The Norwegian Mission Society (NMS) is currently seeking an external evaluator to assess our partners in Pakistan, Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS).

The Norwegian Mission Society (NMS) is a voluntary organization, rooted in the Church of Norway. NMS is one of the largest Christian organizations in Norway, with its head office in Stavanger. The organization consists of voluntary involvement from people and congregations who pray, give, and collect money for the work. Its history goes back to 1842, when it started mission and diaconal work. NMS seeks, together with partner organizations, churches, and individuals throughout the world, to work actively to equip each other to share faith in Jesus, fight injustice, and eradicate poverty. NMS has a framework agreement with Digni which means that it is responsible to ensure the quality of the applications and reports which are receiving governmental funding.

As a part of Digni’s quality assurance, risk monitoring, and capacity development initiatives, Digni member organizations and their partner organizations receiving funds from Digni are committed to undergoing regular assessments. Digni conducts such an assessment of NMS once during an agreement period between Digni and Norad. As part of this process, NMS will now assess new and current partners.

Desired Skills and Qualifications:

• Excellent analytical skills

• Experience in project management

• Experience having conducted an organizational review in some capacity, preferably in the region.

• Knowledge in the field of legal aid is an asset.

• Experience working in the region with development organizations.

• Being culturally sensitive

• Being familiar with quality benchmarks collaborating with major donors is an asset, but not a requirement.

• Excellent English written and oral skills.

• Arabic written and oral skills is an asset.

• Ability to work in a structured and independent way, yet to relate well with people in an interview setting.

• Experience working with FBO and churches is preferred.

Time is estimated to be 10-15 days. Initially, some preparation work together with the partners online, then a visit to Pakistan before finalizing the assessment remotely.

Expected outputs:

• A complete agreed-upon partner risk assessment template, inclusive of self-assessment done by partner, scoring, and mitigation.

• An evaluation report with a capacity building plan

The deadline for completion of this process is 15 May 2022.

The purpose of the assessment is:

• to assess the partner’s capacity and competence to manage and implement quality development work receiving funds from Norad through Digni.
• to identify areas that need to be strengthened.
• to identify risks that need mitigation measures
• to secure compliance among cooperating partners in the Digni chain, with reference to the Grant Agreement between Digni and Norad.

The follow-up plan emerging from the assessment will be a tool for monitoring capacity and risk, in addition to serving as a basis for capacity development activities.

The assessment in 2022 shall provide a baseline to be assessed again in time for partner capacity development. It is the basis for prioritizing competence.

The assessment will cover (specified in the assessment tool):

• Governance (Identity, legitimacy, strategy, policies, and systems which in EECMY affect the strategy and implementation of development projects).
• Strategy and Programs (systems for project planning, budgeting, narrative, and financial reporting in compliance with Digni’s criterion).
• HR assets and management (Election, capacity, professional competence, experience, code of ethics, policies, complaint systems).
• Relations networks (local, national, municipal, and international partnerships, networks, thematic cooperation).
• Sustainability (long term financial self-reliance)
• Anti-corruption (awareness, policy, handling of cases)
• Compliance (to local laws, internal rules, donor requirements)
• Financial capacity
• Fiscal management
• Logistics & procurement

Information and training in Digni’s Partner Assessment Tool is available here.

About the organizations:

NMS has about forty missionaries currently and cooperates with civil society organisations in sixteen countries on several continents. NMS has a holistic mission understanding and works in partnership with civil society organisations in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Brazil.

NMS has worked with CLAAS since 2018 when the partnership agreement was signed. CLAAS is a human rights organization based in Lahore Punjab. It is registered under Pakistan Societies Registration Act, 1860. It was established in 1992 to address the human rights issues faced by religious minorities, women, and children. It primarily helps victims of religious persecution, prisoners of conscience, forced conversion, sexual assault, illegal confinement, forced marriage, police torture, domestic violence, gender-based violence, and other oppression by aiding them with free legal aid and rehabilitative support. More information can be found on https://claasfamily.com/.

Please contact Seth Ueland Chancy at [email protected] for Terms of Reference, additional assessment resources for review or for other information or regarding any questions related to this posting.