Global Communities works at the intersection of humanitarian assistance, sustainable development and financial inclusion to save lives, advance equity and secure strong futures. We support communities at the forefront of their own development in more than 35 countries, partnering with local leaders, governments, civil society and the private sector to achieve a shared vision of a more just, prosperous and equitable global community. 

Background Information

Global Communities (GC) is seeking an expert consultant to conduct a post-project evaluation of a gender transformative income generating project and a positive male engagement project implemented in Huehuetenango, Guatemala between 2021 and 2022. The evaluation will use qualitative and quantitative methods based on the project’s final evaluation tools. Review of existing project documents (such final evaluation reports) will be key to answer the evaluation questions.

JOT is a structured gender-transformative approach developed by Equimundo to engage men in women’s economic empowerment and to transform norms and behaviors related to caregiving, relationship dynamics, and violence. JOT targets men whose partners are participating in village savings and loans (VSLA) groups. In collaboration with Equimundo, Global Communities adapted JOT to the Women Empowered (Global Communities’ VSLA model) initiative and implemented in Cuilco, Huehuetenango, with 98 couples. The project evaluation included a formative assessment, mid-term qualitative evaluation as well as quantitative and qualitative final evaluation that included baseline and endline survey as well as key informant interviews.

Project META aimed to increase women entrepreneurs’ access to sustainable sources of income. The project was implemented between 2021 and 2022 in the municipalities of Chiantla and Malacatancito (Huehuetenango), reaching 155 women with agricultural-based income generating activities. META prioritized livestock, agricultural and forestry production as productive activities to be strengthened through building women’s business management and technical productive skills, financial education, and couple’s workshops. Project META also engaged men in support of women’s economic empowerment by facilitating JOT couples’ workshops. As part of the project’s evaluation, a quantitative baseline and endline survey was conducted with all participants as well as bi-monthly monitoring check lists and a qualitative end of project evaluation using the Most Significant Change and Photo Voice. Baseline and endline JOT surveys were also completed with a subset of participants (less than 50%).

About the Consultancy

Under the management of the Global Communities Global Technical Advisor for Women’s Empowerment and Savings Groups and the Global Communities MELI Technical Advisor, the consultant will be responsible for conducting a post-project evaluation of projects Journeys of Transformation and META. The objective of the evaluation is to assess the sustainability of projects’ outcomes, understand changes in areas measured through the projects’ final evaluations and identify lessons learned and recommendations for future implementations. The evaluation will be based upon existing project reports (approx. 3 documents per project), surveys and key informant interviews to project participants in Cuilco, Malacatancito and Chiantla as well as key Global Communities staff (online).

Evaluation questions:

Questions for both JOT and META projects:

• How have project outcomes, as defined by key indicators collected in the final evaluations, changed or remained the same following the close of the projects?
• To what extent have projects’ participants utilized the knowledge, attitudes, practices, skills and resources provided by the project during or since the project ended?
• What has helped participants to use knowledge, attitudes, practices, skills and resources and what has prevented them from using them?
• Based on the changes over time in the projects’ outcomes and on participant feedback; what specific changes can be made to improve the effectiveness[1] of future projects and ensure long term-sustainability of results?

Question specific to project META:

• What is the current status of income generating activities/businesses supported by the project in terms of their operational status? How does their current status compare to the status when the project closed (April 2022)? What factors have contributed to the success or not of the income generating activity?

Scope of Work

Main activities

1. Kick off meeting.
2. Review all relevant project documents including project implementation plans, project evaluation reports, project programmatic reports, project systematization reports.
3. Create evaluation plan based on evaluation questions including methodology, timeline and tools and incorporate feedback from Global Communities.
4. Conduct quantitative and qualitative data collection in the field with a sample of project participants (based in Cuilco, Malacatancito and Chiantla) as well as online interviews with key current and former Global Communities Guatemala staff (3 to 4 staff).
5. Prepare final product report draft (in Spanish) including findings, analysis, conclusions and recommendations for each project and annexes.
6. Incorporate feedback from Global Communities into final product report and submit final written report (in English).
7. Facilitate a presentation to Global Communities team with findings and recommendations (in English).

Deliverables

1. Evaluation plan including methodology, tools and timeline including revisions from Global Communities (in Spanish).
2. Final product draft report (in Spanish) including findings, analysis, conclusions and recommendations and annexes.
3. Final product report (in Spanish) incorporating Global Communities’ feedback and comments. Final product report to include findings, analysis, conclusions and recommendations and annexes. Report to be approximately 10 to 15 pages long.
4. Presentation of findings (in Spanish) with slide deck (40min presentation with 20 min for Q&A).

Estimated Level of Effort (LOE):

• Bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 10 years of relevant experience, or Master’s degree with 10 years of relevant experience in Gender Equality, Monitoring & Evaluation, International Development, Social Science, or other related fields.
• Experience developing Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) technical designs and data collection tools, managing mixed methods data collection efforts, leading analysis, and preparing high quality reports.
• Experience designing and integrating gender equality and women’s empowerment in project monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
• Fluency in written and spoken Spanish and English
• Experience working in Guatemala or Latin America

Application/Proposal Instructions

• Interested consultants must submit their proposals, in electronic format (via email to Hannah Connolly at hconnolly@globalcommunities.org)Proposals must be received no later than April 19, 2024 at 5:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time.
• Proposals should include key personnel resume(s), sample workplan, technical proposal including methodology and approach (1 to 2 pages) and budget (please note that Global Communities will provide transportation of data collectors from Huehuetenango to the communities).
• If you are applying as an individual, please submit your CV. If you are applying as a firm, please submit the CV(s) of key personnel who would work on this project.
• Applicants are advised that this solicitation does not in any way obligate Global Communities to award a contract or compensate responding firms or individuals for costs associated with the preparation and submission of their proposals.