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Evaluation of the EU-funded Programme “Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process”
01.06.2015
Armenia | Eurasia Partnership Foundation

The ADDENDUM is attached below.

A Consortium of four Armenia-based and four Turkey-based organisations is currently

seeking an evaluation consultant or team of consultants to undertake an evaluation of the

Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process” (ATNP) programme financed by the

European Union’s Instrument for Stability (IfS). The evaluator(s) will be contracted by

Eurasia Partnership Foundation (Armenia).

 

Background Information

 

A Consortium of eight civil society organisations from Armenia and Turkey has been

implementing the programme “Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process”

(ATNP) since January 2014. The ATNP is implemented by Civilitas Foundation (CF),

Eurasia Partnership Foundation (EPF), Public Journalism Club (PJC), Regional Studies

Center (RSC) from Armenia; and Anadolu Kültür, the Economic Policy Research Foundation

of Turkey (TEPAV), Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (hCa), and Hrant Dink Foundation from

Turkey.

 

The programme is the first IfS-funded action that supports the normalisation of relations

between Turkey and Armenia while building upon a number of previous Armenia-Turkey

dialogue initiatives. The action started in January 2014 and will end in June 2015, and it has a

budget of € 2,000,000. Management of the programme is delegated to the EU Delegation to

Georgia. The Delegation ensures close coordination and information sharing with FPI, EEAS

and the EU Delegations in Yerevan and Ankara.

 

The ATNP Consortium has three levels of management: the Board that includes heads of the

eight organisations; the administrative and financial management of the Consortium executed

by EPF as the lead partner or prime recipient; and the external communication of the

Consortium consolidated and coordinated by the Communication Coordinator situated in

Turkey at Hrant Dink Foundation.

 

The overall objective of the programme is to support the civil society efforts towards the

normalisation of relations between Turkey and Armenia and towards an open border by

enhancing people-to-people contacts, expanding economic and business links, promoting

cultural and educational activities, and facilitating balanced information in both societies.

The specific objective of the programme is to improve relations between the two societies via

building durable and sustainable links between civil society, youth, businesses, policy

makers, artists, media and academics, and achieving positive examples of change in attitudes

while implementing specific joint undertakings.

 

Apart from activities implemented by the Consortium members, the Consortium created a

Sub-Grant Scheme and invited individuals and civil society organisations from Armenia and

Turkey - other than the Consortium members - to propose and implement their own project

ideas. The Sub-Grant Scheme received 130 applications and supported 11 projects.

 

The objectives of the evaluation are:

 

1) To assess the level of continued relevance of the programme’s activities in the

changing political context of the Armenia-Turkey relations;

2) To assess the overall effectiveness of the programme and its contribution to the

development of civil society and democratisation processes in Armenia and Turkey;

3) To assess the efficiency of the programme’s activities supporting the establishment of

ties between civil societies of Armenia and Turkey (value for money);

4) To assess the level of achieving the programme’s outcomes and objectives as

indicated in the Logical Framework (This and other internal documents will be provided to the selected candidate only)

5) To provide an overview of the advance of all activities of the Consortium and their

results.

6) To provide a more detailed assessment of the results of several activities (both at the

output and outcome level) implemented by members of the Consortium and the Sub-
Grant recipients; selection criteria should be determined in consultation with the

Consortium;

7) To assess the programmatic, communication/visibility, and Consortium management

aspects of the programme; and make recommendations on the improvement of the

management practices for the future consortium-run Armenia-Turkey initiatives;

8) To recommend actions that will increase the sustainability of the programme

components for the future efforts to normalize the Armenia-Turkey relations;

9) To help the Consortium and EU derive lessons learned from the programme and good

practices; as well as focus the attention of the implementers on possible follow-ups,

unexpected positive and negative outcomes, and additional unplanned effects, if any.

 

The evaluation should include a combination of different information collection methods,

including: 1) desk research, analysing the programme’s reports, publications, media

coverage, website, etc.; 2) in-depth interviews with Consortium members’ staff, partners,

donors, beneficiaries and stakeholders of the Programme, as well as wider civil society

representatives. Possibly, and based on the need, other research tools can be used, such as

focus groups.

 

ATNP Consortium members from Armenia and Turkey will deliver all the relevant

programme documents (including the above Logical Framework), contact information of

programme beneficiaries and other relevant stakeholders. If needed, EPF (in Yerevan,

Armenia) and HDF (in Istanbul, Turkey) will provide office space that is equipped for focus

group discussions and/or interviews.

 

for the programme;

The evaluation consultant or team of consultants should travel to Yerevan, Istanbul and

Ankara where the main partners are situated and many activities took place.

 

Intended Use of the Evaluation

 

The primary beneficiary of the evaluation will be the European Commission (EC). The

evaluation shall provide guidance to the EC on the future programming and investment in

Armenia-Turkey normalisation as well as, generally, on support of Armenia-Turkey

initiatives. EC might decide on sharing the results of the evaluation with other stakeholders in

both countries. Upon EC’s approval, general findings of the report can be publicly shared.

The members of the Consortium will use the evaluation as a guide continuing their Armenia-
Turkey normalisation initiatives.

 

Timeframe and Reporting Requirements

Deadline for applications: June 15, 2015 (17:00 Yerevan time)

Selection announcement date: June 22, 2015.

 

The consultant or team of consultants should start their work on July 3, 2015, or as soon as

possible.

 

The first concise draft version of the evaluation summarizing the main findings and

recommendations should be provided to EPF by July 24, 2015.

 

The final evaluation report should be submitted to EPF no later than August 24, 2015.

 

Deliverables

 

The key product expected from this evaluation is a comprehensive analytical report in

English covering issues as outlined that should, as a minimum, include the following parts:

 

  • Executive summary;
  • Introduction;
  • Brief programme description;
  • Description of the evaluation methodology;
  • Analysis of the situation with regard to the outcome, the outputs and the partnership
  • strategy;
  • Analysis of opportunities to provide guidance for the future programming;
  • Key findings, including good practices and lessons learned;
  • Conclusions and recommendations (taking into account the changing political setting
  • and the need to thoroughly justify any future financing in this regard);
  • Annexes: ToRs, field visits, people interviewed, documents reviewed, etc.;
  • PDF or PPT presentation summarizing the report.

 

Budget

 

The budget of the evaluation is equal to (net) € 10,000, which cover fees and expenses for

transportation in/from Armenia and Turkey, in-country transportation, accommodation,

meals, and communication. On top of that, some logistical costs, such as office space,

internet access, etc., will be handled by EPF and HDF. Proposals exceeding this sum will be

declined.

EPF can make a pre-payment of up to € 4,000, so the incumbent(s) could cover the logistical

expenses. EPF will make the second (final) payment only after the final approval of the

comprehensive analytical report (including the process of integrating comments in the final

product).

 

Request for Bids

 

EPF seeks bids from individuals or organisations to conduct this evaluation.

Applicants should submit a proposal in English that includes:

 

  • Detailed description of the applicant’s or applicant team’s qualifications (including CV/s showing experience in conducting evaluations in relevant fields);
  • Draft work plan and methodology. The applicant or applicant team should pay a particular attention to sequencing of travels and interviews and to the approximate amount of interviews proposed; they can indicate their preferences regarding the programme directions or activities to focus on. Any additional methodological consideration will be a plus.

 

Selection Criteria

 

ATNP Consortium Members together with EU Delegation in Georgia will select the winning

candidate among the organisations or individuals submitting a complete bid by the proposal

deadline.

 

The selection criteria will include the following:

 

  • Degree to which the proposal adheres to the terms listed above;
  • Quality of the proposed methodology;
  • Qualifications of the applicant or a team of applicants, including past experience in
  • evaluation of similar initiatives;
  • Feasibility of the proposed methodology and work plan;
  • Ability to adhere to the time constraints of the proposed action plan.

 

Application Process

 

Applicants should submit their proposals to the following two addresses:

[email protected] and [email protected]

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