Job Description

Invitation to Tender

Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) seeks a team of consultants for an evaluation of our rights-based rainforest management approach in Indonesia, Brazil, DRC and Peru.

About the Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN)

RFN is one of Europe’s leading civil society organisations working to protect tropical rainforests and the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. RFN combines long-term partnerships in rainforest countries with international advocacy to address policy and legal frameworks and commercial drivers of deforestation. For more information, please visit: www.regnskog.no

Terms of Reference

The purpose of this evaluation is to generate understanding of how RFN’s rights-based rainforest management approach is applied in practice across strategic objective work areas, and what it delivers in terms of results and change over time. Please see the full terms of reference for the assignment here: ToR-MtR-Norad-Frame-2023-2027-Final.pdf

Required Qualifications

The evaluation shall be carried out by an individual consultant or a team of consultants with the following qualifications:

• Proven experience in designing and conducting complex evaluations in forest and landscape contexts, with a strong focus on rights‑based approaches involving Indigenous Peoples and forest‑dependent local communities.

• Demonstrated expertise in qualitative research methods, including interviews, document review, and participatory approaches, and solid experience with contribution analysis or similar theory‑based evaluation approaches in multi‑actor settings.

• Strong analytical capacity to assess results and change over time in politically, institutionally, and socially complex environments, including the ability to assess RFN’s contribution without claiming full attribution.

• Demonstrated competence in gender equality, youth, and social inclusion, including experience integrating these perspectives into evaluation design, data collection, analysis, and validation processes.

• Experience working with participatory and partner‑centred evaluation approaches, including validation of findings with rights holders and other stakeholders.

• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English, with a proven track record of delivering high‑quality, well‑structured evaluation reports within agreed timelines.

• Familiarity with rights‑based programming, civil society support, advocacy, and governance processes in forest or natural resource contexts.

• Demonstrated experience from the countries included in the ToR, including a solid understanding of the socio-political and cultural contexts, and relevant language skills.

How to apply

Interested and eligible candidates (team or individual consultant) must submit technical and financial proposals. The proposal must include the following information:

• CV of all members in the team, and a summary of their qualifications (maximum two pages per member of the team)

• Proposed methodology and timetable (max 2 pages)

• A financial offer, including daily fees based on 8 working hours per day. If team members have different fees, the expected division of labour between them must be indicated. The financial proposal must contain all the information related to the prices for the performance of the deliverables described in these terms of reference. The economic proposal to be offered must contain all direct and indirect costs.

• At least two references for similar work.

The maximum budget for this assignment is NOK 900 000 inclusive of VAT. In Norway, the standard VAT rate is 25% where applicable. For bidders not subject to Norwegian VAT, the maximum budget is NOK 720 000 exclusive of VAT Norway (RFN will pay VAT accordingly). All financial offers shall clearly state whether VAT is included and whether Norwegian VAT is applicable.

• Proposals are due COB 20.05.2026

For questions about the Invitation to Tender/Term of Reference please contact RFN’s Knowledge and Learning Manger johanne@rainforest.no

Evaluation of proposals

Tenderers will be ranked according to a score based on the following criteria:

• Understanding of the assignment and proposed methodology: 50%

• Relevant evaluation experience and thematic expertise: 30%

• Team composition (including gender balance, language skills and country experience): 20%

Eligible Tenderers

i) Tenderers must provide information on their legal form and ownership structure.

ii) Tenderers shall be excluded from participation in a procurement procedure if:

(1) they are bankrupt, are having their affairs administered by the courts, or have suspended business activities.

(2) they or persons having powers of representation, decision-making, or control over them have been convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct by a final judgment.

(3) they have been guilty of grave professional misconduct.

(4) they have not fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of social security contributions or taxes in accordance with the legal provisions of the country in which they are established, or those of the country where the contract is to be performed.

(5) they or persons having powers of representation, decision-making, or control over them have been convicted for fraud, corruption, involvement in a criminal organization or money laundering by a final judgment.

(6) they make use of child labour or forced labour and/or practice discrimination, and/or do not respect the right to freedom of association and the right to organize and engage in collective bargaining pursuant to the core conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

iii) Tenderers shall confirm in writing that they are not in any of the situations listed above. RFN reserves the right to investigate any of the situations listed above if it has reasonable grounds to doubt the contents of such confirmation.

iv) Contracts shall not be awarded to tenderers which, during the procurement procedure:

(1) are subject to a conflict of interests.

(2) are guilty of misrepresentation in supplying the information required as a condition of participation in the tender procedure or fail to supply this information.

RFN reserves the right to reject any of the proposals that it does not consider relevant.

Ethical considerations

Ethical considerations will be upheld throughout the consultancy, ensuring informed consent, confidentiality, respect for the rights and privacy of participants, and protection from sexual misconduct. The assignment should be conducted in accordance with the highest professional standards, including the requirements in the Norwegian Transparency Act, and RFN policies (i.e. Code of Conduct, Protection from sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment policy, and Anti-Corruption policy, see: Governing documents and financial information – The Rainforest Foundation)

As such, the work will ensure inclusive, sensitive, safe, non-discriminatory participation, confidentiality, and anonymity of respondents. Specific consideration must be given to ethical issues of design, data collection, reporting and storage. According to the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), the consultancy must maintain appropriate measures to protect personal data. Info on GDPR can be found here: https://gdpr.eu Access to internal RFN documents must be handled confidentially and such materials must not be shared with or processed by any AI tools or models without prior written approval from RFN.