Terms of Reference of Endline Evaluation of the Reinforcing Community Capacity for Social Cohesion through Societal Trauma Healing in Rwanda Bugesera Pilot Programme
Interpeace
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Endline Evaluation of the” Reinforcing Community Capacity for Social Cohesion through Societal Trauma Healing in Rwanda” Bugesera Pilot Programme

Background
Since October 2020, Interpeace, in consortium with Prison Fellowship Rwanda (PFR), and in partnership with the Government of Rwanda through the former National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC), and now the new Ministry of National Unity and Citizen Engagement (MINUBUMWE), has been implementing a European Union (EU) funded pilot programme entitled "Reinforcing community capacity for social cohesion and reconciliation through Societal Trauma Healing" in Bugesera District, in the Eastern Province.

The programme’s overall Goal is to reinforce social cohesion and sustainable peace through scaling up community-based healing initiatives This goal is operationalized through four specific objectives:

Community-based methods for addressing past wounds and promoting social cohesion are integrated into mental health and prisoner reintegration protocols and piloted in 15 sectors of Bugesera District
Collective healing and socio-economic development activities increase social cohesion in target communities
Youth have the skills and spaces to manage past trauma and develop a shared understanding for building a peaceful an inclusive future, including through joint income-generating initiatives
National policies and programmes on mental health and social cohesion are informed by lessons learnt from the monitoring and evaluation of this pilot programme.

Interpeace, in partnership with Prison Fellowship Rwanda, seeks to hire the service of a National Consultant to conduct an endline evaluation of the "Reinforcing community capacity for social cohesion and reconciliation through Societal Trauma Healing" pilot programme in Bugesera District. The evaluation is expected to assess the programme achievement of intended outcomes and contribution to the societal healing in Rwanda. It also aims to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, impact and sustainability of the programme strategies and programme outcomes. It is also expected that the consultant will provide programmatic recommendations to improve future programme design and implementation of peacebuilding programmes, as well as documenting best practices and lessons learnt to inform policies and stakeholders practices in Rwanda and beyond.

The programme has been designed using the outcome mapping approach which is also expected to guide the methodology of the evaluation.

The Theory of change
Objectives and key questions of the evaluation
The purpose of this process is to assess the outcomes, achievements, challenges, and lessons learned from the programme through a combination of strategies, including the post-intervention screening (endline-survey) and the outcomes harvesting. The evaluation is also expected to analyse the impact of the programme and to inform the strategies for Rwanda societal healing and peacebuilding programme and potential similar programmes to be implemented by Interpeace and partners. The evaluation will be of interest to Interpeace as well as to Donors and policy makers engaged in Rwanda.

Key evaluation Questions:
Relevance:
To what extent was the programme intervention logic/strategy relevant to the context of societal healing, social cohesion and livelihoods in Bugesera?
To what extent was the programme responsive to the defined needs and priorities of targeted population and communities in Bugesera, and those of the local actors and stakeholders?

Effectiveness and Impact
To what extent did the programme meet its goal?
What were the main factors that influenced the outcome of the programme, as to whether the programme reached its goal or not?
To what extent has the programme contributed to changes in the context (peace, security, livelihoods), at the local level?
Has the programme been implemented as designed?

Sustainability
To what extent has the programme strengthened local capacities?
To what extent are the programme achievements sustainable beyond the programme period?
To what extent are the programme’s established processes and systems likely to support the continued implementation of the programme?

Coherence
To what extent has the programme been consistent with the national priorities?
Has the programme been able to provide complementary support to other healing and peace building initiatives within Bugesera District?

Efficiency

To what extent were the programme’s strategies and activities sufficient for meeting the programme’s goal?
Did the programme partners have adequate capacity to implement the programme?
What other capacities do the programme partners need?

Learning
What challenges emerged during the various periods of programme implementation that affected the achievement of results?
How did the programme adapt to changes in the context and emerging challenges during programme implementation?
What best practices and key lessons learnt from the programme should inform the national policies and other stakeholders’ practices?

Gender and inclusion

To what extent and how effective did the programme integrate gender into the programme’s strategy?
To what extent and how effective did the programme integrate the youth into the programme’s strategy?
To what extent and how effective did the programme ensure inclusion and do no harm principles?

Project Design Improvement
What best practices and lessons learnt from the programme should be incorporated into the next phase of the programme?
What strategies should the next programme employ to be more relevant to the context and responsive to the needs and priorities defined by stakeholders?
What mechanisms should the programme integrate to ensure continued monitoring and relevant adaptation of the programme to changes in the context?
What should programme partners take into consideration to improve the overall design of the programme?

Suggested methodology and Scope of work

The methodology will use both quantitative and qualitative methods to collect and analyze the data. A screening questionnaire will be used to collect quantitative, while FGDs and key informant interviews will be organized to collect qualitative feedbacks.

Post-intervention screening
At the outset, the programme launched a baseline study to obtain basic data on the prevalence, the needs, and challenges in respect of three domains: mental health, social cohesion and livelihoods, among five segments of the population: genocide survivors, current and ex-genocide prisoners, youth, and the general population. In all, 5,020 individuals from all 15 sectors of the district and Bugesera Prison participated in the quantitative enquiry in addition to 14 focus groups and 18 key informant interviews.

A comprehensive screening protocol was designed for the screening of the people who were recruited to participate in the programme interventions. Based on this screening data, people were assigned to individualized interventions based on the needs of each person. The post intervention screening will enable us determinate the progress and achievements at the end of the pilot phase, by comparing the results with data from the pre-intervention screening and the baseline.

Focus Group Discussions
Outcome harvesting is designed to collect evidence of change (the ‘outcomes’) and then work backwards to assess whether or how an organization, programme or project contributed to that change. Focus Groups Discussion will be organized to capture change from the participant perspective and to give them the power to articulate what changes have happened, what they mean and why they are important. FGD will also serve to document participants’ change stories, but also to hear from them about the aspects of the interventions to be improved, and the challenges encountered that the next phases of the programme should take into consideration.

The FGD on sociotherapy graduates will focus on the programme’s outcomes in terms of improving safety, trust, tolerance, mutual care and compassion, and forgiveness traits between genocide survivors, ex-perpetrators, and their families. It will also look at how the groups helped them to openly discuss and overcome their past conflicts and trauma, and their progress in terms of new life orientation.

FGD with multi-family healing graduates will assess how the interventions supported in reducing intergenerational transmission of trauma, as well as improving family solidarity, intra-family communication, as well as social (inter-family) interactions.

FGD with participants in Collaborative Livelihoods initiatives (including the supported to attend TVET training) aims to hear from them on how the provided support helped them to build their confidence, sense of purpose and hope for the future. Participants will also share testimonies on how the Co-Live initiatives are helping to improve their livelihoods.

Key Informants Interviews
Key informants interviews will be organized will be organized with key Government stakeholders (MINUBUMWE, RBC, RCS, Bugesera District) and local actors (Bugesera District Hospital/Health Centres, GAERG, AVEGA, Rwanda We Want, African Transformative Network…), to understand their perception on how the programme contributed to reinforcing local capacities, and how what are the best practices and lessons from the programme that would be integrated in their institutional/organizational practices.

The geographical scope will cover all 15 sectors of Bugesera District and Bugesera Prison.

Duration of the assignment
The anticipated duration of the evaluation is 30 days with a minimum of 10 days to be spent in Bugesera district. The anticipated start date is on 25th October 2022, with submission of the final report by 25th November 2022.

Deliverables, Activities, Reporting and Feedback

The Consultant will provide:
The Consultant will submit a draft report within 10 days after completing the fieldwork.
The Consultant will provide a final report taking into account comments on the draft report within 5 days of receiving such comments.

The Consultant will hold a feedback meeting with the Interpeace and Prison Fellowship Rwanda Management and staff. This will be an opportunity to debrief on the evaluation, and to exchange views on preliminary findings and recommendations.

The report is expected to include:

Executive Summary
Introduction and brief background
Methodology
Major findings:

Relevance
Effectiveness and Impact (including major accomplishments to date)
Efficiency
Sustainability
Coherence
Cross-cutting issues

Overall Assessment
Challenges
Best Practices and lessons learned
Recommendations for improvement
Annexes:

List of documents assessed
List of persons interviewed
Presentation of changes identified related to programme outcomes
Proposed revised logical framework.

Qualifications

The evaluation will be undertaken by a consultant familiar with societal healing and Peacebuilding concepts and Programme in Rwanda or in the Region. The consultant will be expected to have the following skills and experience at a minimum:

At least a master’s degree in psychology, social sciences, conflict transformation and peacebuilding, with relevant previous experience in programme evaluation and social research, etc.
A proven record of using mental health, social cohesion and livelihoods screening tools is key.

General professional experience
Strong understanding of Rwanda context, especially the understanding of the legacies of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi on mental health, social cohesion, and economic development.
Strong analytical skills
Strong knowledge of and experience in societal healing, conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and reconciliation programmes
Strong gender analysis skills
An ability to work within tight deadlines
Ability to work effectively and inclusively with the principle of “DO NO HARM”.

Specific professional experience
Programme management, evaluation, and social research
Experience conducting evaluations/assessments (or collaboration with a person or group with extensive evaluation experience).

submission Procedure
For consideration for this opportunity, please submit an expression of interest, references or recommendation for similar work, work samples in English language, preliminary evaluation methodology including the framework for gender and conflict analysis and a proposed budget and CVs for the proposed consultant by October 24th, 2022 via email to: recruitment@interpeace.org and copy to frank@interpeace.org, shema@interpeace.org, and dukuzumuremyi@interpeace.org. The applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Done at Kigali on 13th October 2022
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