▷ [26/06/2024] Consultant: Impact & Evaluation

EMpower -The Emerging Markets Foundation is seeking a consultant/consultancy firm to help assess the impact of Participatory Approaches (PA) employed by EMpower in partnership with young people and our grantee partners.

EMpower funds local organizations for up to 10 years, focusing on improving the lives, and opportunities for contribution, of marginalized young people in 15 emerging market countries. We updated our Theory of Change (ToC) in 2021 and our grantmaking model in 2022. We offer flexibility (core support) to all grantee partners over the 10-year partnership cycle. We also support and undertake a range of organizational and cross-sector strengthening support (beyond financial grants) to all grantee partners –– to optimize our partners’ programmatic and organizational effectiveness and sustainability.

In India, we have been employing participatory methodologies for over 15 years across our work, this includes launching our girl-led Adolescent Girls Learning Community (LC) in 2012, setting up our first Girls Advisory Council (GAC) in 2018, and since 2023, committing to undertake all new source in India through participatory grantmaking.

This has been a learning journey for EMpower. Running the LC program for 10 years has provided significant insights about girl-led and centric work, guiding us to initiate the GAC and the Leaders Lab. These initiatives have eventually led to defining EMpower's Meaningful Youth Engagement (MYE) strategy through participatory methodologies and guide our work with youth and partners.

In 2023, we formed the Collaboratory, as a site for learning and unlearning on PA. We adopted participatory grantmaking methodology, where all our grantee partners are intentionally embedding an MYE component in their work. The Collaboratory is also a space for alumnae to interact with each other and houses the GAC which engages with the India Program Team on the in-country programmatic strategy.

Objectives:

Evaluate the effectiveness, challenges, and scalability of participatory methodologies in youth-led programming.

Produce learnings that will be helpful for grant making and philanthropic organizations considering greater participation in their models, contributing to the broader knowledge and evidence base on PA.

Build the longitudinal evidence base for PA, tracking the journeys and outcomes of the GAC, Girl Champions/Mentors, and 16 partner organizations over a two-year period.

Produce comprehensive and accessible research reports, visual tools, and presentations that provide evidence-based insights and recommendations to support the adoption and scaling of PA in the social sector.

Critical Questions that we want to answer:

While PA are an emergent trend in philanthropy, there is little evidence that supports its efficacy. On this basis, we want to discover:

Understanding and Defining Participatory Approaches (PA)

How do we understand PA? How do we define participatory methodologies in our work with young people?

How do we assess participatory methodologies in an inclusive, and respectful manner for adolescent girls and marginalized youth? What evaluation tools or methods are most suitable for capturing the diverse experiences and perspectives of young participants?

Effectiveness and Outcomes of Participatory Methodologies

Do participatory methodologies lead to better outcomes? If yes, for whom are these outcomes more significant, particularly regarding marginalized groups. Specify the impact on marginalized groups.

What material changes have resulted from employing PA for:

Girls in the GAC

Girl Champions/youth champions at the Grantee Partner Level

Grantee Partners who have employed PA

What is the long-term impact of PA on the agency and empowerment of youth? How does this impact manifest over time, and what factors contribute to sustained empowerment outcomes?

Scaling and Influencing the Sector

Can participatory methodologies be scaled up? If yes, how can this be achieved? What strategies and mechanisms are most effective for scaling PA within programs, grantmaking, and collaborations in the sector?

Have we and our grantee partners been able to move the needle and influence the sector in relation to PA? If yes, how? What specific strategies or initiatives have been successful in driving this influence?

Challenges and Barriers

What are the key challenges and barriers to implement participatory methodologies effectively within youth programs? What strategies are useful in mitigating the challenges to ensure the success of PA?

Cultural and Contextual Factors

How do cultural and contextual factors influence the implementation and outcomes of PA

Partnerships and Collaborations

How can partnerships and collaborations strengthen PA?

Learning and Adaptation

How do we promote learning and adaption within PA? What mechanisms or practices support the ongoing reflection, iteration, and learning within PA?

Scope of work:

We envision this to be a 2-year engagement with 2 levels:

At the Programmatic Level

We would like to measure the baseline, midline and endline at three levels of engagement.

GACi (9 girls) –advises EMpower on its programmatic strategy, they are also the principal decision makers in the participatory grantmaking process. The GAC term runs for a year.

1. Girl Champions/Mentors/youth champions – these girl leaders are involved in program implementation at the grantee partner level, and have been selected by partners to help implement awards through the participatory grantmaking process.2. Organizations– 16 awardees selected by the girls are undertaking a journey towards embedding meaningful youth engagement into their work.3. We hope to track the journeys at all levels and use qualitative analysis to uncover the impact of PA, to establish an evidence base/case for support FOR PA in youth led and youth centered programs.

At the Level of Influencing the Sector

We want to understand the extent to which EMpower and our grantee partners have been able to influence the sector towards PA and what the results have been for youth, especially girls, grantee partners, philanthropic mobilization and the social sector. We are methodologically open/flexible to how this is achieved.

Deliverables:

By the end of the engagement, we anticipate the following deliverables

One Research report within 6 months on PA in youth-led programming which can be disseminated externally

1. One Research report (30 pages) + executive summary (4-6 pages) with results from baseline and endline2. A power point presentation (20-30 slides)3. A visual 'influence map' illustrating EMpower's sector-wide impact, showcasing the trajectory of its influence as a grant maker over the past decade in India through PA.4. The products should be:

- Easily digestible and accessible- We encourage you to be creative in what the report looks like / how it is presented – we are open to alternative media for this report (video, graphic novel, illustrations etc.)- In a format that can easily be translated into other languages

Skills and experience:

EMpower believes diversity and inclusion make us more successful in our work, and we seek to identify and contract consultants and organisations from a diverse a pool of applicants.

Qualifications and Experience

Previous experience in working directly with adolescent girls/young people for programming, data collection and data analysis is required – ensuring that safeguarding considerations are met to the highest standard.

Ability to quantify qualitative information and ability to qualify quantitative information.

In-depth knowledge of participatory learning and impact, particularly feminist monitoring, evaluation and/or indigenous methodologies and able to integrate this knowledge in practical ways.

Understands the importance of trust-based philanthropy as related to and pillars of good learning practices.

An organizational learning and effectiveness orientation, with a track record of developing and implementing processes that advance strategic programmatic learning in practical ways.

Excellent planning and organizational skills with high attention to detail, accuracy, protocol and deadlines.

Excellent written and oral communication skills; ability to distill and explain complex concepts.

Experience working collaboratively with others across an organization.

Flexibility, creativity and the ability to contribute at both strategic and tactical levels.

A personal style characterized by humility, self-awareness, accessibility, intellectual curiosity and a genuine team orientation.

Minimum of 7 years of experience working within high impact, data-driven social sector or philanthropic organizations.

Experience partnering and learning with youth-led and/or feminist movements, in India.

Fluent written and verbal communication in English and Hindi is required.

How to respond:

If you are interested in being considered for this opportunity, please send a proposal outlining your methodologies, process and illustrative workplan to Your proposal, 3-5 pages should include the following:

How you and/or your team would approach this work (the process, a workplan), including proposed timeline and costs (including day rate of each team member).

Description of a similar or related project that you have carried out.

CVs for relevant team members (appendix; NOT included in page limit)

Reference details for at least one funder and one non-profit with whom you’ve worked (appendix; NOT included in page limit)

We cannot comment on proposals during the bidding phase, but we will answer clarification questions at the email above.

Timeline: We anticipate that the engagement will run from 1st August 2024 – 30th July 2026.

Application Deadline: July 10, 2024

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