly conducting KIIs.
• Experience working in Lebanon across diverse regions and communities.
• Strong understanding of governance, social cohesion, trust-building, or related themes.
• Familiarity with conflict-sensitive and inclusive research approaches.
• Capacity to conduct fieldwork across multiple governorates in Lebanon.
• Ability to deliver high-quality written reports in English. Arabic language skills for fieldwork are required.
• Previous experience with GIZ-funded projects or rigorous evaluation projects is an asset.
• Demonstrated ability to deploy a tiered research team with clear roles in data collection and analysis.

7. Coordination and Reporting

• The consultancy agency will report to the Berghof Foundation RIE team.
• Regular coordination meetings will be held to monitor progress.
• All tools, transcripts, summaries, and reports will be submitted in English.

8. Application Requirements Interested consultancy agencies are requested to submit:

• A technical proposal (methodology, understanding of the assignment, brief work plan).
• A financial proposal including detailed breakdown of costs.
• Company profile and relevant previous experience.
• CVs of the team members assigned to the task.
• At least two examples of previous similar assignments.