Consultant for Syria Project

Application deadline closed.

Job Description

World Council of Churches

Description

TOR for an evaluation and impact assessment for the WCC Peacebuilding process in Syria 

  1. Background 

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is an ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948. It brings together 352 member churches from all over the world, including Orthodox, Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran and Reformed denominations, to promote Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world.

The WCC initiated a peace-building project in Syria in 2012 with the aim of promoting peace and reconciliation in the country. The project has been implemented over the past years and the WCC is now looking for a contractor to undertake an impact assessment and evaluation of this programmatic work. The contractor could undertake this assignment through one or several consultants. Given the nature of the WCC project, the consultancy is highly confidential. Materials developed will be owned by the WCC and circulation will be limited. The contractor should abide to strict confidentiality requirements.

  1. Objectives of the evaluation

The contractor is expected to assess and evaluate the impact of the peace-building project, the effectiveness of the project's activities, the ownership of key stakeholders, and the project's sustainability.

The impact assessment should help answer the following questions[1]: 

Relevance

  • The relevance of the project’s work for the main stakeholders.

Coherence

  • How well does the project fit with other peacebuilding initiatives in the area and what is the added value of the WCC?

Effectiveness

  • To which degree the objectives of the project have been achieved?

Impact

  • Whether the project has made a difference since its implementation, otherwise, possible reasons a long-term impact cannot be observed?

Sustainability

  • To what extent are the measures ensuring the sustainability of the project achievements sufficient and feasible?

Specifically, the contractor will:

  1. Assess the extent to which the project has achieved its objectives.
  2. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the project's design, implementation, and management, and make recommendations for improvement.
  3. Evaluate the sustainability of the project and the potential for replication in other contexts.
  1. Scope of Work

The contractor is expected to:

  1. Conduct a desk review of relevant project documents, including project proposals, progress reports, and other relevant materials.
  2. Develop an evaluation plan that includes the methodology, data collection tools, and analysis plan.
  3. Conduct interviews to collect primary data and engage with project stakeholders, including beneficiaries, project staff, and implementing partners.
  4. Analyse the data collected and prepare an evaluation report that includes findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
  5. Present to and discuss the findings and recommendations with WCC staff and stakeholders.
  1. Deliverables

The contractor is expected to deliver the following:

  1. Inception report: This report will include the evaluation plan, methodology, data collection tools, and analysis plan. It should be submitted to WCC for review and approval within 2 weeks (10 working days) of the commencement of the contract.
  2. Draft evaluation report: This report will include the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the evaluation. It should be submitted to WCC for review and feedback after 3 weeks (15 working days) of the submission of the inception report.
  3. Final evaluation report: This report will incorporate feedback from WCC and stakeholders and should include a summary of the methodology, findings, conclusions, and recommendations. It should be submitted to WCC within 2 weeks (10 working days) of receiving feedback on the draft report.
  1. Reporting requirements 

  1. All the deliverables should be written in English and submitted by email to mns@wcc-coe.org.
  2. The final report should be no longer than 40 pages, including an executive summary. The proposed structure of the report can be found in Annex I – Impact assessment report structure
  3. Summaries of data collected should be included in the appendixes, taking into consideration confidentiality and anonymity. 
  1. Guiding principles and values

Given the context in which the project operates, the consultancy is highly confidential. The contractor should keep responses to survey anonymous and all exchanges with different stakeholders confidential. Materials developed will be owned by WCC and circulation will be limited. The contractor should abide to these strict confidentiality requirements and the WCC code of Conduct.

  1. Roles and responsibilities

WCC staff will:

  • Provide the project’s related data and contacts
  • participate in meetings and workshops of the assessment as needed
  • facilitate meetings and workshops with key informants and focus groups as needed
  • manage the contract/assessment process and serve as a liaison with stakeholders
  • Have overall responsibility and accountability for the assessment
  • Approve all deliverables.

The contractor is responsible for:

  • conducting the assessment as per the agreed plan
  • Personnel management (if applicable), in particular identifying the need for short-term assignments within the available budget, as well as planning and steering assignments and consultants
  • the production of deliverables in accordance with contractual requirements
  • regular progress reporting to WCC in accordance with deadlines
  1. Conditions and budget

Contractors or institutions wishing to apply must send: 

  1. Technical proposal along with
  2. Finanncial proposal with quote of the daily fee cost (in CHF, EUR or USD), and
  3. CVs of all evaluators involved

to the following link: https://wcccoe.hire.trakstar.com/jobs/fk0xoam

Upon submission of the technical offer, the consultants will be contacted by the Programme Executive based in Geneva, Switzerland.

  1. Timeline

The contractor is expected to commence work on 1 June 2023 . The consultancy should not exceed 35 working days over a 2.5-month period. The contractor is expected to cover all costs related to the consultancy, including travel, accommodation, and other expenses.

  1. Qualifications and Experience

The contractor should have the following qualifications and experience:

  1. Advanced degree in a relevant field, such as international development, peace and conflict studies, or social sciences.
  2. Minimum of 5 years of experience in conducting evaluations and impact assessments of development projects, preferably in conflict-affected settings.
  3. Demonstrated knowledge of peace building, conflict resolution, and reconciliation.
  4. Knowledge of Arabic is necessary, at least by one of the evaluators/consultants.
  5. Strong analytical and report writing skills.
  6. Experience working with faith-based organizations is an asset. 
  1. Deadline for application

May 31, 2023

Annex I – Impact assessment report structure

Cover sheet with

  • Project title
  • Implementing organisation
  • Evaluator (author)
  • Report date

Table of contents

List of abbreviations 

Summary

  • Short presentation of the subject matter of the evaluation, possibly including key framework conditions
  • Brief information on the evaluation: Cause and objective, assessment period
  • Key findings
  • Key recommendations
  1. Short description of the subject matter of the evaluation
  • Project/programme/instrument (idea, target group, formulated objectives)
  • Implementing organisation, term, donors
  1. Framework conditions
  • Political, economic, societal and socio-cultural factors
  • Risks to project success, assumptions/prerequisites
  1. Description of the evaluation and the methodology used
  • Composition/expertise of the evaluation team
  • Methodology
  • Groups of people involved, number of participants
  • Potential difficulties in conducting the evaluation and they were dealt with
  1. Results
  • 1 Relevance
  • 2 Coherence
  • 3 Effectiveness
  • 4 Impact
  • 5 Sustainability
  1. General conclusions, lessons learned 
  1. Appendix
  • Travel and working procedure
  • Sources (discussion partners, documents, specialist literature, field research etc.)
  • Terms of Reference

[1] Based on OECD (2021), Applying Evaluation Criteria Thoughtfully, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/543e84ed-en.