Call for proposals: Thematic evaluation of women’s rights and gender equality in the RFN “Forest for People – People for Forest” grant agreement with NICFI

Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) is commissioning a thematic evaluation of women’s rights and gender equality in our five-year Forest for People - People for Forest grant agreement with Norway’s international climate and forest initiative (NICFI). This evaluation is an opportunity to provide knowledge and learning on how to affect change on gender equality and women’s rights in the context of rainforest protection and indigenous people’s rights, for RFN and partners to strengthen and scale up these efforts.

Background

Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) is a leading international organisation in the efforts to protect the world’s rainforests and indigenous people’s rights, working in partnerships with representative indigenous people and local community (IPLC) organisations and non-governmental organisations in South-East Asia, Central Africa, and the Amazon. The grant agreement Forest for People – People for Forest is funded by the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) for 2021-2025. RFN implements the agreement with 17 partners in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, DRC, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea, in addition to an international advocacy component.

This thematic evaluation on women’s rights and gender equality is additional to a concurrent review under this grant agreement. The evaluation should assess relevance and coherence on women’s rights and gender equality, within two outcomes (outcome 2 and 3) in the agreement. The whole agreement contributes to RFN strategic objective 2 (SO2): Political and legal frameworks protect rainforests and rights. The geographical scope is the Colombia, Indonesia, and international advocacy components of the agreement.

Purpose and scope

The purpose of the evaluation is to identify what works – and not, to further develop RFN’s gender approach and strengthen integration of, and scale up interventions on, women’s rights and gender equality.

The review should assess the relevance and coherence of the intervention’s design and implementation on gender equality and women’s rights related to national and international climate finance and national and sub-national policies and frameworks.

Please see the full Terms of Reference here.

Qualification and composition of the team: 

We seek one or more consultants, based in or outside countries identified under scope in the Terms of Reference. The consultant(s) is expected to be highly qualified with documented relevant expertise for this thematic evaluation. RFN will select the consultant(s) that provides best value for money based on (1) suitability for the task, emphasising in-depth and relevant expertise, and (2) the costs expressed in daily rates.

When assessing qualifications, RFN will look for the following:

  • Demonstrated research and evaluation skills and experience (min. 5 years), including multiple methods for data collection and analysis (e.g., qualitative methods for this evaluation), and ability to design a study to fulfil purpose.
  • Good understanding of monitoring and results management as practiced in ODA-funded NGOs.
  • Expertise and experience in research and evaluation of gender equality and women’s rights related to rainforest protection and indigenous people and local communities (IPLCs), or more widely to climate and environment.
  • Experience from reviewing/evaluating programmes/projects of similar nature, including projects run by small and/or indigenous organisations.
  • Good understanding of IPLCs’ rights and collective sustainable forest management, as well as policy frameworks and finance mechanisms for rainforest protection and climate change mitigation (globally, in Indonesia and Colombia)
  • Contextual understanding of rainforest protection and indigenous people and local communities (IPLCs) in Indonesia and/or Colombia.
  • Language proficiency in Spanish and Indonesian, in additional to professional level English. If all languages cannot be covered by the consultant(s), please present a plan (incl. budget) for the use of translators.
  • Capacity to ensure quality of work through well-organised planning and management, quality control and technical support as needed.

Submitting proposals

Please submit your proposal to Øivind Fjeld-Solberg: oivind@rainforest.no by 15 August, using Gender evaluation NICFI in the subject field.

The proposal should include the following:

  • Consultant’s interpretation of the task, including how to organise a team, if relevant.
  • Proposed methodology.
  • Suggested timeline for the deliverables.
  • Budget, including estimated workdays and daily rates (8 workhours per day). If team members have different fees, indicate expected division of labour. Include any other costs necessary to carry out the evaluation (e.g., travel costs).
  • Proposed composition of team if more than one consultant.
  • A summary of consultants’ qualifications (max two pages) and short CVs of consultant(s).
  • Summary of 3 recent and relevant evaluations (2 pages max in total).
  • 2 recent references.