Consultancy Opportunity: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

MEL Consultant: Terms of Reference

Introducing the SVRI

With over 8500 members the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) is the largest global network for advancing research on violence against women (VAW), violence against children (VAC) and other forms of violence driven by gender inequality. The SVRI brings together a diverse group of actors aiming to achieve a world free of violence against women and violence against children through innovative responses and prevention programmes informed by evidence, with a focus on low and middle-income countries (LMIC).

The SVRI is a not-for-profit network for researchers, practitioners, activists, funders and others in our community providing unique online and off line spaces to share, learn and connect. The four pillars of our strategic plan - building evidence; strengthening capacity; promoting partnerships; and, influencing change – work together to ensure policy and programmes are evidence informed, sustainable at scale and rooted in strategic partnerships that will drive action at local levels. All work undertaken and supported by SVRI strives to be feminist-centred, rights-based, innovative, collaborative, equitable and held to the highest ethical standards.  Commitment to diversity and gender equity is core to the culture of SVRI.

What we are looking for

The SVRI is seeking a short-term consultant to support the development and implementation of our new project: Collaborative evidence building for impact at scale: From local to global. The consultant will work closely with SVRIs Global Advocacy Director and Director of Operations on the design and roll-out of a MEL framework for measuring impact and fostering learning in ways that align with SVRIs values and partnership approach, and feed into SVRIs overarching MEL framework. The outcome of this work is a clear and comprehensive MEL Framework that shows how we measure research impacts at country, regional, and global levels in the short medium and long term.

Scope of work

We are looking for someone with knowledge of innovative yet simple, easy to implement methods of monitoring and evaluation, as well as experience in VAW and VAC prevention and response interventions, particularly at the local level.  You should have a track record of designing systems to gather and analyse both quantitative and qualitative data to generate credible outcomes from multiple projects and effect systemic change. You should possess strong facilitation skills to support learning processes that enhance individual and group capacity and be comfortable running meetings and workshops online. Excellent writing skills and spoken English is essential, and a good command of French is highly desirable. 

Key Tasks 

• Develop clear MEL questions, indicators and measures for the Collaborative evidence building for impact at scale: From local to global project.
• Align these with SVRIs overall MEL framework.
• Facilitate partner engagements on the MEL questions, document and analyse insights and data to inform the MEL framework.
• Develop a system for data collection from local sites that is locally informed, contextually relevant, and administratively simple to use and implement.
• Assist in developing context-specific MEL approaches to feed into SVRIs overall learning framework.
• Gather evidence to inform a Learning Paper on decolonised approaches to MEL for dissemination to our network.

These processes will help SVRI by

• Supporting SVRI and our partners to carry out MEL in a consistent, feminist, ethical and analytical way.
• Supporting the development of learning resources and tools for, and with partners and supporting  them in using those tools to capture impact and lessons from their work.
• Advancing decolonised approaches to VAW and VAC prevention and response, locally led and adaptive learning.

This work will be guided by principles of diversity, inclusion, equality and SVRIs code of conduct. This work is expected to be done remotely.

Deliverables and Timeframe

We expect the work to be done over this time period using up to 35 consultant days.

Required skills and experience

• Advanced university degree in Social Sciences, Development, Public Health, or a related field. 

• At least 7 years of relevant work experience in monitoring and evaluation in the development / NGO sector.
• Experience with feminist, decolonised approaches to monitoring, evaluation, and programming essential.
• Experience of working in multicultural contexts.
• Proficiency in English.
• Preference will be given to consultants from low and middle-income countries.

Application process

Interested candidates must submit:

• A motivational cover letter highlighting evidence of how the candidate demonstrates the required competencies listed above.
• A technical proposal detailing (please do not merely copy-paste from the ToR):

• Understanding/Interpretation of the ToR
• Key resources and approaches that will inform all activities in this project
• CVs of key personnel / consultant

• A financial proposal specifying the daily rate of the consultant (s) and the total number of days proposed for the consultancy.  Unless the consultant/s are based in South Africa, the budget should be provided in USD.
• 3 References and/or Reference letters.

The proposal and supporting documents must be submitted in English.

The proposal and required documents must be sent by email to svri@svri.org no later than 20 March 2023 (midnight, South Africa time). Interviews with shortlisted applicants will be scheduled as soon as possible and we expect to start upon appointment.