Тендер на закупівлю послуг з проведення проміжної оцінки: RfP Mid-term Evaluation for VIA Program (IREX)

IREX/Ukraine United Voices in Action (VIA) Request for Proposals

I. Background 

The United Voices in Action (VIA) program is implemented by the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX). IREX brings 25 years of experience in Ukraine to the program, including direct work with youth and over 1,400 local communities in 24 oblasts. The VIA program helps Ukraine’s internally displaced persons (IDPs[1]) aged 6 to 18 and 30+ to learn valuable conflict resolution and advocacy skills to reduce their vulnerability to exploitation and increase community cohesion.  The program brings together IDPs, receiving community members, government representatives, and media figures and connects them with resources to advance local level conflict resolution, stabilization, and integration. The objectives of the program are:

• Objective 1: IDPs and receiving communities are able to apply best practices in advocating for their rights and leading social cohesion activities in their communities.
• Objective 2: IDPs and receiving communities increase intergroup social cohesion through joint community projects to address issues of mutual concern and mitigate factors that exacerbate tensions.
• Objective 3: IDP local and regional integration plans and implementation are informed by IDP and advocacy group inputs to better address the needs of marginalized subpopulations.

IREX is looking for a prequalified vendor(s) to conduct research that will help IREX to gather information and conduct a mid-term evaluation of program performance, provide irrelevant data for the research questions that arose during the implementation of the program, and formulate recommendations for adaptation of programming based on mid-term evaluation results.  

II. Scope of Work

The goal of this mid-term evaluation is to evaluate program performance and impact, test the hypotheses that arose during the implementation of the program, and adapt programming and update activities based on findings and recommendations, in selected (target) communities.

Program activities for the mid-term evaluation:

1. Resilience During War (including peer-to-peer support groups)
2. Advocacy Academy
3. Ideation Workshop
4. Yedyna Hromada
5. IDPs Councils and Initiatives Groups
6. Forum-theatres
7. IDP Regional Forums(participants among NGOs)

Vendor(s) activities will focus on but not limited to the following objectives/research questions:

Objective 1: IDPs and receiving communities are able to apply best practices in advocating for their rights and leading social cohesion activities in their communities. (Assuming will be reached by FGDs).

• Study how IDPs inform locally driven IDP integration plans and their implementation, and any changes that should be made to better achieve this.
• Study the existing communication mechanisms between IDP advocates and local officials in target communities and existing bottlenecks, if any, that prevent communication between the two.
• Study what aspects or activities of the program were the most effective in achieving stated VIA objectives and intended results so far.
• Study the level of understanding of program participants of the decision-making processes in the community and how they can engage.
• Identify VIA program participants’ level of engagement in the local civil activities.

Objective 2: IDPs and receiving communities increase intergroup social cohesion through joint community projects to address issues of mutual concern and mitigate factors that exacerbate tensions. (Assuming will be reached by FGDs).

• Learn whether program participants have improved their understanding of community needs and how they can address them.
• Study level of adoption and use of skills and knowledge that participants gained through program activities.
• Evaluate the influence of conducted activities on tolerance level of participants, their attitude towards marginalized groups.
• Study level of readiness of the participants for advocating about the rights of marginalized groups in communities.
• Evaluate if IDP participants made any progress to integrate into community.
• Study current status of relocation trends of IDPs and their plans.
• Research if participants of multiple VIA program activities have better progress in integration efforts than participants of single VIA program activities.
• Examine forum theaters’ capacity to drive action following discussions on IDP challenges.
• Study the impact of forum theatres organized by SSS on IDP integration into target communities.
• Are the participants of the theater forum ready to join in solving the problems that were identified at the forum?

Objective 3: IDP local and regional integration plans and implementation are informed by IDP and advocacy group inputs to better address the needs of marginalized subpopulations. (Assuming will be reached by KIIs).

• Study progress of IDPs Councils’ operations and its level of cooperation with local governments.
• Identify the main sources of information and support for IDPs.

Study the synergy between local NGOs and current international projects towards IDP rights advocacy.

• Assess the practical efficacy of the IDP Councils’ governing capacity.

Do the representatives of IDP Councils believe that they can influence the decision-making of the community?

• Is the assistance in the field of protection of IDPs effective?
• Do you understand the activities of the IDP Council?
• If you understand the activities of the IDP Council, is there such a council in your area? If there is such a council, have there been any results from it yet?
• Other questions (vendor’s suggestions will be an advantage).

This list of research questions is not complete nor final and could be updated and supplemented during finalization of the methodology for conduction of the mid-term evaluation. 

IREX expects the selected vendor(s) to facilitate the following tasks:

1. Conduct focus group discussions (FGDs) with participants of listed below activities:
   1. Communities (21):Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, Cherkasy, Uman, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Kropyvnytskyi, Сhernivtsi, Lviv, Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kolomyia, Kamenets-Podilskiy, Bila Tserkva, Chervonograd, Rivne, Vinnytsia, Lutsk, Zhytomyr, Kremenchuk, Poltava.
   2. Activities: Resilience During War trainings, Advocacy Academy, Ideation Workshop, Yedyna Hromada, Forum-theatres.
   3. Objectives 1 and 2 (and corresponding research questions).
   4. Total expected number of FGDs is 10. Expected number of participants in each FGDs is 9-11, to cover participants from all 21 communities for each activity. Two FGDs for each activity. Could be conducted online. Database of contacts is provided by IREX.
      1. Proposed budget should contain option 10 FGDs with participants from each of listed activities (two FGDs per activity) or other methodological suggestions from vendor to cover all communities and all listed activities.
   5. IREX provides topics for the discussion guide, vendor(s) develops the final guide for IREX’s review and feedback, vendor finalized the guide after IREX’s feedback.
   6. Piloting report(s) (up to 1 page) in English
   7. Vendor provides narrative analytical and technical FGDs reports (ENG and UKR).
   8. Vendor provides transcripts in language of origin.

2. Conduct key informant interviews (KIIs) with members of IDPs Councils and Initiatives Groups with duration up to 1 hour:
   1. Communities (23):Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, Cherkasy, Uman, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Kropyvnytskyi, Сhernivtsi, Lviv, Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kolomyia, Kamenets-Podilskiy, Kyiv, Chervonograd, Rivne, Vinnytsia, Lutsk, Zhytomyr, Kremenchuk, Poltava, Kamyanske, Kryvyi Rih.
   2. Activities: IDPs Councils and Initiatives Groups, IDPs IDP Regional Forums(participants among NGOs).
   3. Objective 3 (and corresponding research questions)
   4. Total sample of 23 KIIs: 23 (one in each community) interviews with representatives of the IDPs’ Councils or the IDPs Initiative Groups in target communities.
      1. Proposed budget should contain two options: 23 KIIs with representatives of IDPs’ Councils or IDPs Initiative Groups in target communities, and additional option: 23 KIIs with representatives of IDPs’ Councils or IDPs Initiative Groups in target communities plus 23 interviews with representatives of local authorities working with IDPs in target communities. Proposed budget could contain other methodological suggestions from vendor to cover all communities and all listed activities.
   5. Database of contacts for interviews with representatives of IDPs’ Councils or IDPs Initiative Groups is provided by IREX. Database of contacts for interviews with representatives of local authorities working with IDPs in target communities will NOT be provided by IREX.
   6. IREX provides topics for the discussion guide, vendor drafts discussion guide for IREX’s review and feedback, vendor finalized the guide after IREX’s feedback.
   7. Piloting report(s) (up to 1 page) in English
   8. Vendor provides KIIs analytical report (ENG and UKR).
   9. Vendor provides transcripts in the language of respondents.

Potential vendor(s) are able to provide alternative suggestions for methodological options for the goals of this RFP.

Expected Deliverables:

• Work plan (with timelines) in English for each component of the assessment.
• Methodology that can assess the goal and objectives, research questions of the evaluation. 
• Transcripts for KIIs and FGDs in the language of respondents.
• Technical report for FGDs.
• Narrative FGDs and KIIs analytical reports in English and Ukrainian.
• Final guides with interview protocols for KIIs and FGDs in English and Ukrainian.
• Piloting report (s) (up to 1 page) in English.
• A short summary report of the evaluation with key findings and recommendations in PowerPoint based on the results of all conducted by the vendor(s) studies in English and Ukrainian.

All data collection and reporting tasks will abide by the standards of gender and inclusion; Ethical standards in data collection and reporting and data quality assurance and data quality assessment.

III. Quotes Requirements

Proposal should be sent to [email protected] no later than 16:59 on October 2, 2023.

Any clarifying questions regarding this RfP should be submitted to [email protected] no later than 16:59 on September 25, 2023.

Once the successful vendor is identified, all vendors that applied will be informed about the selection results.

IREX reserves the right to re-announce this RfP if less than 3 (three) technically qualified proposals are received through this request.

Elements of the submission:

Proposal narrative (maximum size of the narrative in MS Word is 4 pages (font size 12, 1.5 line spacing) which includes:

• Methodology of KIIs including approach to recruiting respondents.
• Methodology of FGDs including approach to recruiting respondents.
• Capacity of the vendor: Relevant examples of completed similar assignments performed during the last 2 years, including a description of one assignment performed during the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine (It could be in a form of reference).
• Registration documents including the following, if available: certificate of state registration, taxpayer certificate, Charter, order for the appointment of the organization head, and any other relevant documents (for example, references).
• Detailed workplan with timeline by components of the research.
• Budget calculations by budget lines (all four options should be calculated separately). Budget calculations should be sent in a separate MS Excel file: VIA Midterm RFP finalIREX_VIA_Midterm_Budget template
• Budget ceiling for proposals is 15,000 USD including taxes. Preferable bids from non-VAT payers, as the project can’t provide VAT exemptions. The payment is made in UAH according to the official currency exchange rate, determined by the National Bank of Ukraine as of the date of invoice issue.
• Language of submission is English.

Timing/Duration: 

Work should start immediately after agreement signature and should be completed by November 30^th, 2023.

IV. Selection Criteria

[1] In our program we use the following definition of IDPs: According to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, internally displaced persons are persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border.

VIA Midterm RFP final