Consultancy ; Mid-term evaluation of the Improving Access to Justice in the Great Lakes Region project, “Uhaki bila mipaka” Consultancy

International Alert (Alert) is a UK-registered international organisation that works to build peace in collaboration with local civil society organisations through research, advocacy, capacity building, inclusive dialogue and the promotion of civic engagement.

Alert works with people directly affected by violent conflict to improve their prospects for peace. We also seek to influence the policies and working methods of governments, international organisations and multinational companies in order to reduce the risk of conflict and strengthen the prospects for peace.

We are looking for an external consultant or consultancy firm that meets the following criteria:

– Excellent written and oral skills in French and English, including a proven ability to write programmatic performance evaluation reports.

– Master’s degree in a relevant field, preferably in law, conflict resolution or peacebuilding.

– Proven ability to mobilize key informants in border management and political-administrative-judicial structures in Rwanda and the DRC

– At least 7 years’ experience in research and monitoring-evaluation, including at least 5 years’ experience in conducting evaluations of projects, including peacebuilding and/or access to justice projects in the Great Lakes region.

– Experience in developing and managing focus groups, interviews and surveys.

– Ability to understand and consider the dynamics of ongoing conflicts in the Great Lakes region, conflict sensitivity, national and regional contexts and gender in evaluations of projects in the justice, stabilization and peace-building sector

– Ability to be flexible with time and work schedule while being culturally sensitive.

– Excellent skills in writing programme performance evaluation reports

– Knowledge of the socio-cultural, economic, legal, judicial and political context of the Great Lakes region;

– Ability to read, digest and analyse large amounts of information accurately, provide succinct summaries and explain the significance of the information.

If the consultant or firm proposes national agents or consultants to support the lead consultant, the above criteria will apply with the possibility of adapting the criteria below:

– Bachelor’s degree (Bac+5) in a related field, preferably in law, conflict resolution, peacebuilding, human rights, international relations, development or a related field

– At least 5 years’ experience in research and monitoring-evaluation, including at least 3 years’ experience in conducting evaluations of projects, including peacebuilding and/or access to justice projects in the Great Lakes region.

Objectives of the mid-term review

The purpose of this mid-term evaluation is to determine the progress made in achieving the expected results of the Uhaki Bila Mipaka project during the first two years of implementation (from December 2022 to November 2024) and to identify corrective measures, if necessary.

In particular, this assessment will make it possible to :

• Assess criteria including the relevance, effectiveness, coherence, efficiency and sustainability of the AtJ project. In addition to these criteria, the evaluation will also assess the integration of gender, location and cooperation issues.
• Analyse the effectiveness of the implementation and partnership agreements between the members of the AtJ consortium.
• Assess progress, identifying successes, opportunities, challenges and risks in order to identify lessons learned about the design, implementation, coordination and management of the project.
• Carry out an analysis of the project’s key approaches, highlighting in particular technical achievements and lessons learned.
• Propose mid-term corrections and/or adjustments to the work plan, if necessary, to be taken into account in the remaining period of the project or in another likely access to justice project/intervention.

Specifically, the following topics will be addressed

Accountability: The evaluation will analyse and report on performance and results achieved to date:

• Evaluate the Uhaki Bila Mipaka project intervention in accordance with OECD principles (details of the questions for each criterion are given in section 4 of these ToRs)
• Verify the modalities of knowledge about rights and free and rapid access to legal aid services for communities living in the target areas in order to prevent the escalation of conflicts in the Great Lakes region.
• Assessing the degree of achievement of the results framework indicators: a baseline study was carried out at the start of the project and an annual survey for the last two years has just been finalised, making it possible to compare the progress of the indicators with the baseline data.

Participation: The evaluation will seek to analyse the way in which the project’s stakeholders, including community structures, officials in charge of border management and the political, administrative and judicial authorities in both countries, the beneficiaries of the legal clinics, etc., are involved in the implementation of the project. And how this involvement facilitates the achievement or non-achievement of results.

Learning: The evaluation will identify the reasons why certain outcomes occurred or did not occur, in order to draw lessons, best practices and indications for learning. It will provide evidence-based conclusions to inform operational decision-making. Observations will be actively disseminated and lessons will be incorporated into appropriate lesson-sharing systems throughout the project:

• Capture existing lessons and good practice to feed into recommendations and the planning process
• Analyse the strengths and weaknesses, best practices and critical issues of the intervention
• To refine recommendations on the intervention logic of the Uhaki Bila Mipaka project and, where appropriate, programming proposals concerning the main stakeholders in the project.

Scope

Period: this mid-term review covers the period from 1December 2022 to 30 November 2024.

Geographical coverage: the evaluation will cover all project implementation areas – around 5 border points with Rwanda (Petite et grande Barrières in Goma, Ruzizi 1 and Ruzizi 2 in Bukavu and Kamanyola); in Rwanda around 5 border points with DR Congo (La corniche border post and poids lourd border post in Rubavu, Rusizi 1 and Rusizi 2 in Kamembe and Bugarama). The methodology proposed by the evaluators will have to determine in what way, and with what risk analysis, information will or will not be gathered in the area currently controlled by the AFC/M23 or will be gathered remotely.

Direct beneficiaries of the project: the beneficiaries of the legal clinics, the members of the community structures supported by the project in both countries, the border officials in post during the evaluation period, in particular with regard to the Operational Order of the Congolese land borders, the judicial authorities and the local authorities also in post until 30 November 2024 (mayors, district managers, burgomasters, territorial administrators, group leaders, magistrates, lawyers, representatives of the Ministries of Justice). At the time of writing, some key informants who were involved in the project are no longer present in DRC implementation zone due to the war situation in Goma, Bukavu and Kamanyola. The selected firm will be able to propose to the consortium its approach and methodology for reaching these key informants.

Evaluation criteria & key questions

Relevance

• Are the objectives of the Uhaki Bila Mipaka project still valid and well-founded?
• Do the activities implemented enable the expected results and objectives to be achieved?
• Are the project’s activities and products well adapted to the desired impact and effects?
• Were there any major risks that were not taken into account by the project team during the past period?
• Was the project relevant in view of the cross-border political context between the DRC (Goma, Bukavu and Kamanyola) and Rwanda (Rubavu, Rusizi 1 and 2) which prevailed until 30 November 2024?
• Does the project meet the needs of the target groups[1] ?
• Was the project aligned with the work of other national and international organisations working on cross-border issues?

Efficiency

• To what extent is the project moving towards its objectives? Are these objectives likely to be achieved by the end of the project?
• What were the main factors that led to the objectives being achieved?
• What is the added value of the project at its current stage of implementation?
• Are the approaches and methodologies used to implement the project effective? Are there links between these approaches and the results of the project?
• What results have been achieved through the advocacy efforts in Kinshasa, Kigali and Goma? Which issues seem to have been more successful than others, and why? What specific recommendations should be made to the consortium and the donor?
• To what extent has the project been able to achieve results at regional level (holiday university, student training, etc.), while navigating the current political and security context? To what extent has the project succeeded in adapting to these issues? What advice can the project take into account in its regional approach and in the way it involves governments?

Methodology

The evaluation methodology will be proposed by the consultant in its technical proposal. It must be sensitive to the context, the conflict, gender and both the national context in the DRC and Rwanda, and the regional context involving the two implementing countries. It will be presented to the member organisations of the Access to Justice consortium for a favourable opinion before being validated by the consortium and before the consultancy begins. In general, the consultant will have to combine quantitative and qualitative approaches and answer the various evaluation questions mentioned above. It should be noted that the consortium has already collected the current data (for the first 2 years) on the results indicators. The methodology should clearly explain how the whole assignment and the expected outputs are sensitive to gender, conflict and the context in the two countries.

The methodology and the various data collection tools will be approved by the AtJ Consortium team before launching the actual mid-term evaluation activities.

Please note that the above are just some of the requirements for this role. For the full role requirements, please click here to view the terms of reference.

Tagged as: Democratic Republic of the Congo, International Alert