Comic Relief and DfID are seeking a contractor to evaluate their Four Cities Initiative, which works in Freetown, Cape Town, Kampala and Lusaka.
The Four Cities Initiative aims to foster collaborations between different urban actors to make cities more responsive to slum dwellers.
The funders specifically seek a contractor to undertake an evaluation of the collaboration between the different actors involved within and between the various cities and countries involved.
The objectives of the evaluation are to understand:
- How Comic Relief, as a grant-maker, can best support effective collaboration between grantees working in urban slum development and, where/if applicable, more broadly.
- What types of collaboration amongst urban practitioners (including government officials, NGO staff (international and local), researchers, private sector actors and community actors) have emerged (if any) as a result of the Four Cities Initiative (both across grantees and within individual projects).
- Whether this collaboration contributes to, or hinders, effective urban development that is responsive to urban slum dwellers (particularly the most marginalised) and if so, how and in what ways it has done this (both across grantees and within individual projects).
The evaluation will have a primary emphasis on learning rather than accountability. The evaluation will need to look at:
- Multiple levels of collaboration (between grantees, between lead grantee organisations and partners, between individual or groups of grantees and slum dwellers, city authorities and other stakeholders).
- Different degrees of collaboration (communication, cooperation, formal joint actions etc.).
- Different focuses of collaboration (for advocacy, for information sharing, for joint technical approaches, for learning etc.).
- Different types/models of collaboration (informal or formal networks, coalitions, strategic partnerships etc.).
The evaluation will also need to take into account how collaboration is affected by the specific nature of urban slum development, including the economic and social insecurity of slum dwellers and the power relationships and political issues involved in the relationships between slum dwellers, civil society organisations and urban authorities.
Click here to download the terms of reference for the evaluation, which contains further details on the scope of work and other requirements.
