IAWRT EVALUATION 2017

IAWRT ønsker en evaluering av sin organisasjon. Her er bakgrunn og punkter som ønskes evaluert. Budsjettet er på NOK 200 000, og søknadsfrist er satt til 18.nov, 2016.

Søknader mailes IAWRT.norge@gmail.com og prosjektsøknader blir besvart innen 1. desember.

1.      Background

FOKUS, Forum for Women and Development is an umbrella-organisation consisting of 66 women‘s organisations based in Norway. FOKUS is a knowledge and resource centre with an emphasis on the spreading of information and women-centred development cooperation. 

FOKUS’ primary goal is to contribute to the improvement of women’s social, economic, and political situation internationally. FOKUS builds partnerships with sister organisations internationally to realize women’s rights and improve their situation.

The International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) is a global organisation formed by professional women working in electronic and allied media. Their mission is to strengthen initiatives towards ensuring that women are an integral part of programming and enhance the impact of women in media. The network consists of 12 chapters and nearly 500 members in 57 countries. Most of IAWRT’s members are practicing journalism, but some are also media researchers and teachers of journalism.

IAWRT has consultative status with ECOSOC, they are part of The Global Alliance on Media and Gender, GAMAG, and they participate actively in national and regional media and broadcasting forums such as the Asia Institute of Broadcast Development (AIBD), the European Broadcasters’ Union (EBU) and Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). 

They also cooperate with the Ethical Journalism Network and the Norwegian Journalist Union.

IAWRT has been a member of FOKUS since 1997, and has received financial support from NORAD, through FOKUS, since then. In 2015 FOKUS and IAWRT entered in to a new program-agreement for the period 2015-2018 with a yearly allocation of approx. 1, 7 mill NOK.

2.      Justification

IAWRTs strategy is to empower women to engage with and through the media through targeted training, exchange of knowledge and strategies for gender mainstreaming. The network is almost wholly financed by Norad through FOKUS. 

The goal of the FOKUS-programme is “Women’s empowerment and gender equality in and through the media”.

IAWRT has conducted two evaluations (2003 and 2007). The latter was a follow up to the former, with an additional purpose to assess how members perceive the value of IAWRT. It concludes that between 2003 and 07 the member-base, local activities and chapters increased, while the communication and networking improved, increasing the visibility of the organisation.

Both evaluations underline that IAWRT is facing challenges in creating its own unique identity in the face of a changing media environment and increasingly demanding members. 

Some main conclusions from the previous evaluations are:

•       Identity/standing: IAWRT needs to clarify the issue of identity by engaging its members in a debate about the purpose of the organisation both on a national (chapter) and international level.

•        There is an unrealized potential to be recognized as an important actor in the worldwide debate on gender and media.

•       Organizational / structure – accountability: IAWRT needs to rethink its organizational structure, or to improve the existing.

•        It needs to institute measures to rationalize and develop a system for more transparent processes on the following activities: fundraising and funding, elections and tenure on the board, decision-making and responsibility and information sharing.

•        Increased membership from Southern countries, and the wide-ranging changes in the media environment have affected the organization in different ways, and IAWRT needs to include strategies to meet these changes in a more effective manner.

The 2007-evaluation advised IAWRT to discuss the recommendations from the two evaluations, as well as the future of the organisation during a Strategic Planning Workshop. This was organized during the 2008-biennial.

The organization and the programme has not been evaluated since 2007. As almost ten years has passed, there is a wish to conduct a new external evaluation to identify the current situation and challenges of the network, as well as provide recommendations and identify learning examples for the further strengthening of the organization.

3.      Purpose, scope and intended use

The purpose of the evaluation is to identify and assess the network´s organizational structure and capacity (structure, strategy and operation) in view of their programmatic and organizational goals and sustainability

•        Analyse the consistency of the organization, its structure and strategies in relation to its proposed goals, pointing out strengths and weaknesses

•        Analyse the sustainability of the organization and the organization´s work, including organizational structure and financial situation

•        Identify best-case examples

•        Make recommendations on how IAWRT can strengthen it's role and functioning, both with regards to organizational structure and the potential in fulfilling their mandate and goals

The evaluation will be organizational and process-oriented, with a primary intention of improving the structure and sustainability for the network.

4.      Specific objectives

•        Assess the current situation and challenges for the network

•        Analyse and evaluate the strategies and methodologies used by the network, identifying successes, constraints and potential.

•        Assess the organizational procedures of decision-making, accountability etc.

•        Develop specific conclusions and recommendations for the network to secure sustainability and improve capacity to achieve defined goals

•        Identify «best case» examples from national chapters or areas of work to be used for learning purposes for the organization as a whole. The conclusions and recommendations should be made on three different levels:

o   Organizational

o   Political/goal – impact

o   Administrative – financial

Organizational:

•        Assess relevance, adequacy and sustainability of the organizational model, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT)):

o   To achieve defined goals and results

o   To secure accountability, transparency and inclusion

•        Assess the relationship between national chapters and secretariat:

o   The structure and organization of the organization, including the (virtual) international secretariat and  how the change from physical to virtual secretariat has impacted the organisation’s functioning

o   Internal organizational development process in IAWRT and follow-up of previous evaluations

o   Activities and projects on national and international level in relation to goals set up in formal documents, statues and guidelines

Political: advocacy for women’s rights and position in media

•        Document achieved results at local and international level of the FOKUS-supported project

•        Assess the relevance of IAWRTs goal and strategy:

o   Does it adequately address the political context and the main issues for women in media?

o   Are stakeholders and target groups addressed adequately?

o   Are their actions (activities) in line with proposed goals and objectives?

•        Provide recommendations to strengthen IAWRTs advocacy-work and as a resource network by and for women journalists:

o   Capitalize the strength of the network and its members, in a cost-realistic manner

o   Improve efforts to strengthen women’s position and rights within the media

o   Strengthen IAWRT as a visible organization advocating for women in media worldwide

Administrative – Financial:

•        Provide recommendations to strengthen IAWRT’s economical sustainability and administrative procedures

o   Possibilities and guidelines for fundraising – on national and international level

o   Financial accountability within the organization

o   Financial independence from donors, on administrative level

5.      Implementation of the evaluation

The evaluation should include a combination of desk study, visits to two national chapters, and interviews with the members and other stakeholders, including the following activities:

•        Desk study:

o   Literature review of all central documents of the organization and the FOKUS-project

o   Checklist of statutes, procedures, norms, and other internal steering documents

o   Former evaluations and follow-up

o   Organizations structure and size: members, geographical distribution and activity

•        Field-work / chapter-visits (2)

•        Interviews with member base globally and other stakeholders:

o   With key informants

o   Focus groups with target population, both from secretariat and national chapters

o   Member-survey / questionnaires

o   Representatives from FOKUS

o   Other stakeholders or experts on gender and media

Detailed plan for implementation and methodology, selection of chapters to visit will be defined in detail with the evaluation team, IAWRT and FOKUS

6.    Expected products

•        A specific methodological proposal for the evaluation, with designed methodological techniques and tools.

•        An inception report

•        An evaluation report in Word and PDF in English.

•        Conclusions, recommendations and best-case examples on the assessed areas according to the ToRs and elements of the evaluation.

The evaluation report should be brief and concise (not more than 40 pages, excluding annexes) and include the following information:

•        Executive Summary with main conclusions on lessons learnt and recommendations

•        Background, description, context, project activities, Methodology, and Obstacles/Limitations of study

•        Findings and assessment

•        Conclusions and recommendations and suggestions for Action Points for Follow-up of Review for IAWRT (and FOKUS if relevant)

•        Annexes: methodological proposal, work plan, list of activities, interviews and sessions for evaluation; and other relevant documents prepared for evaluation

Final Report shall be submitted in electronic form to FOKUS, IAWRT International and IAWRT Norwegian Chapter.

Estimated time: 12 weeks, may be distributed over a longer time-span

The evaluation, including writing of the report, is expected to be finalized by 28April 2017.

7.      Evaluation team 

The evaluation and team shall be external to IAWRT and FOKUS.

The team shall have a designated team leader, and the team should preferably be gender balanced.

The evaluation team will need extensive knowledge on women’s rights, and must:

• Have demonstrable experience of producing high quality, credible evaluations, preferably experience from organizational reviews and evaluations
• Have demonstrable experience of working with/evaluating development cooperation through civil society
• Have knowledge on media and advocacy work
• Be fluent in English, spoken and written.

8.      Budget

NOK 200.000, including national taxes/MVA

9.      Technical proposal 

The technical proposal should contain:

•        Profile of the evaluation team and proposed team structure (include CVs)

•        Proposed approach, methodology, timing and outputs, in relation to the ToRs

•        A detailed work plan

•        Professional fee quotation indicating envisaged actions, the requested fee for the work in the job description

•        Letter of interest (max one page)

3. 

4. 

Deadline for submission of the technical proposal: November 18^th, 2016

Final decision will be communicated no later than December 1^sr, 2016

Proposals should be sent to:IAWRT.norge@gmail.com