Evaluation Consultant for Irish Aid GBV Strategic Partnership

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and more than 25 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees delivers lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

Developmental Process Evaluation: Irish Aid Strategic Partnership 2022-2024

SCOPE OF WORK

Organizational and program background

The Irish Aid Strategic Partnership supports the IRC to respond effectively and with accountability to women and girls experiencing gender-based violence (GBV) in humanitarian settings. The most recent round of the partnership runs from January 2022 through December 2024.

Specifically, the strategic partnership works across five pillars to advance multi-level, mutually reinforcing gender transformative action:

• Pillar 1: Strengthening GBV response, preparedness and recovery to women and girls in protracted humanitarian settings (with service delivery in Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Sudan).
• Pillar 2: Establishing and supporting GBV services in emergency response settings.
• Pillar 3: Influencing policy and advocacy for resourcing of GBV within the global humanitarian system, including through new evidence generation and dissemination.
• Pillar 4: Global learning across the strategic partnership and IRC Women's Protection and Empowerment (WPE) programming.
• Pillar 5: Coordination and management across strategic partnerships.

Across these pillars, the Irish Aid Strategic Partnership works to strengthen IRC engagement with local partners, especially women's rights organizations (WROs) and women-led organizations (WLOs), as well as incorporate ongoing learning and adaptation.

Objectives of the Evaluation

The main purpose of this evaluation is to assess successes, challenges, and lessons learned from the 2022-2024 Irish Aid Strategic Partnership and related experts to inform recommendations for future strategic partnership approaches. The evaluation will use a mixed methods approach - including key informant interviews, a country program visit, and triangulation with existing project background and monitoring data - to identify successes, challenges, and lessons related to implementation of the Irish Aid Strategic Partnership 2022-2024. These findings will be used to inform and strengthen implementation approaches across pillars. As a developmental evaluation, additional lines of inquiry will also explore and answer targeted learning questions to inform the design of the next round of the strategic partnership (2025-2027).

Specifically, the evaluation should be able to:

• Identify successes, challenges, and lessons learned from implementation of the Irish Aid Strategic Partnership since January 2022.
• Identify recommendations for how to better design and structure the next round of the strategic partnership.

Scope and explore targeted learning questions to inform future partnership design.

Proposed Evaluation Questions

The evaluation should explore and answer the following evaluation questions, at minimum:

1. For each pillar, what were the biggest successes of the Irish Aid Strategic Partnership 2022-2024? Probe for reflections on the partnership's operational, MEAL (monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning), programmatic, and policy and advocacy strengths and successes.
2. For each pillar, what were the biggest challenges related to the Irish Aid Strategic Partnership 2022-2024? Probe for reflections on the partnership's operational, MEAL, programmatic, and policy and advocacy limitations and challenges.
3. To what extent has the work of the Irish Aid Strategic Partnership been conflict sensitive and helped mitigate contextual risks? Probe for conflict sensitivity, risks, and risk mitigation measures put in place from 2022-2024.
4. What are the lessons learned and recommendations from the current partnership that could inform the design and structure of the next round of the Irish Aid GBV Strategic Partnership (2025-2027)? Probe across pillars, partnership work, risk/risk mitigation/context sensitivity, etc. as appropriate.

• What have been learned with the IRC about how to effectively partner with and engage local organizations through the Irish Aid Strategic Partnership, especially WROs/WLOs (across all the pillars)? Probe for opportunities for WRO/WLO capacity strengthening given the multi-annual nature of the Strategic Partnership.
• How can WPE program design deliver longer term outcomes for sustainable programming across the nexus?

What lessons have been learned within the IRC about how to effectively develop and implement opportunities for WPE team learning and development?

SCOPE OF CONSULTANCY

The Consultant will design an appropriate evaluation methodology based on their understanding of the expectations of the terms of reference and evaluation questions, as well as initial consultations with the project team. The Consultant should propose and adopt methodologies that combine qualitative and quantitative techniques, including at minimum (i) desk review of existing project materials and resources (ii) key informant interviews and/or focus groups with key IRC stakeholders and partners, including both virtual and through one country program visit, and (iii) triangulation with existing project monitoring data. The Consultant is expected to propose their methods for the evaluation that should include but not limited to:

• Drafting data collection tools.
• Developing the data collection methodology, including sampling.
• Developing the quantitative and qualitative data analysis plan.
• Plan for validation of findings with key stakeholders.
• Production of the evaluation report.

The Consultant should submit a focused evaluation inception report (described below) that includes data collection instruments and approaches, clear roles and responsibilities, timeframe, data analysis process (including rigorous qualitative analysis), validation approach, and report writing, as well as an evaluation matrix.

At minimum, we estimate the Consultant will spend 5 days on background preparation and orientation, coordination, and inception report and tool finalization; 5 days on remote KIIs and data collection, including notes (likely 10-12 KIIs); 8 days on data analysis/report write up; 2 days on validation work and related feedback incorporation; and 10 days to travel to one Pillar 1 country program (Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan) to undertake data collection, which will include key informant interviews and focus groups with IRC and partner staff, a visit to observe the WPE program, such as visiting women and girls safe space groups and activities, and focus group discussions with program participants.

Evaluation Roles and Responsibilities

IRC will:

• Provide logistical and accommodation support to the Consultant while traveling within the selected country.
• Provide ongoing security advice and support when traveling.
• Facilitate engagement with IRC country program colleagues, clients, and/or other relevant stakeholders, as required.
• Provide all necessary program documents and relevant monitoring data.
• Review and provide feedback on the Consultant's proposal, tools, and evaluation report.
• Participate in the validation session.

The Consultant will:

• Be responsible for all aspects of the entire evaluation process, including travel and permit applications, evaluation preparation, data collection, analysis, and report writing.
• Be responsible for paying any tax or other fees related to this assignment.
• Be responsible for flight booking, health insurance etc. while traveling.
• Be responsible for their working tools such as computer and data analysis software.

Reporting Arrangements

The Consultant will report to the IRC WPE Senior Technical Advisor (STA) and MEAL focal point. The Consultant will also work closely with other Irish Aid Strategic Partnership team members and IRC country program colleagues, as appropriate.

Duration of assignment

The consultancy should not last more than 45 working days, excluding weekends.

DELIVERABLES

Inception Report: The Consultant shall be expected to produce an inception report upon commencement of the assignment. The inception report will detail the agreed methodologies to be employed during the evaluation. The report should also include the finalized activity plan and a structural outline of the final evaluation report and should be shared and approved by IRC before the data collection and analysis begin. The inception report should also contain:

• A detailed methodology for the evaluation implementation, including sampling.
• The indicators and monitoring data that fall within the scope of the program review.
• Draft data collection tools (qualitative and quantitative) and proposed approach for transcription/high quality qualitative data.
• A workplan that sets out the preparatory activities, specific deliverables, and timeline related to the program review and budget for the data collection and analysis activities.

Facilitated Validation Session: The Consultant will facilitate a validation workshop preceding the final report where the evaluations' preliminary findings, conclusions, and recommendations will be presented to the IRC strategic partnership pillar leads. The consultant will incorporate comments and feedback from the validation workshop into the final draft of the evaluation report.

Evaluation Report: The final report should address the above consultancy objectives and contain an executive summary, introduction including partnership summary and purpose of the evaluation, a detailed methodology (including limitations); key findings (covering both document review and primary data collection), lessons learned, evidence-based recommendations, conclusions, and annexes. Annexes should include, at a minimum, a list of key informants interviewed. A soft copy of the report should be shared for feedback with the WPE STA, MEAL focal point, pillar leads, and Irish Aid focal point, and the report should not be more than 30 pages, excluding the cover page and annexes.

The deliverables above will be accompanied by regular communication and feedback from IRC. The draft and final reports will be shared with Irish Aid.

Minimum Qualifications:

REQUIREMENTS

Please note that this consultancy is only open to individual(s) consultants and not companies or other evaluation firms.

• A qualification in Monitoring and Evaluation, Research, Statistics, or any other related field is strongly recommended. A qualification in Protection or Social Work, Social Sciences, or other related areas is also recommended.
• Knowledge and experience in conducting data collection and analysis related to gender-based violence, protection, social work, or similar sectors required.
• Significant experience in designing, planning, and conducting performance and/or development evaluations using mixed methods design approaches.
• Experience in carrying out evaluations in humanitarian contexts.
• Excellent skills in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, including skills in data analysis software such as Nvivo, Dedoose, and/or Excel.
• Excellent organizing, facilitating, presentation, and communication skills, including good report writing in English.
• Ability to communicate in English required, including advanced English writing abilities.
• Demonstrated experience with participatory and/or equitable approaches to evaluation will be asset.
• French language skills will be a strong asset.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Interested applicants who meet the required profile are invited to submit an application in English. The application package should include:

• The Consultant CV with details of qualifications and relevant experience (maximum 5 pages)
• A technical proposal that summarizes understanding of the ToR, methodology, and expected outputs. The technical proposal should contain a complete description and explanation of the proposed methodology for the assignment, work plan, timeline, and any other resources that the Consultant will make available to execute the task.
• Financial proposal showing the evaluation costs.

Applications that fail to include one or more of these elements will not be considered.

Standard of Professional Conduct:The IRC and the IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way - our Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability, and Equality.
Commitment to Gender, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: The IRC is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, respectful, and safe work environment where all persons are treated fairly, with dignity and respect. The IRC expressly prohibits and will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or bullying of the IRC persons in any work setting. We aim to increase the representation of women, people that are from country and communities we serve, and people who identify as races and ethnicities that are under-represented in global power structures.

---