CONSULTANCY SERVICES for establishing Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (PMEL) baseline study and Theory of Change review – VCA عودة إلى الفرص

Region: Tunisia

Application deadline: 12 July 2021

Background

The Voices for Climate Action (VCA) programme is a lobby and advocacy programme being implemented by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Netherlands, SouthSouthNorth (SSN), Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA), Slum Dwellers International (SDI), Fundación Avina and Hivos under the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ five-year strategic partnership: “Power of Voices”. The programme aims to ensure that by 2025, local civil society and underrepresented groups will have taken on a central role as creators, facilitators and advocates of innovative and inclusive climate solutions. Their inclusion is crucial for effective and lasting climate responses. It is also crucial , because the climate crisis is also a societal challenge with ethical and human rights aspects occurring alongside a number of inequalities based on gender, socioeconomic class, race, ethnicity, nationality, ability, sexual orientation, and age.

The overall approach of the programme is to work with civil society to build widespread societal support for locally shaped climate solutions through an inclusive and rights-based approach. This includes building a broad-based climate alliance at country level, bridging divides (urban-rural, gender, youth) that amplifies voices in new unusual ways. In addition, it will influence national and global policies and financial flows (e.g. climate finance, private sector investments) in support of these locally shaped solutions. Climate justice approach Climate change is essentially a human rights issue because of its devastating effect on human life – and rights. It exacerbates existing inequalities between rich and poor, ethnicities, sexes, generations and communities. It undermines democracy and threatens the economy and development at large. Likewise, by far the greatest burden falls on those already in poverty and on underrepresented groups such as Indigenous peoples, the rural and urban poor, women and youth, although they are the least responsible for climate change. Through a climate justice approach, the programme intends to see an expanded civic space where civil society voices, in particular those of indigenous and/or marginalised people are heard on climate action.

Main strategic interventions

The programmes main strategic interventions are centred around the following three pillars

• Mutual capacity strengthening for co-creating alternative scaled climate solutions
• Agenda setting and movement in climate action through amplified storytelling
• Joint lobbying and advocacy to make policy and financial flows responsible to locally shaped climate solutions

This programme is being implemented in Tunisia by consortium members AMwA, Hivos, SSN and WWF NA. We are seeking consultants for conducting and facilitating discussions between stakeholders to review the theory of change.

Consultancy context:

To ensure the program is being designed by taking into account local voices and actual contexts, validation of the ToC and programme indicator selection with partners and allies are a necessary first step. Continuous learning and insights would need to be documented and integrated into the program design to make the programme approach and strategies more effective to achieve desired outcomes. To this end, Hivos, WWF NA, Akina Mama Wa Afrika and SouthSouthNorth are seeking a Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (PMEL) consultant to develop and establish a baseline study. We are looking for an enthusiastic, skilled and flexible consultant with PMEL expertise, excellent knowledge about the national context of climate justice and civic space in Tunisia and excellent communication and facilitation skills. Someone who have previous experience in undertaking baseline studies and developing PMEL for scopes of work focused on advocacy and capacity building.  S/he will be highly energized by working with partners from the community and global level, love a challenging, yet rewarding environment to work in.

Contribution to the program

 To assess the current political, social and economic context in Tunisia in view of the Voice for Climate Action programme, to validate the Theory of Change and programme indicator selection with partners and allies are a necessary first step. Knowing and analyzing the current situation regarding climate change, civic participation and engagement, youth & gender is a crucial step to establish a baseline necessary in comparing, measuring, and informing the implementation of the VCA programme and drawing out mitigation measures to respond to identified risks. Continuous learnings and insights would need to be documented based on this baseline. The study can also help to improve the program design to make the  approach and strategies more inclusive and effective for achieving desired outcomes. To this end, the alliance of VCA Tunisia program is seeking a Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (PMEL) consultant to conduct and establish a baseline study and to facilitate the ToC validation & indicator selection.

Rationale and specific objectives:

baseline study

The baseline study has the following objectives:

• To assess climate justice issues through an intersectional approach and identify major themes, knowledge gaps, and priorities for action.
• To draw from the experiences of indigenous peoples, women, youth, and other marginalised groups to inform strategies of centering them in climate justice interventions
• To review the context analysis and Theory of Change (ToC)
• To inform the development of output and outcome indicators and target setting for the programme that suitable with the programme setting both in urban and rural areas
• To further guide and give recommendations for further programmatic choices and climate action interventions under the programme

 Theory of change (ToC) Validation and indicator selection

Facilitating and documenting the  ToC review & validation have the following objectives:

• Strengthen ownership of the partners of the country ToC and align expectations
• Critically review the validity of the main building blocks of the country ToC
• Deciding on the country output and outcome indicators

Deliverables

Within the overall guidance as stipulated for VCA (see guidance note) For the baseline study:

• The consultant is responsible for producing the baseline study that will provide necessary background and contextual information to the programme. The several tasks that need to be performed by the consultant are:
• Develop research proposal including study design, methodology, methods, data collection planning, and quality control procedures
• The consultant will go through the current context analysis (taken into consideration specific post-revolution context in Tunisia) and ToC in the programme proposal together with the alliance members in Tunisia to make sure there is a shared understanding of the already identified knowledge gaps and to identify any (additional) knowledge or evidence gaps
• Coordinate the data collection process for the baseline study (including a plan for data management, research permit, preparation of field sites and personnel)
• Facilitate data collection and analysis with the potential and selected local partners and stakeholders in a participatory and inclusive approach
• Analyse the data and write the reports (in English)
• Present the findings to the alliance members
• Involve in the ToC validation workshop together with alliance’s partners
• Ensure incorporation of all Covid-19 health protocol in the process

 For the ToC validation Facilitate the validation of the program’s Theory of Change in collaboration with VCA Tunisia alliance team and partners;

The consultant will undertake the guidelines ToC Indicators validation developed and approved by the alliance at global level as guidance for delivering properly the ToC & indicators. The guidelines explain steps to follow, main questions and instructions to facilitate discussion between key stakeholders and to foster ownership at the lowest level.

The RT will ensure the coordination and explanation of the requirements underlined in the ToC validation guidelines.

• Facilitate the indicator selection of the programme to measure the progress;
• Report on changes in ToC and indicators

Duration and timeline

The duration of the consultancy is 10 working days divided as follow:

• 5 working days for the ToC validation: before 25th July
• 5 days for the conducting and delivering the baseline study: before August 31 st 2021