Request for Proposals – Final Evaluation of Comic Relief’s ‘Trade, Enterprise and Employment’ co-funded programme

Comic Relief is seeking a consultant or team of consultants to conduct the final evaluation of the Trade, Enterprise and Employment (TEE) Programme, a programme co-funded by Comic Relief and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The budget for this evaluation is 30,000GBP and all tenders must be submitted by Sunday 31st January.

In 2014, the Department for International Development (DFID) – now the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) matched 10 GBP million of public donations to Comic Relief’s Sport Relief 2014 appeal, creating a 20 GBP million programme of work. The Trade, Enterprise and Employment (TEE) programme runs from 2014 to 2021 and aims to support the sustainable growth of businesses across sub-Saharan Africa to improve the quality of life of over 380,000 people, especially women and young people. The programme enables people from marginalised sectors of society to benefit from improved economic opportunities as a result of sustainable enterprise growth. It invests in a range of partners, including both UK and African civil society organisations (CSOs) working in partnership with grass-roots organisations of small-scale farmers, small manufacturing units and groups that harvest natural products, such as coffee and nuts. The investments enable these producers to:

• strengthen the governance of their organisations;
• build their technical, planning and management skills;
• achieve the quality and quantity of production required to access profitable and secure markets.

The purpose of this evaluation is to assess the achievements of the Trade, Enterprise and Employment Programme and to assess Comic Relief’s approach to grant making and management in producing these. To do this, the evaluation will focus on addressing the following three objectives:

• Understand how funded partners’ projects enabled enterprises (small businesses, farmers, producers) to experience sustainable growth and impact positively upon poor people in sub-Saharan Africa, and which interventions have been most successful, taking into account external constraints;
• Understand the effectiveness of the TEE Programme in relation to the programme’s outcomes and the four pathways of change outline in the Theory of Change;
• Assess the sustainability of the TEE projects;

Underpinning these objectives is a cross-cutting question around the effectiveness of Comic Relief’s grant making and grant management approach, which we would not expect to be addressed as a separate evaluation question.

The evaluation needs to be conducted between February and June 2021.

Applicant’s Profile and Competencies

• Sound and proven experience in conducting evaluations and assessments for multi-country grant-funded programmes;
• Significant and demonstrable experience of evaluation/research relating to sustainable enterprise and trade programmes, preferably in sub-Saharan Africa;
• Experience in facilitating learning and participatory processes to validate and integrate research findings into actions;
• Thematic expertise in gender;
• Ability to clearly communicate accessible findings and recommendations to a variety of audiences and stakeholders, i.e. without using jargon;
• Experience of working in sub-Saharan Africa and strong, demonstrable understanding of the context.

Budget available: 30,000 GBP including VAT (if applicable) to cover all fees and expenses. Agreed expenses can be claimed against receipts. Value for money will be considered when analysing the tenders.

Please read the detailed ToR linked to below before submitting a proposal.