The IWPR Office in Kazakhstan is seeking an External Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Consultant (MEL) to conduct the final impact evaluation of the ‘Religious Freedom for Kazakhstan’ (RFK) project.
About the Project
IWPR CA started implementing the project ‘Religious Freedom for Kazakhstan’ in October 2022. The project aims to advance policy changes in Kazakhstan to align religious freedom legislation with international standards. The specific objectives of the project include:
- Enhancing the advocacy skills and legal awareness of a diverse group of religious and community leaders to collaboratively promote freedom of belief rights.
- Broadening public support for religious freedom through coordinated interfaith advocacy initiatives.
- Influencing policy-making by engaging in open and constructive dialogues with governmental stakeholders on matters of religious freedom.
Objective of the consultancy:
The Consultant is responsible for conducting the final external evaluation of the Religious Freedom for Kazakhstan (RFK) project. The consultant will assess its impact based on OECD-DAC criteria, with specific focus on effectiveness, impact, sustainability, efficiency, relevance, and coherence. The evaluation aims to facilitate learning and inform decision-making processes, enabling stakeholders to make informed choices regarding the project’s continuation, scale-up, or replication.
The consultant(s) is expected to:
- Lead and coordinate comprehensive project evaluations, including designing evaluation frameworks, developing data collection tools, and conducting fieldwork;
- Design and manage data collection processes to ensure accuracy, reliability, and validity;
- Identify new verification sources for the project and, whenever possible, use existing data embedded in current systems;
- Study relevant project documents such as the work plan, event evaluation sheets, project content, log frame and result matrix, progress reports, and annual and mid-year evaluations. Revise the indicators (both target and achieved) accordingly;
- Engage with project stakeholders, including beneficiaries, partners, and donors, to gather input and feedback;
- Apply the Most Significant Change (MSC) technique and consider utilizing IWPR Stakeholders Engagement indexes;
- Conduct qualitative and quantitative data analysis, comparing project progress against the established baseline. Outline trends of success, baseline-target vs. year achievements, and overall achievement;
- Evaluate the project’s short-term and long-term impact on target groups/individuals;
- Prepare and present comprehensive evaluation reports, providing actionable recommendations to improve project design, implementation, and impact;
- Conduct debriefing and feedback sessions to support the utilization of findings with IWPR, project partners, and others as per the previous agreement with the Project Manager.
The full scope of work can be found in the ToR_M&E Consultant_CA_RFK (Password: E2C4CWJxYMNg)
The successful candidate will possess:
- A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in International Development, Human Rights, International Relations, Project Management, other Social Sciences or other related fields required. MA or other post-graduate capacities in relevant fields is desired.
- A minimum of 5 years of experience in leading project evaluations;
- Significant experience in Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) methodologies, including Most Significant Change (MSC) Technique, Outcomes Harvesting;
- Particular expertise in leading, facilitating and reporting Most Significant Change (MSC) Technique, Outcomes Harvesting;
- Proven expertise in qualitative data analysis, quantitative/qualitative data management, and data visualizations (graphs, dashboards);
- Proven spoken and written communication skills in English and Russian; knowledge or understanding of the Kazakh language is desired;
- Ability to work with limited supervision, as part of a small team and independently.
- Ability to work with colleagues remotely and to attend online (Zoom/Teams) meetings, storytelling sessions, etc. in GMT+5 time zone.
No travel is required for this position, however, willingness and ability to travel internationally as required is desired.
Application deadline: July 16, 2024
Interested candidates must fill out a special application form at https://iwpr.bamboohr.com/careers/415 and may submit the following documents to IWPR:
- A letter of interest;
- Two evaluation reports from a previous project of a similar nature (not mandatory, but preferred);
- Up-to-date CVs of the proposed consultant(s) for this evaluation;
- Two (2) references from organisations for which the consultant or firm has carried out recent evaluations for similar projects;
- Details of daily fee rate in USD.