Evaluation Consultancy Strengthened Partnerships for Principled and Effective Humanitarian Action Project

Background to the Consultancy

In order to address gaps in the delivery of principled and effective humanitarian action, ICVA sought the support of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) to implement the “Strengthened Partnerships for Principled and Effective Humanitarian Action” project. The project, which ran from March 2023 to March 2025, aimed to “improve the quality of partnerships to serve principled and effective humanitarian action”. It focused on strengthening the delivery of humanitarian assistance globally by advancing collective understanding of and commitment to addressing barriers to meaningful humanitarian partnerships, with a specific focus on local and national actors. It also sought to strengthen NGOs, in particular LLNGOs’ ability to develop and maintain quality partnerships. The project targeted the following regions:

The project targeted NGOs from the following geographic areas where ICVA has regional presence: Asia and Pacific, East and Southern Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa. Its expected results and key outputs were the following:

• Purpose 1: Ongoing dialogue for improved partnership is fostered at regional level
  • Delivery of four regional workshops on PoP in Asia-Pacific, East and Southern Africa, Latin America and Caribbean, and Middle East and North Africa regions.
  • Delivery of a global workshop on the Grand Bargain commitments.
• Purpose 2: National and local actors are supported to participate and contribute to policy making processes and coordination mechanisms at all levels
  • Analysis of NGOs’ access to humanitarian pooled funds and similar mechanisms.
  • Mapping and analysis of national actors’ participation in coordination mechanisms, particularly clusters, in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
• Purpose 3: Institutional capacities and expertise of NGOs is enhanced through mutual learning and exchanges.
  • Delivery of global workshop for peer-to-peer learning on effective engagement with humanitarian stakeholders at national and local level.
  • Delivery of global workshop for peer-to-peer learning on Accountability to Affected Population (AAP).
  • Delivery of global workshop on humanitarian coordination.
  • Development of resource repository platform
• Purpose 4: Institutional capacities and expertise of humanitarian organizations on climate and environment is enhanced
  • Provision by the Secretariat for the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations of technical guidance to enable Charter Signatories to set individual organizational targets on climate change adaptation, among others.
  • Knowledge sharing by the Charter Secretariat to learn from and exchange on good practice and experience on climate and the environment.
  • Promotion, dissemination and advocacy activities on the Charter and its principles.
  • Communicating developments related to climate and environment, engaging and managing signatures, targets and website.

As the project nears its conclusion, ICVA is seeking a Consultant to conduct an external evaluation of the project.

Scope

The Consultant will conduct an evaluation of the “Strengthened Partnerships for Principled and Effective Humanitarian Action” project to evaluate the extent to which and for whom project activities brought about changes, of what kinds. It will also assess the extent to which the project’s expected outcomes were achieved, for whom, how and under which circumstances. It will finally identify lessons and recommendations that might be useful to the implementation of similar and subsequent projects.

Evaluation results will be used to inform ICVA’s programming related to quality partnerships. They will also be shared with USAID/BHA and the wider humanitarian community to foster learning on projects geared towards localization and quality partnerships in humanitarian action.

Evaluation Methodology

The Consultant is expected to conduct a summative, theory-based, developmental evaluation that will combine performance assessment with an examination of future quality partnership programming pathways given project achievements.

The evaluation will be informed by the evaluation criteria of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) for donor accountability purposes. It will be based on realist evaluation principles in order to understand not just whether, but how and why project activities brought about changes for different project stakeholders, if any.

The evaluation will address the following key evaluation questions:

1. Efficiency: Which activities were implemented as part of the project, with and for whom, how were they implemented, and what were the outputs achieved? To what extent did the project’s inputs, activities and outputs align with budget and implementation plans set forth at the outset of the project? What factors promoted or inhibited adherence to plans? What can be learned about the project’s efficiency, in particular regarding delivery of capacity building, training and technical assistance activities, that can be applied to similar projects in the future?
2. Effectiveness: To what extent, how, why and for whom did the project bring about changes (intended, unintended, positive, negative) of what kinds? Did the project achieve its intended goal and purposes? What factors promoted or inhibited achievement of the project’s goal and purposes? What can be learned about the project’s effectiveness, in particular regarding capacity building, training and technical assistance impacts, that can be applied to similar projects in the future?
3. Equity: To what extent and how have local and national NGOs of which kinds been targeted for and included in project activities? What can be learned about the project’s equity considerations that can be applied to similar projects in the future?
4. Sustainability and Future Programming: How have the knowledge, skills and opportunities related to quality partnerships generated by the project been used, by whom, with whom, and for what purpose? What does this mean for the project’s sustainability? What recommendations arise from the evaluation with regards to quality partnership programming?

The evaluation will use a mixed methods design, incorporating:

• Document review
• Baseline, endline and routine monitoring data
• Primary data collection:
  • Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and/or Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with ICVA staff and project stakeholders
  • Additional quantitative data collection through short activity follow up surveys should the secondary data not be sufficient.
  • Development of one case study that will zoom in on the cumulative value of the project for NGOs

Evaluation Deliverables

1. Evaluation inception report, further refining evaluation questions, methods and timetable
2. Repository of documents containing relevant internal documents and databases
3. Evaluation database: Collation of all data used as part of the evaluation
4. Evaluation MEL tools: KII, FGD interview guides, short follow-up survey questionnaire, case study template
5. Evaluation analysis framework
6. 1 case study showcasing the cumulative value of the project for participating organizations
7. Evaluation report: Should be maximum 30 pages in length excluding annexes and contain:
   1. An Executive Summary
   2. Introduction including methodology
   3. Background on ICVA
   4. Evaluation findings by evaluation questions
   5. Strategic reflections and future considerations
   6. Recommendations and conclusion
   7. Annexes, including case study
8. Validation workshop presentation

Duration of Work

The evaluation is expected to commence in April 2025 and be concluded no later than May 31st, 2025. The total number of working days assigned to this consultancy should not exceed 20.

Engagement with ICVA

The Consultant will report to ICVA’s Chief Operating Officer with support from other team members as deemed necessary. The Consultant will be responsible for refining the evaluation methodology, key stakeholders’ interviews, data analysis, interpretation and evaluation report writing, while ICVA’s MEL Officer will support data collation, collection and processing activities.

The Consultant will keep in regular contact with the ICVA’s Regional Representative and MEL Officer to provide updates on progress.

Consultant Requirements

Required competencies include:

• Evaluator with demonstrable experience of minimum 10 years, preferably in humanitarian coordination and/or humanitarian governance work
• Extensive knowledge of evaluation methodologies
• Experience in conducting evaluations of USAID BHA projects
• Experience in conducting evaluations spanning multiple regions
• High-level of data processing and analysis skills
• High-level of written and verbal communication in English
• Ability to communicate evaluation findings and facilitate learning with a variety of stakeholders
• University degree in one of the following areas: monitoring and evaluation, public policy, statistics, or relevant field

How to apply

Applications including (i) a cover letter describing relevant experience and skills, (ii) a CV, (iii) a short description of how the Consultant intends to address evaluation questions, (iv) examples or links to previous evaluation work and (v) daily consultancy rate, should be sent by email to recruitment3@icvanetwork.org

The closing date for applications is 11 February 2025.