Consultant/ NRC Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance Programme - West Bank - Palestine

Background on the conflict/context

The approximately 500,000 Palestinians living in Area C and East Jerusalem routinely experience violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), relating to policies of forcible transfer and the illegal settlement enterprise. Discriminatory planning laws, demolitions, evictions, revocation of residency, movement restrictions, settlement expansion, settler violence and land grab continue to pressure Palestinians to leave their homes. 

NRC’s Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA) programme

In January 2009, NRC re-established its presence in Palestine, reopening its office in Jerusalem. NRC commenced its ICLA activities in the West Bank, including Area C and East Jerusalem, in April 2009, and in the Gaza Strip in August 2009. The ICLA programme is funded by FCO, ECHO, NMFA, SIDA, DFID and the EU.

The overall objective of the ICLA Palestine programme is to prevent forced displacement by providing legal information, counselling and assistance to Palestinians who have been displaced, are affected by or at risk of forced displacement.

The NRC ICLA program in Palestine covers two projects the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The subject of this evaluation is specifically only the West Bank project including Area C and East Jerusalem.

Evaluation:

The main purpose of the evaluation is to provide an independent assessment of the ICLA programme in the West Bank applying selected criteria from NRC’s Evaluation Policy. The evaluation results will inform and influence the future work of the ICLA programme in the West Bank, and possibly other NRC ICLA programmes.

The evaluation should review all aspects of the ICLA programme implemented by NRC in the West Bank of Palestine, from 2013 to the present. The evaluation should put a premium on scrutinizing the most recent work of the ICLA programme as well as the current programme model and organization, internal processes including engagement with the beneficiaries, implementing partners and private lawyers. Consideration should be given to programme resources, the overall legal climate in the country, the availability of means to protect rights, and the capacity of national institutions and other actors assigned to protect rights.

The evaluation is scheduled to start at the beginning of October with desk work; fieldwork is projected to begin middle of October depending on the availability of the evaluator. The draft evaluation report should be finalized by mid-January 2018, with the final report due middle of March 2018.

Deliverables:

The evaluator will submit three reports and two presentations:

• An inception report (guidelines will be given to chosen consultant/s)

• A presentation of findings which are discussed and validated and key learnings documented

• Draft Report

• Final Report

• Final presentation to NRC and relevant partners & stakeholders

Profile

NRC seeks expressions of interest from individuals/teams, ideally with the following skills/qualifications and expertise:

• Sound and proven experience in conducting evaluations based on OECD-DAC evaluation criteria, particularly utilisation and learning focused evaluations 

• Expertise in participatory qualitative data collection techniques

• Background in delivery of legal programmes

Additional, desirable knowledge, includes:

• Understanding of legal environment and context of Palestine

• Understanding of global and regional trends and initiatives on IHL and IHRL

Necessary Skills:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required; Arabic highly desirable

• Prior experience in the Middle East, preferred

• Proven experience of managing evaluations of humanitarian projects

• Experience of designing qualitative data collection methods and of managing participatory and learning focused evaluations

Excellent team work and communication skills, flexibility and good organisational skills

Application

Application Deadline: End of day 1 September 2017.

Interview dates: Between 3 and 16 September 2017.

Bids must include the following:

• Cover letter: stating candidate skill and experience suitable for the consultancy (max 1 page)

• Outline of evaluation framework and methods, proposed timeframe, work plan and budget (max 3 pages; bids over limit will be automatically excluded).

• CV of proposed individual/s and one piece of evidence of similar evaluation carried out previously (abbreviated is adequate though we may ask for more text if what is submitted is not indicative of work performed).

Please see here (link) for the Terms of Reference for full details of the consultancy, before submitting enquiries or applications.