International Media Support (IMS) was established in 2001 as a non-profit international organisation with headquarters in Copenhagen. The main activity is support to local media in countries affected by armed conflict, human insecurity and political transition. Based on the conviction that freedom of expression and a free press are key elements in the democratic development of a country, IMS helps strengthen professional journalism and ensure that media can operate in challenging circumstances in more than 50 countries worldwide.

The overall objective of the review is to assess IMS's performance, including an assessment of results, progress, challenges, development of risk factors, and the potential need for adjustment due to changes in the specific programme contexts. The review assesses both the quality of IMS's core activities to support media in areas marked by conflict, crisis and political transition and key elements of its organisational capacity.

The review, in particular assesses the extent to which IMS has implemented the recommendations by the capacity assessment (2012) and the review of IMS' Joint donor basket funding for support to media (2012) as well as the Evaluation of Media Cooperation under the Danish Arab Partnership
Programme (DAPP) (2013), and identifies areas of a particular strong performance and those in need of being enhanced.

The review provides recommendations to IMS which can feed into the preparation a new application for a grant for 2016-2019 as well as provide a basis for the donors' considerations on whether the current basket funding (by Norway, Sweden and Denmark) should continue, and if so whether it should maintain a mix of funding models (core and restricted funding) or be readjusted towards a proper form of core funding to support IMS' overall strategy to pursue its mission objectives. Also, the review provides recommendations for current implementation and future programming of the Media Cooperation Programme in MENA funded by SIDA and the MFA of Denmark.

-A Mission Preparation Note describing the methodology and key issues to be addressed in the data collection process through consultations and visits to selected projects and activities in selected countries.
- A debriefing note describing the preliminary findings, conclusions and recommendations after the field visits.
- A review report of max 25 pages, excluding annexes.
- Desk study
- data collection through interviews/consultations with key informants and resource persons.
- Country visits including meetings and interviews with staff and other relevant stakeholders