External Evaluator - Building a Culture of Peaceful Pluralism – Phase I

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

Internews is seeking a qualified individual consultant or firm to conduct a final evaluation for its project aiming to contribute to positive changes in public opinion on issues of religious freedom and ethnic diversity in support of peaceful pluralism in Myanmar and Sri Lanka. The evaluation will help Internews assess project performance, achievements, and implementation, identify good practices and lessons learned, and evaluate potential impact on beneficiaries and the sustainability of results.

LOGISTICS

This is a global remote opportunity. Candidates based anywhere in the world will be considered, however, there are some locations where Internews does not support remote work.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so candidates are encouraged to apply soon.

The evaluation is expected to be completed by the end of January 2025. 

The estimated budget for this evaluation is 20,000 - 25,000 USD. 

OUR COMMITMENT TO FOSTERING A CULTURE OF BELONGING

We are an organization of dynamic, mission-driven individuals who are passionate about our core values and about supporting positive change in the world. We pride ourselves on our commitment to innovation and flexibility. We believe that diverse teams are strong teams and work to support an ethic of belonging, dignity, and justice for all people. Our current team includes a mix of genders, parents and non-parents, and people of multiple races, nationalities, ages, sexual orientations and socioeconomic backgrounds. We are an EEO employer and encourage candidates of all races, genders, ages, orientations, ethnicities, and national origins to apply, and welcome those with alternative backgrounds and experiences. 

SCOPE OF WORK

Background

Myanmar is currently going through a period of significant political and social turmoil. In February 2021, the military seized power from the democratically elected government, which was met with widespread protests and civil unrest, as citizens demanded the restoration of democracy and the release of political prisoners. The military's crackdown on dissent was brutal - extrajudicial killings, torture, and mass arrests. The country has now descended into virtual civil war with armed conflicts between the military and ethnic armies and “Peoples Defence Forces” in most parts of the country.

Sri Lankans are facing the most severe economic downturn since independence in 1948. In March 2022, protesters representing a diverse coalition of Sri Lankan society united to push the country towards a better future devoid of corruption and regressive politics. These protests were driven by skyrocketing inflation, rampant government corruption, and widespread shortages of fuel, food, and medicine. The government continues to crackdown on protests using various security laws and targeting journalists for reporting on the continuing crisis. 

Phase II of the Building a Culture of Peaceful Pluralism project (2020-2024) began in a totally different environment in both countries. During Phase II, Internews evolved its approach to address the Myanmar coup and Sri Lankan economic crisis by introducing new components, scaling up others, and supporting the communities most affected, particularly ethnic and religious minorities and women.

Project Goal & Objectives

This project aims to solidify the gains of the ‘Building a Culture of Peaceful’ Pluralism (BCCP) project during phase I (completed in March 2019), through phase II including the No Cost Extension (NCE) and the Costed Extension (CE) by expanding the participant base and leveraging collaboration and networking amongst media and civil society.

The project goal is to: Contribute to positive changes in public opinion on issues of religious freedom and ethnic diversity in support of peaceful pluralism in Myanmar and Sri Lanka. It aims to meet the stabilization and peacebuilding challenges of a dysfunctional Myanmar and an economically and politically compromised Sri Lanka; by tackling rising ethnic and religious extremism and the associated hate speech.

Objective One: Enhance the ability of journalists and citizen journalists to safely provide real-time credible and inclusive content on civic and political developments that promote peaceful pluralism and respect for human rights.

Objective Two: Strengthen collaboration and networking between civil society organizations, the media and other key stakeholders to advance peaceful pluralism at the local and national levels.

Expected Key Results (Intermediate Outcomes)

• Increased access to high quality content/information about religious freedom, human rights and ethnic/religious diversity
• Increased inclusiveness (including gender inclusion) of media content/information focused on issues of religious freedom, human rights and ethnic diversity
• Improved national engagement between direct beneficiaries and key stakeholders working on religious freedom, human rights, and religious/ethnic diversity

Project Beneficiaries: The people who will directly benefit from the project include journalists, bloggers, activists, storytellers and key non-government stakeholders, with a particular emphasis on women and youth. In Myanmar, the immediate beneficiaries are primarily located in eastern border regions of Myanmar and Thailand with reach deeper into the rest of Myanmar. In Sri Lanka, beneficiaries are located nationwide, with a special focus on previous conflict-affected areas in the North and East, and the Central Provinces.

Project structure: BCPP was managed by Internews Sri Lanka and Myanmar country teams, with oversight and guidance provided by Internews’ Asia-Pacific Regional Office. The Sri Lanka office implemented some activities in the final phase with a partner. Myanmar office worked with four partners to achieve their targets.

Evaluation Purpose and Objectives

The evaluation covers the project implementation period from March 2020 to November 2024 and should encompass the entire scope of the project. The purpose of the evaluation is to assist Internews to assess the performance of the project and to inform learning. The evaluation should assess what has been achieved; how it was implemented; whether the theory of change, including the project design and assumptions, is accurate; what are the good practices emerging from the project, and what are the lessons learned. It also looks at the potential impact of project activities on beneficiaries and sustainability of results.

The primary audience for the evaluation includes the project teams and Internews Asia-Pacific staff, who will use the findings for learning and decision-making. Secondary users include local partners, who will apply the insights to enhance their interventions. The funder may also utilize the evaluation for accountability and informed decision-making.

Key Objectives

• Incorporating OECD/DAC criteria, assess the performance of the project.
• Identify and analyze the intended and unintended effects of the program on beneficiaries.
• Identify good practices and lessons learnt from the project and the underlying factors that contribute to the achievement of the project
• Provide recommendations to improve future interventions

Evaluation Scope

The evaluation will use the Development Assistance Committee of the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD/DAC) criteria, which is one of the most widely prominent and widely adopted criteria for review of aid effectiveness. The criteria used to evaluate development interventions (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability) are undoubtedly the most known and adopted features that emerged from the OEDC/DAC evaluation guidelines.

The following general guiding questions are expected to be addressed through the evaluation.

Relevance:

• Did the theory of change hold true?
• Has the project responded to the needs of the target groups and continued to do so when circumstances have changed?
• To what extent were lessons learned from the project challenges and successes and how were they applied to improve and adjust implementation to remain relevant?

Coherence:

• To what extent have other interventions (particularly policies) supported or undermined the project intervention, and vice versa? (external coherence)
• How compatible is the project with Internews strategies and other interventions in Sri Lanka and Myanmar implemented by Internews? (internal coherence)

Effectiveness:

• What results have been achieved in the implementation of the project? What were the contributing factors to the achievement of the project? What were the main challenges/barriers to achieving the implementation of the project? How well did the project adapt to the significant political and security challenges during implementation?
• Have the right things been done to achieve the project aim? Have the planned project objectives and outcomes been achieved (or likely to be achieved), if not, what is needed to close the gap and improve potential for longer-term outcomes?

Efficiency:

• Are the resources and inputs converted to outputs in a timely and cost-effective manner?
• Is the project achieving the planned outputs in line with the planned resources?

Impact:

• What are the tangible outcomes (positive and negative) as a result of the project? Has there been a positive or negative impact on beneficiaries as a whole? How has this impact been ascertained?

Sustainability:

•  Are the results sustainable? If so, how? Particular focus will be given to:

i) The implementation of a comprehensive journalist capacity-building initiative that includes training, boot camps, and mentoring with production-focused grants, ensuring both skill acquisition and practical application by participants

ii) Strengthening key relationships between media and government counterparts—as well as media and civil society—which are key to expanding the use of Freedom of Information Laws and scaling up advocacy for increased government transparency.

Approach and Methodology

The evaluation shall be carried out in accordance with Internews and DFATD guidelines. In conducting the evaluation, the evaluator must ensure that the evaluation approach will be as inclusive and participatory as possible and oriented toward reinforcing local ownership through respectful engagement with all partners, including local beneficiaries and stakeholders. The evaluation shall be designed to allow opportunity for stakeholders and beneficiaries of the project to express themselves – either through primary data collection, validation meetings, or through other means.

Internews believes that rigorous evaluations are founded on essential principles, approaches, and methods that form an integral part of the evaluation process. Evaluators are expected to incorporate the overarching principles as follow:

• Impartiality and independence: Evaluations should be conducted with objectivity and free from bias or undue influence. Evaluators should maintain an unbiased stance throughout the evaluation process and report findings and conclusions based on evidence and acknowledge any limitations of the findings.
• Credibility: Evaluations should be based on reliable data, sound methodologies, and transparent reporting to ensure that findings are trustworthy. Evaluators should employ appropriate data collection and analysis methods, clearly communicate limitations, and provide sufficient evidence to support conclusions.
• Use and usefulness: Evaluations should be designed and conducted in a manner that promotes their practical application and contributes to organizational learning and decision-making. Evaluators should engage stakeholders throughout the process to ensure that the evaluation addresses relevant questions and provides actionable recommendations.
• Ethical conduct: Evaluations must adhere to ethical standards, including respect for participants, informed consent, and confidentiality. Evaluators should weigh the risks and benefits of the evaluation and implement measures to minimize harm. If raw data, such as interview or focus group discussion notes, must be shared with a third party for reasons like translation or data analysis, it should be de-identified to protect participants' privacy.
• Transparency: Evaluations should be conducted with openness and honesty, and the evaluation process, methodology, and results should be clearly documented and communicated to stakeholders. Evaluators should disclose any potential conflicts of interest and limitations of the evaluation.

Inception Phase

Before data collection begins, the evaluator must finalize the evaluation design (inception report), which requires approval from the Internews Regional Evaluation and Research Manager. During the inception phase, the evaluator will refine the evaluation approach and methodology, including evaluation questions, research methods, data collection tools, and synthesis methods, in consultation with key stakeholders. The inception report ensures a shared understanding among all stakeholders, including the evaluation and Internews teams, of the evaluation’s purpose, scope, and limitations. Upon approval, all parties will agree on the evaluation questions, assumptions, indicators (detailed in the evaluation matrix), methodology, research tools, stakeholder sample, selected sites, work plan, and timeline. This process also allows the evaluation manager and project team to gauge the evaluator's grasp of the project context and Internews' response.

During this inception phase, the evaluator is expected to conduct: 1) a document review; 2) conduct consultation sessions with project management team; 3) conduct stakeholder mapping; 4) conduct scoping meeting to propose and agree on the final scope of evaluation; 5) propose the evaluation design and finalize the inception report.

The evaluator should consider incorporating the following data collection and analysis methods:

• Document review. The project team and partners have compiled throughout the period the following documents: technical narratives, information ecosystem analysis (preliminary findings), activity attendance sheets, training knowledge tests, success stories, progress reports, partner reports, Phase I external evaluation (April 2018-May 2019).
• Key informant interviews and/or FGD. To date, the project works with five partners and has delivered 20 activities, involving individual participants consisting of: journalists, storytellers, human rights defenders, trainers, lawyers, university students, government officials.
• Conduct a participants’ survey to do social network analysis to assess the results of network meetings with and among journalists, CSOs and influential stakeholders

Timeframe and deliverables

Internews anticipates that around 7 - 8 weeks will be needed to conduct this evaluation. The evaluator is expected to work a maximum of 35 working days. The evaluator will submit an inception report detailing the evaluation methodology and tools, followed by a final report.

The inception report is expected to be submitted no later than 25 October 2024. The inception report should be written in English and be no longer than 20 pages (excluding the annexes) and must include:

• Background: the objective and purpose of the evaluation; scope of the evaluations (including key evaluation questions, geographic coverage, timeframe); information about the project being evaluated
• Evaluation approach: evaluation principles, analytical approach, evaluation questions and sub questions
• Evaluation methodology: data collection and analysis methods, stakeholder sampling and selection, evaluation synthesis methodology, anticipated limitation of the methodology and the mitigation plan
• Evaluation process: overview of the process and next steps; quality assurance; resource requirements and logistical supports needed from Internews; workplan
• Annexes: Evaluation matrix detailing how the evaluator shall answer the evaluation questions, data collection tools, stakeholder map, selected stakeholders, list of persons consulted at the inception phase, list of documents reviewed at the inception phase, agenda for the data collection phase

The final evaluation report is expected to be submitted no later than February 3, 2025. This report will document the evaluation activities, results, key findings, conclusions, recommendations, and lessons learned. The evaluator will first submit a draft report for Internews' feedback, then incorporate comments while applying independent and impartial judgment to finalize the report. The final evaluation report will be in English and no longer than 30 pages, excluding annexes. The report must include:

• Executive summary highlighting the main findings, conclusions and recommendations. (1-2 pages)
• Methodology section: A clear summary of how the methodology as planned in the inception report is implemented and any limitation to the evaluation (3-4 pages)
• Findings section: provide a clear answer to the evaluation questions backed by analysis of the evidence gathered throughout the evaluation (15-20 pages)
• Conclusions section (1-2 pages)
• Recommendations section: the recommendations shall be made as specific as possible, action-oriented, and tailored to all relevant stakeholders (i.e. Internews and the donor) (1-2 pages)

Management of Evaluation

The evaluation will be managed by Internews Regional Evaluation and Research Manager who will quality–assure the evaluation products submitted by the evaluator. Internews staff in Sri Lanka and Myanmar will facilitate the consultant needs for the purpose of the evaluation.

QUALIFICATIONS WE’RE LOOKING FOR:

Required

• Master’s degree in social sciences, international development, evaluation or related fields;
• At least 5 years’ experience conducting evaluations for international development project in difficult contexts;
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative collection and analysis methods;
• Experience with social network analysis methods;
• Fluent English;
• Excellent inter-cultural communication skills/cultural sensitivity and the ability to forge strong cross-cultural relationships and build trust demonstrated through previous intercultural experience;
• Strong facilitation, presentation, writing and communication skills.

Preferred

Note: Candidates who do not have these preferred qualifications, but who are interested and willing to learn, are encouraged to apply.

• PhD in relevant field;
• Experience conducting evaluations for media development, or more than 5 years’ experience as evaluator;
• Understanding of Tamil/Sinhala and/or Burmese language.