Consultancy: Inkanyezi Project Endline Evaluation

Introduction

Sonke is a women’s rights organisation committed to feminist principles, using a rights-based and gender-transformative approach to achieve human rights and gender justice. Our vision is a poverty-free world in which women, children, men, and non-conforming individuals enjoy equitable, caring, healthy, and happy relationships, which contribute to the development of gender-just and democratic societies. Sonke strengthens governments, civil society, and citizens’ capacity to advance gender justice and women’s rights, prevent gender-based violence and reduce the spread of HIV and the impact of AIDS, and in this way contributes to social justice and the elimination of poverty.

Background and context

Persistent gender inequality continues to undermine social and economic progress and the fulfilment of human rights worldwide, with low- and middle-income countries being the most affected. Gender inequality is deeply rooted in social and cultural norms and traditions, and disproportionately affects women, hindering their access to education, health, and economic opportunities. In 2023, the Africa Gender Index 2023 AnalyticalReport showed that womenin Africa scored 50.3% for equality across economic, social, and public representation, indicating persistent systemic barriers in these areas. Like other countries, South Africa continues to grapple with the challenge of gender inequality. According to the UNDP Gender Inequality Index (GII), South Africa had a GII value of 0, 388 in 2023 and was ranked 95 out of 172 countries in 2023. Global evidence shows that promoting gender equality advances human rights and drives socioeconomic development, bringing about tangible and intangible benefits for individuals, social groups, society, and the economy. Tangible results relate to better education outcomes, equal division of labour, access to land and housing, and secure income. Intangible benefits revolve around choice, voice, influence, recognition, confidence, and negotiating power (including personal relationships). Investing in women’s empowerment and their participation and representation in development, politics, governance, and decision making promotes gender equality and contributes to poverty reduction.

Notably, promoting gender equality is critical for the prevention of violence against women. Gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) is deeply rooted in unequal power relations between women and men, rigid gender roles, harmful norms which socially assign women a lower status or position in society. In South Africa, the GBV crisis is exacerbated by patriarchal beliefs and attitudes entrenched in cultural and institutional systems. Globally, there has been notable progress in the development of laws, policies, and strategic frameworks for GBV prevention and response; however, enforcement and operationalisation remain weak and uneven. In South Africa, the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (NSPGBVF) was finalised in 2020; however, progress on its implementation remains slow.Communities, especially young women, with women leaders as role models, play an important role in becoming active citizens and holding local duty bearers accountable for the effective implementation of relevant laws and policies.

In respect of women leadership, while there has been some progress in terms of having more women in leadership positions, women are still widely underrepresented in leadership. It is important to mention that while representation is key, occupation of leadership positions does not equal decision-making power, and there are still significant hurdles for women once they are appointed or elected, which is an important consideration of this project.

In response to the aforementioned issues and challenges, Sonke has been implementing the Inkanyezi project, a four-year initiative with the aim of advancing gender equality and promoting the enjoyment of human rights and freedoms for women in South Africa. As the projects draw towards closure, Sonke seeks to assess its achievements and measure its impact through an independent evaluation. It is envisaged that the evaluation will generate credible evidence and insights into the project’s achievements, successes, challenges, and lessons learned. The evaluation findings will support Sonke’s accountability efforts to key stakeholders, the funder, and other partners and will also inform the design and implementation of future project interventions on women’s leadership and gender equality. It is against this background that Sonke is seeking an independent consultant to carry out a planned endline evaluation.

Description of the project

The Inkanyezi (Zulu term for “bright shining star”) project is a 4-year targeted gender equality project implemented in the Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape provinces with support from Global Affairs Canada (GAC). The project aims to transform gender and power relations and seek institutional and societal change in support of gender equality and women’s leadership in decision-making.  Inkanyezi used a feminist and human rights-based approach to achieve gender equality and sought to strengthen the ability of women leaders from political, traditional, and religious structures to influence local decision-making processes, particularly with respect to laws, policies, and customs relevant to women’s rights and leadership. Through this project, communities, particularly young women, played an important role in holding local duty-bearers accountable for the effective implementation of relevant laws and policies.  This project focuses on shifting harmful social norms that drive gender inequality at the individual, community, and institutional levels. Sonke views the shift in social norms as a critical pathway to violence prevention and women’s leadership, and ultimately, to gender equality. A key strategy in this process is the engagement of male allies and influencers to ensure a supportive and enabling political and social environment for women leaders to succeed. Finally, the project is also engaged in policy advocacy by making policy submissions, advocacy campaigns, engaging duty bearers, facilitating inputs into municipal IDPs, the rollout of the National Strategic Plan on GBV, and monitoring GBV cases in legal courts as a way to enhance local government institutions’ responsiveness to gender equality issues. The outcomes of the project are as follows.

  • Outcome 1: Increased visibility, number and influence of elected, traditional and religious women leaders in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga (Individual)
  • Increased capacity of elected, traditional, and religious women leaders to drive decision-making processes in EC and MP  
  • Increased number of young women leaders influencing local decision-making processes in EC and MP
  • Outcome 2: Improved policies and practice from government and traditional institutions in addressing gender equality in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga (Institutional)
  • Enhanced programming and implementation of policies from local government institutions to gender equality in the EC and MP
  • Improved implementation of laws and policies that promote gender equality by traditional authorities in EC and MP
  • Outcome 3: Enhanced gender equitable roles and solidarity for women’s leadership in communities, local government, traditional and religious structures in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga (Societal)
  • Improved support from communities and families to women leaders in EC and MP
  • Increased number of actions from allies and influencers to promote women’s leadership and gender equality in EC and MP

Purpose of the evaluation

The overall purpose of the endline evaluation is to assess the extent to which the Inkanyezi project contributed to strengthening women’s leadership and advancing gender equality in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga. Specifically, the evaluation will aim to:

  1. Assess the project’s contribution to the overarching goal of improving levels of gender equality and enjoyment of human rights and freedoms for women in South Africa
  2. Identify the project’s key achievements and the extent to which the project contributed towards the intended outcomes
  3. Assess the project’s relevance to national and local priorities of promoting gender equality and women’s leadership
  4. Assess the effectiveness, relevance and appropriateness of the project’s strategies, models and approaches applied to achieve the goal of the project
  5. Assess the sustainability of project interventions and results in advancing transformative women’s leadership and GBV prevention.
  6. Identify lessons and good practices that can inform future programming on women’s leadership and gender equality in South Africa and beyond

Scope of work and proposed evaluation approach

The evaluation will focus on the project implementation period from February 2022 to December 2025 and will cover both implementation areas, namely the Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape provinces in South Africa. The evaluation applies a theory-based approach grounded in the project’s theory of change, and the selected approaches should capture both intended and emergent results. A mixed-method (quantitative and qualitative) approach is strongly recommended for this evaluation. Furthermore, the evaluation should integrate a feminist lens to highlight power dynamics, equity, and inclusivity. The consultant will refine and finalize the evaluation methodology during the inception phase in consultation with Sonke.

Roles and responsibilities of the consultant

  1. Participate in a kick off meeting with the project team
  2. Conduct desk review and analysis of relevant documentation to understand the project context, strategies and results
  3. Prepare an Inception Report detailing proposed methodologies to be finalized in consultation with Sonke, sampling methods, data collection tools (including versions translated to isiXhosa and Tsonga data analysis and workplan
  4. Coordinate fieldwork, arrange meetings with all participants (with support from Sonke project team) and conduct field data collection at project sites ensuring adherence to ethical and safety guidelines,
  5. Sort, organize and analyse qualitative and quantitative data collected from project sites using relevant software.
  6. Prepare draft reports and an accompanying slide deck capturing findings and recommendations
  7. Prepare a comprehensive endline evaluation report outlining findings, conclusions, and recommendations including an evaluation summary and stories of change

Expected deliverables

The consultant is expected to submit the following deliverables.

  1. A detailed inception report outlining the methodology, sampling, ethical considerations, workplan as well as data collection tools to be used
  2. Draft evaluation reports for review and feedback using the report format provided by Sonke.
  3. Virtual validation workshop with the project team, project participants and relevant stakeholders
  4. Final report (max 45 pages excluding annexes) capturing the methodology, findings, conclusion and recommendations using a report format to be provided by Sonke. This will be accompanied by a slide deck not exceeding 20 slides
  5. Evaluation summary capturing methodology, key findings and recommendations (2-3 pages with infographics)
  6. Impact and success stories

Duration of the assignment and indicative timeline

The assignment is expected to take 40 days and will be conducted in the period November 2025 to February 2026. Sonke will facilitate periodic check ins to ensure timely delivery and completion of the assignment.

Qualifications of the consultant and evaluation team 

  • Lead evaluator and or firm must demonstrate a minimum of 10 years of experience in conducting similar studies and producing quality baseline, endline study and or research reports for international non-profit organizations or multilateral agencies
  • Post-graduate qualifications in Gender studies, Social Sciences, International Development, Monitoring and Evaluation and other related fields.
  • Thematic expertise in Gender equality, Women’s rights, Gender Based Violence, Women Leadership and Social Justice
  • Demonstrated experience in mixed-methods evaluations, contribution analysis, outcome harvesting as well as feminist, gender transformative and participatory MEL approaches.
  • Proficient in using data analysis software such as STATA, SPSS, R.  NVIVO, Atlas ti., MAXQDA
  • Demonstrated experience in quantitative and qualitative data analysis
  • Knowledge and experience with local government policy and implementation in Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape including familiarity with legal and policy frameworks on addressing gender inequality and GBV
  • Excellent interpersonal communication skills and demonstrated ability to engage with government and other key stakeholders
  • Fluency in English. Proficiency of local languages spoken in project implementation areas (isiXhosa, siSwati, Xitsonga, Sepedi and isiZulu) would be an added advantage
  • Demonstrated capacity to respect and safeguard vulnerable populations as well as the ability to apply research ethics
  • Ability to produce high quality work under tight timeframes.

Application process

Qualified consultancies are required to submit the following documents:

  1. Detailed technical proposal (maximum 12 pages) clearly demonstrating a thorough understanding of the Terms of Reference including the following:
  1. Description of the capacity and qualifications of the consulting firm or individuals, including previous relevant experience
  2. Description of the proposed approach and methodology, including sampling strategy, data analysis, integration of gender considerations and ethical standards, quality assurance
  3. A proposed schedule/work plan
  4. Team composition and level of effort of each proposed team member
  5. A financial proposal (in ZAR) with a detailed breakdown of costs for the study including but not limited to itemized consultancy fees/costs, field data collection expenses and administrative expenses. The cost must indicate costs including and excluding VAT.
  6. Curriculum Vitaes of all proposed team members outlining academic qualifications, relevant experience and skills (max 3 pages per CV).
  7. Profile of the consulting firm with full names, physical address, contact details, registration details and tax documents including names and contact information of three references who can be contacted regarding relevant experience
  8. 2 samples of previous similar work

Sonke Gender Justice recognizes the importance of safeguarding and is committed to ensuring it manages any form of risk to ensure that project participants, staff, associates and partners are safe from harm.

Submission guidelines

Sonke appreciates the interest of all applicants. Please note that due to time limitations, only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.