Job Details

Job Description

Oxfam is a global movement of people who are fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice. Across regions, from the local to the global, we work with people to bring change that lasts.

OVERVIEW
Title and brief description of the assignment	Consultancy to conduct End-of-Strategy Evaluation and to lead a Strategy Refresh process for the Program and Influencing Strategy for Oxfam in Southern Africa Cluster 2026 to 2030.
Assignment location	Southern Africa Cluster: Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe
Contract start date	15 th June 2025
How to apply	Interested candidates are invited to submit: 1)     A proposal describing how the evaluation and strategy refresh will be conducted (including a budget in a separate file) 2)     CV (s) 3)     A sample of an evaluation and a Program and/or Influencing Strategy process that has already been carried out or facilitated by the applicant See section ‘8. Application Process’ for further details
Application deadline	1 st June 2025
Specific considerations	The applicant will have to use/make reference to specific Oxfam resources, e.g. Influencing for Impact guide and work in collaboration with an internal technical team . Further details will be provided to the successful applicant.

1. PURPOSE OF THIS CONSULTANCY

The direct motive for this procurement for consultancy services is to facilitate an independent evaluation of the Oxfam in Southern Africa (SAF) cluster strategy framework (2021 – 2025) and to lead a process of refinement and realignment culminating into a Program and Influencing Strategy for Oxfam SAF Cluster 2026 to 2030.

The End-of-Strategy Evaluation will aid in assessing program performance, impact and contributions to wider systemic change, lessons learned, and cross-cutting issues in line with the SAF cluster strategy ambitions during the period from 2021 to 2025.

The Strategy Refinement Exercise aims to align the next five-year strategic framework with both the newly adopted Oxfam in Africa Programme and Influencing Strategic Framework, Oxfam’s Global Strategic Framework, and the evolving operational context in the region.

2. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

Oxfam in Southern Africa is part of a broader movement working with marginalized and vulnerable communities to challenge structural inequalities and advocate for transformative development models. Our current regional strategy framework (2021–2025) outlines our commitment to fostering a just and sustainable future for all in the region.

This strategy is built around three key thematic pillars or programs:

• Just Economies
• Humanitarian Action
• Gender Justice

The strategy also has two cross cutting themes: Accountable Governance and Civic Space.  The interventions, implemented primarily in countries where Oxfam has a physical presence, are also strategically leveraged to influence regional and global platforms. For instance, our work on fiscal justice, including sustainable debt management and domestic resource mobilization, connects directly to global advocacy efforts on debt cancellation and aid effectiveness.

Our approach is centred on empowering local actors to influence the systems and institutions that govern power and resource distribution. We are driven by a commitment to impact, quality, relevance, legitimacy, and solidarity. Oxfam in Southern Africa also contributes to national development frameworks, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

This regional strategy aligns with Oxfam’s Global Strategic Framework (to 2030), which aims to:

• Mobilize resources for sustainable, poverty-alleviating development.
• Strengthen resilience, protect lives, and support rights in times of crisis.
• Tackle structural inequalities and drive durable systemic change.
• Advance intersectional feminist approaches to challenge injustice.

In preparation for this end-of-strategy evaluation and strategy refresh, a number of internal processes have taken place that will be of interest to this Consultancy. First, Oxfam SAF cluster has conducted a meta-synthesis of evidence and learning in line with cluster’s knowledge and learning agenda and has also curated potential secondary sources of knowledge and learning in the form of a knowledge and evidence database. The meta-synthesis provides a general overview of some of the lessons learnt from programming during the strategy period and the database also maps the knowledge resources to key learning questions that were outlined in the knowledge and learning framework. Oxfam SAF cluster has also recently completed a mapping of results and milestones to the cluster’s program framework to build a general trend analysis of progress achieved over the strategy period.

This Consultancy will build on this background work to provide more concrete rigorous analysis of impact attribution and contribution to wider systemic change, lessons learnt and objective analysis of the predetermined and other emerging critical learning questions.

The strategy review and strategy refresh process are intrinsically linked to Oxfam confederation wide strategy processes. As such reference to and engagement with various Oxfam resources and tools  such as the Oxfam Global Strategic Framework (GSF) and Horizon Roadmaps, Oxfam in Africa Program and Influencing Strategy, Oxfam Influencing for Impact Guide, among others, will be critical for the Consultancy.

3. SCOPE OF WORK

The scope of work for the End-of-Strategy Evaluation includes:

2. Reviewing the overall strategy and program performance against set strategic objectives, thematic pillar change goals and pathways to change, or outcomes.
   • Reviewing the extent to which the Thematic Pillars; Gender Justice, Just Economies and Humanitarian have met their pillar goals and the extent to which there was alignment of activities with identified pathways within each Thematic Pillar
   • Review extent to which each Pillar was able to achieve influencing outcomes.
   • Determine impact (short-term and long-term) of the strategy on the target populations and communities, and environment, providing evidence of the value created by the strategy (identifying both positive and negative, intended and unintended changes) resulting from the SAF strategy and operations.
3. Review the extent to which the Pillars were able to achieve outcomes related to the crosscutting themes: Accountable Governance and Civic Space
4. Review the barriers and enablers that have led to the achievement of the results for the current strategy
5. Provide informed recommendations based on evaluation findings that can guide future programming, policy development, and resource allocation building up to the strategy review/refresh.
6. Document best practices, effective strategies and methodologies utilized during the strategy period that can serve as reference material for practitioners, policy makers and organizations working in similar fields.

For the end-of-strategy evaluation, the Consultant(s) may apply the OECD evaluation criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, coherence and impact and should be able to develop an evaluation matrix of the proposed evaluation questions covering each of these criteria at inception stage.

The scope of work for the Strategy refinement and realignment includes :

1. Produce an updated context analysis, regional and thematic which shows the key changes in the external context and highlight any key changes that will inform the choices for the next Strategic period. This should include but not limited to political, economic, social, technology, environment legal and policy context.
2. Align the 2026 to 2030 SAF Cluster Program and Influencing Strategy to the Global Strategic Framework, Horizon Roadmap and Oxfam in Africa’s Program and Influencing Strategy informed by the relevant issues from the context analysis.
3. Using the Oxfam Influencing for Impact guide, working with an internal technical team, support the development of the Influencing Strategy that will be integrated within the overall SAF Program Strategy to create a Program and Influencing Strategy.

Download the full terms of reference here