Position: Consultant 

Irish Rule of Law International (IRLI) seeks the services of a consultant(s) to undertake an organisational analysis of its Malawi team and programme to assess the structure and practices, and to make recommendations, to better enable IRLI to deliver its important work through its flagship programme. Particular importance is to be placed on the suitability of the current management structure (and any need for diversification and amendment thereof) as an enabler or inhibitor of continued delivery and measured growth.

5. DELIVERABLES AND TIMEFRAME

The organisational review will start in May 2024 and will take no longer than 21 working days.

Deliverables Expectations Timeline

1. Inception Report	An inception report will outline the key scope of the work and intended work plan of the analysis, and evaluation questions. The inception report should detail the reviewer’s understanding of what is being evaluated and why, showing how each organisational review question will be answered including proposed methods, proposed sources of data, and data collection procedures. The inception report should include a proposed schedule of tasks, activities, and deliverables.	3 days
2. Data Collection	Undertake desk review, carry out key informant interviews and, if deemed useful, potential focus group discussions. Facilitate a ‘lessons learned’ workshop with IRLI staff and other stakeholders.	10 days
3. Data analysis and organisational review	Presentation of initial findings to the IRLI team followed by submission of draft report for review and feedback by IRLI (and the Embassy of Ireland in Malawi).	4 days
4. Final Organisational Review submission	The final report (maximum of 20 pages) should be submitted after incorporating the comments received from the IRLI (and the Embassy of Ireland in Malawi). The report should follow the below structure and lay out: Executive Summary (outlining the key findings and recommendations); Introduction(includingsummaryoforganisational review methodology and limitations). Analysisandfindingsoftheorganisationalanalysis and review; Best practices and lessons learned; Conclusions and recommendations.	4 days

6. MANAGEMENT

The consultant(s) will report to IRLI’s Country Director – Malawi and (Acting) Executive Director. Ultimate management responsibility lies with IRLI’s (Acting) Executive Director in Ireland. Feedback and comments will be provided by the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of IRLI, the IRLI (Acting) Executive Director, the (Acting) Director of Programmes, the

Position: Consultant 

SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS

Along with their CV interested candidate(s) should submit:

• A technical proposal explaining their comprehension of the Terms of Reference (ToR) and how they would approach this assignment within the given time (3-page maximum).
• Candidate(s) are welcome to provide a sample of a similar previous assignment(s) (optional).
• A financial proposal outlining their expected fees and other expenses, complying with the maximum pricing figure contained within the ToR.
• All documents need to be submitted by email to [email protected] AND [email protected] by 12noon Irish time (GMT/UTC) on Wednesday, 28^th April 2024 at 20:00.

Irish Rule of Law International (IRLI) is a joint initiative of the Law Society of Ireland, the Bar of Ireland, the Law Society of Northern Ireland, and the Bar of Northern Ireland. Supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs, it is dedicated to promoting the rule of law in countries including Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania.

Irish Rule of Law International, IRLI, has been awarded successive annual grants from the Embassy of Ireland, Tanzania to support the building of institutional partnerships between members of the Irish, Northern Irish and Tanzanian criminal justice systems to address abuse of children and gender-based violence across all jurisdictions. 

IRLI has received five grants from Embassy of Ireland, Tanzania. The first grant of €15,500 was for an expert delegation from IRLI, including judges, to visit Tanzania in late 2018 to assess what type of institutional support IRLI could provide to their Tanzanian counterparts. In addition, a capacity needs assessment of criminal justice institutions was conducted to inform the programme. The second grant of €57,725 in 2019 covered the period July 2019 to February 2020 and included a technical exchange whereby three members of the Tanzanian police force visited Ireland, a further scoping visit by the same expert IRLI delegation, and a needs assessment of the Tanzanian criminal justice institutions was completed. 

Embassy of Ireland, Tanzania then granted €199,322 in 2020 for the first year of a pilot programme with local partner, Children's Dignity Forum (CDF). Following the pilot, it was decided to focus on the institutional relationships aspects of the programme to date, rather than to continue with local-level partners and programming. The fourth grant of €200,000 in 2022, running from May 2022 to May 2023 focused on building and strengthening institutional partnerships between An Garda Síochána (AGS), the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), and Tanzania Police on the policing side, and the judiciaries of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Tanzania on the judicial side. During the implementation period, in November 2022, a visit by four members of the Tanzanian judiciary to Ireland and Northern Ireland took place. In March 2023, two representatives from each of the Irish police services traveled to Tanzania, followed in May 2023 by a return visit by the Tanzanian Police, headed by the Inspector General of Police. In addition, engagement with the Institute of Judicial Administration has been furthered through the development of a Compendium on Child Sexual Abuse cases, which will act as a springboard for activities to improve delivery of justice in child sexual abuse cases.

The fifth grant of €200,000 for 2023 covering the period August 2023 to July 2024 was informed by the results and lessons learned from the 2018 to 2023 scoping reports, technical exchanges, concept notes, bi-monthly and six-monthly reports as well as the previous iteration of the programme that was conducted at the community level alongside Children’s Dignity Forum (CDF). Strong institutional partnerships developed through high-level exchanges between policing and judicial experts within all three jurisdictions. This enabled the current engagement, focused on delivering capacity building training to justice actors at an operational level, to improve victim-centric approaches in the handling of child sexual abuse and gender based violence cases by police and judicial officers. 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

This project is designed to support institutional partnership-building between the Irish and Tanzanian Criminal Justice systems, with a secondary objective to strengthen the response to gender-based violence (GBV) – and child sexual abuse (CSA) in particular. The 2018 to 2024 period has had a core focus on institutional relationship building as a springboard to develop and deliver meaningful change through capacity building training. The ongoing capacity building training on the policing side aims to address effective and appropriate investigation of child sexual abuse cases. Furthermore, capacity building training on the judicial side brings Northern Irish, Irish and Tanzanian judicial actors together to share best practice and develop a Training of Trainers programme, addressing courtroom practice to avoid re-traumatisation of victims. 

Project objectives:

• To improve victim-centric practices in CSA investigations and court proceedings in Tanzania. 

This is achieved through improved capacities of the police and judiciary to deliver justice to CSA victims and survivors using victim-centric processes to aid the effective and timely investigation and adjudication of perpetrators. One of the indicators to measure progress on this objective is to see levels of increased confidence by criminal justice actors in handling of CSA cases using victim centered approaches, for example, listing of cases or ‘special measures’ in court.  

• To increase visibility of Ireland’s Rule of Law expertise in Ireland and in the (East/Southern Africa) region. 

This objective will be measured through regular promotion of our work in Tanzania, publication of project updates and good news stories in professional publications. 

PURPOSE OF ASSIGNMENT

Main Objective

The programme follows a simple theory of change: learning from the criminal justice experience and victim-centric approaches within the two jurisdictions of Ireland will strengthen Tanzania’s ability to investigate and adjudicate child sexual abuse cases (and, consequently, gender-based violence more broadly) and increase meaningful access to justice for children, as well as other vulnerable and marginalised survivors of abuse. 

The primary objective of this assignment is to evaluate the extent to which the programme has been able to achieve its objectives (see above). The evaluation should explicitly assess and describe the manner in which the programme succeeded (or otherwise) in strengthening Institutional Partnerships between criminal justice actors in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Tanzania, and how this partnership has enabled the development and delivery of capacity building training between the police and judicial actors. It should assess and describe the extent to which police and judicial practitioners, who have participated in  capacity building training, have increased their levels of knowledge, skills and confidence in dealing with victims and survivors of GBV and in particular child sexual abuse. The evaluation should include assessment of the programme’s relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability.

Specific Objectives

The Consultant will specifically consider the extent to which the following outcomes have been met:

Outcome 1: Improved capacities of the police and judiciary to deliver justice to victims of gender-based violence, in particular CSA victims and survivors using victim-centric processes to aid the effective and timely investigation and adjudication of perpetrators, through the delivery of the following two outputs:

• Capacity building training is delivered to police on dealing effectively with CSA cases.
• Capacity building training is delivered to the judiciary on dealing effectively with CSA cases.

Outcome 2: Institutional Partnerships: 

How the programme has strengthened and made sustainable institutional partnerships across the jurisdictions of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Tanzania. 

Outcome 3: The visibility of Ireland’s role in developing and strengthening the rule of law in the region is increased.

How the project has delivered in terms of Ireland’s role and visibility in rule of law work, in Ireland, Tanzania and in the region, showcasing the work of the Embassy of Ireland Tanzania, IRLI, and Irish justice sector practitioners with Tanzanian counterparts.

SCOPE OF WORK AND KEY DELIVERABLES

The Consultant will work closely with the IRLI Programme Manager. The following are the key deliverables of the assignment:

• Develop an inception report that guides the overall evaluation process and the methodology to be used to conduct the evaluation. 
• Present the inception report to the IRLI team for discussion and approval, including the key informants to be interviewed (either online or in-person)
• Conduct desk research of relevant documentation (reports, etc) to project performance in terms of successes, challenges, facilitating factors and barriers.
• Conduct key informant interviews with relevant participants/stakeholders.
• Synthesize information gathered from both from desk review and interviews into a draft evaluation report. 
• Facilitate an online validation session with selected participants to highlight key findings and draft recommendations before finalizing and submitting the evaluation report, which includes clear recommendations, owners and timelines to improve the project implementation and lessons learned for similar future projects.
• Present the key findings to the IRLI team.
• Use the feedback on the report by the IRLI team to improve and finalize the evaluation report 

METHODOLOGY 

Approach

The evaluation must be guided by the OECD DAC criteria. Table 1 below describes how the information from the evaluation should be organized, among other types of information to be generated.

Table 1: OECD – DAC Criteria

Data Collection Methods

The consultant shall use a consultative and inclusive approach to ensure that all key stakeholders are actively involved during the evaluation process. The methodology for completing his/her work should include: 

• Desk review through reviewing the existing project reports, proposals, project activity and progress reports and any other relevant related documents that offer information on the project. 
• Key informant interviews (KII) with, at a minimum, project implementers, technical, judicial, and policing experts involved in relationship building and capacity building project activities (both those participating and delivering training).

MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF THE EVALUATION 

The evaluation will be conducted under the leadership and guidance of the IRLI Programme Manager, Tanzania and Executive Director (Acting). The consultant/s will be expected to work very closely with the Programme Manager through all stages of the evaluation. The consultants/ will report to the Programme Manager and Executive Director, who will receive and communicate the approval of all deliverables. 

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE REQUIRED CONSULTANT(s)

The Consultant must have the following minimum qualifications:

• Must hold at least a Bachelor’s Degree in one or more of the disciplines: Law, Criminal Justice, Monitoring and Evaluation, Policy and Planning, Development Studies, Social Sciences or Administration.  
• At least five (5) years of recognized experience in conducting or leading evaluations or review of development programmes, and experience as the main writer of evaluation reports. 
• Experience in justice reform and development, institutional partnerships building is an added advantage.
• Expertise using quantitative and qualitative evaluation/research methods. 
• Excellent skills and experience in facilitating key informant interviews with government and justice sector officials, development partners, civil society organizations and other partners. 
• Excellent analytical skills in writing evaluation reports with constructive and practical recommendations. 
• Fluency in written and spoken English. Knowledge of Kiswahili is beneficial. 

TIME FRAMEWORK

This activity is expected to be completed in the period between 18th April and 17th May 2024. There will be 15 consultancy days spread within this period. Below is a tentative plan of work (Table 2) that will be reviewed in consultation with the Consultant upon successful selection.

Table 2: Tentative Work Plan for Conducting Evaluation of the IRLI Tanzania Programme  (2018-2023 period)

PRICING

The successful Consultant will carry out the assignment within the budget of €6375-€ 6750 as agreed with IRLI.  The Consultant shall include in his/her inception report, a breakdown of the estimates for the activities within the work plan that does not exceed this budget. 

REPORTING

During this assignment, the Consultant will be reporting to the Programme Manager and Executive Director (Acting) of IRLI who will provide guidance for both administrative and technical issues. 

DISSEMINATION OF THE EVALUATION FINDINGS

After the approval of the final evaluation report, the Consultant will be required to facilitate and deliver a learning session with different stakeholders including the Embassy of Ireland, Tanzania, through presenting the key findings/lessons of the report. Preparation of the learning session shall be conducted in collaboration with the IRLI Programme Manager, Tanzania. The preparation and delivery will attract an additional two-day engagement period with the Consultant. 

You can download a full PDF for this ToR here.

Position: Operations Manager