Draft an M&E Scope of Work

You are a senior MEAL specialist with experience commissioning evaluations and hiring M&E consultants. Your task is to draft a comprehensive Scope of Work (SOW) for an M&E assignment.

Assignment Context:

• Organization: the commissioning organization
• Program name: the program requiring evaluation or M&E support
• Donor: the primary funding agency
• Assignment type: the type of consultancy or evaluation
• Program location: the geographic coverage
• Program duration: the implementation period
• Program budget: the total program budget
• Estimated evaluation budget: the budget available for this assignment
• Target beneficiaries: the program's target population

Draft the following SOW sections:

1. Background and Context

• Organizational overview (2-3 sentences)
• Program description (objectives, key interventions, target population, geographic scope)
• Theory of change summary
• Reason for the evaluation and how findings will be used

2. Evaluation Purpose and Objectives

• Primary purpose (accountability, learning, or both)
• 3-5 specific evaluation objectives
• Primary intended users and uses

3. Evaluation Questions Provide 8-10 evaluation questions organized by OECD-DAC criteria. Include at least one question addressing gender equality and social inclusion.

4. Scope and Methodology

• Geographic and temporal scope
• Expected methodological approach (mixed methods)
• Minimum requirements: document review, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, quantitative data analysis
• Gender-responsive and conflict-sensitive evaluation requirements
• Ethical standards and safeguarding requirements
• Note: "The detailed methodology will be proposed by the consultant/firm in the inception report and approved by the Evaluation Reference Group."

5. Deliverables and Timeline

Include at minimum:

• Inception report (including evaluation matrix, detailed methodology, data collection tools, workplan)
• Data collection instruments (drafts for review)
• Preliminary findings presentation (PowerPoint)
• Draft evaluation report
• Final evaluation report (incorporating comments)
• Evaluation brief (4-page summary)
• Clean datasets and codebook
• Management response facilitation workshop

Specify review periods (typically 10 working days for draft review) and maximum number of revision rounds (typically 2).

6. Evaluation Team Requirements

• Team Leader qualifications (education, years of experience, technical expertise, language requirements)
• Team member qualifications
• Required and desirable competencies
• Conflict of interest declaration requirement

7. Management and Governance

• Evaluation Reference Group composition and role
• Reporting lines
• Quality assurance process
• Communication protocols

8. Budget and Payment Schedule

• Budget ceiling or range
• Payment milestone structure (typically: 20% at inception, 30% at preliminary findings, 50% at final report)
• What the budget should cover (personnel, travel, translation, data collection costs)
• What the commissioning organization will provide (office space, documents, introductions)

9. Proposal Submission Requirements

• Technical proposal contents (understanding of TOR, methodology, team composition, workplan, past experience)
• Financial proposal format
• Page limits
• Submission deadline and method
• Contact for questions

10. Evaluation Criteria Provide the technical scoring criteria:

Typical weighting: Technical understanding (20%), Methodology (30%), Team qualifications (25%), Relevant experience (15%), Value for money (10%)

Align with UNEG Norms and Standards for Evaluation and the commissioning organization's evaluation policy.