Consultant for Final Evaluation of the Project: Bangladesh Sustainable Reintegration and Improved Migration Governance (Prottasha) project At International Organization for Migration

The International Organization for Migration (hereinafter called IOM) intends to hire a Consulting firm for the Final evaluation of Prottasha Project “Bangladesh Sustainable Reintegration and Improved Migration Governance for which this Request for Proposals (RFP) is issued and published in IOM website.

IOM now invites Consulting Firms (hereinafter referred to as Bidders) to provide Technical and Financial Proposal for the mentioned Services (Final Evaluation of Prottasha Project). More details on the services are requested to visit the below link : https://bangladesh.iom.int/procurement

The Bidder will be selected under a Quality –Cost Based Selection procedures described in this RFP.

The RFP includes the following documents:

Section I. Instructions to Bidders

Section II. Terms of Reference

Section III. Scorecard for Evaluators

Section IV. Standard Form of Contract

Terms of Reference given below in detail:

1. Evaluation Context

The lack of job opportunities in Bangladesh, poor awareness of safe migration at the local level, centralized migration management processes and mechanisms, and the high cost of migration all contribute to high numbers of Bangladeshi migrants choosing unsafe, irregular migration channels. To promote safe migration and sustainable reintegration for Bangladeshi migrants and returnees it is necessary to identify gaps in the migration management processes and strengthen the mechanisms to ensure that migrants receive efficient, reliable, and accessible migration services. In addition, potential migrants and their communities need a better understanding of the processes and strategies of safe migration. Particularly, it is important that potential migrants understand the risks of irregular migration, and the regular pathways and mechanisms available to them which can help ensure positive and beneficial migration experiences.

Limited services, a lack of cohesive policy framework and little community understanding of the needs of returning migrants hinders the ability of many returning migrants to sustainably reintegrate into society. In line with IOM Integrated Approach to Reintegration (IAR), it is important to develop policy and provide services targeting the social, psychosocial and economic needs of returning migrants.

1.1. Prottasha Project

In this context, since 2017 the Bangladesh Sustainable Reintegration and Improved Migration Governance (Prottasha) project is being implemented by IOM in partnership with BRAC, with financial support from the European Union (EU). The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the sustainable reintegration of returnees and the progressive achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 10.7 to facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed policies in Bangladesh.

The specific objectives (SO) of the project are:

  • SO 1: Irregular migrants returning to Bangladesh are sustainably reintegrated.
  • SO 2: The capacities of the Government of Bangladesh and other migration actors are strengthened to manage migration at central and local levels and to ensure reintegration of irregular migrants.
  • SO 3: Returning Migrants, aspirant migrants, families, communities and local government and private sector actors make informed decisions about migration, and practice and promote safe, orderly and regular migration behaviors, including remittance management.

In 2019, IOM conducted a midterm evaluation of this project and as the project is nearing completion, IOM Bangladesh intends to commission an external final evaluation for the Prottasha project. As such, IOM will engage an international evaluation firm to conduct this assignment according to the scope of work detailed below.

2. Evaluation Purpose and objective

IOM conducts project and programme evaluations as part of its commitment to improved results-based management. Results of this evaluation will be used by project management, senior management, stakeholders and the donor to improve decision-making, ensure accountability, and support future programme design and implementation. The evaluation will also assess value for money for the results accomplished. Additionally, the evaluation will inform IOM staff supporting similar projects of lessons learned and good practices. The final evaluation will inform IOM, the government of Bangladesh and other stakeholders’ on designing of future interventions.

3. Evaluation Scope

The final evaluation will cover the period of April 2017 to July 2022 (while the project will continue until December 2022 the evaluation will be based on data collected until August 2022 to allow time for data analysis and drafting of the report before the end of the project).

The evaluation will be conducted in ten Districts that have Reintegration Service Centers (RSC) across the country.[1]The final evaluation will cover all components of the project under each of the Specific Objectives, and broadly allocate resources and time in relation to the relative expenditure between the various project components. The evaluation will also assess the extent to which this project has incorporated cross-cutting elements and addressed relevant issues including gender incorporation, and rights-based approach. The evaluation is expected to document recommendations, good practices and lessons learned that could be derived from the analysis.

4. Evaluation Criteria

The final evaluation will use selected OECD-DAC criteria[2], namely: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, impact and coherence. The evaluation firm will ensure that the findings are analysed with particular focus on gender, environment and human rights considerations.

5. Evaluation questions

The evaluation firm is expected to expand on the below evaluation questions;

Relevance

  1. Do the intervention’s expected outcomes and outputs remain valid and pertinent either as originally planned or as subsequently modified?
  2. Is the project aligned with and supportive of IOM, national, regional, and/or global strategies and policies, including supporting the achievement of target 10.7 of the SDG’s, and the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration?
  3. To what extent did the project mainstream cross-cutting themes – including gender and human rights?

Effectiveness:

  1. Has the project been effective in achieving its objective and outcomes?
  2. To what extent has the project adapted to changing external conditions – including the global COVID-19 pandemic – in order to ensure project outcomes?

Efficiency

  1. Were the project activities undertaken and were the outputs delivered on time?
  2. Was the project implemented in the most efficient way possible?

Sustainability:

  1. How likely is the result of the project to continue once the Prottasha project closes?

What are the major challenges to sustainability of outcome of this project? How could the project have better addressed these challenges to increase impact sustainability?

Coherence:

  1. To what extent did the project synergize and interlink with interventions of the Government of Bangladesh and the donor community regarding strengthening overall migration governance, promoting reintegration approaches, policy discourses to prevent irregular migration and reintegration of irregular migrants, and raise awareness on safe migration and remittance management?

Impact

  1. To what extent has the project impacted the overall context of sustainable reintegration in Bangladesh?

IOM Bangladesh is interested in all findings of the evaluation firm on the above questions, but conclusions (including lessons learned), best practices, and suggested recommendations to modify future programming are particularly relevant. During the inception phase the evaluation firm should develop, modify and fine tune the evaluation questions and prepare the evaluation matrix in consultation with the evaluation manager.

6. Proposed methodology

During the inception phase, the evaluation firm will provide a detailed evaluation methodology. The evaluation will use inclusive and participatory methodologies that involve all relevant stakeholders. Stakeholders include:

  • Project beneficiaries, returnees and their families and communities;
  • The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) officials across relevant ministries including;
    • The Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEWOE), and its related offices;
      • Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET);
      • District Employment & Manpower Office (DEMO) ;
      • Wage Earners’ Welfare Board (WEWB);
      • Probashi Kallyan Desk (PKD);
    • The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA);
  • The Delegation of the European Union in Bangladesh (EUD);
  • Civil society organizations (CSOs);
  • Private sector organizations;
  • Other donors;
  • United Nations (UN) agencies;
  • Bangladesh United Nations Network on Migration (BDUNM);
  • IOM, including IOM Bangladesh, the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and the Regional Office for the EEA, the European Union and NATO; and
  • BRAC – IOM Bangladesh’s implementing partner for the project.

The methodology will involve a combination of desk review and in-depth interviews as a means of gathering and triangulating data from beneficiaries and partners. Specifically, the following methodologies are proposed (to be finalized by IOM and the evaluation firm during the inception phase):

  • Desk review of relevant project documents, including the project proposal and revisions; donor reports, other reports of the project including survey reports, studies, strategies, and frameworks; the project’s Detailed Work Plan (DAP); Monitoring data, results of baseline and Mid Term Review (MTR) assessments; project budget and financial reports; relevant IOM strategies and guidance; and relevant national strategies and action-plans (home-based, desk study);
  • Interviews with project beneficiaries, government counterparts, and project partners (fieldwork in Bangladesh)
  • Focus group discussions (FDGs) with project beneficiaries (fieldwork in Bangladesh)
  • Key in-depth informant interviews with the EU, IOM and BRAC staff at all levels, government officials and other relevant actors, (fieldwork in Bangladesh);

The firm will be responsible for conducting Knowledge Attitude and Practice (KAP) survey, Reintegration Assistance Satisfaction Surveys (RASS),3 and Reintegration Sustainable Surveys (RSS) across the three components of the project using, the survey tools which were used in the baseline evaluation and mid-term review.

The precise evaluation modalities, methods and sampling will be finalized during the inception phase, though the overall tools to be used per Specific Objective are as follows:

Project Component: Sustainable Reintegration (SO1)

Non-experimental design

  • Surveys: IOM-developed Reintegration Sustainable Survey (RSS) and Reintegration Assistance Satisfaction Survey (RASS).
  • Methodology: Mixed methods (surveys, key informant interviews, case studies, most significant change stories)
  • Sampling: Random sampling (Target for the survey is all beneficiaries profiled by +/- 4000 )

Project Component: Migration Governance (SO2)

Non-experimental design.

  • Methods: Key informant and in-depths interviews with selected beneficiaries
  • Sampling: Purposive

Project Component: Awareness Raising (SO3)

Non-experimental design

  • Methods: KAP survey
  • Sampling: Stratified random sampling (superimposed on the sample for Sustainable Reintegration).

IOM will engage an international firm who can then sub-contract data-collection locally in Bangladesh, or to a firm with presence in Bangladesh. The overall structure of the evaluation will be as follows:

  • International firm to lead the process and division of labour, conduct desk review of background documentation, produce inception report, develop the methodology and instruments, prepare workplan, collect data, prepare analytical framework and draft and final evaluation reports.
  • Local Evaluation team (based in Bangladesh) who, under the overall guidance of International evaluation team/firm will contribute to desk review of background documentation, conduct all field work, collect information and data (including producing written summaries of meetings and collecting audio recordings to be transcribed), conduct interviews and consultations with beneficiaries, engage stakeholders, and contribute to report writing.
  • The overall coordination and quality control of the evaluation will be the responsibility of the International firm.

The evaluation firm will be responsible for the overall design of the evaluation including preparing methodology of data collection and analysis and producing the deliverables outlined below. The evaluation firm will provide regular feedback on progress and any challenges faced. The firm will prepare an Inception Report including a detailed methodology (to be coordinated with IOM Bangladesh, BRAC and the national evaluator).

The local evaluation team will collect quantitative and qualitative data under the supervision of international firm at national, sub-national and community levels to meet the review objectives. The data should be disaggregated by sex and age, where applicable.

The international evaluation firm will analyse data and draft the report in consultation with the local evaluation team (based on the written summaries, transcripts, and raw data provided by the local firm)

Data will be collected according to the agreed methodology and field visit schedule.

7. Ethics, norms and standards for evaluation

IOM abides by the norms and standards of UNEG and expects all evaluation stakeholders to be familiar with the ethical conduct guidelines of UNEG and the consultant(s) with the UNEG codes of conduct as well. The final report should meet the standards laid out in the UNEG Quality Checklist for Evaluation Reports and comply with IOM internal style guidelines.[3]

8. Evaluation Deliverables

The deliverables expected from the evaluation team include the following:

Inception report summarizing the inception meeting discussions and workplan.

  • Evaluation Protocol which should include a detailed methodology, evaluation matrix with revised evaluation questions and sub-questions, data collection tools and field workplan. The evaluation matrix will demonstrate the evaluator’s understanding of the ToR and outline data collection and analysis plans, Draft Evaluation Report, using an agreed structure, summarizing all the findings. Key stakeholders will provide feedback on the report.
  • PowerPoint Presentation that systematically summarizes the key preliminary findings, to be presented to stakeholders for the purposes of validation, correcting misinterpretation of data and soliciting their feedback.
  • Final Evaluation Report will be produced, incorporating feedback from the stakeholder workshop and comments from project staff.
  • Evaluation Brief (two pages) to facilitate sharing of the key findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
  • Complete datasets, and transcripts from the qualitative methods.
  • Management Response Matrix

All deliverables are to be written in English and meet professional language standards. IOM will retain the right to withhold payment to the evaluation firm if deliverables are deemed not to be up to reasonably expected standard.

9. Specific Roles:

Evaluation team composition and requirements

The evaluation team will consist of an international evaluation firm and a sub-contracted local evaluation team supporting all substantive aspects of the evaluation. The international firm will be responsible for identifying and selecting the local partner and the coordination during all phases of the evaluation process, ensuring the quality of outputs and application of methodology as well as timely delivery of all evaluation products.

The duties and responsibilities of the international consultant are as follows:

  • Lead the inception phase and develop an inception report outlining design, approach and methodology of the evaluation and an indicative workplan of the evaluation team within the framework of this ToR, including conducting desk review of background materials.
  • Direct and supervise the local evaluation team in carrying out collection, research and analysis of relevant documentation and other data, and reporting.
  • Oversee and assure quality of data collection and leading the analysis of the evaluation evidence.
  • Meet with beneficiaries, donors, partners and other stakeholders to review findings, conclusions and recommendations.
  • Lead the preparation of reports, with contribution of local evaluator and submission of all evaluation products
  • Finalize all evaluation documents by ensuring all feedback is integrated
  • Lead the preparation of the evaluation communication products.

The local evaluator will provide support to the international evaluator in all the aspects of conducting the evaluation, including translation and interpretation, and analysis of collected data, and drafting the reports. The local evaluator also will be engaged in field work (site visits).

The duties and responsibilities of the local evaluator are as follows:

  • Contribute to the development of inception report, including conducting desk review
  • Plan, organize and conduct data collection under close supervision of the International Consultant
  • Provide written summaries of the data collected during field visit for the team lead
  • Contribute to report writing (draft and final evaluation reports) and communication products
  • Assist with translation to International Consultant throughout the evaluation process

The international evaluator will be responsible for engaging the local consultant – but before doing so they will be required to get IOM’s approval of the selected firm.

Overall, the international consultant as Team Leader will be responsible for coordination during all phases of the evaluation process, ensuring the quality of outputs and application of methodology as well as timely delivery of all evaluation products in close collaboration with the EMG.

The local consultant will provide support to the international consultant in all the aspects of conducting the evaluation, including translation and interpretation, and analysis of collected data, and drafting the reports. The local consultant also will be engaged in field work while Team Leader will be working remotely (online/ offline).

Evaluation management

The evaluation will be a consultative, inclusive, and participatory process and will include an evaluation management structure of IOM. The evaluation management structure includes an Evaluation Management Group (EMG) comprising of senior management of IOM and its delegated staff from MSU will be established to oversee the evaluation process, make key decisions, assure quality and jointly approve the different deliverables. The purpose of the EMG will be to facilitate the participation of relevant stakeholders for KIIs and communicate with the implementing partner to support the consultancy firm to organize FGDs and interviews in the field and scope of the evaluation, raising awareness of the different information needs, quality assurance throughout the process and in disseminating the evaluation results.

Proposed Members of the Evaluation Management Group are:

  • Deputy Chief of Mission (Development), IOM Bangladesh
  • Head of Mission Support Unit, IOM Bangladesh
  • National M&E Officer, IOM Bangladesh
  • M&E Assistant, IOM Bangladesh
  • Regional M&E Officer, IOM Regional Officer for Asia and the Pacific
  • Regional Thematic Specialist for Migrant Protection and Assistance, IOM Regional Officer for Asia and the Pacific

For its day-to-day work, the EMG will not need to engage members of the group based in the , IOM Regional Officer for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) – but for any technical questions where expert input is needed the EMG will be able to consult members based at ROAP.

10. Timeline

Total Duration of the assignment/consultancy is 74 days. Please find the details in RFP page 18.

11. Evaluation Budget:

On the basis of the budget submitted, the selected firm will be responsible to cover all evaluation costs including the cost of data collection, and the travel of the teams.

12. Application requirements

The international evaluation firm should be able to identify and select a local research firm and no member of the evaluation team will be a staff involved in this project.

Functional competencies required of lead consultancy firm (both international and local evaluation firm)

Competencies

  • Sensitivity and adaptability to culture, gender, religion, nationality and age
  • Strong analytical, writing and reporting abilities
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills, ability to lead a team and negotiate amongst a wide range of stakeholders
  • Commitment to quality products and deadlines
  • Demonstrated facilitation and communications skills, experience in participatory approaches and ability to negotiate amongst a wide range of stakeholders
  • Ability to produce well-written analytical reports

Qualifications and experience of evaluation firm:

  • The evaluation firm must have previous experience conducting evaluation.
  • Proven experience designing and leading evaluations in the field of migration and governance, reintegration, safe migration and remittance management utilizing participatory approaches and methodologies
  • Knowledge and experience in gender equality and human rights and incorporating principle of LNOB in its evaluations
  • Fluency in English.
  • At least seven (7) years of relevant experience conducting evaluations of strategies, policies and/or development programmes and projects
  • The team leader will have a master’s degree in project monitoring, peacebuilding, social sciences, international relations, migration studies, gender studies or a related area
  • Presence of international firm in Bangladesh would be an asset.
  • Previous experience working in South Asia / Bangladesh will be considered a strong asset
  • Experience with the United Nations system will be considered an asset

12.1 . Functional competencies required (local Evaluation Firm t)

Competencies

  • Sensitivity and adaptability to culture, gender, religion, nationality and age
  • Strong analytical, writing and reporting abilities
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills, ability to lead a team and negotiate amongst a wide range of stakeholders
  • Commitment to quality products and deadlines

Qualifications and experience of the local evaluation firm

  • At least 7 years of relevant experience and involvement in evaluations of strategies, policies and/or development programmes and projects in Bangladesh
  • Proven experience designing and leading evaluations in the field of migration and governance, reintegration, safe migration and remittance management utilizing participatory approaches and methodologies
  • Knowledge and experience in gender equality and human rights
  • Demonstrated analytical and presentation skills and ability to collect data and structure information
  • Demonstrated facilitation and communications skills, experience in participatory approaches and ability to negotiate amongst a wide range of stakeholders
  • Experience within the United Nations system will be considered an asset
  • Excellent knowledge of English, and Bangla
  • The local consultant a master’s degree in project monitoring, peacebuilding, social sciences, international relations, migration studies, gender studies or a related area

How to apply

Interested bidder(s) are requested to submit their Proposals (Technical and Financial both) through email on or before June 23, 2022. To IOM Dhaka, Procurement and Logistics , Email : DhakaPL@iom.int and copy to murahmed@iom.int

IOM reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal and to annul the selection process and reject all Proposals at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to affected Bidders.

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