South Asia Grants Program
Call for Proposal
Outcome Harvesting
Background
The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives across a dynamic and developing Asia-Pacific. Informed by six decades of experience and deep local expertise, our work across the region is focused on good governance, women’s empowerment and gender equality, inclusive economic growth, environment and climate action, and regional and international relations. The Asia Foundation has been implementing South Asia Governance Program (SAGP) following a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Department of State from September 28, 2019, as the Fund Manager.
About SAGP
The SAGF provides small and strategic grants to eligible Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), NGOs, and think tanks in five South Asian countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.The SAGF has a longer-term goal of creating a free and open South Asia region by protecting and promoting a vibrant and constructive space for civil society to engage with the governments of the region and champion good governance.
Designed as a flexible mechanism to respond to existing contexts and emerging opportunities, the open grant window supports CSOs to work on critical governance challenges.
- To promote greater transparency, accountability, rule of law, and responsiveness in the respective governments.
- To broaden the space to meaningfully engage with democratic institutions including those related to the criminal justice sector, anti-corruption bodies, human rights commissions, election administration, parliament, media and local governments.
- To enhance the internal capacity, knowledge base, and programming capabilities of civil society organizations (CSOs) through capacity development inputs from the South Asia Governance Fund.
In Nepal, a total of 26 grants has been disbursed to 24 grantees by SAGP and 9 grants in Bhutan by 8 grantees. Through the outcome harvest study, The Foundation seeks to investigate how the program has been able to address the changing context and reach out to especially grassroot civil society organizations of Nepal and Bhutan. This study team will interview and interact with all grantees from Nepal (in-person) and Bhutan (virtually) to identify and explore the outcomes of SAGP under the four key domains. Using the method of Outcome harvesting, the projects implemented by the grantees under SAGP will be studied to analyze the key outcomes and their linkages to the program intervention. Likewise, this study will also examine the nature and scope of capacity enhancement of partner organizations after the grant support.
Outcome Harvesting:
Outcome Harvesting collects (“harvests”) evidence of what has changed (“outcomes”) and then, working backwards, determines whether and how an intervention has contributed to these changes. Outcome Harvesting has proven to be especially useful in complex situations when it is not possible to define concretely most of what an intervention aims to achieve, or even, what specific actions will be taken over a multi-year period. Outcome Harvesting is an evaluation approach in which evaluators, grant makers, and/or programme managers and staff identify, formulate, verify, analyze and interpret ‘outcomes’ in programming contexts where relations of cause and effect are not fully understood.
Objectives and Scope of Work
As part of its effort to accumulate the achievements and lessons from the first phase of the SAGP, The Foundation is conducting a study to track a few key outcomes of the program through a qualitative study using outcome harvesting as the main method. The objective of this study is to gather evidence of change and how our interventions have contributed to achieving this change under the program. Thus, through this ToR we are seeking agencies/individuals to conduct an Outcome Harvesting exercise to identify key outcomes under SAGP achieved in the first phase.
Furthermore, the Outcome Harvest will specifically look at intended and unintended outcomes (both positive and negative) around the four domains of SAGP and the contribution of the project to these outcomes in Nepal and Bhutan. This exercise is intended for both learning and accountability purposes. It is expected to generate relevant findings, lessons-learnt, and recommendations which will be shared across all stakeholders.
The Outcome Harvesting exercise shall focus on the status of work done since inception and reflect on the original proposal as well as the reported outcomes. The program expects that this assessment will provide:
1. Evidence of outcome of activities conducted by SAGP grantees on four key program domains (Fiscal and institutional, Political, Informational, and Social domains).
2. Description of the reasons the outcomes took place, including how and why they contributed to that specific change providing insight on the patterns of change and change processes
3. Evidence of any changes resulting from project intervention and interpret the outcomes achieved, intended and unintended, direct and indirect, as a result SAGP activities
4. Indication of effective channels for delivery of SNGP Phase 1 outputs and knowledge products (i.e. how were the outputs delivered to/received by those who used them)
5. Evidence of changed behaviors or individuals impacted by SAGP outcomes
6. Provide key recommendations on learning from Phase I that can be used as a guide for Phase II.
Skills and Competencies:
The assignment will be carried out by a consultant/agency with the following competencies:
- Demonstrated knowledge and experience in conducting high quality, credible evaluations in the development sector
- Demonstrated knowledge and experience of program design and program quality measurement/assessment.
- Familiarity with policy advocacy work and political sensitivities
- Excellent writing and verbal communication skills in local language and English
- Experience in designing and using participatory, gender sensitive qualitative and quantitative methodologies, particularly with the method of outcome harvesting and most-significant change in cross cultural settings
- Knowledge & use of evaluation ethics processes
- Experience or knowledge of outcome harvesting process will be preferrable.
Roles and Responsibilities
Consultant – The consultant is required to:
- Finalize the methodology
- Prepare and refine the tools for data collection in consultation with The Asia Foundation Nepal
- Prepare an inception report including analytical framework and analysis plan with timeline
- Preparing a power point presentation (maximum 20 slides) capturing background, methodology, result of the study and present to the Foundation team.
- Preparation and submission of draft report in electronic version.
- Submission of all data files in soft version (e.g., transcription and translation).
- Submission of final report (hard and soft copies) which addresses specific feedback from the SAGP team on the draft report and a power point presentation on the key
- Maintain a gender equality, diversity and social inclusion lens in each aspect of the study.
The Asia Foundation – The Foundation will provide support to the consultant and his/her team in facilitating basic logistics in the field once it receives specific action plan from the consultant. The Foundation will make available the related project documents to the consultant for reference to plan and design the action plan. It will also provide timely feedback and inputs to the consultant as per the mutually agreed timelines.
Deliverables & Timeline:
The agency will propose a detailed timeline and adhere strictly to the survey schedule proposed. It is expected that the assignment would be completed within 45 days from the award of the contract. This would be a Consultancy Contract for above said duration with a consolidated payment as per a pre agreed payment schedule.
Expression of interest
Through an expression of interest, The Asia Foundation Nepal invites qualified evaluators to submit proposals comprising the following:
- An understanding of the evaluation purpose and outcome harvesting methodology.
- Proposal stating approach, broad outline of methods and format of tools (outcome harvesting) to be employed.
- CVs demonstrating relevant skills and experience of the study team and a sample of writing of a similar assignment.
- Names of at least 2 references, preferably from organizations with whom the consultant has conducted similar types of study
- A separate indicative financial proposal containing consultants’ fees, detailing the activities, number of days and daily rate.
- A declaration of the evaluator’s availability in the period December 2022 to February 2023.
- A separate indicative financial proposal containing consultants’ fees, detailing the activities, number of days, and daily rate.
Logistics:
The program will provide daily consultancy fee in lieu of the consultancy service as per agreed rate; and will reimburse other travel and logistic expenses based on actual bill, agreed budget ceiling, and according to TAF Nepal policies. TAF Nepal staff and grantees will provide needed support to the team to arrange meetings as well as other logistical arrangements. Program team will also provide list of organizations, targeted stakeholders, and beneficiaries for the consultant to reach for interview or data collections.
Qualification and Experience of Consultant
Academic Qualification for Team Leader: Master's Degree in Social Science, Development Studies or Political Science or any relevant field.
Experience: At least 8 years of experiences on qualitative research methods, program assessment, monitoring, evaluation, and documentation. Prior experience in governance related projects, subnational programs, and gender equality, disability, and social inclusion preferred.
Indicative budget: The indicative budget for this task is up to but not exceeding 11,000 USD.
Submissions must be emailed to [email protected] by December 08, 2022. Submissions received before or on this date shall be evaluated and implementation partners who are deemed qualified will be shortlisted. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for further information. Late submissions will not be considered. Please find the ToR here.