Terms of Reference for an impact evaluation of BUWA! a journal on African Women’s Experiences

Background of the assignment

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) is a growing African institution committed to deepening democracy, protecting human rights and enhancing good governance in the region. OSISA’s vision is to promote and sustain the ideals, values, institutions and practices of open society, with the aim of establishing vibrant and tolerant Southern African democracies in which people, free from material and other deprivation, understand their rights and responsibilities and participate actively in all spheres of life.

The Women’s Rights Programme at OSISA seeks to recruit an experienced Evaluator (consulting) with a strong feminist analysis and ethos to evaluate five (5) issues of Buwa! our journal on African Women’s Experiences.

Buwa! a journal on African Women’s Experiences is published by OSISA’s Women’s Rights Programme on an annual basis. It is guided by the principle that “the personal is political”. The journal is pitched to map trends and patterns in women’s lived realities, as well as providing a space for African women to tell their stories. The publication is widely distributed across SADC countries and the rest of the continent. Selected features in Buwa! are profiled on digital media platforms post-production. Launch events are also organised to spotlight topical issues and raise the profile of the publication. Previous issues of Buwa! have covered a diverse range of topics, including Youth: Dominant and Counter Narratives (2017), Women and Migration (2016), Sex and Health (2015), Women’s Economic Justice (2014), Feminisms and Culture (2013), The Future of Women’s Work in Africa (2018) and our most recent publication Buwa! X Women’s Human Rights Defenders (2019).

Buwa! remains the OSISA flagship journal and the knowledge generated through this journey is used by players in the women’s rights space to inform policy, programming and practice.

Buwa! is in its 10th year of publication and the Women’s Rights Programme sees this an opportune moment to pause, reflect and evaluate the publication over the last 5 years and to ensure that future publications are informed by learning from previous editions as we forge a new pathway into the future of Buwa!

The publication has established its credibility and utility and therefore information from the evaluation will inform us to make strategic decisions on collaborations with like-minded organisations so that we can begin to leverage on external resources for the publication to remain in circulation.

Goal of the assignment

The Women’s Rights Programme would like to understand the effectiveness, the strengths and the value of Buwa! over the last 5 years, relating to its content, themes, generating knowledge and stories of African women’s experiences, generating new and alternative knowledge and stories which informs African feminism’s, activism, advocacy, programming, feminist research and policy.

Looking back, and looking ahead, we would also like to reflect on the trends that have emerged across the Buwa! issues – what we have learnt, where we come from and a projection/analysis of the possible trends moving into the future over the next years. OSISA have previously conducted an evaluation on the first 5 issues of Buwa! and would like the last evaluation report to be used to inform this new impact evaluation.

Where do we wish to take Buwa! to, and how will it ignite new conversations and movements, strengthen, disrupt, change gear, re-imagine a radical new world which challenges patriarchy, heteronormativity, the deep restrictions on women’s bodily autonomy, sexual and reproductive rights, capitalism and racism and women’s economic justice? If we are striving for a feminist revolution we must be deliberate in the inclusion of the diversity of women queer women, lesbian women, trans women, adolescent and young women, women with disabilities, indigenous women, migrant women and across language. How best can this be achieved through a publication of this nature? These are but some of the questions guiding the evaluation process.

Scope of the assignment

Under the direct supervision of the Women’s Rights Programme Manager, the evaluator will undertake the following tasks:

1. Conduct an impact evaluation on the last 5 issues of Buwa! to assess to what extent the objectives of Buwa! have been met.

2. Use the evaluation report on the first 5 issues to inform this current evaluation.

3. To evaluate whether BUWA! has achieved the changes it set out to do.

4. To evaluate the trends on women’s rights across all the Buwa! Issues.

Key evaluation questions

1. Design, Concept and Results: Did the BUWA! concept, as designed, achieve the intended results?

2. Effects, change/impact and progress: What have been the outcomes/actual change brought about by BUWA!? (change observed and/or markers of progress towards it?)

3. Systems, language, procedures, budgets (How have the systems, processes, procedures (internally and externally) influenced the results and outcomes of BUWA!?

Key Deliverables

· Design and develop an evaluation plan (including assessing previous evaluation done on the first 5 issues);

· Design and develop a work plan and timelines for the assignment;

· Design and develop the evaluation approach/methodology and the evaluation implementation process for all our working languages;

· Design and develop the evaluation questions with an interview list;

· Develop data collection tools;

· Collate the data analysis;

· Develop a draft report to be shared for feedback; and

· Develop a final report with evaluation results, recommendations and proposed future steps

Submission

Interested parties should submit the following:

1. CV of consultant and samples of similar evaluations done (not more than 5 years old);

2. Outline and short proposal of suggested evaluation approach;

3. Financial proposal with a budget for tasks to be completed.

Submission deadline: Wednesday 4th November 2020

Submit proposals to buwa@osisa.org and specify your interest in the subject line.

Start date: Immediately

 

Download terms of reference here