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Ongoing Process Evaluation of the DOLE’s Graduation programme Consultant
Monitoring and Evaluation
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Call for Expressions of Interest (Consultant)
Ongoing Process Evaluation of the DOLE’s Graduation programme Consultant
Engagement Period: June 2026 – December 2026
Consultants Location: Manila, with travel to selected provinces in Regions 1, 5, 8, and 10
Please refer to this link for the detailed TOR: \[**https://bit.ly/UPGIPREVAL**
**Organisational Background**
BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative (UPGI) aims to support governments to scale the Graduation approach for people living in chronic poverty and vulnerable situations. The Graduation approach is a multifaceted set of interventions designed to ensure food security, social inclusion, and sustainable economic livelihoods, enabling the poorest to “graduate” from poverty. The Graduation approach includes support for basic needs, assets and training for income generation and (one-to-one and/or group) coaching to support the participants during the process.
**Rationale**
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is implementing the Graduation Approach- DOLE Integrated Livelihood Program (GA-DILP). The programme is implemented in four provinces in the Ilocos Region (Region 1), Bicol Region (Region 5), Eastern Visayas (Region 8), and Northern Mindanao (Region 10). At the moment, approximately 2,000 participants have been enrolled in the programme and have received their consumption support and livelihood assets from DOLE. DOLE has also started the regular coaching and monitoring of the participants.
BRAC UPGI is providing design and implementation support for the government. The programme aims to adapt and operationalise the Graduation approach within the Philippine government context, with particular attention to implementation quality, coordination across actors, and long-term feasibility for scale.
**Objectives of the Assignment**
BRAC International is seeking a consultant (or consultants) to conduct an ongoing process evaluation of the DOLE’s Graduation programme.
The primary objective of this ongoing process evaluation is to provide actionable learning and insights that respond to the needs of the programme and UPGI country team. Ultimately, the aim is to support UPGI, governments and partners in strengthening the effectiveness, scalability, and long-term viability of Graduation programmes.
Consultant(s) will do this by acting as an external ‘learning partner’. While they will take the role of independent evaluators, they will do this with the focus on learning and providing timely feedback for the programme. The ongoing process evaluation will summarise the state of implementation of the DOLE’s Graduation programme and also report on bottlenecks based on programme implementation experience. Also, it will help understand convergence across Government Departments in the implementation of the programme in respective provinces. The consultant(s) will work as the third eye and ear of the programme which could also capture some critical facts and truths that regular monitoring might not be able to capture.
The scope of individual tasks and areas of work will be jointly decided (with UPGI country team, UPGI global MEL team and the consultant(s)) on an ongoing basis. However, the work will broadly focus on assessing the design, implementation and contextual drives of the Graduation programme, and importantly, system’s capabilities and preparedness for the scaling. In 2026, the key focus will be on looking at the regional variation in programme implementation (how and why), exploring both bottlenecks and capacities for delivering high-quality coaching, evaluating bottlenecks and barriers of different modalities for delivering livelihood assets, and/ or exploring convergence and coordination with local government units and national government agencies to deliver Graduation components.
The analytical framework that underpins UPGI’s thinking related to scaling is called Effective Policy Triangle. According to this framework, for developing a scalable government policy, or programme, attention needs to be paid to three interconnected areas: 1) political supportability, 2) technical ‘correctness’ i.e. having a high-quality intervention, and 3) administrative feasibility. Consultants are given additional information about the analytical framework but the work under each dimension can explore the following elements:
1. Political supportability / Political commitment and stakeholder dynamics: Assessing the extent and nature of political support underpinning the Graduation programme, including leadership at various government levels, inter-ministerial collaboration, fiscal commitment, and support from non-state actors. Evaluations can examine how political economy factors shape programme design, implementation, and sustainability.
2. Technical correctness / high-quality intervention: Assessing the extent to which Graduation programmes are aligned with the Graduation Essentials, and being implemented as intended across different settings. The evaluations can examine adaptation to local contexts, variations in delivery, targeting, and participant experience, as well as mechanisms for quality assurance and feedback.
3. Administrative feasibility / systems integration: Exploring the degree to which Graduation programmes are embedding within national systems, policies, and delivery mechanisms and how processes to build capacity, adjust mandates and KPIs etc are taking place. This includes analysis of government ownership, integration into existing social protection or economic inclusion frameworks, cross-sectoral coordination, capacity building, and data management systems.
The evaluation will use a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative data (e.g., stakeholder interviews, field observations, policy reviews) with quantitative implementation metrics. For gathering participant experiences, interviews and focus group discussions could be used.
The specific outputs are discussed and decided for each task / area of work, but as a general rule, the consultant(s) are not expected to write long reports, instead short notes or presentations are preferred. This will ensure that findings and insights feed into decision-making in a more timely manner. The outputs should serve as a feedback mechanism for the participants, local governments, and DOLE on how to do things better by providing continuous feedback on the delivery of DOLE’s Graduation programme and recommend changes in processes or implementation strategies to improve the administrative feasibility of implementing the Graduation programme at scale nationally. Ultimately, the findings and lessons learned from this evaluation will inform the implementation of the programme in subsequent years and phases.
The country-level learning and insights will also feed into UPGI-wide, cross-country learning that is managed by UPGI global MEL team.
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