End Evaluation of the FAIR for ALL programme

About the FAIR for ALL end evaluation

We are looking for a team of consultants to conduct the end evaluation of the FAIR for ALL programme. FAIR for ALL, which has a budget of over 70 million euro, runs from 1 January 2021 until 31 December 2025, and is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs under its Power of Voices policy framework (whose main objective is to strengthen civil society organisations in their role of lobby and advocacy). The programme is implemented in 17 countries/regions by a consortium of four organisations: Oxfam Novib, Huairou Commission, Third World Network Africa (TWN-Africa) and SOMO.

FAIR for ALL’s strategic objective is “A strengthened civil society which is capable of creating space and mobilizing people across geographies to demand and contribute to more inclusive and sustainable trade and value chains that respect human rights, protect the environment and promote women’s economic empowerment”.

An external end evaluation is to be undertaken for the period of 2021 through 2025. It is an opportunity to understand the extent to which programme has been able to achieve its goals and objectives, consider how change happened in relation to the ToC, and demonstrate accountability of the programme to its stakeholders.

Objectives of the FAIR for ALL end evaluation and Overarching Evaluation Question

The end evaluation of the FAIR for ALL programme has a number of accountability objectives, as well as knowledge objectives and actions objectives, as summarised below.

Accountability objectives:

• Accountability towards the people the programme works with.
• Accountability between organisations involved in FAIR for ALL.
• Accountability towards the donor.

Knowledge objectives:

• Understand to what extent and how the FAIR for ALL programme achieved changes at different levels (local / national / regional / global; public & private sectors / CSOs / people the programme works with), within different programme components and within the ToC, taking into consideration the changes in contexts and adaptive capacity of the involved organisations.
• Understand how the achieved changes contributed to achieving the objectives of the FAIR for ALL programme, focusing on the synergies / interactions / mutual strengthening between the pathways.
• Understand what has been the added value for civil society of the FAIR for ALL Strategic Partnership, and the contributions of / synergies between the participating consortium members.

Action objectives – The insights gained from the evaluation shall:

1. Inform FAIR for ALL consortium members and partners on the following:
   1. How the impacts (and outcomes) achieved so far can be sustained, and all involved can continue building on these after the programme has ended.
   2. Findings and actionable recommendations that can be used for the design and/or adjustment of existing and future interventions.
   3. Evidence and information that can be used for the development and submission of proposals, and/or inform future conversations with donors.
   4. Evidence and information that can be used for the formulation of policy asks.
2. Provide evidence to support informed decisions by donors as regards to what to prioritise when funding similar interventions.
3. Guide policymakers in refining or developing new policies related to the sector or focus area of the programme, and/or on funding future programmes in these focus areas.

The Overarching Evaluation Question is “To what extent has FAIR for ALL contributed to a stronger civil society, which is capable of creating space and mobilizing people across geographies to demand more inclusive and sustainable trade and value chains that respect human rights, protect the environment and promote women’s empowerment?”

Please note:

• Evaluation sub-questions are included in the full ToR.
• The evaluation questions have been articulated in a way to keep them overarching and general, and applicable to the entire programme. During the inception phase, the consultants who will be responsible for conducting the evaluation shall further unpack, contextualise and refine these questions (and possibly formulate sub-questions), through a participatory process they will facilitate with FAIR for ALL consortium members and partners.

In addition, the following OECD-DAC Evaluation Criteria have been prioritised for the evaluation : Effectiveness, Impact, Relevance, Coherence, Sustainability. In addition, the end evaluation shall also cover the following cross-cutting themes: Gender, Poverty reduction, Climate, Localisation, Civic space, Conflict sensitivity, Youth.

Who we are looking for to conduct the FAIR for ALL end evaluation

We are looking for a team of consultants with the following competencies and experiences:

Required:

• Team members and/or network of experts/specialists/consultants based in the FAIR for ALL countries
• Experience in evaluating the content and intervention strategies relevant to the FAIR for ALL Programme (fair value chains, inclusive and sustainable trade, influencing, civil society strengthening), including the related crosscutting themes (gender, youth, poverty reduction, climate, civic space and conflict sensitivity).
• Proven experience in evaluating major (above euro 10 million) programmes in multi-country setting, with regional and global components, and with a diversity of stakeholders.
• Previous experience – at least two assignments – comparable in content, time, scope and money.
• Proven experience in applying mixed-methods evaluations, collecting and analysis both quantitative and qualitative data. For qualitative approaches, proven experience in various evaluation methods such as realist evaluation, contribution analysis, process tracing and/or general elimination methodology.
• Proven experience in designing and facilitating participatory and feminist processes, taking into account gender aspects, intersectionality, and power dynamics, while valuing indigenous knowledge and collective knowledge generation, and being guided by “Do No Harm” principles.
• Proven experience in engaging marginalised groups (such as women, youth, indigenous groups, and people with disabilities), ensuring that their perspectives are fully considered.
• Proven experience in working with grassroots organizations.
• Clear commitment to ethical evaluation practices, particularly in safeguarding the dignity, rights, and confidentiality of participants.
• Experience in facilitating online, offline, hybrid co-creation and validation workshops and sessions.
• Proven ability in working across geographies, languages, contexts and cultures.
• For the lead consultant: proven ability to coordinate a team of country-based consultants,
• For the country-based consultants: deep understanding of the social, political, and economic context of the country(ies)/region they will work in.
• Ability to organise and deliver products on time against a tight deadline.
• Strong networking and problem-solving skills.
• Strong analytical and synthesis skills.
• Strong writing and communicative skills (including intercultural communication).
• Excellent command of English; for the local consultants conducting the evaluation in Portuguese-speaking countries, excellent command of Portuguese.

Preferred:

• Experience with Oxfam and/or experience with evaluations in a network/confederal setting.
• Experience with functioning producer organizations (associations, cooperatives…).
• Capacity/expertise in ‘digital’ approach to producing and publishing reports.
• Gender-balanced and diverse evaluation team.

Consultants who have the required expertise and experience, and are up to conducting an important end evaluation following feminist and decolonized principles, can download the full ToR here.