Midterm review – MENA Feminist Power in Action for Women’s Economic Rights

Context

Problem Statement

FemPawer aims at strengthening young women who face multiple discrimination of economic gender-based violence (E/GBV) in the MENA specific countries (Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Tunisia) to be the leader for change by holding duty bearers accountable and improve conditions for young women in the informal sector. By supporting target-led activities throughout, the Program will ensure that discriminated young women will become advocates in their own rights, advocates that address relevant solutions and recommendations.

FemPawer is a 5-years program that started on January 01,2021 and will be ongoing until December 21, 2025. FemPawer is managed by a consortium consisting of four partner organizations – Arab Women Organization (AWO)(Jordan), Collective for Research and Training on Development (CRTDA)(Lebanon), The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation (Kvinna till Kvinna) and Palestinian Working Women Society for Development (PWWSD)(Palestine). Kvinna till Kvinna is the lead applicant of the consortium. The program adopts a bottom-up approach, in which we mean having representatives of Community Based Organizations (referred to as women’s rights organizations (WRO) or Partner Organizations (PO)) influencing the Program and technical support in the Consortium bodies. A total of 31 POs are sub-granted under this program to-date (12 in Jordan, 11 in Palestine and 8 in Lebanon). There is no sub-granting of POs in Tunis, but partner organizations benefit from FemPawer through participating in the activities organized by the consortium.

FemPawer is funded by the Netherland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NL-MFA). FemPawer falls under the Policy Framework for Strengthening Civil Society (SCS) – Power of Women (PoW): A framework for funding civil society organizations from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025. PoW initiative aims to strengthen the capacity of women’s rights organizations in the area of lobby and advocacy. In turn, these women’s rights organizations can foster social, economic and/or political transformation in order to achieve equal rights and opportunities for women and girls.

Under the grant agreement between the consortium and the donor, it is required to conduct a Mid Term Review (MTR) for the period of 2021 to mid-2023. Focus of the MTR will be two-fold: programmatic and partnership. MTR is of high importance for the NL-MFA and the consortium. The NL-MFA aims to take the findings of the MTR into account for the development of a new policy framework and grant instruments. The consortium will take the findings of the MTR to reflect on current ways of working and review activities and target and propose any necessary changes over the 5-year outcome targets.

Therefore, the consortium wishes to conduct an MTR, with an external consultant (s) to assess to what extent is the consortium proceeding toward achieving its objective, to what extent is the theory of change valid, to what extent is the consortium leading from the south, how is the relationship and coordination among concerned stakeholders and finally, what can be adapted to improve the program and meet the 5-year outcome targets. The MTR needs to have feminist lens and uphold the values of the consortium (equal partnership, inclusion, bottom-up approach, mutual learning).

Brief Presentation of the project

The program is developed using a theory of change approach (See Annex 1 for more details on the ToC). The overall goal of the Program is: Gender-responsive accountability mechanisms for women economic empowerment (WEE) at multiple levels in MENA specific countries (Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Tunisia) are established or strengthened through mobilizing communities and by utilizing international frameworks to promote women economic rights and eliminate economic gender-based violence.

A framework of four interlinked and mutually reinforcing intermediate changes have been identified and designed to enable progress for gender-responsive accountability based on the needs of young women. The expected changes of the program are:

• Enhanced safe on/offline spaces for the young women and Women rights organizations (WROs) to support them to mobilize and set target led agenda for Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) advocacy missions
• Strengthened innovative and inclusive leadership in a mutual learning space that reflects the young women’s and WRO’s experiences and knowledge (young women’s experiences and knowledge are reflected and brought into consideration that will positively impact advocacy recommendations for WEE)
• Strengthened inclusive leadership and capacity in advocacy for the young women and WROs (strong inclusive organizations and networks will have the capacity to act as relevant and legitimate actors for advocacy that can advance policy change)
• Increased gender responsive attitudes and behaviors among duty bearers and private sector on promoting Women Economic Rights (WER) and eliminating E/GBV

The Program direct target groups are:

1. Young women champions for Women Economic Rights: The program will directly target young women with disability, and rural / refugees (20 per country and around 80 in the region) to become ‘champions’ to organize, both, country and regional networks in tackling E/GBV and promote WER.
2. Women Rights Organizations (also referred to as PO): The program will target local CBO/networks that has direct outreach to (virtual, local, cross-national) communities; access to women facing multiple discrimination and men. By strengthening their capacity as leaders in organizations and networks, they can engage for progress in the communities by unifying groups for target led advocacy. Approximately 12 local WROs per country will be selected representing the diversity of the WRO landscape in each country. The aim is that they further will engage young women within their communities to become engaged in parts of the Program through sub-granting.

Other target groups exist for (1) Mobilization and alliance building and for (2) Advocacy. Target for Mobilization and Alliance building are Families, Men in local communities, Alliances and Local community. Target group for advocacy are Private Sector and Trade Unions, International actors, and Government Authorities.

Indirect target groups that will benefit from the Program are women in the informal sector and young women working in private sector companies as both will benefit from the progress made within this Program. Further will the changes made within the local communities among males and family members potentially have a positive spill over on other female members in the household and broader family, providing them with a freer space to take part in more public activities than before.

Objectives of the evaluation and delimitations

Objectives of the evaluation

The focus of the midterm evaluation is twofold:

1. Programmatic: focusing on the theory of change, context analysis, risk analysis, achievements to date on the output and outcome indicators that are linked to the SCS and thematic result framework basket indicator, crosscutting themes (gender, youth, climate), challenges, lessons learned and good practices. The review of the programmatic focus should be reflected both at overall partnership program level as well as at relevant implementation level (i.e. country, regional).
2. Partnership collaboration: focusing on leading from the south, partnership among consortium members, governance structure of the consortium, partnership with the Ministry and Embassies, lessons learned and good practices.

Therefore, the objectives of the evaluations are:

1. Assess the progress that has been made towards the outcomes of the FemPawer consortium “MENA Feminist Power in Action for Women’s economic right” (effectiveness, efficiency) and inform planning for 2024 and 2025, including adjustments of target and indicator frameworks,
2. Evaluate the Theory of Change and validate its assumption at regional and country level (relevance),
3. Assess relevance and impact of the consortium partners support to partner organizations (capacity building, lobby and advocacy and project support), identify lessons learned and good practices,
4. Assess the cooperation between consortium partner and with the embassies/MFA, the challenges, and the recommendations for better ways of working.

This midterm evaluation will assess the above objectives and formulate lessons learned, best practices and recommendations useful for the consortium partners to adjust their strategies, project activities and targets as needed. The findings of the evaluation may also be used by NL-MFA for the development of a new policy framework and grant instruments.

Target audience

The evaluation report will be shared internally among consortium members, as well as with partner organizations and the donor (stakeholders).

Scope of the evaluation

The evaluation is to cover the program period of 01 January 2021 to 30 June 2023 and is expected to take 5 months, from May 01, 2023, to September 30, 2023. Data collection should not start before July 1, 2023 (mid-way through the program). The evaluation is supposed to cover the four countries where the program is being implemented (Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Palestine). The evaluation is expected to evaluate the program at outcome level. The evaluation is expected to cover knowledge and action objectives; the knowledge objective related questions will help us understand how we are working, what are the shortcoming and lessons learned; the action objectives related questions will allow us to make the changes needed to reach the overall objective of the project.

Evaluation criteria

Essential criteria of the evaluation

These questions should be refined by the consultant during the inception phase, as well as grouping them on knowledge and action objective questions.

Relevance

• To what extent is the overall program Theory of Change (ToC) guiding in the program’s delivery? Is it still valid? What adaptations/adjustments are needed? How is the program adapting to contextual changes, risk analyses (include SEAH, fraud and corruption), assumption changes?
• How were target groups involved in program design and does the program adequately respond to their needs and priorities? To what extent was the program design led by partners from the South?
• Who is reached by the program? Are WRO representing marginalized groups involved in the program? Is there ownership of the program by all consortium partners and sub-grantees?

Effectiveness

1. To what extent have the program’s expected results /outcomes been achieved? To what extent are the program results/outcomes on track to be achieved by end 2025?
2. Have there been any unexpected or negative changes influenced by the program?
3. Are achievements to date comparable across contexts/ countries?
4. What and how did/may internal and/or external factors positively or negatively influence the progress against expected outcomes?
5. Which of the program interventions appear to be particularly effective in producing anticipated outcomes, and are most likely to contribute to program’s objectives?

In addition to the above questions, the consultant will be expected to report on the below Strengthening Civil Society and thematic Result Framework basket indicators.

Outcome indicators:

1. WRGE indicator 3.1. # of laws, policies and strategies blocked, adopted or improved to promote women’s economic rights, empowerment and entrepreneurship (link SCS2)
2. WRGE indicator 3.2. # of times that CSOs succeed in creating space for CSO demands and positions on women’s economic rights, empowerment and entrepreneurship, through agenda setting, influencing the debate and/or movement building (link SCS3)

Following a review of achieved results to date, a recommendation from the consultants is welcomed on reviewing targets.

Efficiency

From this evaluation, the consortium wishes to evaluate the economic/financial efficiency of the project:

• Are the results obtained been at an acceptable cost?
• What else could be done to improve the implementation of the project in order to maximize the impact at an acceptable cost?
• What factors have impacted timeliness of the program implementation? How may these affect the achievement of the program’s objectives? What are recommendations or mitigation measures that may minimize such impact?

Other criterias of the evaluation

From this evaluation, the consortium wishes to evaluate the partnership at multiple levels:

1. Partnership consortium partners with partner organization (What can be done to improve the partnership and better meet the needs of the WRO we serve? Was there enough transparency? Were the interventions of different partners harmonized and complementarity, rather than duplicated? What can be done to improve the coordination? How have power imbalances in the Partnership been addressed, and how is Leading from the South/ localization being advanced in the Partnership? What are the learning of applying the consortium partnership model?)
2. Partnership among consortium partners (What has been the level of engagement of consortium partners in activities at country level? at consortium level?Was there enough transparency? Did a delay in a partner activity caused delays in other partner’s activities or action plan? What can be done to improve the coordination? How effective is the governance structure? To what extent has the collaboration between the different Consortium Partners created added value in program countries or regional program level?)
3. Partnership consortium partners with ministry and local embassies

Consultant will be expected to capture information at overall (regional level) and at country level for all evaluation criteria and questions.

Prefered methodology

Methodes of data collection

The consultant is invited to propose a methodological feminist approach which will directly answer the aforementioned questions.

At a minimum, the methodology should include a desk review of the program documents and of relevant external literature, interviews (key informants and/or focus-group discussions), observations and case studies. The consultant is encouraged to provide preliminary suggestions on sampling, potential limitations, and reflections on potential bias. In the proposal, the consultant should explain how they will triangulate the results from different sources.

As per NL MFA recommendations, theory-grounded methodologies (such as process tracing, realist evaluation or contribution analysis) are encouraged. You may refer to Quality criteria for evaluations | Guideline | Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) (iob-evaluatie.nl) for further information.

The mid-term evaluation is expected to follow a participatory approach involving a range of stakeholders such as (but not limited to) consortium partners, sub-grantees, young women champions and other relevant target groups.

Consultants are encouraged to reflect on cross-cutting themes (youth, gender, climate) and how these will be integrated into their methodology.

Progam documents available for the desk review

At the start of the consultancy, the consortium will share with the consultant the below:

• Initial project proposal, action plan, log frame and budget of the consortium
• Yearly annual report for 2021 and 2022 of the consortium
• Annual plan for 2022 and 2023 of the consortium
• Baseline report of the consortium
• NL MFA’s Strengthening Civil Society documents, incl. ToC and indicator framework
• Concept partnership agreement with Dutch MFA
• NL MFA Extra information on the SCS MTRs

Stakeholders

It is recommended to collect data from young women champions, women right organizations and partners of the consortium. Other stakeholders targeted by the programme and WRO activities may also be interviewed, including Families, Men in local communities, Alliances and Local community; reached through mobilization. Private Sector and Trade Unions, International actors, and Government Authorities reached through advocacy activities.

Calendar

The midterm evaluation (desk review, data collection, analysis and report writing) will be done over a period of 5 months (May 01, 2023, to September 30, 2023). Data collection should not start before July 1, 2023 (mid-way through the project). The consortium aims to finalize the recruitment by April 30, 2023.

Deliverables

1. Inception report, including detailed methodology, preliminary findings/analysis from the initial desk review, evaluation matrix including refined evaluation questions and details on how conclusions will be formed, data collection tools, final workplan.
2. Draft final report
3. Online workshop to discuss the findings and recommendations
4. Final report

The final report of this evaluation, in Word format, should be between up to 65 pages (not including annexes), 12 character, single spaced, and should include the following parts:

• Executive summary
• Introduction
  • Background of the partnership programme
  • Objectives of the MTR
• Methodology
  • Methodology and approach
  • Challenges, bias and limitations
• Programmatic focus of the partnership programme (overall) (approx. 25 pages)
  • Relevant changes in context
  • Changes in (appreciation of) risks and mitigating measures (including SEAH, fraud and corruption)
  • Review of TOC
  • Overview table of indicators – quantitative
  • Discussion of progress towards achieving the 2025 targets
  • Cross-cutting themes (gender, youth, climate)
• Partnership collaboration (overall)
  • Ownership by local organizations/Leading from the South/power balance
  • Partnership with the Ministry and the Embassies
• Information per country/region/international component (approx. 10 pages per country/region etc)

Country X

• Relevant changes in context
• Changes in (appreciation of) risks and mitigating measures
• Review of TOC at country level
• Results achieved linked to the SCS and thematic MFA indicators
  • Table of indicators at country level – quantitative and qualitative – Discussion of the partnership’s contribution towards the results
  • Discussion of progress towards achieving the 2025 targets
• Cross-cutting themes (gender, youth, climate)
• Partnership collaboration

Country Y …

• Lessons learned & good practices
  • Programmatic
  • Partnership collaboration
• Conclusions and recommendations
• Annexes:
  • List of stakeholders interviewed,
  • Data collection tools
  • ToC
  • Adjustment of targets etc.

Organization of the evaluation mission

Logistic and administrative organization

Equipment

The consultant needs to have his/her own laptop. If based in one of the countries of implementation, consultant can use local offices of Kvinna till Kvinna/AWO/CRTDA/PWWSD to work and schedule interviews.

Means of communication

The consultant is expected to use their own mobile/phone number for work purposes.

Travel and accommodation

The consultant is responsible for their own movement and accommodation during the evaluation. The consultant is expected to have their personal health insurance coverage.

Others

The final report needs to be submitted in English only. However, during the data collection, some tools will need to be translated to Arabic; this will be the responsibility of the consultant to arrange.

Security

In case of travel to programme countries, the consultant can consult with consortium partner for updates on the security situation. However, the consultant will be responsible to take decisions regarding their movements during the evaluation.

Managing and reporting

The Consortium Coordinator will be the primary focal point for the consultant in all matters related to contract, finance, logistic and other administrative issues. A panel will be following up on the progress of the evaluation with the consultant. The consultant would meet on a monthly basis with the panel, to provide update of the evaluation, progress and challenges. However, the consultant can reach out to the panel at any time, for any pertinent issue.

Budget available for this evaluation

A detailed budget in EURO suggested by the consultant should be shared along with the technical offer submitted by the consultant.

The consultant/s’ fees shall be specified as fees per day (per person, if applicable) including taxes, social security contributions and VAT. The total budget for the assignment shall cover all the costs, including salaries, travel and per diem, insurances, and any other expenses related to the assignment such as hiring of interpreter/ local team members. Contracted consultant/s cannot further subcontract the assignment. In cases where the tender includes a team of consultants, their division of labour shall be presented in advance to the Consortium Coordinator.

Skills required/desired to carry out the evaluation

The vacancy is open to a single or group of consultants.

Technical skills and qualifications

• Professional experience working with non-governmental organization is desired, with focus on women’s right programming,
• Knowledge on feminist M&E,
• Knowledge in evaluation methods for Lobby and Advocacy,
• Knowledge of the regional context in the MENA region is essential,
• Professional experience in conducting similar evaluation for the Netherlands MFA is essential,
• Previous experience of working with IOB-evaluation criteria,
• Fluent in Arabic, English (spoken and written), and
• Reporting and analytical skills.

Soft skills

1. Able to communicate with women from different backgrounds in a sensitive and informed manner,
2. Able to handle tight deadlines in a professional manner,
3. Communicative,
4. Organized and timely, and
5. Creative in overcoming the barriers.

Female participants and people with disabilities are highly encouraged to apply.

Annex 1

The overall goal of the Program is: Gender-responsive accountability mechanisms for Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) at multiple levels in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) specific countries (Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Tunisia) are established or strengthened through mobilizing communities and by utilizing international frameworks to promote women economic rights and eliminate economic gender-based violence.

A framework of four interlinked and mutually reinforcing intermediate changes have been identified and designed to enable progress for gender-responsive accountability based on the needs of young women identified in the MENA specific countries.

Intermediate Change One – aiming to establish safe and secure space for the young women and Women Right Organizations (WRO) to develop mobilization and advocacy strategies to hold decisions makers accountable – is formulated based on the assumptions that a) the young women and WROs are open to engage in activities that enhance their autonomy, freedom of speech and assembly; and b) the access to civic space is shrinking with various speeds and techniques, and there are gendered / intersectional specific knowledge and experiences that needs and can be generated and reflected.

So IF protection mechanisms for safe space for young women and WROs are strengthened and mobilize international communities to support for enabling civic space then safe online/offline spaces for the young women and WROs are developed and maintained where they gain wellbeing and sense of security, which is a pre-requisite for participation, this because enhanced safe spaces for young women and WROs will enable target led agenda setting and mobilization essential for advocacy and lobbying.

The two pathways that will enable the change to occur are:

1. Safe spaces for the young women and WROs are enhanced by protective mechanisms
2. Identify and engage international actors to pressure national governments to enable increased civic space for young women and WROs

Intermediate Change Two – addressing innovative and inclusive learning / leadership for all level of the Consortium and Program – is formulated on the assumptions that a*)* implementing partners, and all consortium structures have interest in applying inclusive and innovative approaches based on intersectional gender analysis; and b) the inclusive methodological approach is possible to apply to the context.

So IF there are knowledge at consortium and Program level that promotes inclusion, participation and mutual learning of diverse type of women, voices, experiences of E/GBV then, the Consortium – leading by example with General Assembly, Technical Think Tanks and selection of partner organizations – will be able to promote the intersectionality approach in lobby and advocacy, hence, partner organizations will implement lobby and advocacy related activities in an inclusive way, including voices of all, as opposed to majority groups only, this because the young women’s experiences and knowledge are reflected and brought into consideration that will positively impact advocacy recommendations for WEE.

The two pathways that will enable the change to occur are:

1. Develop learning methods for best practices in intersectional approaches and adapt flexible gender sensitive modules
2. Target-led learning spaces are established to facilitate innovation and inclusion within / among the Consortium bodies

Intermediate Change Three – addressing target-led capacities in advocacy, alliance building, social mobilization and inclusive leadership for young women and the WROs – is formulated based on the assumption that a) implementing partners, and all consortium structures have interest in applying inclusive and innovative approaches based on intersectional gender analysis.

So IF inclusive leadership is becoming the norm for young women and WROs, together with lobby and advocacy knowledge and practices against best standards, then the they are being legitimate actors to building their constituency for change through mobilizing local communities and a diversified group of women with different experiences of economic gender based violence to decide and lead advocacy work beyond traditional established gender constructions, this because strong inclusive organizations and networks will have the capacity to act as relevant and legitimate actors for advocacy that can advance policy change.

The two pathways that will enable the change to occur are:

1. Strengthened inclusive organization and leadership for advocacy and lobbying for young women and WROs
2. Strengthened capacity in advocacy, alliance building and community mobilization for the young women and WROs

Intermediate Change Four – addressing the target led mobilization and advocacy interventions at multiple level – is formulated on the assumptions that a) there is trust established within the communities of having WRO presence, and in entering any new area they have techniques and knowhow to establish and maintain trust within local communities; b) relevant data of duty bearers and private sector for advocacy missions can be collected.

So IF the development of advocacy missions is target led based on analyzed and documented data of economic gender based violence together with identified and mobilized alliances with community and grassroots and other key actors at country, regional and international level, then the duty bearers as targeted by the target led missions will increase their knowledge on the gender responsive action to E/GBV and WER, and how to best address it, this because the decision makers and policy makers have understood the urgency through by the mobilized mass and the received solutions which will increase the likelihood for establishment of gender responsive accountability mechanism enabling WEE.

The three pathways that will enable the change to occur are:

1. Evidence-based advocacy is designed
2. Relations for alliance building and community mobilization is established
3. Relation building for gender responsive accountability dialogues is established

How to apply

The consultant(s) is invited to submit a file of not more than 10 to 15 pages, including the following documents, to [email protected] with the following title in the email subject «FemPawer MTR_Consultant(s) name»:

Technical proposal including:

• Understanding of the terms of reference,
• The technical approach suggested and the detailed methodology,
• The constitution of the team (if applicable), the distribution of responsibilities between its members (if applicable), the CVs offered and the availability of members,
• The provisional schedule of the evaluation as predicted by the consultant,
• Contact information of two previous references of similar works (references will not be contacted before getting approval from the candidates), and
• A declaration of honor attesting to the absence of conflict of interest.

Financial proposal including:

• The total budget including all taxes and the budget distribution in EUR.

Deadline to submit the file: April 02, 11:00 pm Beirut time.

Applications with missing documents will not be considered.