Joint-Evaluation Terms of References for the Joint DGD Programme in Belgium, Burundi, DRC and Tanzania

Goal and Objectives of the assignment

• Assess the progress of the four programme outcomes against the DAC criteria of relevance, effectiveness, coherence and impact;  
• Identify key learnings and best practices from implementation, including the cross-cutting themes (gender, climate and conflict sensitivity) to guide the programming team on learning questions to best consider by the close of the programme;    
• Develop customized recommendations to improve synergies between the four outcomes and improve implementation.
• Evaluate the link between the outcome’s indicators, activities and the theory of change, and propose adjustments if needed;
• Assess the effectiveness of our engagement so far with the different key target groups (policy makers, private sector actors, NGOs/CSOs and Belgian media and general public).
• Analyze the emerging outcomes generated by the outcome advocacy activities and their preliminary contributions to the outcome’s goals; 
• Assess the planned and achieved synergy in the different outcome activities of the two organizations and present opportunities for improvement. 
• Document lessons learned and best practices of advocacy strategies, activities and monitoring tools;  
• Provide recommendations for improving outcome design, monitoring and implementation, and propose strategies for adaptation.
• Understand to what extent the outcome is contributing to the promotion of an empowering environment for greater women’s economic inclusion and participation in Burundi;
• Assess progresses on outcome’s indicators and understand which expected and unexpected changes the programme is achieving;
• Evaluate to what extent the theory of change was relevant and propose any adjustments to the theory of change or outcome intervention logic if needed.
• Evaluate the performance of all partners in the outcome regarding the cooperation to jointly achieve the goals of the outcome and propose adjustments; 
• Assess our progress in terms of gender-sensitive working and gender-equitable participation. Propose a strategy to strengthen our endeavour to reach our targets and increase the participation of women in our activities;
• Evaluate the cooperation of IPIS with the Kufatilia partner organizations. Assess how IPIS can improve ownership among partners and suggest adjustments to increase it. 
• Evaluate the link between the outcome's activities and its theory of change, propose if needed to adjust one or the other.
• Evaluate the performance of all partners in the outcome regarding the cooperation to jointly achieve the goals of the outcome, and propose adjustments; 
• Identify missed and future opportunities for better collaboration of the four engaged partners to maximize the outcome of this joint engagement;
• Analyze the emerging results of the outcome's advocacy activities and their preliminary contribution to achieving the outcome objectives;
• Evaluate the link between the outcome's activities and its theory of change; validate the theory of change in a wider context, both in terms of recent changes in Tanzania and global trends.
• Assess the four programme outcomes progress and performance  against the DAC criteria relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, coherence impact, and sustainability; 
• Document key learnings and best practices from implementation, including on the cross-cutting themes (Gender, climate/environment and conflict sensitivity);
• Evaluate the synergy of the two organizations regarding the implementation and outcomes of the activities and assess the added value of a joint programme;
• Evaluate the outcome's adherence to the guidelines and requirements set forth by the DGD (Accountability);
• Formulate tailored and actionable recommendations for programme sustainability and future programming.
• Identify the achieved outcomes generated by the outcome advocacy activities and assess the level of contribution towards the outcome goal; 
• Document lessons learned and best practices of advocacy strategy and activities;    
• Provide recommendations for enhancing outcome sustainability and inform future programming.
• Conduct a comprehensive assessment of the progress towards the outcome's objectives and overall impact of the activities on peacebuilding, economic empowerment, gender equality, and sustainable development within their respective regions.
• Understand to what extent the outcome is contributing to the promotion of an empowering environment for greater women’s economic inclusion and participation in Burundi;
• Evaluate to what extent the theory of change was relevant, and assess whether the outcome succeeded in reducing social norms limiting women's socio-economic participation and improving their economic empowerment capabilities.
• Identify the achieved outcomes generated by the outcome activities and assess the level of contribution toward the targets of the five, partly interconnected results;
• Evaluate to what extent the theory of change was relevant, and assess to what extent the activities are contributing to peace and sustainable development in eastern DRC.
• Identify the achieved (intended and unintended) outcomes generated by the activities and assess the level of contribution toward the targets of the results;  
• Assess whether Tanzanian communities and civil society organisations (CSOs) are more empowered to engage government and industry in fostering access to justice, good governance and human rights in natural resource governance and to what extent the activities did contribute.
• For the outcomes on Belgium and Burundi, the following questions have been identified as highly relevant and in line with the evaluation standards of the partners in the joint programme. The final questions will be further developed and discussed with the evaluator(s) in the inception phase. We respect the freedom and expertise of the applicant evaluator and will jointly decide on a final concept.
• Relevance: How relevant were the outcome activities and tactics for the key stakeholders (policy makers, private sector actors, NGOs/CSOs and Belgian media and the broader Belgian public) to incorporate sustainable business practice, conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding approaches into relevant policies and practices? Were the outcome activities relevant to enhance increased collaboration and networking among the target groups? Were the outcome activities relevant in equipping the target groups to implement interventions in the FCAS? 
• Effectiveness: Can the outcome demonstrate a direct link between its activities/tactics and the adoption of relevant policies and practices by the different target groups? Can the outcome demonstrate a measurable increase of collaboration and networking and increased capacities of the target group as a result of the activities? 
• Determining values of the outcome indicators and validating the results indicators (especially those where no or limited data has been captured by M&E system).
• Coherence: How did the outcome activities align and complement each other in achieving the observed changes? Did the outcome demonstrate a consistent approach in addressing the needs of the target groups engaged in the FCAS? How did Search and IPIS collaborate to ensure coherence in their strategic approach towards achieving the program's advocacy outcomes and goals?
• Impact: What are the tangible observed changes resulting from the outcome intervention (positive/negative/expected/unexpected) and how are these substantiated? How well does the Theory of Change align with the observed outcomes? Does the joint implementation increase the impact and how can it be even improved? 
• Adaptations and recommendations: What are the programmatic best practices and lessons learned from this intervention? What are the concrete and applicable recommendations to achieve the outcomes and goal of this intervention? 
• Relevance: How and to what extent does the outcome contribute to improving the economic inclusion and participation of women in Burundi?
• Effectiveness: What are the changes observed as a result of the activities? (Please provide the mid-term values for the outcome indicators and comparative analysis to the baseline)?
• Coherence: How well do the outcome activities align and complement each other in improving women’s economic inclusion and participation in Burundi? 
• Impact: What changes (expected/unexpected) in women's economic empowerment have been achieved as a result of the outcome's activities (changes between the situation before the intervention and the current situation) that contribute to the transformation of social norms and cultural barriers? What does the Theory of Change actually mean in the outcome areas? How can the Theory of Change be validated or adjusted? How does the Theory of Change relate to outcome activities?
• Adaptations and recommendations: What are the programmatic best practices and lessons learned from this outcome? What are the concrete and applicable recommendations to achieve the outcomes and goal of this outcome ? 

Methodology and Deliverables

• The methodology should ideally be based on a thorough desk review and data collection should include Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions. Additionally, the  following methodological orientations should be considered for each process:
• For the MTE process, the evaluation team will primarily use Outcome Harvesting for capturing new outcomes and confirmed identified changes. Whenever data is available, support the outcome description with contribution analysis;
• For the Final Evaluation, the evaluation team will preferably use contribution analysis of the identified outcomes, in addition to other methods that fits the needs.
• The evaluation of outcome implementation will employ a summative evaluation methodology. This will involve assessing the causal relationship between outcome activities and observed changes, along with attributing or contributing outcomes to outcome interventions. Other methods required to answer the above objectives and questions per outcome are developed by the evaluator and jointly defined in the inception phase. 
• The consortium members expect the following deliverables from the external consultant(s) for the MTE (team):
• An inception report detailing a proposed methodology, tools, training plan of enumerators, calendar and written data collection tools;
• A data collection and analysis plan, including participation role in data collection and analysis, a backplanning tool and dataset;
• Analysis of the data collected and production of a draft MTE report in English,  detailing the process and preliminary findings for review by consortium members and partners;
• Virtual workshop to discuss preliminary findings and adjust the draft with SC (or more from the organizations team if required), including a PowerPoint presentation of findings;
• Executive summary document: engaging 3-5-pagers visual document outlining the key results and key recommendations for each outcome (Belgium, Burundi, DRC and Tanzania) in English/French. 
• A final hybrid debriefing session to programmatic team members, donors' representatives, and key partners to present the key findings of the Mid-Term Evaluation process, and discuss the recommendations for adaptive management strategies.