Terms of Reference

Project Evaluation: “Promoting Justice for Survivors of Gender-Based Violence in China”

Job Code Title:                       National consultant  

Type of Contract:                          Consultant Contract

Location:                                          Beijing, China (with travel to project sites)

Duration of Contract:                   20 working days spread over 20 October 2017 – 15 January 2018

Start Date:                                     20 October, 2017

Proposal/CV requirements:         Please see section VII.

Application Deadline:                 8 October 2017

I.                  Background and Context

Domestic and gender-based violence are serious problems in Chinese society, impacting up to one-third of all Chinese families and at least half of all Chinse women. Government intervention efforts have primarily focused on children and married women. This approach overlooks the fact that a substantial portion of domestic violence (“DV”) survivors also belong to other vulnerable groups, including women with HIV/AIDS and lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LBT) women. LBT and HIV/AIDS advocates report that the stigma and discrimination affecting these groups often impedes access to legal interventions and social services, making these populations particularly susceptible to long-term, unreported abuse. The prevalence of these forms of violence indicate that significant deficiencies exist within the current system that prevent survivors of violence from (a) empowering themselves to advocate for their rights to live a violence-free life, and (b) also prevent service providers and legal actors from being able to provide assistance and intervention, including in the form of fully informed legislation and policies. Both of these major challenges have been further highlighted when the first national Anti-Domestic Violence Law in China, which was passed during project implementation in March 2016, revealed that policymakers still lack a full understanding of the rights, needs, and interests of these vulnerable and marginalized groups.

To respond to these challenges, Equality Women’s Rights Organization (“Equality”) and several other Chinese grassroots NGOs applied for funding from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund). Under this program, Equality and several other grassroots Chinese NGOs collaborated to empower survivors, engage policymakers, and train service providers to better address the needs of survivors of domestic and gender-based violence from minority groups. This program, entitled “Promoting Justice for Survivors of Gender-Based Violence in China,” was formally initiated in January 2016 and is scheduled to conclude in December 2017.  

Program description:

The project sought to empower women and girl survivors of domestic and gender-based violence to be educated in and advocate for their rights, and gain access to sorely needed legal assistance and social services that will allow them to live violence-free lives. In particular, this project focused on identifying and empowering women and girls from marginalized and vulnerable communities, such as LBT women, women with HIV/AIDS, and young women. To strengthen the mechanisms for assistance available this project also included a component to inform policymakers and government stakeholders about the rights, interest, and needs of these communities of survivors, to better inform the drafting and implementation of important new legislation on domestic violence and improve the implementation of preexisting policies. Finally, the program sought to train legal actors, government stakeholders, and direct service providers in best practices for intervention in cases of domestic and gender-based violence, especially multi-sectoral coordinated approaches to action.

Program Goal:

·        Female survivors of domestic violence (DV), including Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender(LBT) women, women and girls impacted by HIV/AIDS, and young women, are empowered to advocate for their rights and engage in efforts to better inform DV laws and policies in select location in China by December 2017.

Program Outcomes:

1.      Grassroots activist communities composed of female survivors of DV, including LBT women, women and girls impacted by HIV/AIDS, and young women, have increased capacity to perform sustainable acts of anti-DV advocacy and service coordination in select locations in China by December 2017.

2.      Local government stakeholders have increased capacities to draft legislative and policy provisions that will enable better protection of women and girl survivors against DV in selected locations by December 2017.

3.      Legal actors and service providers provide qualified consultation and services to women and girls survivors of DV by December 2017.

The expected outputs to be achieved during the two years of this program are as follows:

Outcome 1:

Output 1.1: Grassroots activist communities increase substantive knowledge of DV in select locations in China by the second quarter of the second year of 2017.

Output 1.2: Grassroots activists have improved knowledges of and skills in performing advocacy and responding to DV by December 2017.

Outcome 2:

Output 2.1: Local government and other stakeholders responsible for drafting and implementing DV-related policies are more informed about the needs and intersts of DV survivors through project-generated research and policy recommendations.

Outcome 3:

Output 3.1: Direct service providers and legal actors, including lawyers and policymakers, have improved knowledge and skills to handle DV cases.

Output 3.2: Direct service providers and legal actors, including lawyers and policymakers, have established cooperation with grassroots groups and other community-based organizations in combating DV. 

II.                Evaluation purpose

The overall purpose of this evaluation is to provide a solid assessment of the project’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability, defined as follows:

·        Relevance: Extent to which the expected results are consistent with beneficiaries’ requirements, country needs, global priorities, UN Women’s mandate, comparative advantage, and partners’ and donors’ policies.

·        Effectiveness: Extent to which the project outputs/outcomes were achieved, including coordination, management and institutional structure of the project implementation.

·        Efficiency: Measures of the project delivery (monitoring and indicators) and how economically resources/inputs (funds, expertise, time, etc.) are converted to results.

·        Sustainability: The probability of continued long-term benefits from the project results.

·        Impact: Change/progress in lives of women and girls suffering violence and possible change/progress in mind set of different stakeholders throughout the project  implementation in contributing to transformational change for gender equality and women's empowerment.

The evaluator will provide a series of recommendations and proposals for improving project design and management structure, as well as strategic approaches, in order to inform decisions concerning similar programs and projects in the future for Equality (as well as the UN Trust Fund and UN Women). 

III.              Evaluation objectives and scope

The scope of the evaluation is limited to the project implemented over the past two years (January 2016 – December 2017) and the total budget of USD $99,700.

The evaluation will focus on program achievements at the outcome level, assess program impact against its original design, and identify key successes, lessons, and experiences arising during project implementation. The evaluation will also assess the management and coordination structure of the project and analyze its benefits and shortcomings against the achievements and impact of the project.

The final evaluation of the project is to be conducted externally by an independent national consultant, preferably located in BeijingThe evaluation will be conducted for 20 working days over October 2016 to February 2017.

The evaluator will conduct field research on the program impact and related developments in Beijing; Changsha, Hunan Province; and Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

The evaluation will take into consideration the impact of the program on the following beneficiary and stakeholder groups:

·        Primary beneficiaries: women and girl survivors of domestic and gender violence; LBT women and girls; women and girls living with HIV/AIDS; and young women activists.

·        Government stakeholders: Government officials, Women’s Federation employees, and policymakers.

·        Direct service providers: Individuals directly providing services to survivors of domestic and gender-based violence, and employees of civil society and other groups that facilitate the work of direct service providers.

Objectives of the Evaluation:

The overall objectives of the evaluation are to:

a.      To evaluate the entire project in terms of its effectiveness, relevance, efficiency, sustainability, and impact, with a strong focus on assessing the results at the outcome and project goals.

b.      To generate key lessons and identify promising practices for learning. 

IV.              Methods and Processes

Methodology:

The evaluation will be based on gender and human rights principles, as defined in the UN Women Evaluation Policy. The evaluation will be conducted in accordance with UN Women evaluation guidelines and UNEG Norms, Standards, Ethical Guidelines, Code of Conduct for Evaluations and Integrating Human Rights and Gender Equality in Evaluations in the UN System.   

The evaluation will be a transparent and participatory process involving relevant stakeholders and partners at local levels. These are including but not limited to:  Equality (NGO) staff, partners, community workers, and/or women who are survivors of domestic violence if appropriate as well as other stakeholder such as UN Women and UN Trust Fund.

The evaluation will examine all the relevant documents of the project, including the project document and the Results and Resources Framework, annual work plans, 6 monthly progress reports and any knowledge products produced in the framework of the project.

The evaluation methodology should be devised and recommended by the external evaluator in the Inception Report, following the desk review of related documents and discussions with stakeholders – but it is likely toemploy mixed methods for data collection. The evaluation will have two levels of analysis and validation of information:

·        Level 1: A desk review of information sources, such as, but not limited to: project documentation, work plans, roles and responsibilities, partnership agreements, progress reports, mission reports, technical products developed, data collected, and any important correspondence between key parties.

·        Level 2: In-depth analysis of the project both by qualitative and quantitative data collection. This will involve visits to selected project sites in Beijing and Changsha out of three provinces where the project has been implemented, and will employ a number of evaluation methods ranging from document reviews, interviews, focus group discussions, surveys, observations.

Evaluation process:

The evaluation will look at the progress made towards the results of the project and communicate lessons learned and any recommendations for future projects by Equality and partners. The entire process will take place over a period of October 2017 to Feb 2018, in which collection of field data should be completed over a period of 1 month from the start of data collection.

 V.                Evaluation Ethics

Evaluator will be conducted in accordance with the principles outlined in both UNEG Norms and Standards for Evaluation in the UN System and by the UNEG ‘Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation’. These documents will be attached to the contract. Evaluator is required to read the Norms and Standards and the guidelines and ensure a strict adherence to it, including  

·          Guarantee the safety of respondents and the research team.

·          Apply protocols to ensure anonymity and confidentiality of respondents.

·          Select and train the research team on ethical issues.

·          Provide referrals to local services and sources of support for women that might ask for them.

·          Ensure compliance with legal codes governing areas such as provisions to collect and report data, particularly permissions needed to interview or obtain information about children and youth.

·          Store securely the collected information.

The evaluator must consult with the relevant documents as relevant prior to development and finalization of data collection methods and instruments. The key documents include(but not limited to the following:

·          World Health Organization (2003). Putting Women First: Ethical and safety Recommendations for Research on Domestic Violence Against Women.

www. Who.int/gender/documents/violence/who_fch_gwh_01.1/en/index.html

·          Jewkes, R., E. Dartnall and Y. Sikweyiya (2012). Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Research on the Perpetration of Sexual Violence. Sexual Violence Research Initiative. Pretoria, South Africa, Medical Research Council. Available from www.svri.org/Ethicalrecommendations.pdf

·          Research violence against women: A practical guide for researchers and activists November 2005

http://www.path.org/publications/files/GBV_rvaw_complete.pdf

·          World Health Organization (WHO),’Ethical and safety recommendations for researching documenting and monitoring sexual violence in emergencies’ 2007,

http://www.who.int/gender/documents/OMS_Ethics&Safety10Aug07.pdf

VI.              Deliverables and timeline

The deliverables of the evaluator are as follows:

1.      Inception Report: The inception report should follow the TOR provided by the UN Trust Fund and detail the evaluator’s understanding of what is being evaluated and why, showing how each evaluation question will be answered by way of: proposed methods; proposed sources of data; and data collection procedures. The inception report should also include an evaluation matrix, proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables.

2.      Preliminary Findings: The evaluator shall share initial findings and recommendations with Equality and its Evaluation Task Manager/Core Reference Group consists of UN Women, the UN Trust Fund and local stakeholders and partners.

3.      Draft Reports: Report structure should follow the UN Trust Fund guidance

4.      Review to validate data and provide feedback comments: Equality and its Evaluation Task Manager/Core Reference Group consists of UN Women, the UN Trust Fund and local stakeholders and partners should make share for sharing draft report with local partners to validate data and provide feedback to the draft report at a timely manner.

5.      Final Report: The final report will follow UN Trust Fund Guidance, and be submitted in soft copy in English.

Note: All process should be guided by UNEG’s guidance on human rights and gender equality in evaluation:http://uneval.org/document/detail/1616

The timeline of the process

VII.           

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Qualifications

The evaluator should be one national consultant to conduct the evaluation process and produce deliverables. The team consultant will consult with the national expert on division of labor for specific tasks, but retain the overall responsibility for delivering expected deliverables and evaluation results with the support of the national expert.

An application for a national evaluator is highly desirable. Beijing-based applications will be prioritized. The evaluator team should clearly detail roles and responsibilities, and the number of days each member shall work. CV must be attached, with at least two references. Sample of previous work should be included, and they will be asked for during assessment of proposals. A cover letter confirming availability for the task and the daily consulting rate requested should be included in the application package.

Qualifications for a National evaluator serving as the evaluator:

·      At minimum, a Master’s Degree in social sciences, evaluation, development studies, gender studies, law studies, sociology, or political science;

·      At least five years of experience in participating in project evaluations with gender-responsive evaluations;

·      Experience with projects and/or evaluations on gender based violence, especially domestic violence;

·      Excellent English and Chinese drafting and writing skills to produce and present concise and analytical reports and communicate clearly with evaluation stakeholders

·      Excellent understanding and commitment to UN Women’s mandate;

·      Previous experience of working with the UN, with experience working in China is a distinct advantage;

·      Display of integrity, by modelling the UN's values and ethical standards;

·      Cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.

If you are interested in this position, please send you CV to equality-cn@hotmail.com before 8 October, 2017.