Short-Term Consultancy: Final Evaluator, ADAPT

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Through its ADAPT project launched in September of 2020, Internews has been working with and supporting leading digital rights and data privacy organizations in Africa and Latin America to promote stronger, rights-respecting, data protection legislation and frameworks. In partnership with those organizations – part of a cross-regional consortium of advocates and data privacy experts – Internews collected and funded resources to ensure that data privacy proponents are equipped not only with the financial resources to carry out advocacy efforts, but with the knowledge, skills, and connections to drive more impactful and informed initiatives. ADAPT consortium partners have engaged in direct advocacy with governments, civil society, and the private sector in a range of contexts; from countries where data protection is not widely discussed or understood, to those that have recently passed legislation.

LOGISTICS

This is a remote-based, part-time, short-term consultancy with an expected term of July through September 2022, approximately 15-20 working days during that period.

All remote candidates will be considered. However, you must have work authorization in your location that does not require sponsorship from Internews. Additionally, there are locations in which Internews is not able to support fully remote work.

The project is global and the evaluator should be willing and able to conduct virtual interviews with partners and other members of the community located in multiple time zones.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so candidates should apply soon.

FINAL EVALUATION PURPOSE & OBJECTIVES

This consultancy is designed to help the Internews team as the project ends to assess the project across various metrics, including its success in accomplishing its stated goals, its responsiveness to changes and ability to pivot, and where it could be improved for future programming on the subject. The final evaluation report will examine the impact of project activities on beneficiaries as well as the sustainability of results.

SCOPE OF WORK

Inception phase:

• Evaluation Planning: Initial discussion with key project team stakeholders to identify internal priorities, lines of enquiry, and sensitivities. Based on this activity, the contractor will draft an evaluation workplan and methodological framework, detailing the qualitative and quantitative tools and evaluation questions to be used during the primary data collection phase. This workplan and framework will be shared with the Program Officer for review.
• Consolidate results by synthesizing past quarterly progress reports (to be included in final report analysis)
  • This should include key accomplishments across the life of the project, notable challenges, and compilation of deliverables and reports.

Primary data collection:

• Collect new data through a survey and in-depth interviews with key staff, partners, and Fellows to paint a more complete picture of the program and its impacts (what is different now as a result of the project).

Final analysis and write up:

• Formulate recommendations: The evaluation should gather lessons from experience in carrying out data protection advocacy campaigns to identify recommendations for what future programming should look like/consider. Recommendations will be prepared in collaboration with Internews staff to ensure they are relevant and useful.
• Produce a report and smaller case studies that includes those elements and captures lessons learned and effectiveness of the project. In addition to reporting what the project delivered, it is also important to learn from how it operated and whether it substantively met all objectives.
• Meeting and finalizing report: Prepare and hold meeting with Program Director and Program Officer to review preliminary findings. Incorporate final comments by Program Director and Program Officer.
• Presentation: Organize and conduct a presentation of key findings, recommendations, and lessons learned.

TIMEFRAME

The evaluation will comprise of an estimated 15-20 days of work, and involve the following elements:

• Desk Review (3-5 days). This will involve reviewing quarterlies and other documentation that the project produced to track the evolution of the project as a whole;
• Data Collection and Analysis (3-5 days). In order to gather feedback from a wide range of project participants, formulate a survey or questionnaire to be disseminated with project partners, key communities, and key project stakeholders. Additionally, conduct a series of in-depth interviews or focus group discussions with project staff, subgrantees, fellows, and/or beneficiaries. Internews will provide introductions as necessary;
• Writing the Report and case studies (5-7 days). Outside of the work to analyze interviews and compile information from documentation, approximately 5-7 days will be needed to draft the report.

DELIVERABLES

• Report: The final product will be an 8-10-page report. The body of the report will provide a narrative description of results achieved (and impacts, when possible), operational lessons, and recommendations. Where appropriate, it will also include illustrative graphs and charts that provide useful summaries of project data. Appendices will provide detail such as cross tabulations from reviewing quarterly reports and interviews, as well as a list of people interviewed, and survey results (if any), so readers can clearly see the data that supports the findings and conclusions.
• 1-2 page “snapshots”: Develop six brief (1-2 page) country “snapshots” highlighting the strategies, key successes/challenges, impacts, and next steps based on current work from each of ADAPT’s advocacy partners.
• • As a part of the final evaluation, and based on interviews with the six ADAPT consortium partners, construct case studies for each partner that highlight key approaches or lessons learned in carrying out data protection advocacy. These reports should include the following structure: – Introduction to the partner – State of data protection in the country – Key approach or lesson learned (as determined by the partner) – Results/impacts on data protection legal landscape or awareness in country
    – Some potential core questions to be asked of partners include:
    – What do you see as the biggest highlight/most successful element of your campaign?
    – What approach did you take to make this possible, and why?
    – What direct impacts do you think this had?
    – What lessons would you share with others based on this success?
    – Example collection of 1-pagers (format will be similar, content different): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NBTzcMIFVCcZlJbOmMOvSc4-O5ZvVDpA/view?usp=sharing

QUALIFICATIONS WE’RE LOOKING FOR

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field, graduate degree preferred;
• Fluency in both written and spoken English required;
• Proficiency in Spanish is a plus;
• Demonstrated experience conducting evaluations of advocacy and human rights programs,
• particularly for US donors;
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative M&E data collection and analysis methods;
• Strong facilitation, presentation, writing and communication skills;
• Experience in the field of digital rights, data protection, and/or internet freedom preferred.