Consultant

Job Description

TERMS OF REFERENCE: CONSULTANT

Assessment of Strength of Evidence for WV US programs

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Evidence is essential to World Vision US (WVUS) not only demonstrate program impact, but to inform our policies, decisions and practices. For this purpose, our Evidence and Learning team has developed an Evidence Framework to harmonize capturing, analyzing and communicating evidence for internal and external audiences. The Evidence Framework includes sources for evidence, standards for judging evidence, ethical considerations and a diagnostic or assessment tool that determines the strength of the available evidence. The tool is based on four pre-defined Evidence Standards covering: Design (quality of attribution); Impact (measure of change); Scalability (potential to implement); Investment (creating value).

The results of the Evidence Strengthening tool are expected to be used on multiple fronts: 1) to regularly communicate the status of evidence across the program portfolio to leaders; 2) to set goals of quality improvement across the organization or for particular teams; 3) to determine the boundaries of evidence statements that can be made publicly for our market segments.

The team is presently, refining the diagnostic/assessment tool before scaling up it’s’ use to screen and report the strength of evidence coming from our field programs through baselines, evaluations and regular program/project progress reports.

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The objective of the assignment is to pilot, refine and roll out the use of a diagnostic/assessment tool that measures the strength of evidence produced by WVUS funded programs.

SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES

World Vision is currently procuring the services of a Consultant (consultant/academia) to undertake these tasks:

• Refine the already existing rubric of the diagnostic/assessment tool
• Pilot the tool by reviewing 15-20 baselines/evaluations carried out in the last two years sampled to represent different types of programs and funding streams
• Report both findings on strength of evidence for the sampled products as well as how the tool performed
• Refine the rubrics/tool based on the pilot experience
• Based on the pilot experience and in collaboration with the Evidence and Learning team develop a process and different reporting options for the various targeted audiences

SCHEDULE

This assignment is expected to require about 20-25 working days over a period of approximately 1.5 months starting by end of July 2018. The assignment should be completed by September 24, 2018.

The schedule shall be determined in discussions with Evidence and Learning team.

REPORTING

The Consultant will report directly to the Research, Learning, and Analytics Manager who will supervise the assignment. All products are to be written in English. The Consultant will provide an electronic version of all the required deliverables. The reporting will be completed in form and substance acceptable to contract manager.

QUALIFICATIONS

The successful candidates will have the following qualifications:

• The consultant will have a minimum of 5-7 years of relevant experience of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) at HQ level (leading or consulting on organization performance and impact measures)
• Experience in developing and rolling out dashboards and other assessment and/or impact measurement tools used by leadership, program leads, technical experts and/or marketing teams to assess quality of the programs (esp. through assessment of evaluations)
• Experience reviewing evaluations using different matrices/scoring tools
• Capacity to think creatively and practically about organizational wide tools
• Strong written and oral communication skills. Fluency in English essential.

CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT

All data and information received from World Vision for the purpose of this assignment are to be treated confidentially and are only to be used in connection with the execution of these Terms of Reference. All intellectual property rights arising from the execution of these Terms of Reference are assigned to World Vision. The contents of written materials obtained and used in this assignment may not be disclosed to any third parties without the expressed advance written authorization of World Vision.

OFFER SUBMISSION

The consultant is required to submit the following documents:

• CVs highlighting the experience required for the assignment for all proposed consultants
• One to two references for similar assignments. If available, one or two examples to illustrate similar type of work (rubric/tool development to assess quality and strength of evidence)
• Proposed workplan and budget for the assignment (including any supplies, software, etc.). Amount requested should be presented in two formats –per deliverable and as a fee per day. Agreement will be reached between WV and consultant on which format to use in the contract.

Please submit your documents to WVUS via email pssrequests@worldvision.org. All submissions should be received by July 18, 2018 end of business hours.

About the Organization

The World Vision Partnership is a global community of people passionately committed to improving the lives and futures of the world’s most vulnerable children.

We believe that every child is a precious gift to the entire world and that their well-being concerns us all. We will not rest while children suffer in situations that can be changed. We are looking for people who share our beliefs and our passion.

www.wvi.org