Terms of Reference (ToR) – Miisaan Programme: Social Cohesion & Legitimate Governance Through Transitional Justice

Introduction

The Miisaan (Social Cohesion & Legitimate Governance Through Transitional Justice) is a four-year programme (2021-2025) funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands that aims at increasing the availability of inclusively developed, locally informed transitional justice processes in Somalia and Somaliland that significantly contribute to social cohesion and governance. The Programme is being implemented by a Consortium comprised of Interpeace, MediaInk as core partners with the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) as a member of the consortium. Currently, the programme is being implemented in Somaliland (Sool and Sanaag region), and in Somalia (Galmudug and Hirshabelle). The programme is planning to commission an external mid-term evaluation that will commence from Mid-February, for a period of 35 working days, which includes a minimum of 20 days in the programme’s target locations in Somalia and Somaliland.

Background

The Somali society and its respective institutions across both Somalia and Somaliland continue to take necessary steps towards post-conflict reconciliation, sustainable peace, economic growth and political stability and a statebuilding process. However, to successfully transition from conflict to sustainable peace, there is need for acknowledgement and ensuring accountability of past and recent violations and redress for victims. Acknowledgement of such discussions will play a positive role in ensuring relationships are geared towards a shared future of societal cohesion and reconciliation between the state and the citizens.

More saliently, this calls for an immediate and urgent need of addressing decades of injustice and grievances along with resolving inter-clan conflicts that are at the core of the waning and breakdown of the social contract between society and authorities. The strengthening of the social contract between Somalis and the state at the different governmental levels thus necessitates a national cohesion and state- building process that presents opportunities for Somalis to exchange their different accounts, perspectives and experiences of past conflicts. Indeed, the appetite for a locally informed and owned process to transitional justice in the Somali region is equally highlighted by the current strides undertaken by the government of Somalia and the Somaliland government and respective organizations in the civil society space. The Miisaan programme is collaborating with and providing impetus to on-going efforts by national/federal institutions mandated to contribute towards national cohesion and reconciliation. These institutions include the Ministry of the Interior, Federal Affairs and Reconciliation (MoIFAR) in Somalia and the Ministry of Interior in Somaliland.

The programme has been placing emphasis on reviewing and building upon existing mechanisms and processes within local communities to develop and pilot transitional justice processes that are best suited for the Somali context. This will ensure that the initiated processes continue after the life cycle of the programme. Experiences shared and capacities transferred to the community stakeholders and authorities have been focusing on ensuring inclusive transitional justices process are continued and expanded beyond the pilot process. Subsequently, the programme envisions a transitional justice programme that detaches itself from a top-down approach and instead focuses on a bottom-up approach and is additionally embedded and encapsulates local Somali norms and perceptions of justice- thus increasing the ownership of the process. The programme champions for an approach that acknowledges a comprehensive perspective fully cognisant of the cultural variations that conceptualise what transitional justice means and the process/mechanisms to employ. Furthermore, the programme greatly advocates for the involvement of ordinary Somalis, through dialogue and forum sessions at the community level, to gather the local perspectives and priorities on transitional justice and its respective approaches on how it can be operationalized across the Somali region. These broad-based community conversations on justice and reconciliation should be instrumental in exploring judicial and non-judicial accountability mechanisms for transitional justice and more importantly recognising victims’ rights, and include all demographics of the society (women, youth, minority and marginalized groups, clan elders, regional leaders, CSOs, etc). Such an approach of localizing transitional justice, in the programme’s view, greatly ensures that the transitional justice mechanisms to be used will be accepted by Somalis, thus increasing the plausibility of sustainable national reconciliation amongst Somalis.

The programme is guided by the following outcomes:

• Intermediate Outcome 1: Community stakeholders and key national and local government representatives support an inclusive process to enable the project design transitional justice processes and mechanism for Somalia and Somaliland.
• Intermediate Outcome 2: Increased social cohesion among communities, government representatives and civil society through consensus building on priorities for and piloting of transitional justice processes.
• Intermediate Outcome 3: Increased support and participation of Somali citizens and communities in transitional justice processes and mechanisms.
• Intermediate Outcome 4: Local, regional and national government institutions and community stakeholders have the capacity and a shared roadmap to implement TJ processes and mechanisms.

Justification and Objectives

The mid-term evaluation is a condition of the funding agreement between Interpeace and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The evaluation is to provide a mid-term review of the intervention. It is intended to be a formative evaluation that informs and helps to refine or improve programme implementation.

The main objectives of the evaluation are:

• To assess programme progress towards intended outcomes;
• To identify management, technical and performance challenges and providing recommendations for improvement;
• To identify strengths, weaknesses, deviations as well as lessons learned from programme implementation to date;
• To provide recommendations for ensuring programme effectiveness and efficiency, adapting to changes in the political context, as well as maximising programme impact in the remaining programming period.

Timeframe, Methodology and Deliverables

The anticipated duration of the evaluation is 35 working days with a minimum of 20 days spent in the programme’s target locations in Somalia and Somaliland. The anticipated start date is mid-February 2023 with submission of the final draft end of March 2023. The final timeframe will be agreed upon with the selected consultants and the donor representatives.

The evaluators are expected to propose evaluation methodologies appropriate for assessing transitional justice programming in dynamic conflict and post-conflict environments. The interviewers are expected to conduct interviews and focus group discussions, and other activities they see fit. The methodology used should also be gender sensitive, conflict sensitive and respect the principles of Do No Harm. The evaluators are expected to apply the conceptual framework of assessing outcomes and changes in behaviour and relationships among partners as a result of engagement in programme activities and actions. The evaluation will be both an objective and a consultative/participatory exercise. The Following matrix presents the anticipated deliverables of evaluations.

While Interpeace anticipates the use of the elements listed above, the list is not exhaustive. The evaluation may include additional elements and approaches as appropriate for responding to the final evaluation questions. The applicant is encouraged to suggest a comprehensive methodology that includes these elements and others that the evaluators deem fit for meeting the evaluation objectives. The methodology for data collection should be described in the proposals. The final list of elements will be discussed with the selected team of consultants.

Key evaluation Questions:

Relevance:

• To what extent was the overall strategy of the programme relevant for the context of peacebuilding and transitional justice in the Somali region (Somalia and Somaliland)?
• To what extent was the overall strategy of the programme relevant for the actors engaged by the programme?
• To what extent was the intervention logic/overall strategy relevant in pursuing the programme’s goal?
• What adaptations can the programme make over the next two years to be optimally relevant to the changing context in the region? What best practices and lessons learnt from the programme should be applied in the next half of the programme?

Effectiveness and Impact

• What progress has the programme made towards expected outcomes?
• How can the programme better address contextual changes in order to ensure achievement of expected outcomes?
• To what extent has the programme integrated gender into the programme’s strategy?
• How effective have the programme’s efforts to integrate gender into the programme strategy been?
• How can the programme strengthen its integration of gender to promote inclusive peacebuilding and governance?
• How will the upcoming organizational changes within Interpeace affect its capacity to successfully and effectively implement the programme according to the programme document?

Sustainability

• How likely are the contributions of the programme to be sustained?
• How effective are the strategies for sustainability of impact following withdrawal of external support?
• How can the programme maximize sustainability for impact beyond the programme period?

Efficiency

• To what extent have the programme’s strategies and activities been sufficient for meeting expected outcomes?
• How has the project adapted to changes in the context and emerging challenges during programme implementation?
• What other strategies can the programme employ to maximize efficiency in meeting expected outcomes and responding to contextual challenges?

Cross cutting issues:

• How effective have the programme’s efforts to integrate youth into the programme strategy been?
• How can the programme strengthen its integration of youth to promote inclusive peacebuilding and governance?
• To what extent does Interpeace and its’ programme partners have the sufficient capacities to achieve the programme outcomes? What is the relationship between Interpeace and Consortium partners? What areas of capacity strengthening are needed to elevate programme implementation? How can Interpeace better support the Consortium partners in order to achieve expected outcomes?
• To what extent does the programme adhere to the principles of Do No Harm and employ conflict sensitivity while implementing and adapting the programme strategies?

The programme anticipates that these key evaluation questions will be further refined with the selected evaluation consultants.

Reporting and feedback

The evaluators will hold a feedback meeting (or meetings) with Interpeace in the Nairobi and Hargeisa office. This will be an opportunity to debrief on the evaluation, and to exchange views on preliminary findings and recommendations.

The evaluation report will include a main text of no more than 30 pages with findings and recommendations. The report will be expected to be structured in the following manner:

Acronyms Executive Summary

1. Introduction and brief background
2. Methodology
3. Major findings
   • Relevance
   • Effectiveness and Impact (including major accomplishments to date)
   • Efficiency
   • Sustainability
   • Cross-cutting issues
4. Overall Assessment
5. Challenges
6. Best Practices and lessons learned
7. Recommendations for improvement

Annexes:

• Terms of Reference
• List of documents assessed
• List of persons interviewed
• Evaluation Matrix
• Presentation of changes identified related to programme outcomes and progress markers
• Proposed revised logical framework

Qualifications

The evaluation will be undertaken by a team composed of international and local consultants. The consultants will be expected to have the following skills and experience at a minimum:

Consultant:

• Proven Experience conducting and leading evaluations/assessments
• Proven Experience in conducting gender sensitive evaluations
• Strong analytical skills and experience working with qualitative evaluation approaches
• Strong knowledge of and experience with conflict resolution, peacebuilding and reconciliation programmes
• Experience working in the Somali region and other conflict or post-conflict environments
• Proven record of delivering professional outputs
• A willingness to travel to the Somali Region, especially the programme’s target locations
• Excellent English and Somali speaking and writing
• An ability to work within tight deadlines
• Experience in data collection and analysis
• At least a bachelor’s degree in social sciences, peacebuilding management, evaluation, social research etc.

Gender balance and geographical representation are highly desired and will be considered favourably in selecting the successful team of consultants.