Terms of Reference for Joint Initiative for Strategic Religious Action (JISRA) Mid Term Review 2023
Introduction
The Joint Initiative for Strategic Religious Action (JISRA) is a partnership of 50 civil society organizations based in Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria and Uganda, the United Kingdom, Belgium and The Netherlands. The Arabic word Jisr’ means bridge, which perfectly symbolizes what JISRA aims to do: build bridges between divided communities.
The programme is aimed at promoting peaceful and just societies where all enjoy Freedom of Religion and Belief (FoRB). JISRA works with a great variety of local faith-based actors, partners, networks, youth- and women’s organizations to support, capacitate and amplify inclusive voices and policies. The unique composition allows JISRA to work within faith communities as well as with high-level decision-makers.
JISRA began on May 1st 2021, as part of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) political agenda of strengthening civil society under the Power of Voices policy framework. The partnership is led by Mensen met een Missie in a consortium with Faith to Action Network, Tearfund, and Search for Common Ground.
JISRA aims to:
• Strengthen the voice of religious actors in civil society and in nurturing civic space
• Leverage religious actors’ constructive role in high level advocacy
• Build on the consortium’s extensive FoRB experience and best practices
• Specifically focus on enhancing the inclusion and participation of women and youth in FoRB spaces.
Moreover, JISRA seeks to embed gender and youth inclusion and conflict sensitivity approaches to expand civic spaces for the promotion of FoRB and human rights.
For the JISRA programme, midline and endline studies will be conducted to measure progress and effectiveness of JISRA undertaken around FoRB related issues, validate the existing Theory of change, learn and adapt programming and to gain insight in the programme’s impact. This Terms of Reference is set up for the midterm evaluation of the JISRA programme, and to invite proposals from suitably experienced consultant(s) to lead the study.
Background to JISRA
JISRA’s approach to religious engagement recognizes that religious actors, both leaders and lay people including women and youth, can be positive voices for peace within their communities. The programme intends to utilize the positive power of religion and religious actors to foster peace and just societies, thereby contributing to the prevention and resolution of intra-, inter-, and extra-religious dynamics.
The JISRA programme’s theory of change focuses on 3 pathways of change and 1 cross-cutting pathway:
1. Intra-religious pathway: challenging deeply rooted harmful norms and practices (especially about women and youth), and transforming radicalization and extremism through women, youth, and religious leaders addressing grievances together within communities
2. Inter-religious pathway: leveraging existing formal and informal structures to facilitate interaction between communities, to enhance dialogue, collaboration, and to address local grievances across different communities
3. Extra-religious pathway: highlighting the importance of local and religious perspectives on FoRB for effective policies at national and international levels through advocacy
4. Cross-cutting pathway: increasing the capacities of JISRA CSOs on FoRB and lobby and advocacy and increasing the representation of women and youth in decision-making structures.
Goal and Objectives of the JISRA Mid-term review
The overall purpose of the study is to review the achievements and effectiveness of the programmatic approaches that JISRA undertakes around FoRB related issues and thereby support a learning process.
As JISRA specifically adheres to gender and youth inclusion approaches in addition to conflict sensitivity, the mid-term review will aim to assess the effectiveness of programming in relation to these approaches and across the pathways of change. Furthermore, the study also brings the opportunity to reflect on faith sensitive approaches for programming. As reflected in the methodology section a strong emphasis will be laid on assessing Coherence, Relevance, Effectiveness and Efficiency (to a lesser extent), in accordance with the OECD-DAC guidelines on evaluation.
The key objectives of the Mid-term review will be to:
1. Measure progress and effectiveness of JISRA against the baseline study that was undertaken in 2021.
2. Assess the coherence of the pathways of change and assumptions, as described in the Theory of Change, especially looking at how the different stakeholders respond to JISRA, and the outcomes at different levels
3. Assess JISRA’s relevance to increasing the Freedom of Religion or Belief in each of the seven countries and globally, and assess whether this has contributed to promoting peaceful and just societies.
4. Identify lessons and potential good practices for the key stakeholders/partners
5. Formulate action oriented and strategic recommendations for adaptive programming and achieving the consortium’s goals of participation and power sharing.
Methodology
The mid-term review will apply a mixed methods approach consisting of a desk research, and a field research that includes a quantitative survey, and qualitative methods (Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs).
With regards to the desk research, the consultant is expected to analyze the various contexts of JISRA to explore religious dynamics at play and assess the assumptions underlying the Theory of Change of JISRA. In addition, project documents should be taken into account (e.g. logframe, baseline results, semi and annual reports as well as monitoring data of outputs and outcomes).
With regards to the field research, the consultant will be responsible for designing the full methodology, its implementation and the drafting of the final report (including the desk and field research). This includes the design of relevant methods, sampling strategies and tools, as well as the training of enumerators, involving local partners (for contextualization) and approaches to data analysis. Proposals should include a vision on data triangulation as well as a justification of each proposed method in light of the research questions. Special attention should be given to the design of participatory and ethical approaches, the dissemination of research findings and the employment of religious and faith sensitive approaches in the study and how these will influence recommendations of programmatic orientations for the rest of the programme duration. Recommendations around JISRA M&E approaches will also be welcomed but are not the priority.
Overall the proposed methodologies should be compliant with the OECD DAC and IOB quality Evaluation criteria for Mid-term reviews of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
Mid Term Review Team
The evaluation team should consist of a lead evaluator (evaluation/ consulting firm) who will coordinate, guide, and oversee the evaluations conducted in the seven countries. The evaluations in the countries should be conducted by evaluators based in the respective countries with strong knowledge of the socio-political context of FoRB in the countries. The evaluators in the countries will work closely with the JISRA PMEL working groups in each country, and the lead evaluator will work closely with JISRA’s global PMEL working group. The in-country PMEL working groups will provide insight into the programme and facilitate access in the targeted areas to respondents, and they will also support contextualization of the study/tools in each country. The global PMEL WG will guide the methodology, support liaison with country teams and other relevant programmatic stakeholders (internal and external), and ensure quality control of the evaluation.
Process for the Mid Term Review
1. Consultations with relevant programme staff for a mutual understanding of the evaluation objectives and expected deliverables. Alignment between global and contextualized indicators which form each country result framework
2. Inception phase and inception report: determine the methodology, sampling, standardized and contextualized tools, and timelines and deliver one inception report with global and country level methodology. An inception report is expected for each country. The timelines for building the appropriate methodology and for data collection will be determined shortly after recruitment of local research teams. A global inception report is also expected before
country inception reports.
3. Data collection: Deployment of quantitative and qualitative tools only and exclusively after validation of the global inception report and after the approval of each country inception report (survey, FGD, KII, review of monitoring data)
4. Data analysis: Mixed method analysis, triangulating different data sources. Ensure systematic disaggregation and approaches limiting biased data.
5. Presentation of findings: with each country team (7) and with the global team (1) with a focus on the learning goals of the MTR and the recommendations for programmatic adaptation
6. Reports: 1 report per country (7) and 1 global report that will be submitted after the approval of country reports.
7. Validation of reports: the validation process will be coordinated with members of the PMEL groups (global and country) and with relevant members at county level. The validation of the global report will be coordinated with the global PMEL working group and global thematic experts involved in the programme.
8. Final report in publishable formats and other deliverables (data sets, transcripts, other annexes) will be submitted before the end of the contract with the lead consultancy firm.
Evaluation and Research Questions
1. Context for JISRA’s interventions
1.1. How have the (socio-political, religious and economic) contexts and challenges to freedom of religion and belief changed in the JISRA countries since the baseline, and to what extent does JISRA continue to be relevant in these changing contexts? (Relevance)
1.2. How have JISRA’s activities responded to and influenced conflict dynamics in its intervention areas?
1.3. To what extent is there collaboration between JISRA and other (external) stakeholders in the different JISRA countries (such as other CSOs, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Dutch embassies), and how have these partnerships added value to the promotion of FoRB (Coherence)
2. JISRA’s Internal Governance
2.1. To what extent has the governance structure of JISRA been relevant to (internal) stakeholders, as evidenced by their participation in it? (Relevance)
2.2. To what extent has JISRA’s governance structure contributed to achieving the consortium’s goals of participation and power sharing? (Effectiveness)
2.3. To what extent have JISRA activities and governance structures promoted inclusion of both women and youth, boost their leadership and pursue gender equity at local and national, and global levels (within the consortium)? (Relevance)
2.4. To what extent has JISRA promoted inclusion and challenged ‘othering1 ’ through its activities?
3. JISRA’s effectiveness (globally and at country level)
3.1. To what extent have planned outputs been achieved, and how did they contribute to outcomes? (Value for Money)
3.2. In JISRA’s areas of implementation, to what extent do faith actors and community members challenge ‘othering’ through their attitudes and behaviours within and across their own religious communities?
3.3. How and to what extent are religious actors challenging harmful norms and practices, and are collaborating within and beyond their religious communities?
3.4. In its lobby and advocacy and interventions, to what extent has JISRA represented the needs of community members at the local level and the needs of society at different levels (national and global)?
3.5. To what extent has JISRA met its intended results in the field of influencing laws, policies and practices?
3.6. To what extent has JISRA been successful at creating and expanding civic space for dialogue between decision-makers, religious actors, and CSOs?
4. Evidence based recommendations from the findings of the study
4.1. What are the main challenges, lessons learned, good practices, and recommendations for implementation and internal governance of the consortium?
Deliverables
The JISRA Coordination team expects the following deliverables from the external consultant:
• An inception report detailing a proposed methodology, tools, calendar and written data collection tools;
• Training of enumerators;
• Supervision and participation in data collection;
• Oversight of the data coding process;
• Submission of the databases to the PMEL working group of JISRA Consortium at global and at country level ;
• PowerPoint presentation of findings and validation sessions at different levels (country/global);
• Analysis of the data collected and production of a draft evaluation report, for review by JISRA consortium staff and partners;
• Country level reports can be in their respective languages for dissemination (English/ French/Arabic/ Bahasa Indonesia), to be determined with respective country teams
• For each country report (7) and for the global report: An inception report to be approved before data collection and a Final Report in English (40 pages max in length, excluding appendices) that consists of (unless otherwise agreed upon with the JISRA Coordination team):
o Table of contents
o Abbreviations
o Executive summary (~3 pages)
o Background information (project specifics)
o Methodology: Objectives, data collection and analysis and limitations of the study
o MTR findings, analysis, with associated data presented (should be structured around the main objectives/evaluation criteria and should cover all indicators, per pathway),
o Indicator table showing all baseline values (past) and mid-term values (updated during the mid-term review) and revision of targets if relevant (depending on the country)
o An elaborated conclusion and recommendation section
o Appendices, which include detailed research instruments, list of interviewees, terms of references and evaluator(s) brief biography. More annexes to be determined in consultation
The above deliverables will be accompanied by a regular progress check-in with the consortium’s PMEL team. The frequency of this communication will be determined collaboratively shortly after recruitment.
Timeline
• The assignment is expected to begin by March 15, 2023
• First draft of the global inception report, which will also include the methodology that will be deployed across the 7 countries: April 15, 2023
• Final draft of the global programme report: October 01, 2023
• Country specific timeline will be collaboratively determined with relevant teams shortly after recruitment but should fit within the timeframe for the global deliverables.
Qualifications
The JISRA programme is seeking a suitably experienced consultant or team of consultants to undertake this assignment.
• Consultant(s) should have at least 5-7 years of demonstrable experience in leading (designing and undertaking) large-scale, multi-country evaluations
• Demonstrable knowledge and experience on freedom of religion and belief, or religion and development, or women and/or youth participation, working with faith-based actors, lobby and advocacy
• Experience with participatory methodologies
• Demonstrable experience in policy and advocacy programming
• Post-graduate degree in research-oriented social sciences; e.g. development studies, public policy, sociology, related disciplines
• Ability to respond to comments and questions in a timely, appropriate manner
• Excellent verbal and written communication in English
• Proficiency in French and/or Bahasa Indonesia is appreciated
• Proficiency in relevant local languages in the country of intervention is an asset
• Ability to work in diverse, multi-cultural teams
• With most of the JISRA team based in CET time-zone, the consultant(s) should preferably be based in GMT -1:00 – GMT +4
• Experience conducting research in any of the JISRA countries is an asset: Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, and Uganda. Please note that the country level research should be conducted by researchers based in the respective country.
Application Items and Proposal
Qualified parties can submit the following:
• Letter of interest for the proposal
• CVs of each proposed team member, along with sample(s) of previous work
• A detailed financial proposal with a breakdown of costs in Euros
• A detailed technical proposal demonstrating and understanding of this ToR, including
• methodology, data management plan, team composition and level of effort (see checklist below), detailed timeline and check-in moments
Proposals should include a clearly stated vision on the following:
● How you will successfully coordinate global and country level research (your organizational approach/ structure). Please note that the country level research should be conducted by local researchers. Please indicate the feasibility through your own team composition and where you would need further support.
● Your approach assessing JISRA’s Theory of Change
● Sampling strategies
● Data triangulation and analysis in line with the research questions
● Key methodologies for data collection as well as a justification for the relevance of each these proposed method and in compliance with JISRA approaches (gender sensitivity, youth inclusion, conflict sensitivity, inclusion of other marginalized groups) and other approaches that are deemed necessary
● Proposed strategies to limit and deploy mitigation strategy in regard to social desirability bias across the study
● Proposed strategies for validation and dissemination of the findings of the study.
● Religious and faith sensitive approaches in research and how they will influence recommendations of future programmatic and monitoring orientations for the rest of the programme duration.
Proposals should also include 1 or 2 samples of similar studies that you led and each sample should include a short description of the process leading to the report and its dissemination.
Contact details
Applications can be sent to Christina Maasdam at christinamaasdam@mensenmeteenmissie.nl and Fatema Kakal at fatemakakal@mensenmeteenmissie.nl by February 10, 2023. Interviews will be held in the week of February 20, 2023. For any further questions or information about the assignment, please contact Fatema Kakal.
