In its fourth year, House of Peace (HOPe),a non-profit Lebanese organization established in 2015, aims at supporting participants from local communities to engage in social initiatives that will bring together people from different backgrounds so they meet and work together for the same goal in order to catalyze personal and social transformation that fosters social peace.

HOPe aims at supporting NGOs in Lebanon and Syria to be more conflict sensitive by helping them observing different interactions between their projects and their respective contexts, and encouraging them to take steps towards a positive change.

HOPe contributes in advancing recommendations for best practices in the field of social peacebuilding by developing analysis papers, roundtable meetings and events that would raise Local Community Voices coming from different contexts, and help in drawing lessons learnt from the field.

In addition, HOPe works with a group of young adults from several marginalized communities, to provide them with the required technical skills and art tools to promote child and youth rights within their communities.

As a community-based project, HOPe aims to facilitate and coordinate the elaboration of local visions of social peace-building, brought together with international experiences and support. The project is established with the support of the Jesuits PRO.

The Lebanese Context:

Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees per capita (UNHCR,2019)[1]. Being a small country with poor infrastructure, heavy economic burdens, and scarce resources. Thus, there exists diversified cultures and traditions between these parties from one end, and a scarcity of resources from the other. This in turn created a heavy burden on the Lebanese host communities; that is to say that factors such as these mentioned, promote conflicts and increase tensions on community levels where these parties interact.

Moreover, Lebanese and Syrians share history, in which unfortunate events occurred in during the Lebanese civil war. Therefore, perceptions and perspectives stigmatized the relationship between both nationalities, also promoting tension. Adding up, Lebanese communities still suffer from the effects of the civil war, and tensions still exist between sects and areas.

Peacebuilding and Social Stability are two significant intervention sectors in Lebanon tackling tensions between local host communities and refugee communities that have increased over the years, since the start of the refugee crisis.

Therefore, shifting perspectives between conflicting interacting groups and entities decreases tension in communities and allows for better relationships to be established. Hence, grassroots peacebuilding is a strategic intervention technique, characterized by spreading the message of peace, acceptance, and providing dialogue spaces, which in turn transforms a society gradually and connects people.

Description of HOPe s Projects:

HOPe s intervention is focused on two pillars, social peace building workshops with local communities (host & refugee); and providing conflict sensitivity training to non-governmental organizations, as part of its mission. HOPe mainly operates in Beqaa, North, and Beirut.

Social Peace Building Workshops Grassroots Peacebuilding:

HOPe conducts social peacebuilding workshops with local communities where it operates in Lebanon. HOPe s implementation strategy to grassroots peacebuilding, begins with outreaching participant groups through partner local and international NGOs in different areas. Groups attend a three-day social peace workshop, in which they focus on the context of the area where they reside, analyze peace & conflicts, and reflect on personal peace. At the end of the workshop and through dialogue sessions, participants brainstorm social initiatives based on the available resources from one side, and the needs in their area from another side. The common aspiration of all initiatives is to create dialogue spaces for people from all backgrounds to interact.

Conflict Sensitivity Trainings with NGOs:

Conflict Sensitivity trainings, aim to support humanitarian workers to plan for conflict sensitivity measures at personal, program or institutional levels, inspired by a paradigm shift of how they perceive their ongoing/prospective activities and their interaction with their context of work.

Their Voices Paper:

HOPe s action research paper, is an important aspect to the project that compiles field research with grassroots stories from local communities and fellow humanitarian workers. Aiming for ongoing improvement in interventions by putting forward recommendations and best practices; the paper thus tackles recurring topics from various context/conflict analysis that influence social peace.

HOPe s Target Audience

Hope works with local communities both host and refugee. Activities target both men and women from all age groups.

Assignment:

HOPe is looking to select a consultant to evaluate its 3-years project funded by Secours Catholique.

Secours Catholique Caritas France (SCCF)is a French association recognized for public interest and a service of the Catholic Church; it is also a member of the Caritas Internationalis global network. SCCF is committed to fight against poverty, exclusion and inequalities, and promote the development of each person.

Thus the primary objective of the evaluation is to provide clear evidence of the project s relevancy, efficiency, efficacy, impact, and sustainability. This enables HOPe to compile lessons learnt, trends and recommendations to support the development of other similar projects, and of HOPe as an organization.

That is to say, this evaluation aims to validate the impact of the overall objective of HOPe s project being: the enhancement of Social Peace within Local Communities in Lebanon.

Therefore, the main question the evaluation should answer is: Have the project objectives stated in the Contract between SCCF and HOPe, been achieved?

The evaluation period should cover the entire project duration starting from October 2017.

Interested applicants ought to send their proposals including the budget breakdown and number of working days to finalize assessment and submit the report.

Consultancy work will start during the first week of December 2019.

Questions we aim to answer:

Beside evaluating the impact of conducted activities, this evaluation aims to give recommendations on the following questions:

What measures can be taken to ensure long-term impact?

How do we measure the impact of Their Voices paper? (outreach and change).

How can we ensure sustainability of initiatives on the long run?

How do we test the adoption of Conflict sensitivity approach, by NGO who attended the CST training? Is there a further impact on the community, after institutional change adopted in organizations that took CST training?

Is there an added value of partnering with same NGOs for outreach and initiative support?

How can we outreach for communities with conservative opinions towards refugees?

How do we improve our impact assessments? (tools and approaches).

How do we increase Male participation?

Has there been any added value to the project thanks to SCCF partnership (other than financial contribution)? What could SCCF do to better support HOPe in the project?

Deliverables:

Under the supervision of the HOPe Monitoring and Evaluation Department, and with support from the staff, the Consultant will be required to deliver the following outputs:

An inception report, including methodology, sampling and data collection materials;

A draft report detailing the key findings, lesson learned and in-depth recommendations that will inform future programming submitted for review and comments by HOPe M&E Department.

A final version of the evaluation report by 15 of February 2020.

The report be written in English and submitted electronically in a MS Word document.

Along with the report, submissions should include the soft and hard copies such as handwritten and electronic transcripts of data collection, hard copies of survey questionnaires, lists of participants etc.

A 2-hour presentation and debriefing on the report, highlighting key results, lessons learned and future recommendations for HOPe s staff.

Tasks will require the following:

In order to complete this assignment, it is envisioned that the consultant will undertake the following actions:

Reviewing relevant project materials such as: proposal, progress reports; log frame, work plan & materials;

Conducting one-on-one meetings with relevant stakeholders (KIIs);

Conducting surveys with sampled project beneficiaries;

Conduct Focus Group Discussions in field sites with project stakeholders/beneficiaries.

HOPe will be responsible for:

Provision of project documents for contextual background;

Provision of curriculum and materials including PPTs, handouts, booklets etc.

Skills, experience and qualifications required:

University degree in relevant field;

Proven capability and experience in conducting project evaluations;

Experience in the Peace Building and Social Cohesion/Stability sectors in Lebanon, and in evaluating related programs in these sectors;

Minimum of 5 years experience in conducting participative evaluations and impact assessments;

Experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques including conducting focus group discussion;

Native Arabic speaker;

Excellent writing and communication skills in Arabic and English;

Availability and willingness to travel to various areas in Lebanon;

Ability to work under strict and demanding timelines.

[1] https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/UNHCR-Lebanon-Operational-fact-sheet-January-2019.pdf

How to apply:

Interested applicants should submit the following to missioncourteduree@secours-catholique.org

; Titled: Project Evaluation Consultant.

Cover Letter indicating clearly how the opportunity fits in with applicant s skills and experience

Up-to-date Curriculum Vitae(s);

Technical proposal (including methodology, data collection tools, work-plan, with clear timeframe for each activity under work-plan and deliverable, and if relevant, details on team composition)

Financial proposal

Same of previous evaluations for similar assignments where applicant was the sole or lead evaluator and author of the work.

Documents should be submitted by Monday November 18, 2019.

Submissions received after the deadline will not be taken into consideration. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.