Consultant for AADK Global Baseline Study

1. Background

ActionAid Denmark (AADK) has almost 70 years of experience with development work to improve the conditions of life for and with people living in poverty. Our constituents are primarily young people and specifically young women. Together with local organisations we work to empower people living in poverty and support them in knowing and demanding for the realisation of their rights, for them to build democratic, just, and sustainable societies. As part of the international ActionAid Federation (AA), we work with human rights based development in more than 40 countries and reach more than 25 million of the worlds’ poor.

AADK is embarking on a new four-year funding period from 2022 – 2025 within the Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA II) with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Danida. The six months from January – June 2022 are considered an inception phase during which, AADK works with the 14 ActionAid country partners under the agreement aligned to the new SPAII theory of change and thematic approaches, while also revising the overall summary results frame. The 14 ActionAid (AA) partners work directly with local partners such as CSOs and youth groups to implement the programme across one or more of the thematic priorities of the programme. The SPAII AA partner countries are: Arab Region (covering Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria), Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Liberia, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Palestine, Myanmar, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria as well as a pilot in Mali.

AADK’s SPAII programme’s overall objective is Societies are transformed to become more just, feminist, green, and resilient, and the thematic priorities are expressed through the following 3 strategic objectives:

1. Strategic objective 1: Young people, especially young women and those facing marginalisation or fragility, enjoy their rights to an open and enabling democratic space and access to well-resourced programmes and public services.

2. Strategic objective 2: Young people, especially young women and those facing marginalisation or fragility, enjoy a just transition and their right to climate resilient livelihoods.

3. Strategic objective 3: Young people, especially young women and those facing marginalisation, are resilient to shocks and enjoy their right to protection in fragile contexts, disasters, and protracted crises.

The implementation of the SPAII programme is managed by the International Cluster in AADK, specifically the country-level programming is managed by programme managers in the International Programme and Policy Team (IPP).

2. Objective

AADK has developed a Summary Results Frame for the overall SPAII programme, and each SPAII AA partner country/region has developed a contextualized Theory of Change and Results Frame based on what is appropriate in their context. To inform the future programmatic results monitoring at both national and global level, a comprehensive Baseline Study needs to be carried out. The Baseline study will consist of a global study, primarily based on data-collection from the 14 SPAII partner countries/regions, but not limited to this. Each SPAII country/region will contract a national consultant to perform data collection for their national baseline study, which will feed into the global study, but will also collect data on indicators relevant only to their context.

With these Terms of Reference AADK is seeking to hire a consultant or team of consultants to conduct the Global Baseline Study, including coordinating and quality assuring the baseline study processes, and final approval of data in the 14 SPAII countries/regions.

3. Scope & Deliverables

The consultant is expected to deliver the following deliverables with key process elements included in the timeline and outputs below:

• Elaborate Global Baseline Study design and process – and supporting the elaboration and roll-out hereof at national level with 14 SPAII partners.
• Train, support and coordinate the 14 national consultants and AA country partner programme/MEL staff in collecting the necessary data and elaborating a national baseline study.
• In dialogue with the consultants and the AA programme staff in the 14 partner countries, ensure the quality of the data before including approved data in the Global Baseline Study.
• Present suggestions for the improvement of the SPAII Summary Results Frame, including the means of verification and counting methodology.
• Produce a Global Baseline Study of AADK’s SPAII programme to inform the SPAII Summary Results Frame as well as each SPAII country/regions Results Frame.

4. Timeline & Expected Outputs

The assignment is expected to take place from July to October 2022 and is estimated to require a total of 45 working days.

5. Qualifications

The consultant or team of consultants is/are expected to be experienced development professional(s) with 10+ years of experience, and with experience and relevant credentials in:

• Designing and conducting baseline studies with multiple partners using qualitative and quantitative data collection methods and elaborating MEAL frameworks and counting methodologies.
• Working with result monitoring of rights-based, policy-influencing and advocacy interventions
• Conducting participatory and inclusive collaborative processes across different organisations and countries.
• Specific thematic experience in youth-led change, climate justice, humanitarian response and/or gender responsive public services is an advantage

6. Management & Reporting

The consultant will be reporting to AADK’s Senior MEL Coordinator Marie Gry Torup Ildvedsen, and is expected to coordinate and stay in close communication with AADK during the assignment, while take lead on the communication with AA partner country programme teams and the national consultants.

AADK’s Senior MEL coordinator will be responsible for providing the consultant with the necessary information and contacts necessary to perform the assignment.

The consultant is expected to nurture relationships based on feedback and values of mutuality with the national level consultants and the AA programme teams, while ensuring the timely submission of deliverables.