Vacancy Notice – Mid-Term and Final Project Evaluator

Assignment Description: Expert to conduct a mid-term and a final evaluation of the project: A bottom-up reform agenda for Lebanon: Supporting youth, women, and civil society actors to expand civic space

Assignment Location: Beirut and project areas of intervention, Lebanon 

Employment Type: Long-term consultancy 

Assignment Period: October 2022 – December 2023

Level of Effort: Up to 14 expert days in 2022 and up to 26 expert days in 2023   

How to apply: Please send the application documents to info.lebanon@democracy-reporting.org cc’ing e.haddad@democracy-reporting.org, by  01 November 2022, 11:59 PM local time. 

DRI is looking for a Senior Evaluator to conduct a mid-term and a final evaluation of a two-year project funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, entitled “A bottom-up reform agenda for Lebanon: Supporting youth, women, and civil society actors to expand civic space”.

To find out more about the requirements for this vacancy, please download the full procurement notice available in English below.  

Background

Democracy Reporting International (DRI) is a non-partisan, independent, not-for-profit organisation registered in Berlin. It has been established in Lebanon since 2016. DRI promotes political participation of citizens, accountability of state bodies and the development of democratic institutions worldwide. Democratic discourse is the basis of our mission and vision. In our work, we facilitate discussion and exchange about democratic government and the need for a continuous discourse adhering to democratic rules.   

The project seeks to enable an inclusive reform agenda in Lebanon based on active citizenship, accountability, and good governance. DRI believes that active citizenship plays a crucial role in enabling political and systemic change and in shaping policy and decision making in a way that addresses people’s need. Within this project, DRI supports public officials, emerging civil society actors, youth, and women to include citizens in a reform agenda that is centred around local demands and needs. This will contribute, in the long-term, to the development of political institutions that are inclusive and compliant with the rule of law, thereby paving the way for Lebanon’s stability

Halfway through the project, and ahead of its closure, DRI is recruiting an expert to develop an evaluation methodology and to conduct a mid-term evaluation in November 2022 and a final evaluation in November 2023: The main objective of the assignment is to review the implementation and achievements against proposed objectives and planned measures.  the report should communicate concisely the findings of the evaluation and take stock of the collected information in the form of recommendations for improved programming and implementation while demonstrating accountability to donors and beneficiaries. Key observations on cooperation with local stakeholders, relevance, effectiveness, coherence, good practices, and lessons learnt in the mid-term evaluation as well as cross-cutting topics such as Gender, Diversity, and Inclusion shall be considered. In addition to the areas that are going to be covered in the mid-term evaluation, the final evaluation shall focus on additional OECD DAC criteria, namely: impact and sustainability.

Duties and responsibilities

Under the supervision of DRI’s Project Manager, the expert is responsible for:  

• Developing an evaluation methodology that includes survey questionnaires and guiding questions for the key informant interviews and/or focus group discussions, list of stakeholders to be consulted, proposed sampling approach, based on the inception meeting with DRI team and partners; 
• Developing data collection tools and collect data using qualitative and quantitative data collection methods; 
• Submitting two evaluation reports: a mid-term (November 2022) and a final evaluation report (November 2023) that include key findings linked to evidence and data collected during the evaluation research phase;
• Evaluating the extent to which the project has met its expected results as per the project’s logical framework; 
• Identifying success stories and Most significant Changes; 
• Formulating lessons learned from the project’s implementation and providing recommendations to improve design and delivery of similar projects and for the next phase of the project;   
• Identifying opportunities for the sustainability and localisation of the project achieved results;
• Assessing the extent to which Gender and Diversity were effectively mainstreamed in project design and implementation and providing recommendations to improve outcomes.

 Your Skills & Experience  

• An advanced university degree in social studies, political science, statistics, or other relevant fields; 
• At least 7 years of experience as Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) consultant in the international development sector and/or public policy field, with a strong track record in evaluating similar programmes in a volatile context;
• Superior analytical abilities;
• Outstanding writing skills;
• Sense of accuracy, thoroughness, and attention to detail;
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills;
• Cultural and gender sensitivity;
• Working proficiency in English and Arabic.