Evaluator for SHO meta-evaluation assignment

The SHO Syria campaign

The Samenwerkende Hulp Organisaties (SHO) is an alliance of ten Dutch aid organisations. In response to major humanitarian disasters (both natural disasters and conflicts) the SHO raises funds in order to provide humanitarian assistance to the victims of the disaster.

SHO participants, their local partners and/or their umbrella organisations have been working in Syria and/or in neighbouring countries since the start of the conflict. In 2013 the SHO launched a national campaign in order to scale-up the individual organisations’ relief operations. Total funds received on Giro555, the SHO’s bank account, were more than 5 million Euro.

Aim of the evaluation

The SHO member organisations jointly raise funds for emergency operations. They spend the raised funds separately, through their respective partners, networks and alliances, with coordination on the ground through the cluster system. The results and expenditure of the emergency operations, funded by SHO, are then jointly reported back to the public.

Since the SHO members do not operate as one organisation during the emergency operation, they need a mechanism to ensure that the individual members perform up to the high standards that the SHO has set for itself. Therefore, each SHO member organisations conducts its own evaluation. These evaluation reports are then used to verify the impact, effectiveness and general quality of the members’ operations. The SHO conducts this meta-evaluation to assess the quality and validate the conclusions of the individual evaluation reports.

The meta-evaluation report will be shared with the SHO Board of directors to monitor the internal adherence to quality standards. It will also be used by individual members as input to improve evaluation practices.

Methodology

The quality check of the evaluation reports will be carried out through a desk study of the reports of external evaluations and reviews.

Based on this desk study a draft report will be developed that will be discussed during a meeting with SHO members. This draft report, no longer than 20 pages (including tables and annexes), should consist of:

1. An analysis on the quality of the evaluation reports based on an assessment grid
2. A section with the conclusions, and lessons learned based on the above analysis;

The meta-evaluation report should be written in English

The assignment is expected to take 11-12 working days between 31 August 2015 and 31 October 2015. During a meeting with the SHO Board of directors on 27 October 2015 in the Netherlands, the consultant will present the outcomes of the research.

Minimum requirements:

The evaluator should have relevant skills and a proven background in humanitarian emergency project implementation and/or evaluations. No specific sector expertise is required. The selection criteria are:

Experience in humanitarian aid

Knowledge of the context of the Syria conflict

Fluent in both Dutch and English

Availability

The consultant should not have prepared one or more of the individual Syria evaluation reports of the participating SHO member organisations.

HOW TO APPLY:

The complete Terms of Reference can be obtained from Marieke Roelfsema: mroelfsema@unicef.nl.

Applications can be sent to mroelfsema@unicef.nl by August 25 2015 (17:00 Amsterdam time) the latest. The application should contain a short motivation (max 1 page), past experience (max 1 page), a Curriculum Vitae and the consultants’ daily rate. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.