Mid-term project review (She Leads Project)

Background

She Leads is a joint strategic partnership between Plan International Netherlands, Defence for Children – ECPAT Netherlands (DCI-ECPAT), African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), and Terre des Hommes Netherlands (TdH-NL). Equal Measures 2030 is a technical partner. She Leads brings together child rights organizations, feminist/women’s rights organizations, and groups led by girls and young women (GYW-led groups) and aims to increase sustained influence of girls and young women (GYW) on decision-making and the transformation of gender norms in formal and informal institutions. Geographically, She Leads focuses on East Africa (Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya), the Sahel (Mali) West Africa (Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia) and the Middle East (Lebanon, Jordan). In addition to programming in these countries, a considerable part of the programming is done at Middle East and Pan-Africa regional and global level, targeting institutions and stakeholders at these levels.

Both Country and Regional networks seek an external evaluator for the part if its Midterm evaluation. The terms of reference for this evaluation are elaborated below.

The MTR in general comprises of 3 components across all 9 countries and 3 regional networks of She Leads. These 3 components are,

1. an evaluation of outcome and output level basket indicators (conducted locally and externally);
2. an evaluation of the performance indicators evaluating the relationship of the consortium with its key constituency the GYWs (data collected by GYWs feeding into the report of external consultant);
3. an evaluation of the key strategies implemented by the consortium (coordinated centrally by She Leads desk in the Netherlands);

Together these components will make up for MTR report at the consortium level, these processes are coordinated centrally by the She Leads desk based in the Netherlands with support from networks at the local level.

This particular consultancy comprises of evaluation of basket indicators and ToC, and analysis of data on performance indicators (points 1 and 2 above) in both the country and regional networks.

The Country (Jordan) network consists of Terre des homes and their partners ;Jordan River Foundation, Jordan Women Union, Nadi Al Ebda’a, Idoun and Ruwwad; Plan international Jordan and their partner Jordanian National Commission for women. And the Regional network consist of Defense for Children International, Terre des homes and their partner Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD) ,Plan international Jordan and Plan International Lebanon The details of this assignment are listed below.

About She Leads

The She Leads Program is a five-year (2021-2025) strategic consortium partnership between Terre des Hommes, Plan International, Defence for Children/ECPAT, African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. The strategic objective behind the She Leads programme is to increase the sustained influence of Girls and Young Women (GYW) on decision-making and the transformation of gender norms in formal and informal institutions. This will be achieved through the attainment of three main outcomes:

1. Enhanced collective action and activism by GYW in a gender-responsive civil society;
2. Increased acceptance of positive social gender norms; and
3. Political institutions – at all levels – enable meaningful participation of GYW in decision-making.

Three interrelated domains central to the She Leads program is

• The enhancement of collective action of girls and young women in a gender-responsive civil society (civil society domain),
• Support by increased acceptance of positive social gender norms (socio-cultural domain).
• enabling meaningful participation of girls and young women in decision-making by political institutions (institutional domain)

In order to achieve success in the above three domains following are our key strategies:

• Funding and resourcing girl-led/young feminist organizing, collective action and activism;

• Data-driven and evidence-based advocacy & research;

• Catalyzing the growth and strength of social movements and collective action for girls rights;

• Media influencing & advocacy;

• Advocating for girls access to international institutions and human rights mechanisms;

• Capacity strengthening support and joint-learning between civil society organizations (CSOs), girl-led groups and young feminist organizations.

Objectives of the MTR

The mid-term review conducted by the evaluator will address the following objectives.

1. Asses programmatic progress made on output and outcome level basket indicators;

2. Review and analysis of the changes in context, risks and mitigation policies;

3. Identify strengths and weaknesses in the consortium performance (cross-cutting indicators), based on insights from data collected by the GYW involved in the programme;

4. Based on the above, develop recommendations for annual plan 2024 and for future programming

Scope

The evaluation process will build on existing documents, plans, and data collected. This includes monitoring reports, annual plans and reports, activity reports, previously harvested outcomes. The tools for additional primary and secondary data collection will be shared with the selected consultant, our central consortium desk will provide the necessary support through tools, orientation etc. The aim of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which She Leads has contributed to the change envisaged in its inception phase and how the partnership can continue to do so sustainably for the selected outcomes.

The key audience for these reports is the network teams including GYW groups, the consortium desk, the global steering committee, and the Global GYW Board and other She Leads GYW network advisory bodies.

Key focus of the assignment

1. Review and evaluate the validity of the network level ToC;
2. Determine quantitative actual value on the basket outcome indicators for the period of January 2021 – June 2023.
3. Develop qualitative information explaining and justifying the quantitative values and assess the progress (in %) made towards the final target and the need for course correction/improvements if any;

The country outcome indicator are:

of laws, policies, by-laws blocked, adopted or improved of times CSOs succeed in creating space for CSO demands

1. Facilitate network level discussions on context and risk analysis (include the narrative in report );
2. Integrate insights from data on cross cutting indicators in to the final report;
3. develop concrete recommendations for the next annual plan (2024) and the final year based on the data and insights collected under 1-4
4. Identify and review the challenges, gaps and good practices of consortium and local partners.

We will share the templates that would serve as a starting point for the data collection on basket indicators and a format for the final report. The consultant is expected to create the final workplan and youth friendly summaries with the consortium partners.

Deliverables

• Inception report (includes inputs from the network and an overview of the workplan and timelines) 7/3/23
• First round of data collection. This involves facilitating sessions on context and risk analysis, TOC review, KIIs/FGDs where necessary 23/3/23
• Data review and analysis. Additional data collection if necessary, review and analysis of data collected 2/4/23
• Summary of findings and recommendations and validation meetings (Report 1st draft) 9/4/23
• Additional data collection (for Q1 and Q2 2023) and analysis 19/4/23
• Summary of findings and recommendations and validation meetings (Report 2nd draft) 1/5/23
• Final consolidated report (English and Arabic), a (youth friendly, English and Arabic) a summary ( Arabic and English) document containing main findings and recommendations 14/5/23
• Anonymized primary data sets 14/5/23

The profile of the applicant

The She Leads country and regional networks wants to contract an external evaluator to conduct this mid-term review.

The successful application will consist of one or more key personnel within the evaluation team who meet desired criteria such as the following:

• Master’s or a doctoral degree in social sciences and advanced skills in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies;
• Proven track record in the evaluation with specific attention to MIYP, gender justice and values as described in this TOR;
• At least three years’ experience (preferably with evaluations) in the development sector;
• Knowledge of human rights, gender justice, gender-transformative approach, lobbying and advocacy, intersectionality, youth agency, meaningful youth participation, inclusivity, civil society and civic space, youth-inclusive policymaking and legislation and collaborative programming;
• Proven expertise in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis for evaluations, and use of mixed methodologies for research including outcome harvesting.
• Experience of research/evaluations in the Middle East region of She Leads implementation; contextual knowledge and understanding of environments in the She Leads implementation area
• Ability to work independently, take initiative and respond appropriately to constructive feedback;
• Experience in sharing and discussing review findings with clients, in-country partners and stakeholders, especially with youth-led and girls and young women led groups and organizations;
• Full working proficiency in English and full proficiency in Arabic.

The She Leads consortium is committed to ensuring that the rights of those involved in data collection or analysis are respected and protected, in accordance with ethical research principles. The proposal should clarify how they will guarantee the ethics and protection of children in the data collection process. In particular, the consultants should explain how the adequate, safe and non-discriminatory participation of all stakeholders will be ensured and how special attention will be paid to the needs of children and other vulnerable groups. The consultants should also explain how they will ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants.

Annexes

1. Network ToC visual

2. Results framework

link to the annexes:

https://planinternational-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/g/personal/malek_badarin_plan-international_org/EYI4TAZTIqxPupsFf1RTNrwBahKWQqw2y312zmjNw5PF4g?e=lrfOkp