Call for Expressions of Interest for the evaluation of the National Strategy for the Creation of an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development 2012-2016

The Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs announced the Call for Expressions of Interest for the evaluation of the National Strategy for the Creation of an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development 2012-2016.

INTRODUCTION
 
The National Strategy for the Creation of an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development from 2012 to 2016 was adopted at the Croatian Government session which was held on July 12^th 2012. The National Strategy presents the guidelines for the creation of an enabling environment for civil society development till the year 2016, in order to improve further the legal, financial and institutional support system for CSO activities as important factors in the socio-economic development in Croatia and as important stakeholders in shaping and implementing the EU policies. The Strategy also includes specific deadlines and implementing authorities, sources of funding for the implementation of the measures and activities planned, as well as the indicators for measuring the implementation success.

The Croatian Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs designed a web platform for monitoring the implementation of the National Strategy, which has been available since July 2013 on the http://strategija.udruge.hr/.
 
The National Strategy will be implemented till the end of 2016, and in the middle of its implementation period, the Office published the Report on the Implementation of the National Strategy for the Creation of an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development from 2012 to 2016, for the period 2012-2014.
 
 
THE EVALUATION OBJECT
 
The evaluation of the National Strategy is planned as an external evaluation, focused on the relevance of the determined objectives, measures and activities, challenges of implementation and immediate effects. The success factors and challenges of the previous implementation that have been identified will serve as the basis for defining the preconditions for a successful implementation of the future measures and sustainable achieved results.
Based on the success indicators which enable monitoring of the achievement of the activities implemented, an evaluation will be made on whether the implementation of the Strategy activities had an influence on accomplishing the set objectives. For the purpose of this evaluation, the implementation success will be analyzed on the basis of the outputs which follow certain planned activities.

 
THE EVALUATION OBJECTIVES
 
The evaluation should answer the key questions and point to the most important issues and drawbacks in the implementation of the Strategy:

• are the document structure and the enactment procedure of the National Strategy appropriate?
• were the objectives of the National Strategy adequately set and relevant?
• were the measures and implementing activities in line with the objectives set by the National Strategy?
• did the activities of the National Strategy contribute to the achievement of the set objectives; how efficient and effective were they; was the sustainability ensured?
• were the implementation indicators measurable?
• were the necessary resources for the implementation of the activities sufficient for the achievement of the set results?   
• which factors contributed to the achievement of results, and which ones suppressed their achievement?
• which examples of good practice are in line with the value framework set by the National Strategy? 
• did all the stakeholders participate in the implementation of the actions of the National Strategy in an appropriate manner?  
• which recommendations need to be considered when drafting the Strategy for the upcoming five-year period?  

 
THE CONDITIONS FOR THE EVALUATION
 
The expressions of interest for the evaluation process can be sent by a natural person or legal entity (the Bidder).
 
In their expressions of interest the bidders should submit a declaration, stating that they have at least one expert who meets the following criteria:

• owning a university degree (or higher)
• possessing analytical and presentational skills
• skilled in work with MS Office tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• at least 5 years of work experience in strategic planning and working on strategic documents- a CV and a list of projects must be attached
• experience in consulting and cooperation with the public sector- a list of projects must be attached
• experience in the evaluation of strategic documents- a list of documents must be attached.

 
The role and resources of the Bidder in the evaluation:

• organizing and implementing all the evaluation activities
• providing workspace for the experts and assistants involved in the project, adequate equipment and support, including office supplies, computers and necessary software packages, as well as efficient administrative, financial and accounting services
• maintaining regular management and financial control of the implementation of activities in order to enable the experts to perform their primary tasks without disturbances
• coordinating and ensuring cooperation among all the necessary stakeholders in the evaluation activities
• delivering electronic and hard copies of the Report on the activity implemented, as well as all the immediate project results as requested by the Croatian Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs.

 
THE EXPECTED RESULTS OF THE EVALUATION, DEADLINES AND APPLICATION
 
The expected result is the final report (the evaluation) with a detailed description of the work and the final evaluation, structured in a way that the evaluator submits a detailed description of the methodological approach, results, conclusions and recommendations in Croatian language, in the original form and digital copy in the Word and Excel programs on a CD, which needs to be previously approved by the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs.

The planned date for the beginning of the implementation is after signing the contract, and the period of the contract implementation is three months, starting from the date when the contract was signed.
 
The deadline for submitting expressions of interest: July 20^th 2016
 
The documentation that needs to be attached to the expression of interest:

• a CV of the expert, including the list of projects or strategic documents in the implementation of which the expert participated
• a proposal of the Evaluation Plan for the National Strategy for the Creation of an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development from 2012 to 2016
• the amount of the planned cost of the evaluation

The expressions of interest can be submitted to the e-mail: info@udruge.vlada.hr.
 
For any additional information regarding this Call, please contact us by e-mail: stela.fiser@udruge.vlada.hr
 

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