TOC AND MEL TRAINING CONSULTANT

Time Commitment: 9 days in total. The Consultant(s) must commence the Services no later than 1                                                February 2025 and complete the Services by 31 April 2025.

Budget:                         Up to AUD 5,500

Location:                      Suva, Fiji

 

INTRODUCTION

The International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) is an Australia-based organisation that resources diverse women’s rights organisations, primarily in Asia and the Pacific, and contributes to global feminist movements to advance our vision of gender equality for all. We exist to defend and advance the rights of diverse women and girls.

The Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM) is a non-government organisation committed to eliminating discrimination against women through institutional reform and attitudinal change. Based on its founding principles of human rights, feminism, and the rule of law, FWRM has pioneered young women’s feminist leadership programming in the Pacific region.

FWRM and IWDA have been working together for over ten years through a partnership to make Fijian girls agents of change.

Both organisations now require the services of an experienced consultant to conduct a series of training sessions on the fundamentals of the Theory of Change and MEL framework and technically advise the FWRM GIRLS team during an upcoming internal review process and program scoping exercise.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The GIRLS (Grow, Inspire, Relate, Lead, and Succeed) Exist is a Fiji Women’s Rights Movement program that builds the individual agency of participating girls (aged 10 – 17) and strengthens their leadership and skills to advocate for their rights for a positive change in their communities. The program currently works with hearing and deaf girls, mainly from Suva and its surroundings.

Although FWRM has involved Fijian girls in their projects for over 20 years, it created a specific program to build their leadership skills in 2012. Since then, the program has undergone different phases and received funding from various sources. In its most recent iteration, the program had three components: GIRLS Persist, which focused on deaf girls; GIRLS Club, for existing participants; and GIRLS Arise, which worked with girls from informal settlements around Suva. IWDA/ANCP resourced GIRLS Club and Persist, which together formed GIRLS Exist, while Pacific Girl funded GIRLS Arise. In 2023, the GIRLS Club participants graduated into the YFemN (the next step in FWRM’s holistic approach to building girls’ and women’s leadership skills) while Persist and Arise blended to form one group, GIRLS Exist II.

The program is in the last year of its current funding cycle with IWDA and will conduct an internal review and scoping exercise to determine its future path.

CONSULTANCY BACKGROUND

FWRM and IWDA have identified the need to build the FWRM GIRLS team and other FWRM-relevant staff capacity on Theory of Change and MEL concepts as a foundational step to the planned internal review in March and the scoping exercise in April 2025 to decide and define the program’s future.

The GIRLS program evolved organically since FWRM’s first activities with Fijian girls and young women in 2006. In 2016, a Theory of Change and corresponding MEL framework were developed, setting the path that has guided the program since then. Eight years later, in 2024, FWRM wants to review the program goals, principles, assumptions, and activities to decide its future trajectory.

FWRM and IWDA recognise the importance of a good Theory of Change (TOC) and strong MEL processes in providing a program with a robust rationale to guide how the proposed social change is expected to occur, documenting assumptions and risks, and ensuring implementers are able to track progress, understand outcomes and impacts, and be accountable to the communities with which they work and to donors.

As a first step in this process, it is proposed that the GIRLS team and other relevant FWRM staff participate in training sessions on the fundamentals of TOC and MEL. The knowledge gained through this training will establish the foundations for preparing the internal review and scoping exercise and give the team the knowledge and tools to implement the program purposefully over the following iterations.

Following the training, the consultant will provide ongoing technical advice to the GIRLS team as they define the next phase of the program based on the results of the internal review process and scoping exercise.  FWRM and IWDA believe that a team that understands the fundamentals of these concepts is more likely to achieve the change they want to see in their society.

Therefore, FWRM and IWDA are seeking to contract a program design and MEL expert to train the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement’s GIRLS Program Team and other relevant staff on the fundamentals of the Theory of Change and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) and coach them through the design of the next phase of the program based on the results of an internal review to be held in March 2025.

IWDA and FWRM are looking for a consultant based in Fiji.

All IWDA consultants are required to

  • Support and demonstrate IWDA’s Values and Behavioural Competencies.
  • Act at all times by IWDA’s Code of Conduct and Policies.
  • Comply with IWDA’s Occupational, Health, Safety & Wellbeing Policy and practices.
  • Support a child-safe organisation and undertake a police check before commencement.

CONSULTANCY OBJECTIVES

  1. The consultant will design and deliver the training sessions
  2. The consultant will provide up to 3 hours of input over 2 months to support the GIRLS team as they develop a new TOC and MEL framework for the program beyond 2025.

By the end of the consultancy, the FWRM GIRLS team and other relevant staff should:

  • Be able to explain what a theory of change is and how it differs from other approaches.
  • Be familiar with the core TOC and MEL language and terminology.
  • Understand the steps for developing a TOC.
  • Have a foundational understanding of Measurement, Evaluation & Learning (MEL).
  • Be able to articulate the purpose of MEL.
  • Apply these concepts during the internal review process and scope exercise.

REQUIREMENTS

The consultant should possess the following skills and experience:

ESSENTIAL

  • Demonstrated expertise in program design, implementation, and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning in the development sector.
  • Demonstrated experience in training curriculum development and conducting training.
  • High-level written and oral communication skills, including participatory facilitation and training skills.
  • Ability to work autonomously and remotely under general direction and proven record of delivering projects on time.
  • A flexible approach with strong organisational and planning skills, including the ability to adjust to changing circumstances.
  • Commitment to feminist practices and approaches and understanding of decolonial thought and principles.DESIRABLE
  • Familiarity with the work of Pacific and Fijian Women’s Rights Organisations
  • Tertiary qualifications in a relevant discipline, such as social science or international development.Familiarity with the work of Pacific and Fijian Women’s Rights Organisations

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

Candidates are invited to submit expressions of interest addressing the following:

  • A proposed outline of the process and timeline to complete all outputs
  • A detailed budget indicating fixed and indicative costs, including travel costs.

Expressions of interest must be received by 11.59 p.m. Thursday, January 23, 2025, and should be sent to tporras@iwda.org.au. Expressions of interest that do not meet these requirements will not be considered.

Find the full Terms of Reference here

  • SHARE
  • SHARE