Project overview
Throughout this five-year project, Sonke has consolidated and built on its innovative community mobilisation model to amplify the call for gender justice and accelerated action towards the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls. The project aimed to increase the linkages between community education and activism, rights literacy, media advocacy and the use of the law to advance gender equality in Africa.
Project Expected Results
- Impact: Contribution to the realisation of human rights and gender equality in South Africa.
- Outcome Area 1: Men and women, Community Action Team members (CATs), Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) and partners have the capacity, commitment and skills to mobilise around, prevent and respond to GBV.
- Outcome Area 2: Increased accountability and action from local level duty bearers to respond to GBV.
- Outcome Area 3: South Africa’s National government is held accountable to develop, review, and implement evidence-based strategies to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, including engaging men and boys for gender equality and an end to GBV.
- Outcome Area 4: Sonke and partners are strengthened and can catalyse change for gender equality nationally, regionally, and globally.
Purpose of this Consultancy
The purpose of this end term evaluation is two-fold.
- Summative evaluation: to determine the extent to which the project has achieved its stated outcomes and to provide deeper insight about the mechanisms/factors that have enhanced or constrained project results.
- Model replicability validation: to document the validity of the multi-level Rights, Action and Accountability model for gender justice.
Time schedule: 1 April 2022 to 2 May 2022
The estimated duration of the evaluation is 1 month, starting 1 April 2022 and ending 2 May 2022. The evaluator is expected to produce an Inception Report, including a detailed evaluation plan and methodology. The evaluation team is expected to present main findings and recommendations in a meeting with Sonke and relevant partners, with a draft report produced by 22 April 2022. A final report will be prepared by 2 May 2022.
Budget: R120 000
How to apply
Should you wish to apply, please send a detailed CV, detailed quote and a letter outlining your experience to:
Nombulelo Mazwi
Monitoring and Evaluation Administrator
Phone: +27 (0)21 423 7088
Email : Nombulelo@genderjustice.org.za
Detailed Terms of Reference
Background
Across much of the world, rigid gender norms and harmful perceptions of what it means to be a man or a woman encourage men to engage in high risk behaviours, condone violence against women, grant men the power to initiate and dictate the terms of sex, and make it difficult for women to protect themselves from either HIV or violence as well as to seek sexual and reproductive health rights and services. A growing body of research shows that these gender norms and unequal power dynamics not only contribute to GBV and alcohol and drug abuse, but also exacerbate the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS, and compromise both women’s and men’s access to and use of SRHR services.
South Africa has robust laws and policies in place that generally endorse gender equality and instruct government to proactively implement measures to achieve it. Highly regarded laws and policies have been put in place criminalising domestic and sexual violence and providing redress for survivors. However, many of the rights afforded to women in the national constitution and other frameworks remain inaccessible, paper-bound, and in some cases under threat, as is the case with the Traditional Courts Bill which threatens women’s rights in rural communities. Despite paper promises, South Africa still has staggering levels of domestic violence and rape.
Sonke’s Multi-Level Approach to Gender Equality and Human Rights
Over the past decade, Sonke has been working to increase the linkages between community education and activism, rights literacy, media advocacy and the use of the law to advance gender equality in South Africa. Across the country, Sonke is increasingly supporting local communities to demand justice and engage in community driven primary prevention in response to local incidents of gender-based violence (GBV), including rape, sexual harassment, and even femicide. Indeed, since its inception, Sonke has been committed to building and sustaining grassroots citizen activism and rights literacy to hold government accountable to its constitutional obligations in advancing gender equality, deepening women’s rights, guaranteeing physical integrity and the right to health, and ensuring all are equal before the law.
Sonke’s primary strategy for achieving this vision of active and empowered local communities has been the development of community action teams, or CATs, which are led by the Community Education and Mobilisation (CEM) unit. Over the last decade, Sonke has established dozens of CATs in most South African provinces, including in rural, urban and semi-urban areas. Currently, Sonke has fifty active CATs working to advance gender justice at the local level. These include CATs in refugee communities in Cape Town and Johannesburg, with former prison inmates and their families in Cape Town, with rural communities in the Eastern Cape, and in our research study sites in Diepsloot, inner-city Johannesburg, and Gugulethu, where we have been conducting and publishing research on community mobilisation for many years. As CATs are volunteer run, and are affected by the socio-economic realities of unemployment and job-seeking, and by the on-the-ground realities of the local context, CAT structures fluctuate with respect to their engagement, commitment and sustainability. Sonke is committed to continually researching and documenting its own and its partners’ community mobilisation approaches in order to learn from and share successful practices, and integrate these practices into its own CAT model.
To date, Sonke has chosen to pursue this vision of active and empowered local communities in the wake of several selected cases of domestic and GBV murders. These cases generate sufficient community outrage and media coverage and go to trial regularly enough to allow Sonke to work with local community groups to demand justice, address the root causes of systemic gendered violence, and generate national attention to the ongoing GBV state of emergency. Sonke has leveraged the visibility of these cases as a force for ongoing community based violence prevention actions, including community education to prevent men’s violence and to carry out primary violence prevention with schools, faith based organisations, traditional structures, the private sector and local government.
Sonke’s community education and mobilisation activities are supported and amplified by the organisation’s in-house experience with legal and policy advocacy, including strategic litigation; many years’ experience of content creation and media engagement; and our rigorous research, monitoring and evaluation strategies. Sonke’s Communications and Strategic Information Unit plays a complementary and vital role supporting the programmatic work. Sonke’s team of skilled journalists use print, photography, video and audio to document local activism and ensure that content created reaches the widest possible audience for maximum impact – through placement in mainstream, community and online media as well as through the regular Sonke newsletter, our website and social media channels and other distribution methods. This affirms the work of local community members, draws local and national attention to the alarming levels of GBV, and puts pressure on local duty bearers to take urgent action to address and prevent GBV. The unit also provides regular updates to CAT members across the country, promoting cross fertilisation of ideas and sharing stories of successful local activism to inspire, motivate and lend momentum to other CAT members working on similar issues in their communities. Similarly, Sonke’s RME Unit trains CAT members on how to conduct community audits, and regularly assesses and shares progress against goals and commitments.
While it is clear that working with men and boys to promote gender equity is crucial, Sonke has also, in recent years, increased its direct involvement in supporting women’s rights work with the recognition that sustaining pressure to achieve gender equality must situate the work on masculinities within feminist theory and praxis, including monitoring women’s access to justice at the community level and in working together with other women’s rights organisations to support the passage or implementation of laws, policies and agendas that empower women. Sonke’s work is informed by feminist theory and social movements, and we work closely with many national, regional and global women’s rights organisations to ensure that our work is aligned with feminist goals and priorities. Sonke will continue its work with men and boys, including with men that are often hard to engage – religious and traditional leaders – while bringing its considerable expertise and experience to policy matters related to women’s rights.
Project overview
Throughout this five-year project, Sonke has consolidated and built on its innovative community mobilisation model to amplify the call for gender justice and accelerated action towards the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls. The project aimed to increase the linkages between community education and activism, rights literacy, media advocacy and the use of the law to advance gender equality in Africa.
The overall goal of the project is to contribute to the realisation of human rights and gender equality by building active and empowered communities that hold local and national government departments accountable for the implementation of legislation and policies aimed at preventing and responding to GBV and promoting gender equality. Sonke built on and refined its community education and mobilisation model by establishing and supporting new Community Action Teams (CATs) in the Eastern and Western Cape, and worked to share the overall experiences and learnings from this model with existing CATs and Sonke’s partners across the country, and the region. CATs and partners were supported with training in advocacy, activism, citizen journalism, leadership, GBV prevention, legal frameworks and their local justice systems to enable them to access justice in local cases of GBV, and engage in planning and policy processes at local and national level.
Impact from this project will be taken to scale by carefully evaluating, documenting and sharing the lessons – and especially the community mobilisation model and work with men and boys – across Sonke’s partners in South Africa, including other women’s rights, faith based and social justice organisations, as well as across Sonke’s global networks, through the many local and international convenings hosted by Sonke under other grant funding, which will provide a forum to extend the learnings from this project.
Expected Results
The overall goal of the project is to contribute to the realisation of human rights, gender equality and the prevention of GBV by building active and empowered local communities. It is envisioned that these communities hold the local and national government departments accountable for the implementation of legislation and policies aimed at preventing and responding to GBV and promoting gender equality.
Key results are described below.
Impact: Contribution to the realisation of human rights and gender equality in South Africa.
The most important change will be the development of a model combining local action, media engagement, policy advocacy and legal support that can achieve stronger and more effective community action to prevent and address GBV in communities across Africa. Over time, this will lead to the development of fully funded national and local plans to address GBV, better implementation of existing laws and policies on GBV and decreased levels of domestic and sexual violence in South Africa.
Outcome Area 1: Men and women, CATs, CBOs and partners have the capacity, commitment and skills to mobilise around, prevent and respond to GBV.
Active and empowered communities are knowledgeable about their rights and the law, engaged around issues that are critical to their well-being, and well-structured with women and men sharing leadership for gender equality and an end to GBV. Sonke will support Community Action Teams (CATs) that will inspire women and men to work for gender justice and the prevention of GBV in their communities. By building community capacity to challenge harmful gender norms and by strengthening community activism and leadership, the project will promote gender norms transformation and will increase local government accountability.
Outcome Area 2: Increased accountability and action from local level duty bearers to respond to GBV.
An enabling legal and policy environment is crucial to sustaining and scaling up GBV prevention and response interventions. To ensure that South Africa’s legal and policy environment advances gender equality and prevents GBV, local and national institutional accountability – from the state, the private sector, the media and other actors – is required. Communities will be educated and empowered to engage with local government on planning processes, to monitor cases of GBV in their communities and to identify opportunities to mobilise themselves and engage in advocacy efforts to access justice for victims of GBV. This will involve holding accountable local duty bearers such as police services, health clinics and relevant government departments. Communities will engage with the media to ensure stories are told accurately, sensitively and responsibly and to tell their own stories through citizen journalism in order to generate and sustain national public interest and pressure for justice for victims and survivors of GBV. These actions will be supported by in-house legal expertise which will guide communities through the criminal justice system, and ensure that adequate pressure is maintained during every aspect of the justice process.
Outcome Area 3: South Africa’s National government is held accountable to develop, review, and implement evidence-based strategies to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, including engaging men and boys for gender equality and an end to GBV.
Based on Sonke’s experiences and learnings in South Africa, and particularly as the Chair of the Task Team of the Stop Gender Violence Campaign for a National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence, Sonke will provide technical input on key pieces of draft legislation relating to gender equality and violence prevention, such as South Africa’s Traditional Courts Bill, the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill, and the Prevention of Hate Crimes Bill. Oversight bodies such as South Africa’s Human Rights Commission and the Gender Equality Commission will be held accountable to their mandates through monitoring reports and media advocacy. This work will advance the SDGs, particularly SDG 3 on health and wellbeing, SDG 5 on gender equality and women’s empowerment, SDG 10 on inequalities, and SDG 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions, including violence prevention.
Outcome Area 4: Sonke and partners are strengthened and can catalyse change for gender equality nationally, regionally, and globally.
The consolidation and strengthened focus on the linkages between the multiple components of Sonke’s community response model will yield increased evidence on the impact and sustainability of Sonke’s socio-ecological approach to GBV prevention and response. Throughout the project period, Sonke will focus on identifying, documenting and sharing the lessons and promising practices, and produce a range of tools to allow these to be used for local advocacy and capacity building, including case studies, short videos and other multi-media tools. This evidence will be used to raise public awareness of pressing GBV prevention and response issues, and facilitate dialogue and discussion in communities across South Africa and further afield through publications, opinion pieces and reports.
The project used a combination of lobbying, popular mobilising, media, research, advocacy, and policy tactics to contribute to the achievement of its stated outcomes. The main activities implemented under the project to achieve these outcomes includes capacity building and mentoring of CATs and partners in advocacy, activism, citizen journalism, leadership, GBV prevention, legal frameworks and their local justice systems to enable them to access justice in local cases of GBV and engage in planning and policy processes at national and local government levels.
The full results framework and description of activities can be made available upon request.
Purpose of this Consultancy
The purpose of this end term evaluation is two-fold.
- Summative evaluation: to determine the extent to which the project has achieved its stated outcomes and to provide deeper insight about the mechanisms/factors that have enhanced or constrained project results.
- Model replicability validation: to document the validity of the multi-level Rights, Action and Accountability model for gender justice. The project implemented the Rights, Action and Accountability model over the period of five years. This aspect of the evaluation will review the design of the model and provide insights on the validity of the model, and guidance for potential future implementation and adaptation of the same model.
This evaluation will draw on the original proposal, results framework, and mid-term evaluation report and programmatic data. Additional data collection will include collecting insights and information from key informants through interviews or group discussions.
The evaluation is being commissioned by Sonke Gender Justice and Irish Aid, which funds the project. The evaluation results will be shared with Irish Aid plus additional stakeholders & donors and will be used to determine the efficacy of their investment in Sonke’s efforts. Evaluation findings will also inform and shape future programming including the development of funding proposals for work provincially and in the region. Furthermore, Sonke will use the evaluation results to facilitate internal reflection and learning to strengthen our collective work across the continent. Outcomes may also be shared with key stakeholders and other potential funders.
More specifically, the evaluation is expected to provide the following:
- Accurate and independent information on the implementation of the project and its results
- Analysis of the likely sustainability of project achievements
- Analysis of the effectiveness of different project components and contextual factors influencing results
- Provide lessons learnt and recommendations for revision to the Rights, Action, Accountability model programme implementation and innovation
Evaluation scope and questions
The scope of the evaluation is limited to the activities funded by Irish Aid. It covers the period from project inception in 2018 up to March 2022. The geographical area is limited to the Eastern Cape and Western Cape Provinces in South Africa.
Evaluation criteria & questions
The following evaluation criteria and questions provide guidance on the exercise and should be considered by the external evaluator to frame data collection, analysis and interpretation. Regarding the two overarching evaluation goals of summative evaluation and model replicability validation, the evaluator should also consider the following cross-cutting issues:
- Relevance
- To what extent were the project objectives consistent with local needs taking into consideration gaps in local government policies and their implementation?
- To what extent did the project meet the expectations of its key target groups?
Impact
How has the project succeeded in achieving its overall objective? This will take into consideration intended and unintended results; including, but not limited to, the following:
- Policy advocacy and development
- Changes in traditional or religious leaders or systems enshrined within this sphere
- Changes in civil society formations and collaboration – e.g. whether coalitions established or engaged through the project are strengthened and active
- Media reach and impact in terms of coverage of the key issues
- Reach and changes in knowledge and practices
- Provision of technical support to other stakeholders looking to implement work around gender norms transformation
Effectiveness
How and why has the project been able/unable to achieve its results? Key issues to consider under ‘effectiveness’ include but are not limited to the following:
- The extent to which the project has achieved its objectives and results
- Whether the results-based framework indicators demonstrate that the intended changes have and are taking place
- Assessments on the quality and quantity of the produced results in accordance with the plans and how the results are applied by the intended stakeholders, i.e. government, the judiciary, civil society, oversight bodies, communities, beneficiaries
- The contribution and effectiveness of each key project component to the achievement of results
- Whether the results areas and components of the project remain relevant and useful, and whether the project adjusted its priorities to remain so
- The contextual factors that enhanced or constrained the effectiveness of project components/strategies
- The extent to which gender equality, reduction of inequalities, and promotion of human rights have been achieved during the implementation of the project
- Whether gender criteria have been considered in the selection of activities and whether gender disaggregated data is produced
- How the communications activities within the project have been handled, and how effective they have been
Efficiency
How efficient was the project in terms of quantity, quality and timeliness? Comparison should be made against what was planned, taking into consideration, the following:
- Whether the activities transformed the available resources into the intended outputs/results, in terms of quantity, quality and time
- What specific components / strategies demonstrate value for money?
- Whether the project management was timely and efficient and transparent
Sustainability
What is the degree to which the benefits produced by the project will continue after the external support has come to an end? This should take into consideration the following:
- Which project components have potential for impact and sustainability beyond the project period?
- Are skills gained being used/likely to continue being used after the project ends?
- Whether the activities conducted were sufficient to ensure sustainability
Programme management and administrative arrangements including governance
This should consider whether the management of the project and administrative arrangements set up were sufficient to ensure good governance for the project. It should take into consideration the following:
- The quality of the day-to-day management of the project
- The responsiveness of management to the issues raised by stakeholders and staff in regards to the project
- Whether the project was adequately and appropriately staffed
- The quality of the work planning, monitoring and reporting, taking into consideration annual and quarterly plans, meeting minutes, resource and personnel management, and financial management
Methodology
The evaluation must make use of mixed methods and should, in as far as possible, adopt a participatory approach that engages key relevant stakeholders to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the achievement of results. The evaluation must provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable and useful. Validation of results must be done through multiple sources to ensure impartiality and balanced feedback. Following a briefing meeting with Sonke, the evaluator will submit a detailed evaluation plan that outlines the methodology to be utilized in answering questions about how and why the project has/has not achieved its results as outlined in the previous section. The methodology must include a document review, inception workshop, reflection and feedback sessions with key stakeholders.
Key Activities & Time schedule
The estimated duration of the evaluation is 1 month, starting 1 April 2022 and ending 2 May 2022. The evaluator is expected to produce an Inception Report, including a detailed evaluation plan and methodology. The evaluation team is expected to present main findings and recommendations in a meeting with Sonke, with a draft report produced by 27 April 2022. A final report will be prepared by 2 May 2022.
| Activity | Timeframe |
| Preparatory meeting to discuss scope of inception meeting | 4 April |
| Inception meeting | 7 April |
| Evaluation plan developed with data collection tools shared with RMEL team | 8 April |
| Data collection | 9 April – 22 April |
| Data analysis and write up | 22 – 27 April |
| Draft baseline report | 27 April |
| Sonke feedback into draft baseline report | 29 April |
| Submit final report by consultant | 3 May |
Reporting
The evaluation team must submit the following deliverables:
Inception Report
The inception report includes key findings from the analysis of the project documents studied for the evaluation as well as outcomes of the inception workshop. The report must also detail the final process, methodologies and tools to be employed to achieve the objectives of this evaluation as well as the work plan for data collection and analysis.
Presentation of field findings, reflection & feedback
The presentation of the findings will be shared and will be open to Sonke Gender Justice. The presentation shall include a clear table indicating the key findings and recommendations.
Draft final report
Draft final report amalgamates the desk review and the field findings. The evaluation report presents findings, conclusions, and recommendations for project revisions separately. The draft of the final report shall be prepared in April 2022. Sonke, will then submit comments on the draft report to the evaluators for changes to be incorporated thereafter by the evaluators. The report must have the following sections:
- Executive Summary (max 2 pages)
- Preliminary pages – Acknowledgment, Acronyms and Table of contents
- Background Information: Brief on the project and context;
- PART 1: Summative Evaluation purpose and objectives; study limitations
- Methodology: Design, Sampling technique and Sample size
- Findings: Analysis based on objectives and interpretation. Where possible include photos that support findings
- PART 2: Model replicability validation purpose and objectives; study limitations
- Methodology: Design, Sampling technique and Sample size
- Findings: Analysis based on objectives and interpretation.
- PART 3: Key accomplishments and summary of project evaluation
- Lessons learned and opportunities for improvement
- Recommendations
- Appendices: tools, ToR, list of respondents, bibliography, etc.
Final report
The final report must be submitted by 2 May 2022. The language of the report(s) is English and it must be in clear and concise language. The report must not exceed 50 pages excluding annexes. All data sets must also be submitted before final payment.
Required Competencies & Expertise
The evaluation team will consist of a team of people who collectively have extensive and substantive experience evaluating gender related policy advocacy and local government projects within the African region. Proven knowledge and expertise in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, policy and technical legal work and social change. The team must be highly skilled in participatory monitoring and evaluation and they must have demonstrable analytical, writing and communication skills, including in Nguni languages and/or SeSotho. There must be a team leader and main point person for the project.
Budget
The budget for the evaluation is R120 000.00
Mandate
The evaluation team is entitled and expected to discuss matters relevant to this evaluation with pertinent persons and organisations. However, it is not authorised to make any commitments on behalf of Irish Aid or Sonke Gender Justice.
Annexes
Consulting documents for the evaluation to be made available on request
- Proposal
- Results based framework for the current project
- Annual Progress Reports to Irish Aid
- Interviews with internal staff for project review
Data Sources
Data sources will include all outputs and activities funded by Irish Aid project at Sonke. This will include but is not limited to the following:
- All donor reports i.e. annual reports for years
- Internal meeting minutes and reports
- Reports and minutes of external meetings and consultations
- Media outputs, including opinion pieces, press statements, interviews in print, radio and television, and social media engagement. Reach of all outputs will also be data sources, as obtained through social media analytics
- Research reports and policy briefs
- Advocacy and communications materials, such as pamphlets, flyers and other items
- Workshop and meeting registers and feedback from such events
- Narrative reports from regional partners
- Organisational Capacity Assessments from sub grantees (and audit reports if and where applicable)
How to apply
Should you wish to apply, please send a detailed CV, detailed quote and a letter outlining your experience to:
Nombulelo Mazwi
Monitoring and Evaluation Administrator
Phone: +27 (0)21 423 7088
Email : Nombulelo@genderjustice.org.za
