Consultancy to evaluate IOM’s “Promotion of Sexual and Reproductive Health for migrants and refugees from Venezuela” project At International Organization for Migration

As of March 2021, 5.5 million people have left Venezuela due to economic and social difficulties. The challenges they face during long journeys through different countries have made migrant women, adolescents, and girls from Venezuela especially vulnerable particularly in what concerns their sexual and reproductive health. They are also more exposed to human trafficking, exploitation and sexual abuse and other rights violations. This is due to the critical financial situation, the poor physical, mental and social well-being that results from being away from home.

Within this context, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), has partnered with civil society members in Colombia and Ecuador through a Government of Canada funded project to promote the Sexual and Reproductive Health for migrants and refugees from Venezuela. IOM is now seeking now a consultant, or a firm of consultants, to evaluate its project.

1. Context of the evaluation

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is committed to the principle that orderly, humane and safe migration benefits both migrants and society. The Office of the Special Envoy of the Director General for the Situation in Venezuela (OSE) of the IOM is the regional coordination office of the institutional response to migrant flows from Venezuela, within the framework of the Regional Plans of Response for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela. Integrative and comprehensive initiatives on sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) for the provision of health care, together with a coherent and coordinated response to gender-based violence (GBV), help to remove barriers to gender-based violence, equality and create better opportunities to turn women, adolescents, and girls into powerful agents of change and improve their lives and that of host communities. Faced with this panorama of needs and priorities, the IOM, through OSE, obtained funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development of Canada, for the regional project “Assistance and promotion of sexual and reproductive health for migrant and refugee women and girls from Venezuela and host communities in Colombia and Ecuador”.

The intervention focuses on: 1) Empowering migrant women, adolescents, and girls from Venezuela and host communities to promote and exercise their voice and agency related to SRHR in Colombia and Ecuador; 2) Increase access to comprehensive SRHR services with a gender perspective for women, adolescents, and girls in both countries; and 3) Improve access to medical assistance and referrals, to benefit women, adolescents, and girls from host and migrant communities in Venezuela, survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual exploitation. More specifically, the project included the following products and strategies:

• Output 1.1. Women and girls, migrants and refugees from Venezuela and members of host communities have improved their knowledge to demand and exercise their SRH in Colombia and Ecuador.
• Output 1.2. National and local authorities, civil society organizations empowered in promoting comprehensive SRH services with a gender perspective in Colombia and Ecuador.
• Output 2.1. National and local authorities have improved knowledge and strengthened capacities on SRH rights and comprehensive services with a gender perspective in Colombia and Ecuador.
• Output 2.2. Coordination mechanisms on comprehensive sexual and reproductive health rights with a gender perspective and the response to women and girls, migrants from Venezuela and host communities in Colombia and Ecuador are strengthened.
• Output 2.3: Women and girls, migrants from Venezuela and host communities have received comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services with a gender perspective in Colombia and Ecuador.
• Output 3.1: National and local authorities and GBV assistance service providers have increased their capacities in preventing and responding to GBV in a gender-sensitive manner in Colombia and Ecuador.
• Output 3.2: Migrant women and girls from Venezuela and members of the host community in vulnerable situations receive safe, confidential and timely information and comprehensive gender response, support services on GBV, in Colombia and Ecuador.

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1. Purpose and Scope of the Evaluation

In response to the the evaluation guidelines of the IOM, the Office of the Special Envoy of the Director General for the Situation in Venezuela (OSE) requires the realization of an external ex-post evaluation of the project. As part of the project proposal approved by the donor, the development of an external ex-post evaluation was established with the purpose of evaluating the performance of the interventions, for accountability to the donor and the beneficiaries. Likewise, it is expected that this exercise will allow the identification of good practices and lessons learned in the management and coordination of the project, in order to establish viable and relevant recommendations for the design and management of similar projects.

The evaluation will include the project “Assistance and promotion of sexual and reproductive health for migrant and refugee women and girls from Venezuela and host communities in Colombia and Ecuador”, implemented between March 20, 2019 and September 19, 2021 in the districts of Barranquilla, Cartagena and Santa Marta in Colombia, and Quito, Manta and Machala in Ecuador, taking as reference the following products and strategies in particular:

• Output 1.1. Women and girls, migrants and refugees from Venezuela and members of host communities have improved their knowledge to demand and exercise their SRH in Colombia and Ecuador.
• Output 2.3: Women and girls, migrants from Venezuela and host communities have received comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services with a gender perspective in Colombia and Ecuador.
• Output 3.1: National and local authorities and GBV assistance service providers have increased their capacities in preventing and responding to GBV in a gender-sensitive manner in Colombia and Ecuador.

Finally, in line with its purpose and objectives, it is expected that the evaluation will identify and document lessons learned and good practices and present practical recommendations, all of them clearly supported by findings and conclusions supported by triangulated evidence.

3. Objectives

Evaluate the result of the interventions implemented under the criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability with a focus on rights and gender and identify and document good practices and lessons learned in the management and coordination of the project, in order to promote reflection processes and assessment that contribute to improving future interventions and, under a training approach, of rights, gender, age, intersectionality and human mobility. Regarding the users and uses of the results of this evaluation, the following are foreseen:

• The Office of the Special Envoy of the Director General for the Situation in Venezuela (OSE) of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the IOM Missions Colombia and Ecuador, especially the project managers and team, which will formulate and follow up on a managerial response matrix to the evaluation recommendations. Likewise, the documentation of lessons and the best practices of the project will be used as a source of consultation and training for the Mission.
• Additionally, it will share the evaluation report with the key counterparts of the initiative.

4. Evaluation Criteria

For this exercise, the standard evaluation criteria will be applied in accordance with the definitions and guidelines of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (DAC-OECD) in its 2019 review. Specifically, this evaluation will focus on the criteria of adequacy, effectiveness, efficiency, connectivity, coverage, coherence, coordination and, to a lesser extent, on impact (to the extent that its non-experimental design and duration allow it). In addition to the aforementioned evaluation criteria, it is expected that the exercise will consider four cross-cutting issues in accordance with IOM and United Nations guidelines on the matter: Rights-Based Approach to Programming, (RBA), equal gender equality, principles for humanitarian action and Agenda 2020 for Sustainable Development. For more information on the criteria, please see attached Terms of Reference.

5. Deliverables

The evaluation team is expected to generate the following deliverables, which will be reviewed and approved by IOM in accordance with the Organization’s internal evaluation guidelines and the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) guidelines. All of them must be edited at an appropriate level for publication. The language requested for the elaboration of each product is detailed in the Terms of Reference, and shall usually be both Spanish and English.

• Inception Report
• Briefing Meeting
• Final Report
• Executive Summary
• Lessons Learnt factsheet

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1. Timeline

The maximum term to carry out the evaluation is 120 calendar days from the date the contract is signed. The evaluation team may propose a shorter duration as long as the generation of the products in the expected content and quality conditions is ensured. The Consultant hired, due to the context of COVID-19, will be able to carry out the evaluation remotely, with periodic travel to Panama, Colombia and Ecuador, as established in the work plan following the guidelines of this document . Knowledge of the context of the intervention areas of Colombia and Ecuador will be positively evaluated.

7. Profile sought

The work may be carried out by a consultant, team of consultants or legal entity who together must meet the ideal profile:

• Knowledge and experience in Colombia and Ecuador will be valued.
• Have a university degree in economics, social and / or political sciences, branches related to research.
• Master’s and / or doctorate studies in sustainable development, international cooperation or humanitarian action will be valued.
• General professional experience of at least ten years and / or five consultancies in evaluation and knowledge management.
• Specific professional experience of at least five years and / or five consultancies in the area of ​​humanitarian action.
• Demonstrated ability to write documents (include a history of publications on international cooperation for development and / or humanitarian action in the CV).
• Ability to analyze, systematize and present information, in a clear and orderly manner (include in the CV examples of previous work that demonstrate these skills).
• Knowledge in humanitarian action in Latin America and the Caribbean will be positively valued (through work experience in institutions linked to humanitarian response and / or specific publications on the subject).
• Work experience and / or studies on knowledge management in international development cooperation will be positively valued.
• Verifiable operational capacity to collect information in Colombia and Ecuador.
• Have methodologies for knowledge management.
• Experience in sexual and reproductive health issues will be valued.

For more information, please refer to the Terms of Reference linked below. This evaluation shall have a maximum budget of 28,000 USD.