[NOW CLOSED] Call for Consultants: Independent Evaluation of ‘Empowering Women in Digital Rights Advocacy’ project

The consultancy

We are looking to engage an experienced evaluation consultant to carry out an interim and final evaluation of one of our projects. The project, called Empowering Women in Digital Rights Advocacy (EWDRA), is based in sub-Saharan Africa and began late last year. In addition, the consultant will conduct independent research with an intersectional lens to measure the impact of the project on the digital rights landscape in selected African countries.

The project

EWDRA builds on two iterations of our Digital Rights Advocacy Project (DRAP), which we devised specifically to address digital rights issues in sub-Saharan Africa.

EWDRA is a thirty-month project that started in October 2021 and will end in April 2024. In short, it builds on the strengths of the previous projects but also seeks to address gender disparities. Specific objectives include:

1. To expand and strengthen the existing sub-Saharan DRAP network, with a targeted focus on engaging and empowering women lawyers specifically, by connecting women lawyers in the region and to other regional and global internet freedom advocacy communities;
2. To increase specialised legal expertise and capacity among women lawyers and DRAP alumni in sub-Saharan Africa to litigate digital rights and freedom of expression online cases at the national, regional and international level (where available); and
3. To improve the ability of national and regional media defence centres in sub-Saharan Africa to provide access to legal assistance for freedom of expression online to independent media.

Activities

These objectives will be achieved through the following activities:

• training 36 lawyers through three litigation trainings, two of which will be exclusively for women lawyers;
• developing training manuals on online violence against journalists for sub-Saharan Africa and updating of existing training manuals, as well as developing factsheets for lawyers to access information on digital rights and freedom of expression online;
• supporting 24 lawyers to attend know-how events on specific topics, with a minimum of 50% women lawyers across both groups;
• offering mentoring and substantive support to all women lawyers attending the trainings;
• establishing and keeping active two networking platforms for training alumni;
• contracting four national media defence centres to support journalists in their country of practice;
• awarding individual support grants to lawyers taking cases to support freedom of expression, giving priority to cases taken by women lawyers, and providing substantive support through our in-house legal team; and finally
• supporting 32 women lawyers to attend a peer learning event.

Evaluation Requirements

Phase 1: Evaluation planning and set up

• Develop a measurement framework to measure EWDRA’s impact on our target audience, especially women lawyers, to evaluate local sensitivity of the project, to measure organisational growth in grantees (media defence centres) and to measure capacity building of the project while also evaluating the impact of cases taken by lawyers of the project.
• Using the existing project log frame, evaluation narrative and other relevant documents provide detailed evaluation plan and protocol for the project.
• Media Defence’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Officer will prepare and organise resources for evaluators including survey results from surgeries, key indicators and data on grantees; and
• Carrying out research and interviews will be essential to best understand the specific needs and situation of women lawyers working in sub-Saharan Africa.

Phase 2: Interim Evaluation (December 2022 completion)

Independent analysis of evaluation data/month 15 project data (collected by Media Defence).

• Review with project staff on project to date focusing on internal processes and observations of the project – this could be via a project workshop, staff interviews or other appropriate methodology; and
• Interim evaluation report produced (including recommendations and changes for year two).

Phase 3: Final Evaluation (Tentative, February/March 2024)

Independent analysis of all evaluation data/project data at the end of the project (collected by Media Defence).

• Final evaluation plan and methodology to be decided on, but should include independent data collection activities such as focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders, with special focus on women stakeholders (where bias might be introduced if Media Defence were to carry out the data collection);
• Some independent data collection where bias might be introduced if Media Defence was to carry them out e.g. key informant interviews, focus groups etc. Some travel may be required. Any travel and associated costs will be covered by Media Defence (for travel with prior agreement of Media Defence).
• Final report produced will highlight the project’s key successes, assess how objectives have or have not been met, and provide recommendations for future iterations of project and analysis on replicability and scalability of the project.

Qualifications and experience

The consultant should have:

• at least three years’ experience in monitoring and evaluation;
• demonstrable experience of carrying out evaluations for NGOs and charities, preferably involving projects in sub-Saharan Africa;
• demonstrable experience of developing tools, instruments and evaluation frameworks;
• have demonstrable experience with conducting interviews and focus groups for evaluations remotely;
• experience of carrying out evaluations with focus on intersectional needs of target groups is necessary; and finally
• experience of carrying out evaluations with human rights organisations would be beneficial.

Deliverables

• Finalised data collection tools
• Interim Evaluation Report
• Final Evaluation Report

Project documentation

• EWDRA Project proposal
• Project Evaluation narrative
• Project logic model (log frame)
• Project Indicator Table
• Interim and Final Evaluations from previous project (2017-2021)

Further documents available on request.

Application and selection

To see the full details of this opportunity, you can read our Call for Consultants: External Evaluation.

Please send your proposal to laura.mc@mediadefence.org no later than 5 September 2022. Finally, your proposal should include:

• Methodology and approach
• Timeline
• A summary of relevant experience of the agency and/or individuals involved
• Examples of previous relevant evaluations carried out and tools developed
• Consideration of ethics and risks
• Detailed cost breakdown

We will invite shortlisted applicants to interview in mid-September 2022.

When selecting the consultant, we will consider:

• Past experience of the consultant
• Value for money
• Suitability of the approach and proposed methods
• Innovativeness of the approach
• Communication and presentation skills
• Consideration of risks and mitigation
• Understanding of Media Defence’s work and objectives

Expected timeline

5 September 2022: Deadline for proposals
Early September 2022: Interviews
Mid-September 2022: Appointment of Consultant
Mid-October 2022: Set up (phase 1) complete
December 2022: Interim Report due
March 2024: Final Report due