Terms of Reference (ToR) Final External Evaluator for Project: Ethical Journalism for Sustainable Peace in Syria II Collapse

Free Press Unlimited seeks an experienced project evaluator to conduct the final evaluation of the Ethical Journalism for Sustainable Peace in Syria Project II (EJSP II). This evaluation will assess the project’s impact to enhance the role of independent Syrian media in promoting inclusive peace, accountability, and democratic values. The evaluator will assess the results, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and impact of EJSP II. The evaluation should document lessons learned and provide strategic recommendations.

About Free Press Unlimited

Free Press Unlimited is a non-profit organisation committed to promoting media freedom globally. Through its work, Free Press Unlimited strengthens the resilience of journalists and media outlets in challenging environments, aiming to ensure that independent news and information reach those who need it most. With a focus on fostering public interest journalism and supporting media practitioners, Free Press Unlimited operates across various regions worldwide.

Project Background

Free Press Unlimited (FPU) implements the Ethical Journalism for Sustainable Peace in Syria (EJSP II) programme, which aims to enhance the role of independent Syrian media in promoting inclusive peace, accountability, and democratic values. The programme supports a diverse set of media and civil society partners across the Syrian context, working towards ethical journalism, increased cooperation between media actors, and amplified civic voices including youth and women. EJSP II builds on the achievements and lessons from EJSP I and aligns with EU priorities for civil society and media development in conflict settings.

Project Summary

The programme, funded under the European Union, has a 24-month implementation period. Its two specific outcomes are:
- Outcome 1: Standards of ethical journalism, including gender justice, are upheld and enhanced autonomously by media organisations.
- Outcome 2: Strengthened implementation of common Syrian media agendas collaboratively by subgrantee media organisations across all geographies.

Key strategies include: EJSP II applies a combination of targeted activities and monitoring mechanisms to ensure progress. Through a series of training, workshops, and coaching sessions, partner journalists and editors have been supported in applying gender-sensitive reporting practices, improving editorial balance, and increasing the visibility of women’s voices in media productions. Partners receive tailored assistance to develop and update gender-sensitive editorial policies and integrate inclusive frameworks into their organisational strategies, ensuring representation and avoiding stereotypes. The project also promotes youth participation by supporting emerging journalists and content creators through dedicated capacity-building, mentoring, and youth-led productions. Collaborative advocacy initiatives intentionally incorporate youth perspectives, ensuring younger generations influence narratives and agendas. To monitor progress, the PME logframe embeds gender- and age-disaggregated indicators across training, collaborative activities, and audience engagement measures, enabling partners and FPU to track diversity in participation, content, and reach. These combined approaches ensure that gender equality and youth engagement are integrated across all levels of the project, contributing meaningfully to more inclusive, ethical, and representative Syrian media landscapes.

Purpose of Evaluation

The purpose of the final evaluation is to assess the results, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and impact of EJSP II. The evaluation should document lessons learned and provide strategic recommendations taking partners’ and implementer’s needs and advice into consideration for future programming. It will also contribute to self accountability (partner and implementing team), to accountability to donors and stakeholders and support organisational learning within FPU and among partners.

Scope of the Evaluation

The evaluation will cover the full duration of EJSP II, from January 2024 to December 2025. It will assess all outcome and output-level results and explore processes of implementation across various intervention areas, geographies, and partner profiles.

Evaluation Criteria and Questions

• The evaluation will be guided by the following OECD-DAC criteria:
  - Relevance
  - Effectiveness
  - Efficiency
  - Sustainability
  - Impact
  - Coherence and Adaptiveness
  
  Key questions include:
• To what extent did EJSP II achieve its stated outcomes and outputs?
• How effective were the ethical journalism, dialogue, and capacity-building components?
• What changes in behaviour, capacity, or collaboration were observed among media and civic actors?
• Has audience engagement improved? Were youth, women, and marginalised voices meaningfully included?
• What are the prospects for sustainability and localisation of results?
• What unplanned or unintended outcomes emerged?

Methodology

A mixed-methods approach will be used, including:
- Desk review of programme documentation, PME data, and (if applicable) research outputs
- Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with FPU staff, partners, beneficiaries, and external observers
- Focus Group Discussions (FGDs),
- Outcome harvesting and Stories of Change
- Social media listening and audience engagement analysis
- In addition to the methods listed, the evaluator is encouraged to propose innovative approaches such as AI-enhanced media content analysis, participatory digital storytelling, social network analysis, and real-time feedback loops. These approaches should complement traditional methodologies, strengthen data triangulation, and ensure a participatory, inclusive, and ethically grounded evaluation. Emphasis will be placed on methods that illuminate systemic change, audience trust, and the resilience of independent media ecosystems, aimed at growing and enriching ‘applied theory’ work in the evaluation and research of the ‘public interest, independent and ethical media’ field work.

The evaluator will ensure participatory and inclusive methods, reflecting diverse gender, age, and geographic perspectives. The evaluator is requested to make alternative suggestions for methods to become part of review.

Stakeholders

The evaluator is expected to engage with the following stakeholders:
- Free Press Unlimited project and M&E staff, including check-in meetings with FPU to discuss questions, status and needs.
- Media (outlets and institutions) subgrantee partners.
- Civil society organisations.
- EU and other external actors if relevant.
- Any institutional or community beneficiaries documented in project outputs.

Deliverables

The evaluator will produce:
- Inception Report with methodology, tools, timeline (by 10 October 2025) to be presented to the FPU team and subgrantees who will make revisions. Then the report will get updated based on feedback.
- Set of interview guides and research instruments.
- Draft Evaluation Report (max. 30 pages + annexes, by 10 December 2025).
- Validation presentation/workshop (mid-December 2025) to subgrantees and FPU + a session with donor.

- Final Evaluation Report with incorporated feedback (by 20 December 2025) including evaluation criteria and questions in sections and in conclusion and recommendations.
- Executive Summary (5 pages max.).
- PowerPoint presentation for dissemination with the most relevant quantitative figures and visuals.
- Raw or summarized data and transcripts as annexes.

Timeline

The evaluation will be conducted from 1 October to 20 December 2025 - in 11 weeks:

- Week 1–2 (October): Inception phase; document review; finalising methodology and tools.
- Week 3–5 (October–early November): Data collection – KIIs, FGDs, media content analysis.
- Week 6–7 (Mid-November): Data synthesis and internal presentation of emerging findings to FPU.
- Week 8–9 (Early December): Draft report writing and validation in addition to a presentation to partners.
- Week 10–11 (Mid to late December): Finalisation and submission of deliverables.

Required Profile and Qualifications

• Proven experience in evaluating media or civil society programmes in fragile/conflict contexts
• Solid understanding of ethical journalism, localisation, and inclusion frameworks
• Experience with EU-funded project evaluations and reporting standards
• Fluency in English and Arabic
• Familiarity with the Syrian context is a strong advantage

Interested?

If you are interested please send your motivation letter, a ToR based plan/budget and CV (preferable in PDF-format) and examples of work, no later than 22 September, 2025 to Anne Haaksman - fpumena@freepressunlimited.org. 

A screening and sharing evidence of work are part of the application process.