Short-Term Consultancy: Development of a Theory of Change & Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) Framework At Women for Women International

Overview

Women for Women International (WfWI) is seeking support via a short-term consultancy project to:

1. Lead a consultative process to develop and finalise a Theory of Change (ToC) for Women for Women International’s policy and advocacy work.
2. Informed by the finalised Global Policy and Advocacy Theory of Change (ToC), design a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Framework to track the impact, reach and approach of our work.

We invite proposals from consultants with expertise in Theory of Change development, and associated monitoring and evaluation practices, particularly with expertise with regards to policy and advocacy in fragile and conflict-affected countries at various levels (grassroots, state, national, regional, international).

1. Background:

Since 1993, Women for Women International has reached more than 500,000 marginalised women across countries affected by war and conflict – including Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, Rwanda, the DRC, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Nigeria. Through our tested and transformative year long programme, we equip individual women living with the daily realities of poverty and violence with skills, knowledge and resources to build livelihoods and savings, awareness of their rights, family well-being, and support networks.

We also contribute to a more supportive and enabling environment for women’s rights at multiple levels, for example by working with male leaders and community members, promoting women’s leadership and community advocacy through our Change Agents Programme, and amplifying the voices of marginalised women in national and global decision-making spaces, particularly across the priority areas identified in our Agenda for Action. Our 2020-30 organisational Global Strategy recognises advocacy and partnerships among its key strategic pillars.

We are looking for support from an experienced consultant to deliver the scope of work provided below, working closely with the Head of Global Policy and Advocacy and Director of MERL, as well as country teams and departments across WfWI’s global organisation.

1. Scope of Work:

2.1 Purpose and objectives of project

1. a) Theory of Change
   In order to strengthen our policy and advocacy work, WfWI seeks expert assistance in developing a Theory of Change for our policy and advocacy across different levels.

For this phase of the project, the consultant will carry out the following tasks:

• Become familiar with WfWI’s overarching global policy and advocacy approach; historical work; current level of funding, resources and capacity across the organisation to do policy and advocacy work; current work plan and strategy.
• Understand WfWI’s overall organisational and programme strategy, and review research, monitoring and evaluation reports to understand where policy and advocacy sits within the organisation and how it relates to other areas of work.
• Review previous draft Theories of Change for different areas of policy and advocacy work.
• Based on this foundation, the consultant will lead a consultative internal process to develop a consolidated Theory of Change for global policy and advocacy work. This will articulate WfWI’s role in achieving change at the community, state, national, regional and international levels through its advocacy programming (predominantly through the Change Agent programme), policy influencing and thought leadership work.
• The consultant will also make recommendations for future WfWI policy and advocacy efforts in actioning our Theory of Change and incorporating this into an overarching Global Policy and Advocacy Strategy.
• b) Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Framework for policy and advocacy
  Based on a finalised Theory of Change developed during part (a) of this assignment, the consultant will design a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learnihng (MEL) Framework to track the impact, reach and approach of our advocacy and policy work and make recommendations for the future development of tools, systems and plans. This framework should apply at a global level (i.e. enable us to track policy and advocacy work across various levels and be applicable in different national contexts).

  The consultant should support the WfWI team to make recommendations and input on the following (although this is not an exhaustive list):

• What are the full range of outcomes that we can and should track across all levels of policy and advocacy work, as opposed to tracking only our own activities and outputs, and how do we do this?
• Which systems, plans, approaches and tools should we develop to monitor, evaluate and learn from our policy and advocacy work?
• What specific examples and lessons on measurement and tracking can we draw from the work of other organisations doing similar policy and advocacy work?
• How should these recommended measures approaches connect to WfWI’s wider MEL systems, approaches and tools?
• How can this MEL framework be rolled out and contextualised for use by various teams across WfWI, including country teams?

2.2 Budget:

The total budget for this project is £10,000 GBP/$13,500USD/€ 12,000EUR. This should cover all costs associated with the project, which will primarily be the consultant/s’ time. A budget should be included in the application, demonstrating the distribution of spend across activities and outputs.

2.3. Outputs:

1. Finalised Theory of Change for Global Policy and Advocacy, based on a thorough review and consultative process.
2. MEL Framework, with recommendations for how to implement monitoring activities across all levels of WfWI’s policy and advocacy work and integrate this into wider WfWI MERL activities and processes.
3. Short summary report on the key findings from the consultancy and discussions with teams across the organisations.
4. Debrief with WfWI to discuss process and outputs.
5. Essential skills/experience and how to apply:

Skills/experience:

• Expertise in developing theories of change
• Understanding of different approaches to developing theories of change and the implications for MEL frameworks
• Expertise in policy and advocacy at a range of levels including grassroots programming and national and global policy influencing and advocacy
• Experience developing MEL frameworks which distinguish between results at different levels; track impact, outcomes, outputs; incorporate qualitative and quantitative metrics; and differentiate between dimensions of change.
• Ability to work to tight deadlines
• A strong approach to conducting consultative internal processes for developing theories of change and MEL tools
• Knowledge of participatory, gender-sensitive and inclusive MERL approaches and methodologies
• Knowledge of MEL trends and successful practices in the sector, particularly relating to policy and advocacy work
• Ability to work across contexts, and adapt to local needs
• Ideally, experience working on women’s rights and gender equality in fragile and conflict affected countries.

Organisation: Women for Women International (WfWI)

Budget: £10,000 GBP/$13,500USD/€ 12,000EUR

Duration of contract: Proposed 3 months – but flexible depending on the proposal and approach, and to be confirmed upon hiring the consultant.

Deadline for applications: Sunday 13th February

Project start date: ASAP

Location: Consultants can be based anywhere – project to be completed remotely