Terms of Reference
Plan UK: the development of an organisational Theory of Change
1. Background and aims
Plan UK’s strategy up to 2020 focuses our child-centred community development approach on
child protection, education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), economic security, sexual and
reproductive health, and rights (SRHR). In pursuit of these aims we will: deepen our disaster risk
management capacity; build our ability to bid for large grants; refresh our sponsorship, and diversify
individual giving; and build further support for our work in the UK.
The Programmes Department supports these aims by ensuring that Plan UK has the coherent,
relevant and innovative programme needed to realise Plan’s mission, and more generally to help
promote awareness of Plan’s work. It works with Country Offices to design high quality project
proposals (either for development work, or in response to humanitarian emergencies), and by
raising the funds needed to implement them. It then manages these grants, ensuring that project
monitoring and evaluation is carried out effectively, and that reports are submitted to donors in
accordance with the increasingly exacting standards they set. More widely, Programme Department
supports Plan’s global programme by working across the organisation to share lessons learned,
support the development of policy and advocacy positions, contribute towards publications, and by
presenting Plan’s programme work to a range of audiences.
To help achieve this, we wish to strengthen our learning and impact assessment work, with a view to
capturing more robust evidence of our effectiveness, and then sharing this both externally and
internally to enhance our upward and downward accountability, thereby enhancing Plan’s
reputation as a credible development partner.
As part of this process Plan UK is developing an organisational Monitoring Evaluation and Learning
framework. The first stage of this process is the development of an organisational Theory of Change.
Following a two day workshop involving all programme staff thematic Theories of Change are in the
process of being developed for WASH, Economic Security, SRHR, Education and Protection, with
each thematic area being at a different stage of development.
The aims of this assignment are:
 To facilitate the finalisation of the five thematic Theories of Change
 To facilitate the development of a global Theory of Change for Plan UK, drawing on all
thematic areas
 To facilitate a peer review process with external stakeholders
2. Approach
The proposed work will include:
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A literature review of internal documents, including the Plan UK programme and
organisational strategies, Theory of Change workshop notes and notes from the Plan
International Theory of Change development process;
A literature review of external documents to ensure the Theory of Change reflects external
learning;
Key informant interviews and focus groups with Plan UK staff and key external stakeholders,
including Plan International staff and young people;
Facilitation of working group meetings for some of the 5 thematic areas that Plan UK is
working on, (e.g. Economic Security, Education and Protection);
Facilitation of a final Theory of Change workshop; and
Drafting the global Theory of Change diagram for Plan UK and accompanying narrative
3. Deliverables
It is anticipated that the deliverables will be as follows:
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Presentation of the summary findings from the literature review and key informant
interviews and focus groups;
Three working group meetings ( 2-3 hours each) to facilitate the development of thematic
theories of change for some of Plan UK’s five thematic areas (ee.g. protection, education,
economic security);
1 day workshop to facilitate the development of the organisational theory of change;
A high level overview of Plan UK ’s theory of Change in diagrammatic form with short
accompanying narrative; and
A detailed theory of change with accompanying narrative.
4. Timescales and fee estimate
The proposed timescale for this work is 20 days over the period from the 4th January to the 29 th
2016.
5. Next steps
Interested parties should send expressions of interest to Lucy Brealey: [email protected] by
12 midday on the 4th of January 2016. Expressions of interest should include:
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CV or outline of relevant staff skills and experience
Example of relevant work
Confirmation of availability in January and February
Daily rate
We aim to hold interviews during the first week of January.