FORUTis a non-governmental organisation founded in 1981 by the Norwegian peace and temperance organisations IOGT Norway, NGU and IOGT-Junior Association of Norway. FORUT’s vision is a peaceful, democratic, and just world where everyone is secured human rights and a dignified life, and where alcohol and drugs do not jeopardise people’s safety and human potential.
The mission of FORUT is to mobilise, organise and empower people, especially women and children, to develop their potential. Together with our local partners, we operate and work in six countries in the global south to promote development cooperation. FORUT works with development programmes in Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Malawi and Zambia. More information about FORUT and our programmes can be found here.
FORUT – Campaign for Solidarity and Development – hereby invites tenders for an organizational evaluation of FORUT's partner organization Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA).
Evaluation type
The evaluation is an organisational evaluation, conducted as per the evaluation plan in the 2019-2023 agreement between Norad and FORUT.
Scope of the evaluation
The evaluation covers the following Norad-funded projects:
• IND-9 Protecting Children – Child Rights and Youth Empowerment
• IND-10 Women’s uplift – Gender Equality
• IND-11 Alcohol and Drug Prevention – For the sake of Family
• IND-12 Livelihoods – Vocational Skills and Self-employment
The scope of the evaluation will be broader, taking into account the organizational structure of APSA as a whole and involving all APSA staff members at all levels of the organisation.
Purposes and primary intended uses
The current agreement period between FORUT and APSA runs from the calendar years 2019 - 2023. The primary intended uses of the evaluation will be determined collaboratively by the evaluator(s) and the Primary Intended Users (PIUs) of the evaluation. As a starting point, the following intended uses of the evaluation should be considered:
▪ As a useful supplement for discussions between APSA and FORUT on a new partnership agreement from 2024.
▪ As a learning tool for APSA, providing valuable lessons and learning for APSA´s future project planning, and input for further development of the organisation.
The overall framework for the evaluation must be utilisation-focused, i.e. consulting the PIUs on issues such as evaluation questions, methodology and report format. Identifying the PIUs in cooperation with APSA and making the evaluation utilisation-focused is the responsibility of the evaluator and should be considered an integrated part of the evaluation.
Primary Intended Users (PIUs) and main stakeholders
The Primary Intended Users (PIUs) and main stakeholders of the evaluation are:
▪ Stakeholders in the four abovementioned projects, as defined in each of them, to be interviewed online or face-to-face, depending on the safety situation relating to Covid- 19 in 2022,
▪ APSA, as the CSO partner in the Global South, PIU
▪ FORUT, as theCSO partner in the Global North, PIU
Focus of the evaluation
This evaluation will have the following perspectives: The evaluation should cover a standard project follow-up evaluation, looking at signs of potential progress of the projects and continuity of results achieved so far. This includes a brief analysis of the shrinking resource base for organisations such as APSA and reflections on how to further adapt and strategize to survive and remain relevant in a changing environment. Given the change in circumstances due to Covid, assess the steps that APSA has taken to find alternative solutions for achieving the objectives in their results frameworks, and for rendering relevant services to the target groups. Reference can be made to the six OECD DAC criteria, but with emphasis on relevance, effectiveness, and sustainability. The above-mentioned perspectives should be used to give a comprehensive assessment of APSA´s organisational structure, with emphasis on how to ensure robustness and sustainability of the organisation. This includes an analysis of the organisation’s vulnerability in today’s context, key staff turn-over and leadership, covering all levels of the organisation, and key recommendations for addressing these challenges.
The evaluation method
Utilisation-Focused Evaluation (UFE)
The overall approach for the evaluation must be utilisation-focused.As such, the evaluator should arrange a workshop or individual meetings with PIUs before and after the evaluation in order to arrive at the appropriate methodology, involvement of PIUs and other stakeholders, and to maximise the use(s) of the evaluation. Throughout the evaluation process, intended users should be updated on preliminary findings and be consulted to clarify doubts. Initial findings and recommendations made as a result of the evaluation must be fed back to the PIUs, partner community leaders and rights holders in a meaningful way, so they have an opportunity to discuss the recommendations before these are finalised. As much as possible, the evaluation should describe the mechanisms and systems by which recommendations are shared, incorporated in future planning and proposals, and followed up.
Preferred qualifications
The presentation of the evaluator team should allow FORUT and APSA to assess the team’s range of qualifications. As a whole the team should preferably have the following qualifications or experience with as many as possible of the following criteria:
▪ At least ten years’ experience in Organisational capacity analysis, qualitative research, field work, data analysis and report writing
▪ Experience of no less than 5 years with Policy Analysis and Development
▪ Experience of no less than 10 years in Participatory evaluation including group process facilitation, and preferably experience with Utilisation-Focused Evaluations
▪ Good understanding of civil society actions and social movements
▪ In-depth understanding of the Indian context of child labour, child rights, human trafficking, gender-based violence and empowerment of women and children
▪ Indian political, social and cultural context in general, and preferably also the context in Karnataka and Telangana
▪ Familiarity with one or more of the South Indian languages (Tamil, Telugu or Kannada), as this will be important in the communication with various target groups.
Further information:
Tender documents can be downloaded here.
How to apply:
Tenders are to be submitted by email to: staale@forut.no by no later than 4th of March, 2022.