The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation is a Swedish foundation that supports women during times of war and conflict to increase women’s power and influence. Kvinna till Kvinna’s overall vision is a world with sustainable peace based on democracy and gender equality, in which conflicts are managed through non-military means. It envisions a world where human rights for women and men, girls and boys, are respected, and all people can feel safe and secure. Women should have power and influence decisions and have the agency to participate in the economic, social and political development of society to the same extent as men. This vision is permeated and further evolved in the global and cohesive MENA region and country strategies of Kvinna till Kvinna 2016-2021, with four complementing focus areas, i.e. gender-based violence, participation, women, peace and security agenda, and organisational development.
Kvinna till Kvinna is a separatist movement with the mandate to 1) conduct projects in regions of war and conflict that promote women’s self-reliance and self-esteem, women’s psychosocial and/or physical health, or contribute to promoting women’s participation in building a democratic civil society; 2) foster studies and research on the effects of war and armed conflict on women, and 3) publicise facts and information about the effect of war on women and to build public support for peaceful conflict resolution.
Kvinna till Kvinna is operating in Palestine since 2002. The country office is based in East Jerusalem, and currently support nine partner organisations and two networks to implement in the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank including East Jerusalem in the programme ‘Turning Promises into Reality: Palestinian Women Human Rights Defenders Voicing for Change’ is running between 2017 – 2019. The support provided by Kvinna till Kvinna is threefold: 1) technical and thematic capacity development support through tailor-made capacity building and joint partner trainings, 2) creation and/or facilitation of networking and advocacy opportunities for partner organisations, and 3) direct financial project support.
The programme has a comprehensive theory of change that are concretised in three outcomes focusing on 1) enhancing women rights organisations and their participants (rights holders) capacity in claiming their rights and holding relevant duty bearers accountable, 2) increasing marginalised women’s participation in decision making and implementation, and 3) advocating for women’s rights. The programme has a human right based approach and are addressing the dynamics of rights holders (participants and community members alike) holding the bearers (secondary target group) accountable with support of the women rights organisations and their networks enhanced capacity.
The scope of work includes reviewing relevant documents and interviewing key positions at Kvinna till Kvinna’s Jerusalem office and programme staff in Stockholm as well as Sweden (Consulate General of Sweden in Jerusalem) and other key stakeholders. All partner organisations should be interviewed preferably face to face. If interviews in the Gaza strip cannot be conducted due to the security situation, they will be done remotely, or by additional consultant located in the Gaza strip, if this has been agreed with Kvinna till Kvinna. Furthermore, a selection of right holders – participants, family members, local community members – and relevant duty bearers – should be interviewed individually and/or in focus groups, and/or other means.
The evaluator(s) shall develop and propose a methodology for the evaluation, which should include both a desk review, a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques. The methodology should as much as possible be participatory aiming for the involvement of the partner organisations and their target groups. When conducting interviews with members of target groups, the evaluator(s) should be provided with a list by the partners’ organisation and select the interviewees in consultation with Kvinna to Kvinna, to ensure none interference in the responses. Additionally, the interviews should be conducted without staff or representatives of the relevant partner organisation being present. Any limitations realised by the evaluators shall be made explicit, and their consequences discussed with Kvinna till Kvinna as soon as possible including any ethical considerations taken.
The evaluator(s) are responsible for booking appointments for interviews and to conduct all logistic arrangements for the assignment. Kvinna will provide contact details and relevant documentation.
The evaluation will be carried out following OECD/DAC evaluation principles and guidelines. Further, Kvinna till Kvinna has set a minimum standard on what is regarded as an evaluation on gender equality and women’s rights, touching upon and strengthening some of the OCED/DAC principles. These principles are; 1) participation; the evaluation seeks to ensure that the narratives and experiences of women in evaluations are valued equally to men. Participation should be inclusive, meaning that multiple voices of women from different social and political contexts, especially women from marginalised groups, should get time and space to be heard. Co-ownership of the process, and findings should be the aim and participants should benefit from the evaluation in one way or another, by increased knowledge, strengthened agency or other assets; 2) women experience oppression differently, according to their intersecting identities based on race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, age etcetera. Evaluations designed on the basis of gender transformative evaluation theory acknowledge and value these differences, not considering “women” to be a homogeneous category and recognise that what works for one group of women does not necessarily work for another; 3) an evaluator has experiences, emotions, awareness, and perspectives that lead to a particular standpoint and affects the evaluation process, and findings. In other words, evaluators recognise that they bring who they are into the evaluation process; therefore, reflexivity – or an evaluator’s ability to understand her or his own position – is another critical component; 4) knowledge is power; the evaluation recognises and gives voice to multiple ways of knowing, including reason, emotion and experience, considers and value different ways of knowing and regards knowledge as a powerful resource which can be used to serve an explicit or implicit purpose. Consequently, the evaluation or research process can lead to negative or positive effects on the people involved in it. Knowledge should be a resource of and for the people who create, hold, and share it; 5) research is political, and evaluation is in a sense a political activity. The contexts in which evaluation operates are politicised and the ambition of gender transformative evaluation is to transform and address social injustice. The evaluation process, and findings should be conflict sensitive and attempt to bring about change, not only describe the world as it is. The evaluation contextualises the research socially and politically with an emphasis on how gender and other influential discourses influence each person’s experience.
Partner organisation related key persons
Kvinna till Kvinna staff
Other key informants will be discussed with Kvinna till Kvinna
The penultimate inception report shall be presented to Kvinna till Kvinna within five work days after the signature of the contract and a start-up meeting has been held with Kvinna till Kvinna. The report shall include a description of the evaluation methodology, method of ensuring the quality of implementation of the evaluation including ethical considerations and a work plan/timeline for the evaluation. Kvinna till Kvinna shall provide their comments within one week of the submission of the inception report. A finalised inception report is to be submitted to Kvinna till Kvinna within one week of sending the comments on the inception report.
The desk review is to be submitted to Kvinna till Kvinna no later than 9 June 2019. Deadline for Kvinna till Kvinna’s feedback is one week. Thereafter it will be finalised and submitted to Kvinna till Kvinna within five working days.
The field visits are expected to take place somewhere between 10 – 30 June. The exact period of fieldwork shall be settled in dialogue with Kvinna till Kvinna and its partner organisation and decided upon during the inception phase.
A penultimate report and power point must be shared with Kvinna till Kvinna for comments. The deadline for the penultimate report will be 11 August. The final report is to be submitted to Kvinna till Kvinna no later than 8 September 2019.
The finalised report and power point should be written in English and should not exceed 40 pages, excluding annexes and shall include an executive summary of findings including lessons learned and recommendations. The methodology used must be described and explained in the finalised report. Any limitations shall be made explicit and their consequences discussed as soon as realised by the evaluators including any ethics considerations taken. Results should be presented in a way that highlights each outcome and result. The evaluators shall adhere in the reporting to the terminological conventions of the OECD/DAC Glossary on Evaluation and Results-Based Management as far as possible.
The report should include:
The evaluation report will be used for strategic planning and reporting to Sida. It will be shared with Sida and Kvinna till Kvinna partner organisations in Palestine. Parts of the report, such as quotes, specific outcomes or stories/cases, might also be used in the Kvinna till Kvinna’s communication work or in other reports or documents produced by Kvinna till Kvinna.
The final report shall be submitted in two hard copies and a soft copy to Kvinna till Kvinna’s head office in Stockholm. The final report will be presented by the consultant in a meeting together with representatives from Kvinna till Kvinna; location to be decided.
The tender needs to state the number of work days that the consultant intends to spend in the country (at least two weeks is recommended) and the total budget, including expenses such as travel and communication costs etc.
Consultant fees shall be specified as fees per day including taxes, social security contributions and VAT and the number of work days for the assignment divided per evaluator.
In cases where the tender includes a team of consultants, their division of work shall be presented. A contracted consultant cannot further subcontract the assignment.
The following criteria will be applied in the selection of the evaluation consultant(s):
Qualifications and Experiences Required
All tenders must include:
The tender is to be sent to Kvinna till Kvinna no later than 1 May 2019 to the following e-mail address: maria.johansson@kvinnatillkvinna.se
Send any questions and requests for clarifications to Maria Johansson on maria.johansson@kvinnatillkvinna.se
[1] The framework includes the programme theory of change, results matrix, and components; direct support, capacity development and networking