Request for Proposal to Integrate Developmental Evaluation in the USAID Civil Society and Media Program

Deadline: March 31, 2023. 
Time: 23:30 NPT (17:45 GMT)

The Asia Foundation (the Foundation) is a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives across a dynamic and developing Asia. Working through our offices in 18 countries and informed by deep local expertise and six decades of experience, we address the critical issues affecting Asia in the 21st century by strengthening governance, expanding economic opportunity, increasing environmental resilience, empowering women, and promoting international cooperation. 

The Foundation invites applications from qualified national or international individuals or institutions to design and implement a Developmental Evaluation of a five-year (2022-2027) USAID funded, Civil Society Media (USAID-CSM) program.

Program Description

The Civil Society and Media program, funded by USAID through the Civil Society and Media – Standing Together and in New Directions (CSM-STAND) Leader with Associates Award, is led by The Asia Foundation in partnership with Pact. USAID-CSM is a five-year program (2022-2027) to support ongoing and emerging civic engagement in areas that advance the interests of sub-national communities, particularly those with a history of challenges in engaging women, youth, and marginalized sections of their populations. Recognizing the disproportionate opportunities for state-citizen-civil society engagement through advancing state, community, and family education priorities, USAID CSM will focus on civic engagement related to access to and quality of education. Most activities will focus on providing open competition granting to those organizations and communities outside of Kathmandu in population-dense Lumbini and Madhesh Provinces, with some activities implemented in Kathmandu.  

CSM’s overarching goal is to support independent civil society and media led by and for women, youth, and marginalized (WYM) communities to advance the public interest, fundamental freedoms, and accountability. The program works to achieve this through mutually reinforcing activities under three inter-related objectives while contributing to USAID’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS):  

• To foster an enabling environment for civic space where issues and interests of WYM communities are addressed.
• Increase WYM's engagement in civic and public spaces and advance their interests through better access to resources, assets, and skills.
• Improve availability of credible information and diverse narratives within media that better represent WYM issues and perspectives.  

Rationale

Adaptive management and M&E are a core part of the program delivery approaches. The proposed developmental evaluation (DE) is expected to inform the program interventions by supporting adaptive management and learning processes. With DE embedded, the program aims at integrating the capacity for the continuous test of the program’s assumptions and theories for change, a better understanding of program context and complexities with real-time tracking of changes, and refinement of program strategies to reorganize and strengthen the delivery approaches of the program along with the synthesis of learning. The DE will focus on identifying and understanding the system and behavior changes along with linkages across three objectives of the program. Furthermore, the DE is also expected to support the development of innovation and adaptation in the programming approaches.

• The DE is expected to answer the following questions:
• Does the project’s theory of change, and intervention design respond to the complexity and contextual factors in the program and among the target population?
• How do the three objectives of the USAID-CSM program interact with one another during program implementation?
• What behaviors are emerging among key stakeholders in civil society, media, and government that increases civic space and opportunities for civil society to engage in decision-making? How are stakeholders reacting to the activities and the program overall? 

Objective

The DE has the following objectives:

• Evaluate the program’s strategies to reach out and partner with stakeholders to promote independent civil society and media on an ongoing basis.
• Evaluate, on an ongoing basis, the relevancy, acceptability, complexity, and sustainability of the program approaches and interventions.
• Provide continuous feedback and recommendation to the USAID-CSM to ensure innovation, efficiency, and effectiveness in program delivery.
• Synthesize and document the learnings.

For detailed ToR please "CLICK HERE"