Project overview
Between 2017 and 2019, Concern engaged in a strategic partnership with Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke) to strengthen their approach to Engaging Men and Boys (EMB) programming (which later was revised to be more accurately refer to as engaging men and women for gender transformation). This partnership aimed to transform the gender norms and attitudes of Concern staff, improve their ability to promote gender equality in the workplace and build their capacity to implement gender transformative (GT) programmes.
Purpose of this Consultancy
The objectives of the evaluation are the following:
- To assess the effectiveness and sustainability of the intervention regarding changes of beliefs, attitudes and new knowledge among the staff trained that were attained through the workshops on a personal level outside work, and within the work context of country offices and teams (these includes changes in the workplace like equality in the workplace).
- To assess the effect of the partnership on Concern’s programming, including to what extent the materials, knowledge, and skills acquired through the trainings and ongoing support (from Sonke and the Equality Advisors) have been practically used to design and implement GT programmes.
- To identify challenges, lessons learned, opportunities, strength and weaknesses from the partnership and provide specific recommendations for next steps, for instance making recommendations on questions like: ‘Will Concern need to continue scaling up the quantity and quality of its GT programming?’ and ‘ What are next steps for collaboration?’
Time schedule: 15 August to 7 October 2022
The estimated duration of the summative evaluation is eight weeks, starting 15 August 2022 and ending 7 Octoberwhen the final report will be submitted. Within the first 2 weeks of the consultancy, the consultant is expected to produce an Inception Report, including a detailed work plan and methodology. The consultant is expected to convey main findings and recommendations in a meeting with Sonke and Concern staff before finalisation of report with a final report produced by 7 October 2022.
Budget: ZAR 300 000
How to apply
Should you wish to apply, please send as four separate documents:
- Brief cover letter citing your relevant expertise for the consultancy
- Detailed CV including examples of similar evaluations completed,
- Detailed quotation
- Short proposal including workplan and budget
To:
Nombulelo Mazwi
Monitoring and Evaluation Administrator
Phone: +27 (0)21 423 7088
Email : Nombulelo@genderjustice.org.za
Background
Between 2017 and 2019, Concern engaged in a strategic partnership with Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke) to strengthen their approach to Engaging Men and Boys (EMB) programming (which later was revised to be more accurately refer to as engaging men and women for gender transformation). This partnership aimed to transform the gender norms and attitudes of Concern staff, improve their ability to promote gender equality in the workplace and build their capacity to implement gender transformative (GT) programmes.
In August 2019, an external evaluation of the partnership was conducted. The findings from the external evaluation were positive about the relationship and achievements to date, but also provided several recommendations that would strengthen the design and implementation of a subsequent partnership and improve Concern’s focus on equality within their work. Furthermore, Concern and Sonke held a learning and sharing symposium in August 2019 to consolidate learning and challenges and generate input on the required next steps from the country programmes that received support from Sonke during the initial partnership.
The final evaluation recommendations and learnings from the symposium, formed the basis of a proposal for the second phase of the Sonke – Concern partnership, which has been running from 1st January 2020 to December 2022. The new proposal included all Concern Worldwide country programmes as highlighted below:
| No. | Country | No. | Country |
| 1 | Lebanon | 12 | South Sudan |
| 2 | Burundi | 13 | Liberia |
| 3 | Rwanda | 14 | Sierra Leone |
| 4 | CAR | 15 | Afghanistan |
| 5 | DRC | 16 | Haiti |
| 6 | Ethiopia | 17 | Lebanon |
| 7 | Kenya | 18 | Turkey |
| 8 | Malawi | 19 | Sudan |
| 9 | Niger | 20 | Pakistan |
| 10 | Chad | ||
| 11 | Somalia |
Overall Objective of the partnership including specific tasks and deliverables
Objective: To transform the gender norms and attitudes of Concern Worldwide staff, improve their ability to promote gender equality in the workplace and build their capacity to implement gender transformative programmes.
Specific Tasks and Deliverables of Sonke’s Role in the Project over the years
Major tasks:
- Delivery of GT workshops, Training of Trainers (ToTs) and capacity building on understanding and applying the gender continuum to programmes across multiple sectors.
- Work with Concern to develop a set of training materials on EMB adaptable to specific country contexts with minimal effort
- Assist in establishing core indicators and a more general monitoring mechanism within the Concern M&E system for activities around EMB.
- Work with Concern’s research partners to identify how issues on EMB can be incorporated in the research design and improve programmes.
- Work with the Concern Equality Advisors to document Concern’s experiences in the adoption of the EMB approach across the different contexts at the end of the programme. Focussing on the changes achieved and documenting the results, experiences and learning with clear recommendations on the next steps.
Deliverables:
- Provide technical assistance and Development of a master training toolkit and implement structured training ToT sessions.
- A comprehensive Research, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning framework to monitor progress and measure impact of EMB approach over time, to be integrated into Concern’s existing overall RME framework.
- Documentation and final report of experiences, results, lessons learned and recommendations for the future.
Purpose of this Consultancy
The objectives of the evaluation are the following:
- To assess the effectiveness and sustainability of the intervention regarding changes of beliefs, attitudes and new knowledge among the staff trained that were attained through the workshops on a personal level, outside work, and within the work context of country offices and teams (these includes changes in the workplace like equality in the workplace).
- To assess the effect of the partnership on Concern’s programming, including to what extent the materials, knowledge, and skills acquired through the trainings and ongoing support (from Sonke and the Equality Advisors) have been practically used to design and implement GT programmes.
- To identify challenges, lessons learned, opportunities, strength and weaknesses from the partnership and provide specific recommendations for next steps, for instance making recommendations on questions like: ‘Will Concern need to continue scaling up the quantity and quality of its GT programming?’ and ‘ What are next steps for collaboration?’
Furthermore, the evaluation will also examine how collaboration and role assignment of Sonke team members and the equality advisors influenced or affected the country programmes, and the effectiveness of mechanisms used by the equality advisors and Sonke in supporting the country programmes to apply their knowledge and skills.
The evaluation should include an assessment of likelihood of the sustainability of the changes in knowledge and attitude i.e., identifying external factors affecting individuals’ drivers of change and barriers to maintaining consistent change in the future, what factors support the translation from knowledge into action, and what factors facilitate the status quo.
Regarding the individual level of change mentioned in objective a), the evaluation should also include an assessment of which areas of change are more malleable than others in response to the training that was provided. A list of issues or situations could include factors such as changes in domestic responsibilities, changes in the beliefs around gender roles, and any changes in the work environment. These aspects should be matched to the content of the trainings at country level. In addition, the evaluation can explore to what extent staff practiced what they learnt, before replicating it at community level.
On a more macro level, the evaluation will also assess whether the training led to Concern staff developed action plans aimed at changing organisational practices at country office level, and whether goals in action plans were achieved. This should include identification of challenges, gaps, lessons learned from the partnership, both from Concern Worldwide and Sonke Gender Justice, taking into consideration some of the challenges experienced during country visits, online hybrid workshops, and provide recommendations to inform a way forward and sustainability.
Methodology
The accumulative summative evaluation must provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable, and useful. Validation of results must be done through multiple sources. Qualitative methods, including document reviews and in-depth interviews will be used.
a. The evaluation should utilise the OECD DAC criteria assessing against:
- Relevance
- Coherence
- Efficiency
- Effectiveness
- Impact
- Sustainability and replication
b. The documents to be reviewed include (from Jan 2020 – June 2022):
- manual produced by Sonke and Concern to guide the trainings (at country levels), including other manuals/material which has been produced by/for country programmes, e.g., Chad, Afghanistan, Malawi, Bangladesh, DRC as well as the fathers group manual.
- Quantitative/qualitative data from gender role attitudes surveys (Sonke trip reports)
- Internal documents CW/Sonke
- Evaluation of Phase 1 report
c. The evaluation will be conducted via desktop research and utilising the following methods of data collection:
- Online surveys (e.g., Survey Monkey /Google Forms etc.)
- Online key informant interviews (KII) and focus group discussions (FGD’s) (Telephonic/Skype/Teams etc.).
d. Target groups for KII and FGD’s would include:
- Key in-country personnel from a selection of 5 – 10 countries from 20 countries where the training (including hybrid workshops) and follow-up visits took place. Concern will provide the list of key personnel to be interviewed from the countries in the table below. Estimated number of individual KII per country is up to 5, and up to 2 FGD’s.
- KII’s with Key staff from Concern Worldwide headquarters (up to 8 people), including the Equality Advisors and the Head of Technical Assistance, as well as staff members from Strategy Advocacy and Learning and the International Programmes. Concern will advise on the list of key personnel to be interviewed, and one FGD.
- KII’s with Sonke project manager and trainers deployed to the Concern Worldwide project, including Sonke senior management (up to 4 people).
| 1 | Bangladesh | 12 | South Sudan |
| 2 | Burundi | 13 | Liberia |
| 3 | Rwanda | 14 | Sierra Leone |
| 4 | CAR | 15 | Afghanistan |
| 5 | DRC | 16 | Haiti |
| 6 | Ethiopia | 17 | Lebanon |
| 7 | Kenya | 18 | Turkey |
| 8 | Malawi | 19 | Pakistan |
| 9 | Niger | 20 | Sudan |
| 10 | Chad | 21 | |
| 11 | Somalia | 22 |
Key Activities & Time schedule
The estimated duration of the summative evaluation is eight weeks, starting 15 August 2022 and ending 7 Octoberwhen the final report will be submitted. Within the first 2 weeks of the consultancy, the consultant is expected to produce an Inception Report, including a detailed work plan and methodology. The consultant is expected to convey main findings and recommendations in a meeting with Sonke and Concern staff before finalisation of report with a final report produced by 7 October 2022.
| Activity | Timeframe |
| Contract begins Review documentation | 15 August 2022 |
| Inception report | 30 August 2022 |
| Interviews scheduled and undertaken (as indicated these will focus on key individuals identified collectively) | TBC in inception meeting |
| Field findings and draft analysis to share with Sonke and Concern | TBC in inception meeting |
| Initial analysis and development of draft report taking feedback into account and submit draft report to Sonke Gender Justice | TBC in inception meeting |
| Receive feedback from Sonke and Concern (Changes incorporated thereafter) | TBC in inception meeting |
| Submit writing of Final Report and Recommendations on programmatic | 7 October 2022 |
Reporting
The consultant must submit the following deliverables.
Inception Report within for eg first 2 weeks of consultancy
Field findings
The draft analysis of the findings will be shared by 5 September 2022. The analysis shall include a clear table indicating key findings and recommendations.
Draft Report
Draft report amalgamates the desk review and the key findings. The summative evaluation presents findings and conclusions. The draft of the final report shall be prepared, and Sonke and Concern will then submit comments on the draft report to the consultant within one weeks of its receipt.
Final report
The final report must be submitted by 7 October 2022. The language of the report(s) is English, and it must be in clear and concise language.
Required Expertise
The consultant will have:
- Substantive experience in conducting evaluations and within very short time frames.
- Applied experience in gender equality programming in the NGO sector
Budget
The total budget for the activity is ZAR 300 000.00
Please include costs for the following – this is a guideline and other costs may be identified as necessary by consultant:
- Daily rate and # of days for document review
- Cost for # of KII / or # of KII’s per day online
- Cost for transcription (or notes) (optional)
- Cost for translation or interpretation where necessary
- Daily rate and # of days for analysis
- Daily rate and # of days for report writing
Annexes
Consulting documents for the Evaluation
- Concept note or Proposal for the Concern project
- Country visits trip reports from Sonke Staff
- Monitoring and evaluation data collected and collated by Concern Headquarters
- Country based Project reports (i.e., annual reports)
- Evaluation report Phase I (2019)
- Report Symposium South Africa (2019)
How to apply
Should you wish to apply, please send as four separate documents:
- Brief cover letter citing your relevant expertise for the consultancy
- Detailed CV including examples of similar evaluations completed,
- Detailed quotation
- Short proposal including workplan and budget
To:
Nombulelo Mazwi
Monitoring and Evaluation Administrator
Phone: +27 (0)21 423 7088
Email : Nombulelo@genderjustice.org.za
