Consultancy - Supporting Women’S Transformative Leadership At Changing Times In The Mena Region

1.      Title   This is the final evaluation of AMAL Programme: “Supporting Women’s Transformative Leadership at Changing Times in the MENA Region”. The programme’s official start date was October 2012 and it is scheduled to end on 31 January 2016[1].? This evaluation is scheduled to take place in full during 1 November 2015 – 10 February 2016.   2.      Introduction   The final evaluation is specified as a requirement in the AMAL Programme proposal as part of the MEAL requirements of Oxfam. It is also in compliance with our contract with the donor, SIDA, which stipulates the need for evaluation.  The final evaluation will cover all aspects of AMAL programme looking at efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, sustainability, participation and empowerment and Oxfam added value. It should provide new information that would guide and support the development of future programming, with a focus on strategic aspects and recommendations on how to make lasting change happen.     3.      Programme context and details     AMAL: Supporting Women’s transformative leadership in changing times[2] is a three-year multi-country, multi-affiliate[3] programme, which is aimed to promote active participation and leadership of women in the MENA region, including the poorest and most marginalised women, in local, national and regional governance structures and decision-making processes, therefore, ensuring that they have a say in formulation and/or their needs and priorities are reflected in socio-economic policies and practice at all levels.   AMAL programme is implemented in four countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: Morocco, Tunisia, the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt), and Yemen.  It operates at three levels: Country level projects, a Regional component and Global advocacy and exchange work and is in line with Oxfam’s Gender Justice Goal which states that  “Many more women will gain power over their lives and live free from violence through changes in attitudes, ideas and beliefs about gender relations, and through increased levels of women’s active engagement and critical leadership in institutions, decision making and change processes”.   AMAL was developed at a time when the Arab Uprisings have started and gave new hopes to promote women’s advancement in the region: women were at the forefront of campaigns for democracy, demanding a say in how their countries’ futures are shaped and at the same time redefining the roles women traditionally play in public life.  The changes resulting from the Arab Uprisings seemed at the time to open up new opportunities for achievements of women’s rights though with possible backlash and risks. It is on this premise that AMAL programme was developed notwithstanding the remaining and emerging systemic challenges in the context of these countries. After 3 years, the picture is grimmer with a large scale war and humanitarian crisis in Syria, conflict escalation in Iraq, war in Yemen and the threat of control or sporadic actions by extreme terrorist groups across the region and the impact this has been having on women in those countries.     Within this changing and challenging context, AMAL programme[4] aimed to achieve eight outputs in Morocco, Tunisia and oPt and 6 outputs in Yemen with a total budget of US$ 6,808,060 over the duration of 3 years (Oct 2012- Sep 2015), which was extended till end of January 2016.. These outputs[5] are:   Output 1.1: Women demonstrate increased awareness and confidence to express their political and socio-economic rights Output 1.2: Women play a more active role, including as transformative leaders, in the political and socio-economic life of their communities and country Output 2.1.: Stronger links between women’s organisations and their allies in the MENA region enabling them to speak with collective voice. Output 2.2.:  Women’s organisations, networks and coalitions have improved skills and capacity to affect change Output 3.1.:  Influential leaders and opinion formers have more supportive attitudes towards women’s rights Output 3.2:  Decision-makers and opinion-formers address the different needs and priorities of women, particularly the most marginalized Output 4.1: Oxfam and women’s organizations have increased knowledge and tools and use them to strengthen their approaches to women’s participation and leadership. Output 4.2:  Oxfam and its partners employ the values and practice of transformative leadership and women’s participation in their own organizations   Further details are provided in the attached logframe (annex1)   The programme targets women in general however focuses on poor and marginalized geographic locations in each of the four countries in both urban and rural areas. Beneficiaries include women and men including the youth from these locations, potential and current women leaders, women’s organizations and CBOs.    The AMAL programme management consists of a regional programme management unit (PMU) based in Oxfam Beirut Regional Gender Justice Programme, who is responsable for overall implementation of the programme and achievement of results as well as implementation of the regional component and management of a regional partner. Country implementation is managed by Oxfam Country Offices in each of the four countries, mentioned above, who are responsable for direct implementation in country and management of country partners. Each country has been working with 3-4 national non-governmental partner organizations. The Programme has a regional Steering Committee and national level Steering Committees.  In summary,  the programme delivers its activities under the management of five Oxfam offices and 14 national partners and one regional partner. The programme includes as well 9 grants to 14 organizations/groups who were competitively selected to implement their own proposals for promoting women’s leadership and participation     4.      Public to whom the Final Evaluation, its dissemination and use are directed   The audience of the final evaluation is AMAL programme stakeholders including Oxfam, partners, beneficiaries as well as other organizations working on women’s rights in the region and beyond, donor organizations and the public in general.   The Report will be shared in Oxfam, programme partners and the donors. In compliance with Oxfam Evaluation Policy, the final report executive summary including the management response will be published on the affiliates websites, Oxfam website and intranets, provided that it does bear unacceptable risk or repercussions to staff, partners or program efforts.   5.      Final Evaluation Scope and Objectives   The final evaluation is expected to be forward looking and achieve the following objectives: Identify the achievement and any impact so far of the AMAL programme and ways that this may be built on and sustained ; Record and share good practice and lessons based on the challenges that the programme experiences whether strategic or operational Verify that donor and Oxfam funds were used effectively and efficiently to deliver results; Identify Oxfam’s added value to programme partners and stakeholders in the design and delivery of the programme; Identify the added-value of having a regional/multi-country programme as opposed to single country projects Make recommendations for how future programme management and implementation could be improved to feed into a second phase of the programme which would be developed by the time the evaluation is completed;   The scope of the evaluation should cover all aspects of the programme at the different levels and in the different countries, taking into consideration that in March 2015, the Yemen full scale conflict prevented continuation of programme activities.     6.      Evaluation criteria   The Evaluation will utilize the following criteria:   RELEVANCE v  To what extent did the programme respond to the contextual needs at the time it was developed? v  To what extent has the programme responded to the priority needs of the population, who were mainly women and especially in poor and marginalized areas, in general and in specific in relation to their leadership and political participation? v  Are the intervention strategies and approaches used in the different countries ( in awareness, training, capacity building and advocacy) and overall vision the most adequate for promoting the intended changes that the programme set out to achieve?   v  Was the programme able to respond to new and emerging issues within the current contexts of political uncertainty and insecurity? How well did it cope with that? v  Was the programme advocacy work at regional and country levels relevant to the context at the time of programme implementation? Were these missed opportunities? v  Was the programme strategy aligned with Oxfam gender justice priorities?   EFFECTIVENESS v  Have the intended changes as described in the proposal in policies, practices, ideas and beliefs been achieved? Any unintended changes (both positive and negative)?  To what extent did that happen for the four main outcomes of the programme? Namely: women’s leadership building, capacity building of women’s organizations, advocacy work? v  Are there any clear signs that show progress in the transformation of power relations? For example, are there any clear signs that the women and men who participated in the programmes are more aware of their rights or of gender roles and relations? Are there any signs that these have changed in the targeted communities? v  Are the women targeted by the program exhibiting change that is aligned with aspects of transformational women’s leadership? v  Is women’s leadership (and youth leadership where applicable) promoted transformational enough? does it foster gender equity values as a core component of leadership building? Is it owned by the women who practice it? To what extent did their leadership have influence on their lives and their communities? v  Was the programme strategy flexible and responsive to address shortcomings in implementation or to make use of opportunities? v  To what extent did the programme achieve internal coherence and linkages among countries and between the different components, as feasible taking into account the different country contexts   EFFICIENCY v  Has the plan that was established for the execution of the programme been carried out in the most efficient timeframe? To what extent did it align with the initial timeframe? v  Have synergies with other actors and interventions been taken advantage of  sufficiently where it could ensure better programme performance? v  Have the funds available been used in the most adequate way to achieve the changes proposed? Were the funds adequate and clearly and sufficiently distributed in the design of the programme? v  Where were resources not used effectively and reasons behind that?   SUSTAINABILITY v  Which measures are being used to guarantee that the positive effects of the intervention are sustainable over time? v  Do sufficient institutional capacities exist to maintain the changes produced? v  Is appropriation by both women and men being promoted?   PARTICIPATION AND EMPOWERMENT v  To what extent was the programme inclusive of various groups and to what extent did it include poor and marginalized groups? v  To what extent are the beneficiary groups or their representatives participating in decision-making processes and the different phases of the programme? v  To what extent are the programme actions contributing to the beneficiaries being protagonists of their own individual and community development, understanding, demanding and proposing changes in policies and practices that generate their exclusion and/or discrimination against them?  v  To what extent are the programme actions contributing to creating a ripple effect and collective actions by the beneficiaries to change the community? v  Are lessons learnt being well reported and documented?   IMPACT v  To what extent did the programme achieve impact in the interventions in relation to all Outcome? v  What can be done in the future to ensure the impact is further sustained?     OXFAM ADDED VALUE v  To what extent is OXFAM contributing/adding value to the implementation of the programme and in which manner? v  Is Oxfam providing needed direction, support or expertise during implementation? v  Is the Oxfam providing sufficient resources and staffing for adequate support of the programme? v  Is Oxfam working towards setting sound complaints, feedback and response mechanisms for partners and beneficiaries in line with its accountability principles? v  Was a sufficient learning component included in the Oxfam MEAL system?     7.      Existing sources of information   The programme proposal document and its annexes: The countries and regional proposal, the budget, the log frame and revisions of those in the third year of the programme Programme work plans at regional and country levels ad revisions of those 12 Quarterly and 3 annual narrative and financial reports Baseline Study Report and Endline Study Report (the latter will be provided gradually) Mid-Term Review Report and reports of  Programme Review Meetings Minutes of Steering Committee meetings Key Programme Deliverables (Research Reports, training manuals, workshop reports, Advocacy strategy documents, advocacy and media materials, communication material and documentation, etc) Innovation fund documents (RFPs, proposals for 9 grants, narrative and financial reports, communication material) Oxfam and other documents external to AMAL that reviewed AMAL as a case ( TLWR, MEAL practices, SIDA evaluation) The list of Oxfam Staff, Partners involved in AMAL and their contacts The list of participants in AMAL activities (to be acquired from Partners)     8.      Stakeholder involvement   The AMAL Regional Programme Team The Oxfam Offices (Intermón in Morocco, NOVIB in oPt, Tunisia, GB in Yemen) Associate/country directors and AMAL Programme Country Teams Intermón MEAL Lead, GB Research Project Manager AMAL Country Partners (ATMDAS, ADFM, FLDDF, Al-Nakhil in Morocco, AFTURD, ATFD,  LET in Tunisia, WNC and YWU and Abs  in Yemen, MIFTAH, WCLAC, PWWSD, and WAC in OPT) AMAL Beneficiary Groups and beneficiaries: women in the communities, men in the communities, targeted youth, women political leaders, local leaders, national decision-makers, media institutions and journalists, including those from among beneficiaries of the innovation fund grants The AMAL Inter-affiliate Steering Committee SIDA Sweden- Donor representative Other Oxfam staff who were involved on an ad-hoc basis in the programme. External partners who were exposed in one activity to AMAL programme (In the World Social Forum, Regional Women Political Participation Seminar)     9.      Evaluation approach, methodology and description of the process   This section will be elaborated based on the methodology agreed with the evaluation team. The overall expected approach of the evaluation in general terms  has to participative, objective-and utilize scientific and sounds methods of evaluative research.  the data collection methods proposed  have to respond to the key evaluation questions.The evaluation is expected to be participatru of the programme stakeholder and include an opportunity for validation of the facts and findings before the evaluation is finalized.   The proposals to be submitted by the offerors are expected to contain the following methodological topics as a minimum:   v  Description of the sequence of phases related to the evaluation approach proposed. v  Sources of information for primary data collection. v  Instruments to be used for data collection clarifying clearly how the evaluators seek to respond to the criteria above and its pursuant questions. v  Different types of data analysis that will be carried out. v  Reference indicators for each evaluation (if relevant). v  Timeline for the evaluation v  Initial outline of the Evaluation Report       10. Duration of the Evaluation   The duration available to conduct this evaluation is 4 months in total from 1 November 2015 till 10 February 2016   The table below presents a tentative timeline for the completion of the different phases of the evaluation. The Offerors are expected to provide a detailed timeline along with their methodology.     Phase Tentative dates Agreement of consultancy proposal, ToRs, budget, timelines and contract and submission of documents by Oxfam   1 September 2015 Preparatory phase: -          Briefing with the actors involved -          Desk Review and Consultation of available information -          Assesment of the evaluability   1 September – 18 September Inception report by the evaluators which includes  the detailed methodology all tools for data gathering, detailed work plan and organization of the team.   Final Inception report   18 September 2015       1 October Finalization of Logisitcal arrangements: Scheduling of   evaluation activities in country 1 October – 31 October Field phase: Data collection in all the countries  and the regional level -          Interviews with stakeholders -          Field work 20 October – 10 December 2015 12th quarterly, third year annual report and endline report submitted by Oxfam 15 November 2015 Phase of analysis and presentation of preliminary analysis. This must incorporate a meeting with stakeholders in each country and one with the regional team in which the findings, analysis, conclusions and recommendations are presented for discussion.   All finalized before 18  December 2015 Phase of writing up the final report:     Draft Evaluation report and recommendations 15 January 2016 Oxfam Comments on the draft report 25 January 2016 Final Evaluation report and recommendations after incorporation of comments 10 February 2016         11. Responsibilities and roles   v  Responsibilities of the Oxfam evaluation management group: Ensure that the programme documentation is provided to the evaluation team In Country logisitical arrangements including local travel Initial introduction/contact with stakeholders Participation in the discussion about methodology and tools for the data collection and approval Receive and approve reports   v  Responsibilities of the evaluation team Reviewing all the documents Production of the tools Presentation of an adjusted work schedule Organize all international travel arrangement Data collection at all levels Presentation of progress reports Dicussion of findings with programme stakeholders Producing the report with the recommendations Throughout the duration, the evaluation team will be responsable to raise any issues to the Oxfam contract manager on any missing information, disruption of agreed plan or any other matter deemed to undermine the evaluation process and quality of the evaluation by any party to allow timely corrective action. Failure to do so would mean the result will be the responsibility of the evaluation team.   If there is a team of evaluators it is important that one person from the team assumes team leadership responsibilities: Main focal point with Oxfam and ultimate responsibility for the content of the report. In the same way the responsibilities of the other members of the team must be specified. These aspects must form part of the methodological proposal.       12. Composition of the Evaluation team   The evaluation team is expected to include at minimum a team leader and two senior evaluators as a proposed structure. Each of these must have the following:   v  PHD degree in sociology, gender studies, political science, international relations, or a related field; a Master degree with sufficient years of experience could be sufficient v  At least 10 years of proven experience in the field of social research and specifically evaluation research  and expertise and ease in analytical frameworks and development of data collection tools v  Significant experience in gender v  Significant experience in the MENA region and an updated understanding of the context v  A strong command of Arabic, French and English has to be in the team (Morocco and Tunisia needs French and Arabic, OPT and Yemen need Arabic and English); this has to be taken into account in the structure and roles of the evaluation team v  Management and time management skills v  Excellent communication skills and ability to work in a multi-cultural environment; v  Proven professional analytical and writing skills; v  Willingness to travel and ability to work under pressure; v  Flexibility and adaptability   It is expected that the evaluation in the countries would happen simultaneously to meet the above dates as the latter are not flexible. The team structure and planning should therefore accommodate the above timeline.   13. Procedures and logistics     -          Specific procedures, if any, for example in relation to security will be shared with the evaluation team ahead of the start of the field work.. -          Working hours, holidays and other special work requirements : -          Weekends for Oxfam in Lebanon and oPt and Oxfam and partners in Morocco, Tunisia are Saturdays and Sundays. Partners weekends in oPt are either Friday and Saturday or Friday and Sunday. Weekends in Yemen are Friday and Saturday. National holidays can be goggled online in the duration of the data collection to be taken into account in planning. Weather, socio-cultural or other conditions that could influence the data collection process.  Moderate weather conditions are expected in all the countries where the evaluation takes place as per the above calendar. The evaluation team needs to take into account cultural norms of the specific localities such as modest and conservative dress codes,  which will be shared before the field. -          The evaluation team will be supported with local transport to the locations agreed on by Oxfam. Interviewers, translators, etc are the responsibility of the evaluation team. -          Office space and means of communications and work are expected to be provided by the evaluation team -          Requirements for communications and dissemination of information: the evaluation team is expected to share the country findings with the respective Oxfam country office and the regional team, who would share with their partners and other stakeholders.  A meeting will be scheduled to discuss the findings of the evaluation with country stakeholders. This meeting will be organized by Oxfam.   14. Deliverables   The expected deliverables of the evaluation are the following: 1-     Before the data collection: a.      Inception Report including data collection tools and detailed timeframe   2-     During the data collection v  Summary of findings at the country-level  and regional level v  Feedback Session with programme stakeholders at country and regional levels   3-     After the data collection v  A draft report v  A final report, not exceeding 45 pages in addition to annexes and include the following, at least:   1.       Executive summary Introduction The intervention and context Methodology Analysis of the information gathered Findings of the Evaluation at country and regional levels Achievements in each country, good practice and key lessons Regional Achievements, good practice and key lessons Conclusions Learning Reccomendations Appendices   -          Appendices should include the data collection tools and detailed country findings, schedule of meetings held and people met     15. Budget: this section will be completed upon signature of contract based on the agreed fees     16. Intellectual Property   As Oxfam’s standard policies ownership and copyright of all data, drafts and final products will be the sole and exclusive property of Oxfam.   Work principles   In this section a series of ethical principles are laid out and related to the ownership and management of information These must be observed both by the Final evaluation team and all the other actors involved in the exercise. The minimum that we must incorporate  is the following:   v  Integrity.- The Mid Term Review team ensures respect for questions of gender, beliefs, ways and customs of all the actors involved throughout the Final evaluation.   v  Anonymity and confidentiality.- The Final evaluation team must respect the rights of the people who provide information to maintain their anonymity and confidentiality.   v  Independence.- The Final evaluations team must maintain its independence from the institution, avoiding incorporating people who have had institutional involvement, to ensure the most objective view possible. In case of disagreement amongst members of the Final evaluation team, these must be clearly specified in the report. The programme or project teams must respect this independence.   v  Veracity of the information. The Final evaluation team guarantees the veracity of the information presented. In cases where there are doubts about the quality of particular data this must be clearly reflected in the report.   v  Coordination.- Throughout the exercise coordination must be maintained; any incident or circumstance that could have implications for carrying out the work must be duly communicated to avoid problems later on and in order to seek timely solutions.   v  Final evaluation reports.- The Final evaluation report and all of the information generated will be property of Oxfam and the donor which finances the work.   v  Information management.- The use and diffusion of the background information and the analysis report will be the prerogative of Oxfam and the donors who finance the Final evaluation.   v  Submission and quality of the reports.- In the case of late submission of the reports or if the quality of the reports submitted is clearly inferior to that expected, Oxfam reserves the right to cancel the contract.     Application Requirements   Interested offerors are expected to submit the following section in their application. All three sections with the information required are necessary otherwise the offer would not be considered eligible and not be included in the initial assessment.   Structure of the evaluation team, including names, roles and detailed CVs showing relevant experience of each responding to all that was mentioned in the above sections Proposed methodology for the evaluation including all what was mentioned in the above sections Budget proposition for the evaluation including clearly fees (daily fee for each consultant and total number of working days required to complete the assignment), travel costs to the 5 different countries of the programme, and all other costs related to execution of the assignment that will be directly provided and managed by the evaluation team. This section should include expectations of support by Oxfam, including any costs that the evaluation team would not directly cover, if any. OPTIONAL: Other information deemed useful to the assessment of the offer   Essential programme documents are available at the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7ql8apewgo6uvo2/AADxhxeH9r4evvmgB_rQNP8Fa?dl…   Applications should be sent to the following email address: lebanonjobs@oxfam.org.uk   Last deadline to receive applications is no later than Sunday, 16 August 2015 11.59 p.m. Lebanon local time GMT+3