Experienced civil society evaluator for mid-term and end of programme evaluation in the DRC At Olof Palme International Center

Terms of reference for evaluations

Purpose of the evaluation

The Olof Palmes Internationella Center (the Palme Center) wants to conduct a mid-term evaluation during 2024 and an end of programme evaluation during late 2025/the first quarter of 2026 of a civil society programme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the DRC) 2022-2025.

The purpose of the mid-term evaluation is:

• Assess if interventions are sufficient to reach desired outcomes. Identify barriers to achievement of objectives to provide recommended actions to guide the programme staff and partner organisation through the last year of the programme and a potential new programme period.
• To assess how well the Palme Center has designed and adapted the programme to the needs of the partner organisations.
• Collect most significant change stories.
• To come up with possible recommendations for developing the programme in a potential second period based on the findings of the evaluation.

The purpose of the end of programme evaluation is:

• Assess if the programme met the stated goals and objectives; (b) the effectiveness of the technical approach of the Palme Center; (c) development of the overarching lessons learned from the programme, and (d) a strategy for use or communication of these lessons both within the organisation and to partners.
• To collect evidence of behavioural change among the actor groups and how these changes have contributed to the outcome areas.

The outcomes of the evaluation are intended to be used as:

• Supplementary documentation for reporting the programme.
• Input for future planning and efficiency work.
• Input to capacity assessment of the Palme Center, by Sida.
• Supplementary documentation of the current situation, in relation to the outcome areas (see below), to be used in the baselines of new programmes.

Background

The Olof Palmes Internationella Center, hereinafter the Palme Center, with its 26 member organisations, constitute an active hub of the Swedish labour movement’s international work articulated through trade unions, political party, and civil society organisations. These organisations represent more than one hundred years’ experience of promoting political and civic engagement, democratisation, and poverty reduction. Through our development partnerships, we seek to empower people to change their own lives. The Palme Center has its main office in Stockholm and several local offices.

The programme that will be evaluated is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and includes nine civil society actors such as unions, women’s- and environmental organisations and citizens movements.

The overall objective of the programme is: Sustainable civil society organisations engage in broad alliances that contribute to the advancement of good governance, labour rights, citizen’s engagement, and women’s equal political participation.

Five outcome areas, reflecting the five political priorities in Palme Center’s International Strategy, give further content to our theory of change and how we view and define progressive development, aimed at contributing to several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the 2030 Agenda.

The five priorities are:

1. Countering the threats to democracy and human rights

2. Advancing equality and worker’s rights – building new alliances and pushing progressive politics

3. Sustainability through a just transition – countering climate change

4. Promoting peace and dialogue – mitigating armed conflict and social tensions

5. Opposing the backlash – increasing gender equality

The programmes take an innovative actor-focused approach. Four categories of actors have been identified from the Palme Center’s strategy: decision makers, rights-holders, actors working in cooperation (e.g., networks and alliances) and the partner organisations. The programmes focus on change in behaviours and relations among and between these actors, that contribute to the outcome areas.

The assignment

For evaluating the programme, the evaluator will have access to inhouse documentation (including assessments and partners’ reporting) but the main method is meeting with partner organisations and rights holders in Kinshasa.

Relevant evaluation questions are, but not limited to:

• Are interventions sufficient to reach desired outcomes?
• Which barriers to achievement of objectives are there?
• Was adaptation timely and responsive to partners’ needs? What drove the adaptation process? (agility and responsiveness)
• What are the programme’s main achievements?

The documentation will be provided in French and English. All interactions with partners and rights holders will be in French. The report shall be submitted in two versions, English and French.

The assignment shall be finalised, and the final evaluation reports submitted by:

• Mid-term evaluation: 18 December 2024
• End-programme evaluation: 1 March 2026

Participants

The evaluation will cover the programme in the DRC. Documentation for the desk study will be forwarded to the evaluator digitally. The consultant is expected to interview staff at the Palme Center, representatives from all nine partner organisations, the Swedish member organisations rights holders and other relevant stakeholders.

Methodology

The evaluation will be held in two steps, the mid-term evaluation and the end of programme evaluation. The process below will be repeated for each step.

The evaluation will begin with a dialogue between the Palme Center and the consultant, where the concrete methods of evaluation, number of interviewees and time frame will be defined and agreed more in detail.

• The evaluation will take place in Kinshasa.
• Approximately 15-20 interviews.
• The assignment includes the following methodologies:
  • Document review/desk study (log frames, application and reporting documents, monitoring documents, etc.)
  • Interviews with partner organisations, rights holders and the Swedish member organisations.
  • Most significant change stories.
• The evaluator winning the assignment shall present an inception report where the methodology and work plan is developed in more detail no later than 10 October.

Timeframe and duration

Mid-term evaluation

• The mid-term evaluation should be held in October – November 2024.
• The mid-term evaluation should end by 18 December 2024.
• Estimated time for the evaluation is 15-20 working days (in total 30-40 working days for both mid-term/end-term evaluations).
• The draft report for the mid-term evaluation should be submitted by to the Palme Center 6 December 2024.
• The Palme Center will have five working days to comment on drafts.
• The final reports (English and French) for the mid-term evaluation should be submitted to the Palme Center 18 December 2024.
• The evaluator should hold two seminars to the present the results in January 2025 (one in English and one in French).

End-evaluation

Detailed time plan will be set later.

Reporting

The below instructions regard both the mid-term evaluation and the end evaluation.

• The findings and conclusion shall be presented in a report not exceeding 15 pages. The report should be addressed to the responsible Programme Manager at the Palme Center.
• The report should follow the Palme Center’s graphic design and include visual aid.
• The report shall describe facts, draw conclusions and make recommendations. The evaluation report shall at least contain;
  • Index
  • Summery
  • Background
  • The purpose of the evaluation
  • The scope of the evaluation, work carried out within the assignment, methodology and limitations
  • Observations, analysis, assessment and conclusions
  • Recommendations
  • Attachments (ToR, reference list, list of people interviewed and in which location, interview questions, etc.)
• The reports shall also be presented in two oral presentations. Slides should be provided for these presentations.
• The Palme Center will be the sole owner of the results of the assignment.

Requirements on the evaluator

The evaluator is expected to have the following qualifications:

• Experience of evaluating civil society support in development cooperation.
• Experience in monitoring and evaluation.
• Knowledge about the context in the DRC.
• Documented theoretical and practical experiences with evaluations of international development cooperation, including in-depth analyses based on interviews and reports, as well as a good capacity of reporting results and conclusions.
• Fluent knowledge in English and French.

Meriting qualifications:

• Documented in-depth knowledge and previous experiences of collecting change stories.
• Documented experience of well-written and designed reports and briefs.
• Experience of using participatory and intersectional methods.

Compensation

The budget and remuneration for the assignment will be according to the winning bid but cannot exceed SEK 300,000, excluding VAT.

The payment will be made as follows:

Mid-term evaluation, up to SEK 150,000:

• First payment: 25% percent when the inception report has been approved and upon receiving an invoice from the consultant. The second payment: 75% of the budget after approval of the evaluation report, oral presentation and upon receiving an invoice from the consultant.

End-term evaluation, up to SEK 150,000:

• First payment: 25% percent when the inception report has been approved and upon receiving an invoice from the consultant. The second payment: 75% of the budget after approval of the evaluation report, oral presentation and upon receiving an invoice from the consultant.