Terms of Reference for Mid-Term Evaluation of the Strategic Plan (2021-2025)

1. Introduction and Background

Never Again Rwanda (NAR) is a peace building and social justice organization that arose in response to the 1994 genocide perpetrated against Tutsis. Never Again Rwanda's mission is to engage society to embrace sustainable peace and social justice. Since 2021, NAR is implementing its five years Strategic Plan (2021-2025), through which several programs and projects are being implemented across five strategic pillars including Peacebuilding, Governance & Human Rights, Research, Youth engagement and Strategic partnerships. Specifically, NAR has received core funding from Swedish Embassy in Rwanda through Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) to implement its strategic Plan. In addition, NAR is implementing programs and projects with support from USAID, GIZ, SDC and EU to contribute to the achievement of its strategic objectives.  Geographically, NAR is implementing activities in the districts of Huye, Nyanza, Gisagara, Nyamagabe, Nyaruguru, Ngororero, Rusizi, Nyabihu, Musanze, Burera, Nyagatare, Kayonza, Rwamagana, Ngoma, Gasabo, Nyarugenge and Kicukiro Districts.  In addition, NAR is working with its partners to implement activities in the Great Lakes region, through the Youth Lab Project.  

To understand the progress made so far and to document lessons for learning and adaption after 2 years and half of implementation of the five years strategic Plan, Never Again Rwanda (NAR) seeks to recruit an external consultant or consulting firm to conduct the midterm evaluation of the implementation of its Strategic Plan (2021-2025).  The mid-term review will assess the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, impact, and outcomes half-way into NAR’s strategy implementation considering the cross-cutting themes of gender equality, social inclusion, and environment sustainability. 

The evaluation is also expected to provide mid-line data to be compared to existing baseline data and annual progress data collected on key performance indicators to assess the progress.  The mid-term review will assess the logic between overall strategic goals, outcomes, outputs, and activities and propose the necessary adjustment and review of the intervention logic. The mid-term review will also document challenges, lessons learnt, good practices and provide recommendations for maximizing impact and outcomes. The findings will support internal learning, strategy review and adaptation for effective implementation of the remaining part of the strategic plan. The mid-term evaluation will be of interest to NAR and its stakeholders including CSOs, media, policy makers and development partners.

Sustainability

• How likely are achievements and changes among target actors generated by the implementation of strategic plan to be sustained beyond the life of the strategic plan?
• To what extent NAR has established processes and systems likely to support the continued implementation of the strategic plan?
• To what extent have the targeted groups undertaken their own self-initiated activities because of the strategic plan implementation?
•  How likely are target groups to continue organizing their own initiatives or use the acquired knowledge and skills to further the goal and objective of this strategic plan?
• Did the organization put in place mechanisms to mobilize additional resources to continue implementation of the strategic plan?
• What signs/factors demonstrating the acquired organizational capacities for effective implementation of the strategic plan?
• What gaps identified so far that could hamper the growth and sustainability of Never Again Rwanda?

Cross cutting issues:

• To what extent has the design and implementation of the strategic plan integrated gender equality into its strategy?
• How effective NAR’s efforts to integrate gender equality into its strategy?
• To what extent has NAR integrated youth empowerment into its strategy?
• How effective are NAR’s efforts to integrate youth empowerment into its strategy?
• To what extent has NAR integrated marginalised groups (People with disabilities, historically marginalised people, other marginalized groups) into its strategy?
• How effective are NAR’s efforts to integrate marginalised groups (People with disabilities, historically marginalised people, other marginalized people) into its strategy?
• To what extent does NAR adhere to the principles of Do No Harm and employ conflict sensitivity while implementing and adapting its strategies?
• How effective are the strategies for sustainability of impact following withdrawal of external support?

Lessons learnt, challenges and recommendations.

• What gaps identified and challenges were faced in the implementation of the strategic Plan and which mitigation measures were used to address these challenges?
• What are the best practices and lessons learnt which should be considered in review of the strategic plan and implementation of remining part of the strategic plan.
• Which additional/new strategies and approaches should be employed to sustainably broaden and/or deepen the impact of the strategic plan?
• What are key recommendations proposed to NAR and its stakeholders to maximize impact of the strategic plan?

5. Methodologies

The MTE design will be based on the underpinning theory of change, vision and mission of the organization as highlighted in the strategic Plan. The data will be collected against strategic expected outputs, outcomes, and impact.   The evaluation will adopt a consultative and participative approach. The mixed methods will be used to collect and analyse the relevant data. The mutually reinforcing combination of quantitative and qualitative methods will permit evaluator (s) to gather high quality data through the triangulation of data sources and methods. The consultant(s) are expected to develop a well-suited methodology for all elements of this assignment in their technical proposal which will be finally agreed with the inception report after signing of the contract.

The MTE will be the result of an analysis of strategic plan and relevant documents, literature review, and quantitative and qualitative assessment based on the agreed methodology following the proposal of the Consultant(s), as a minimum including desk research, a survey among a representative sample of boundary partners engaged in each strategic pillar, focus group discussions (FGDs),  and key informant interviews (KIIs) with relevant stakeholders including youth, women, men, people from marginalized groups, media, local and national leaders, CSOs/CBOs, academia, researchers and development partners. The assessment should also employ outcome mapping methodology to capture outcomes at different levels (short, intermediate and long-term outcomes).  The change stories from selected participants will be documented, analysed, and written in simple format to be included in the report.

The MTE should incorporate major findings from NAR’s annual reports, program progress reports, organizational and programs financial audits and other organizational and projects documentation and publications to draw evidence-based conclusions and recommendations on the six standard evaluation criteria (OECD/DAC). The methodology used should also be gender sensitive, conflict sensitive and respect the principles of Do No Harm. The evaluators are expected to apply the conceptual framework of assessing outcomes and changes in behaviour and relationships among boundary partners. While Never Again Rwanda anticipates the use of the elements listed above, the list is not exhaustive.

The evaluators may include additional elements and approaches as appropriate for responding to the mid-term evaluation questions. The applicant is encouraged to suggest a comprehensive methodology that includes these elements and others that the evaluators deem fit for meeting the evaluation objectives. The methodology (design, sampling frame, sampling approaches, data collection methodology, tools to be used in data collection and analysis, data analysis plan, evaluation plan and timeline, etc) should be described in the proposals. The final methodology and tools will be discussed with the selected team of consultants.

6. Processes and deliverables

The evaluation will be both an objective and a consultative/participatory exercise, and is expected to involve the following elements:

• Technical and financial proposals: Interested consultant (s) or firm will submit both technical and financial proposals. 
• Initial planning process:  The selected consultant(s) or firm will hold a planning meeting to discuss on inception report. During the meeting, the consultants will understand NAR’s expectations, discuss, and finalize design and methodology, guiding questions, and work plan. 
• Documentary review/ desk review: a review of relevant documentation, including organizational strategic documents and reports, MEL plans, annual and semi-annual reports, research reports, etc to inform the methodology and tools. 
• Mid-term survey:  The selected consultants will conduct a mid-term survey to collect quantitative data against which the baseline data will be compared to assess the progress. A representative sample will be draw among the boundary partners engaged in key strategic pillars, and data will be collected and analysed against each strategic result and key performance indicators. 
• Stakeholder interviews and focus group discussions:  The consultant (s) will conduct FGDs and KIIs with different stakeholders relevant to the mid-term evaluation. These will include boundary partners and strategic partners such as: youth, women and men, media, CSOs/CBOs, local and national authorities, people from marginalized/vulnerable categories, academia, and researchers. The number and nature of FGDs and KIIs will be jointly determined between the consultant(s) and NAR. 
• Draft Report writing: Based on the documentary review and field data collected, compile a draft report addressing the key evaluation questions.  The mid-term evaluation report should be comprised of analysis of existing reports and data collected during the mid-term review. The draft findings will be presented to NAR for review and comments. 
•  Final mid-term review report: The consultant (s) shall integrate NAR’s comments and inputs and submit the final report in English. The report should be well structured, simple, and concise, of at least 50 pages including all relevant annexes. 
• Presentation of the findings: The consultant (s) or firm will prepare and submit the power point presentation to be used during different meetings with relevant stakeholders. The consultant will facilitate the findings representations during stakeholders’ meetings. 
• Submission of dataset and transcripts: The consultant(s) will submit to NAR all datasets, syntax and coding for quantitative data and transcribed qualitative data for future reference or further data analysis.

7. Duration of the Assignment

The duration of the assessment will be 60 days calendar and will be counted from the date of contract signature. The workplan and timeline will be revised by NAR jointly with the consultants during the inception report review and planning meeting to fit into the proposed duration of the assignment.

8. MTE Reporting structure

The MTE report will be simple, concise, and accurate with at least 50 pages maximum including annexes. The report will be expected to be structured in the following manner:

Acronyms

Executive Summary

1. Introduction and brief background
2. Context analysis
3. Methodology
4. Major findings
   1. Relevance
   2. Coherence
   3. Effectiveness
   4. Efficiency
   5. Impact (including major accomplishments to date)
   6. Sustainability
   7. Cross-cutting issues
5. Overall Assessment
6. Gaps and Challenges, mitigation measures
7. Good practices and lessons learned.
8. Recommendations for improvement

Annexes:

• Terms of Reference
• List of documents assessed.
• List of persons interviewed.
• Evaluation Matrix
• At least 6 Most Significant Change Stories 
• Reviewed and updated logical framework with baseline, targets, and mid-line data.
• Dataset for qualitative and quantitative data collected.
• Sample of Data collection tools

8. Supervision and Working relationships.

The consultant(s) will report to the NAR Director of Programs. The consultant(s) will interact with different technical staff including the Head of Knowledge Management, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning, Peace building team leaders, governance and Human rights team leader, Youth engagement team leader, Research team leader, programs managers and officers, district coordinators and other key staff.

10. Contract and payments

 Never Again Rwanda will sign a consultancy contract with the successful consultant(s)/ evaluator (s). The payment modalities will be as follows: 20% after the approval of inception report and tools, 40% after the approval of draft evaluation report and 40% after the approval of the final evaluation report and corresponding deliverables. 

11. Role of Never Again Rwanda

• Providing a focal point to support evaluation processes
• Facilitate the field work by identifying relevant selected beneficiaries for FGDs and Interviews
• Arranging meetings with stakeholders at local and national level
• Providing relevant annual reports and strategic documentation in advance.

12. Criteria for proposals evaluation

The proposals will be evaluated as follow:

• Understanding of the Terms of Reference: 10 Points
• Quality of technical proposal (strong design, and methodology as well as sound work plan): 40 Points
• Capacity and experience (experience in conducting similar assessments, qualifications, and experience of proposed team): 20 points.
• Financial proposal: 30 points

13. Qualifications

The desired skills and experience of the consultant (s) include the following:

• Strong Experience in conducting evaluations/assessments including final evaluation of strategic plans, development programs and projects.
• Overall understanding of the Rwandan context, legal, political and governance landscape
• Experience in conducting gender sensitive evaluations.
• Conversant with democratic processes, peacebuilding, citizen participation, participatory governance, etc.
• Demonstrate strong experience in conducting mixed methods research in thematic areas of peacebuilding, participatory governance, and human rights, policy analysis,
• Have strong experience in documentation of evidence-based case studies/evaluations especially in the governance and Rights or related domains.
• Strong background in using Participatory Action Research Methodologies
• Strong understanding of outcome mapping and how to apply it in behaviour change project evaluation.
• PhD or master’s degree in development evaluation, peacebuilding, policy analysis, democracy, participatory governance, youth engagement and empowerment, Human Rights, law, or other relevant field in social sciences.
• Strong analytical and reporting skills
• Knowledge of and experience with youth empowerment, local government political processes, and human rights
• Skills to set up questionnaire in Tablets and capacity to troubleshoot technical issues that enumerators may face (Kobo tool, ODK, Survey CTO, etc) 
• Experience in leading evaluation data collection and data entry using Tablets.
• Proven record of delivering professional outputs (2 samples of previous similar assignments will be required)
• Excellent speaking and writing skills in English.
• Strong skills and experience in quantitative data analysis using SPSS and Excel required.
• A willingness to travel to Rwanda.
• An ability to work within tight deadlines.

14. General terms and conditions

Both individuals and companies are allowed to apply. A foreign applicant must demonstrate experience in conducting similar assignments in Rwanda and have an experienced local consultant who understand the context.

All rights reserved to Never Again Rwanda.  Never Again Rwanda reserves all rights to reject all applications not fulfilling the requirements associated to this request. Never Again Rwanda will not be responsible or liable for any cost and time allocated by applicants to the preparation and submission of Expressions of Interest. Never Again Rwanda reserves the right to engage other companies or individual consultants if required.

15. Conflict of interest

Any conflict of Interest involving an applicant must be fully disclosed to Never Again Rwanda. When failed to disclose  any conflict of interest , the application will be disqualified and no award will be made in such case.

16. Instructions for Applications

For individual consultants/evaluators, kindly submit your expression of interest (no longer than 5 pages and inclusive of understanding of Terms of Reference, the proposed methodology for the evaluation, framework for gender analysis, and work plan,), financial proposal detailing all costs involved (in francs), and an updated CV for lead consultant and proposed team members.

For consultancy companies, please submit your expression of interest (of no longer than 5 pages describing understanding of Terms of Reference, your capacities, experience in conducting evaluations, the proposed methodology for the evaluation, framework for gender analysis, work plan), financial proposal detailing all costs involved (in francs), updated CVs of proposed team/staff, Company registration certificate, RRA tax clearance certificate, and RSSB clearance certificate.

The applications and selection will be done on a ruling basis till 25^th September 2023 (not later than 5:00 pm) via email info@neveragainrwanda.org. Applicants, if shortlisted, will be required to subsequently submit 2 work samples in English, references, and a preliminary evaluation methodology.

Never Again Rwanda endeavors to build a workplace that is” respectful, diverse, inclusive, and healthy” by helping staff develop and maintain an environment where dignity and uniqueness of individuals are recognized and where equity and diversity are meaningfully leveraged in our workforce and in communities we engage.