BACKGROUND/ PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Naymote Partners for Democratic Development is a prominent civil society organization dedicated to promoting accountable democratic governance, political transparency, and robust civic engagement in Liberia and across the African continent. Since 2001, Naymote has played a pivotal role in enhancing Liberia’s democratic institutions and empowering citizens to participate actively in the governance arena. The institution has trained a number of young politicians in Africa and, for the first time, developed the President Meter Project, a democratic accountability instrument that provides an independent assessment of the effectiveness of campaign and post-election campaign promises. www.naymote.com / www.yplsa.org

On September 30, 2022, Naymote Partners for Democratic Development signed a partnership agreement with the Embassy of Sweden near Monrovia through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, (SIDA) to implement a three-year program named: The Democracy Advancement Program, (DAP).

The program’s overarching goal is to enhance democratic governance for inclusive development in Liberia. This goal is undergirded by the strategic objective of ‘increased demand on the government to deliver on its political, development and campaign promises.

DAP WAS CONCEIVED TO PURSUE THREE KEY OUTCOMES:

Outcome 1: Citizens, especially women and youth in selected counties are better informed and active in making demands for improved service delivery and for accountability of elected officials on election campaign promises in Liberia.

Outcome 2: Local government officials are more responsive to the needs of citizens, especially women and youth in the use of social development funds to enhance local development within selected counties.

Outcome 3: Naymote has increased capacity and effective governance to accomplish its strategic plan for 2020-2025 and enhance organizational effectiveness to advance/impact democratic governance in Liberia and the ECOWAS sub-region.

The program is premised on a specific Theory of Change that “IF a government is politically accountable, THEN the quality of democracy is improved, and THEN citizens benefit from their participation in democratic processes”.

Key activities under the program include but not limited to hosting the annual Young Political Leadership School Africa training 100 emerging leaders from across Africa, conducting a survey on the qualities of services provided by the County Service Centers in Montserrado, Bong, Grand Bassa, Lofa, and Nimba Counties; monitor, track and report on the status of promises made during and after elections, (President Meter Project), monitor, track and report on the performance of the legislature, conduct community engagement events with stakeholders on political accountability for national development (town hall meetings), host annual National Summit for Democracy and Political Accountability in Liberia, air the Democracy by Radio a platform to educate citizens on Naymote program and government’s policies, produce policy briefs on political accountability/ public service and develop and or updates internal control documents, etc.

The institution is seeking an external evaluation firm, entity, or individual evaluator with the expertise and track records to conduct a comprehensive end-term evaluation of the institution’s Democracy Advancement Program (DAP) focusing on the results achieved by the program and this should be conducted from March to May 2025.

To accomplish the desired outcomes in accordance with the result framework, the evaluation will determine whether the various tasks were completed as planned and whether the DAP is being implemented in accordance with the work plan. It is anticipated that the evaluator will conduct an assessment and, if required, offer suggestions to enhance program performance and institution efficacy.

All program actions will be evaluated by the evaluator between September 2022 and March 2025 in accordance with the authorized work plan and result framework, the evaluator will independently evaluate and report on the program’s performance in relation to the planned activities and outcomes.

To guide the program’s future steps and beyond, the lessons learned, difficulties encountered, and best practices discovered during the implementation phase will be compiled and examined.

EVALUATION PURPOSE AND TARGET AUDIENCE

In order to direct future planning and implementation efforts, the exercise’s overall goal is to identify what has changed, what has worked, and what has not worked. The end-term evaluation of the “Democracy Advancement Program” aims to focus on the following aspects:

• Evaluation of processes (including stakeholder integration and collaboration; workflows; participation and empowerment; division of labor between project and stakeholders; changes that came about as the result of the project, or changes that may have impacted project implementation during its duration).
• Evaluation of impacts (measuring the effect of the program against its objectives to determine how well the desired results have been achieved).
• Evaluation of outcome (Measuring the immediate change as a result of the program. Has the project met its goal of enhancing democratic governance for inclusive development in Liberia? Can Naymote sustain some project interventions and sustain themselves beyond the program?)

This end-term evaluation intends to gather feedback from all stakeholders, analyze the effectiveness of the management processes, and assess the quality and sustainability of the project’s deliverables.

The evaluation will help the project implementer (Naymote) understand what went well and what could be improved, providing a framework for refining project strategies and methodologies. The evaluation must assess to what extent the intervention logic has been followed during the project and if planned outputs and outcomes/project goals formulated in the Logical Framework Matrix were fulfilled.

The evaluation will be undertaken in Monrovia and across the DAP project counties. The evaluator is supposed to create guidelines with specific tactics, a tool, and a workplan to accomplish the program’s end-term evaluation goal.

The Democracy Advancement Program, (DAP), includes conducting the end-term evaluation, and the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and the Program Director of the institution will assist the evaluator in obtaining the necessary paperwork, coupled with identifying relevant contact persons/ beneficiaries in the project counties if requested.

EVALUATION CRITERIA AND CONCERNS

The evaluation firm/ individual evaluator is expected to use standard evaluation criteria such as OEDC/DAC quality standards for development evaluation and tailor it to the context of the program. The evaluator shall use SIDA OEDC/DAC Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation. The assessment of the program should be concerned with the following:

• The relevance of the program assessing whether the program objectives align with the needs of the beneficiaries
• The effectiveness of the program considering to what extent the planned program outcomes achieved
• How efficient was the program with a focus on the usage of the resources provided or available
• Consider the impact and outcome concluding the short-term and long-term changes brought about by the program
• The sustainability of the program particularly how the benefits of the program will continue after its closure.

DELIVERABLES

INITIAL/INCEPTION REPORT: The evaluator is supposed to draft an initial report that explains through comprehension of the activities that need to be completed. This will contain information on how the suggested evaluation questions and any more will be handled.

A summary of the evaluation design, techniques, evaluation questions, data sources, and collecting tools for each data source, as well as the metrics by which each program’s importance area will be assessed, should also be included in the initial report.

DRAFT REPORT: A draft report will be presented by the evaluator to the Program, M/E, and Senior Management Teams during a meeting. At the meeting, highlight of the presentation will include the approach, the findings, lessons learned, and recommendations.

FINAL REPORT: The evaluator must deliver a hard copy and soft copy of the comprehensive report to the Program Director and the M/E Officer, respectively, within seven working days of receiving all comments and feedback from the institution, (Naymote).

DURATION OF THE TASKS

The evaluator has three months to complete the responsibilities agreed within a signed contract. It is anticipated that the final report will be accessible on May 30, 2025.

EXPERTISE OF THE FIRM

The firm should be a Liberian-registered entity in accordance with the laws and rules of the government, such as those pertaining to business registration, tax clearance, etc. Possessing proficiency in research, data gathering, data management, project management, and data analysis with instruments that have demonstrated success. It is recommended that the firm possess over five years of expertise/experience conducting impact evaluations in Liberia, taking into account corporate, decentralized, and collective evaluations.

Post-graduate degrees in statistics, demography, monitoring and evaluation, project management, youth, women, and local government, as well as any other fields relevant to these responsibilities, are required of professionals (evaluators).

BUDGET

The estimated budget range for the evaluation of the DAP is between US $1,000 to US $5,000. This budget covers all necessary costs, including personnel, travel, data collection, and reporting.

Application Process and Documentation:

Interested firm (s) should submit the following:

An Expression of Interest (EOI) that includes the resumes or CVs of those who will be involved in the assessment or evaluation process.

A technical proposal that outlines the approach and resources to be employed for the task, taking into account the goals, parameters, and important assessment issues discussed in earlier rounds of this document.

A thorough work plan that lists the essential tasks that must be finished within the assignment’s one-month proposal timeframe.

A budget that breaks out all of the expenses related to the tasks and legitimate tax clearance, a legitimate business registration, and references of past works (where necessary)

SUBMISSION:                                                                                                                                                 A hard copy of the application should be addressed and submitted to:

Mr. Isaiah Pyne                                                                                                                                Procurement Officer                                                                                                                                           Naymote Partners for Democratic Development                                                                                      Carver Mission Community, Paynesville City – Liberia, West Africa

A soft copy should be sent to info@naymote.com and keep in copy eddie@naymote.com, isaiahjpyne@gmail.com, peacemb@naymote.com. Deadline for submission of EOI: The submission of applications must be made on or before Thursday, February 20, 2025, at 3:00 P.M. Applications will be considered on an ongoing basis. Women-led businesses are highly encouraged to apply.

Kindly read/ download the application using the link https://tinyurl.com/3pza9usj.