Call for Proposal: Monitoring and Evaluation of Advancing Inclusive Peace and Security in the Levant and Yemen

Search for Common Ground (Search) is seeking a consultant(s)/firm to develop a holistic approach to monitor and evaluate the project “Advancing Inclusive Peace and Security in the Levant and Yemen (IPS)”. As a learning organisation, Search is committed to fostering a culture of learning across all projects, and is investing in developing and supporting its programmatic learning opportunities. To do this well, Search is seeking one consultant/firm to lead all external studies and set the tools for collection of evidence throughout the life of the project.

1. Context

Search for Common Ground

Search for Common Ground (Search) is an international conflict transformation NGO that aims to transform the way individuals, groups, governments and companies deal with conflict, away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative solutions. Headquartered in Washington DC, USA, and Brussels, Belgium, with field offices in over 30 countries, Search designs and implements multifaceted, culturally appropriate and conflict-sensitive programs using a diverse range of tools, including media and training, to promote dialogue, increase knowledge and determine a positive shift in behaviours.

The Project

This project is a four-year project aiming to strengthen women and youth’s meaningful, enduring participation in advancing inclusive peace and security in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and other areas in the Levant. This will be achieved through (i) consolidating women’s rights organisations (WRO) and youth-led organisations (YLOs’) strategic engagement and influence in municipal and national peace and reconciliation processes; (ii) motivating (sub)national institutions to strengthen inclusive policies and standards facilitating women and youth’s participation in peace and security processes; and (iii) promoting shifts in social norms around women and youth’s meaningful inclusion in peace and security at all levels. Through this multi-pronged and comprehensive approach, IPS will catalyse an enabling environment for diverse women and youth’s increased and enduring participation in peace and security.

Expected results are listed here:

Goal: To strengthen women and youth’s meaningful, enduring participation in advancing inclusive peace and security in Yemen and the Levant.

Specific Objective 1: To consolidate WRO and YLOs’ strategic engagement and influence in municipal and national peace and reconciliation processes in Yemen and the Levant.

Outcome 1.1: Mentorship and strategy-building that foster the collective impact of WRO and YLOs’ peace and reconciliation efforts are strengthened.

Outcome 1.2: Expanded, influential, and diverse networks among WROs and YLOs, including those from historically marginalised groups, are reinforced in each country.

Specific Objective 2: To motivate key sub-national and national institutions to strengthen inclusive policies and standards facilitating inclusive youth and women’s participation in peace and security.

Outcome 2.1: Institutions and key decision-makers relevant to WPS and YPS have increased understanding of tools to conduct intersectional, gender and age-sensitive policymaking.

Outcome 2.2: Institutions and key decision-makers relevant to WPS and YPS have increased ability to mainstream gender and youth inclusion in peace and reconciliation processes.

Specific Objective 3: To promote shifts in social norms in Yemen and the Levant around women and youth’s meaningful inclusion in peace and security at all levels, including stronger alliances with men and boys.

Outcome 3.1: Young women and men are empowered to actively promote and amplify inclusive narratives around peace and security.

Outcome 3.2: Perceptions of target community groups are shifted towards increased support for women and youth’s meaningful enduring inclusion in peace and reconciliation processes.

Cross Cutting Objectives:

1. To sensitise and mobilise influential male allies to promote women and youth’s leadership in peace and security.
2. To advance regional networks, synergies, and cross-fertilization to strengthen inclusive peace and security

Planned activity streams are listed below:

• Consolidating the existing capacity of WROs and YLOs includes: selection of WROs and YLOs; strengthening networks of diverse WROs/YLOs; strategic capacity building to enhance WRO/YLO’s participation and protection; and establishing regional networks through the ConnexUs platform – a global learning & coordination platform for people addressing pressing challenges in conflict-affected contexts (see www.cnxus.org).
• Engaging with institutional actors to work collaboratively to concretely act upon demands for reforms in governance, reconciliation, and post-conflict reconstruction – this includes: mapping and digital advocacy products documenting “Power of Peacebuilding”; training for key institutional leaders in intersectional; gender and age-sensitive policymaking; facilitating dialogue and consultation among WROs/YLOs and institutions, including government officials and multitrack peacebuilding platforms, WRO/YLO-led advocacy and regional cross-fertilization on institutional engagement for inclusive peace and security.
• Amplifying leadership of youth working to transform gender norms – this includes: youth champions identified and trained in Positive Masculinities; and innovative, youth-led digital media products highlighting transformative gender norms to communities at large.

2. Goal and Objectives of Study

Search is committed to independent consultants of our interventions to understand what shifts, promotes and strengthens inclusive participation of women and youth in peace and security at different levels, and to understand how these changes impact peace and security more broadly.

This consultancy includes baseline study, mid-term review and final evaluation and input on monitoring tools, all of which require gender and conflict-sensitive lenses throughout design, implementation and analysis. These studies will inform decision making on the programme needs, relevance, effectiveness and sustainability at the different stages of implementation. Specific priorities of each study may be subject to change following changes in the context or based on findings of a previous study, in discussion with the chosen consultant.

The key findings of the baseline study will:

1. Produce a data collection strategy along with tools to build evidence about the project’s results through baseline, monitoring, mid-term, and final evaluations. This requires setting up a holistic approach that all countries can commit to throughout the 4-year period.
2. Define the baseline values of the project logframe indicators, considering all needed disaggregation.
3. Outline key needs and opportunities of WROs and YLOs across the countries, including inclusion & protection/ safeguarding needs of proposed activities.
4. Review how the design is setting teams up to achieve planned goals and outcomes in relation to the Theory of Change by using OECD-DAC criteria (of key import at this stage will be coherence and relevance).

The key findings of the mid-term review will:

1. Measure the extent to which the project achieved its planned goal and outcomes as related to its Theory of Change and logframe with needed disaggregation, using OECD-DAC criteria to analyse both expected/unexpected outcomes (of key import at this stage will be effectiveness, relevance, and efficiency).
2. Review the project’s inclusion of diverse participants’ perspectives and contributions, as well as successes and challenges to safeguarding (including physical, digital, psychosocial protection and wellbeing) of participants that may have affected participation and inclusion.
3. Assess how project approaches and activities are addressing conflict dynamics in the Yemen and the Levant region, as defined by Search’s Levant and Arabian Peninsula strategies, and tailor practical recommendations for the planned objectives and activities for the last 2 years of implementation.

The key findings of the final evaluation will:

1. Measure the extent to which the project achieved its planned goal and outcomes as related to its Theory of Change and logframe with needed disaggregation, using OECD-DAC criteria to analyse both expected/unexpected outcomes (of key import at this stage will be impact and effectiveness and sustainability).
2. Review the project’s inclusion of diverse participants’ perspectives and contributions, as well as successes and challenges to safeguarding (including physical, digital, psychosocial protection and wellbeing) of participants that may have affected participation and inclusion.
3. Assess how project approaches and activities are addressing conflict dynamics in the Levant region, as defined by Search’s Levant and Arabian Peninsula strategies, and tailor recommendations for practitioners and policy makers advancing inclusive peace and security in the countries.

3. Key Questions of the Studies

Guiding questions for analysis of needs and opportunities:

1. What are the key opportunities for positive contribution of youth and women to security in the Levant and Yemen, and what barriers limit their contribution (i.e physical, personal, social/normative, institutional/legal, resource-related, safety-related, or other)? Are there upcoming investments to be aware of that may strengthen climate-sensitive women and youth participation in peace and security or WPS/YPS agendas?
2. What goals do WRO and YLO members want to set for themselves and others to enhance inclusive security approaches in the region?
3. What are the key needs for WROs and YLOs to collaborate and increase effectiveness of their programming on common goals both in-person and in digital spaces like ConnexUs? What capacities currently exist and what needs to be strengthened?

Guiding evaluation questions for the baseline, mid-term and final evaluations:

Criteria: Effectiveness / Impact

Mid-term review/ Final evaluation:

1. What are the observed unintended (positive or negative) outcomes/impacts of the project, and how did programmatic approaches contribute?
2. Does increased strategic engagement of WRO and YLOs in municipal and national peace and reconciliation processesaffect conflict dynamics in relation to Search’s Levant and Arabian Peninsula strategies?
3. What evidence exists to show whether the project has been able to promote shifts in social norms around women and youth’s meaningful inclusion in peace and security (consider whether approaches were transformative, responsive, or neither; consider relevant sub-concepts like attitudes, behaviours, perceptions and relationships).

Criteria: Sustainability

Mid-term review/ Final evaluation:

1. Has the project been able to respond to gender dynamics within the targeted community, hence promoting more equal participation of women vs. men?
2. How are the digital networks that were established during this project designed to last beyond the project life-cycle?
3. What core areas require additional support to ensure the sustainability of normative and institutional changes for women and youth?

Criteria: Coherence

Mid-term review/ Final evaluation:

1. To what extent is the project design and linkages between activities supporting women and youth groups to improve their participation in peace and security?

Criteria: Relevance

Mid-term review/ Final evaluation:

1. How is the design of activities enhancing or detracting from the project’s ability to bridge gender, age, and other divides in local contexts?
2. To what extent is the design of the project contributing to Search’s strategies in the Levant and Arabian Peninsula, which aims to impact conflict dynamics?

Criteria: Efficiency

Mid-term review/ Final evaluation:

1. What is the relative value of project inputs in relation to the results of the intervention? Can resources/inputs be adjusted to enhance the project’s intended results and ability to contribute to peace and stability?

Criteria: Inclusion & Safeguarding

Mid-term review/ Final evaluation:

1. To what extent have diverse participants been involved under the different activities, and what is contributing to any gaps identified?
2. To what extent did the project support the safe (considering physical, digital, psychosocial wellbeing and safety) participation of women and youth?

4. Geographic Locations

These studies should sample the target communities and groups in four target countries as they operate physically and as they engage digitally on the ConnexUs platform. Proposals should clarify how many sites might be covered per country within the scope of the project.

5. Methodology and Data Collection Tools

Proposals should specify primary and secondary data that will be used, qualitative and quantitative approaches, and methods of data analysis.

Proposals should clarify how data will be triangulated, as well as justification for the relevance of these methods to the questions for the study. Proposals should also include sampling strategies associated with the proposed methods, Do No Harm and safeguarding strategies, and any proposed strategies for sharing the findings of the study.

Data can be collected remotely or in-person, based on the best approach for the context. The consultant will be responsible for designing the final methodology, developing tools, training of enumerators, data analysis, and drafting of the report.The project team and institutional learning team will review proposed methods, tools, and data storage plans prior to data collection. All methods will also be reviewed for alignment to key approaches and templates that Search has (to be shared upon selection of the proposal and before tool development).

Language

Data collection should be done in local language(s) that are most appropriate for each context, but the report and all annexes should be submitted to Search in English.

Logistical Support

The consultant(s) will be responsible for organising their own logistics for data collection (permissions from local authorities, vehicles, fuel, and drivers) in all project target countries and for all regional components of this project, keeping in mind travel and other restrictions due to the security situations in many countries, and this must be budgeted into the study. Search will provide support in arranging logistics. At least one Search staff member will be available to support data collection and logistics for this study in each target country.

In addition, Search and partners will share different elements with the external consultant:

• Mapping results of both WROs, YLOs and the stakeholder institutions.
• Lists of potential participants in the 4 target countries prior to the data collection stage for the baseline assessment.
• Background materials including the project proposal and monitoring data, M&E plan, research reports, etc.
• All related reports and monitoring data will be shared also for the midline and endline evaluations, including the quarterly reflection sessions.

6. Data Quality Assurance and Management

The consultant will be responsible for developing a data quality assurance and management plan in conformity with Search’s Accountability to Affected Population Operational Framework and OECD-DAC Ethics principles and Quality Standards. All documents including reports and raw data will be reviewed and approved by the Institutional Learning Team prior to acceptance of the final product.

7. Key Deliverables and Timeline

The consultancy is expected to begin in October 2022, including fieldwork/interviews and report writing and submission. The baseline should occur within the first three months of the project, midterm in July 2024 to assess the first two years of implementation, and the final evaluation should take place in July 2026 assessing all four years of the project. Proposals should propose timelines for all deliverables listed here:

Deliverable 1: Inception Reports

• Baseline Study
• Mid-term Review
• Final Evaluation

Description: Detailed plans of each study, including:

• Methodology
• Data collection tools
• Trainings for data collection/analysis
• Storage and sharing of datasets
• Detailed timeline

Deliverable 2: Data Sets

• Baseline dataset
• Mid-term dataset
• Final dataset

Description: Both qualitative & quantitative data in an agreed upon format according to the inception report

Deliverable 3: Draft Report

• Baseline Study Report
• Mid-term Review Report
• Final Evaluation Report

Description: A final draft report in English that adheres to the Search report template (unless otherwise agreed upon with Search). All report findings should be structured in line with study objectives.

Deliverable 4: Final Reports

• Baseline Study Report
• Mid-term Review Report
• Final Evaluation Report

Description: Final reports should respond to review and comments raised by the Search team within 2 weeks of receiving feedback.

8. Budget

The total budget available for this consultancy is between approximately 80,000 – 100,000 EUR. A detailed budget should be provided for the work, including daily rates for personnel, and a breakdown of all costs related to data collection (per total number of people sampled, sites for collection, etc.), analysis, and production of deliverables.

9. Requirements of consultant

The following skills and experience are expected by Search for our consultant for this project:

• Proficiency in English (written and spoken); proficiency in Arabic language is preferred.
• More than 5 years of experience in project evaluation, including collecting data in interviews, surveys and focus groups;
• Experience in conflict analysis; conflict sensitivity, and peacebuilding
• Experience working with international organisations;
• Experience conducting quantitative and qualitative surveys and analysis, remotely and in-person;
• Evaluation methods and data collection skills;
• Familiarity and experience with Middle East contextual challenges;
• Experience conducting gender and women’s rights themed research in targeted countries;
• Experience with age-appropriate and participatory youth-inclusive monitoring and evaluation approaches that consider safeguarding.

In addition, the consultant is required to respect the following Ethical Principles, adapted from the American Evaluation Association Guiding Principles for Evaluators, July 2004:

• Comprehensive and systematic inquiry: Consultant should make the most of the existing information and full range of stakeholders available at the time of the review. Consultant should conduct systematic, data-based inquiries. He or she should communicate his or her methods and approaches accurately and in sufficient detail to allow others to understand, interpret and critique his or her work. He or she should make clear the limitations of the review and its results.
• Competence: Consultant should possess the abilities and skills and experience appropriate to undertake the tasks proposed and should practise within the limits of his or her professional training and competence.
• Honesty and integrity: Consultant should be transparent with the contractor/constituent about: any conflict of interest, any change made in the negotiated project plan and the reasons why those changes were made, any risk that certain procedures or activities produce misleading review information.
• Respect for people: Consultant respect the security, dignity and self-worth of respondents, programme participants. Consultant has the responsibility to be sensitive to and respect differences amongst participants in culture, religion, gender, disability, age and ethnicity.

Selection Criteria

Consultant proposals will be selected for:

1. Relevance of methodology to the goal, objectives, and research questions for the project
2. Quality of methods, conflict sensitivity approaches, and quality control measures
3. Qualifications of the candidate(s).
4. Proposed budget in relation to proposed methodology, deliverables and team.
5. Timeline for proposed activities and deliverables.

How to apply

Applications

To apply, interested candidates (individuals or teams) are requested to submit the following two documents:

• Curriculum vitae;
• A technical proposal proposing a methodology for each assessment together with a financial proposal for the completion of the aforementioned deliverables and a short cover letter.

Note: Only two documents can be submitted, so the technical and financial proposals must be combined.

Applications must be submitted to https://jobs.lever.co/sfcg/186d54c1-fdae-42ac-bf4b-c0fcd3a3fc6d before 3 September 2022.