The NEPAD Spanish Cooperation Fund is seeking consultancy services to undertake a joint final evaluation of the NEPAD Spanish Fund (NSF) for African Women‘s Empowerment.

The NSF was launched in 2007 by the NEPAD Coordination and Planning Agency (NPCA) y cooperation with the government of Spain tofast-track commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment at local, national and regional levels in African countries. The NSF was established as an investment in support of gender equality and women’s empowerment in African countries through the provision of financial and technical assistance to projects targeting commitments of gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Fund’s total amount is 20 million Euros. Since its launch, the NSF has delivered grants to 77 grantee programmes in 35 African countries specifically linked to improving women’s economic, political and social empowerment and full use of their rights, within the framework of the MDG 3 in sub-Saharan African countries.
Its founding Memorandum of Understanding sets forth its mandate to track and assess the achievement of its goals. Therefore, NPCA and Spanish Cooperation have agreed to launch a joint evaluation of the NSF.

Purpose of the evaluation, time frame and budget
The evaluation shall provide a high quality assessment that allows main partner organizations –NPCA and Spanish Cooperation- to be mutually accountable for the Fund’s performance and for the results achieved in support of women’s empowerment and gender equality. The NSF will be assessed according to the criteria of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and added value. Key overarching evaluation questions are:

• To what extent has the NSF been a suitable instrument to contribute to African women’s empowerment and gender equality?
• To what extent has the NSF been implemented so as to maximize the existing resources?
• To what extent has the NSF attained its main objectives?
• To what extent and how has the NSF fostered institutional sustainability of the actions it has supported?
• To what extent the NSF has added value in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in Africa?

The evaluation shall cover financial and technical aspects of the Fund and will identify lessons learned for future policy development and programming of both organizations. Based on these results and lessons,the evaluation will assess the added value of the NSF as a mechanism for supporting women’s empowerment in the region.
Main users of the evaluation will be Spanish Cooperation and NPCA. The expected use of the evaluation is generate knowledge that can be actively used for better formulation and design of outcome based programmatic investments for women’s empowerment and gender equality. The findings of this evaluation will be widely disseminated among various development constituencies in Africa.

Time frame, deliverables and budget
It has been estimated between 120 and 150 working days (24/30 weeks) for the consultancy team. Taking into account time for the revision of drafts and approval of deliverables by the evaluation management committee, total time scheduled for the evaluation is approximately between 30 and 36 weeks starting from when the contract is signed. This time schedule is distributed in the following phases, time and deliverables:

1. Inception phase (11/14 weeks). At the end of this phase, it is expected that the consultant team will present an inception report, to be discussed and agreed upon prior to embarking on fieldwork. The report will include, among others, a brief description of the object and objectives of the evaluation; the reconstruction of the intervention logic of the NSF; the proposed methodology, including the theoretical approach, data collection instruments, sampling criteria and types of data analysis, and the evaluation matrix.
2. Field work (4/5 weeks). It will be carried out in South Africa and in other 3 African countries that have received grants from the NSF. Individual aid memories for each country will be produced.
3. Final phase (9/11 weeks). The evaluation report will present the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation. Findings should be evidence-based and relevant to the evaluation objectives. Once approved, other report formats will be produced.

Submission of expression of interest
Consultancy firms may associate with other firms or individuals in order to enhance their capacity and qualifications.
Interested companies and/or candidates should have to present the Expression of Interest together with CVs of key consultants and a record of experience of the firms in handling consultancy services or similar assignments.