Consultant, Juba, South Sudan

1. Context Search for Common Ground (Search) is an international conflict transformation organization that aims to transform the way individuals, groups, governments and companies deal with conflict, away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative solutions. Headquartered in Washington DC, USA, and Brussels, Belgium, with field offices in 24 countries globally. Search designs and implements multifaceted, culturally appropriate and conflict-sensitive programs using a diverse range of tools, including media and training, to promote dialogue, increase knowledge and determine a positive shift in behaviors.

The Project Search for Common Ground (Search) South Sudan, and its local South Sudanese partner organizations, Community Empowerment for Development and Resilience (CEDAR) and the Jonglei State Women's Association (JSWA), implemented the project Localized Atrocity Prevention: Strengthening Local Atrocity Prevention Efforts in South Sudan. This project aims at strengthening local conflict monitoring, analysis, and response skills, as well as foster collaboration across divides among communities and between communities and government, to collectively identify and address atrocity risks in and around communities with displaced population. As local communities (including young leaders) successfully de-escalate tensions, key successes would be shared among regional and national stakeholders, increasing broader awareness of and fostering support for successful prevention measures. The project was designed to capitalize on the opportunities to strengthen local atrocity prevention efforts by strengthening the capacity of key local actors and connecting them, horizontally and vertically, across divides. The proposed project is underpinned by the theory of change that If local community peace actors have increased skills and opportunities to monitor and identify increasing risks of violent conflict and if diverse local, regional, and national stakeholders share an understanding of the identified risks and collaborate on avenues for peaceful mitigation and response then the risk of atrocities in communities with displaced population in South Sudan will decrease because key actors well positioned to detect warning signs will have the capacities to report on them, and the confidence and trust in other stakeholders to work together to act on these threats.

Project's Main Objectives The main objective of the project is to strengthen community-led prevention of atrocities in and around internally displaced communities in; Nimule, Bor, Bentiu, and Juba. This goal has been supported by two strategic and inter-linked objectives. ● Empower key community stakeholders to identify and address atrocity risks in and around POC sites

● Foster vertical collaboration on atrocity prevention among local, regional, and national stakeholders.

The project targeted three IDP camps (former POC sites) that were identified as hotspots for violence and tension in Bentiu, Bor, and Juba. However, recognizing that many of the civilians living in these sites fled from nearby communities, and may eventually seek to return, the project also included activities in communities surrounding the POC sites. As such, the primary target group of this project were key community stakeholders with the potential to play a crucial role in leading locally-led and rooted initiatives to prevent atrocities. Within this group, Search emphasizes young men and young women leaders, community leaders, and local civil society organizations. The secondary target group will be Government actors. This project will equip members of the peace commissions with skills to mediate and engage sensitively across divides and more effectively fulfill their mandate, in close collaboration with the local actors previously mentioned.

Project Indicators

• % of target community members who acknowledge the existence of structures/leaders dedicated to atrocity prevention in their communities and are satisfied with them.
• % of participants who demonstrate strengthened knowledge and skills in conflict analysis, mediation, and transformation.
• # of groups trained in conflict mediation/resolution skills or consensus-building techniques with USG assistance.
• % trained community actors who believe that they can make a positive difference to address emerging atrocity risks in their communities.
• % increase in conflict monitors and local peace actors surveyed who report collaborating with each other to address atrocity risks.
• # of USG supported events, trainings, or activities designed to build support for peace or reconciliation among key actors to the conflict.
• % of forum participants/radio program listeners who demonstrate awareness of locally-led avenues to de-escalate tensions.
• # Radio Programs produced that focus on atrocity risks and avenues to address them.
• % of targeted local, regional, and national stakeholders surveyed who report increased opportunities to receive/discuss relevant information about atrocity risks in the target locations as a result of their participation in the project.
• # of stakeholders who receive conflict reports and/or are targeted by advocacy visits.

Theory of Change The theory of change (ToC) underlying this project is that If local community peace actors have increased skills and opportunities to monitor and identify increasing risks of violent conflict and if diverse local, regional, and national stakeholders share an understanding of the identified risks and collaborate on avenues for peaceful mitigation and response then the risk of atrocities in and around POC sites in South Sudan will decrease because key actors well positioned to detect warning signs will have the capacities to report on them, and the confidence and trust in other stakeholders to work together to act on these threats.

2. Goal and Objectives of study ● Assess the project's Relevance, Effectiveness, Impact, Efficiency and sustainability as per the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development -Development Assistance (OECD-DAC) evaluation criteria. ● Assess the extent to which the project achieved its objectives with emphasis on the outcomes and impact including most significant and indirect changes attributable to the project. ● Establish the level of project results sustainability with various stakeholders (beneficiary, community members, authorities) with focus on extracting critical lessons learnt and best practices as well as the intended and unintended positive and negative results to inform future programs

3. Key Questions of the Study

Relevance ● To what extent has the intervention's objectives and design responded to equipping the local community members in addressing atrocities within their respective communities in South Sudan?

Effectiveness ● To what extent have the intended projects' expected results been achieved against the selected indicators? Which are the changes achieved within the project?

Impact ● Overall: what changes, intended and unintended, positive and negative, have occurred in the target locations that can be attributed to the project activities? How have these evolved? ● To what extent have local peace actors played a substantive role in addressing atrocities within their communities in South Sudan? What is the perception of the community members towards peace committees and existing local peace mechanisms in addressing atrocities? ● How have the peace committees and other peace actors positively collaborated in the locally led peace initiatives across the target communities South Sudan? ● To what extent have the peace committees and other peace actors been able to adequately utilize the available platforms such as the radio, social media and through the outreach campaigns to create the needed awareness on atrocity prevention within the target communities?

Efficiency ● How have the CSO's been able to collaboratively with existing peace structures and local authorities to ensure all forms of atrocities are prevented? ● What is the level of networking and/or coordination achieved by the project with its stakeholders? Has the project been able to create adequate advocacy platform (s) for the peace structures and local authorities towards advancing prevention of any forms of atrocities in South Sudan?

Sustainability ● To what extent are the achieved results likely to be sustained after the project closes out? ● What would enable or impede the sustainability of results?

Critical lessons learned ● Which are the critical lessons learned to draw in respect to the project's activities and results? What worked and what didn't and why?

4. Geographic Locations The locations of the assessment will be in the four mainly project locations that include Nimule (including Pageri), Bentiu, Bor and Juba.

5. Methodology and Data Collection Tools While data collection largely will be on remote with few on ground, the consultant/firm is expected to propose and design the methodology for conducting the evaluation study. A mix of qualitative and quantitative methods such as surveys, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders and observation will be mainly applied to collect primary data.

Sampling The consultant/ firm is expected to determine a representative sample for respondents to be involved in the study by different methods that will ensure proper conclusions and generalizations to be made on the findings from the evaluation. The evaluators should clearly describe how they reached at the sample size and its representativeness.

Data analysis A clear data management and analysis plan should be developed that will clearly explain how collected data will be handled and analyzed to reach conclusions. Appropriate data analysis packages to be used should be explained.

Deliverables Search expects the following deliverables from the external consultant: ● Preparing project inception report with clear methodology, sampling and assessment approaches ● Conduct comprehensive desk reviews and analysis of all the project documents and literature to inform the field work and report drafting ● Develop and validate assessment tools, field plans and field guides ● Facilitate two working group consultations (organized by Search for Common Ground) and present the draft document to the key stakeholders. Finalize the document and incorporate all of the input from stakeholders ● Conduct high quality interviews and discussions with assessment participants/key stakeholders ● Analyzing, interpreting, synthesizing and triangulating data from desk reviews, observations and qualitative surveys conducted ● Drafting a comprehensive preliminary report with findings, discussions, conclusions and contextual recommendations to inform policy and programmatic interventions ● Preparation and facilitation of stakeholders' workshop to disseminate study findings ● Submission of the databases to Search for Common Ground ● Presentation of findings, analysis and recommendations to be strongly aligned with USG (donor) interests with clear, concise and with limited jargons. ● Incorporating stakeholders' feedback into final reports in an appropriate format ● A Final Report in English (30 pages max in length, excluding appendices) that consists of (unless otherwise agreed upon with Search): ● Table of contents ● Abbreviations ● Executive summary of methodology, limitations, key findings and recommendations ● Background information (project specifics) ● Methodology: Objectives, data collection and analysis and limitations of the study ● Research findings, analysis, with associated data presented (should be structured around the main objectives/evaluation criteria and should cover all indicators) ● Indicator table showing all Evaluation indicators ● Appendices, which include detailed research instruments, list of interviewees, terms of references and evaluator(s) brief biography. ● Produce a concise and visual summary report of the evaluation

Logistical Support ● The consultant(s) will be responsible for organizing their own logistics for data collection (vehicles, fuel, and drivers), and this must be budgeted into the study. Search will provide support in arranging logistics. At least one Search staff member will be available to support data collection and logistics for this study. ● In addition, Search and partners will share the following documents with the external consultant: Background materials including the project proposal and logframe, M&E plan, etc.

6. Data Quality Assurance and Management ● The consultant will develop the evaluation methodology and thereafter, a participatory review approach will be adopted to ensure key partner project staff have a chance to meaningfully participate in refining the methodology and tools. ● Data collection will be majority remote data collection (but perhaps some on the ground. ● Using different methods, the evaluation is expected to collect relevant data and to triangulate it throughout from different sources and methodologies, thus ensuring greater validity of information. ● Groups that will provide the required data include local partner organizations supported by Search, Search for Common Ground, community members, established peace structures especially peace committees, community watch group members, conflict monitors, local authorities, members of Civil Society Organizations and partner radio stations. ● Secondary data from previous reviews, progress reports, proposals, and other related documents will be considered. ● A debriefing session will be held with the programme staff at the end of every field visit at Search for Common Ground office in Juba. The debriefing sessions will provide a summary of the outcome of the evaluation. ● Search for Common Ground Senior DME Officer, Program Manager, Country Director and the regional Impact specialist will be the focal points for this work until its completion.

7. Key Deliverables and Timeline Search expects to finalize the recruitment of the consultant by the end of June 2026. The inception report with the agreed methodology, finalized tools, literature review and updated calendar must be available by the second week of July 2026. Data collection will begin in the third week of July 2026. Search expects to receive the first draft of the report by the second week of August and the final report no later than August 24th.

8. Budget A detailed budget should be provided, including daily rates for personnel, and costs related to data collection (per total number of people sampled, sites for collection within the four target locations of Nimule, Bentiu, Bor and Juba. Analysis, and production of deliverables. The payments will be made in installments based upon outputs/deliverables specified in the TOR (under payment schedule) and upon certification of satisfactory work as per work plan.

9. Requirements of consultant The following skills and experience are expected by SFCG for our evaluator for this project: ● Advanced university degree in social sciences, economics or law (preferred); ● At least 5-7 years of professional work experience of peacebuilding interventions and previous work in South Sudan. ● Evaluator or the consultant should ideally have some experience with and present a clear plan for capturing data and learning that can support counterfactuals of the program. ● Previous history of conducting a similar study particularly in atrocity prevention and in a similar context. ● Excellent analytical skills and high level written and oral communications skills in English; ● Experience conducting both quantitative and qualitative surveys and analysis ● Basic working knowledge of Juba Arabic (preferred) ● Highly developed self-management, and communication skills

In addition, the consultant is required to respect the following Ethical Principles [1]: ● Comprehensive and systematic inquiry: Consultant should make the most of the existing information and full range of stakeholders available at the time of the review. Consultant should conduct systematic, data-based inquiries. He or she should communicate his or her methods and approaches accurately and in sufficient detail to allow others to understand, interpret and critique his or her work. He or she should make clear the limitations of the review and its results. ● Competence: Consultant should possess the abilities and skills and experience appropriate to undertake the tasks proposed and should practice within the limits of his or her professional training and competence. ● Honesty and integrity: Consultant should be transparent with the contractor/constituent about: any conflict of interest, any change made in the negotiated project plan and the reasons why those changes were made, any risk that certain procedures or activities produce misleading review information. ● Respect for people: Consultant respect the security, dignity and self-worth of respondents, program participants. Consultant has the responsibility to be sensitive to and respect differences amongst participants in culture, religion, gender, disability, age and ethnicity.

In addition, the consultant will respect SFCG's evaluations standards, to be found in SFCG's evaluation guidelines: http://www.sfcg.org/programmes/ilt/dme_guidelines.html

Applications ● Interested Parties are requested to submit a technical proposal explaining their comprehension of the proposed consultancy, and how they would approach this assignment with a summary of their methodology especially in terms of how the party plans to meet the objectives. The application should include CVs of the persons to be involved in the assignment, relevant experience, a detailed budget in USD and time availability. All proposals should be submitted via Search for Common Ground online portal.

Closing date for submission of application is July 8, 2026. Due to the urgent need to fill this role, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

For any related questions, kindly write to: swani@sfcg.org, with copy to kdorsey@sfcg.org