Terms of reference for conducting mid-term review of the Generation G programme

1. Overview

The Generation G partnership, comprising Rutgers, Abaad, Equimundo, and Sonke Gender Justice seek the services of an evaluator for the purpose of conducting a mid-term evaluation of Generation G according to the terms of reference set out herein. Key details:

• Program Locations: Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda
• Application Deadline: 1 September 2022
• Timeline: 1 October 2022 – 1 November 2023
• Budget range: €130,000 – €140,000

The Generation G partnership strives towards the creation of gender-just and violence-free societies with and for young people in their full diversity. The partnership raises public support, advocates for improved policies and laws, and strengthens civil society to contribute to achieving gender justice. It thrives on the diversity, strength and collaboration of experts, evidence-based and evaluated approaches, cross-country learning, and global advocacy. Programme activities are running in parallel in Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda, and will conclude at the end of calendar year 2025. As the mid-term date of the programme approaches, the institutions involved in the programme are eager to investigate and document lessons about the successes and challenges of the programme to inform our future programming and the lobby and advocacy field as a whole.

During the mid-term evaluation, Generation G will provide key insights into the efficacy of its theory of change, through the lens of government buy-in and institutional uptake, as well as cultural relevance and impact at the community levels. This includes evaluating the program’s effectiveness in achieving its intended outputs and outcomes, but this is not the sole or primary purpose of the mid-term evaluation set out in this document. Instead, the mid-term evaluation to be conducted by the selected applicant will focus on: a) enable the Generation G partnership to learn about its successes and areas for improvement; b) inform planning for 2024-2025; c) inform strategic decisions for increased impact and added value in 2024-2025 and beyond; d) meet the accountability requirements of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The partnership calls for an external, independent party to address all of these questions clearly and comprehensively – as described in greater detail below – in all seven countries where Generation has been implemented. Further details about the programme, the application/selection process, and the timeline for the assignment are presented below.

2. Programme Background

The Generation G partnership raises public support, advocates for improved policies and laws, and strengthens civil society a means to contribute to gender justice. The partnership addresses three key, interrelated challenges: gender-based violence, the unequal division of care and women’s lack of access to civic space. More specifically, this partnership engages an innovative gender-transformative strategy that equips youth leaders and civil society organisations (CSOs) to address the root causes of gender inequality and power imbalances. Engaging (young) men in promoting gender justice is a key component of this strategy.

The key approach of the programme is a gender-transformative approach (GTA), and focuses on the following key elements: a) investing in the amplifying of young feminist voices; b) strengthening the role of young men as allies; c) focusing on human rights and youth agency; d) analysing and addressing harmful norms and unequal power relations; e) embracing sexual and gender diversity.

Next to a gender-transformative approach, this partnership has fully embraced the principles of inclusiveness, meaningful and inclusive youth participation, do no harm and accountability. As young people are our key actors and key impact group, they are actively included in decision- making processes, as well as the design and implementation of key strategies. The diversity in these principles refer to the fact that, although the partnership recognises the need to amplify voices of women and the need to actively engage men, we live in a world where youth have intersecting identities that influence their position in society and access to rights and power. As such, an intersectional feminist approach to gender justice is strongly embedded in the Generation G programme.

Gender-transformative lobbying and advocacy happens at the individual, community, institutional and policy levels. The different levels of gender-transformative lobbying and advocacy are embedded in three mutually reinforcing long-term outcomes (LTOs): (1) on public support, (2) on policy and legal change, (3) on strengthened civil society. Together, these three outcomes also contribute to the safeguarding – and, where possible, the expansion – of civic space, particularly related to gender justice.

• LTO 1 aims at increasing and mobilising public support for gender justice and rejecting gender-based violence. This LTO also feeds into the other two LTOs as mobilised individuals can become part of organised civil society or might use their voice or voting power to pressure decision makers towards more gender-transformative policies and legislation.
• LTO 2 focuses on strengthening gender-transformative and youth-inclusive policymaking and legislation. This LTO feeds into the other two LTOs as decision makers directly influence the availability of civic space and have a strong influence on the general public through discourse, legislation and policies.
• LTO3 envisions a strong, inclusive and resilient civil society that is able to fight for gender justice. This LTO also feeds into the other two LTOs as a strong civil society is able to advocate for gender-transformative laws and policies and is able to foster and stimulate public support.

Our strategic objective is to create societies that are gender just and violence free, with and for young people in their full diversity. By saying gender just, we imply systemic change at the level of root causes of discrimination, sexism and harmful norms that impede full access to rights for young people on the mere basis of their gender. By violence free, we imply our ambition to actively contribute to a decrease in gender-based violence in the countries where this programme will be active.

3. Main objectives & overall guiding questions

The mid-term review to be led by the successful applicant will address four main objectives, defined in careful consideration by Generation G partnership and programme partners, to best document the lessons of the programme and inform future work. The objectives are:The main objectives of the mid-term review are to:

• Enable the Generation G Partnership to learn about its successes and areas forimprovement;
• Inform planning for 2024-2025, including the adjustment of targets and indicatorframework;
• Inform strategic decisions for increased impact and added value in 2024-2025 andbeyond;
• Meet the accountability requirements of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The mid-term review is designed to answer two overall guiding questions:

1. To date, during the first half period of the programme, what has the Generation G programme achieved in relation to its objectives?
2. In the remaining life of the Generation G programme, what changes should be made to the programme design and implementation – to maximize the programme’s expected impact and outcomes by end 2025?

The mid-term review will look at programme implementation at both country and global (advocacy) level, as well as at processes (partnership, collaboration, governance, power balance) at in-country level, at consortium level and the interlinkage between those levels.

Besides the mandatory components and objectives of the mid-term review, the country coalitions, the technical working groups, and the partnership on the whole may add specific evaluation and learning components according to their priorities and needs, next to the requirements from the Ministry.

Joint learning is a key component of the mid-term review. It is expected that the mid-term review will provide input for internal reflection and stimulate adaptation. Through participatory reflection, validation, dissemination and linking and learning meetings during the review period, the mid-term will contribute to strengthening the work of the Generation G programme and stimulate innovation.

4. Mid-term review specific objectives

More specifically, the mid-term review aims to inform the following more specific objectives:

At country level:

• To assess country programme progress and gaps towards the achievement of the 5-year goals and targets (as set during the baseline phase), and to reflect on how thecountry coalitions are contributing to the realisation of the TOC;
• To adapt country targets if necessary;
• To inform country programme 2024-2025 planning by identifying lessons learnt,opportunities to build on our strengths, and options to extend to influence;
• To assess and provide recommendations on country programme strategies regarding:
  • risk mitigation (including SEAH);
  • sustainability (what is the likelihood that the project results will be sustainable, in terms of systems, institutions, policies, financing) and institutionalization (e.g. on GTA and MIYP);
  • operationalisation of programme principles (do we live up to our own principles?);
  • capacity strengthening (Is the programme sufficiently sensitive and responsive to capacity strengthening needs? Is the country capacity strengthening plan effective and likely to lead to sustained capacity improvements in the long- term?)

• Assessment of finance expenditures and financial resource management, including the risk of possible corruption and fraud (e.g. appropriateness of budget planning, whether grant allocation is appropriate (according to partners), whether there are any bottlenecks in the system of financial disbursement between consortium, national lead partner and coalition partners;
• To assess (and strengthen) the collaboration with the Embassies and other strategic partners;
• Additional country specific evaluation and/or learning objectives (This may include that the goal is to also support cross learning between countries through the information gathering).

At the global advocacy level:

• To assess the progress towards the achievement of the 5-year global advocacy goalsand targets;
• To provide recommendations for strategic decision making for the second half of theprogramme on how to strengthen the global advocacy component of the programme.

At the consortium level:

• To assess to what extent the governance and functioning of the full consortium (The consortium in this regard includes consortium partners Rutgers, Equimundo, Sonke, and Abaad plus the technical working groups, which are: PMELR (Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Research), Communication, and SCIL (Strengthening our mutual Capacities, Innovation and Learning.) supports the achievements of the objectives of the TOC at country and global level;
• Identify recommendations for enhancing the consortium’s impact in 2024-2025 andbeyond;
• To assess the extent to which the Generation G global consortium managementmechanisms and internal coordination processes contribute to the overall performance of the programme, including staff resourcing, governance, transparency, accountability, leading from the south, and the partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
• To assess to what extent all Technical Working Groups (TWGs) function as intended, what their added value is for the partnership, and what promoting and hindering factors are in this regard. For specific TWGs, this includes:
  • For SCIL: To assess strengths and weaknesses, and come up with recommendations with regards to the prioritization and implementation of capacity strengthening efforts, and the functioning of the TWG and liaison role towards country coalitions;
  • For communications: To assess the progress towards the ambitions as stated in the Generation G Communications Framework;
  • For Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Research: To provide recommendations how the working group can function more equally and collaboratively.
• To assess how the programme principles are being operationalised at consortium level.
• To assess strengths and weaknesses and provide recommendations for the strategicdirection of the programme regarding:
  • digitalisation,
  • innovation,
  • financial decision-making for 2024-2025 (e.g. fund allocation between different elements of the programme).
• To provide recommendations on how to improve the consortium’s support and contribution to the realisation of the TOC.

At consolidated level:

• Based on all data collected at different levels:
  • Reflect on the extent to which the assumptions of the TOC are proved right or wrong;
  • Identify good practices, challenges and lessons learned in relation to programme implementation and partnership collaboration;
  • Provide recommendations for the programme to increase impact in 2024-2025 and beyond.

5. Process, Deliverables, and Illustrative Timeline

The mid-term review process will be a fluid collaboration between the successful applicant and various parties within the Generation G partnership, all working with unified goals. The term of the mid-term review is designed so as not to be rushed, and instead to offer enough time for the necessary data collection and review to prepare a thorough, thoughtful, and useful answer on all four main objectives. The final process will be designed and revised over the term of the assignment by all participating parties. The Generation G partnership will be eager to hold initial meetings with the selected applicant as soon as possible in the timeline, to clarify any questions related to the assignment, and to provide necessary background documentation, data, and other materials as needed.

In addition, an in-person meeting to develop country specific mid-term review plans with representatives from partners from each programme country is planned for November 2022. The successful consultants are expected to develop a methodology for this workshop and take responsibility for facilitating the process, in close collaboration with the programme’s PMEL staff.

For reasons of ownership, context specificity and potential travel restrictions due to Covid-19, it is expected that the successful consultants will work with local consultants or local research teams in the programme countries. These should be selected in close coordination and in agreement with the Generation G team in each country.

It is expected that the principles of participation, inclusiveness and co-ownership are fully embedded in the methodology. In addition, regular updates on the process, for example on the country studies, are required. The applicant should address the communication process and collaboration between the different parties in their proposal.

Throughout: Intended users and audience of the final product. Considerations of the ultimate users/uses of the review should inform all evaluation decisions. We anticipate that the key audiences and end users of the report include:

• Members and partners of the partnership. The findings will be used by consortium members and in the programme countries to steer and adapt, and to identify successful strategies and lessons learned. Insights from the final evaluation will provide insights into which approaches need to be started, continued, revised or stopped for which target groups.
• Programme participants and stakeholders in each country. Engaging directly with this audience ensures downward accountability and for learning, inspiration and motivation.
• The international field of GBV programming, including international knowledge platforms for GBV prevention and male involvement. This will contribute to global learning and innovation concerning best practices, scalable interventions, and lessons learned.
• Furthermore, the evaluation report will be shared with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (the primary donor of the programme) and the Dutch development sector in particular.

Expected deliverables:

• Inception report;
• Methodology for and (co-)facilitation of November 2022 workshop with countryrepresentatives;
• Detailed methodology, including seven country TORs and tools;
• Draft findings report (including anonymised primary data; indicative deadline: mid-August 2023);
• Methodology for and (co-)facilitation of a validation process with the partnership;
• Final report (deadline: 13 October 2023);
• Stand-alone communication products, such as a slide deck, e-learning module, or anattractive digital application with main findings and recommendations.

6. The Successful Applicant

The partnership, through its lead agency Rutgers, wants to contract one (lead) organisation, responsible for the deliverables and the process implemented. We also welcome applications that reflect a collaboration of multiple organisations for this assignment; research institutes and/or independent researchers/consultants can collaborate in order to conduct the mid-term review. It is likely impossible for a single independent evaluator to accomplish this assignment, given the scope of travel and data collection required within the timeline.

Due to possible Covid-19 restrictions, we would strongly recommend that the lead consultant works with local research teams. These research teams must have knowledge of the context of the countries, and are able to do interviews in the local language, and should have been jointly selected or in agreement with the respective Generation G country team.

The successful application will identify one or more key personnel within the evaluation team who meet desired criteria such as the following:

• Master’s degree in social sciences and advanced skills in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies;
• Proven track record in the evaluation of advocacy programmes, gender justice, meaningful and inclusive youth participation gender-transformative lobbying and advocacy, youth- inclusive policymaking and legislation, particularly in long-term assignments such as this one, that have been implemented in multiple countries;
• At least five years’ experience in the development sector;
• Knowledge of human rights, gender justice, gender-transformative lobbying and advocacy,intersectionality, youth agency, youth-inclusive policymaking and legislation andcollaborative programming, including approaches to engage men and boys;
• Proven experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis forevaluations;
• Proven collaboration with research institutions in the South;
• Ability to work independently, take initiative and respond appropriately to constructivefeedback; and
• Experience in sharing and discussing review findings with clients, in-country partners andbeneficiaries, and within an international research network.

The successful application should identify one lead researcher of the research team to be the primary contact person for the technical working group Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Research of the partnership. In addition to the above, this person should:

• Have proven experience in layered and complex evaluations;
• Have a strong methodological background in multi-country evaluations; and
• Have proven experience in using a mixed methodology approach.The consultancy team should not comprise current or former staff (minimum of 5 years) of any of the members or partners of the consortium (including volunteers and board members), in order to protect the independence of the evaluation.

7. How to Apply

Applications for this role are open until 10 September 2022. Please send your application to Inge Vreeke, senior PMEL Advisor at Rutgers: i.vreeke@rutgers.nl

Please limit the proposal text to no more than 8 pages. The proposal text should be a narrative demonstrating the following:

• Your individual or institutional skills and background which make you suitable for this assignment;
• Your track record on the evaluation of in the evaluation of advocacy programmes, gender justice, meaningful and inclusive youth participation gender-transformative lobbying and advocacy, youth-inclusive policymaking and legislation, and send two examples of recent evaluations with your application;
• Your vision for the collaboration between the research party, the Generation G consortium and the country programme teams during the entire programme period;
• Your suggested approach to ensure ownership of findings and recommendations at the relevant levels, as well as linking and learning between different parts of the partnership.
• Your understanding of each of the key evaluation questions, and how you imagine addressing them in a unified multi-country evaluation report;
• A description of research/data collection methodologies you propose to address these questions;
• A description of your approach to writing effectively for an audience comprising both technical experts and general readers;
• A description of approach to incorporating feedback and revising evaluation reports; and
• A clear identification of the lead researcher and any additional key personnel connectedwith your application, their proposed roles and time investments in the mid-term review.

In addition to the proposal text, please submit supplementary materials including the following:

• An initial budget proposal, (with a maximum of €140,000) including the number of days you would spend on the assignment and daily fees (budget should cover all costs in-country as well, including local research teams and logistical costs). We expect around 2/3 of this amount to be spent on the in-country evaluations. The proposal that will be selected will provide an appropriate balance between the quality and the costs of the evaluation.
• CVs, highlighting relevant experience(s) and personal profile, of the lead researcher and all named key personnel of the research team. From these documents it should be clear the lead researcher and the other members of the research team meet the criteria above.
• At least one, preferably two recent studies/writing examples on similar themes with significant/primary writing by the lead researcher.
• If applicable: names, contact details, and CVs or country-specific research institutes or consultants that will be involved in the programme.

Additional Notes

For inquiries please contact Inge Vreeke: i.vreeke@rutgers.nl, (not available 25 July – 16 August), or Jonna Both: j.both@rutgers.nl (not available 1 – 24 August), or Alice Poutiainen: a.poutiainen@rutgers.nl (not available 4 – 22 July).

For more information on the programme, visit our Generation G webpage: Adressing gender based violence with Generaton G – Rutgers

Note 1. This call for proposals has been distributed among the professional networks of the consortium, through our websites and social media, and also through several email listservs of evaluation and violence prevention personnel.

Note 2. Rutgers is no contracting authority within the meaning of the ‘Aanbestedingswet 2012’ (the Dutch Public Procurement Act). This tender procedure is a voluntary and private tender procedure. The Aanbestedingswet 2012 as well as the principles of procurement law are explicitly not applicable.

Applicants are hereby advised that Rutgers is not committed to any course of action as a result of its issuance of this Terms of Reference and/or its receipt of a proposal from the applicant or other forms in response to it. Rutgers reserves all rights and liberties regarding the tender procedure, including:

• the right to terminate the tender procedure at any moment in time;
• the right to reject any proposal;
• the right to engage negotiations with one or more parties (also third-parties) regarding the contract or a part thereof;
• the right to award the contract or a part thereof;
• the right to award the contract to one or more parties;
• the right to make any decision subject to conditions;
• the right not to award the contract;
• the right to depart from or modify the proposed framework and/or any other procedure in relation to the Terms of Reference.