Request for Proposals – External Evaluation Consultant At Center for Victims of Torture

Request for Proposals – External Evaluation Consultant

Posted: June 18, 2024

Responses Due: June 28, 2024

The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) seeks an in-country evaluator with expertise in human rights or transitional justice sectors to conduct a rapid evaluation to inform an ongoing project in northern Uganda.

Organizational Overview

CVT is an international non-governmental organization founded in the United States in 1985. CVT has provided healing and rehabilitation services to over 38,000 survivors of human rights abuses within several country programs around the world. It also provides technical assistance for service providers, pioneers research in torture rehabilitation, and conducts nonpartisan advocacy to advance human rights. CVT’s direct rehabilitation services outside the US serve some of the most vulnerable, marginalized, and under-resourced members of the communities. CVT has been working in northern Uganda since 2009, providing capacity building and direct services to communities impacted by the LRA conflict. Since the start of the program, CVT has provided high-quality mental health rehabilitation through individual and group counseling and referrals to other service providers for unmet needs. CVT is also collaborating with partners in activities to promote community cohesion, sustainable peace, justice, storytelling, and healing for survivors of war and violence.

Project Overview

CVT launched a project called “Strengthening Transitional Justice Efforts in Uganda,” the Jingo project, in northern Uganda in October 2022. The project is ongoing.

The goal of this regional project is to strengthen and facilitate northern Uganda’s transition to durable, positive peace through directly addressing post-war emergent conflicts and empowering a more diverse range of survivors to participate in justice, healing, and reconciliation. The project objectives, activities, and intended impacts are below. The evaluation will focus on Objective 1.

Objective

1) Encouraging Community Ownership:

To support northern Ugandan civil society and war survivors to effectively lead future transitional justice (TJ) initiatives and address emergent conflicts

Partnership development with civil society organizations (CSOs); survivor identification of priorities for justice, healing, and reconciliation; CSO network cross-trainings; community advisory groups; self-care/staff-care support for CSO staff

CSOs are able to do their work in TJ more effectively because of increased resources, relationships, and support

Survivors receive TJ services that are tailored to their ideas about justice and their TJ priorities

TJ work is able to effectively address post-war emergent conflicts

Activities

Intended Impacts

CSOs are able to do their work in TJ more effectively because of increased resources, relationships, and support

Survivors receive TJ services that are tailored to their ideas about justice and their TJ priorities

TJ work is able to effectively address post-war emergent conflicts

2) Healing Trauma:

To reduce and repair negative effects of traumatic events for survivors of war violence, torture, and other human rights violations

Specialized trauma rehabilitation services for survivors; capacity development support for mental health service providers

Highly traumatized survivors of human rights violations have improved daily functioning and resilience, and lessened psychological symptoms

A local clinical workforce is equipped to sustainably deliver specialized services to survivors

Unaddressed war-related trauma is less of a contribution to the emergence of new violent conflict

Activities

Specialized trauma rehabilitation services for survivors; capacity development support for mental health service providers

Intended Impacts

Highly traumatized survivors of human rights violations have improved daily functioning and resilience, and lessened psychological symptoms

A local clinical workforce is equipped to sustainably deliver specialized services to survivors

Unaddressed war-related trauma is less of a contribution to the emergence of new violent conflict

3) Advancing Justice:

To advance justice for Ugandan survivors of war through an integrated and empowering approach to addressing their holistic needs as survivors and change agents

Therapeutic documentation services; capacity development support for CSOs to deliver therapeutic documentation services

CSO TJ efforts are survivor-centered and trauma-informed

More survivors have access to justice efforts that align with their needs

Documentation of past events helps address emergent conflict and promote reconciliation

Activities

Therapeutic documentation services; capacity development support for CSOs to deliver therapeutic documentation services

Intended Impacts

CSO TJ efforts are survivor-centered and trauma-informed

More survivors have access to justice efforts that align with their needs

Documentation of past events helps address emergent conflict and promote reconciliation

4) Promoting Social Cohesion:

To identify and address social divisions among communities that are a result of war and emergent conflict in order to support the transition to positive peace

Peacebuilding workshops with community leaders; community reconciliation groups in divided communities

Community leaders are able to more effectively reduce divisions and promote peaceful conflict resolution in their communities

Communities with divisions experience reconciliation, increased understanding, and healing

Emergent conflicts in communities can be addressed with cooperation

Activities

Peacebuilding workshops with community leaders; community reconciliation groups in divided communities

Intended Impacts

Community leaders are able to more effectively reduce divisions and promote peaceful conflict resolution in their communities

Communities with divisions experience reconciliation, increased understanding, and healing

Emergent conflicts in communities can be addressed with cooperation

Evaluation Objectives

This evaluation will be conducted two years after the project launched. The project anticipates continuing for additional years, and thus the goal of the evaluation is to produce actionable recommendations that can be implemented by the project team to strengthen the overall approach and likelihood of achieving the project’s objectives. An evaluation that emphasizes learning will be most beneficial to the project.

The focus of the evaluation is on the activities and goals associated with Objective 1, Encouraging Community Ownership. CVT would like the evaluation to address the following questions:

To what extent has CVT achieved Objective 1 in the first phase of the project? This objective is responsive to the recognition that there has been significant ongoing work in transitional justice for northern Uganda over the past 15 or more years. CVT’s goal with this project was to be supportive of those efforts, building on past successes and sustainably strengthening ongoing work. Thus far, has CVT’s project been supportive of local transitional justice work? What has facilitated or hindered this? Has CVT integrated into existing mechanisms and priorities? Has CVT been strengthening and empowering existing stakeholders? Is there anything new that has been introduced by CVT? How could the project improve in this area?
To what extent have the project partnerships been developed successfully? The project engages a diverse range of individual and organizational stakeholders. However, there are three local implementing partner organizations that have been sub-grant recipients and are directly implementing some project activities. Through this evaluation, CVT hopes to better understand the successes and challenges in the partnerships themselves (not the partners’ direct activities). How have the partnerships evolved? How have the partners experienced the relationships? How have the partnerships contributed to the project? What have been limitations or challenges? What learnings from initial partnership development can inform the next stage of the project?

The external evaluator may propose a range of data sources and data collection methods. For example, the evaluator may utilize the following activities to address the project’s evaluation questions above:

Desk review of transitional justice materials produced outside of CVT’s project
Detailed project document review (such as the proposal, grant agreement, M&E plan/tools, partner materials, donor reports, community advisory group meeting minutes, stakeholder consultation notes)
Secondary analysis of internal monitoring and evaluation de-identified data and findings, including training pre-/post-tests and self-care workshop evaluation surveys
Semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and/or surveys with CVT staff, implementing partner staff, and/or staff of other transitional justice CSOs or stakeholders (including members of the project’s Community Advisory Group and CSOs who have participated in network cross-trainings and meetings)
Facilitated evaluative learning exercises for the project team
Observations of ongoing project activities during data collection period

Timeline and Deliverables

The evaluation will be completed by October 15, 2024. Payments will be made incrementally, dependent on successful receipt of key deliverables, per the schedule below. The structure and content of deliverables will be agreed upon by the consultant and CVT.

Deadline —————————– Deliverable ———————————— Payment

July 15, 2024 ————————Consultancy agreement signed—————————-First (20%)

July 31, 2024 ————————Co-developed evaluation plan finalized —————-Second (40%)

August 1-31, 2024 —————-Data collection——————————————————–NA

September 15, 2024 ————-Preliminary findings shared via presentation————NA

& workshop with CVT team

October 15, 2024 ——————Final written report and presentation of findings ——-Final (40%)

Budget

The budget is anticipated to be around $6,000 USD, with some possibility to adjust the amount based on the proposed evaluation plan. The budget should be all inclusive of consultancy fees and direct costs. In addition to the evaluator’s compensation package, the budget may include, but is not limited to, the following key items:

Transportation expenses to travel as needed to meet evaluation participants
Facilitation expenses to meet evaluation participants
Communications expenses, such as internet, Zoom account, phone calls, etc.
Printing expenses
Transcription service
Supportive services from evaluation assistant(s)

The budget may not include equipment that will outlast the life of the evaluation, such as a computer, analysis software, or transcription aids.

The budget also may not include sub-contracting to an evaluator who will lead the project. While there may be expenses associated with personnel to assist the lead evaluator, it is an expectation that the evaluator submitting this proposal will also lead the direct implementation of the evaluation.

Selection Criteria and Process

Selection criteria emphasizes inclusion and will include: quality and appropriateness of preliminary evaluation plan proposed; Acholi and English language proficiency; nationality and current residence within Uganda; budget; a history of work related to human rights; and experience in evaluating transitional justice or similar projects.

The selection process will include a review of submitted materials, at least one panel interview, and contacting professional references.

Bid Requirements

Complete responses should include the following components:

Cover letter giving a brief overview of relevant core professional competencies and experience of the evaluator, including previous experience with similar evaluations. The cover letter should also specify current contact information and level of written and verbal fluency in Luo/Acholi. Any known conflict of interest should be disclosed in the cover letter. The cover letter should be 1-2 pages as a pdf file.
Preliminary evaluation plan offering the proposed approach to the project. Note that the full plan will be co-developed with CVT in the first two weeks of the consultancy. The preliminary evaluation plan should minimally include discussion of: a) the approach or methodology that would guide the evaluation; b) the anticipated data collection methods; c) the plan for analysis of empirical evidence to generate findings; and e) the approach to generating conclusions or recommendations that will be useful to the project. The preliminary plan should be 2-3 pages as a pdf file.
Budget detailing anticipated expenses associated with the project. The budget should be in U.S. dollars. Please see more specific instructions above. The budget may be submitted as an Excel or pdf file.
Curriculum Vitae (CV) or resume, which includes at least two professional references. The CV or resume should be no more than 5 pages as a pdf file.

Please submit compete packages by 11:59 pm East Africa Time on Friday, June 28, 2024.