Tenders are invited for Final External Evaluation of the Strengthening the Sustainability of an Independent, Free and Pluralist Media Ecosystem in Ukraine Project. Closing Date: 1 Jun 2026 Type: Consultancy Since 2022, journalists covering Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine have been deliberately targeted, while media infrastructure has been repeatedly damaged or destroyed. The security situation and working conditions for journalists is continuously deteriorating, including due to an additional wave of Russian attacks on civil energy-supply infrastructures since October 2025. The security threat while reporting on the ground has also intensified with the growing use of drones, leading to an increasing number of journalists being killed or injured, as well as repeated attacks on media facilities in 2025. In addition, Russia continues perpetrating arbitrary arrests and detention, killings, ill-treatment, and forced labour of Ukrainian journalists. In 2025, Reporters sans frontières (RSF - Reporters Without Borders) recorded an increase in convictions of detained Ukrainian journalists in Temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or Russian soil, where media professionals are being silenced and replaced with propagandists. Adding to this already precarious situation, the suspension and withdrawal of USAID support worldwide from January 2025 severely affected the Ukrainian media, 90% of them having relied on US grants in full or part previously. Media outlets had to adopt survival strategies in all aspects of their management. The year 2025 also marks the government reshuffle, including with the appointment of new Minister for Culture, Tetyana Berezhna. The priorities of the new government being centered on the military and the economy represent a new opportunity for advocacy for media economic resilience. In this context, RSF has continuously striven to protect and defend journalists, media workers, and media to pursue their work in Ukraine while safeguarding the independence, plurality, and reliability of information produced and disseminated.Since its opening in 2022, the Kyiv Press Freedom Center has supported more than 2,100 journalists and 230 media outlets across Ukraine, helping them to continue covering Russias war of aggression, which has been raging for four years. Since the beginning of the Strengthening the sustainability of an independent, free and pluralist media ecosystem in Ukraine project, emergency assistance efforts under this project enabled 340 journalists, 57% of which are women, and 1 media outlet to sustain their war coverage. RSF was also able to establish and nest the International Fund for the Reconstruction of the Ukrainian Media (IFRUM) together with 8 major Ukrainian media support organisations to contribute to mid and long term resilience of the Ukrainian media landscape. Over the period, RSF also published press releases and posts across 4 social media platforms in order to sensitise the general public at the international level about the violations of press freedom in Ukraine. This action was combined with continuous strategic litigation to reduce the impunity of war crimes committed against journalists by the Russian military. 1.2/ Reporters sans frontières Founded in 1985, Reporters sans frontières (RSF) defends the right to reliable information. Its mandate is based on article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers". RSF strives to ensure that all human beings benefit from information that enables them to know, understand and form an opinion on the issues facing the world and their environment. To achieve this, the organisation is developing a holistic strategy, with 360° activities, to bring about global change. RSF acts on four levels: press freedom, relations between the public and journalists, the information market and the information space. RSF also demonstrates creativity by developing systemic initiatives that address the causes of problems: the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) and the Partnership on Information and Democracy (I&D). RSF has an international secretariat in Paris, 14 sections and offices around the world, more than 150 correspondents, 4 representatives and local partners in a wide range of countries. RSF is a registered association in France and has consultative status with the United Nations and UNESCO. 2/ The project The project to evaluate is entitled Strengthening the sustainability of an independent, free and pluralist media ecosystem in Ukraine, funded by the Delegation of the European Union in Ukraine, in the framework of the Ukraine Facility mechanism. The project began on 5 December 2024 and will end on 4 December 2026 (24-month implementation period). The total budget for the project is 2,242,058.31, of which 1, 998,658.00 is funded by the European Union and 243,400.80 are covered with other sources of funding. The RSF team working on the project are: the Project and MEAL department, the International Coordination department, the Advocacy and Assistance department, the Communication department, the Editorial department, and the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) department. In the framework of this project, RSF cooperates with two types of organisations (in addition to service providers): Local organisations defending press freedom, to ensure the relevance and implementation of some project activities; Other international non-governmental organisations with which RSF coordinates support to Ukrainian journalists. This project is a continuation of two previous EU-funded projects implemented by RSF in Ukraine: Towards an RSF Press Freedom Center in Lviv to fostering reliable media coverage of the crisis in Ukraine and the region from 10 March 2022 to 9 March 2023 ; Strengthening Press Freedom Centres in Ukraine from 1 June 2023 to 30 November 2024. The aim of this project is to consolidate and complement the actions implemented in the first two projects. Final external evaluations of the two projects were carried out, which enabled RSF to draw lessons learned and take them into account in designing and implementing its third EU-funded project in Ukraine. 2.1/ Objective of the project The project aims to contribute to fostering access to independent and reliable media coverage of the crisis and its aftermath in Ukraine and the region for the general public and decision-makers in Ukraine and internationally. 2.2/ Target countries and target groups The target country is Ukraine. The project is designed to address the needs of journalists and media professionals both ukrainians and foreign covering the war in Ukraine as well as Ukrainian media outlets. The final beneficiaries also include the general public that will benefit from reliable information and could therefore be able to better identify and avoid disinformation. 2.3/ Objectives and planned activities Specific Objective: Contribute to providing and promoting a safer and more favorable environment for journalists, media professionals and media working in Ukraine and facing the long term consequences of the war. The project includes three outputs: Output 1: Journalists, media professionals and media covering the war are better supported to continue their work in the long run of the conflict. Activity 1.1: Provide journalists and media outlets covering the war with the necessary direct support to continue their work. Activity 1.2: Provide journalists with the necessary training and psychological support to continue their work. Output 2: The capacities of media outlets are strengthened to ensure their long term sustainability to prepare the path for the recovery and reconstruction in Ukraine. Activity 2.1: Strengthen the development of the Journalism Trust Initiative in the Ukrainian media landscape as a tool for better sustainability. Activity 2.2: Advocate to raise awareness of the JTI standard to guarantee the identification of trustworthy sources of information. Activity 2.3: Advocate for the inclusion of media sustainability in the agenda of the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine. Activity 2.4: Foster collective efforts of the media support and development community to enhance financial support to independent and transparent Ukrainian media. Output 3: General public and key stakeholders are informed about and mobilised against press freedom violations and disinformation. Activity 3.1: Monitor, document and analyze press freedom violations and disinformation in Ukraine. Activity 3.2: Develop specific advocacy and litigation strategies. Activity 3.3: Denounce and raise public awareness about press freedom violations and the disinformation that is propagating from the war. 3/ The assignment 3.1/ Intended use of the evaluation and stakeholders The aim of the evaluation is to enable RSF to identify and exploit the strengths of the project, as well as opportunities for improvement for the continuation of activities, engagement with the Delegation of the European Union in Ukraine, and outreach to new donors. The main stakeholders who will use the results of the evaluation are: The Project officer and the MEAL officer, who will use the evaluation findings to identify and build on the strengths and room for improvement of its project, for the designing and implementation of future similar activities in Ukraine or other crisis-contexts. The RSF team in charge of implementing activities, who will use the results for future activities in Ukraine or other crisis-contexts. The donor, who will use the evaluation to obtain an assessment of the effectiveness of the projects implementation. The evaluation is to be d Tender Link : https://reliefweb.int/job/4208398/tor-final-external-evaluation-strengthening-sustainability-independent-free-and-pluralist-media-ecosystem-ukraine-project
