ENSAAC Project Onsite TPM Services

1. Introduction

Expertise France (EF) is a public agency created on 1st January 2015 and merging 6 French public agencies under the supervision of the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy and Finance with a strong inter-ministerial vocation. EF offers project engineering and technical assistance by developing and implementing international cooperation actions worldwide. EF operates in various fields of development and institutional cooperation including safety and security reform, post-crisis/ stability, public health, human rights, strengthening of institutions and NGOs and governance.

2. Context: The Syrian Conflict

The Syrian conflict keeps on imposing a devastating and lasting impact on Syria and across the region. With the conflict in its twelfth year, the needs of the affected populations for assistance continue to be overwhelming. With at least 15.3 million affected people in the country, the areas of northern Syria, both NES and NWS have been the most severely affected. Basic services such as health, education, water and electricity continue to be disrupted and fragmented, especially for the most vulnerable population groups including women and children. The influx of IDPs and returnees results in additional pressure on essential service providers.

The decade long conflict has transformed power dynamics in Syria. The country is politically and economically fragmented, and is controlled by rival regimes and de facto authorities, severely affecting the Syrian civil society landscape inside and outside Syria. Today, four major areas of influence coexist in Syria, with no major changes since October 2019: The western part of the country, under the control of the regime and its allies; as well as three areas outside of the regime control.

3. EXPERTISE FRANCE IN SYRIA:

Since 2013, Expertise France has been implementing direct non-humanitarian assistance programmes in non-regime-held areas across Syria.

EF developed and implemented several stabilization projects targeting conflict-affected communities in Syria through local Syrian NGOs and CSOs with whom EF built strong partnerships. Expertise France’s fields of intervention cover the following sectors: health, livelihoods, early recovery, civil society and capacity development.

4. Programme background

The general objective of the project is to empower Syrian Civil Society actors to become actors of change able to actively engage in policy shaping and dialogue and echo the aspiration of Syrian communities’ vis-à-vis local and national-level decision-makers.

This project proposal intends to design a holistic and gradual methodology to strengthen non-state actors and accompany them to become key stakeholders of the Syrian Civic Space. The proposed intervention is a pilot project positioned at the very beginning of a potential long-term support to Non-State Actors. The proposed methodology will reach out and support Non-state actors at three different levels by 1) supporting the capacity of the non-state actors and strengthen their institutional capacities in order to build relevant and identifiable actors; 2) Support small scale dialogue initiatives implemented by the beneficiary organisations of the Capacity Building programme and 3) addressing the fragmentation and divisions by strengthening sectoral coordination at the local level and supporting cross-geographies networking and collaborations.

The specific objective of the proposed intervention is therefore to enhance the ability of Civil Society Actors to contribute constructively to decision-making processes and shape policies at the local level that address the needs and aspirations of Syrian communities

These objectives will be reached through achieving two connected outputs that will be implemented in parallel:

• Output 1: Non-state actors are strengthened and able to engage in local-level policy dialogue on technical/sectorial issues.
• Output 2: Dialogue, coordination and sector-based initiatives are established, experimenting sectorial dialogue and geographical coordination

Based on the mapping study outcomes, a list of Non-State Actors that could be involved in the project’s activities will be submitted to the donors and used as a basis to launch the selection process. The selection process will allow Expertise France to identify the NSA partners of the project, which will be part of the capacity building scheme and will be eligible for applying to the three project’s grant mechanisms, aiming to support the implementation of concrete initiatives.

5. SCOPE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

5.1 PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

EF is seeking a qualified firm to conduct third-party monitoring activities aimed at supporting the ENSAAC project MEAL processes and providing an independent verification of project activities and initiatives implemented by NSAs in northern Syria. It is expected that through this TPM mission, EF will have an in-depth understanding of the project performance from different perspectives. This will be based on comprehensive analysis of each initiative and conclude findings into recommendations.

5.2 Assignments and tasks:

The key activities that will be covered by the firm will mainly include:

• Create a detailed monitoring plan outlining methodologies, tools, schedules.
• Design and develop data collection tools, such as surveys, questionnaires, interview guides, and observation checklists, tailored to the NSAs’s initiatives specific needs.
• Conduct onsite monitoring and field visits to NSAs’ initiatives sites in Northern Syria (security permitting) to observe the activities, and assess the progress of implementation.
• Attend, observe and document the capacity building trainings conducted by the assigned partner.
• Conduct random training evaluation upon the completion of training courses.
• Develop case studies that highlight significant achievements, challenges, and lessons learned from the NSAs’s initiatives.
• Prepare regular progress reports summarizing key findings and recommendations.
• Regularly communicate with Expertise France team, project manager and MEAL advisor, to keep them informed of monitoring progress and address any emerging issues.
• Ensure ethical data collection by obtaining informed consent from participants, maintain confidentiality of data, and adhere to ethical data collection principles.

6. Methodology

The onsite TPM methodology will be developed by the consultant as well as all relevant tools and presented in the inception report. The methodology should adopt a mixed-method approach comprising both qualitative and quantitative data including innovative approaches and methods. The sampling can be discussed with EF during the inception phase. The TPM exercises or cycles should enable EF to understand and assess the performance of the project as it is being implemented by the partners and assess any gaps that need remedy or intervention such as low quality of implementation, challenges faced, recommendations, etc.

• Desk review of background documents (project document, project monitoring data, progress report, mid-term review report, field visit reports etc).

• Qualitative approaches such as

• Key informant interviews (e.g., with NSA’ key staff, local authorities, etc.) to gather substantial anecdotal evidence on the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and impact of the project activities implementation and delivery.

• Focus group discussions (e.g., with initiatives’ beneficiaries, etc.)

• Other participatory approaches as recommended by the selected firm.

  The developed methodology should ensure a participatory approach.