In 2004 the Education Support Program (ESP) established an education grantmaking fund, the Resourcing Education: Fund for Innovations And Networking(RE:FINE), to support projects in the area of the general education sector that further open society goals in identified priority areas. It provides strategic grants for networking opportunities between NGOs and other organizations that support gains already made in the education sector in order to maximize impact and enhance capacity of civil society actors in bringing about school reform.

Since the launch of the fund, ESP has supported fifteen projects that further open society goals in four education priority areas. Those priority areas are equity, which includes minority rights, gender, equal access to information, and equal education opportunities; quality, which includes learning processes that lead to outcomes that further the objectives of open society; public accountability, which includes management, governance and transparent policy processes; and anti-corruption initiatives, that intersect accountability and equity.

ESP is commissioning an assessment study which will examine how the funded projects are contributing to the following objectives:

• promoting networking for enhanced impact, promoting exchange of local knowledge and fostering collaboration among civic organizations that support open society goals in education within and between countries, and across geographical regions;
• building capacity and resources in the region to promote open society goals in the general education sector in the targeted countries;
• promoting civil society involvement in education change in partnership with governments and other local players transnationally and locally;
• strengthening advocacy on educational issues.

ESP seeks a temporary Main Evaluator to carry out the following:

• design the methodology and instruments (questionnaires, questions for phone interviews for each project and country) and analyze data from the field for two evaluation stages;
• conduct in-depth evaluation the Lithuanian and Slovakian projects and possibly carry out two field visits to these countries if these are considered necessary;
• lead May planning meeting in Budapest and finalize the evaluation instruments based on the suggestions from the meeting;
• supervise the work of research assistants;
• write up the final evaluation report.

The deadline for applications is April 21, 2006.

For more details please read the job description attached below.