Terms of References

For procurement of consultancy services for conducting mid-term evaluation of the We Effect Europe Programme:

EMPOWER EUROPE:

Civil Society for Inclusive and Sustainable Rural Development in

Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Moldova

 

1. Background

We Effect is a Swedish development organisation working worldwide in 25 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Our work focuses on reducing poverty and inequality by strengthening the ability of member based and democratic organisations to enable women and men, girls and boys living in poverty to improve their living conditions, defend their rights and contribute to a just society. The work is focused to the following areas: rural development, housing, gender equality and financial inclusion.

The vision of We Effect is a sustainable and just world free from poverty. To succeed in reaching this goal, We Effect has decided to start by changing the situation for the most vulnerable – women and girls, who constitute 70 percent of those living in poverty. The target groups of We Effect’s development cooperation are We Effect’s partner organisations, their existing and potential members. Most of our partner organisations of We Effect are member-based organisations active in rural development, farmers associations, producers’ groups and cooperatives. We Effect applies a rights-based approach. This means that our development activities are developed in dialogue with our partner organisations, with strong local ownership, characterized by accountability, transparency, non-discrimination, and meaningful participation.

 

1.1. We Effect Europe Programme

The We Effect Europe Programme covers the countries in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and North Macedonia) and Moldova. The main focus of the programme is Rural Development. The programme promotes and contributes to stronger democracies, fair and sustainable development as well as moving towards the EU. The programme aims to strengthen the capacities of rural cooperatives, farmer organisations and other civil society organisations to address the needs and rights of their members, including gender equality perspective. It also envisages strong and vibrant civil societies with a diverse set of actors.

 

Programme Components:

Organisation Development

Support and strengthening of civil society organizations active in rural development to deliver quality services to their members and to be a voice for their members in the public sphere. Organisations are able to advocate for members’ rights, influencing policies and legal frameworks. Through gender mainstreaming and integration of the Human Rights Based Approach  in all their work, the partner organisations will be able to equally represent the rights of the most marginalized groups such as rural women, youth and minorities and to actively promote reconciliation through facilitating inter-ethnic cooperation, especially among women and youth from different ethnicities.

 

Business and Production Development

Promotion of “agriculture as business”, improving access to financial services, linkages to markets, value addition as well as value chain development. Promote standards such as Global GAP, EU harmonization standards and an enabling environment for small-scale farmers. Promote cooperative and other models for cooperation. Adaptation and resilience of farmers as response to impact of climate change. The programme will contribute to community development in vulnerable areas; mainly rural but sometimes also semi-urban areas. We Effect promotes reconciliation and joint small business initiatives across ethnic groups with specific support to minorities, minimizes effects of conflicts and use “do-no-harm” approach.

 

Gender Equality

The Programme fully integrates the human rights-based approach into its development work and gender equality is mainstreamed in all programme activities. Focus of this component is on women’s’ economic empowerment through access to economic opportunities and control over resources, as well as women in leadership positions and participation in decision making.

 

Regional Cooperation

Strengthening regional collaboration through regional networks and platforms. Strengthen national and regional mechanisms for lobby and advocacy such as LAGs (Local Action Groups) and National Rural Development Networks. The programme is support the Balkan Rural Development Network (BRDN) as a regional platform of NGO-based national rural development networks in the Western Balkan. The BRDNs’ member networks will become crucial assets for effective rural development in the Western Balkan. The programme is foreseeing the BRDN as a strategic regional partner organisation for regional lobby and advocacy interventions.

 

The specific Outcomes of the Programme under each component are presented in the Programme Document  and the Programme LFA Result Matrix which are annexed to this ToR.

 

Programme Partners:

The We Effect Europe Programme is implemented through the implementation of the respective projects that are implemented by the supported We Effect Partner Organisations. During the programme period that is subjected to the external evaluation (2018-2020), the Europe Programme encompassed 13 projects, implemented by 11 Partner Organisations.

Below is an overview of the current partner organisations in the programme. The overview is aiming to provide information of the partners in the program and contribution of their respective projects to the specific Programme Components:

 

 

2. Objective of the assignment

2.1. Purpose

The consultant will design the evaluation methodology and implement a result-oriented midterm evaluation by analysing key outcomes indicators and strategies in the We Effect Europe Programme. The main focus is to evaluate key programme strategies and programme results achieved during the period 2018-2021.

The evaluation report should provide learnings together with a set of recommendations to strengthen partners’ capacity and, to provide recommendations for the future (new) programme development. The evaluation should identify (1) lessons learned (examples of promising practice as well as aspects of the programme that do not work); (2) evidence of programme results; (3) We Effect’s added value in supporting partners’ organizational development to work in a rights based and gender sensitive way. The Evaluation should also provide learning and reflection about the impact of covid-19 in programme results and delivery and draft key recommendations in this respect.

The evaluation will be conducted to help We Effect and Partner Organisations of We Effect Europe Region to understand:

a) the overall direction of the program and its progress thus far;

b) the required adjustments to achieve it’s intended objectives during the last 2 years of the program with regards to the Theory of Change;

c) strengthening the current partnership modality; and

d) the potential to upscale the We Effect’s activities activities over a longer period of time going beyond the Programme Period in 2022 – recommendations for development of the new We Effect Europe Programme for the period 2023-2027.

 

 

2.2. Scope of Work

The focus of this consultancy is to conduct an evaluation on key programme objectives and  results and, provide key recommendations for further strengthening the sustainability of the development work of We Effect in the field of rural development, in terms of strengthening the organisational capacities of the partner organisations and full integration of Gender Equality and RBA in the overall work of We Effect and its partners.

 This means:

·         Collecting relevant data to analyse the extent to which the programme objectives and results and  have been successful.

·         Provide independent assessment of the mid-term projects achievements, strengths and

identify the problems and constraints that have been encountered from the start of the implementation of the Programme to date.

i.            Analyse the process of implementation from the perspective of participation of the right-holders, members of the rural communities and the partner organisations and analyse the changes that have occurred within the beneficiary households and the targeted communities

·         Assessing advocacy achievements in the key objectives s of the Programme.

·         Assessing to what degree the programme approach and strategies are successful in

promoting partners coordination to mobilize women´s collective action and organization for demanding their rights.

·         Evaluate if and how We Effect has contributed to build the capacity of our partners’ organizational development in terms of strengthening their organisational capacities, accountability and strategic direction.

·         Identify important lessons to be learnt and make recommendations for development and  the implementation of future programme and respective projects.

In addition to this, the evaluation should document at least 3 examples to illustrate how the

programme  has contributed to individual or organizational results providing evidence of programme achievements and/or evidence on transformation of gender power relations within the partner organisations.

 

2.3. Consultant´s specific tasks

The Consultant will work in close collaboration with the We Effect Programme Director and Programme Officers.

The consultant will undertake the following tasks to achieve the objectives of this assignment:

·         Develop evaluation methodology, including evaluation methods, questions for key

informants and, focus group and any adjustment of timeline between the frameworks

provided;

·         Desk review of existing programme document,  projects’ documents, programme reports and policy papers provided in Annex 1;

·         Desk review of Programme LFA Result Framework to assess the degree of achievement and,

adequacy of the indicators and methods of measurement;

·         Review any other relevant materials of reference;

·         Develop questionnaires for conducting interviews (to be shared with We Effect once created);

·         Conduct on-line semi-structured interviews with key informants at We Effect (We Effect Regional office Europe) and representatives of Partners’ Organizations;

·         Conduct at least 11 online interviews with focus groups (one focus group per partner) to gather further information from right holders (members of the partners organisations);

·         Document lessons learnt, experiences and best practices;

·         Develop a draft evaluation report structure;

·         Develop and provide inception report and draft report to We Effect for comments;

·         Develop a session for Q&A with a PPT to present the final report findings in a webinar;

·         Conduct bilateral meetings as needed with We Effect Program Director and/or Programme Officers;

·         1 page with key reflections about conducting evaluation during Covid 19 time (challenges, adaptation of evaluation methods, impact in the evaluation process, etc);

All materials from the conducted reviews and evaluations shall be annexed to the Final Report;

We Effect and its Partners’ Organisations will provide assistance to conduct focus group and/or, other type of information collection based on approved methodology.

 

2.4. Criteria and Questions for the Evaluation of the Programme

The evaluation criteria are coherence, relevance, effectiveness and sustainability , we are also looking at sustainability of current plans and adjustment and recommendation ahead for improvement the sustainability and outcomes of the We Effect Europe programming. It seems that the most important things to look at will be around the ‘missing middle’ of the outcomes on Programme level and the activities and outputs on partners’ projects level. We are looking at what has worked and what has not worked in the programme as well as intended or unintended results. The consultant shall evaluate very closely our work and outcomes in gender equality and women´s rights within the programme, providing evidence of promising practice on gender transformation within partners organizations and also as a result of the implementation of the programme strategies.

The following questions shall be addressed in the evaluation:

Criteria	Evaluation Questions
Relevance (The extent to which the program is suited to the priorities of the target group and the recipients.)   Coherence (The compatibility of the intervention with other interventions in a country, sector or institution)	Do the objectives and outcomes of the programme still respond to the needs of the target group? Do the programme objectives still respond to the policies/strategies of the We Effect partner organisations?   To what extent has the support to the partners been adapted to contribute towards  the organizational development of partner organisations to act as a voice of their members on national and regional level and to provide high quality services for their members? How have the partners worked to find opportunities to operate and demand government accountability in a context of shrinking civic space? How did the programme promote We Effect’s principles of gender equality, human rights and organizational and human development? How has the programme adapted its goals and methods to the needs and conditions that have arisen during the pandemic? What factors enabled or obstructed this adaptation?
Effectiveness (The extent to which an activity attains its objectives.)	To what extent have the programme  objectives been reached?   How have the activities undertaken and outputs produced enabled partners to strengthen the cooperation among their members and to leverage this for more effective advocacy? To what extent has it been possible to find synergies and contribute to joint learning across the region? What direct and immediate benefits have the target group (right-holders) and any other beneficiaries obtained through the use of the partners projects’ outputs?   What changes has the programme contributed to in terms of gender equality and overcoming ethnic discrimination on organizational, community and household level?   What are the positive or negative, intended or unintended, changes brought about by We Effect’s work?
Sustainability	How strong is the ownership of the members of the partner organisations for the work supported by the programme? How sustainable (or likely to be sustainable) are the outputs and outcomes of the We Effect? Have the interventions created capacities (systems, structure, and staff) for sustained results? What could be done to strengthen sustainability?

 

3. Duration and timing

The assignment is to be carried out during the period 1^st of October to 30^th of November 2021. The total number of days worked for the entire assignment will not exceed 30 working days during the entire contracted period.

 

4. Duty travel & accommodation [N/A]

Due to the global pandemic no travels are foreseen for this assignment.

5. Deliverables, Coordination & Reporting

The consultant will directly report to the We Effect Programme Director, who will be responsible for monitoring of the assignment progress.

Expected Deliverables:

1.       Evaluation Methodology, including evaluation methods, questions for key informants and focus groups and timetable for implementation of the assignment;

2.      An Inception Report (10-15 pages), will form the foundations for the evaluation process by providing an overview of the methods for data collection and analysis, details of the evaluation design as well as an outline for the structure of the final report. The inception report will assess evaluability issues, evaluation questions and interpretations and the approach/methodology. The methodology and methods highlighted will also cover any limitations alongside any subsequent implications that may arise as a result. In the case that timelines of the expected deliverables are changed, all adjustments will also be reflected in the inception report.

3.      A Draft Report (20-30 pages excluding Annexes) generating key findings and recommendations for concrete action, underpinned by clear evidence (for review by the We Effect and Partner Organisations for factual comments), and an Executive Summary of max 3 pages that weaves together the evaluation findings and recommendations into a crisp, clear, compelling storyline.

4.      A Final Report (20-30 pages excluding Annexes) that incorporates final comments from We Effect on the draft report. The evaluation final report should include an abstract; executive summary; background of the local context and the program/projects/activities being evaluated; the evaluation purpose and main evaluation questions; the methodology; the limitations to the evaluation; findings, conclusions, and recommendations. The executive summary should be no longer than 3 pages in length and summarize the purpose, background of the programme being evaluated, main evaluation questions, methods, findings, conclusions, and recommendations and lessons learned. All findings, conclusions and recommendations will be consistent in reflecting gender equality and rights-based approaches and cover all cross-cutting thematic focuses of the program. The recommendations will be leveraged to directly guide the We Effect Europe Region in strengthening programming, making necessary adjustments (as needed) and therefore, will need to be specifically tailored to We Effect and Partner Organisations. The Annexes to the report shall include, but are not limited to:

●        This Evaluation ToR;

●        All data collection and analysis tools used in conducting the evaluation, such as questionnaires, checklists, and discussion guides and;

●        All sources of information, properly identified and listed;

 

The exact due dates for all deliverables will be finalized by the consultant, in collaboration with We Effect, so long as the dates continue to fall within the broad start and finish dates of the consultancy.

 

6. Qualification requirements

Key qualifications and competences of the Consultant include:

·         Resident or registered in one of the EU member states or Western Balkans countries.

·         At least Master's degree or equivalent post-graduate degree in a field of relevance for the assignment (e.g. e.g. social sciences, economics, business, agroeconomics etc.);

·         At least 10 years of experience as external evaluator of programmes/projects with gender-equality and human rights based-approaches to organizational change and sustainable rural development;

·         Experience in evaluating complex, multi-country projects or programmes (minimum budget of single evaluated programme/project of 2,000,000 EUR for the entire programme/project period);

·         Experience in in-depth interview; focus group discussion and participatory information collection techniques;

·         Oral and written fluency in English;

·         Ability and willingness to undertake the assignment with tight deadlines.

7. Application procedure:

The Applicants should upload the following documents to Impactpool no later than 15 September 2021:

        i.            Cover letter describing how you would best match the tasks listed and the requirements and skills.

      ii.            Copy of valid registration issued from an authorized institution from country of origin (not older than one year; not applicable for individual applicants).

    iii.            CV of the consultant(s) who will be performing the assignment.

    iv.            Diploma for completed Master degree or equivalent post-graduate degree in a field of relevance for the assignment

      v.            Reference table of the legal entity’s/consultant’s experience by listing performed projects/assignments in relevant areas stated in key qualification that will include information on:

a.       brief description of the project / assignment (no more than 100 words);

b.      value of contract in EUR;

c.       donor/contracting party;

d.      year of realization;

e.       sector and approaches used (e.g. gender-equality; human rights based-approach, top-down, bottom up etc.) and

f.        links to projects/activities reports.

    vi.            Financial offer for an all-inclusive daily fee expressed in EUR including all applicable local taxes.

  vii.            Declaration of relationships (signed).

8. Evaluation of the offers

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested documents.

Please note that the financial offer is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultants during the contract period (e.g. fee and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services etc.).

Best value for money principle will be taken into account by using a weighted scoring method to evaluate the combination of the applicants’ qualification (60%) and financial offer (40%).

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the bidder whose application has been evaluated and determined as:

·         Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

·         Having received the highest combined score out of a weighted technical and financial evaluation specific to the solicitation

1.      Technical evaluation (60%):

The technical evaluation of the received offers will consist of:

·         Evaluation of professional experience (relevance of 50%)

§  Number of years of experience as external evaluator of programmes/ projects with gender-equality and human rights based-approaches to organizational change and sustainable rural development; (25%)

§  Number of evaluated programmes/projects with minimum budget of 2,000,000 EUR per project/programme; (15%)

§  Number of conducted assignments that include in-depth interviews; focus group discussion and participatory information collection techniques; (10%)

·         Evaluation of formal education (relevance of 10%)

Only the applicants who will reach the threshold of 60% (min 36 points out of 60) of the technical qualification will be considered for the financial evaluation.

2.      Financial evaluation (40%)

The evaluation of the financial offers will be conducted in the following manner:

·         The offer with the lowest price shall receive the total of 40 points

·         The other offers with higher prices shall receive the respective score according to the following formula: 40 * (Lowest Price / Proposed Price).

9. Terms of payment

The payment will be done upon submitted report/deliveries and approved by We Effect, showcasing the milestones made on specific and measurable achieved deliverables. Payment for service fee will be made in EUR. The invoice shall be issued only after the report/deliverable is approved by We Effect.

10. Declaration of relationships

The Applicant shall describe if their organization/employees have any business or personal relationships with closely associated party from We Effect, its Regional Office in Skopje, its governing bodies and employees or with any of the partner organizations – National Federation of Farmers (MKD), Rural Development Network (MKD), National Roma Centrum (MKD), National Federation of Farmers of Moldova (MDA) , FARM (MDA), Vive Zene (BIH), CERD (BIH), NORDK (KOS), AgroPuka (ALB), AgriNet (ALB) and AmaroDrom (ALB).

Closely associated party (persons, physical or legal) as per We Effect’s definition is considered person who has the possibility to exert control over, or significant influence on, the other person when it comes to financial and operative decision-making concerning an activity. The purpose of the Declaration is to disclose such information which makes the application and evaluation process more transparent and supports the bids in its relevance according to conditions on the open market.