Terms of Reference for Individual Consultant/Consulting Firm

Title	Final Evaluation Study of ‘SADBHAAV’ Project
Organization	Centre for Social Change (CSC)
Duty Station	Kathmandu
Contract Type	Individual Contract
Duration	20 days
Expected Start Date	November 15, 2024

About CSC

Centre for Social Change (CSC), founded in 2015 is a non-profit making social think-thank based in Kathmandu, Nepal working on the changing socio-political dynamics of Nepalese society via research, education, advocacy, and through community mobilization. CSC’s current works are focused on issues around conflict transformation and peacebuilding, democracy and governance, migration and human mobility, labor and employment, civic space and civil society development, and social development and public policy.

Project Background

In response to Nepal’s persistent socio-political challenges, CSC in its final stage of Sadbhaav project “Enhancing Local Capacities for Building Peaceful and Cohesive Society in Nepal (Sadbhaav-III project phase III) aims to address the key drivers of conflict stemming from longstanding social, economic, and political disparities. It employs a multi-faceted approach involving art-based dialogues, capacity building, storytelling, knowledge dissemination, and conflict transformation. By engaging diverse stakeholders such as youth, educators, community leaders, and government officials, the project aims to foster a holistic approach to promoting trust and cohesion in Nepalese society and encourage empathy among the communities.

As the project enters its third phase, Sadbhaav-III aspires to create democratic spaces to foster dialogues on peace, justice, and inclusion. Finally, the project emphasizes the importance of justice and inclusion as foundational elements for societal trust and cohesion. Building upon the successes and insights gained from previous phases, this project extends its interventions to include a wider range of actors such as schoolteachers, peacebuilders, and government officials. By integrating art-based dialogue into public schools and engaging various segments of society, the project aims to instill long-term positive changes and mitigate conflicts at local levels.

Key Actors and Outcome

Targeting youth, educators, government officials, and community leaders across four districts (Sunsari, Bara, Rupandehi, and Kailali) in Nepal, the project envisions creating lasting impacts on societal cohesion and peace as below:

Actors	Outcomes
Youths and Students (14-18 years old)	Increased knowledge and skills on trust building and social cohesion among youth and students from different cultures and ethnic groups. Increased cross-cultural understanding through effective art-based dialogues and communication among youth
School Teachers	Enhanced capacity of school teachers to transmit the idea of building a peaceful and cohesive society among their students Integration of conflict transformation and peacebuilding concepts and approaches while teaching at schools Enhanced conflict transformation capacities to take proactive action to find peaceful solutions to the ongoing and latent conflicts and disputes within and beyond the school setting. Enhanced capacity of school teachers to lobby for the incorporation of art-based dialogue as a formal teaching pedagogy.
Elected local government representatives and political leaders	Enhanced understanding and capacity of elected local government representatives and political leaders on issues around conflict transformation, peacebuilding, social cohesion, and dialogue. Sensitized and trained local and provincial leaders take proactive action
	For peaceful solutions to the ongoing and latent socio-cultural and political conflicts. Increased awareness and knowledge of the political leaders, and elected local government representatives on the use of conflict-sensitive and dialogue approaches in the process of development planning, local-level political decision-making, and resolving socio-cultural and political conflicts.
Peacebuilders, social change leaders, and justice movement leaders representing civil society, ethnocultural groups, and community-based organizations	Fostered intergeneration dialogue and collaborations between the new and old generation of peacebuilders, social change leaders, and justice movement leaders Increased engagement of peacebuilders, social change leaders, and justice movement leaders to create wider influence in society through storytelling Created space for collaboration and collection action for peacebuilders, social change leaders, and justice movement leaders through community, province, and national level public platforms.

The project is scheduled to commence on February 1, 2024, and conclude on December 31, 2024, the project represents a strategic effort to address Nepal’s socio-political landscape and promote sustainable peace and harmony.

Objectives of the Final Evaluation

The objectives of the evaluation are as follows:

The final evaluation has the following specific objectives:

To assess SADBHAAV project’s overall objective, outcomes, and milestones as well as provide information on the
Project Effectiveness (Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Sustainability and Impact)
To highlight the major innovations, good practices and approaches, and lessons learnt.
To explore and assess which areas of the project went well and which areas needed to be improved and identify what could have been done to achieve better project results.

Evaluation Criteria and Questions

The evaluation will be carried out following the OECD/DAC evaluation criteria.

Relevance (Is the project doing the right thing?):
- To what extent do the project objectives and design respond to beneficiaries, government, and organizational needs
Coherence (How well does the intervention fit)
- To what extent do the interventions within the same project and projects within the same organizations are aligned?
- To what extent does the project complement/coordinate/harmonize with other organization’s projects, including the government’s plans and programs?
Effectiveness (Is the intervention achieving its objectives?):
- To what extent does the project achieve or is expected to achieve its objectives, and its results, including any different results across the groups?
- To what extent does the project achieve or is expected to achieve relevant and sustainable impacts, efficiently and coherently?
Efficiency (How well are resources being used?):
- To what extent does the project deliver, or is likely to deliver, results in an economic and timely way?
Impact (What difference does the intervention make?)
- To what extent is the project generated or expected to generate significant positive or negative, intended, or unintended, higher-level effects at household, community, institution, and government levels?
Sustainability (Will the benefit last?)
- To what extent does the project impact last or is likely to continue? What measures are in place to ensure that the project can continue without CSC’s support?
- What measures are in place to ensure that the project can continue without CSC’s support?

Methodology and Approach

The evaluation will be carried out in a transparent manner, making sure that all relevant stakeholders participate, as appropriate. The evaluation team should design an appropriate methodology demonstrating all key evaluation components i.e. context, impact, effectiveness, efficiency, relevancy, coherence, inclusion, and sustainability.

The final evaluation is expected to adopt a qualitative research methodology. It is expected that the team will use, but not limited to, the following briefly stated study design.

Desk review: The evaluation team will review relevant documents related to the program. This could include, but is not restricted to, project proposals, project planning, periodic progress reports, implementation plans, relevant literature, and secondary data, among others.
Key Informant Interviews (KII) and focus group discussions (FGD): The team is expected to interview with project’s key actors (Youth and students, School Teachers, elected local government representatives, and political leaders from districts and provinces Peacebuilders, social change leaders, and justice movement leaders representing civil society, ethnocultural groups, and community-based organizations
Prepare learning document (at least 2-pager) each for major project approach including stories (success/failure/change/impact)
At the end of the data collection phase a debrief with Centre for Social Change.
Ethical considerations, safeguarding, and code of conduct: We have a zero-tolerance approach towards fraud, corruption, and any kind of abuse, exploitation, or harassment. Before the interview, the team will develop informed consent forms. This should also include the need to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the data and identity of interview participants, responsible data management practices, and processes. The firm/consultant must receive prior permission before taking and using still/moving images for specific purposes. After the interview, in line with responsible data management principles, the data will be protected, stored, and transferred in a safe manner.

Note: The selected methodology, sample size, and data collection tools were chosen for the final evaluation and other information on methodology shall be detailed by the consultant in the technical proposal on the Request for Proposal notice.

Deliverables

The following are the expected deliverables from the consultancy:

Inception Report, including:
- Outline the approach/methodology and plan including planned timeline, methodology, planned stakeholders to be consulted, sampling technique, data collection and analysis tools (including questionnaires, protocols, and interview guidelines), data quality procedures, and qualitative data analysis procedures.
- Evaluation matrix (main questions, sub-questions, sources of data, method)
- Initial findings based on the review of the program documentation, existing data, and secondary data. Additionally, the layout or the table of contents of the final report should be included in the inception report as well.
- Suggested areas for investigation not covered by this ToR and any suggested additions/alterations.
Final evaluation report (both electronic and hard copy) in English after incorporating the feedback and comments. The report should also include the lesson learned.
Power-point presentation containing findings and recommendations
Brief 2-3 pager informative summary document extracted from the final report
- Note:
  - The inception report shall be submitted for review and approval by CSC 2 days after the signature of the contract and should not exceed more than 10 pages (excluding annexes).
  - The duration for the overall final evaluation of the project will be a of total 20 days, including submitting the inception reports, field visits, data analysis, report writing, and submission of the final report.

Ethical Guidelines:

It is expected that the consultant will adhere to all the policies of CSC pertaining to safeguarding and protection, as the following ethical guidelines and principles:

Informed consent: All participants are expected to provide informed consent following standards and pre-agreed-upon consent protocols.
Confidentiality: Utmost confidentiality must be exercised in respect of the identities of participants.
Integrity/honesty: Consultant to display honesty and integrity in their own behavior and attempt to ensure the honesty and integrity of the entire evaluation process.
Respect for people: The Consultants respect the security, dignity, and self-worth of program participants and other stakeholders. It’s expected that the Consultants will receive informed consent from the participants to ensure that they can decide in a conscious, deliberate way whether they want to participate or not. The Consultants will avoid exposing participants to further harm as a result of the response.
Responsibilities for general and public welfare: The Consultant should take into account and be sensitive to the social, cultural, and religious dynamics of the population. Consultants should make proactive efforts to create safe spaces for participants and vulnerable groups, especially women, to share information freely and safely without the presence of judgment, shame, or risk of harm.
Do no harm: The Consultants should take great care not to cause emotional/ psychological harm during data collection as questions may relate to highly sensitive information. Issues of sensitivity may vary between communities, genders, etc.
Data protection: Compliance with CSC’s values and ethical standards, including child protection and adult safeguarding, PSEAH, Gender, Environment Protection, and others. During the data collection and after data collection standard data protection systems need to adopt.

Competency Requirement

This evaluation requires either a team or an individual consultant. Between the proposed team members/individual consultants, the following criteria should be met:

Have advanced skills and knowledge in monitoring, evaluation, and learning methods and approaches, conducting community-based evaluations, and project sustainability mechanisms and processes.
Considerable technical knowledge and experience in evaluating thematic areas such as governance, conflict, peace, and education.
Follow and agree to abide by CSC’s rules and policies, including safeguarding/ child protection policy, child protection code of conduct, anti-corruption and fraud policy.
Familiarity with qualitative research methodology
Extensive experience; 3-5 years with at least 2 examples of evaluating projects
Ability to produce high-quality, accessible reports/outputs.
Fluency in written and spoken English and Nepali.
Strong coordination and facilitation skills, including the ability to work in different cultures and contexts.
Capable of working and traveling within Nepal.
Commitment to accomplish work within given deadlines.

The Evaluation Criteria

The procurement committee will evaluate the proposals submitted to CSC based on predetermined criteria using a weighted scoring method. Technical and Financial criteria will be provided with the following weightage.

Technical Criteria: 70% Financial Criteria: 30%

Area of Evaluation	Expectation	Max Score
Organizations/Consultant Experience	Brief of past relevant assignments indicating the scope, and theme of the project, staff involved, budget, and client (name and contacts)	20
Understanding of TOR and Proposed Approach and Methodology/Work Plan	Organizational perspective of what the assignment entails and the key considerations that should be made to implement it successfully.	30
Qualification & Experience of Staff	CVs of team members/ individual consultants indicating their /his/her academic qualification and relevant experiences	20
Financial Costs	A breakdown of total costs detailing proposed staff days (including researchers) remuneration, travel, accommodation, DSA, orientation, communication, taxes, stationery, and other direct costs related to the assignment	30

Application Procedure:

The application must include:

Curricula Vitae (CV) for all proposed team members
Organizational document (registration, VAT/PAN, profile, and Report)
Cover letter outlining how the consultant/s meets the person specification, confirmation of availability in the timeframe indicated, and contact details of at least two professional referees
Technical and financial proposal. Please send a brief technical proposal not more than that proposal (not more than 8-10 pages, excluding Annex) detailing your or your firm’s relevant experience, team composition, technical approach, work plan, and timeline.
A sample of a similar piece of work previously conducted in the related field

Interested firms/consultants should submit applications to the email address below with the subject line “Application for the final evaluation study of Sadbhaav Project” by October 28 2024 till 5 PM.

Contact Address: CSC Nepal

Phone: 9841370244

Email: contact@socialchange.org.np

Telephonic inquiries are not entertained as all the required information is provided in ToR document itself.

Request for Proposal (RFP) for Consultancy Service for Final Evaluation Study of ‘SADBHAAV’ Project