General Information

Title of consultancy: Consultant(s) to conduct an external evaluation of Transparency International – Defence and Security (TI-DS) programmatic work 2017-2020

Application closing date: Friday 8 January 2021

Approximate consultancy start and end date: 22 Jan 2021 – 19 March 2021

Location of consultancy: Remote

Background

Transparency International (TI) is the world’s leading non-governmental, global, anti-corruption civil society organisation with over 90 TI chapters around the world.  The purpose of the TI Defence and Security (TI-DS) Global Thematic Network Initiative is to ensure that defence and security institutions are accountable to their publics and subject to civilian democratic control and oversight, and that corruption risks in defence establishments are reduced.

Our revised three-year strategic priorities (2021-2024) form the core of our thematic work. These are to:

1. contribute to better defence governance through institutional reform;
2. mitigate the role of corruption in driving conflict and insecurity and exacerbating crises;
3. improve the integrity of private sector entities active in the defence sector; and
4. highlight the critical risk factors of corruption in the arms trade.

We work with governments, defence companies, multilateral organisations and civil society to understand corruption in defence, and to advocate for anti-corruption integrity and standards in defence establishments across the world.

TI-DS seeks an external evaluation of its performance against its former strategy (2015-2020) with a view to understanding its preparedness for the next programme strategy (2021-2024).  The 2015-2020 strategy was operationalised through two primary grants from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (formerly the UK’s Department for International Development) and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  In addition TI-DS received funding for projects from the United Democracy Fund (UNDEF), the UK’s Conflict, Security and Stability Fund (CSSF), the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Open Society Foundation’s Open Society Initiative for Europe.  Central questions revolve around the impact of our research and advocacy, and an analysis of our past and current theories of change.

Objectives

The objectives of this project are to:

1. identify the impact that TI-DS has achieved under the previous strategy period including document how that impact was achieved.
2. undertake a comparative analysis of past and current theories of change that underlie the two TI-DS strategies, as well as TI-DS’s preparedness for the current programme strategy, and areas of concern or challenges.

TI-DS is interested in understanding the impact of our research and advocacy. The project will therefore use the UK’S ESRC/DfID guidance on defining research impact[1], to assess the following types of impact from TI-DS’s research:

• Instrumental impact: policy and practice – a change in direction attributable to research.
• Conceptual impact: changing ways of thinking, raising awareness and contributions to knowledge.
• Capacity building: building capacity of researchers and intermediaries to strengthen research and uptake approaches.
• Networks & connectivity: building and strengthening networks, connecting up the supply of evidence with the demand for it.

Impact from advocacy will be assessed using the Centre for Evaluation Innovation’s Advocacy Strategy Framework[2], to assess advocacy impacts in the following domains:

• Outcomes:             Awareness, Will, Action
• Audiences:             Public, Influencers, Decision makers

For each type of activity – research and advocacy - we are interested in understanding what contributed to success or failure, and how this reflects the programme structure and delivery capabilities.

Key deliverables and timing

The key deliverable is a final report that includes an evaluation of the impacts from the prior programme strategy (2015-2020), as well as an analysis of the suitability of our past and present theories of change in facilitating our programme strategy.  The final report will include recommendations for challenges or gaps in our programme preparedness for the current strategy.

We are aiming for this project to be completed over an eight-week period from between 22 Jan and 19 March.  As part of the tender process we would ask the consultant to set out rough timings for the overall project.

All presentations, documents and reports should be submitted in English, in electronic form, in accordance with agreed deadlines. The consultant(s) is responsible for editing and quality control of language.  TI-UK retains the sole rights with respect to all distribution, dissemination and publication of deliverables.

Selection Criteria

The consultant(s) should be able to demonstrate the following skills, experience and qualifications:

• a track record of working with national and international CSOs (or other organisations) engaged in research and advocacy to achieve systemic change to measure and demonstrate organisational impact;
• significant experience in designing evaluations of international programmes;
• excellent knowledge of different impact measurement and evaluation methodologies and supporting quantitative and qualitative data collection tools;

• excellent communication skills with the ability to engage stakeholders at all levels;
• fluency in written and spoken English;
• understanding/experience of anticorruption work and/or the defence and security sector.

Remuneration and costs

The consultant(s) should provide an estimated total fee as a lump sum or a standard daily rate as gross, inclusive of taxes and other charges.

Submitting your expression of interest

If you would like to apply for this opportunity, please submit an expression of interest to jobs@transparency.org.uk no later than close of business on Friday 8 January 2021 including the following:

• your proposed approach to this project with approximate timings for each phase (no more than 2 pages);
• an indicative budget;
• your CV/the CVs of your consultants with examples of relevant work you have completed;
• 2 referees – ideally from organisations you have recently worked with.

For further information please contact:

Natalie Hogg

Director – Transparency International - Defence & Security

nhogg@transparency.org