Type of contract: Consultancy

Location: Home-based with potential in-person training visit

Duration: 20-25 working days (over 3-4 months), no full time required.

Start date: Mid May 2025

End date: 31 August 2025

Deadline to apply: 27 April 2025

Are you passionate about the defence of human rights and capacity-building? Do you have an international experience as an evaluator? If so, this mission might be for you! Apply here!

Organisation

The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) is an independent, non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting and protecting human rights. We achieve this by supporting human rights defenders, strengthening human rights systems, and leading and participating in coalitions for human rights change.

Background information

ISHR seeks to engage one or several independent consultant(s) to conduct an evaluation of its flagship training programme, the Human Right Defenders Advocacy Programme (HRDAP) which has for over 10 years providing support to human rights defenders (HRDs) in understanding and engaging with the international human rights mechanisms, primarily those of the United Nations. HRDAP has over that period trained more than 200 human rights defenders working on diverse topics such as advancing women’s rights; defending the rights of LGBTQI+ persons; combatting racism; working on human rights issues in highly restrictive environments; or working on environmental issues, Indigenous communities or corporate accountability.

HRDAP training programme

The Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme (HRDAP) is an intensive capacity development programme created by and for human rights defenders. The programme brings together committed activists who seek to build their international advocacy skills, expand their networks and leverage them to achieve change in their respective communities.

Through ISHR’s flagship learning programme, defenders get a chance to:

• gain new knowledge and tools to ensure their voice is central in international human rights decision-making particularly at the United Nations

• explore and compare the benefits of engagement with the UN Human Rights Council, the Special Procedures, the Universal Periodic and the Treaty Bodies, and examine how they can use them to bolster their work at the national level

• develop strategies and techniques to increase the potential of their national and regional advocacy work and contribute to human rights change on the ground.

HRDAP hybrid model combines 2 months of interactive online learning using our virtual platform, completed by an intensive 10-days training in Geneva for on average 16 defenders.

The programme is a whole organizational effort, led by ISHR Training and Advocacy Manager with multiple staff providing support and dedicated coaching and supervision sessions to human rights defenders based on their thematic or regional focus.  More information about the programme and its last 2024 edition can be found here and here.

Objectives of the external evaluation

The overall objective of this study is to assess the relevance, effectiveness (including impact), efficiency and sustainability of HRDAP and take stock of lessons learnt to establish recommendations for future strategic planning.

HRDAP has changed in its format since 2014 and has proven to be successful for its primary audience in terms of global satisfaction. The programme has evolved significantly in terms of delivery methods, scope and management due to external factors such as the development of online learning, the covid-19 pandemic and also internal factors such as ISHR growth and staff turn-over. Although for most of the time, global surveys have been conducted among participants and within programme staff, ISHR has not conducted a dedicated external evaluation of the programme.

The primary users of the evaluation report will be the ISHR staff (in particular the programme team and directors’ groups) who will use the findings and recommendations to inform ISHR strategies and future programming, including the building of a training strategy. The secondary users will be the institutional donors and human rights defenders interested in the programme.

This evaluation should:

1. Assess HRDAP’s impact and effectiveness on its primary audience, over the past 6 years   and identify its added-value in comparison to other similar programmes

1. Identify any unexpected outcomes or impact of HRDAP (positive or negative) on the target groups;

1. Assess the relevancy of the programme and its responsiveness to HRD’s needs in the continuously changing external environment they operate in

1. Evaluate ISHR’s internal management processes (including financial), and their, efficiency in supporting HRDAP’s objectives

1. Provide recommendations on possible programme improvements addressing identified gaps and building on the programme’ s strengths.

1. Provide recommendations on programme’s scale and components with regards to its efficiency and sustainability in the current environment.

Scope and methodology of the evaluation

The scope of work for the evaluation should include the review of the whole HRDAP process (planning,  selection of participants, online and in-person module delivery, programme evaluation) with a particular focus on the hybrid training component and impact of the programme on the HRDs’ work in home countries in the past years.

We expect the evaluation to include at least the following tasks:

• Review relevant programme and organizational materials (including the e-learning tool ISHR Academy, training evaluations , monitoring reports, ISHR strategic framework etc.)

• Engage with at least 8 programme participants through a dedicated interview or a discussion (plus reviewing additional interviews or evaluation materials from HRDAP participants conducted during the past 6 years)

• Engage with at least 7 other key stakeholders through interview, surveys and solicitation of inputs

• Review existing training programmes (one or two) similar to HRDAP provided to HRDs, if relevant

• Attend selected online (and in-person if possible) sessions of the programme

• Other tasks identified by the consultant.

Applicants are encouraged to work with the ‘Most significant change methodology’,’ but can also propose other evaluation methodologies. Applicants should provide details on the methods for the verification of information and are expected to propose a plan that would include both quantitative (number of engagements with UN human rights mechanisms, number of participants who have conducted their own trainings after HRDAP etc) and qualitative data (testimonies from participants, case studies, examples of resolutions or actions taken by UN bodies in response to participants’ engagement, accounts of new collaborations or networks formed as result of HRDAP etc).

The external evaluator(s) will be provided with all data and information and tools relevant to the evaluation. The evaluator(s) will also be provided with contact details for relevant stakeholders and trainees.

Expected planning

This is not exhaustive and needs to be adjusted according to the induction phase.

 Application process

Please submit here your application with documents in PDF format.

Applications need to be submitted by 27 April 2025 (11:59 pm CET)

Documents to be included:

• CV

• Cover letter

• Brief statement of work plan (3 pages max) including: evaluation approach and methodology, data collection strategy, data analysis plan

• Examples of, or links to, evaluations completed with similar elements

• 2 references
• Detailed costs of the evaluation in USD (20-25 days envisaged). Payments will be made according to the schedule above in several times.