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Call for Proposals for Mid-Term Evaluation
Promoting Community-Driven Early Warning Systems to Reduce Religious Freedom Violations in Bangladesh project

The Asia Foundation seeks proposal from qualified consultants/firms for the Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) of its 4.5 years long project ‘Promoting Community-Driven Early Warning Systems to Reduce Religious Freedom Violations in Bangladesh’. This MTE will focus on a formative evaluation of all specific components of the program encompassing all objectives after 36 months of implementation. The evaluation will include a gender sensitive approach which will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, Community Peacekeeper, Lead Peacekeeper, Early Response Unit (ERU) members, religious leaders/ organizations/ institutions, development partners, local government representatives and an in-depth analysis on project progress. The results and recommendations will be presented to the TAF teams and partners at field level. A debriefing at the national level will be organized to discuss the results and the recommendations. Scope of work:

The research will try to get the following assessment of:

  • the importance and effectiveness of the Early Warning System (EWS) and perception of the key stakeholders; especially Community Peacekeeper, Lead Peacekeepers and ERU members on the effectiveness and need of the system in terms of reducing religious freedom violations in five subdistricts of Rajshahi.
  • Progress made toward the achievement of the expected results and performance after 36 months of implementation (from July 2017 to August 2020).
  • Relevance of the project strategies and design in the evolving context of changing socio-economic and socio-cultural developments and realities in Bangladesh
  • Effectiveness of the project in achieving the specific results of the program.
  • Potential sustainability of the project.
  • Specific data gaps for improving staff’s knowledge on religious peace and harmony in the changing global situation as well as in the changing environment of religious freedom in Bangladesh. Also measure the challenges to achieve the goals, as well as volunteer’s knowledge on religious harmony in Bangladesh, barriers and probable solutions or ways to reduce the barriers.
  • The key stakeholders involved (e.g. policymakers, officials, religious community leaders, civil society, NGOs, the media) and their stated and unstated interests, incentives and disincentives, influence, and importance; the relationships and power dynamics among these stakeholders; and identification of spoilers and reform-minded individuals.

Expected Project Outputs:

  • One Study report (up to 30 pp, including an executive summary and annexes), in English with a 5-page policy brief for the policy makers.
  • One workshop to present the report ensuring participation from government, donors, private sector and civil society members.

Mid-term evaluation report Timeline: Within 3 months of signing the contract.

Applicants are requested to submit applications via email to country.bangladesh.jobs@asiafoundation.org, at the latest by local time in Dhaka 4:00 PM by August 23, 2020.

The application should consist of a:

  1. Technical proposal, which includes the following:
    a) Organizational Information: Name of the organization, contact information of person responsible for the proposal including email address, postal address and phone number; web address (if available);
    b) Relevant Experience: Information on the history of the organization and its work related to conducting evaluations including assessments and surveys;
    c) Assessment Plan outlining the overall understanding of ToR, including

    o The proposed assessment questions;
    o Proposed methodology, including suggested data sources, data-collection methods and sampling sizes and procedures
    o Proposed team composition, structure and staff schedule

    d) Analytical framework
    e) Work plan with estimated timetable
    f) CVs of key team members
  2. Financial proposal with a budget that outlines the fees and associated costs in BDT. The consultant/firm(s) must budget for all relevant costs (including Tax/VAT) and provide detailed breakdown of expected workdays, associated daily fee rates and planned expenses such as travel and for the dissemination event/workshop.

For more details please see the ToR which can be downloaded from this link