Terms of Reference (ToR) 
For
Facilitating Evaluation under the Action 
“Civil Society Organisations Strengthening Democratic Governance” 
DCI-NSAPVD/2015/359-868

1.	Introduction
NETZ Partnership for Development and Justice (short: NETZ) is a non-governmental organisation which promotes human rights and justice in Bangladesh with a focus on the most vulnerable and marginalised people to create an enabling environment in the society for demanding good governance, a non-discriminatory society and social justice. NETZ is seeking to hire Consultants to carry out an evaluation of its “Civil Society Organisations Strengthen Democratic Governance”, a European Union funded project. The overall objective of the project is to enhance civil society organisations’ contributions to institutionalisation of democratic governance and accountability in Bangladesh. And the specific objective is that through the action effective partnership between capacitated civil society organisations (CSOs) and responsive local authorities (LAs) fosters governance and accountability processes for inclusive development.

NETZ is implementing the project together with 3 partner organisations – Pollisree, Manab Kallyan Parished (MKP) and Research Initiatives Bangladesh (RIB). The planned activities of the project mainly targeted 4,200 civil Society (CS) actors organised in 172 local and regional civil society organizations (at least 75% of the local CSOs members from vulnerable groups, 50% women and 30% youth), one national CSO platform and 44 local authorities (LA) in Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Nilphamari and Rangpur districts of Bangladesh. The CS actors are organised mainly from marginalized communities in whose human rights, access and needs were denied by the society as well as the state authorities. The project duration is from 01 January 2016 to 31 December 2019.

2.	Overall objective of Evaluation
The overall objective of the evaluation is to verify the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and above all sustainability of the project. Besides, it should be assessed whether and how the situation of the target group has changed and/or improved after end of the project intervention.

3.   Specific Objectives of Evaluation
•	The impact of the project activities regarding improvement of the human rights situation of the targeted marginalized people and their communities.
•	Capacities and level of self-organization of CSOs in identifying and ensuring the basic human rights issues of marginalized communities.
•	Scope  of  applying  Right  to  Information  (RTI)  as  a  tool  of  human  rights  work  in working districts.
•	The impact of democratic dialogue of CSOs and LAS in ensuring governance and accountability processes 
•	Functions of national CSOs platform in raising human rights agenda at national level.

4.   Central questions and criteria of evaluation
Aim of the Evaluation is to verify the relevance, effectivness, efficiency, impact and above all sustainablitiy of the project. Particularly, it should be assessed whether and how the situation of the target group has changed and/or improved after end of the project intervention. The external consultant shall provide  answers  and  recommendations concerning the following main questions:

Relevance
•	Was the intervention appropriate to meet the needs and expectations of the marginalised people  (both  direct  and  indirect  target  group)  regarding  improving  the  human  rights situation? 
•	To what extent is the particular developmental approach and concept of the project relevant in the current context?
•	Was the methodology including PAR as an approach and RTI as a tool used for the particular intervention appropriate in the present context?
•	How do the (local) government authorities, local NGOs, local people involved with different political parties, local civil society actors assess or validate the activities of the project? Do they think such project intervention is relevant in the present context?

Effectiveness
•	Was the project objective realistic? In which way do the objectives correspond with the current requirements and the current level of knowledge?
•	Which factors were decisive concerning achieving respectively falling short of the project objective?
•	Were the results and indicators chosen realistically? To which extend were the result and indicators achieved?
•	Was the methodology used in the project effective?
•	What are the problems that the CSOs are facing regarding facilitation of group meetings and their activities?
•	Was the RTI act an effective tool in getting access to social safety net measures? Did the RTI act help target communities regarding changing existing power relation between the local authorities and marginalised people or did the relationship between marginalised people and local authorities improve?
•	Are there recommendations for further development concerning the effectiveness of the project?

Efficiency
•	Was the relationship between the cost and benefit of the project activities reasonable?
•	Were achievements realised on time and were effects accomplished in an appropriate timeframe?
•	Are there recommendations for further development concerning the efficiency of the project?

 Impact
•	Was the overall objective realistic and in which way does the objective correspond to the requirements of the marginalized communities?
•	What are the impacts of the project activities on the direct target group? Did the impact of the activities vary from one context to another (from one district to another or to one community to another)? What are the reasons behind the variation (if there is any)?
•	What are the human rights issues that the CSOs are capable of approaching without external support and what issues are they not capable of handling themselves?
•	To what extend has the respective measure contributed in bringing structural change in the society or had a broader impact?
•	Would  a  replicated  implementation  of  the approach  in  future  projects  be  needed  and effective?
Sustainability
•	To what extent are the CSOs capable of continuing their human rights works independently? Are the CSOs ready for facilitating the regular group meetings and taking necessary measures to solve their problems?
•	Which potential risks are there for the sustainability of the improved human rights situation of the marginalised community? Will the impact in future rather intensify or diminish?

5.	 Geographical coverage
The study will cover at least 16 unions of the working districts i.e.  Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Rangpur and Nilphamari.  

6.	Consultant:
External consultants (a team of 2 persons, 1 male, 1 female) will be involved for the particular task. The Consultants could plan for engaging more associates. In that case, NETZ will sign agreement with the lead Consultants only. 

7.	Required Qualifications:
The consultants should have at the minimum the following qualifications:
•	Experience in working with or evaluating human rights projects
•	Extensive experience of research in rural areas and especially with marginalized groups.
•	Sound knowledge of the indicators of assessing social science research.
•	Sufficient and well documented publication to prove writing (in English), evaluating and analyzing skills.
•	Independent from NETZ, i.e. not related to NETZ, partners organisations and direct beneficiaries
•	Special exposure to participatory methods of research
•	Willingness to travel to the working areas of the project

8.	Tasks and duties
•	Review documents available at NETZ and partner organisation’ offices (e.g. project documentation, annual interim reports etc.).
•	Meet with the relevant staffs of NETZ and partner organisation located both at Dhaka and in different districts to get a clear idea and hear experiences.
•	Visit project areas in 4 working districts of to get clear ideas of target group
•	Presentation and Discussion of findings of the report with NETZ 

9.  Methodology
The methodology shall include at the minimum:
•	Literature review, including the project proposal and interim reports of the project on which the evaluation will be conducted.
•	Field  research  including  interviews  with  target  group    members,  other  members  of  the targeted people’s communities, members of the local authorities, local and regional CS actors, people involved in different events etc.
•	Following the data collection preliminary results will be shared and discussed with NETZ
•	Preparing and submitting an evaluation report in English

10.  Expected Outputs and Deliverables
The consultants will formulate a report following the prescribed format provide by NETZ, which displays the findings of the evaluation and the central questions of the evaluation as outlined above. The report will be in English and have a length of approximately 30 pages. The evaluation report will be submitted to NETZ.

11.  Time Frame:
The evaluation work comprises a total of 20 working days for each Consultant (from October 20 to November 17, 2019). 
Sl no	Work	No. of days	
1	Reading documents, meeting with NETZ staff 	2	
2	Meeting with staff of partner organisations and relevant stakeholders at 4 working districts	10	
3	Meeting with national level stakeholders	2	
4	Report writing, reviewing after comments of NETZ and preparation and submission of final report	6	
	Total	20	

Travel plans will be finalised in discussion with NETZ and partner organisation.

12.	Consultancy Fees
For the remuneration, distinct agreement will be signed with the Consultants prior to the assignment. The remuneration will cover all related cost of field visit including travel, accommodation, food, stationeries and/or any other necessary expenditure. Consultants will receive 50% of the total remuneration after signing the agreement. Another 25% will be paid after the submission of first draft of final report. Remaining 25% of remuneration will be paid after approval of the final report by NETZ. Tax and Vat on remuneration will be borne by the consultants and deducted from the source of payment as per the rules and procedures of Government of Bangladesh. 

13.	General conditions
•	NETZ reserves the right to disagree with any incomplete work and consequently NETZ may retain the last instalment of the remuneration. 
•	The contracting authorities also reserve the right to amend this contract at any time according to the necessity of the project given prior communication. 
•	The contract may be terminated if the consultants are found non-compliant to the terms and conditions of the contract.
•	NETZ will have the copyright of all results and documents elaborated under this assignment. Any publication also in extracts needs prior approval of NETZ. 

13. Proposal Submission

The interested Consultants is requested to submit 
•	Technical proposal (not more than 2 pages)
•	Financial planning (not more than 1 page) 
•	CV of the both Consultants (not more than 4 pages for each person)
•	Email: mashiur@netz-bangladesh.de