Team: USAID/Nigeria MEL Support Activity

Project: USAID/Nigeria Peace and Democratic Governance (PDG) Office

Location: Federal Capital Territory – Abuja, Nigeria

Reporting to: Assessment and Evaluation Advisor

Employment Type: Independent Contractor / Short-Term Technical Assistance (STTA)

Period of Performance: October 2024 – April 2025

Number of Positions: 1

Navanti supports a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Support Activity program that assists USAID/Nigeria in advancing its broader organizational learning and development efforts. This program strengthens the Mission’s capacity and performance in programmatic monitoring, evaluation, learning, collaborating, and adapting. The MEL Support Activity closely aligns with USAID/Nigeria’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS). It provides a broad range of specialized technical assistance, training, data gathering and analysis, field-based monitoring, evaluations and assessments, facilitation of organizational learning and adaptation initiatives, and short-term technical assistance.

Overview and Evaluation Purpose:

USAID/Nigeria has engaged the MEL Support Activity to conduct a final performance evaluation of the Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) Activity to determine the extent to which SCALE enhanced capacity for civic advocacy, monitoring, and engagement and ascertain the extent to which SCALE activities fostered an an enabling environment (legal and regulatory) for civic engagement.

This evaluation will be used primarily by USAID Nigeria’s Peace and Democratic Governance (PDG) team to inform activity design for future good governance-related activities. However, PDG will share the evaluation report with other technical teams within the Mission and the broader USAID audiences, including USAID/Washington to help agencies better understand the civic advocacy context of Nigeria, and most importantly, the efficacy of support to CSOs and civic monitoring and engagement.

About SCALE Activity:

SCALE was designed to contribute to USAID Nigeria’s current Country Development Cooperation Strategy’s (CDCS) development objective DO3, Accountable, Inclusive, and Responsive governance strengthened, by directly strengthening IR 3.2, Enhanced civic voice and accountability, through its 2 sub-IRs. The intervention was implemented by Palladium. SCALE's implementation approach is built on a foundation of proven methodologies for improving governance in Nigeria at the federal, state, and local levels.

SCALE Theory of Change (ToC) was premised on:

IF: (i) CSO capacity (managerial, financial, and advocacy) is enhanced; AND (ii) CSOs collaborate effectively with each other and with government; AND (iii) the CSO enabling environment is permissive (legislative, policy and practice); THEN: civil society can effectively engage citizens to influence government in key development reforms at national, state and local levels in Nigeria to improve public accountability, transparency, and sustainable service delivery.

The above theory of change is based on the following assumptions:

1. CSOs – CSOs are committed to improving their organizational capacity, willing to work with other stakeholders to engage government and its institutions in constructive dialogue to lead policy reforms to improve service delivery in critical sectors (health, education, economic growth), and can sustain these activities with local capacities and resources after SCALE;
2. Government – Following the recent 2019 elections

Nigeria remains conducive for CSOs to influence reforms and policies in transparency, accountability, and good governance in targeted sectors, and ensures an enabling environment for CSOs devoid of intimidation and harassment. This is particularly imperative given the recent reports by domestic and international election observer groups alluding to the exclusion of CSOs from collation centers; and intimidation, arrest, and detention of journalists by security agencies. The Nigerian government will not introduce restrictive legislation and will continue to improve the legal and operational environment for CSOs to thrive. The government will work positively to address security constraints that hamper citizen participation in significant parts of the country experiencing conflict; and

1. Citizens - Citizens remain committed to demanding accountability of public officials and sustaining engagement with the government through partnership with CSOs to advance development priorities.

USAID’s vision for SCALE’s success will be assessed by the activities' ability to move towards locally sustainable management that will be viable and thriving post-SCALE. Local partners’ self-reliance will be encouraged from the outset. In line with USAID’s localization strategy, SCALE will plan to transition key project functions to local entities before the end of the project. SCALE will design phased approaches to transition, allowing an appropriate time for project staff to mentor and provide quality assurance after the transition.

The estimated start date will be October 28, 2024. The evaluation is expected to last until April 2025.

Candidates are reviewed on a rolling basis; early submission is recommended.

Position Description:

Navanti is seeking a team leader responsible for the overall coordination and management of the evaluation team’s effort and for ensuring a rigorous and high-quality evaluation in the locations stated above. Under the guidance of the MEL Support Activity, the team leader is expected to work closely with the USAID/Nigeria-PDG team. The team leader is expected to have done a similar evaluation in sub-Saharan Africa, or other countries with similar context.

The team leader will be supported by a subject matter expert, evaluation specialist, civil society/advocacy Specialist, and policy reform specialist. The team leader will consult with and facilitate input from all team members throughout the evaluation.

The team will use a combination of literature review, mixed methods through focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews to gather insights to answer the evaluation questions. The team is also expected to propose an evaluation methodology/approach as required to respond to the evaluation questions.

Locations (Evaluation Coverage) :

The final locations are yet to be determined. However, the evaluation team will visit at least 7 states across the six geographic regions of North Central, North East, North West, South East, South West, South South

Responsibilities:

The evaluation team leader will be responsible for the overall management of the evaluation. S/he will be the primary person responsible for ensuring a rigorous and high-quality evaluation design. The team leader will finalize the evaluation design, coordinate activities, arrange meetings, consolidate individual input from team members, coordinate the process of submitting an inception report, and assemble the final findings and recommendations. S/he will also prepare and present the key evaluation findings and recommendations to USAID/Nigeria. The team leader will:

• Participate in the evaluation kick-off session with USAID/Nigeria.
• Conduct an initial desk study: gather relevant secondary materials to identify key actors and stakeholders.
• Lead the development of data collection tools, including survey and interview tools, and methodology for covering target states
• Conduct and manage the entire process of data collection, including conducting several KIIs and FGDs with stakeholders including women, health care providers, etc
• Present preliminary findings on data collected from stakeholders' engagement and desk review
• Provide leadership for the team and coordinate activities as necessary.
• Coordinate team's ongoing analysis of qualitative and quantitative data.
• Lead the preparation and presentation of the In-brief and Out-brief to USAID/Nigeria and other stakeholders as requested.
• Write the draft evaluation report with support from the team members, taking into consideration feedback from the Out-brief presentation.
• Respond to USAID comments on the draft report, incorporate USAID/Nigeria staff comments into the final version of the report, and finalize the report.
• Present the rapid evaluation results to diverse audiences according to USAID standard reporting
• Work collaboratively with team members throughout design, implementation, analysis, and report writing to complement each other's areas of expertise.

Qualifications:

The candidate is expected to have the following qualifications:

• A minimum of ten years of substantive and progressively responsible for leading evaluations, research, and similar studies.
• Possess a strong methodological background and experience in evaluating peace, democratic governance, civil society, and human rights activities in developing countries.
• Proficiency in evaluation methods, and quantitative and qualitative research methods including survey design, data collection, statistical analysis, and interpretation of findings.
• At least ten years of experience in evaluation management is required. Experience in conducting evaluations or assessments of peace and democratic governance, civil society, and human rights programming in developing countries is also required.
• Ability to prepare clear and concise evaluation reports, presentations, and briefs tailored to different audiences
• Proficiency in the collection and analysis of qualitative data is a must, including conducting interviews, focus group discussions, and surveys, and analyzing statistical data related to healthcare utilization.
• Demonstrated knowledge of civil society strengthening programming is desired.
• Experience in preparing persuasive technical reports and making verbal presentations, explaining issues clearly and concisely.
• Required oral and written communication and presentation skills in English;
• Demonstrated experience in collaborating across projects stakeholder groups and donor projects; and
• Experience working in civil society space with international donor organizations, particularly USAID
• Experience in the Nigerian local context is required.

The consultant should adhere to ethical guidelines, obtain informed consent, and protect the confidentiality and anonymity of participants.

Only selected candidates will be contacted for an interview. Please, no phone calls.