Request for Proposals:
External Strategic Formative Evaluation and Strategic Planning for Women Deliver
Location: New York City
Issue Date: June 20, 2019
Priority Deadline: Accepted on a rolling basis, Final deadline of July 31, 2019
Submission Details: To be considered, proposals must be signed and returned via email to gjabbour@womendeliver.org and ksherwin@womendeliver.org by the due date and time.
Full RFP as Word Document: Download here
Project Summary:
Women Deliver is seeking a partner (firm) in the co-development and facilitation of a strategic formative evaluation of Women Deliver and its programs, for which the findings will help inform our next five-year strategic plan. Women Deliver looks forward to working with a firm whose approach is collaborative, ensuring that emphasis is placed on feedback from key stakeholders (such as board, partners, funders, and staff) and a process that is inclusive and flexible. The ideal firm will look to provide options, scenarios, and expert facilitation in all phases of the project and ensure final written products align with the organization’s communications approach (optimistic, highly synthesized, infographic based, and data and evidence driven).
A small project team has been created to serve as the primary contact for the firm including the CEO, COO and Director, Program Quality & Compliance. In addition, the Coordination Team (senior team) of Women Deliver will be engaged in all phases of the project. Women Deliver believes the process of conducting the evaluation and developing the strategic plan is as important as the final deliverables.
The following information is provided to assist you with the preparation of a proposal for consideration.
How to Apply
Submissions should be delivered via email to:
To: Gaby Jabbour, Director, Program Quality and Compliance, gjabbour@womendeliver.org
CC: Kathleen Sherwin, Chief Operating Officer, ksherwin@womendeliver.org
Submissions must be received by email no later than July 31, 2019, 11:59 pm EST. Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis. No submissions will be considered after the deadline.
I. Submission & Inquiries:
Submissions must be received by email no later than July 31, 2019, 11:59 pm EST. Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis. No submissions will be considered after the deadline. Submissions should be delivered via email to: To: Gaby Jabbour, Director, Program Quality and Compliance, gjabbour@womendeliver.org CC: Kathleen Sherwin, Chief Operating Officer, ksherwin@womendeliver.org
Technical Proposal
The following documents must be included in the bidder’s technical proposal:
(1) Organizational Profile - A summary of the organization’s areas of focus and experience as it pertains to similar projects.
- Organizational experience detailing similar past projects including date and description of work, lessons learned, and client contact details.
- A description of the roles and responsibilities of consultant team members.
- Qualifications and expertise of consultant team. CVs of consultant team should include educational qualifications, experience, and relevant publications.
- Disclosure of any condition(s) that may impact the bidder’s ability to fulfill contract obligations.
(2) Technical Approach (Max 5 pages)
- Description of the proposed methodology for both the strategic formative evaluation and the strategic planning process including how the consultants will work with Women Deliver
- Detailed work plan/Gantt chart highlighting the activities to be conducted within the three phases to complete the deliverables as per the Terms of Reference in Section II.
- Overview of how the consultant team will ensure the delivery of high quality and timely deliverables, including any key assumptions to the successful completion of the consultancy.
Cost Proposal
The cost proposal must include the following for each of the 3 phases of this consultancy as detailed in Section II (evaluation; strategic planning; implementation roadmap):
- Labor Cost - The labor costs should include proposed team structure (as described in the technical proposal), the daily rate for each team member, and the level of effort (in days) to carry out the consultancy for each team member and for each of the three phases.
- Travel Cost - It is anticipated that the consultant team will travel to Women Deliver’s offices in New York City throughout the consultancy. The travel costs should detail transportation costs (i.e. air fare), per diem, and other associated travel costs for each team member for the number of trips as indicated in the technical proposal.
All prices should be quoted in USD.
Submission of Proposals
The technical and cost proposals should be combined into a single document and submitted together via email to gjabbour@womendeliver.org and ksherwin@womendeliver.org by July 31, 2019 at 11:59 pm EST. Upon receipt, your proposal will be evaluated. Requests for further information or clarification of requirements concerning this RFP should be addressed in writing to gjabbour@womendeliver.org by July 15, 2019.
II. Terms of Reference
About Women Deliver
Women Deliver is a leading global advocate that champions gender equality and the health and rights of girls and women. Our advocacy drives investment – political and financial – in the lives of girls and women worldwide. We harness evidence and unite diverse voices to spark commitment to gender equality. And we get results. Anchored in sexual and reproductive health, we advocate for the rights of girls and women across every aspect of their lives. We know that investing in girls and women will deliver progress for all.
Women Deliver’s global advocacy program intends to ultimately improve gender equality and the health and rights of girls and women everywhere, including their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Its design underpins Women Deliver’s strategic framework to advance the health and rights of girls and women by focusing on four areas:
Capacity building: equipping advocates, influencers, enablers and decision-makers from all sectors with the skills, knowledge and tools to be effective advocates and to integrate gender equality in their decisions, processes and practices;
Communicating: creating, collating and disseminating engaging and effective advocacy and communication messages and tools to influence policies and investments;
Convening/Connecting: creating physical and virtual spaces for diverse voices and groups to meet, collaborate, build coalitions and drive progress;
Catalyzing action: inspiring and driving action, and sparking political commitment and investment in the health, rights and wellbeing of girls and women.
The design of Women Deliver’s advocacy program is premised on the fact that by enhancing the capacity of advocates, influencers, enablers, and decision-makers of all ages and sectors at the local, national, and global level, and by providing them with access to evidence, to compelling and effective advocacy and communications tools, and to global and national platforms to advocate and to collaborate, action will be taken and progress will be made towards advancing the health and rights of girls and women, including their SRHR.
Women Deliver catalyzes action, communicates, convenes, and builds capacity across six main program areas: Policy & Advocacy, Youth Engagement, Humanitarian Advocacy, Deliver for Good, the Conference/convenings, and Communications.
Policy & Advocacy: Women Deliver advocates and influences to advance gender equality via better programs, policies, and investments. To accomplish this, Women Deliver’s Policy and Advocacy programming highlights and fills gaps in data; translates evidence into policy, programmatic, and investment asks; takes on advisory roles and joins task forces to shape normative guidance and practice; galvanizes advocates; mobilizes intermediaries; directly engages with decision makers; and highlights the investment case for gender equality.
Youth Engagement: The Young Leaders Program is a catalyst for rising advocates, providing access to small grants, training, a digital university, speaking opportunities, and networking. Since 2010, a total of 700 young people from 138 countries have increased their impact through the award-winning program.
Humanitarian Advocacy: Women Deliver champions gender equality and the health and rights of girls and women everywhere, including those in crisis settings. Through the Humanitarian Advocates Program, Women Deliver supports women-focused civil society organizations working in crisis settings through training and speaking opportunities, connecting them to global and national conversations pertinent to their work and lives.
Deliver for Good: Deliver for Good is a global campaign that applies a gender lens to the Sustainable Development Goals and promotes 12 critical investments in girls and women to power progress for all. The campaign focuses on the whole girl and the whole woman — not just her health needs, her educational needs, or her rights, but also essential socio-economic factors such as her access to land, clean energy, water and sanitation, as well as political participation and economic empowerment.
Conference: Held every three years, the Women Deliver conference connects thousands of individuals, organizations, and government representatives across sectors and geographies to fuel global and country-level action for gender equality and to influence the global agenda for girls and women. Women Deliver has held five conferences in London (2007), Washington D.C. (2010), Kuala Lumpur (2013), Copenhagen (2016), and Vancouver (2019).
Communications: Communications is core to all of Women Deliver’s work. We use it in our advocacy, our policy work, our capacity building, and our convenings. We use it to engage new and old partners. We use it to drive investments, raise funds, and to deliver results for girls and women. Communications is foundational to achieving Women Deliver’s mission. By approaching communications in a strategic, proactive, and thoughtful manner, we will strengthen all aspects of our work.
Scope of Evaluation
Women Deliver has been successful in leveraging and increasing the support of a wide range of funding partners to implement its current strategy. As a result, Women Deliver has been expanding and adapting its advocacy program and its operations, and testing new programmatic approaches. As its current strategic framework is coming to the end of its period, Women Deliver is seeking the services of an independent, external firm/institution (“the consultants”) with expertise in evaluation of advocacy, strategic planning, and impact assessment to conduct a strategic formative evaluation of Women Deliver and its programs to inform the development of Women Deliver’s future strategic and programmatic directions, including refined Theories of Change.
As Women Deliver is maturing and growing as an organization, this strategic formative evaluation will allow the organization to assess the effectiveness of its current program strategies in meeting the expected results of the organization. The strategic formative evaluation will, among other things, assess programmatic progress and challenges and organizational effectiveness, to inform the strategic direction, taking into consideration the current global context. It will utilize a participatory approach that documents results achieved, challenges to progress, and contributions to sustainable progress and change for girls and women globally.
Objectives and Key Activities
The main objectives of the consultancy are to:
- Conduct a strategic formative evaluation of Women Deliver
- Use recommendations that emerge from the evaluation to develop strategic options (programmatic and organizational) that can inform Women Deliver’s strategic plan development.
- Facilitate the next five-year strategic planning process, including developing a strategic plan and a case for support
To achieve these objectives the consultants should, at minimum, examine the following:
- Theory of Change: whether current program models are well-defined and effective in reaching the expected results (impact evaluation), with an identification of success factors and pain points
- Causality: how current program models are contributing to the strategic objectives of the organization, with an identification of success factors and pain points
- Organizational effectiveness: effectiveness and efficiency of organizational structures/governance and systems/processes in place, with an identification of success factors and pain points
- Strategic positioning: whether there is a need for a refresh of current mission/vision/positioning in current global context (SWOT analysis/gap analysis)
- Value for Money (VfM): whether the organization’s operations and programs are economic, efficient and effective relative to Women Deliver’s expected results and as compared to other organizations in the space (optimal return on investment)
Key activities will include the following:
- Preliminary desk reviews of relevant documents including Women Deliver’s logic model, theory of change, monitoring and evaluation plans, donor reports, project publications, relevant media, and other documents as necessary
- Individual and groups discussions, in-depth interviews, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with relevant stakeholders including Women Deliver staff members, Young Leaders, board, partner organizations, and donors
- Research to understand organizational structure and practices and draw recommendations to support management decision-making on a number of strategic issues
- Assessment of the approach used and resources deployed in order to derive optimal value for money
- Landscape analysis and gap analysis to identify the key differences and complements of Women Deliver with its closest partners
- Defining the optimal set of Women Deliver activities and recommending the most appropriate delivery structure in the context of achieving the organization’s objectives
- Facilitating the co-development of the strategy for the next five-year period and a roadmap to implement that strategy
- Developing a strategic and financial case for Women Deliver complete with a description of additionality, risk assessment, and mitigation while taking into account the findings from the program evaluation
The work will be conducted in three phases:
(1) Evaluation: Conduct the strategic formative evaluation
- Evaluate both the program effectiveness and strategic positioning/direction of the organization
(2) Strategic Planning: Use the results of the evaluation to facilitate the strategic planning process and the development of Women Deliver’s next Strategic Plan
- Define strategic options based on findings from the evaluation
- Facilitate adoption of any or all of the options by Women Deliver
- Define the chosen direction(s) through the elaboration of an organizational strategy
(3) Implementation Roadmap: Lay out the capabilities needed for the chosen strategy, identify gaps, and create a high level roadmap detailing actions to fill those gaps
- Develop roadmap for implementation of the next strategic plan
- Develop a case for support that aligns with the strategic plan and roadmap
Input from Women Deliver
The evaluation and strategic planning processes will be managed by Women Deliver and conducted by external, independent evaluators. Women Deliver will facilitate access to all relevant documentation for this assignment in cooperation with Women Deliver staff, partners, and other stakeholders as necessary.
Deliverables and Reporting
Key Deliverables
- A full evaluation report including an executive summary
- Five-year strategic plan including refined theories of change
- Roadmap including case for support
Reporting
Inception Report: The consultants will submit an inception report detailing their understanding of the ToRs, a methodology and work plan, and initial iterations of the evaluation questions, which will be facilitated by the consultants and discussed and finalized in consultation with Women Deliver.
Preliminary Findings Report: A report on preliminary findings will be submitted following the consultants’ completion of the data collection phase. This will ensure Women Deliver and the consultants are aligned in their thinking on the evaluation and preliminary recommendations.
Preliminary Strategic Options Report: The consultants will use the findings from the evaluation report to inform the development of preliminary strategic options. These options will be shared with Women Deliver to review prior to the consultants facilitating the decision-making process with Women Deliver leadership.
Proposed Timeline
| Overview | ||||||||
| August 30 | October | November | December | January | February | March | April | |
| Contract Signed | ||||||||
| Inception Report | ||||||||
| Preliminary Findings Report | ||||||||
| Evaluation Report | ||||||||
| Preliminary Strategic Options Report | ||||||||
| Strategy | ||||||||
| Roadmap and Case for Support | ||||||||
| Title | Description | Target date |
| Signed Contract | 31 August 2019 | |
| Deliverable: Inception Report | Inception Report will include a brief description of the proposed methodology for the evaluation including the evaluation questions, data collection instruments (if relevant), activities, roles and responsibilities, expected deliverables/ outputs and timelines for each | 15 October 2019 |
| Deliverable: Preliminary Findings Report | A PowerPoint presentation and a narrative report to be delivered in advance and then discussed with Women Deliver leadership | 1 December 2019 |
| Deliverable: Evaluation Report | The report narrative will cover relevant areas described above (e.g. causality, Theory of Change) and should include at a minimum:
- executive summary with main findings - background and context of the evaluation - program description - evaluation methodology - findings - conclusions, lessons learned, and next steps |
First Draft: 30 December 2019
Final Draft: 30 January 2020 |
| Deliverable: Preliminary Strategic Options Report | The preliminary strategic options report should incorporate findings from the evaluation and the SWOT/gap analysis which will inform the development of options to present to Women Deliver | 15 February 2020 |
| Deliverable: Strategy | The strategy will include the options chosen by Women Deliver leadership and the strategic direction for the organization over the next five-year period. Components should include at a minimum (additional components may be included at the discretion of Women Deliver in consultation with the consultants):
- Updated organizational mission, vision, and aspirations (if relevant) - SWOT - Clearly defined objectives (programmatic and organizational) - Strategies to achieve outcomes - Refined Theory(ies) of Change |
30 March 2020 |
| Deliverable: Roadmap and Case for Support | Roadmap describing plan of action to implement the strategy including roles and responsibilities, gaps, risks and a case for support. | 30 April 2020 |
Consultant Qualifications
For the purpose of this assignment, the evaluation team should be comprised of a group of consultants (whether from one or more firms) with experience in communications and advocacy evaluation and strategic planning. At a minimum, the lead consultant should have at least 10 years post-graduation experience carrying out similar assignments. The consultants should be skilled in both quantitative and qualitative analyses with experience using analyses to advise organizations on strategic direction and facilitate the development of organizational and programmatic strategies. The consultants should also have a good understanding of Women Deliver’s programming and the gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights sphere.
III. Key Dates and Timeline
| RFP Activity | Dates |
| RFP Released | June 20, 2019 |
| Deadline for Questions | July 15, 2019 |
| Proposal Due Date | July 31, 2019 @ 11:59pm |
| Notification of Final Selection | On or before August 15, 2019 |
| Contract Negotiation and Planning | By August 31, 2019 |
| Implementation | October 1, 2019- April 30, 2020 |
IV. Notice to Submitting Companies
The contract, if any, shall be awarded to the responsible firm whose proposal is most advantageous to Women Deliver, based on an evaluation of the information required by this RFP. Women Deliver may at its sole discretion select the response that best fits its needs. A selection committee will evaluate the responses based on established criteria, including compliance with the directions herein, experience and qualifications, cost, financial position of the company, and other factors as stated in this RFP. If selected, the successful firm will enter into a written agreement with Women Deliver that will include service and compensation terms.
All information in this RFP should, for purposes of this RFP, be considered proprietary and confidential. Information contained in this RFP should not be shared or distributed without the expressed written consent of Women Deliver.
Full RFP as Word Document: Download here
