Deadline: October 17, 2020

Send applications to: hr.admin@theacss.org

1.Background

The Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) (www.theacss.org) is a regional, independent, non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening social science research and knowledge production in the Arab world. The ACSS is headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon, works across the Arab region and globally and began its operations in August 2012. It is currently governed by the ACSS 2020 five-year strategy, which gives an overview of the organization’s mission and key activities and sets out the targets for the 2016-2020 period.

Since decades the Arab region has been confronting mounting socioeconomic, environmental, political, and security challenges. At the same time, the region lacks strong academic and research capacities that can shed light on these challenges, analyze societal changes, nurture public debates, and inform public policy. The challenges and needs have only increased in recent years with growing protest movements as well as revolutions and civil wars in certain countries. Growing inequality, poverty and marginalization which triggered the protests, have now been further heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, there is a strong need for the Arab states to address their knowledge needs by strengthening the capacity, quality, range, reach, and influence of social research in the region. 

The aim of the ACSS is to support researchers and academic/research institutions in the Arab region, contribute to the creation, dissemination, validation, and utilization of social science research and enrich public debate about the challenges facing Arab societies. The ACSS also aims to enhance the role of social science in Arab public life and inform public policy in the region. In light of current new restrictions on research, teaching and academic freedom, this support by an independent body is all the more important, while also more challenging.

2.Purpose of the Evaluation

As the current five-year strategy draws to an end in December 2020, the ACSS will start the process of developing a new strategy for the coming phase. As an input into this process, the ACSS, in dialogue with its key donor partners, have decided to commission an external evaluation, assessing the implementation of the current strategy, including a number of specific issues related to the governing and operations of the ACSS.

3.Scope of the Evaluation: Intended use and intended users

The purpose of the evaluation is to review the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of the ACSS during the current five-year strategy (2016-20). Has the ACSS realized its plans and met targets envisoned in the strategy? How has it done so? (the strategy can be downloaded at the following link http://www.theacss.org/uploads/ACSS-FiveYearStrategy-ENG.pdf)

The evaluation aims to assist the ACSS in the upcoming formulation of a new strategy, both in terms of level of ambitions and details. Are there existing targets that need to be extended into a new strategy? Should some targets be abandoned and others included in the new strategy?

The findings of the evaluation are important to the ACSS. The primary user is thus the ACSS, including its Board of Trustees, its membership body and its secretariat. Funders of the ACSS (Sida, IDRC, Carnegie Corporation, Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Open Society Foundation) are secondary users. These terms of references have thus been elaborated jointly by the ACSS and Sida, in consultation with other funders in order to capture relevant aspects to be explored by the evaluation. 

The evaluation is to be designed, conducted and reported to meet the needs of the intended users. Applicants shall elaborate in the application materials how this will be ensured during the evaluation process.

During the inception phase, the evaluator and the users will agree on who will be responsible for keeping the various stakeholders informed about the evaluation.

4.Evaluation Objective: Criteria and questions

The evaluation should explore the following issues:

Relevance and effectiveness:

The evaluation should assess to what degree the ACSS is suited to strengthen social science research and knowledge production in the Arab world. This includes assessing the relevance and effectiveness of all its activities, including its conferences, grantee programs, and communication tools, as well as the extent to which the ACSS has managed to recruit a diverse (in terms of geography, disciplines, age and gender) and engaged membership body. It also includes the extent to which ACSS programs and activities address the needs of individuals and research communities in the region. Among others, the evaluation should include an assessment of the Arab Social Science Monitor (ASSM) program, in terms of the role it plays as a resource and documentation center of the state of social science in the region, and the quality of data, databases and publications.

Efficiency:

The evaluation should assess to how well the ACSS manages to achieve its objectives. This includes the institutional capacity of the ACSS in terms of governance and organisational structure (including the role of the Board of Trustees), guiding documents such as strategies and policies, ICT, and staffing. It also includes its communication activities in terms of outreach to relevant audiences, outputs, website, and the balance between in-house and external publications. The evaluation should also address the issue of structural expansion (branches and afiiliated entieies etc) of the ACSS.

Impact:

The evaluation should assess the impact of the ACSS for social science research and knowledge production in the Arab region. This includes any ripple effects of the activities transferring knowledge and capacity beyond the individual grantee or participants, and how well the ACSS manages to tap into its pool of affiliated researchers, working group members, fellows, etc.

Questions are expected to be developed in the initial application and further refined during the inception phase of the evaluation.

5.Evaluation Approach and Methods

The evaluation should largely be desk study, based on documentation provided by the ACSS or available online, in combination with on-line interviews. Given this framework, it is expected that the evaluator describes and justifies an appropriate evaluation approach/methodology in the application. The evaluation design, methodology and methods for data collection and analysis are expected to be fully developed and presented in the inception report.

The evaluation shall address both internal and external factors and actors relating to the ACSS. The internal would include the programs and activities of the ACSS, staff, board members, committee members, students, funders, and other stakeholders. The external environment refers to state of social sciences in the region and social science institutions in the region such as universities, research centers, and think tanks.

Limitations to the chosen approach/methodology and methods shall be made explicit by the evaluator and the consequences of these limitations discussed in the application. The evaluator shall to the extent possible, present mitigation measures to address them.

A gender responsive approach/methodology, methods, tools and data analysis techniques should be used. It is also expected that the evaluators, in their application, present i) how intended users are to participate in and contribute to the evaluation process and ii) methodology and methods for data collection that create space for reflection, discussion and learning between the intended users of the evaluation.

In cases where sensitive or confidential issues are to be addressed in the evaluation, evaluators should ensure an evaluation design that does not put informants and stakeholders at risk during the data collection phase or the dissemination phase.

6.Management of the Evaluation

As mentioned above, the intended users of the evaluation are, primarily, the ACSS (Board of Trustees, staff and members) and, secondarily its donor partners (Sida, Carnegie Corporation, IDRC, Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Open Society Foundation).

ACSS is the decision-making body for the evaluation. The Board of Trustees (through its Administration and Finance – A+F – sub-committee) will evaluate applications, select the evaluator, oversee the evaluation process, approve the inception report and the final report of the evaluation. The full BoT and donor partners may participate in the start-up meeting of the evaluation, as well as in the final debriefing/validation workshop where preliminary findings and conclusions are discussed.

Documents to be supplied to the evaluator/s will include the following:

• Charter and by-laws of the ACSS
• MoMs of BoT meetings
• MoMs of committee meetings
• Chart of Authority
• Internal policies and procedures
• Powers of Attorney
• Annual financial reports and audits
• Calls for proposals, selection committees notes, and papers for activities
• Proposals and Reports to donors
• Annual budget
• Other documents requested by the evaluator

The division of labor is envisioned as follows:

Evaluators

• An evaluator or a team (two or more) external evaluators shall be identified by the ACSS management.
• The evaluator(s) shall undertake information gathering and report writing within the set Terms of Reference.
• The evaluator(s) shall communicate the findings to the ACSS management for their feedback in an official typed draft report.
• The evaluator(s) shall revise the report based on feedback from the key stakeholders.
• The evaluator(s) shall be responsible for the administrative assistance and communications required to conduct the evaluation.

     ACSS

The evaluator/s shall report to the ACSS as it will be managing the external evaluation.

• ACSS will be coordinating with funders for required input.
• ACSS will appoint a coordinator to serve as the key focal point for the evaluation.
• ACSS shall provide the evaluator(s) with all the relevant documents that they might request as well as contact information for its partners, grantees, in line with their evaluation.
• ACSS shall communicate an official response to the evaluators’ findings and recommendations.

7.Time Schedule and Deliverables

The deadline for submitting applications is 12 noon (Beirut time) on October 17, 2020 and selection will be completed and terms agreed upon with the chosen evaluator by end of October 2020. The evaluation shall be carried out between November 30, 2020 an January 07, 2021.

It is expected that a detailed timeline and work plan will be presented in the application and further detailed in the inception report. The table below lists key deliverables for the evaluation process. Alternative deadlines for deliverables may be suggested by the evaluator and negotiated during the inception phase.

The inception report will form the basis for the continued evaluation process and shall be approved by ACSS before the evaluation proceeds to implementation. The inception report should be written in English and cover evaluation issues and interpretations of evaluation questions, present the evaluation approach/methodology (including how gender responsive approach will be ensured), a stakeholder mapping, methods for data collection and analysis as well as the full evaluation design. A clear distinction between the evaluation approach/methodology and methods for data collection shall be made. All limitations to the methodology and methods shall be made explicit and the consequences of these limitations discussed. A specific timeline and work plan for the remainder of the evaluation should be presented. The time plan shall allow space for reflection and learning between the intended users of the evaluation.

The final report shall be written in English, have a clear structure and be professionally proof read. The executive summary should be a maximum of 3 pages. The evaluation approach/methodology and methods for data collection used shall be clearly described and explained in detail and a clear distinction between the two shall be made. All limitations to the methodology and methods shall be made explicit and the consequences of these limitations discussed. Findings shall flow logically from the data, showing a clear line of evidence to support the conclusions. Conclusions should be substantiated by findings and analysis. Evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations should reflect a gender analysis/an analysis of identified and relevant cross-cutting issues. Recommendations and lessons learned should flow logically from conclusions. Recommendations should be specific, directed to relevant stakeholders and categorised as a short-term, medium-term and long-term. The report should be no more than 35 pages excluding annexes (including Terms of Reference and Inception Report).

8.Evaluation Team Qualifications  

The successful evaluation team should include the following competencies:

The evaluator(s) should preferably be social scientists or have worked with social sciences/research institutions and/or research centers and should have:

• Minimum of 10 years relevant/similar experience;
• Extensive knowledge of and experience in applying qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods;
• Knowledge and/or experience in the start-up and functioning of research organizations, think tanks or networks;
• A strong record in designing and leading similar evaluations;
• Good knowledge and working experience of the Arab Region including experience of the academic environment of social sciences in the Arab world.
• Excellent writing and communications skills in English and Arabic.

A CV for each team member shall be included in the application. The CV should contain a full description of relevant qualifications and professional work experience.

It is important that the competencies of the individual team members are complementary. Short-term consultants may be included in the team if appropriate.

The evaluators must be independent from the evaluation object and evaluated activities, and have no stake in the outcome of the evaluation. 

9.Application Process and Financials

The evaluation may be conducted by one person or a team of two or more to be assembled by the lead evaluator. The evaluator(s) will be chosen through a competitive process and applications will be reviewed by a committee composed of ACSS BoT and staff.The maximum budget amount available for the evaluation is US$55,000  to include honoraria and compensation as well as travel and meetings expenses (if any). The final budget and schedule of payments to be mutually agreed upon after the selection of the successful applicant.

The contact person at ACSS is Martine Cortas, Head of Administration and Human Resources  (hr.admin@theacss.org). The contact person should be consulted if any problems arise during the evaluation process.

The evaluator will be required to arrange the logistics including any necessary security arrangements to the extent relevant.

Application materials should be submitted in English and should include:

• A cover letter:
  • Detailing the applicant’s competencies and experience, and how he/she can add value to the evaluation
  • Including an attachment describing a short initial evaluation plan based on the above TORs
  • Confirming that the evaluator/s is/are able to deliver within the above set timeframe
• Team composition including updated CV; 
• 2 referrals from institutions the applicant has evaluated.
• A budget

The selection criteria shall include:

• Previous experience in similar evaluations (3/10)
• Experience in the startup and functioning of research organizations (2/10)
• Knowledge of the region (2/10)
• Initial plan as detailed in the cover letter (3/10)

For any questions please contact Martine Cortas at:  hr.admin@theacss.org