RYE3 External Impact Evaluation

Terms of Reference – Call for Tenders

Project Name: Rethinking Yemen’s Economy
Contract type: Consultancy Agreement
Award method: Best price-quality ratio
Estimated total value: 12,000 EUR
Deadline of tender submission: 23 March 2025, 11 pm CET
Language: Tenders must be submitted in English
Contracting organization:     
CARPO e.V.
Kaiser-Friedrich-Str. 13
53111 Bonn
Email: hanrath@carpo-bonn.org

1.    Background

The Rethinking Yemen’s Economy (RYE) initiative, which is nearing the conclusion of its third and final project phase (RYE3), seeks to commission an external impact evaluation of RYE3, with reference to and linkages across all three project cycles: RYE1, RYE2, and RYE3. The primary objective of this evaluation is to assess the impact of RYE outputs across its phases. 
RYE is co-implemented by a consortium of three partner organizations: CARPO – Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient (lead partner), DeepRoot Consulting, and the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies. The project is co-funded by the European Union and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Yemen.

1.1.    Details of the Previous and Final Phase to be Evaluated

RYE1 was implemented from 03/2017 to 02/2019. It aimed to address the development, social and economic priorities during the ongoing conflict in Yemen and prepare for the post-conflict recovery period by engaging and supporting Yemeni civil society voices as well as other stakeholders to inform a more inclusive, pluralistic and effective vision of economic and development priorities and build consensus on key areas of policy. In pursuit of this objective, RYE 1 brought together Yemeni experts on the economy and development, the “Development Champions” to build consensus on crucial policy areas. The recommendations resulting from these meetings were combined with rigorous research on the topics discussed and then published in the framework of White Papers, Policy Briefs, videos and animations in English and Arabic to address both international and national policymakers and implementing organizations. Furthermore, briefings by the RYE consortium together with representatives of the Development Champions Forum were held for these specific target groups to enhance the impact of the recommendations published.
RYE2 was implemented from 03/2019 to 08/2021, with its second half coinciding with the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. This project phase aimed to contribute to peacebuilding and conflict prevention, (economic) stabilization and sustainable development in Yemen by building consensus in crucial policy areas through engaging and promoting informed Yemeni voices from all backgrounds in the public discourse on development, economy and post-conflict reconstruction in Yemen and by positively influencing local, regional and international development agendas. In RYE2, the Development Champions Forums of RYE1 were continued as were the publication of respective policy papers and the implementation of briefings. New to RYE2 was the addition of local engagement workshops held in Yemen, a greater focus on peacebuilding and conflict prevention efforts as well as the start of a more formal institutionalization process with the aim of setting up the Development Champions Forum as an independent organization to ensure the sustainability of this important advisory body.
RYE3: The implementation period of RYE3 spans from 06/2022 to 05/2025, The overall objective of this project phase is to build and sustain advancement towards inclusive and sustainable development and peace in Yemen pursuing two specific objectives: a) enabled inclusive engagement of Yemenis in economic peacebuilding and sustainable development; and b) increased recognition by key actors at national, regional, and international levels (policy makers, international donor community) of the role of civil society to influence crucial policy areas related to sustainable development and economic peacebuilding in Yemen. Building on the successes of RYE1 and RYE2, RYE3 continued the Development Champions Forums and maintained the publication of policy papers and implementation of briefings. However, RYE3 introduced key new components, including the increased use of online platforms for engagement and the promotion of more inclusive participation, especially by women and youth. This was achieved through youth seminars, local engagement workshops held in Yemen, and the formal institutionalization of the Development Champions Forum as an independent organization in Yemen to ensure the long-term sustainability of this vital advisory body.      While the objectives (below) and outputs of each project cycle varied slightly, all three aimed to influence crucial policy areas related to sustainable economic development. The objective of this external evaluation is to assess how far this has been achieved since the start of RYE1. 
The evaluation will measure the impact of the project in alignment of the below result statements and focus on identifying outcomes that occurred as a result of the intervention and the contributions made; by the quantification of policy influence, specifically regarding the uptake and use of RYE’s evidence-based recommendations in critical policy areas related to sustainable development and economic peacebuilding in Yemen. 

1.2.    RYE Target Groups & Entities of Impact (Final Beneficiaries)

Target Groups:
1.    Yemeni Economic and Development Experts: Experienced professionals (women and men) from the public and private sectors, academia, and civil society with expertise in Yemen's economic development. Many have participated in all RYE phases.   
2.    Yemeni Women: Recognizing their historical marginalization from research, public discourse, advocacy, and decision-making, the intervention aims to amplify women's voices in policy and decision-making related to socio-economic development and peacebuilding.
3.    Yemeni Youth: Similar to women, youth have been excluded from these critical processes. The intervention seeks to empower youth to contribute to policies shaping their future.  

The final beneficiaries are diverse policymakers and implementers working on Yemen, whose agendas and interventions the project aims to positively influence in various sectors i.e. trade, banking. electricity, local administration, private, public, development etc. These include: 
1.    Governing authorities and key political actors in Yemen. 
2.    Yemeni – International Experts and Professionals: broader group in the fields of economy and development (including private/public sectors and civil society).   
3.    International Organizations: entities like UN Agencies, OSESGY, OECD, World Bank, and IMF.
4.    Donor Community: Representatives from countries and organizations providing aid (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Germany, Netherlands, EU, UK, US).
5.    Local Authorities in Yemen: Governing bodies at the local level.
6.    International NGOs (INGOs): Organizations working on Yemen.

1.3    Evaluation Purpose
Evaluating the impact of the RYE3 and all three cycles of the Rethinking Yemen’s Economy initiative will be done with reference to all relevant project documents (proposal, logframe, reports etc.) which will be shared with the successful bidder. 
Most importantly this impact evaluation will identify how RYE contributed to the medium- and long-term changes by quantifying how large that impact is with emphasis on effects as well as on the search of cause-and-effect relationships between policy and results. It also will acknowledge the logic of attribution (the idea that a change or uptake is solely due to the policy or intervention under investigation) as much as contribution (the idea that the influence of the policy or intervention investigated is just one of many factors which contribute to a change). Therefore, the type of influence that RYE has contributed toward this change must also be identified (expanding policy capacities (with new data and knowledge, authorship), broadening new policy research horizons, affecting policy decision making)
Close collaboration with the Senior M&E Specialist is required throughout the evaluation exercise; particularly to harvest, substantiate, and contextualize results linked to the progress of outcomes and impact across the three RYE project cycles; with verification of key findings and RYE contributions to both policy influence and impact. Based on the impact monitoring conducted and evidence log will also be provided. Data quality assurance protocols must also be agreed upon. Sharing of data collection raw datasets must be done by giving access to the form datasets. Weekly meetings are required to discuss updates and the status of progress. 

8.    Consultant Profile
The consultant should have:

• Demonstrated experience of at least 10 years in impact evaluation, particularly in the context of economic peacebuilding and sustainable development in Yemen and the MENA region.
• Expertise in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods.
• Strong understanding of policy influence analysis and advocacy evaluation methods.
• Must have good connections with Yemeni Local, Regional & International Stakeholders and the Yemeni context
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English.

9.    Application Process:
Interested consultants should submit:

• A cover letter outlining their relevant experience and expertise of similar works
• Technical proposal including a proposed methodology and work plan.
• Three references of similar works 
• Financial proposal: detailed with cost breakdown aligned with the deliverables
• CV(s) of the proposed evaluation team.

10.    Proposal Evaluation Criteria:
Proposals will be evaluated based on:

• Proposed methodology and work plan (40%)
• Technical expertise and experience (40%)
• Financial proposal (20%)

Related document can be downloaded from the belw link