1- BACKGROUND Context and justification

Transcription

1 TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE MID TERM EVALUATION OF STRIVE GLOBAL PROGRAM FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISION-DEVCO AND IMPLEMENTED BY HEDAYAH-THE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE FOR COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMISM 1- BACKGROUND 1.1.-Context and justification Hedayah was created in response to the growing desire from members of the Global Counter- Terrorism Forum (GCTF) and the wider international community for the establishment of an independent, multilateral center devoted to dialogue and communications, capacity building programs, research and analysis to counter violent extremism in all of its forms and manifestations. During the ministerial-level launch of the GCTF in New York in September 2011, the U.A.E. offered to serve as the host of the International Center of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism. In December 2012 Hedayah was inaugurated with its headquarters in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Hedayah aims to be the premier international center for expertise and experience to counter violent extremism by promoting understanding and sharing of good practice to effectively serve as the true global center to counter violent extremism. The Center s mandate focuses on three core areas: 1. Dialogue and Communications Providing a dedicated platform to facilitate focused discussion and collaboration among national and local actors, civil society, researchers and community leaders involved in CVE; 2. Capacity Building Programs Providing collaborative training and practical tools to enhance the capacities of government and non-government partners to design and implement effective policies, programs and projects to counter violent extremism; 1

2 3. Research and Analysis Cataloguing existing CVE research as well as conducting and commissioning new research to gain a deeper understanding of the drivers of violent extremism, and which approaches are effective in countering it. STRIVE-Global is a program funded by the European Union under the financial Instrument Contributing to Stability and Peace IcSP-. This action responds to the ongoing threat of global terrorism and the need for effective responses that ameliorate, rather than exacerbate, the threat. The EU s Counter-Terrorism Strategy promotes democracy, dialogue, human rights and good governance. It is organised around four pillars - prevention, protection, pursuit, and response. It is within the context of the first pillar, prevention, that the EU has been engaging with Hedayah. Under the auspices of the Global Counterterrorism Forum, Hedayah is mandated to build, promote and implement evidence based initiatives that seek to reduce the threat of radicalisation and recruitment to terrorism Institutional set-up and key management issues The program is implemented by Hedayah, which is supporting trainings on CVE, several institutions/organisations CVE projects on the ground and empirical social research on drivers of radicalization and media speech analysis in several countries through a subgranting partnership mechanism (Call for Proposals and Direct Awards), has contract-holder status towards the EU and supports the implementation of the program with a Program Manager, a Grant and Administration Officer and other Hedayah s staff, based all of them in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). The Program Manager reports to Hedayah s Director of Capacity Building Programs Department. In addition to that, it was created a Program Board having as members Hedayah s Executive Director, Deputy Executive Director and the Director of Capacity Building Programs. This Board periodically meets with the Program Manager and the Grant and Administration Officer to evaluate the progress of the Program. The Grant and Administration Officer reports to the Program Manager. The program started on 20 May 2015 and will last 48 months. The evaluation will cover from the starting date until 31 May The program operates in close consultation and cooperation with governments, local and international NGOs, International Organizations and other civil society organizations, donors and stakeholders. In overall terms, the program is implemented within the framework of Hedayah s existing management and financial structures. The annual reports are prepared by the Program Manager and the Grant and Administration Officer and presented to the Program Board for review. The Program Manager submits the Reports to the EU-DEVCO, Brussels. The Annual Performance and Financial Audit, including Expenditure Verification Reports are undertaken by an independent auditor. 2

3 2-DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAM Objectives of the program Overall objective The overall objective is to build the capacity of state and non-state actors to effectively challenge radicalization and recruitment to terrorism while continuing to respect human rights and international law. Specific objective The specific objective is to work with local partners to design, implement and develop approaches that have demonstrable impact on the threat posed by radicalization and recruitment to terrorism Estimated results R1. Government, security sector and law enforcement authorities increasingly engaged in fighting radicalization to terrorism and applying effective non-coercive responses to terrorism. R2. Strengthened capacity of civil society organizations to prevent and counter terrorism, with increased engagement with Government. R3. Strengthened capacity of media and Governments to communicate on terrorism in a way that reduces, rather than exacerbates, the threat. R4. Increased understanding, locally and internationally, of the drivers of radicalization among vulnerable groups, including region-specific assessments that will direct the design of initiatives Main activities The following four activity lines and outputs are proposed, and will be delivered through third parties to beneficiary organisations: Activity A1 Develop and deliver a cascaded training program for raising awareness of, and building support, for CVE amongst Public Officials and Civil Society Organizations. Activity A2 Support design and implementation of Civil Society initiatives to Prevent/Counter Violent Extremism. Activity A3 Address the challenge of media coverage of terrorism: raising the awareness and building the capacity of state and media actors. Activity A4 Develop research resources that provide an evidence base for CVE interventions. 3-OBJECTIVES OF THE MID TERM EVALUATION Overall objectives 3

4 1-To provide Hedayah, its partners on the ground, EU and other interested stakeholders with sufficient and accurate information to make an informed judgment about the progress of the program. 2-To document lessons learnt and good practices Specific objectives 1-To make an overall independent assessment of the program progress (i.e. the level of fulfilling the objectives as stated in the program document) and to evaluate the achievements and weaknesses of the program in respect to the five evaluation criteria 1 (what is applicable at this stage of the program implementation) relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability against original program objectives taking account of the realities on the ground. 2-To evaluate the program implementation strategies and process/structures, including assessment of the policy, institutional and operational set-up with the view to make recommendations on whether they are the best to achieve the program objectives. 3-To identify key lessons and to propose practical recommendations for follow-up actions. 4-OUTPUTS OF THE EVALUATION The evaluation will take place in Abu Dhabi (no more than 5 working days), as the program implementation is at a very first stage and the sub grants currently being executed are about social empirical research on the drivers of radicalisation. Hedayah will faciliate to the evaluators grantees and other stakeholders contact detail. The evaluation team shall produce the following documents and presentations: -A proposed detailed methodology before the briefing with Hedayah in Abu Dhabi (Hedayah will facilitate all necessary documents in order to evaluators be able to prepare the methodology) and a work plan/schedule at the start of the assignment shortly after the briefing with Hedayah in Abu Dhabi. -A brief summary of the findings at the final debriefing to be presented to Hedayah in Abu Dhabi. -A draft final report, including comments from all stakeholders. In this report, a specific chapter shall be devoted to an analysis of the impact and sustainability, including recommendations for follow-up actions. 1 The experts shall consider to applying EU Methodological guidance for evaluation and the main evaluation criteria across all program components. See 4

5 -A final report with executive summary, main findings, recommendations, lessons learnt/best practices as specified in the evaluation objectives plus detailed annexes. -The final report shall include a section with lessons learnt/best practices that Hedayah can learn from for future projects i.e. a documentation of the critical learning points. The Final Report will comprise a maximum of 40 pages excluding annexes. It shall contain a self-standing Executive Summary (of 2-5 pages) with major conclusions in relation to the evaluation criteria, recommendations and lessons learned. The reporting language will be English. The submission of reports shall be presented with the following timing: -Summary debriefing note at the end of the evaluation shall be presented to Hedayah for discussion in Abu Dhabi. -Draft Final Report according to the comments made at the debriefing must be presented to Hedayah within 1 week after the evaluation. -The revised Final Report based on Hedayah comments on the draft final report will be submitted 1 week from obtaining the comments. In all reporting, the expert s assessment shall be objective and balanced, affirmations accurate and verifiable and the proposed recommendations realistic. 5-SCOPE OF WORK The evaluation studies will follow the structure outlined below and in the EU Methodological guidance for evaluation and shall include, at minimum, the following aspects: Relevance of the intervention/program design (problems and needs) Relevance refers to the appropriateness of the actions and capacity building (including the input of the technical assistance) for the beneficiaries. Analysis should focus on: -The extent to which the program is being consistent with, and supportive of the policy and program framework of Governments, Civil Society Organizations and the EU Policies. -The quality of the identification of key stakeholders and target groups and of institutional capacity issues (i.e. selection of target beneficiaries and how are the needs of the most vulnerable groups /identified groups covered/beneficiary coverage). -The stakeholder involvement in the design process and implementation of the program, the level of local ownership and implementation capacity. -The program coherence with current and on-going initiatives (i.e. other EU 5

6 Effectiveness (achievement of purpose) Efficiency (sound management and value for money) and donor programs and other Hedayah projects/activities, particularly in the target countries). This is the analysis of whether the set objectives will be achieved as intended by Hedayah, the EU and other stakeholders (i.e. local government institutions), including: - Whether the planned benefits are being delivered and received, as perceived by all key stakeholders. - Whether intended beneficiaries are participating in the intervention. - Are there unanticipated results (positive/negative) yielded by the program and what are the consequences on the achievement of the purpose? The efficiency criterion concerns as to how well the various activities transform the available resources into the intended results or outputs, in terms of quantity, quality and timeliness, a comparison should be made against what was planned: Impact (achievements of wider effects) -Operational work-planning, implementation and budget management. -Relations and co-ordination with local authorities, institutions, beneficiaries. -The quality of information management and reporting, and the extent to which key stakeholders are being kept adequately informed about the program activities. -Respect of deadlines. -The extent to which the costs of the program are being justified by the benefits whether or not expressed in monetary terms in comparison with similar programs or known alternative approaches. -Hedayah contributions and Governments of different target countries support (at Local/ State/ National level). -Technical assistance, how well is helping to provide appropriate solutions and developing local capacities to define and produce results? -Quality of monitoring: its existence, accuracy and flexibility and the use made of it. Adequacy of baseline information. -If any un-planned outputs are arising from the activities so far. Impact reflects the extent to which the benefits received by the intended beneficiaries brought about change in their performance, including: -What impact has the implementation of the program brought about? -The level of implementation with reference to the baseline and end of phase target. -Analysis of the main achievements and short-comings of the program, the impact/outcome of the different program components, the program impact, both anticipated and unanticipated. -How useful and relevant are the program activities being perceived by the beneficiaries and stakeholders within the localities? 6

7 Overall quality and sustainability (likely continuation of the achieved results) -Is the program contributing to radicalization and violent extremism prevention and is socially being spread e.g. impacts on level of tolerance, hate speech decrease, increase of good values and ethic, etc.? -Assess the extent of application of cross-cutting issues such as gender and organizational development/capacity building. -Are there data available to measure this impact? This criterion refers to the ability and capacity of beneficiaries to implement the outcome of an activity once the core support is stopped and verifies whether the design and orientation of program activities are based on the principle of building sustained capacities in beneficiaries: Partnership Conclusions, recommendations and lessons learnt -Local ownership of the objectives and achievements e.g. how far stakeholders were involved in the design and implementation of activities, whether their feedback was sought and whether they remain in agreement with the program objectives, as well as the partnership agreement and financial commitment of Hedayah. -Policy support and the responsibility of Hedayah e.g. how far donor policy and national priorities are corresponding, the potential effect of any policy changes. How far the relevant national, sectorial and budgetary policies and priorities are affecting the program positively or adversely and the level of support from (local) governmental, public, business, sensitization/private sector. -Institutional capacity (financial and administrative) of Hedayah s partners as well as local government in terms of policy and budgetary support. Whether the counterparts are properly prepared to take over, technically, financially and managerially. -The adequacy of the project budget for its purpose. -What happens to the knowledge attained and the capacity built at different levels of the different local partners and governments? In addition to the above, the evaluation will consider the following issues: -Assess the coordination, networking and collaboration at all levels in carrying out the program which means both internally within Hedayah and with external partners, i.e. relationship/ cooperation between Hedayah and the EU; Hedayah and other donors and International Organizations working on CVE / Hedayah and other institutions and NGOs working on CVE. In particular (in summary form): -Outline successes and short-comings and causes, cost-efficiency, adequacy of means and time to achieve the purpose and sustainability. -Lessons learnt should cover policy, organizational and operational lessons, pre-conditions that should have been required as well as general lessons. -The conclusion should be a summary of the results reached by the program and focus should be on outlining current achievements, constraints and 7

8 suggested remedies. -The recommendations should develop considerations regarding possible future support to the CVE activities, under the overall EU IcSP Strategy Paper and Multiannual Indicative Program and the UN Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism 3. A specific section shall be dedicated to this topic. Note: The evaluation criteria will be as well applicable when is possible to the sub grants. 6-LOCATION AND TIME FRAME The location of the assignment is in Abu Dhabi. The evaluation is expected to begin by 14 August 2017 with days of desk study at home base, meetings and compilation of results with Hedayah in Abu Dhabi and phone calls with Hedayah s partners and other stakeholders on the ground. The Final Evaluation Report is expected to be presented no later than 13 September The total number of days for the assignment is a maximum of 22 working days. The tentative time-table of the evaluation is as follows: Phase I: Expected duration: 5 working days Desk Study at home-base: -Preparation of methodology and approach for the evaluation at home-base. Inputs provided by Hedayah. -Preparation of tentative meeting/mission schedule, including suggestions for arrangement of meetings (phone calls) with stakeholders, local partners. Inputs provided by Hedayah. Phase II: Expected duration: 5 working days Briefings/Meetings with Hedayah in Abu Dhabi, final inputs provided by Hedayah. -Final approval of methodology and approach for the evaluation. -Phone calls with key partners in the target regions/countries. -Phone calls with stakeholders; -Debriefing with Hedayah and if convenient with EU. Phase III: Expected duration: 12 workings days

9 -Presentation of Draft Report after mission. -Comments to Draft Report from Hedayah. -Presentation of Final Report. N ACTIVITIES June 2017 July 2017 August 2017 September Evaluators team selection/ signature of contract 2 Phase I Desk study at home base 3 Phase II- Field visit (Abu Dhabi) 4 Phase III-Draft report 5 Phase III- Revision and presentation of final report 1st-30th June st-14th July 14th-18th August 20th-25th August 28th-31th August 1st September 3rd-13th September Hedayah/EU Evaluator Evaluator/Hedayah Evaluator Evaluator/Hedayah 7- TEAM COMPOSITION AND EXPERT PROFILE The evaluation team will: -Carry out the evaluation as per ToR and be responsible for the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation. -Report to Hedayah, be in regular contact, coordinate schedule/field studies timing and key events with Hedayah and seek their advice, when needed Expertise required The expert(s) is required to provide the following expertise: -Substantial working experience in Countering Violent Extremism. -Working experience in partnership and capacity building, preferably in EU-DEVCO-IcSP programs and/or related activities. 9

10 -Sound knowledge of and proven experience of cost-benefit and impact analysis and international project procedures, including Project Cycle Management (PCM), Logical Framework Approaches (LFA) and Theory of Change. - Proven knowledge and experience of EU-supported projects or programs in Central Asia, MENA and Western Balkans region contexts, preferably with focus on programs contributing to the stability and peace and CVE initiatives. -The team leader must have undertaken at least two similar evaluation assignments. The expert(s) must have: -University degree in a discipline relevant to the scope of the assignment as well as field experience relevant to the Terms of Reference. -At least years of general experience in the area relevant to the assignment in any of the target countries. -Proven knowledge of technical and/or financial program management in an international partnership/civil society context, including knowledge of assessing institutional management structures and systems in project/program implementation. -Proven experience with project implementation and management of EU-DEVCO supported projects/programs. -Well-versed in research and project evaluation methods and techniques, including application of EU Methodological guidance for evaluation. -Strong team working abilities. -Proven ability to rapidly produce quality reports and to work under tight deadlines. -Excellent English language and facilitation and communication skills. 8- CONFLICT OF INTEREST Contractor or expert who has been involved directly or indirectly (mid-term mission, feasibility study, local mission, etc.) in the delivery of activities with respect to the program cannot be considered for this assignment. The firm/consultants will have to sign a Non-Disclosure-Agreement as part of the service contract with Hedayah to preservate the confidenciality of the work. The selected consultants must be self-sufficient in terms of travel to Abu Dhabi, accomodation, meals, laptop and mobile phone. Hedayah will facilitate space where to work and to have phone calls with the different partners and stakeholders. 10

11 9- ROLE OF THE MANAGEMENT OF HEDAYAH Hedayah/STRIVE Global Program Manager and the Grant and Administration Officer will manage the evaluation with regards to funding and contracting and the implementation arrangement, and will follow the evaluation throughout the process until the final report is completed. The role of Hedayah/STRIVE Global Program Manager and the Grant and Administration Officer in the evaluation will include: -Liaise on a regular basis with the Team Leader of the Evaluation Team. -Comment on and approve the final versions of the proposed methodology, field and evaluation reports. -Coordinate internal Hedayah contributions (from other Hedayah staff and Management), including assisting in contacting to Government, donors, local partners and other stakeholders when required. -Provide feed-back to the Evaluation Team. -Assist in organizing, facilitating the evaluation meetings, phone calls/field studies, as per appropriate. -Organize the presentation of the evaluation results, and assist with the necessary follow-up of the Evaluation. 10- SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS AND SELECTION CRITERIA Firms/consultant(s) interested in applying to this tender should send a cover letter expressing their interest and CV (or firm profile) to the strive.admin@hedayah.ae with the subject STRIVE Global_mid term evaluation. Deadline: 5 June 2017, 5:00 pm Abu Dhabi time. Hedayah will contact the candidates with a suitable profile and will provide to them the necessary information about the program in order to be able to submit the following documents and information to tender: Cover letter (with date and signed) indicating the name of the program and a list of the documents attached. Tax identification number of the firm and the identity document of the legal representative/s. A technical proposal for the evaluation including all the requirements mentioned in these ToR, curriculum vitae of the firm/evaluator(s) and a list 11

12 with the members of the evaluation team proposed with a brief description or curriculum vitae of each evaluator. A financial proposal/budget forecast (which should not exceed EUR 15,000). All the offers should be sent within eight (8) working days from the invitation to tender to the following strive.admin@hedayah.ae with the subject STRIVE Global_mid term evaluation proposal_ followed by the name of the firm/consultant. Selection criteria Methodology-maximum 40 Work Plan-maximum 30 Technical Team-maximum 20 Budget- maximum 10 Overall total score=