REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Issue Date: Jan 15, 2025
Proposal Due Date: February 15, 2025
Anticipated Award Date: April 01, 2025 – January 30, 2026 (will not exceed 32 days over a ten-month period)

To Whom It May Concern:

IREX (International Research & Exchanges Board) is seeking proposals from qualified respondents to support in evaluating and assessing program activities implemented throughout the life of the School Based Civic Engagement for Reconciliation (SFR) Program.

IREX reserves the right to withdrawal this request for proposal at any time up to the award of the contract.

Program and Position Description
The School Based Civic Engagement for Reconciliation (SFR) program is a teacher professional development training program that develops a cadre of skilled educators equipped to support student well-being, promote reconciliation, and encourage active citizenship for students, families, and communities. The full program curriculum consists of in-person and virtual training bringing together diverse groups of educators from various geographic regions, religions, ethnicities, and political affiliations in Iraq as well as extra curricular activities for parents and youth including: Parent Advisory Committee (PAC), Student Advisory Committee (SAC), Service as Learning, and Debate Club.

IREX seeks a final technical evaluation of the above mentioned program implemented by the International Research and Exchanges Board (hereafter IREX) and its partners, Bent Al-Rafedain Organization (BROB) and Al Ghad League for Women and Child Care. The evaluation will focus on assessment of program activities implemented throughout the life of the program and whether those activities led to successfully meeting project objectives and desired results. As a result of this evaluation, recommendations from the evaluator/s are also expected in order to improve the quality of future projects.

Duration of the Project	October 1, 2022 - February 1, 2026
Program Objectives	Educators increase capacity to foster empathy, inclusion, and active citizenship in their students, schools, and communities. Youth develop civic engagement skills for dispute resolution and peaceful coexistence. Educators and youth have opportunities to apply and share civic engagement skills to engage productively with peers, parents, community members, and local leaders.
Partners	Al Ghad League for Woman and Child Care Bent Al-Rafedain Organization (BROB)
Target Beneficiaries	193 educators directly trained by SFR throughout life of program including the following groups: 124 educators in Cohort I 16 Master Trainers Cohort I 53 educators in Cohort II 6 Master Trainers Cohort II (pulled from the 16 Master Trainers in Cohort I)

Purpose of the Evaluation
The purpose of the evaluation is to make a systematic and objective assessment of the SFR program, its design, approach, implementation and results. The aim is to determine the relevance and fulfillment of objectives, developmental efficiency, effectiveness, outcomes and sustainability. The evaluation should provide information that is credible and useful, enabling the incorporation of lessons learned into the decision-making process of IREX, program partners, and DRL for future programming.
Principles underpinning the approach to the evaluation are:

Impartiality and independence of the evaluation process from the programming and implementation functions;
Credibility of the evaluation, through use of appropriately skilled and independent experts and the transparency of the evaluation process, including wide dissemination of results;
Participation of stakeholders in the evaluation process, to ensure different perspectives and views are taken into account; and
Usefulness of the evaluation findings and recommendations, through timely presentation of relevant, clear and concise information to decision makers.

Focus of Evaluation
The final report should be introduced by an initial discussion of the socio-political and human rights context of the project and the development of this context during the project period. It should then discuss, provide conclusions and recommendations on the following evaluation questions:
Relevance and Impact of Program / Program Outcomes: To what extent did the SFR program activities (student debate clubs, mock parliament, service learning, etc.) lead to desired outcomes of increased civic engagement and social inclusion?

To what extent do students change attitudes and behaviors to reflect greater empathy, perspective and conflict resolution skills through Debate and Governance clubs?
To what extent do Mock Parliament activities change student attitudes and behaviors to reflect greater tolerance and understanding of other groups?
To what extend to Mock Parliament activities strengthen civic engagement skills?
To what extent do Parent Advisory Committees increase motivation among parents to engage in school based community activities and increase the number of parents who feel their voice is heard in school governance?

To what extent do Service as Learning Courses increase student self-efficacy and likelihood to engage in future civic service activities?
To what extent did Debate Clubs and Government Clubs increase the number of actions taken by community actors that promote or protect freedom of religion or belief?

Effectiveness. To what extent does SFR training increase educator capacity to foster civically engaged and empathetic students?

Following the SFR training, to what degree do educators incorporate new civic education and/or inclusion activities and methods into their teaching practice?
To what extent does SFR training increase educators’ confidence in integrating civic engagement across subjects?
To what extent does SFR training increase educator’s confidence in creating an inclusive classroom?
To what extent does the SFR training increase the capacity of Master Trainers to train educators on the Civic Engagement for Reconciliation Curriculum (CERC)?

Sustainability. To what extent will changes in educator ability and practice be sustained over time?

What plans exist to continue student debate, government, and service learning activities?
How likely are educators to continue integrating civic education in their instruction?
To what degree are participants motivated and prepared to disseminate strategies and methods to others?

Inclusion. Did the program serve a diverse range of beneficiaries, in terms of gender, religion, and cultural background? How might the program become more diverse and inclusive in the future?
Replicability. What underlying conditions enabled the program to be successful? Under what conditions could the program be replicated in other contexts?
Unintended Outcomes. Were there any unforeseen positive/negative effects of the activities?
Unmet Needs. Which unmet needs did the evaluators identify that would be relevant for IREX to look into in an eventual continuation of the project?
Lessons Learned & Recommendations. Identify any lessons learned and provide recommendations evidenced during this evaluation.
The evaluator/s will have access to the following information:

Agreement and pre-Agreement documents;
Interim Reports;
Other MEL documents produced during the implementation of the project including raw data in word and excel.

Methodology
The evaluation should be include several forms of data collection, including desk research and a field visit. The desk study should cover the following documents:

Project contractual documents and further amendments;
Documents produced throughout the project;

Evidence of outcomes collected by the project, including reports and products developed through life of program;
Analysis of existing program MEL data.

Furthermore, the evaluation should be built on direct interviews with:

Beneficiaries including the following program participants selected ensuring a diverse representation of participants:

SFR Master Trainers from CI and CII (4)
SFR Cohort I Educators (not engaged in extra curricular) (8)
SFR Cohort II Educators (not engaged in extra curricular) (8)
SFR Cohort I and II Educators Implementing Extra Curricular Activities (8 per Cohort)
SFR Cohort I & II Mock Parliament Youth (8)
Cohort I & II Parents and Youth participating in each extra curricular activity (PAC, SAC, Service as Learning, Debate Club) (4 per activity)

Program participants should be selected using a methodologically sound sampling strategy.

IREX partners (Ministry of Education, Directorate General Training Institute staff, BROB and Al Ghad)

The consultancy should adopt an evaluation methodology coherent with the participatory approach of the project. The consultant/s is expected to conduct a participatory evaluation providing for meaningful involvement by the project partners, its beneficiaries and other interested parties. Stakeholder participation is to be an integral component of the evaluation design and planning, data gathering, drafting of findings, evaluation reporting and results dissemination. The evaluation should therefore focus not only on quantifiable results but also analyze processes and dynamics generated by the project, their scope (in terms of people and other actors involved) and their sustainability. The proposed framework of the evaluation can be subject to change based on the agreement between IREX.

Deliverables
All deliverables are to be submitted to IREX in English, electronically.
Deliverables include:

An inception report, to be submitted one week after the beginning of the evaluation, explaining the methodology, work program and timetable for the evaluation.
A final report to be submitted at the end of the evaluation with a maximum extension of 30 pages excluding annexes.

The final evaluation report will be structured as follows:

Executive summary
Main section:
- Introduction including
  - Project description
  - Project context
  - Evaluation objectives and methodology
  - Analysis of the findings from the Pre / Post Parent and Youth Surveys and Extra Curricular Teacher Reports
- Conclusions and recommendations
- Lessons learned
- Annexes including but not limited to:
  - Map of the project area
  - List of actors consulted
  - Literature and documentation consulted
  - Other technical annexes

Budget The maximum available budget for this consultancy is up to $15,000 all costs and taxes included.
Travel to Iraq is required for this external evaluation, travel costs will be covered directly by IREX including:

- Airfare in compliance with Fly America guidelines
- Meals and Incidentals
- Lodging
- Visa and other travel costs up to $300
- Security related costs for travel to Erbil, Mosul and/or Ramadi

Duration of Evaluation & Tentative Timeframe
The consultancy will not exceed 32 days over a ten month period and it is expected to be carried out between April 2025 through January 2026.
The tentative schedule is as follows:

Month 1: Desk review of core documents; initial meetings with IREX program manager and technical expert and IREX field-based Senior Program Officer; drafting and validation of the inception report (to be submitted by the end of week 4).
Month 2: Analysis of Cohort I data.
Month 3 - 7: Interviews with project staff (IREX), and partners (BROB and Al Ghad), observation of final program event and virtual Mock Parliament, interviews with participants and relevant stakeholders.
Month 8: Observation of final program event and concluding interviews with stakeholders.
Month 9-10: Drafting of final report (final version to be submitted no later than 15 January 2026; debriefing to IREX and relevant stakeholders.

Individuals/organizations should also be prepared to travel to Iraq as a requirement for the external evaluation. IREX will directly cover travel costs including:

Airfare in compliance with Fly America guidelines

Meals and Incidentals

Lodging

Visa and other travel costs up to $300

Security related costs for travel to Erbil, Mosul and/or Ramadi

Proposal Requirements
Individuals/organizations interested in providing this service must submit a proposal, including a breakdown of costs, which demonstrates the individual/organization’s capacity to complete the following deliverables:

Inception Report: Submitted one week after the beginning of the evaluation, detailing the methodology, work program and timetable for the evaluation.
Final Evaluation Report: Submitted at the end of the evaluation with a maximum extension of 30 pages, excluding annexes.

Evaluator Skills & Experience
Evaluation Consultant is expected to:

Possess extensive experience in conducting similar evaluations of education programs in conflict and post-conflict areas as well as cross-cutting sectors
Demonstrate knowledge of strategic and operational management of education programs in conflict and post-conflict areas;
Demonstrate sound knowledge of evaluation and data-collection methods.
Be able to communicate effectively both orally and in writing.
Have previous proven working experience in similar contexts.
Possess process management skills, such as facilitation and interview skills.
Read, write and speak fluently in Arabic preferred.

Individuals/organizations interested must apply by submitting an electronic copy of their expression of interest/proposal by February 15, 2025, with the subject: REF: SAQMIP22GR0292 Final Evaluation SFR to Lindsey Powers at [email protected].

Candidates must forward: two page (max) letter of intent indicating:

The consultants’ suitability for the assignment and match with previous work experience, qualifications etc;

Discussion of the work methodology it will use;

Draft work plan and suggested timetable;

Cost breakdown;

Provisional availability to fulfill the consultancy as per the timeframes indicated in these Terms of Reference;

Professional profile of the consultant including CV (as an appendix);

Include sample of previous reports.

Proposal Submission
If you are interested in furnishing this service, please e-mail a proposal to [[email protected]] Attn: [Lindsey Powers]. If you decide to submit a proposal, it must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on the closing date indicated above.   Late submissions will only be considered if in the best interests of the project, and then at IREX’s sole discretion. All proposals submitted must be valid for a period of not less than sixty (60) calendar days from the closing date indicated above.

Contact Information
Inquiries regarding the expression of interest/proposal process may be directed to Lindsey Powers, Program Manager, [email protected].

External Evaluator for the School-Based Civic Engagement for Reconciliation Program

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