In February 2023, the EU published a A Road Map for the EU Engagement with Civil Society. The Roadmap was based on a combination of desk review, key informant interviews and focus group discussions with local experts from the civil society (SCS), reflecting the diversity of CSOs in all fields and locations. It presented a strategy for the EU’s future engagement with civic actors based on a deep understanding of the ecosystem of the civil society, its interrelationships, as well as its relationships with donors, de-facto authorities, and the community at large. It looked closely at the existing modalities of EU engagement, as well as how the approach could look in the future.

                                                                       

Finally, the Roadmap aimed to present a set of priorities and principles for the development of civil society, and how the EU could support civic actors to achieve their goals.     

Based on the findings of the roadmap, four priority areas to enhance EU engagement with civil society were defined:

                                                                      

                                                                       

                                                                  

                                                                     

This will equip the EU and its stakeholders with practical strategies and tools tailored to the complexity and diversity of the MENA context enabling them to assess concepts such as agency, legitimacy, or resource investments leveraging mixed methods and drawing data from standardized quantitative measures, as well as unique insights from the communities experiencing conflicts and practitioners in the frontlines.

These efforts will result in civil society actors gaining deeper understanding of the EU Roadmap, and regularly engaging in the participatory monitoring processes of the Roadmap in the future. This should contribute to increased reflection and learning, which should inform adaptation and effective implementation of the Roadmap. As a living document, the roadmap will benefit from this monitoring process and critical reflection tools.

 

The consultant will lead an inclusive design exercise to define the overall process, priorities, research questions, and assumptions and a data collection toolkit to monitor the implementation of the Roadmap.The Roadmap tackles the roles civic actors could play in the future, the necessity to build their capacities and ensure their sustainability, ways to overcome the major challenges they face, and sets out what the EU can do to support these processes. The indicators proposed for the four priority areas of the Roadmap will be reviewed in detail, and refined when relevant, in order to identify how each of the indicators can be collected.

 

The baseline and monitoring process will integrate gender analysis by disaggregating indicators through cross-cutting factors, such as age and geography, that may influence participants’ needs and experiences. The baseline and monitoring process will ensure risk mitigation and activity adaptation in support of maximum efficacy and upholding of all Do No Harm principles.

 

The toolkit developed will include necessary tools and guidance to the data collection processes (surveys, guidelines for data collectors, etc), to the data cleaning and analysis processes, and data storage and protection in the database. These tools (and the guidelines for their use) should take into consideration the specific needs and challenges of all the populations targeted by the project, including PWDs, minorities, and hard-to-reach groups.

 

The methodology and the toolkit will be presented to the EU during an inclusive review and validation workshop, with Search and the project stakeholders, to receive and integrate feedback before final validation by the EU.

The consultant will handover the finalized methodology and tools to the research and data collection team, which is managed by Search. The research and data collection team will be responsible for the mainstreaming of tools within local communities and implementing the data collection and research approaches identified and designed within the methodology. The consultant and the research and data collection team will be coordinating together, through monthly check-in meetings, to ensure the quality of the data collected is aligned with the desired standards.

 

The consultant will analyze the collected data, interpret the findings, and develop a detailed baseline study report that provides actionable insights. The consultant is also expected to provide recommendations based on the study findings. The report should be available in English and Arabic to be published and utilized by the EU and the project stakeholders for their work with Civil Society.

 

Following the participatory baseline, the consultant will facilitate a Strategic review and reflection workshop with Search, the EU, and the project stakeholders to assess the whole baseline process, and the relevance and efficiency of the different methodologies and tools developed previously. The workshop will discuss the findings of the baseline as well as contextual shifts, risks, and opportunities that may affect programming. Participants will seek to identify intended and unintended outcomes (of the EU Roadmap and SCSI). A specific session will be dedicated to the review of safeguarding and inclusion measures.

This will be the opportunity to reflect on constraints and challenges that affected the process and the access to data sources that are necessary to measure the different selected indicators. When necessary, potential corrective actions will be identified and implemented, and the tools and methodology will be adapted so that they can be used in future monitoring phases. The learnings of the workshop will be captured into an internal “Process Close-out” report that will be annexed to the study report and shared with relevant stakeholders of the project only.

Note: The deadlines indicated in the table above are negotiable and can be adjusted based on agreement between Search and the consultant.