Consultant to Develop Action Against Hunger’s Advocacy Measurement Plan (AMP)

PROJECT AND EVALUATION SUMMARY: 

Sector: Advocacy
Location (country region/s): Remote
Project Language: English
Responsible ACF HQ: US/HEARO

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Action Against Hunger leads the global movement to end hunger. We innovate solutions, advocate for change, and reach 28 million people every year with proven hunger prevention and treatment programs. As a nonprofit that works across 55 countries, our 8,990 dedicated staff members partner with communities to address the root causes of hunger, including climate change, conflict, inequity, and emergencies. We strive to create a world free from hunger, for everyone, for good.

Action Against Hunger USA is part of the Action Against Hunger International network. As an independent NGO, Action Against Hunger USA currently manages operations in 8 countries: Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia and Haiti. Action Against Hunger-USA has over $100 million in programs and approximately 1,800 permanent staff based in New York City, Washington D.C, Nairobi, and country offices. Additional growth is anticipated.

ACTION AGAINST HUNGER’S ADVOCACY ASPIRATIONS

Advocacy within Action Against Hunger contributes to ending hunger through improved policies, practices, and intervention capacities achieved through positively influencing political and economic decision-makers and by mobilizing public support.

We aspire to use research and program learning to develop robust evidence-based advocacy strategies that influence decision-makers to take action to end hunger. Our programs respond to policy and resource gaps that lead to hunger. We integrate advocacy as a key strategic pillar to complement our programs. Our programs and research generate evidence that identifies better ways of responding to hunger.

We partner with communities, national and international NGOs, and governments to use this evidence to develop robust evidence-based advocacy strategies to positively influence policies and funding from the local to global level.

We believe that if governments and key stakeholders develop and implement well-resourced and equitable policies—sustainably addressing the drivers of hunger, the communities where we work will achieve zero hunger.

CONSULTANCY RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES

The Advocacy Measurement Plan serves the following purposes:

1. Describe how the advocacy Theory of Change (TOC) relates to anticipated results and the measures that will show whether the TOC held true.
2. Plan for documentation of achievements to allow for accountability and project management.
3. Describe how results will be analyzed and how they contribute to advocacy priorities.
4. Plan for how findings and results can be shared and engage stakeholders to improve results.
5. Outline the expected learning curves and learning moments for the advocacy participants, partners, and stakeholders.

KEY DELIVERABLES

The Advocacy Measurement Plan will articulate the following components: Strategy/Approach description, Theory of Change, Results Framework, Performance Indicators, Monitoring Plan, Learning Agenda and plan, Collaboration, Stakeholder Engagement and Adaptive Management, Roles and responsibilities, Data Flow Task Schedule and Data Management Systems.

1. Strategy/Approach description
   1. This will be an introductory section that gives an overview of Action Against Hunger’s Advocacy strategies and approaches, goals, and interventions.
2. Theory of Change
   1. This section will articulate the relationships between anticipated outcomes of the advocacy interventions, including the underlying assumptions. The section will also include a narrative explaining how these changes (outcomes) are understood to come about (i.e. the hypothesis of change), including the causal mechanisms and assumptions, as well as the role of other interventions that underlie the pathways of change.
3. Results Framework
   1. This section will articulate a hierarchy of advocacy results, intermediate results, and sub-results.
4. Performance Indicators
   1. Performance indicators will be developed. These will be markers of change or intervention outcomes. They will help to show whether – and to what extent – the interventions are progressing and contributing to outcomes as intended.
5. Monitoring Plan
   1. This section will describe the types of analysis that will be used to track progress and inform adaptation decisions.
6. Learning Agenda and plan
   1. The learning agenda will help the advocacy team to learn from implementation and adapt the project accordingly. The section will include prioritized questions or lines of inquiry that indicate where knowledge gaps need to be filled, what methods or tools will be used to test existing practice or generate new knowledge, and how lessons learned will be applied. Emerging questions may also arise during implementation, and the AMP will identify those moments when these learning needs arise and select opportunities to address them. Ultimately, the learning agenda and plan will be intended to make the advocacy learning and documenting processes more intentional, systematic, and useful.
7. Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement
   1. This section will describe planned collaboration and coordination with similar initiatives in common regions of operation and engagement with other stakeholders i.e. governments, other donors, local organizations, non-government organizations, academic institutions, etc. to achieve advocacy outcomes.
8. Roles and responsibilities
   1. This section of the AMP will explicitly state who would be assigned the key responsibilities for routine monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
9. Data Flow Task Schedule
   1. The AMP will include a comprehensive task schedule for routine data collection, analysis, and reporting.
10. Data Management Systems
    1. This section will have descriptions of data quality control, storage, and management. It will outline guidelines for data handling: data collection, data storage, data quality checks, data aggregation, analysis, storage, retrieval, & dissemination.
11. Evaluation Plan
    1. This section will discuss the design and methodology for evaluating advocacy interventions.

TENTATIVE TIMELINE

Below is the list of tasks and deliverables. After the consultant is on board, detailed tasks and timelines will be outlined by the consultant and Action Against Hunger, adhering to these final due dates.

Deliverable:
Mapping of existing Advocacy measurement practices within and outside of Action Against Hunger based on key informant interviews and literature reviews. (10 workdays)

Advocacy Measurement Plan document with components outlined above (sections 1-11) (15 workdays)

Virtual Training of Trainers and materials to roll out Advocacy Measurement Plan (5 workdays)

REPORTING ARRANGEMENTS

The consultant will work directly and collaborate with Action Against Hunger’s Senior Technical Advisor for Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning, as well as the Advocacy team at the HQ and Regional levels. This team will approve and oversee any deliverables for this consultancy assignment.

PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS

The payment arrangement is based on the submission and approval of the three main deliverables. The amount to be paid for the consultancy contract will be a total of fifteen thousand US dollars ($15, 000) tax included. The payment will be made in three installments upon the submission and approval of the following three main deliverables:

• The 1st payment of ($5000) will be made upon completion of the Mapping of existing Advocacy measurement practices within and outside of Action Against Hunger based on key informant interviews and literature reviews submitted and approved by Action Against Hunger.
• The 2nd payment of ($7500) will be processed once the final Advocacy Measurement Plan document is submitted to and approved by Action Against Hunger.
• The 3rd installment of ($2500) will be processed upon completion of roll-out materials and virtual training of trainers.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

All writings, books, articles, artwork, computer programs, databases, source and object codes, and other material of any nature whatsoever produced during this assignment produced in whole or in part by the Consultant under this contract will be published with Action Against Hunger’s log and per Action Against Hunger’s guidelines for its use,

For any personal use of materials produced during this consultancy assignment such as for the submission of abstracts at conferences or the use of these materials in individual research or any other platform, the Consultant would require consulting with Action Against Hunger staff and obtaining written approval from Action Against Hunger.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

The consultant should possess the following:

• Expert knowledge and previous experience in the areas of Advocacy, Human Rights, Health and Nutrition, WASH, Gender and Protection.
• Expertise in developing Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning systems and frameworks
  Experience in conducting and leading human rights/advocacy evaluations.
• Minimum of 7 years work experience in humanitarian affairs, development and in fragile settings.
• Demonstrated capacity for strategic thinking and ability to work collaboratively with multiple stakeholders (experience of support to Government and civil society).
• Fluency in English (oral and written)

The following criteria will be used when evaluating the proposals:

• The combined experience and competence of consultant in relation to TOR
• The proposed methodology for the assignment in relation to the terms of reference
• The firm’s ability to perform the assignment in the appropriate time
• NB: During the assignment, it is expected that the consultants will not have other parallel engagements.

APPLICATION PROCESS: 

Interested and qualified individuals are requested to send their application to ankwake@actionagainsthunger.org with the attachment of the following documents:

• Letter of interest for the consultancy service, including Proposal and Methodology.
• Updated resume

We would thus request the interested and qualified consultants to submit the required documents during office hours by October 4, 2024.