Project Evaluator

ABA ROLI seeks a Project Evaluator with a preference for demonstrated experience in rule of law projects to conduct a midline evaluation to assess whether project performance has been achieved and to develop a set of recommendations that should inform the second stage of the project.

ABA ROLI is a non-profit organization that implements legal reform projects in roughly 50 countries around the world. ABA ROLI has nearly 500 professional staff working abroad, and in its Washington, D.C. office. ABA ROLI’s host country partners include judges, lawyers, bar associations, law schools, court administrators, legislatures, ministries of justice and a wide array of civil society organizations, including human rights groups.

Too often women sign their marriage contracts without knowing what they say. Even educated women are frequently unaware of their rights in marriage. According to the World Justice Project (WJP), just 54% of female respondents, and 49% of all respondents with a university education or above, knew that a woman could obtain a divorce without her husband’s approval. When women do know their rights, they may face pressure to relinquish them or find that marriage contract clauses, such as those related to divorce, have been crossed out by the marriage officiant or their families. These challenges are compounded by high rates of forced and child marriage, which deprive brides of any say in the conditions of their unions. Funded by the U.S. Department of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), ABA ROLI’s project entitled “Protecting and Promoting Women’s Marriage Rights” is a 24-month project that seeks to protect women’s rights to divorce, financial security, and child custody through enhanced implementation and enforcement of marriage contracts and family laws.

To achieve these goals, ABA ROLI has partnered with two local organizations, collectively “partners,” to implement a series of activities in furtherance of the following three objectives:

Objective 1: To increase knowledge and awareness of marriage contract clauses and women’s marriage rights among women, girls, boys, men, and civil society.

Objective 2: To strengthen laws, policies, and practices for registration and enforcement of marriage contracts to better protect women’s marriage rights.

Objective 3: To improve access to and quality of legal advice and representation available to women and girls in cases involving marriage.

ABA ROLI and partners have implemented a series of awareness raising activities including: an ABA ROLI partner led social media campaign to increase public awareness of women’s legal rights in marriage and marriage contract clauses, convened workshops at secondary and tertiary educational institutions on marriage rights, and published a thematic edition of its Human Rights Review on women’s rights in marriage preceded by a Symposium on Women’s Rights in Marriage for academics, students, CSOs, and government officials to introduce the topics covered in the thematic edition. To strengthen laws, policies and practices, partners have undertaken a diagnostic analysis of registered marriage contracts in two pilot districts to identify practices that protect and/or infringe women’s rights in marriage. This study informed trainings for marriage officiants in two pilot districts to ensure implementation of existing provincial laws, and technical support for local government offices to introduce protocols for improved collection and management of data on registered marriage contracts. Partners conducted an analysis of select family law cases (divorce/custody/maintenance/property) to identify trends in the implementation of existing laws and treatment of women’s marriage rights by the justice system. ABA ROLI and partners developed a benchbook for judges on women’s rights in marriage and trained judges on the benchbook. Partners convened an Inter-Provincial Working Group and a Provincial Working Group, to review existing laws and implementation and make recommendations.

This was followed by a two-day inter-provincial consultation to review key findings from the project and share reform recommendations with senior elected representatives. To improve access to and quality of legal advice and representation, partners provided training for prosecutors and legal aid lawyers on women’s rights in marriage, established a helpline to connect women to legal aid and other support services for redress of their marriage rights claims, and partnered with law school clinics to provide women and girls pro bono legal advice and representation. Partners trained law students to advise and represent women in marriage rights cases in law clinics, and the legal clinic undertakes research to identify opportunities for strategic litigation on women’s marriage rights.

2. Evaluation Approach and Methodology

The evaluation shall follow a participatory approach and engage a range of stakeholders in the process. Data collection should be triangulated to the extent possible to ensure validity and reliability of findings and draw on the following methods: comprehensive desk review, including stakeholder analysis, surveys, stakeholder group discussions, and/or key informant interviews. The evaluation will provide an opportunity for ABA ROLI and its local partners, to reflect on the Project’s key milestones, successes, challenges, and shortcomings, and evaluate opportunities for improved implementation in the second stage of the Project.

The evaluator is responsible for proposing to ABA ROLI which methodological approaches are most suitable for this evaluation. The method should incorporate both qualitative and quantitative analysis in responding to the principal evaluation questions and present the findings qualitatively and quantitatively, as appropriate. The evaluator will cover costs related to field-based data collection, including costs for hiring enumerators.

Interview and/or focus group discussion participants will be determined in coordination with ABA ROLI, and with consideration of the Project’s context and timeframe and the potential sensitivities of the operating environment.

The evaluation should be guided by the Organization for Economic Coordination and Development – Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) metrics that apply to the evaluation objectives.

3. Scope of the Evaluation

The evaluation scope covers the duration of the first stage project from September 8, 2021 to August 31, 2023. In addition to identifying achievements toward the project outputs, the evaluation should provide insight into the wider context of the project operating environment, highlighting the following: contextual and political challenges that have affected the Project; partnerships or coordination efforts that have contributed to the Project’s successes and/or shortcomings; and coordination efforts that have complemented other initiatives within program country to advance rule of law and protect women’s marriage rights.

4. Expected Deliverables

The evaluator will work with ABA ROLI, partners, and a local enumerator to provide the following deliverables to ABA ROLI:

• Inception report for ABA ROLI, including proposed methodology, data sources, and data collection tools;

• Raw data and analysis results, including coding methodology, etc.;

• Data collection summary report;

• Final evaluation report for ABA ROLI and DRL;

• Executive summary and redacted version of the report produced for partners; and

• Workshop on key findings and recommendations for ABA ROLI and partners.

ABA ROLI expects the evaluator to hire a local enumerator based in the project country to assist during the data collection phase. The evaluator will be responsible for coordinating with the enumerator to collect all necessary data from beneficiaries and relevant stakeholders. The combined total number of interviews, focus group discussions, surveys, etc. conducted by the evaluator and the enumerator will be summarized in a single data collection report submitted to ABA ROLI.

The DC-based ABA ROLI Senior Program Manager will supervise the overall evaluation process with support from the Program Management Unit and the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Division, as needed. ABA ROLI and partners will coordinate introductions and meetings with relevant stakeholders and provide the evaluator with all key project documents. ABA ROLI DC staff will review and approve each of the final deliverables.

5. Budget & Compensation

Consultant Fees. An evaluation consultant contract is anticipated for this project. The maximum amount budgeted for evaluator and enumerator compensation and travel expenses is $20,000 (flexible). ABA ROLI will allocate the total compensation amount across a two-month period, the amount of time expected to complete all evaluation activities. The evaluator will be paid based on successful completion of each deliverable.

6. Logistical Arrangements

The evaluation consultancy is a home-based position and travel to project country is not expected. ABA ROLI and local partner staff will assist the evaluator in arranging online meetings with key stakeholders.

Data collection activities may require the local enumerator to travel within the project country. Local partner staff will assist in arranging meetings with key stakeholders in-country.

7. Qualifications, Experience, and Expertise

The evaluator will have the following qualifications:

● A university degree in women’s rights, gender and development, human rights, development management, social science, evaluation or other relevant discipline.

● At least seven years of experience in project evaluation, including conducting qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and reporting on key findings, particularly for rule of law and/or governance and/or human rights projects.

● Experience in utilizing mixed method research and evaluation and in performing midterm evaluations.

● Familiarity with women’s marriage rights framework, including justice sector actors, relevant laws, and relevant government bodies, as well as experience conducting evaluations of rule of law and justice sector reform projects is highly preferred.

● Fluency and effective communication skills in English is required.

● Local enumerators that would be proposed should be capable of speaking and writing in at least one local language. Fluency in other local languages would be an advantage.