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Background and Introduction to the Darfur Project:

The Rule of Law Programme was established in the Darfur States in September of 2004. Since then, the project has gained valuable entry points and built strong relationships with the community, government and a diverse set of implementing partners. The relationships developed with community stakeholders and government authorities have provided a launching pad for newer programmes, like Livelihoods, DDR. As part of the UNDP Governance and Rule of Law Unit, this project links with other rule of law projects, especially the Capacity Building for the Judiciary and the Community Policing Projects which provide support to the state Judiciaries and GoS Police in liaison with and support from UNAMID Partners. 

The Project's Main Partners:

The UNDP Rule of Law Project in Darfur works closely with United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) sections of Human Rights, Rule of Law, Judicial Affairs, Child Protection, Civil Affairs, Civilian Police, Corrections/Prisons Advisory Unit and Gender.  In addition, UN agencies e.g. UNHCR, UNFPA, UNIFEM, UNICEF, UNAIDS, WFP, and a number of INGOs and LNGOs are also key partners of the project. The partnership established with the Prisons Advisory Unit of UNAMID Rule of Law in each State has been particularly successful. This partnership has seen UNAMID Corrections officers provide technical advisory services; training, air transport and engineering support for UNDP funded activities. The main donors for the Darfur Rule of Law Project in Darfur are the British Government Department for International Development (DFID), the Netherlands Government, and Danish Agency for International Development (DANIDA), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Norwegian Government and the Japanese Agency for International Cooperation (JICA). 

From a longer term perspective, the project aims to support the empowerment of local communities as part of the process of restoring the confidence in the rule of law institutions, and at the same time, strengthening rule of law institutions. In particular, the project seeks to:

• Raise awareness of basic human rights and rule of law amongst law-enforcement institutions, the judiciary, the police, the prison, the prosecutors and security officials; 
• Empower local stakeholders to actively engage in preventing and bringing an end to the existing violations of domestic law and international human rights standards;
• Restore confidence in rule of law institutions, and gradually build a culture of justice, that is conducive to peace and sustainable human development; 
• Promote and deepen decentralisation through adopting demand driven and community based initiatives and approaches

The project has the following five outputs:

• Output 1 – the programme managed according to UNDP requirements and standards;
• Output 2 – Human rights awareness of local community and justice sector is enhanced;
• Output 3 – Local communities empowered and access to justice enhanced through building capacity of NGOs/CBOs in targeted areas;
• Output 4 – dialogue among Darfurian stakeholders enhanced, ensuring the equal participation of women in such dialogue and increased access to national and international resources
• Output 5 – State government Rule of Law institutions strengthenedto provide rule of law services to the Darfur population with a focus on women and other vulnerable groups

The Project Strategy/Approach:

By linking legal protection to development principles, the project seeks to support the empowerment of local communities as part of the process of restoring confidence in the rule of law sector, while concurrently strengthening rule of law institutions. The UNDP Rule of Law Programme in Darfur has adopted a pragmatic and incremental approach that addresses the multiple challenges facing the current crisis and peace building process in Darfur. The programme maintains a measure of flexibility in order to scale up and consolidate activities as recovery and development becomes more feasible.

In light of the foregoing, the project now seeks the services of two consultants (one team leader and one team member) to review and assess the extent to which the project delivered on its stated targets, and establishes whether it is on track to meets its development objectives.  The consultants shall form a team, with a team leader and one team member working under the supervision of, and reporting to the team leader.

The overall objective of conducting the evaluation is to determine,  the progress of the project towards achieving its outcomes and impacts, i.e. the relevance of activities implemented to (1) enhance protection of the rights of marginalized and vulnerable groups, including IDPs (2) build the capacities of institutions responsible for administering justice, the appropriateness and level of service delivery (para-legal component) in the IDP camps/settlements, the level of satisfaction of all stakeholders of the project with activities undertaken and outputs and preliminary outcomes, the quality of physical assets procured, delivered and distributed; the responsiveness and accountability of key stakeholders (especially duty bearers) in making decisions, particularly at the sub national and regional levels of government; and the extent of transparency and accountability exhibited among the stakeholders, including the UN Partners in making decisions that affect the implementation of the programme. In addition, the evaluation will provide inputs for updating the output indicators especially numbers of communities and individuals reached. Findings of the evaluation will also be used to increase the effectiveness and sustainability of the projects outputs through improvements in strategy and systems to meet the demands of the beneficiaries, and will provide important elements and inputs for consideration in the design of a potential successor programme in light of closure of SP II funding in December 2012.  Specifically, the evaluation aims at assessing:

• Methods and channels through which beneficiaries at community level (marginalized and vulnerable groups/LNGOs and CBOs) and state level (CSOs/LNGOS and state ministries and rule of law institutions ) were informed about the Project, its operating principles and procedures, and the source(s) of information which beneficiaries found most useful in learning about the project;
• Methods and procedures followed in identification and prioritization of beneficiary needs (IDPs, CBOs/local NGOs, state ministries and local authorities’) (who facilitated the beneficiaries, how facilitation was done what the main priorities identified were);
• Priorities funded among those identified by the beneficiaries;
• The planning process(es) followed for the implementation of selected priorities, the relevance and adequacy of the work plans produced and the suitability of the implementation modalities undertaken by service providers, including the UN Partners and their local implementation partners;
• The type, quality and adequacy of technical support provided to the beneficiaries to aid decision making and implementation by the UN Agencies, CSOs/LNGOs, private sector and individuals throughout project implementation;
• The relevance of interventions provided to the beneficiaries in addressing their articulated and prioritized needs;
• The extent to which the physical assets, and other tangible and non tangible outputs from the alternative interventions from the UNDP and its Partners are providing services to the target beneficiaries and communities, and the degree of satisfaction with the services and outputs provided thus far;
• Identification of benefits (both at community level and state level) that have arisen as a result of project implementation, and their significance in terms of addressing concerns of marginalized and vulnerable groups on the one hand, and institutions of the rule of law on the other; 
• Mechanisms put in place for the sustainability (operations and maintenance) of physical assets procured, and programming initiated;
• Mechanisms put in place to ensure use of acquired knowledge, skills and capacities by all beneficiaries;
• The extent to which this project has helped reduce tensions and /or promoted social cohesion and increased access to justice among the IDP community, and between the IDP and host communities, and between the marginalized and vulnerable groups and government institutions;
• The extent to which the lives of women and children have been improved following implementation of interventions, identifying the most important, practical and sustainable of those interventions;
• Adequacy of feedback mechanisms from beneficiaries (communities,  local authorities, government counterparts) to funders of interventions (UN agencies and Partners), and vice versa to improve the operations of the project;
• Any additional improvements that can be adopted to enhance efficiency and operations of projects implementation, and hence attainment of benefits by beneficiaries;
• Documentation of lessons learnt to facilitate the design of a potential successor programme.

The eventual outcome of the evaluation is to enhance synergy amongst the major partners in the Rule of Law Project – the beneficiaries (marginalized and vulnerable groups at community levels, and state institutions), and supply-side stakeholders (UN agencies particularly UNDP and the various sections of UNAMID) as they wind up the operations of the current programme, and plan for the implementation of the next phase of the project/programme.

Methodology:

Since this evaluation / assessment is designed as a qualitative research and impact assessment tool to be used to inform policy makers and programme managers, the consultants shall use various participatory techniques that will ensure qualitative information is obtained from different stakeholders that will be interviewed. Quantification, where applicable, of the findings will also be provided to support the qualitative information obtained. In this respect, the consultants shall elaborate methodology(ies) to be applied which will ensure capture of both qualitative and quantitative information from the groups at different levels in order to arrive at a justifiable and definitive conclusion(s).

Scope of Service:

The consultant team leader will lead the assessment of processes undertaken, level, efficiency and appropriateness of investments, and numbers and categories of beneficiaries in selected sites of implementation that will be agreed upon with the Programme Management Team, and prepare and submit the report of its findings as its major output.  S/he will be supported by a team member during the course of this assignment. To the extent possible, all key sites and stakeholders that implemented activities of the programme will be selected for the evaluation. In particular, support activities of all UN partners will be reviewed and evaluated. The findings of the report to be generated will be applied by the Programme Management Team comprising UNDP staff (both at Darfur and Khartoum levels), government counterparts and project advisory boards to continue good practices as well as re-design those aspects of the programme that are not working well/did not work, in order to address the needs of all beneficiaries in a potential successor programme.

Support to be rendered by the Programme Management Team/UNDP:

The Project Management team will provide the following:

• All documentation related to the Governance and Rule of Law Programme in general, and the Darfur project in particular, implementation processes, including the original programme documents, results and resources matrices, quarterly and annual progress reports, monthly briefs, quarterly and annual financial statements, minutes of planning and project board meetings, work plans etc which will facilitate the timely execution and completion of the assignment;
• Logistics for the consultants during the course of the assignment, provided it is related to the assignment, including transport to/from/within Darfur, and the logistics for the feedback workshop;
• Fees of the consultants in a manner to be mutually agreed upon in a specific contract;
• Reimbursable expenditures on production of receipts.

The consultant will provide the following:

• Required expertise as outlined in these TORs below;
• An acceptable inception report detailing the methodology to be used and expected work plans by the first week of the assignment;
• A Draft Preliminary Report for each phase of the assignment as contained in the reporting schedule below;
• A Final Report after receipt of written comments from the Client (UNDP). This shall not exceed two weeks after submission.

Outputs/Deliverables:

Through this assignment, the Team Leader, supported by a team member consultant, will be responsible for delivery of the following outputs to the Client:

• An inception report (maximum 10 pages including annexes) that elaborates on the methodology to be used during the study.  The methodology will specify a sample frame and interview guide for areas in which the evaluation will be conducted.  Coverage will include IDP communities/camps and IDP settlements that were covered by the programme since 2004; and those where project implementation is still ongoing. It will also include state institutions associated with access to justice and rule of law issues (The Judiciary, Ministries of Finance, the GoS Police, GoS Prisons, CBOs and NGOs). This shall be made available before commencement of field work. The interview guide and data collection instruments should also clearly indicate questions and information expected for every category of respondents.
• The  Evaluation Reports which are divided in two phases as follows: An Interim Report that shall be submitted to Programme Management Team after the field work. This report will summarise the key findings from the field. The Programme Management Team will provide comments within a period of one week from the date of submission so that the Consultants can incorporate comments into the final draft.  The Final Report (maximum 30 pages including annexes) shall be submitted at the end of the exercise, first as a draft for comments and then a final report including the comments from a stakeholders’ workshop, including government counterparts, local authorities, UN Partners, Local NGOs/CBOs, and the private sector where applicable. The report should be comprehensive, containing the following:
  

1. An executive summary;
2. An introduction presenting the project’s background, the evaluation objectives and description of methodology used;
3. Findings of the evaluation as they relate to interview guide and data collection instruments (including tables);
4. Conclusion and recommendations.

• The consultants shall submit six hard copies of the above-mentioned reports, and also electronic copies.

Reporting Requirements:

The consultants shall report to the Project Boards of the project through the Regional Programme Manager, Governance and Rule of Law Unit in Darfur who will supervise the Consultants, and be the contact person for day-to-day dealings with them.

Reporting  Timetable Remarks:

• Inception Report Within 7 days from commencement  Inception Report Approved
• Draft Report  Within 20 days from commencement of the assignment Draft Report submission. It is estimated that the field work shall take 10 working days 
• Review and approval of the Draft Report 1 week from submission of the Draft Report The Client shall review the Draft Report and make detailed approval notes for incorporation into the final report
• Stakeholders Workshop Report Within 25 days from commencement of the assignment The main regional workshop will be organized first in El Fasher (Darfur)  with a debriefing scheduled in Khartoum for stakeholders
• Final Report  10 days from approval of the Draft Report for incorporation of comments Final Report approved
  

The consultant should ensure that the following key skills are available for this assignment:

• Participatory research methodology;
• Statistical and institutional analysis;
• Good analytical skills;
• Report synthesis and write-up;
• Knowledge of programming in conflict or post conflict regions.

• Advanced degree in social sciences, development and /or socio-economics, law or related fields.

• Proven experience in evaluation/research of not less than 10 years;
• Evidence of qualifications and application of participatory research methodologies; and impact evaluation methods;
• Knowledge of the Sudan/Darfur context, and /or other conflict and post conflict contexts including the social, political and administrative structures from national/regional down to state/community levels;
• Experience with rural development projects, projects related to rule of law and  access to justice, capacity building for state institutions, infrastructural developments, vocational skills training, employment creation, income generation etc.