TERMS OF REFERENCE REQUEST FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICES

TERMS OF REFERENCE

REQUEST FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICES

CONDUCT AN OUTCOME HARVESTING AND ENDLINE EVALUATION WITH A BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE COMMUNICATION (BCC) ASSESSMENT OF THE CONFLICT PREVENTION, CRISIS RESPONSE AND RESILIENCE (CPCRR) PROGRAMME IN KATSINA AND ZAMFARA STATES

Background

The Conflict Prevention, Crisis Response and Resilience (CPCRR) Programme is an EU-funded programme implemented in Katsina and Zamfara States. The programme commenced in April 2025 and is implemented through a partnership involving IOM, Mercy Corps and the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD). The programme builds on previous peacebuilding and resilience programming and seeks to strengthen conflict prevention, crisis response, social cohesion and community resilience.

The programme covers intervention communities across selected Local Government Areas in Katsina and Zamfara States. Its interventions include community conflict prevention and response mechanisms, early warning and early response, community dialogue and peacebuilding, governance and stakeholder engagement, media and public awareness, protection-related support, livelihoods and locally driven resilience initiatives.

Communication and community engagement are important elements of the programme. Interventions have included peace-focused radio programming, peace messaging and jingles, community engagement, dialogue, local-language communication and other approaches intended to influence knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and behaviours relevant to peace, conflict prevention, social cohesion and resilience.

As the programme approaches completion, there is a need to generate credible evidence of what changed, for whom, how and why. The evaluation will therefore combine Outcome Harvesting and an endline assessment with a specific Behavioural Change Communication (BCC) focus. It will identify intended and unintended outcomes, verify evidence of change, assess behavioural and social changes, and examine the contribution of CPCRR interventions and communication approaches to those changes.

Purpose of the Consultancy

The purpose of this consultancy is to conduct an Outcome Harvesting and Endline Evaluation of the CPCRR Programme in Katsina and Zamfara States, with particular attention to the effectiveness and contribution of Behavioural Change Communication interventions.

The assignment should move beyond reporting activities and outputs to establish the pathway from programme intervention and communication exposure to changes in knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, social norms and behaviours, and ultimately to community-level outcomes.

Specific Objectives

• Assess the endline status of relevant CPCRR indicators and compare findings with available baseline, KAP and monitoring data where methodological comparability permits.
• Identify, document and verify significant intended and unintended outcomes generated during programme implementation.
• Assess changes in knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, social norms and behaviours relating to conflict prevention, peaceful dispute resolution, social cohesion and resilience.
• Assess the reach, comprehension, credibility, relevance and effectiveness of CPCRR communication interventions and channels.
• Determine the extent to which communication exposure was associated with changes in behavioural intentions and reported behaviours.
• Assess changes in community capacity and behaviour relating to early warning, early response, dialogue, information sharing and non-violent conflict management.
• Assess changes in awareness and behaviours relating to misinformation, rumours and harmful narratives where relevant to programme interventions.
• Assess the sustainability and institutionalisation of observed outcomes and behavioural changes.
• Generate practical lessons and recommendations for future peacebuilding, resilience and BCC programming.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Key Evaluation Questions

4.1 Outcome and Behavioural Change

• What significant changes occurred among individuals, communities and institutions during programme implementation?
• What intended and unintended outcomes emerged?
• What changes occurred in knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, social norms and behaviours?
• What behaviours relating to conflict prevention, dialogue and peaceful dispute resolution changed?
• What changes occurred in community participation, collective action, trust and social cohesion?

4.2 Behavioural Change Communication

• To what extent were target populations exposed to CPCRR communication interventions?
• Which communication channels were accessed most frequently and by which groups?
• To what extent were messages understood, trusted, considered relevant and retained?
• Did exposure to programme messages influence attitudes, behavioural intentions or actual behaviours?
• Which communication approaches or messages contributed to behavioural change and why?
• What social, cultural, gender or contextual factors enabled or constrained behavioural change?

4.3 Conflict Prevention and Early Warning

• What changes occurred in community capacity to identify, report and respond to conflict risks?
• Have communities changed how they use early warning information?
• What changes occurred in participation in dialogue and non-violent dispute resolution mechanisms?

4.4 Information, Misinformation and Harmful Narratives

• Has awareness of misinformation, rumours and harmful narratives changed?
• Have information verification and information-sharing behaviours changed?
• What evidence exists that communication interventions influenced responses to potentially harmful information?

4.5 Sustainability

• Which outcomes are likely to continue after programme closure?
• Which community structures, institutions and communication mechanisms can sustain the changes?
• What additional support is required to sustain the outcomes?

5. Scope of the Consultancy

The assignment will cover CPCRR intervention areas in Katsina and Zamfara States and should engage relevant target groups and stakeholders. These may include community members, women, men, youth, traditional and religious leaders, community-based organisations, peace and community structures, early warning/early response actors, local and state government stakeholders, media actors, radio stations and television stations,  programme beneficiaries, implementing partners and other relevant stakeholders.

The sampling strategy should ensure appropriate representation of women, men, youth and other relevant groups and should reflect the geographical and programmatic coverage of the intervention.

6. Evaluation Approach and Methodology

The consultant/consulting firm is expected to propose a rigorous mixed-method approach combining Outcome Harvesting, endline measurement and BCC/Social and Behaviour Change assessment. The final methodology will be refined and agreed during the inception phase.

6.1 Outcome Harvesting

• Review the programme proposal, results framework/Theory of Change, baseline/KAP findings, monitoring data, activity reports, communication outputs and other relevant documents.
• Identify significant intended and unintended changes that occurred during implementation.
• Develop concise outcome statements describing who changed what, where and when.
• Verify harvested outcomes through interviews, stakeholder validation and documentary or other evidence.
• Assess the contribution of CPCRR interventions while distinguishing programme contribution from other actors and contextual factors.
• Document the significance, sustainability and implications of each major outcome.

6.2 Behavioural Change Communication Assessment

The BCC assessment should examine the pathway:

Exposure → Understanding → Attitude/Perception → Behavioural Intention → Behaviour → Community-Level Outcome

The consultant should distinguish communication reach from communication effectiveness and behavioural change. The assessment should examine message exposure, recall, comprehension, credibility, relevance, behavioural intention, reported behaviour and evidence of community-level change.

6.3 Proposed Methods

• Quantitative endline household/beneficiary survey and BCC/KAP questionnaire.
• Key Informant Interviews (KIIs).
• Focus Group Discussions (FGDs).
• Outcome Harvesting interviews and verification sessions.
• Most Significant Change stories and case studies, where appropriate.
• Stakeholder and media consultations.
• Document and secondary-data review.
• Participatory outcome/change pathway mapping where appropriate.

6.4 Sampling

The consultant shall develop and justify the sample size and sampling strategy during inception. The approach should permit analysis by state, intervention location, gender, age, beneficiary/exposure status and other relevant programme characteristics. Where baseline data are available, the consultant should preserve methodological comparability for indicators intended for baseline/endline comparison.

7. Data Collection, Management and Quality Assurance

• Develop and pilot all data collection instruments before field deployment.
• Train and supervise enumerators and qualitative researchers.
• Use appropriate digital data collection platforms, such as KoboCollect, where suitable.
• Conduct routine quality checks, validation and back-checks during fieldwork.
• Clean, document and securely store quantitative and qualitative datasets.
• Maintain respondent confidentiality and protect sensitive information.
• Provide a clear description of analytical methods, assumptions and limitations.

8. Core BCC Assessment Domains and Illustrative Indicators

Domain	Illustrative indicators	Potential evidence
Knowledge	Awareness of peace/conflict prevention messages; knowledge of conflict-resolution and early-warning channels; knowledge of information verification	Survey, interviews, FGDs
Attitudes/Perceptions	Attitudes toward peaceful dispute resolution; perceptions of other groups; trust in relevant actors	Scaled survey items, KIIs, FGDs
Social Norms	Perceptions of acceptable conflict-management and information-sharing behaviour	FGDs, interviews, normative statements
Behaviour	Reporting conflict risks; participation in dialogue; use of peaceful mechanisms; verification before sharing information	Survey, case evidence, stakeholder verification
Communication	Exposure, frequency, recall, comprehension, credibility, relevance and preferred channels	Survey, media records, interviews
Outcomes	Changes in relationships, social cohesion, collective action, early response and resilience	Outcome harvesting, case studies, verification

9. 9. Deliverables
10. Inception Report: Detailed methodology, evaluation questions, sampling strategy, Outcome Harvesting and BCC frameworks, workplan, data-quality plan, ethics and analysis plan.
11. Evaluation Tools: Endline questionnaire, KII/FGD guides, Outcome Harvesting guide, BCC assessment tool and stakeholder interview tools.
12. Field Data Collection: Completion of agreed quantitative and qualitative fieldwork in selected CPCRR locations.
13. Preliminary Findings: Presentation of emerging findings to the CPCRR team and relevant partners.
14. Outcome Harvesting Database/Matrix: Documented, verified and substantiated outcomes, including evidence of contribution.
15. Draft Evaluation Report: Comprehensive draft covering endline findings, outcome harvesting, BCC, behavioural change, contribution, sustainability and lessons.
16. Validation Workshop: Presentation and validation of findings with relevant stakeholders.
17. Final Evaluation Report: Final report incorporating agreed feedback, annexes, datasets or data summaries as agreed, and supporting evidence.
18. Expected BCC Change Pathway

The evaluation should, where evidence permits, demonstrate the relationship between programme intervention, communication exposure and behavioural outcomes.

CPCRR Intervention → Communication Exposure → Knowledge/Attitude/Norm Change → Behavioural Change → Community-Level Outcome

11. Consultant/Consulting Firm Qualifications

• Advanced degree in Behavioural Science, Communication, Social and Behaviour Change Communication, Development Studies, Social Sciences, Monitoring and Evaluation or a related field.
• At least seven years of relevant professional experience.
• Demonstrated experience conducting BCC/SBCC assessments and endline evaluations.
• Demonstrated experience in Outcome Harvesting or comparable outcome-focused evaluation approaches.
• Strong quantitative and qualitative research capability.
• Experience in conflict-affected, fragile or peacebuilding contexts.
• Experience in Northern Nigeria; familiarity with Katsina and Zamfara is an advantage.
• Experience with KAP/BCC tool design and digital data collection platforms such as KoboCollect.
• Strong analytical, facilitation and report-writing skills.
• Experience with radio, strategic communication, misinformation/risk communication or community-level behavioural change is an advantage.

12. Ethical and Conflict-Sensitive Considerations

• Participation shall be voluntary and based on informed consent.
• Confidentiality and anonymity shall be maintained.
• Sensitive conflict and community information shall be handled carefully.
• Data collection shall not expose participants or field teams to unnecessary risk.
• Personal data shall be securely stored and accessed only for legitimate evaluation purposes.
• The evaluation shall be conflict-sensitive, gender-responsive and culturally appropriate.

13. Duration and Indicative Workplan

The consultancy is expected to be completed within approximately 42 working days from contract signing, subject to final agreement with the selected consultant.

Phase	Activity	Indicative duration
1	Document review and inception	1 days
2	Tool development and validation	2 days
3	Enumerator training and pilot	1 days
4	Field data collection	5 days
5	Data cleaning and analysis	2 days
6	Draft report	1 days
8	Validation and finalisation	2 days

16. Management and Coordination

The consultant will work closely with the CDD M&E team and relevant implementing partners. The designated M&E focal point will coordinate the assignment. The consultant shall maintain regular communication with the programme team and obtain approval of the inception report and data collection tools before commencing fieldwork.

17. Application Requirements

• Technical proposal demonstrating understanding of the assignment.
• Detailed methodology and proposed Outcome Harvesting/BCC approach.
• Proposed work plan.
• Team composition and CVs of key personnel.
• Evidence of similar assignments and relevant reports or references.
• At least three relevant client references.
• Financial proposal showing professional fees and anticipated fieldwork/data collection costs.
• Company registration/profile documents where applicable.

18. Proposal Evaluation Criteria

Criteria	Weight
Understanding of the assignment	15%
Technical methodology and approach	25%
BCC/SBCC expertise	20%
Outcome Harvesting and evaluation experience	15%
Relevant experience in conflict/peacebuilding contexts	10%
Qualifications and experience of proposed team	10%
Value for money/financial proposal	5%
TOTAL	100%

19. Expected Value of the Assignment

The consultancy is expected to generate credible evidence of change rather than simply report activities and outputs. It should explain which communication and behavioural approaches contributed to change, for whom, under what circumstances and why, while documenting broader conflict prevention, social cohesion and resilience outcomes generated during implementation.

The evaluation should provide a clear evidence chain: CPCRR intervention → communication exposure → changes in knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and norms → behavioural change → community-level outcomes. The findings should be sufficiently practical to inform future programming, communication design, learning and adaptation.

20. Submission of Proposals

Interested consultants/consulting firms should submit their complete technical and financial proposals electronically to:

procurement@cddwestafrica.org and copy dalechenu@cddwestafrica.org.

All submissions must be received on or before 9^th October 2026. Late submissions may not be considered, and submissions will be considered on a rolling basis. The email subject line should read: ‘’Outcome Harvesting and Endline Evaluation’’.

END OF TERMS OF REFERENCE