Project Outcome Harvest Writer

Job Title: Project Outcome Harvest Writer

Location: Nigeria

Job Summary

• Working closely with Plan International Nigeria’s Brand and Communications team, MERL team, programme team, implementing partner, and relevant stakeholders.
• The Consultant will be responsible for conducting a comprehensive outcome harvesting exercise and developing high-quality written documentation from the Education in Emergencies project implemented in Borno State.

The assignment will include:

• Participating in inception and briefing meetings with Plan International Nigeria, CASFOD, MERL, programme, and communications teams to clarify expectations, methodology, timelines, documentation priorities, ethical requirements, safeguarding considerations, and approval processes.
• Reviewing relevant project documents, including proposals, reports, results frameworks, activity reports, monitoring data, previous documentation, communication materials, and other evidence sources to understand the project design, implementation approach, target groups, and expected outcomes.
• Developing an outcome harvesting plan, including proposed outcome areas, data collection approach, stakeholder categories, tools, interview guides, validation process, field schedule, and documentation structure.
• Identifying and documenting intended and unintended outcomes emerging from the project, including observable changes in behaviours, practices, relationships, systems, actions, decision-making, learning access, teaching approaches, learner retention, transition, community engagement, and protective learning environments.
• Conducting Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews, direct observations, and other appropriate documentation activities with substantiators, including children, adolescents, teachers, caregivers, school leaders, community structures, government stakeholders, implementing partners, and project staff.
• Gathering and triangulating evidence from stakeholder testimonies, programme data, field observations, project reports, and relevant documentation to substantiate identified outcomes and strengthen the credibility of findings.
• Analysing the project’s contribution to observed changes, including key enabling factors, implementation processes, stakeholder roles, contextual influences, challenges, and external factors that supported or limited progress.
• Documenting project achievements, measurable and credible non-measurable results, lessons learned, promising practices, sustainability considerations, challenges, innovations, and influencing actions to support accountability, learning, adaptive management, and future programming.
• Developing clear, compelling, evidence-based, and human-centred written products, including outcome stories, success stories, case studies, learning briefs, participant narratives, and other agreed documentation outputs.
• Ensuring that all written products reflect the dignity, voices, experiences, resilience, and perspectives of children, adolescents, teachers, caregivers, community members, partners, and government stakeholders reached or engaged through the project.
• Working closely with the Brand and Communications team to ensure that all narratives are clear, audience-appropriate, ethically framed, and suitable for donor reporting, advocacy, visibility, stakeholder engagement, knowledge management, digital communication, and institutional learning.
• Incorporating consolidated feedback from Plan International Nigeria, CASFOD, MERL, programme, and relevant review teams in a timely and professional manner.
• Ensuring that all documentation processes and final outputs comply with Plan International Nigeria’s safeguarding, child protection, informed consent, confidentiality, inclusion, ethical storytelling, representation, and data protection standards.
• Submitting all final approved outputs in agreed editable formats, including clean and tracked-change versions where applicable, together with organised supporting materials, interview notes, outcome records, references, captions, and other relevant documentation files.

Responsibilities

Working in close coordination with the Project Team, CASFOD, and Plan International Nigeria’s MERL, Brand, and Communications teams, the Consultant will:

• Participate in desk review of relevant project documents, including proposals, reports, monitoring data, activity records, previous documentation, and existing evidence to inform outcome identification and documentation priorities.
• Participate in pre-field briefing sessions to align on the outcome harvesting objectives, methodology, data collection tools, stakeholder mapping, safeguarding protocols, informed consent procedures, timelines, and expected outputs.
• Develop and apply an appropriate sampling approach for selecting Focus Group Discussion and Key Informant Interview participants, ensuring representation across gender, age, disability, location, and stakeholder categories.
• Conduct field visits to targeted communities in Damboa, Kala Balge, and Mobbar LGAs to collect primary data through Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews, direct observations, and other appropriate participatory methods.
• Engage relevant stakeholders, including teachers, school administrators, adolescent learners, caregivers, community members, education authorities, community structures, implementing partners, project staff, and other relevant actors, ensuring informed consent and safeguarding compliance at all stages.
• Identify and document verifiable intended and unintended outcomes, clearly capturing changes in behaviours, practices, actions, relationships, systems, decision-making, and stakeholder engagement.
• Ensure each documented outcome clearly reflects who changed, what changed, when and where the change occurred, why the change is significant, and how the project contributed to the observed change.
• Gather and organise credible evidence to substantiate documented outcomes, drawing from stakeholder testimonies, programme monitoring data, field observations, project reports, and other relevant sources.
• Triangulate qualitative findings with available programme data, including indicators, activity reports, monitoring records, and other documented evidence, to strengthen the credibility and accuracy of the outcome findings.
• Ensure documented outcomes are evidence-based, well-structured, and substantiated through at least two credible sources, where feasible, with clear articulation of outcome significance, lessons learned, sustainability considerations, enabling factors, challenges, and influencing actions.
• Analyse the project’s contribution to observed changes, including the role of project interventions, stakeholder actions, contextual factors, partnerships, community engagement, and other factors that supported or limited progress.
• Collaborate with the MERL, Programme, Brand, and Communications teams to ensure consistency, quality assurance, and alignment between documented outcomes, supporting evidence, visual materials, and final communication products.
• Develop clear, compelling, evidence-based, and human-centred written outputs, including documented outcomes, outcome stories, success stories, case studies, learning products, and analytical summaries, as agreed.
• Submit documented outcomes, analytical outputs, and draft written products for review, and incorporate consolidated feedback within agreed timelines to ensure quality, accuracy, completeness, and alignment with Plan International Nigeria’s standards.
• Ensure all documentation processes and final outputs comply with Plan International Nigeria’s safeguarding, child protection, informed consent, confidentiality, inclusion, ethical storytelling, representation, data protection standards and Plan International’s Global Outcome Harvest Guidance.

Delivarables:

• The consultant (writer) will be expected to