Proposals must be submitted by 1 November 2019.

At Marie Stopes International Australia, we believe that every woman should be able to determine her future. By providing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services where they are needed most, we support women and their families to make informed decisions about their reproductive health, including if and when they have children.

In 2017, Marie Stopes International Australia (MSIA) and WaterAid began implementing an integrated menstrual hygiene management (MHM) and SRH program in Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea: Keeping Girls in School through Improved Reproductive and Menstrual Health funded by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program's Gender Action Platform (GAP).

The project aims to address two interrelated issues - unwanted pregnancy and menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) - which are critical to girls' ability to be healthy, educated and empowered. Adolescent pregnancy remains a leading cause of death and disability for girls aged 15-19 and is a major contributing factor to poor school attendance and completion. Similarly, the inability for girls to manage menstruation in hygienically or with privacy, or to access quality and affordable sanitary products, contributes to poor health and social outcomes, including school absenteeism.

With this in mind, the project has three objectives:

1. Increased awareness and uptake of SRH/FP services and MH practices amongst adolescent girls through improved access to girl-friendly facilities, education and services.
2. Improved availability of appropriate and affordable MH products through strengthened sustainable business models for local women-led entrepreneurs.
3. Strengthened knowledge of and attention to the importance of SRH/FP and MH in Timor Leste, PNG, Asia Pacific and more broadly through cross-collaboration, learning and an established community of practice.

As such, MSIA and WaterAid are seeking a suitably qualified Consultant to conduct an evaluation of the GAP Project. The consultant will be expected to review and analyse program results and impact, including the views of program participants and stakeholders from multiple locations within implementing countries (Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea). Initial analysis and findings will be shared through a draft report. Final analysis and findings will be submitted in a comprehensive report.

The purpose of this evaluation is to provide an assessment of the effectiveness of the project approach and to what degree the project outcomes were achieved. Findings, lessons and recommendations will be used to inform future programming on menstrual health and hygiene, as well as on gender, education, SRH, FP and WASH programming more generally. The evaluation will be overseen by the GAP regional manager in Dili, with support from the MSIA and WaterAid Melbourne-based teams.

The consultant will be required to travel to up to 2 municipal locations within Timor-Leste and to 1 province location within Papua New Guinea to undertake in-depth, qualitative interviews with key stakeholders of the program. These stakeholders include representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, School Administrators, INGOs, directors of community health centers, and teachers. Information from adolescents will be gathered through previously collected case studies, focus group discussions, and research.