Consultant: Program Midterm External evaluation (CEE)

Summary of the *Term of Reference

Consultant: Program Midterm External evaluation (CEE)

Report Type: External Evaluation

Period covered: 

• Accelerator Programme: 1/March/2021 – 31/ August/2024
  

• Refugee Employment Programme: 1/July/2022 -31/October/2024.
  

• Accelerator Programme: 1/March2025 - 30/September/2025
  

Geography: Poland and Romania

*Access the complete Term of Reference here.

General purpose: to evaluate the performance, including its impact and its learnings, of the NESsT CEE Acceleration Programs implemented in partnership with IKEA Social Entrepreneurship (ISE).

1. Context
   

Program Justification

There is a large gap that currently exists in ecosystems where IKEA and NESsT are present. Social entrepreneurs are often given support to launch their initial business ideas; but then they are often left on their own to validate and grow their businesses.  There is a blatant lack of support for this “missing middle” stage, when entrepreneurs continue to need business services as well as philanthropic and soft capital support to build out their businesses.  

NESsT and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship have partnered to address this gap head on. In CEE the parties agreed on three-year program to equip 32 social entrepreneurs in the aggregate to grow their enterprises and provide dignified income and employment to vulnerable people in Poland and Romania. Through this cooperation, the parties will demonstrate and share the practices that are best suited to help social entrepreneurs scale their impact.  

Components 

The program provides social entrepreneurs with the business services and appropriate financial capital needed to expand their national and global markets and be able to significantly increase their reach and impact. The partnership supports enterprises that are providing dignified employment to excluded communities and are  prepared
to scale or growth stage. These
enterprises have a business model with a proven cost-revenue structure and capacity to respond to market demand; however, they still need to develop the team, systems, and structures needed for growth. NESsT local teams who have proven knowledge, skills and experience in social enterprise development will provide these services.  They
also leverage the support from IKEA´s coworkers and from other corporate potentially, and pro bono support of NESsT’s network, who act as advisors and mentors, providing industry expertise, market access as well as other tailored services. NESsT plans, whenever possible, to also leverage the support of IKEA’s local value chain. 

The use and intended users of the evaluation:

The primary objective of this evaluation is to support NESsT in assessing the contribution of the accelerator programs to the performance and progress of portfolio companies participating in the acceleration program. The evaluation will extract key insights and lessons learned to inform strategic improvements and enhance the overall effectiveness of the program.

The findings will be utilized by NESsT’s directors and portfolio management team to guide data-driven decision-making and strengthen program design and delivery. Furthermore, key funding partners—including IKEA Social Entrepreneurship (ISE) — will leverage the evaluation of results for impact reporting, program oversight, and alignment with their strategic objectives.

2. The Consultancy

Deliverable: the consultant will prepare a Program Midterm Evaluation Report. 

The program midterm evaluation will focus on relevance, efficiency, and effectivenessi. In addition, the evaluation will provide recommendations to improve the design, execution and consequently the possibility of achieving the entrepreneurial and impact objectives of this program.  

The main objectives of this evaluation are: 

• to determine to what extent the objectives, as defined in the proposals, have been achieved as of the date of the evaluation, and to determine the possibility of achieving them upon completion of the program;
  

• to identify findings, results, difficulties, risks, implementation challenges, conditions for success, learnings, and provide recommendations to improve the program. Beyond the scope of the current program, the evaluation report and recommendations might support NESsT, ISE and in its other ongoing and potential future programs in Europe;
  

• Summarize evaluation learnings to guide NESsT for good practices.
  

Timeline:

• Release of the *Terms of Reference: June12th, 2025.
  

• Deadline to submit written questions: June 22th, 2025
  

• Answers to questions/clarifications: June 30th, 2025
  

• Deadline to submit proposals
  with detailed budget: July 15th, 2025
  

• Assignment of commission (estimated): August, 2025
  

Proposals must be submitted through NESsT Bamboo system and contain:

• Budget (detailed)
  

• Timeline
  

• References
  

• Resume of the evaluators team
  

• Upload examples of similar projects in the specific regions of this project through the link provided