Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) under the Migration Programmes

Throughout 2023 and 2024, the Department of Migration, Peace and Stabilization (MIGSTAB) within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark went through a comprehensive learning process on the basis of which it has consolidated its migration programming from small-scale projects into four new large-scale migration programmes. This marks a shift towards larger, more strategic and inter-related migration development programmes that underpin Danish policy priorities and support comprehensive partnerships with key countries along migratory routes, including those with the EU. The new migration programmes aim to address and prevent irregular migration in a safe, orderly and rights-based manner. This entails both efforts to enhance migration governance and management in key countries along the migratory routes and strengthening the protection of people on the move. The new global and regional migration programmes that the MEAL Consultant (hereinafter “the Consultant”) will initially cover are the following: • Regional Migration Governance Programme for the Mediterranean region, 2024-2029 (RMGP – MED), DKK 300 million • The Danish Migration Management Programme (The Capacity Programme), 2024-2029, DKK 410 million • The Whole of Route Programme, 2024-2029 (WoR Programme), DKK 400 million • Regional Migration Governance Programme for Türkiye and the Western Balkan region, 2025-2030 (RMGP – TWB), DKK 300 million The purpose of having an external Consultant is to support and quality assure that the programmes, MIGSTAB and the IPs achieve and document the results in an evidence-based manner. The Consultant will in particular help the programme and desk officer to quality assure partner results through the assessing the data collected and validating the results through third part monitoring. The Consultant will also assess the partners MEAL capacity and be able to support IPs with training if necessary. Over time, the Consultant will also harvest lessons and learning and possible synergies from the programmes and the IPs that will feed into MIGSTABs overall focus on learning and ensuring outcome level results across the four programmes. Overall, this will help the programmes to remain relevant, appropriate and address the overall objectives and needs for necessary and timely adaptation to the programmes’ design in the course of implementation, for example the needs for other partners’, or areas to be scaled up or down. This is important, due to the volatile political situation in the regions of the migration programmes and due to the changes in migration patterns. It is also important to ensure aid effectiveness, donor coordination, sustainable approaches and localisation. It is thus expected that the Consultant will be aware of other donor interventions in order to be able to ensure coherence, both within the four programmes and among the four programmes and other donor supported programmes. The overall objective of the MEAL unit is: • Quality assurance of the performance of the four programmes’ implementing partners and documentation of outputs, and progress throughout the implementation, • Ensuring evidence-based consistent approaches by partners to harmonise data collection analysis, • Assessing partner MEAL capacity and supporting IPs on MEAL when/where needed, in particular with regard to capacity development • Strengthening the coherence among partners’ initiatives • Supporting on accountability and value for money assessments • Supporting on technical reviews and studies relevant for MIGSTAB and its partners • Supporting MIGSTAB and its programmes and partners in a manner that ease MIGSTABs programme management of the four programmes in a LEAN way • Harvesting results across the four programmes to define and showcase large-scale impact