Terms of Reference for the Baseline Evaluation of FCDO-Twiyubakire program

Organization	Trócaire Rwanda BHC Building, 260 Bvd de l’Umuganda, Kacyiru, P.O. Box 2040, Kigali, Rwanda Tel: (+250) 0252 502663 / (+250) 0252 502664 www.Trócaire.org
Programme Pillar	Goal 6: Partnerships and Localization
Project title	“Inclusive Accountability: A Pathway to Strengthened Governance” TWIYUBAKIRE- FCDO CIVIL SOCIETY GRANT MANAGER
Reference	400197-404
Assignment	Project LightBaseline Evaluation
Duration of the assignment	10 working days
Contact Person	Team Leader-Twiyubakire
Bid Release Date	28 November 2025
Bid Submission Due Date	5:00 PM on 5th December 2025

1. Introduction

Bids are invited to be considered for a suitably qualified consultant to provide consulting services to Trócaire for the development of tools to be used for the Twiyubaire Baseline (and endline) Evaluation as well as the analysis of baseline data collected.

2. Confidentiality

Trócaire will treat the content of all bids as strictly confidential, and information provided in the bids will be used solely for the purpose of deciding on the award of a contract as described in this document.

3. Profile of Trócaire and Project Background

Trócaire is the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland, established in 1973 and currently has presence in more than 17 countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia including Rwanda. Trócaire has been operating in Rwanda since 1994 and is currently focusing on 3 Programme pillars: Resource Rights, Women's Empowerment, and Preparing and Responding to Emergencies. Trócaire does not implement programmes directly. Instead, the organisation works in partnership with local civil society Organisations. More information about Trócaire can be found on https://www.Trócaire.org/

Funded by Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Trócaire implements a two-year FCDO Twiyubakire program as the Grant Manager in partnership with 5 CSOs namely, CCCOAIB, REFAC, IRIBA Center for Heritage, CIJP and STRADH.

Impact of the program is: Improved responsiveness and accountability in local service delivery through strengthened civil society-led engagement and learning.

Outcome: CSOs and citizens better equipped and positioned to participate

in local governance, influence accountability mechanisms, and generate actionable learning

for future scale-up. The revised outcome focuses on foundational capacity strengthening and positioning, a more realistic expectation for a pilot-focused, short-duration programme.

Outputs: (1) CSOs engage in rapid evidence generation, and policy analysis to

pilot innovative advocacy approaches within defined themes and geographies. (2) Selected

2 medium size CSOs demonstrate agile, adaptive institutional practices to engage

effectively in local governance and citizen-led processes, deliver pilot activities and

contribute to iterative learning. and (3) Pilot-tested CSO and citizen engagement models

influence short-term local planning and accountability processes, producing actionable

learning for scale. 

Together, these outputs will enable CSOs to pilot evidence-based advocacy approaches and foster participatory governance practices, generating actionable learning that can inform future efforts to strengthen local accountability and service delivery. 

This project also focuses on the empowerment of five (5) CSOs through capacity strengthening, supporting their organisational development journeys and sustainability, and enhancing their evidence generation and advocacy capabilities. The programme not only advances Rwanda’s development trajectory but also aligns with UK priorities in governance, economic growth, climate action, and gender equity.

These Terms of Reference are prepared specifically for the baseline evaluation of this FCDO funded project.

4. Rationale for the baseline Evaluation 

It is expected that the baseline Evaluation for Inclusive Accountability: A Pathway to Strengthened Governance-FCDO Twiyubakire Civil Society Grant Manager will assess the current situation in regard to the issues the program intends to address and determine the baseline values of project indicators, to the possible extent, which will be used to measure the achievements of the program at the end line. The baseline evaluation will also assess the perceptions of different stakeholders on relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the program

The evaluation must provide:

• Baseline values of program indicators: starting point that will help realistically estimate indicator target values and milestones, and to serve as a basis to measure the achievements of the program
• An opportunity to identify challenges and risks to the program implementation and success

5. Methodology

The baseline evaluation is supposed to be light and use mostly secondary data and more qualitative methods. The exercise should be conducted in a participatory manner between the consultant, Trócaire program team composed of the Country Program Management, the Twiyubakire Team Leader and Advisors, and the Executive Secretaries of the partner organizations to the project including CCOAIB, REFAC, IRIBA, CEIJP And STRADH as well as relevant Field staff, policy makers, grassroots leaders and citizens.

We request a detailed methodology, with a clear elaboration on the method to be used, in the tender submitted to conduct this evaluation. It is expected that the evaluator describes and justifies an appropriate evaluation approach/methodology and methods for data collection in the tender. The evaluation design, methodology and methods for data collection and analysis are expected to be fully developed and presented in the inception report.

Please note that the actual collection of data will be undertaken by Trocaire data collectors/enumerators. The consultant will be responsible for the training of the data collectors and for ensuring that all tools are translated into Kinyarwanda and uploaded on the data collection platform to be used (i.e. Commcare)

An inception report will be prepared by the consultant based on and in line with this Terms of Reference and it will be reviewed and agreed upon by Trócaire. A work plan for the review, detailing methodological aspects and a timeframe for conducting the interviews and the validation workshop should be included. Trocaire team will help book meetings for the interviews through direct communication with the interviewees. 

The final report shall be written in English and be professionally proofread. The final report should have a clear structure. The Executive Summary should be maximum 3 pages. 

The evaluation approach/methodology and methods for data collection used shall be clearly described and explained in detail and a clear distinction between the two shall be made. All limitations to the methodology and methods shall be made explicit and the consequences of these limitations discussed. 

Findings shall flow logically from the data, showing a clear line of evidence to support the conclusions. Conclusions should be substantiated by findings and analysis. Recommendations and lessons learned should flow logically from conclusions. 

Recommendations should be specific, directed to relevant stakeholders and categorised as a short-term, medium-term and long-term. The report should be no more than a maximum of 15 pages excluding annexes. 

The consultant is requested to submit a methodology in his or her proposal. Though the evaluation is supposed to be qualitative, it is anticipated that this baseline Evaluation exercise will also involve quantitative data collection which will enable the project’s quantitative indicators to be accurately measured. When developing methodologies, consultants are asked to note that for quantitative data, Trócaire usually requires a statistically valid approach, with a margin of error of no more than 5%. However, consultants can propose alternative quantitative methodologies as long as there is a strong rationale for why the alternative approach is to be taken.

The survey will be participatory approach and use communications methods, locations and language/s which will include all, especially facilitating those with limited literacy skills. Gender-sensitive and age-sensitive methods and configurations will be applied by a diversity of enumerators. 

6. Perceptions on relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the program

The evaluation should be conducted according to the widely used and agreed OECD/DAC Criteria with focus on relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and participation in relation to its overall objectives and expected results as defined in project proposal.

We are interested in understanding the extent to which the project is likely to contribute towards the desired change.

Therefore, the evaluation questions will be addressing the extent to which the program is likely to contribute to perceived changes.

Therefore, the baseline Evaluation will seek to address the following questions 

Criteria	Questions of baseline evaluation
Relevance of design	How relevant is the intervention logic of the project in relation to adopted theory of change and expected results?
	Does the project intend to reach the right participants? Who would be missed out and what are anticipated difficulties that can prevent specific categories of citizens from participating?
	Are the project’s strategies and activities relevant and realistic to the needs of participating women and disadvantaged groups?
	How well does the project align with government t and other agency approaches and strategic approaches?
	How relevant is the approach, strategies and methods to be used in the Twiyubakire project implementation?
Effectiveness of the program	To what extent can the Twiyubakire adjusted outcome, and outputs produce the desired change?
	What internal/external factors (e.g., govt policies/funding/security) can contribute to the achievement/non-achievement of objectives?
	Which of the project activities/approaches are perceived as more effective and accepted by stakeholders?
Efficiency	How efficiently are program resources allocated to achieve planned outputs?
	How was the Value for money considered?
	To what extent has the project used learning to improve delivery?
	How have stakeholders been involved in program design? How will be involved in the implementation?
	How efficient are Trócaire’s partners’ systems in assisting and supporting towards achieving the project objectives.
Impact and sustainability	To what extent will the program impact on governance and accountability beyond the program target districts and citizens.
	What are the project interventions that are likely to remain, which aren’t, and why? in the community after the project lifetime?
	To what extent the adjusted outcome can be sustained after the conclusion of the program?
Participation	Assess the level of participation of marginalized people and women in the design, the methodologies and tools to be used to ensure participation, monitoring, measuring and verification of the participation.

NB: Trócaire is committed to mainstream gender across all the programmes and for the sake of this Evaluation, all research questions should use a gender lens in order to establish the Baseline situation for men and women, boys and girls.

7. Roles and Responsibilities

Trócaire will establish a baseline Evaluation Management Team (EMT) to oversee the evaluation exercise. 

This will consist of the Twiyubakire Team Leader as the main focal person for this assignment, supported by the MILA (Monitoring Inclusion and Learning Advisor), Partnership and Localization Manager and Country Programmes Manager. 

The Evaluation Monitoring Team (EMT) will be responsible for:

• Providing guidance to the consultant and stakeholders throughout the evaluation process.
• Approval of all deliverables.
• Overall responsibility and accountability for the baseline evaluation. 

In consultation with partners the EMT will also undertake the following tasks:

• Identify and recommend any key sources of secondary information that can be used to supplement primary information gathered.
• In collaboration with the consultant, conduct field work to gather data; and 
• In collaboration with the consultant, select sample communities based on a clear sampling strategy.

The external consultant/s will be requested to:

• Participate in minimum 2 meetings (briefing and consultative meetings) on the assignment;
• Develop a work plan and inception report that will operationalise and direct the evaluation, addressing:

• Expectations of the evaluation
• Roles and responsibilities of consultants, EMT and partners 
• Baseline evaluation framework and methodology 
• Data collection and analysis
• Work scheduling and reporting 

• Develop data collection tools such as questionnaire surveys, focus group discussion questions and key informant interview questions in collaboration with the EMT and programme partners.
• Present to partners and the EMT the methodology and tools to be used;
• Enter the survey in the digital data collection platform, preferably CommCare, and ensure the application and the survey are uploaded in phones/tables to be used by enumerators.
• Train enumerators and the evaluation management team on data collection and processing using CommCare in relation to this evaluation
• Analyse data to be collected by enumarators supervised by Trocaire EMT, and draft a preliminary report for feedback from the EMT; 
• Finalise the data analysis and submit a final report setting out the Baseline evaluation key findings;
• Deliver on all agreed deliverables. 

8. Expected deliverables 

The following services and outputs are expected: 

1. Detailed and comprehensive baseline evaluation tools to be used in data collection
2. Present to partner staff and the EMT the methodology and tools to be used for the baseline evaluation;
3. Analysis of baseline data collected by Trocaire data enumerators
4. Baseline evaluation report; 
5. Present to partner staff and the EMT the methodology and tools to be used for the baseline evaluation;
6. Present findings of the baseline evaluation survey to EMT 
7. Comprehensive draft and final baseline evaluation reports;
8. Handover to Trócaire soft copies of all datasets and tools used in data collection.

The draft and final reports should be submitted in soft copy to Trócaire in line with the timeframe, which will be agreed upon the signing of the consultancy contract.

9. Timeframe

The consultancy contract is a fixed term consultancy contract and will ideally commence on 9th December, 2025, the draft report should be available on 24th December, and the final report should be available by 31st December 2025. The contract duration will have a maximum of 10 working days assigned to this baseline evaluation.

10. Selection Criteria

The successful candidate/s will have relevant and demonstrable experience in the following areas: 

1. specialized skills in gender-sensitive evaluation.
2. The consultant should have a minimum of five years of experience in conducting evaluations of projects and knowledge of issues related to governance and policy advocacy, social cohesion and human rights. 
3. Documented experience of reviews, assessments, results-based management (RBM) monitoring and evaluations.
4. The consultant is expected to have excellent knowledge of the East Africa context, the Rwanda context and should have good knowledge about international development cooperation, central thematic issues and conditions for Uk International Development.
5. The consultant should have experience of leading project evaluations and formulation of useful recommendations. 
6. The consultant needs to have excellent communication skills in Kinyarwanda English and French 
7. Curriculum vitae (CV) of the reviewer should be provided. The CV should include details on engagements carried out by the reviewer or member of the consultancy team, including ongoing assignments indicating responsibilities assumed, qualifications and experience in undertaking similar assessments or studies.
8. Knowledge of relevant thematic programme (e.g. Agriculture, Education, Governance, Accountability, policy advocacy, social cohesion, and human rights and Citizen participation). 
9. Proven knowledge and experience in the use of digital data collection and processing applications
10. Working to demanding deadlines. 

The consultant/s will be responsible for the overall management of the assignment and the production of the final report. The consultant/s will be assisted by the EMT throughout the whole exercise. 

The consultant will be selected according to the following criteria and submissions: 

• Demonstrated understanding of the Terms of Reference; 
• Proposed methodology and planning of the assignment;
• Experience of developing baseline evaluation for similar programmes; 
• CV of 2 senior officials who will take the lead on the evaluation as annex; 
• Copy of at least 2 similar evaluations done within one year;
• At least 2 certificates of good completion of services for similar work with international organizations, donor organizations or government agencies delivered in the last 2 years;
• Overall quality of the proposal; and
• Cost (Quoted Price in Rwandan Francs). 

Financial proposal with detailed unit costs and total cost for each planned activity and related logistics in RWF and clearly indicating VAT costs. VAT registration certificate issued by RRA and Company registration certificate from RDB should be presented as annexes. 

Only Registered national and international consulting firms are encouraged to apply. Applicants are required to submit current CVs of all individuals engaged in the baseline evaluation (including CVs of junior staff and of any associates sub-contracted to work on the study). The work plan must clearly outline which individual (s) will actively lead and deliver on each component. Senior consultants/team leaders will be responsible for the successful and timely delivery of each component of the assignment.

11. Reporting 

The consultant will report to the EMT, with final sign off on the report by the Country Director.

12. Travel

The consultants shall be responsible of all the travel expenses required for this assignment and therefore must propose travel costs in the Financial Proposal

13. General Terms and Conditions

Trócaire Rwanda reserves the right to reject any and all Expressions of Interest not fulfilling requirements associated with this request. Trócaire Rwanda will in no case be responsible or liable for any and all costs associated with the preparation and submission of Expressions of Interest.

• Trócaire does not bind itself to accept the lowest priced tender;
• Trócaire reserves the right to engage other companies / consultants if required;

Trócaire shall be free to:

• To accept the whole, or part only, of any EOI;
• To accept none of the EOIs tendered;
• To republish this Request for EOIs;
• In the event of not accepting any of the EOIs received on foot of this Request for EOI, Trócaire shall be free to make such arrangements as it considers necessary in relation to the provision of the services;
• The EOI shall maintain strict confidentiality in relation to the services being sought and the evaluation process;
• Any subsequent contract shall be considered as a contract made in Rwanda, according to Rwanda law; and
• The Standard Terms and Conditions to which Trócaire expects all of its supplier to respect is found on the Trócaire website - https://www.Trócaire.org/about/work-with-Trócaire/supply-chain.
• The Beneficiary(ies) shall limit access and use of personal data to that strictly necessary for the performance, management and monitoring of this Contract and shall adopt all appropriate technical and organisational security measures necessary to preserve the strictest confidentiality and limit access to this data

14. Conflict of interest

Any conflict of interest involving an applicant must be fully disclosed to Trócaire. Failure to disclose a conflict may disqualify an applicant or invalidate an award of the contract. Applicants are required to declare any current or past work which might reasonably be considered to represent a conflict of interest. It will be for Trócaire to decide if any material conflict of interest exists and applicants in doubt in this regard should seek the advice of Trócaire.

15. Safeguarding 

Trócaire is committed to safeguarding Programme participants from any form of exploitation or abuse as a result of our programmes or activities. Anyone working for or on behalf of Trócaire must share this commitment. Trócaire’s Position Statement on Exploitation and Abuse and Trócaire’s Child Safeguarding Policy Summary document outline expectations in this regard, including a Code of Conduct. All consultants, representatives and volunteers of Trócaire will be expected to sign these documents along with a Declaration Form and a Self-Declaration Form.

16 .Intellectual property

Any concepts, guidelines or other material developed during the contract will be considered as property of Trócaire and may be used by Trócaire.

17. Termination of Contract

Trócaire reserves the right to terminate the contract at any stage on payment of reasonable and agreed costs accrued to the date of termination. 

If at any stage during the contract, the services delivered by the consultant is found to be unsatisfactory, the contract may be terminated by Trócaire. In the event of such a termination, the consultant will only be entitled to receive payment in relation to the acceptable services rendered at that time. 

18. Submission of Bids

Your proposal should be clearly marked: “Baseline Project Evaluation for Twiyubakire Programme Inclusive Accountability for Strengthened Governance . And itshould be submitted ONLY through email on inforwanda@Trócaire.org note later than 13 November 2025 Any queries relating to this Request for Bids should be directed by e-mail
to inforwanda@Trócaire.org

The financial proposal should be inclusive of tax and quoted in Rwandan Francs (RWF) clearly indicating the services/goods in the subject heading. Only suitably qualified local/international consulting firms will be contacted for further engagement.

The deadline for the receipt of bids is 5 PM, 5th December 2025

 

Marleen Masclee 

Country Director

Trócaire