India: Evaluation Consultant - Ending Bonded Labour in the Brick Kilns in India

Anti-Slavery International is seeking a consultant to conduct an end of project evaluation in India. Funded by the UK Big Lottery Fund, this project (2014-2017) aimed to eradicate bonded and child labour in brick kilns. The project’s sustainable approach was to address the informality of the industry, by promoting access to entitlements and benefits and by empowering workers to organise and claim their rights, and by ensuring multi-level institutions and stakeholders are responsive to their needs and rights.

1.Background Information and Project’s aim

The project, funded by the UK Big Lottery Fund (“BLF”), aims at contributing to the eradication of bonded labour in brick kilns in India, so that male and female brick kiln workers enjoy rights, improved working conditions, greater access to entitlements and benefits and are able to self-organise, resulting in reduced vulnerability and the elimination of perennial bonded and child labour in 250 brick kilns in the states of Punjab.

The beneficiary group are comprised of Dalits (scheduled castes) and disadvantaged minorities; many of them migrant workers from rural communities in poorer states. The aim of the project was to reach up to 50,000 bonded/migrant workers in 250 targeted kilns, including men, women and children.

The project will also work in one key source sending state – Chhattisgarh – where many of the migrant workers come from. The key objectives of the project were to:

1: Brick kilnworkers vulnerable to or affected by forced and bonded labour are able to access government benefits and social entitlements: activities included awareness campaign on entitlements, benefits and social security schemes; directly facilitating the registration of brick kiln workers for entitlements; advocacy to relevant officials to ensure registration of workers.

2: Brick kilnworkers vulnerable to or affected by forced and bonded labour attain improved wages and employment related protections and children (under 14’s) are removed from labour resulting in improved and regulated working conditions: ensuring payment of wages through legal cases, advocacy for improved wages and minimum wage; advocacy for improved working conditions (clean drinking water, reduced hours of work etc.); action to ensure children are enrolled in and attending early-childhood services (anganwadi) and primary school.

3: Brick kiln workers held in bondage and/or suffering abusive treatment are released from debt-bondage andprotected from re-bondage: legal cases filed, action taken with local officials to release workers from debt and the work-site, ensure payment of wages, strategic litigation, and provision of temporary rehabilitation services.

4:Brick kiln workers, including women workers, self-organise in workplace associations, resulting in workers articulating and asserting their rights at local level, with collective representation and affiliation at state and national level: Assist workers to undertake group advocacy to relevant stakeholders, improving ability to obtain better working conditions, wages and employment conditions, reducing vulnerability to bondage.

2. Description of the assignment

The purpose of the evaluation is to:

• Build on a previous, recent evaluation (Aug 2016) of the same programme, to determine any recent changes in impact and positive or negative consequences of the project.
• Determine whether the Theory of Change and strategies used in the project were effective; and if these strategies could be improved upon to have greater impact.
• Assess project management and coordination, with suggestions for improvement.
• Enable project partners to share lessons learnt with internal and external stakeholders.
• Allow project partners to account to local stakeholders and funders for the project’s achievements.
• Ascertain whether funds were used effectively and efficiently to deliver results (though the evaluator will not conduct a full audit).
• Allow project partners to decide the potential, scope and nature of future work on bonded labour and, if so, how such interventions could build on the success achieved and address any shortcomings in the current project.

3.The Evaluation Report

The final report must contain:

1. Executive Summary

2. Background Information on the context of the project and partners

3. Purpose of the evaluation and methodology applied

4. Results and analysis

5. Four detailed case studies

6. Conclusions

7. Recommendations, including details as to how they might be implemented.

8. Appendices (including all technical details, a list of interviewees and schedule)

The report should be 30 pages ( not including case studies or appendices) written in English and presented to Anti-Slavery International in electronic formats, with the electronic document in a format compatible with MS Word. The final report will be made available to colleagues at Anti-Slavery International, published on its website, as well as shared with project partners and with organisations and individuals that could learn from the experience.

4. Timeframe

The evaluation should start at the beginning of July if possible. A first draft of the report should be submitted by mid-August with the final report to Anti-Slavery International and electronic formats by end of August 2017.

5. Content of the Report (all findings should be supported with examples)

Results:

• Consider the stated outcomes of the project as laid out in the original project document and current logframe; based on the recently completed evaluation and any new evidence you have collected and analysed, to what extent have each of the outputs been delivered and targets/milestones reached as envisaged?
• Taken together, to what extent did the outputs achieve the desired outcomes?

Beneficiaries: Support your findings with examples and recommendations.

• What is the evidence that the project reached the intended target group(s) as described? For example, specify any sample surveys used in the evaluation, numbers and selection of people interviewed etc.

· Did the project ensure beneficiary input/feedback? If so, how and how could the project improve this ?

• Analyse whether it would be strategically advantageous to include other beneficiaries in the future that are also affected by bonded labour – consider workers in other sectors that sometimes work in kilns, and sometimes work in other industries (agriculture).

Impact / Theory of Change:

• Were the strategies and theory of change for the project effective in bringing about lasting and sustainable change? What have been the most effective methodologies and approaches used?
• Considering other possible strategies available, could the current project strategies have been improved upon? How?

· Identify the key gaps in workers’ needs or relevant issues not being tackled comprehensively by this project. How could these gaps be addressed?

• Have there been any changes in policy, practice, attitude of decision makers – at both states of origin and destination- which have benefitted brick kiln workers since the last evaluation?
• How could the project improve advocacy to address systemic issues underpinning debt-bondage and child labour?

Programme management:identifying effective methods

· What were the major challenges and gaps in the planning and implementation of the project since the time of the last evaluation?

· How effective has project management been since the time of the last evaluation?

· How could project management be improved upon?

· Has communication between partners been sufficient and appropriate? If not, how could this be improved upon? Please suggest tools/methods.

Learning

• What are the key lessons learnt through this project? How were these lessons identified by partners, and could this process be improved upon?
• How have lessons been documented and shared and acted upon? Suggest any ways that this process (identifying, sharing, implementing learnings) could have been improved upon.

Value for money

Economy

What has the project done to buy and use inputs at a value-for-money price? What did

the organisations do to effectively manage unit costs but maintain quality?

Efficiency

How did the project ensure that resources (inputs) were used efficiently to maximise results?

Effectiveness

Do you consider the project has been effective in bringing about the anticipated changes for beneficiaries and target groups?

Equity

To what extent have the project’s services been made available to/reached all the people that they are intended to?

Capacity building

· Assess if the capacity of partners increased throughout the project term.

· Provide an assessment of partners’ capacity needs going forward.

Sustainability· In what ways has the project ensured sustainable outcomes beyond BLF funding?

• In what ways could the project have become more sustainable/improved sustainability of impact and outcomes after the project finishes?

· Which aspects of the project do stakeholders wish to continue with, and why? Which elements do you think, as an evaluator, are worth funding in future – and why?

Recommendations

Summarise five to ten key recommendations to aid future programming by Anti-Slavery in India in relation to bonded labour.

6. Methodology

Anti-Slavery International will consider Bond’s evidence principles when reviewing candidates’ approach papers and we would like proposed methodologies to meet the principles as far as possible (see Annex B, attached).

· Develop a mixed methodology framework and questionnaire for data collection (e.g. semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, etc.). Conduct a desk based review of the project documentation and other relevant materials. The aim is to synthesise and verify existing information as part of the evaluation. Further data should only be collected if key primary data is missing.

· Conduct interviews with partner staff members

· Visit at least 3 different States in India (e.g. based on source-destination criteria) and interview a range of stakeholders

· Prepare four detailed case studies highlighting the impact of the project.

· As part of assessing the impact of advocacy relating to the project, interview a range of stakeholders in different States (national stakeholders may include Ministry of Labour, international and national NGOS and international agencies, in particular ILO; State level stakeholders include local authorities and local Unions).

· Present a preliminary overview/draft of findings to all project partners and receive comments before preparing the evaluation report. The report should include information on the process by which preliminary findings were shared and discussed, and how any resulting changes in the report were included.

· Prepare the final evaluation report in English, complete with an executive summary and recommendations. Recommendations must also include details as to how they might be implemented.

· Submit a draft to Anti-Slavery for written comment before finalising the report, to minimise the chance of inaccuracies and to maximise ownership of the findings.

Point of contact throughout the evaluation will be Sarah Mount, Asia Programme Manager at Anti-Slavery International

7. Specification of the Consultant

Essential selection criteria include:

· Extensive experience in evaluation

· Knowledge of labour rights, bonded labour, trafficking for labour exploitation and labour migration and gender expertise

· Fluent in Hindi and English

· Knowledge of the specific context of India, in particular related to legislation and policies on labour rights and bonded labour, including legislation covering informal sector workers

· Experience of participatory approaches in general, and specifically with women

· Independent of all partners

Desirable selection criteria include:

· Specific work experience on the issue of bonded labour in India

· Fluent/proficient in Punjabi

Anti-Slavery International has worked with local partner organisations to achieve this aim: Jan Jagriti Kendra (JJK) and Volunteers for Social Justice (VSJ).

The evaluation will take approximately six - eight weeks and will require travel in India for approximately half of this time as well as desk research and liaison/discussion with Anti-Slavery International in London. The consultant/s should be available as soon as possible, to start by the end of June, and the report finalised by the end of August 2017.

The consultant should have extensive project evaluation experience, ideally in labour rights and have good knowledge of bonded labour and gender issues. The consultant should be fluent in English and Hindi. Additional criteria are outlined in Terms of Reference.

Applicants should email a CV, cover letter and a brief approach paper outlining ideas for the evaluation and estimated timeframe and fees to Sarah Mount: s.mount@antislavery.org. The deadline for applications is the 18^th of June (midnight London time), with interviews to be held in person or via Skype the week beginning 19^th of June 2017.