Job Vacancies @ Talking Drum Studio – Consultants
Job Description
Terms of Reference
Baseline Study
Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone
Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
Terms of Reference | Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
- Project Summary
Summary Indicators: Description
Type of Assessment Baseline Study for Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good
Governance in Sierra Leone Project
Project start and end date July 2022 – August 2024
Project duration: 3(three) Years
Thematic Areas: Governance and Accountability
Project location:
Moyamba, Kono, PortLoko and Koinadugu Districts
Overall goal of the project: To empower citizens and civil society in Sierra Leone to promote more peaceful and inclusive political
processes
Targeted beneficiaries: Political candidates and aspirants, women led CSOs, partner radio stations, local council authorities, community
stakeholders, women, youths, persons with disabilities etc.
- The Project
The political space in Sierra Leone remains divisive and disproportionately excludes women, youth, and other marginalized communities. Without space for constructive, issue-based engagement, citizens, especially women and youth, have few opportunities to engage in politics and local development processes within their communities. Cultural and structural barriers impede women, youth people living with disabilities from taking on critical decision making positions in the political landscape, development sector, and local governance structures. Similarly, the winner-takes-all mentality leaves behind potential change makers not affiliated with the winning party. Though Sierra Leone’s growing civil society has played a critical role in fostering social cohesion and strengthening democracy and governance processes, the current administration has paid little attention in building on those gains. These trends make it ever more critical that citizens and civil society organizations (CSOs) have constructive platforms to unite together around issue-based politics and governance, demand accountability, and engage citizens vying to be elected leaders ahead of the 2023 general elections as well as off-elections cycles. CSOs, local authorities and citizens must be at the forefront of democracy, good governance processes and accountability serving as whistleblowers, trusted interlocutors between citizens and government, and champions for inclusive and participatory governance.
In this context, TDS-SL requested the support of the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund (WPF) to continue building on the success of previous iterations of the “Town Hall Meetings!” project, which contributed to advancing public and democratic debates and strengthening the
Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
Terms of Reference | Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
accountability of elected leaders through enhanced citizen engagement. Previous phases had a number of key achievements:
Phase 1 (2017-2018, implemented as Search for Common Ground): In the pre-election environment, this phase contributed to increasing candidates’ accountability to their constituencies; improved the level of information accessible to voters on their candidates’ policy plans in the targeted constituencies; and promoted the engagement of citizens in constructive political debates in targeted constituencies. This phase created a demand by project participants to build on this momentum and ensure follow-up activities to promote continued engagement between elected MPs and their constituents. Moreover, participants also expressed a need for community platforms to hold elected officials to account on their campaign promises.
Phase 2 (2019-2021, implemented as Search for Common Ground and TDS-SL): in the post-election environment, the second phase of the project supported two additional outcomes. It supported youth- and women-led CSOs to have increased capacity to serve as watchdogs and to promote accountability in the post-election environment, while strengthening engagement between newly-elected MPs and citizens. This contributed to laying a new foundation for future democratic processes to be peaceful, inclusive, and accountable. A cost extension of this phase was implemented by TDS-SL.
For this project TDS-SL will leverage previous experience and learning from projects funded by Wellspring and other donors (including the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the World Food Program, Irish Aid, etc.). All the proposed activities are evidence-driven, inspired by local and global best practices, and rooted in local knowledge and needs. The design of this project is the result of extensive consultations with key stakeholders and participants in previous phases of work. During the implementation, TDS-SL will conduct regular monitoring visits and reflections, and adapt the scope, methodology or approaches as required. TDS-SL will ensure the project streamlines gender sensitivity and inclusivity, and will ensure balanced representation of gender, ethnic, religious, political backgrounds and disability status so that the voices, needs, and concerns of everyone are incorporated into the project
- Goal and Objectives of Study
TDS-SL seeks to recruit an external consultant (individual or team) to conduct a baseline study for this project. The objectives of the study are as follows:
To analyze the current context, with regards to drivers and risk factors of the role of citizens in promoting good governance in the targeted areas; particularly analyzing how the policy environment is engaging different project target groups, and to what extent they are successful.
- To establish community understanding of specific project themes – local-level governance accountability, civic rights and responsibilities, inclusive governance, women’s political and economic empowerment,
- To establish the needs of citizens (women, youth and other marginalized groups) to take ownership of the local governance process in their constituencies.
Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
Terms of Reference | Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
- To conduct a risk assessment and draw recommendations for programming to ensure “Do No Harm” and conflict sensitivity are respected in the project.
- To collect baseline data for the overall goal, for outcome 1 and outcome 2 ● To draw upon lessons learned from similar projects and from communities to form recommendations for peacebuilding and good governance at the local level that involves everyone.
- Key Questions of the Study
The table below shows the key evaluation questions based on OECD-DAC evaluation criteria that guide evaluation.
| Evaluation Criteria | Mandatory Evaluation Questions |
| Relevance | o To what extent will the project be relevant to the identified needs of the target beneficiaries and the context? o Will the project inputs and strategy be realistic, appropriate and adequate to achieve the results? o To what extent will the anticipated results (project goal, outcomes and outputs) be relevant to citizens in addressing their needs of good governance and women’s participation in politics? |
| Effectiveness Efficiency | o How effective will the management process in supporting delivery of the project’s expected results be? o To what extent will the Project’s M&E mechanism contribute in capturing project results? o Is there any evidence of increased accountability of elected officials, local council authorities towards citizens in promoting good governance you may be aware of? o To what extent voters are aware of the plans and policies of elected officials and local authorities? o To what extent will the project generate positive (or negative) changes in the governance participation of young people, women and persons with disability? o What is the level of citizen’s engagement in constructive political dialogues towards good governance? o What is the current capacity of youth- and women-led CSOs to serve as local watchdogs to promote good governance? o What is the relationship between elected officials, local authorities and the citizens? o How will the anticipated results justify cost to ensure resources are efficiently used? o Will the project activities cause any overlap or duplicate other similar interventions funded nationally and /or by other donors? o Are there more efficient ways and means of delivering more and better results (outputs and outcomes) with the available inputs? o Can a different approach be applied to produce better results?(If need be)? |
Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
Terms of Reference | Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
| Impact. | o What will be some of the unintended impacts this project might create? Will there be any significant changes in the context of the project’s proposed interventions? o To what extent will there be any shift in increased good governance and citizen participation in targeted locations? o Will there be any shift in the societal sphere that the project will generate on the issue of governance and leadership? |
- Geographic Locations
TDS-SL will implement this project in Four Districts across the country. The targeted districts will include Moyamba, Kono, PortLoko and Koinadugu and will work with over 40 political party candidates and aspirants, 8 women and youth-led CSOs, 4 partner radio stations, 200 local councils authorities, 1,000 community stakeholders, and 2,000 women, youth, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and members of other marginalized groups.
- Methodology and Data Collection Tools
The consultant will be responsible for developing the methodology. The proposed methodology will be discussed with TDS-SL, the donors, and project partners. The methodology must be developed taking into consideration TDS-SL policies on conflict sensitivity, do no harm and protection of participants. TDS-SL’s DM&E team with support from the National Director will review and approve the methodology before finalization.
Once the methodology has been approved, the consultant will be responsible for conducting the literature review, developing tools, training of enumerators, data analysis, and drafting of the report. TDS-SL’s National Director will approve the final methodology and tools before data collection begins, as well as provide feedback on the report.
- Deliverables
TDS-SL expects the following deliverables from the external consultant:
TDS-SL expects the following deliverables from the selected consultant:
- A baseline plan (inception report) detailing the proposed methodology, tools calendar and the literature review for the baseline study;
- Training of enumerators;
- Supervision and participation in data collection;
- Oversight of the data entry and data analysis processes;
- Submission of all databases to TDS-SL
- Production of a draft baseline report in English, for review by TDS-SL staff and partners;
- A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the methodology, key findings, and recommendations to be presented to the TDS-SL team shortly after field work.
- A final report in English ( 25 pages max in length, excluding appendices) consisting of: o Table of contents
o Abbreviations
Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
Terms of Reference | Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
o Executive summary of methodology, limitations, key findings and recommendations o Background information (project specifics)
o Methodology: Objectives, data collection and analysis and limitations of the study o Research findings, analysis, with associated data presented (should be structured around the main objectives and should cover all indicators)
o Indicator table showing all baseline indicators
o Appendices, which include detailed research instruments, list of interviewees, terms of references and evaluator(s) brief biography
Logistical Support
The consultant(s) will be responsible for organizing their own logistics for data collection (vehicles, fuel, and drivers), and this must be budgeted into the study. TDS-SL will share with the selected consultant all the available project documents and background materials, including the project proposal and logframe, M&E plan, and all other relevant documents needed for the baseline. TDS-SL will also share recent research done (if necessary) with similar projects to help inform the literature review and facilitate complementary research. Costs for all transportation should be included in the submitted proposals.
- Data Quality Assurance and Management
The Consultant is expected to propose a data quality assurance and management plan while submitting the inception report.
- Risk Assessment
- What are the contextual and project-related risks that require monitoring?
- What can the project do to assure it is conflict sensitive and respects “Do No Harm” principles?
- What can the project do to remain neutral and non-partisan while implementing project activities?
- What plans have been developed for adaptive programming especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic?
- How will the project respond to electoral violence and ensure trust in electoral processes to improve the democratization process
- Beyond those already identified, what other strategies can the project adopt to manage contextual, operational and strategic risks that could possibly impact on the implementation and outcomes of the project?
- Key Deliverables and Timeline
| Activities Deadline/ Estimated Time | Person Responsible |
Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
Terms of Reference | Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
| Signing of Contract with TDS-SL 1 day | TDS-SL/ Consultant |
| Writing an inception report and preparation of evaluation tools 4 days after the signing of contract | Consultant |
| Training of Enumerators, pre-testing and review of tools 1day | Consultant |
| Data collection exercise in the field 10 days | Consultant |
| Data analysis and preparation of slides for presentation. 4 days | Consultant |
| Presentation of preliminary key findings 1 day | Consultant |
| Writing the first draft report after feedback from TDS-SL team 7 days | Consultant |
| Presentation of first draft report 2 day | Consultant |
| Submission of final report 2 days | Consultant |
| TOTAL TIME ESTIMATED 31 days |
- Requirements of consultant
The applications received will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
- Proficiency in English (written and spoken);
- More than 5 years of experience in project evaluation or the equivalent in DM&E expertise, including innovative methods;
- Experience working with national organizations; youth and women-led organizations.
- Demonstrated qualitative and quantitative data collection skills;
- Considerable experience and expertise in evaluating local level governance programme
- Contextual knowledge of and experience working in Sierra Leone, West Africa, experience in project districts is a comparative advantage.
In addition, the consultant is required to respect the following Ethical Principles:
Comprehensive and systematic inquiry: Consultant should make the most of the existing information and the full range of stakeholders available at the time of the review. Consultants should conduct systematic, data-based inquiries. He or she should communicate his or her methods and approaches accurately and in sufficient detail to allow others to understand, interpret and critique his or her work. He or she should make clear the limitations of the review and its results.
- Competence: Consultant should possess the abilities and skills and experience appropriate to undertake the tasks proposed and should practice within the limits of his or her professional training and competence.
- Honesty and integrity: Consultant should be transparent with the contractor/constituent about: any conflict of interest, any change made in the negotiated project plan and the reasons why those changes were made, any risk that certain procedures or activities produce misleading review information.
- Respect for people: Consultant respect the security, dignity and self-worth of respondents, program participants. Consultant has the responsibility to be sensitive to and respect differences amongst participants in culture, religion, gender, disability, age and ethnicity.
Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
Terms of Reference | Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
Applications :
To apply, interested candidates (individuals or teams) are requested to submit the following three documents:
- Curriculum vitae (Not more than 3 pages)
- A technical proposal proposing a methodology for the baseline together with a financial proposal for the completion of the aforementioned deliverables and a short cover letter.
- Previous baseline/ research study report(s) you may have conducted.
Applications must be submitted to: [email protected]
Deadline for submitting an application for this is Friday 26th August, 2022. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
For any related questions, kindly write to: [email protected]
Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Talking Drum Studio Sierra Leone – Building Bridges! Connecting Citizens and Local Governance structures to promote Good Governance in Sierra Leone Project
