1. Background and Context

The Legal Aid Society (LAS) is implementing the Protecting and Promoting Religious Freedom in Pakistan (PPRF) programme from 30 September 2023 to 30 April 2026 across six districts in Sindh and Punjab: Dadu, Hyderabad, Sanghar, Multan, Khanewal, and Muzaffargarh.

The programme seeks to reduce vulnerabilities faced by Religious Minority Communities (RMCs)—with particular focus on women and adolescent girls—by strengthening legal awareness, socio-economic autonomy, access to justice, and institutional responsiveness to cases of forced conversion and forced marriage. Programme interventions include community-based legal empowerment, paralegal training, capacity building of Criminal Justice Sector (CJS) actors, research and policy advocacy, and promotion of inclusive dialogue.

A baseline study was conducted at the outset of the programme to establish benchmark values related to legal awareness, access to justice, autonomy, vulnerability, and institutional capacity. This evaluation is commissioned as an external endline and performance evaluation to assess programme performance, contribution to intended results, and changes over time through systematic comparison of endline findings with baseline benchmarks..     

2. Organization Background:

The Legal Aid Society (LAS) is a not-for-profit organization working on its mission to connect vulnerable & disempowered end users of justice with effective and expedient services for the delivery of justice.  LAS is working under the Chairmanship of Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, former Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. LAS’s interventions have been aimed at increasing access to justice for the vulnerable and marginalized communities at provincial and federal level.  

 In pursuit of constitutional protections, under the thematic area of Freedom of Religious Belief, LAS is implementing the “Protecting and Promoting Religious Freedom in Pakistan” initiative, designed to defend the legal rights of at-risk religious communities. This project advances practical, community-based legal empowerment through paralegal training, local legal awareness programs, and the targeted strengthening of Criminal Justice Sector (CJS) actors. It supports thorough, evidence-based research to drive reforms and correct policy-level gaps, while building a firm foundation for public discourse and advocacy rooted in law and order. The initiative is operational across three districts each in Sindh (Dadu, Hyderabad, Sanghar) and Punjab (Multan, Khanewal, Muzaffargarh), ensuring that no law-abiding citizen is denied timely justice due to neglect or bureaucratic inertia.

3. Purpose of the Evaluation

The purpose of this endline and performance evaluation is to:

• Assess changes over time by comparing endline findings against baseline benchmarks

• Evaluate programme performance and contribution at output, outcome, and goal levels

• Support accountability, organizational learning, and evidence-based decision-making

• Inform future programming, sustainability strategies, and potential scale-up

The primary users of the evaluation findings will be LAS senior management, programme teams, and partners.

4. Evaluation Objectives

The evaluation will:

1. Assess the extent to which the programme has contributed to changes from baseline levels in legal awareness, socio-economic autonomy, access to justice, and vulnerability to forced conversion and forced marriage among RMCs.

2. Examine improvements in knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Criminal Justice Sector actors, compared with baseline capacities.

3. Assess programme performance in terms of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability.

4. Examine the programme’s contribution to inclusive legal, political, and social discourse, including progress against gaps identified at baseline.

5. Identify strengths, challenges, lessons learned, and good practices.

6. Assess the sustainability and institutionalization of programme results beyond programme completion.

7. Provide actionable and forward-looking recommendations for future programming and replication.

5. Scope of the Evaluation

The evaluation will cover:

• The full programme implementation period (September 2023 – April 2026)

• All programme components and geographic locations

• Direct and indirect beneficiaries, including women, adolescent girls, community-based paralegals, and justice sector actors

The scope includes assessment of:

• Programme performance against planned results

• Changes relative to baseline benchmarks

• Quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of implementation

• Programme contribution to observed outcomes and broader goals

6. Evaluation Criteria and Key Questions

The evaluation will be guided by the OECD-DAC evaluation criteria (Relevance, Coherence, Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Sustainability). The assessment will examine programme performance and results at output, outcome, and goal levels, while also assessing changes over time in relation to baseline benchmarks where applicable.

6.1 Relevance

• To what extent is the programme design and implementation aligned with the needs, priorities, and rights of Religious Minority Communities, particularly women and adolescent girls?

• To what extent do programme objectives, outputs, and activities remain relevant to the legal, social, and institutional context in which the programme operates?

• How well do programme interventions respond to issues related to forced conversion, forced marriage, and access to justice as identified through baseline findings and evolving contextual realities?

• To what extent are programme goals consistent with national legal frameworks, justice sector priorities, and minority protection mechanisms?

6.2 Coherence

• To what extent are programme outputs and outcomes logically connected and mutually reinforcing across different programme components?

• How well does the programme complement or coordinate with other initiatives, actors, and institutions working on access to justice, human rights, and minority protection?

• To what extent is the programme internally coherent in linking community-level interventions, institutional capacity building, and policy advocacy toward overall programme goals?

6.3 Effectiveness

• To what extent have planned outputs (e.g. training, legal awareness activities, paralegal services, institutional capacity-building initiatives) been delivered as intended?

• To what extent have intended outcomes been achieved, including changes in legal awareness, access to justice, autonomy, and institutional responsiveness?

• What changes are observed at endline in comparison to baseline findings, and to what extent can these changkles be plausibly linked to programme interventions?

• To what extent have women, adolescent girls, and other vulnerable groups benefited from programme outcomes?

• Were there any unintended positive or negative effects resulting from programme implementation?

6.4 Efficiency

• To what extent were programme resources (financial, human, and technical) used economically and in a timely manner to produce planned outputs and outcomes?

• How efficient were programme management, coordination, and monitoring arrangements in supporting effective implementation?

• To what extent did implementation modalities and partnerships contribute to or constrain efficient delivery of results?

• Were programme outputs delivered within planned timeframes and at reasonable cost relative to scope and complexity?

6.5 Sustainability

• To what extent are programme results at output and outcome levels likely to be sustained beyond programme completion?

• To what extent have institutional capacities, systems, and partnerships been strengthened to support continuation of programme benefits?

• What financial, institutional, social, or legal factors may enable or hinder sustainability?

• To what extent do beneficiaries and stakeholders demonstrate ownership and commitment to sustaining programme achievements?

6.6 Cross-Cutting Considerations

Across all evaluation criteria, the evaluation will systematically assess:

• Gender Equality:
  The extent to which programme interventions have contributed to gender-responsive outputs and outcomes, particularly for women and adolescent girls from RMCs.

• Human Rights:
  The extent to which a human-rights-based approach has been applied and contributed to the realization of rights related to freedom of religion, legal protection, and access to justice.

• Inclusion and Equity:
  The extent to which vulnerable and marginalized groups have been meaningfully included and benefited from programme interventions.

7. Methodology

The evaluation will adopt a mixed-methods approach, building on the baseline study methodology to ensure comparability over time.

The endline and performance evaluation shall be conducted across all six (6) programme districts—Hyderabad, Sanghar, Dadu, Multan, Khanewal, and Muzaffargarh—with adequate representation of each district in the sampling framework, consistent with programme coverage and baseline design.

The sampling approach shall be methodologically sound and clearly justified. The proposed sampling design shall be submitted as part of the inception report and will be subject to review and formal approval by the Legal Aid Society prior to commencement of fieldwork.

Methods will include:

• Desk review of programme documents (baseline report, logframe, progress reports, research and policy outputs)

• Quantitative surveys aligned with baseline indicators (where feasible)

• Key Informant Interviews (KIIs)

• Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)

• Field visits and data validation

The evaluation will:

• Compare endline findings against baseline benchmarks

• Analyze direction and magnitude of change

• Assess contribution while accounting for contextual factors

Triangulation of data sources and ethical safeguards will be applied throughout.

8. Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholders to be consulted include:

• LAS senior management and programme staff

• Judiciary members, lawyers, prosecutors, and police officials

• Government officials and parliamentarians

• Community-based paralegals

• Women and adolescent girls from Religious Minority Communities

• Civil society and institutional partners

9. Deliverables and Timeline

10. Evaluation Team Qualifications

• Postgraduate degree in law, social sciences, evaluation, or related field

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in development, human rights, or rule-of-law evaluations

• Demonstrated experience in baseline–endline and performance evaluations

• Thematic area experience/knowledge: preferably in areas related to the Humanitarian Law and access to justice.

• Strong analytical and report-writing skills

• Fluency in English, Urdu and Regional Languages

• Proven independence from programme implementation

11. Ethical Considerations

The evaluation will be conducted in accordance with internationally recognized evaluation standards, including OECD-DAC principles and UNEG Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation, ensuring confidentiality, informed consent, and do-no-harm practices.