Evaluation Lead -Consultancy Contract- Iraq/ Erbil (Open for both National and International candidates) At International Rescue Committee

1. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee is one of the most prominent international organizations working in relief, rehabilitation, protection, post-conflict development, resettlement services and advocacy for those uprooted or affected by violent conflict and oppression.

Working in coordination with the humanitarian community, the IRC currently addresses the needs of conflict-affected populations from several operational bases in the region and form part of an over-arching humanitarian response in MENA region (Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, and Libya) that seeks to assist refugees, returnees, IDPs, and host community survive conflict and displacement.

Throughout its past and current experience in Iraq since 2003, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has built solid expertise in protection including (Protection of law, Child protection, and prevention of and response to violence against women and girls), Governance, Early Childhood Development, and Economic recovery and development, serving mainly displaced populations in camp and non-camp settings as well as refugees and host communities.

1. PURPOSE OF EVALUATION:

The overall objective of the end of project evaluation is to measure the extent to which IRC has able meet the project objectives and results and to achieve the project anticipated targets and made any difference to people’s lives, and to generate knowledge and lessons learnt from the IRC BHA funded project experience specific for Protection and Rule of Law under the title of “Strengthened Local Capacities for a Sustainable Protective Environment for Iraqi IDPs”. This evaluation is being conducted as performance end of the project and will focus on the entire implementation period which started from March 2022.

• The overall purpose of the Evaluation is to assess the processes and achievements made to effectively draw lessons that will inform the design and development of the future project through understanding what has and what has not worked in terms of effectiveness, relevance, efficiency, sustainability, and coverage and to identify key programmatic and non programmatic recommendations to improve the design and implementation of future project SCOPE OF WORK

As part of a multi-sectorial project funded by BHA which aims to Provide critical lifesaving and life sustaining protection services (including GBV prevention and response) and strengthen local capacities to ensure a sustainable protective environment for IDPs and host communities affected by conflict in Iraq, people were assisted through the sub-sector “Protection and Rule of Law” programming directly by IRC in Ninewa governorate and through local partner “Justice Center” in Salaheddine with oversight and technical expertise provided by IRC, through the following activities:

1. The provision of legal counseling, legal assistance (Including support in the issuance of civil documentation).
2. Provision of assistance to families with family members who are missing or victims of enforced disappearance
3. Special needs funds which will address immediate needs for Internally Displaced People which does not include cash support but will be limited in scope to provision of urgent good and services such as clothing, household items, and reimbursement of transportation costs for urgent medical assistance, access to courts, civil directorates, and police stations
4. Legal/protection awareness raising through different channels including in-person and signposts using social media platforms.
5. Facilitation of Community Representation Groups (CRGs), protection monitoring, protection and human rights awareness raising, protection training of local government and humanitarian actors.
6. Strengthening the capacities of Community Representative Groups to carry out peaceful negotiation and advocacy activities and implement action plans for the long-term protection of local communities and vulnerable/marginalized groups
7. Conducting protection monitoring to identify key protection concerns

Subsector indicators:

1. Percentage of clients who report experiencing an improvement in their ability to exercise their rights as a result of legal assistance provided by IRC.
2. Percentage of targeted communities with written action plans who have taken specific actions to address risks
3. Number of individuals trained in protection
4. Number of legal cases processed in a court or an administrative body
5. Number of individuals accessing information services, including Signpost
6. Number of individuals consulted in protection monitoring activities.

Under the supervision of the MEAL Coordinator, the Evaluation Consultant will lead the design and implementation of the evaluation for 31 calendar days starting from 22nd of January 2023, according to the evaluation methodology and workplan.

The Evaluation Questions

The following key questions will guide the end of project evaluation:

Relevance:

• Was the program designed in a way to meet the needs of clients, and wider community considering gender equality? And was it implemented as designed?
• How has the activities implemented improved the clients’ lives? Are there any stories of change?

Sustainability:

• What measures have been considered to ensure that the benefits of the project will continue beyond the life of the project?
• How did the programme contribute to decreasing the reliance on humanitarian aid as a result of displacement? (durable solutions question)

Efficiency:

• Were the required resources (human, financial, and operational) for both IRC and its partner in place and sufficient to implement the project activities and achieve the output targets on time?
• How did the partnership modality contributed to the efficiency of the project delivery?

Effectiveness:

• To what extent were the planned objectives and outcomes in the project documents achieved?
• What were the major factors influencing the achievement of the objectives of the project?

Coverage:

• Did the program reach the intended target group and considered gender equality and inclusion?

Timeline:

The evaluation will start once consultant is recruited and should be carried out during an anticipated period of one month. The consultant must be available from the 22nd of January 2023, and full time effort is expected of the consultant during the consultancy period is expected that the consultancy will be of a total of 31 days.

1. METHODOLOGY:

The consultant will be required to come up with a proposal on how he/she intends to conduct the evaluation. The proposal should further describe a timeline for the evaluation along with a detailed work plan .

IRC proposes the use of both qualitative (key informant interviews, in depth interviews, focus group discussions, observations) and quantitative (e.g. surveys…) research tools approaches in gathering information from a wide array of sources. These sources would include targeted clients, security staff, project coordinators, managers, monitoring & evaluation staff, programmes staff, local authorities, Ministry of Social Affairs, Directorates of Social Affairs, and other national and international organizations working in Protection and Rule of Law in the same area. The consultant might also have to review program policy documents including Human Resources and others and establish how they were applied. The IRC may provide staff who can support only in data collection.

Gender Considerations:

The consultant should include gender considerations in the evaluation not only at the sampling level of interviewees and reporting on the reach of different gender, but also at the level of examining gender inclusion and issues within activities and recommendations. The following questions are proposed by IRC to be mainstreamed through the evaluation:

1. Has the project integrated gender considerations into its activities?
2. Has the project developed any measures to enhance women and girls participation in the project?

Ethics/protection:

The consultant is requested to include a section on research ethical considerations in the inception report which elaborates on protection issues and other ethical concerns. A child safeguarding briefing by IRC staff is part of the assignment.

The consultant(s) should take all reasonable steps to ensure that the Evaluation is designed and conducted to respect and protect the rights and welfare of people participating in this evaluation, and to ensure that the Evaluation is technically accurate, reliable, and legitimate, conducted in a transparent and impartial manner, and contributes to organizational learning and accountability.

The Consultant should also adhere to the safeguarding policy to ensure that evaluation whole evaluation process and members follow the do no harm to the community and the people who are part of the exercise.

1. EXPECTED DELIVERABELS
2. Inception report which will outline the key scope of the work and intended work plan of the analysis, and evaluation questions. The inception report should detail the consultant’s understanding of what is being evaluated and why, to show how each evaluation question will be answered through: proposed methods; proposed sources of data; and data collection tools and procedures. It should also include the timeline and deliverables of the evaluation. The inception report will be shared after 5 days of the consultancy start date and discussed and agreed upon with all stakeholders.
3. A Draft Evaluation Report using the BHA standard evaluation template in English which will be shared within 10 days with the steering committee and who will be providing their comments in 3 days. The programme unit and key stakeholders in the evaluation should review the draft evaluation report to ensure that the evaluation meets the required quality criteria.
4. A Final Evaluation Report using the BHA standard evaluation template in English within 10 days from receiving the comments on the draft report which should not exceed 40 pages including:
   • Title page and Cover photo.
   • Table of contents.
   • Acknowledgement Statement (optional)
   • Executive summary
   • List of acronyms and abbreviations
   • Description of the project including any major changes occurring since the design
   • Description of the evaluation methodology
   • Main findings based on the objectives highlighted in the proposal and supported with charts and numbers.
   • Conclusion.
   • Best practices and lessons learnt.
   • Recommendation on the use of the evaluation results for program changes and decision making.
5. A power point presentation in English to key IRC stakeholders, including methodology, main findings, recommendations, best practices and lessons learnt.
6. Treatment of information:

All data and information received for the purpose of this assignment are to be treated confidentially and are only to be used in connection with the execution of these terms of reference. All intellectual property rights arising from the execution of these terms of reference are assigned to the IRC. The contents of written material obtained and used in this assignment may not be disclosed to any third parties. No data will stay with the consultant following the approved end of the assignment.

1. Evaluation Management:

The implementation of the evaluation will be directly supervised by the IRC MEAL coordinator, and technically supported by the Protection and Rule of Law Coordinator and Senior manager. The consultant will supervise the implementation of the field work and data quality management as well as report writing and dissemination. If the consultant has his/her own team of enumerators, their costs should be specified and covered from the overall evaluation envelop mentioned in the title. Logistics, administration, finance and HR support could be provided by IRC from the field offices as relevant and ONLY if necessary.

1. Criteria and Application:

The Evaluation will be carried out through an external consultant who will be having the below criteria:

• Graduate Masters University degree in the relevant social sciences, development studies, or other relevant field.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in evaluation and/or research of humanitarian programs, preferably related to Protection.
• This will require high level of experience with qualitative and quantitative research methods including surveys, Focus Group discussions, and interviews.
• Experience in BHA mandate, Evaluation policy, procedures, and programme management
• Fluent in English, written and oral. Arabic is a plus
• Good understanding and experience in selecting and applying methods for gender sensitive evaluation.
• Excellent data analysis skills and ability to articulate the linkage between findings, analysis, and program recommendations
• Proven experience and track record of timely and high quality completion of assignments
• High level of organization and time management, as well as an ability to learn quickly and produce high quality work under tight deadlines.
• Good analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Flexible attitude towards receiving feedback.
• Able to travel to Ninewa, and Salaheddine governorates of Iraq.

Notes:

List of responsibilities, professional and personal skills are considered indicative and not exhaustive; actual duties may differ or vary.

Selected consultants will be provided with all additional documents required to carry out the work.

1. Expected Timeframe

Date

Deliverables

Tasks to achieve Deliverables

22 Jan -29 Jan 2023

Desk Review

Desk Review for:
– The proposal document and its relevant annexes including but not limited to the logframe section.
– The Overall Protection strategy

– The Protection program SOP
– The monitoring reports.
– The PRoL M&E plan

-The Strategic Action Plan for Iraq

-The HNO, HRP reports for Iraq, and relevant documents, assessments, and researches around Protection that focus on the areas of this evaluation.

Evaluation Inception report

– Describe Evaluation adherence to the ToR
– Describe the evaluation methodology

– Preliminary findings showing the gaps analysis
– Describe the Evaluation timeline
– Define the Evaluation tools and set the questions

– Analysis Plan
– Define stakeholders matrix

-Consultant submits inception report.

30 Jan – 15 Feb 2023: Preliminary/first evaluation draft report

-Training data collection team

-Data collection is conducted as agreed per the evaluation plan.
-Review all the data collected from different aspects and stakeholders.
-Analyze and Interpret the data as per the methodology and analysis plan
– Draft the first evaluation draft report as per the BHA evaluation report structure.

By 16 Feb 2023: Validation workshop

-Validation workshop (invite key stakeholders to interpret and show the results)

-Feedback is consolidated and shared back with consultant.

By 21 Feb 2023: Final Report

Final report is approved by the MEAL Coordinator according to the quality checklist for assessing evaluation reports

1. Financial Fees:

The consultant(s) is expected to submit a financial plan with Daily rate in USD with the activities based on the terms of reference above.

1. Indicative Payment:

Contractual details will be included in the agreement. However, payment to consultant would be as follows,:

25% of approved payment upon signing of contract.

25% upon submission and approval of the inception report.

50% upon submission of final report and meeting requirement as set out in this TOR.