Terms of Reference to Undertake End Line Evaluation of SCD/DANIDA Funded Projects
1. Introduction
Save the Children is the world leading independent organization for children. Our vision is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation. Our mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. Save the Children Denmark under its Danida framework has been supporting Child Rights Governance Works since 2016 and will end up in 2018.
2. Background
Child Rights Governance program, one of SCIE’s thematic programs, in Ethiopia focuses on strengthening the national Child Rights Infrastructure, key governance issues that are crucial for child rights outcomes and relationships between actors in those mechanisms and systems. It has developed a three years’ strategy (2016-2018) aspiring to achieve its overall all country strategic goal ‘to jointly contribute towards building stronger and well-functioning governance structures, mechanisms, and resilient institutions to ensure the realization of the rights and participation of deprived children in Ethiopia.’ This three years strategy has three objectives:
Country CRG Strategic objective 1: Monitoring and demanding children’s rights, with children: By 2018, SC will contribute to increased capacity and engagement by civil society, the private sector, children and communities, and National Human Rights Institutions (EHRC and EIO). This will result in strengthened monitoring of children’s rights through increased use of social accountability mechanisms and enhanced capacity of institutions and children to advocate for improved access to quality basic services.
Country CRG Strategic Objective 2: Good governance delivering child rights: By the end of 2018, SC contributed to the development and implementation of child focused policies and information systems supporting children’s rights to adequate health, equal opportunity to quality education, and protection from any sort of violence at federal and regional levels.
Country CRG Strategic objective 3: Public Investment in Children: - By the end of 2018, SC and partners will have contributed to increased capacity of relevant government institutions to allocate adequate amount of resource for prioritized child rights interventions and use those resources in the most effective manner. This will particularly link to the key aspects of our advocacy strategy in areas such as early childhood education, pastoralist child health, and resilience.
Guided by the theory of change Save the Children CRG goes towards these objectives through collaborates both government and non-government with the technical and financial supporter of three traditional donors/members (DANIDA-SCD, NORAD-SCN, and SIDA-SCS) and program has secured a new funding from SCUK breakthrough allocation in 2016. Recently, the three Nordic members have agreed to strengthen the CRG program in Ethiopia by aligning their support (both financial and technical) with that of the country’s strategic planning and priorities and assist in building capacity to develop and implement commonly agreed upon CRG strategies and plans at a more overarching levels we are working to reach common CRG goals. Recent development in the joint programming include joint proposal, joint Result Framework, Joint budget, draft annual programmer reporting format developed, and the three members have agreed to have a joint Technical Assistance.
Though SCD has supported component of the CRG program (2016-2018) is part of the Nordic joint program, SCIE CRG program has planned to conduct an end line evaluation of the SCD funded projects. The program has started in January 2016 and will end on 31 December 2018. The project has implemented in 15 words (9 in Gurage and 6 in Amhara region) with some regional and national level interventions in partnership with Gurage Peoples Self Help Development Organization, Amhara Regional State Bureau of Women and Children Affairs and Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.
3. Objective of the End line evaluation.
The general objective of this final evaluation is to assess the impacts of the project on the lives of children and in strengthening national, regional, and local level child rights systems and mechanisms.
Specific objectives of the End line evaluation are: -
§ To assess the achieved results of the DANIDA supported projects in line with predefined objectives, outcomes, and outputs.
§ To assess the extent to which the project is/remains consistent with, and supportive of, the policy and program framework within which the project has placed, collect data and track the progress of the pre-defined indicators from the baseline data to end line.
§ To assess and document good lesson learnt, case and success stories during the project period for future scale up.
§ To assess the stakeholder participation in the management/implementation of the project and the level of local ownership project performance with respect to efficiency (input delivery, cost control and activity management) and effectiveness (delivery of outputs and progress towards achieving the purpose). Comparison should make against what planned and achieved.
§ To evaluate how far gender, non-discrimination and child participation issues integrated in the projects.
§ To assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, partnership and integration and give recommendations for future programming
4. Scope of the End line evaluation
Time: - the project has started implementation in 2016 will end up in 2018. Thus, the end line evaluation will cover the implementation of the project funded by SCD starting from the year 2016 and until 31 December 2018.
Geographic Scope of the end line evaluation: -The project has implemented in 15 weredas (9 in Guraghe and 6 in Amhara region) with some regional and national level interventions. The end line evaluation should at least cover at least eight-project implementation Weredas.
5. Methodology
The end line evaluation has based on quantitative and qualitative analysis. End line evaluation will include literature review, analysis basing the results frameworks and fieldwork. The primary and secondary data collected will be organized and analyzed thematically based on the objectives and key issues outlined in the Terms of Reference (TOR). Ethical procedures should be integral part of the study design and where appropriate, child friendly approach should employ where needed (for instance, the instruments/tools to be used, safe places for interview, etc.). The team should adhere to procedures like informed consent/assent, anonymity, Safe the Children’s child safeguarding policy and code of conduct, others.
6. Time Frame
The end line evaluation shall be finalized in a period of three months from October until December, 2018.
7. Data Source and Informants
Data source/informants: The end line evaluation will employ both primary and secondary sources. Primary data sources/informants include: members of child parliaments (children aged 10-18 years), sector government officials from Women and Children’s Affairs, Education, Health, Finance and Economic Development Cooperation, and child rights committees, SCI thematic sectors as well as MEAL, Program development Unity, Program Operations and partners’ (MoWCA, BoWCA, PaDET and GPSDO) staff.
Sampling: the project implemented in 15 weredas (9 in Guraghe and 6 in Amhara region) with some regional and national level interventions as well as the integration interventions.
§ Out of the 15 weredas, 9 whereas 5 from Guraghe and 4 from Amhara region including those districts that engaged with children’s parliament representatives during annual budget) will be identified for selecting informants.
Child led, Social Accountability Groups, and Community.
§ Child Parliament: - there are child parliaments in each woreda and each of them have about 100 child members, of which 15 are executive committee members represented from different schools/communities. As schools will close at the time of data collection, the research team will have to select child informants from executive committee members of the child parliaments. Accordingly, a mix of convenient and purposive sampling methods will be used to select child and adult informants. Of the 15 executive committee members of the wereda child parliament, 6-8 children will select for focus group discussions and key informants. Similarly, about 6 adults (government officials) from each of the 8 wereda Women and Children Affairs, Finance and Economic Development Cooperation, and council will be included;
§ Child Focused Social Accountability Groups: - Ten social accountability groups are formed in nine districts (Ezha, Cheha, Abshegeie, Endegagn, Geta, Gumer, Mihur Aklil, Enemore ena Ener and wolkite town) of Guraghe Zone. Each SA group has 20-21 members. These groups are found in Guraghe. So the Social Accountability groups has established in nine woredas. Each Social accountability groups has two members. So each social accountability groups with all the members will be part of the focused groups’ discussion. In addition, one representative from each SA group will take part in key Informant interviews.
§ Child Rights Governance Groups: - there are ten Child Rights Governance groups that has formerly called Community Conversation groups. The Child Rights Governance Groups in the selected woredas will be part of the FGD. 8-10 representative group members will take part in the FGD.
Government Stakeholders
§ Child Right Committee in woredas that will identify will be part of the KII.
§ At federal level, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry Attorney General, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Police Commission, and Ethiopia Broadcasting Corporation are actively working in the integration process. So one key informant that has been working closely on the integration will be selected for KII
§ At regional level, 14 sector offices (including non-child focused sectors such as Land and Environmental Protection offices, agricultural development offices, and Sport and Culture offices) at district level have started integrating children’s issues in their programs. So one key Informant that has been working closely on the mainstreaming will be selected in the KII.
Save the Children
§ From SCI thematic sector (PDU, DRR, Award, Finance, Partnership, Ops, and MEAL) in total 7 will take part in the Key Informant Interview.
Partners
§ Federal MoWCA and Amhara Region Bureau of Women and Children Affairs one from each will select for key informant interviews.
§ Two rom (Executive Director and Program Manager of GPSDO and PaDET will be part of the end line evaluation.
Secondary Documents
In addition, the national strategy documents such as the National Plan of Action for Children and MoWCA’s 2nd Growth and Transformation Plan; annual report of SCD supported Project (2016/7/8); Report on Budget Analysis on ECCE and Primary Education in four districts of Guraghe zone (2015); documentation reports by partners; 2016 half annual and annual progress report; and secondary data (mainly the number of children participating in government budgetary process, amount of budget allocated for child parliaments and other child focused activities) from government offices
8. Data collection tools include:
The end line evaluation will employ focus group discussions for the Child Parliaments, Child Rights Governance Groups and Child Focused Social Accountability groups. Accordingly, there will nine child Parliaments, Five Child Right Governance Groups and Child Focused Social Accountability Focused group session. So in total there will be 19 focused group discussion. Each groups will be composed of 8-10 children will be conducted.
key informant interview items administered to the partners and government stakeholders at the local level including Wereda council, Women and Children Affairs, Finance and Economic Development Cooperation, Education, Health, House of Speakers) selected from sample woredas of Guraghe zone, Amhara region, and federal Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, SC thematic sectors and Partners’ staff.
9. key issues to be addressed
The evaluation shall analyze the information by utilizing the five criteria set out by the DAC[1] Besides; there are additional key issues that has expected to be covered with the evaluation.
9.1 Impact
· Assess whether program has served the intended purpose indicated in the project document
· Identify and analyse the real difference and significant changes that the project has brought in the beneficiaries including the lives of children with disabilities, orphans, other vulnerable children and other stakeholders.
· Assess the progress towards the actual project outcomes and impact.
· Provide evidence of practical success stories
9.2 Effectiveness
· Identify how effective were the project strategies and approaches in terms of meeting the project planned outcomes
· Identify for each expected Outcome and Output (result) what has been accomplished in relation to what has been stated in the project document/proposal and logical framework;
· What were the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the objectives?
· Assess if the monitoring and results based management systems (including MEAL/M&E framework) used has contributed to the effectiveness of the project and if so, why and how?
· Identify the strategies that have proven particularly effective for achieving the Outcomes and Outputs.
· Assess children participation in all phases of the project implementation.
9.3 Sustainability
· Assess the sustainability of the results of the Project/Program (will the Outcomes and Outputs endure; how likely does continuing progress towards the impact seem, and what are the major factors contributing or hindering sustainability – e.g. capacity building of partners, teachers, children, etc.).
· What were the major factors that influenced the achievement or non-achievement of sustainability of the project/program?
· Assess to what extent and how the project/program has increased the accountability and capacity of parents, government bodies and the school community.
· How the project/program linked with government and other relevant institutions?
· How do we ensure financial sustainability after the project?
· Document ownership and involvement of different government bodies at different levels, and other key stakeholders.
9.4 Relevance
· To what extent are the objectives of the project/program still valid?
· Are the activities and outputs of the project/program consistent with the intended impacts and results?
· What strategies and activities have been revised or adapted based on the Mid-Term Review (MTR)?
· How appropriate was the project in terms of scale and design?
· Assess to what extent the project has reached children without appropriate care in particular children with disabilities, orphans and other vulnerable children. Which strategies have been most useful?
· Assess the relevance of the project to the context and child rights situation in the project implementation areas.
9.5 Efficiency
· How efficiently the resources available used. Were objectives achieved on time?
· How was the cooperation and learning among stakeholders within the CO’s/Program’s?
· How efficient is the process of learning and dissemination?
· How efficiently have the lessons learned along the way utilized in improving the projects compared to alternatives?
9.6 Partnership:
This is to assess the extent and quality of partnership created by CSOs, government, local structures
· Have appropriate Implementing collaborates (IPs) and stakeholders been selected, and working together?
· Extent to which stakeholders share resources, information sharing, communication, and decision-making?
· To what extent have the stakeholders been involved in, benefited from program/project planning, implementation, and monitoring?
· Assess to what extent the project has contribute for enhancing capacities of IPs in particular CSOs
· How strong is their project/program ownership?
9.7 Integration:
This is to assess the level and quality of integration among each thematic area, other projects and stakeholders including government focus areas and local structures to achieve the project/program objectives as well as ensuring sustainability.
· What is the contribution of each thematic area as well as complement each other to achieve the program/project objectives, in areas where more than one thematic areas have implemented?
· What are the contribution of each thematic area results to the overall success of the program/project in areas where more than one thematic areas have implemented?
· How different stakeholders within the program/project integrated approach complemented each other?
· How different focus areas and projects of stakeholders and IPs’ integrated as well as complemented each other?
The terminal evaluation 100% will complete within 60 days and out of which 45 days will be the actual consultancy days. The actual evaluation (data collection and related activities) will conduct in the months of October – December 2018. The following are the major deliverables;
10.1 Inception Report: the inception report starts with a thorough desk review and analysis of the documentation provided. Based on the analysis, the inception report shall include the evaluation framework and plan, including suggested methodologies to both collect and analyze data for each key evaluation question and outlines for the evaluation timeline and activity plan. The consultant can only embark on fieldwork, once the inception report has approved by SCI CO.
10.2 Draft and then Final Evaluation Report: The consultancy has expected to produce one draft and final quality report that documents the good practices and lessons learnt; differentiating findings and recommendations. In addition to the reports, the consultancy also submit data on methodology used, interview outlines, list of people interviewed /met, etc.
· Draft and final report of the evaluation report (35 - 40 pages excluding the annexes) with distinctive content of the study area in two hard copies and a CD soft copy (report PDF, Word and data sources) including the transcripts of interviews etc.;
· Presentation of the final evaluation findings in a workshop for the project stakeholders (regional and national government, project implementing partners and donor);
11. Payments;
The consultancy fee will be paid in three instalments: 30% advance upon concept paper is submitted and approved, 40% when the first draft report is approved and 30% when the final report is approved and after submission of the final report in hard and soft copies. The consultancy shall be responsible for all taxes. 100% for payment is a requirement once the consultancy firm has selected
12. Qualification and experience of the consultant;
The project evaluation has conducted by an external, independent consultant as a team leader; with preferably consultants/assistants.
The consultants shall have the following expertise and qualifications:
· A minimum of 7-8 years direct related consultancy experience in one or more professional disciplines with a Master’s degree (post-graduate degree) in Education, Law, Social Work, Sociology, Psychology and other related fields, with sound knowledge in child rights and Child Rights Governance.
· Excellent understanding and experience in child rights, child focused polices and Child Rights Governance in Ethiopian context.
· Knowledge and experience of using participatory methodologies
· Strong analytical, presentation and high quality writing and reporting skills in English language
· Proven experience in conducting quality evaluations and assessing development program, or submit testimonials of similar works
· Should have experience on quantitative and qualitative research methods and analysis.
· Strong child rights programming skills (child participation skills an asset)
13. Organization and the Consultant Roles and Responsibilities
The consultancy is responsible for carrying out the evaluation in a professional manner. However, Save Children International (SCI) and local partners will be actively involved in and contributing to the process. SCI Evaluation Handbook will follow as much as possible; and emphasis will be on learning, participation and accountability. SC will provide technical support and the documents mentioned under Available Documentation. Partners will cooperate in the provision of data to the consultants and in the review of draft report. Save the Children will provide technical guidance on the evaluation process through reviewing the inception report, data collection tools, draft evaluation report and making sure that all data collection procedures are strictly applied. In the implementation of the terminal evaluation SCI Ethiopia CO and the consultant holds the following responsibilities.
13.2 Responsibility of the consultant
· Submit application letter, technical and financial proposal with clear statement of the proposed methodologies.
· Lead consultations process, with all informants of the evaluation and responsible for validity of the information and outline the roles of each of the team members proposed to undertake the consultancy work
· Administer data collection, data entry and analysis of questionnaires and key informant interviews;
· Reviewing and understanding the project LFA and address them through evaluation tools
· Collect data from implementing partners, schools, cluster supervisors, PTAs, Principals, deputy principals, teachers, students, community members and children and relevant stakeholders.
· Develop data collection tools including questionnaires, interview guides with structured questions, FGD guiding questions, and observation checklists and submit the developed instruments to SC for review and comments
· Clearly show data presentation analysis and interpretation approaches of the evaluation.
· Undertake other activities stated in the scope of the work and this ToR;
· Review and incorporate feedback received from SC and donor
· Responsible for the tasks specified and for making sure quality of work has done in the agreed timeframe and meeting the required standard.
· Adhere to the SC’s Child Safe Guarding Policy and Code of Conduct. The consultant shall sign the SC’s code of conduct
· Upon completion of the overall validation workshop, a final report will produce with specific action points, and recommendations. The report will be shared with all partners and donor
· Cover all field costs from the consultancy fee.
13.3 Responsibility of Save the Children
· Oversee the process of data collection of the consultant/s
· Provide relevant document to the consultant
· Provide timely feedback on the instruments, inception and final reports
· Introduce the consultant to partner organizations,
· Organizing consultation meetings and validation workshops
· Inviting partners to the validation workshop
· Effect consultant/s payment upon accomplishment of the tasks assigned to the consultants;
14. Evaluation Criteria
The proposals submitted will review based on the following scoring criteria, It is a level D consultancy service.
Component | 100% |
Technical Proposal | 60% |
| 10% |
| 5% |
| 5% |
| 5% |
| 35% |
Financial Proposal | 40% |
Total | 100% |
12. Qualification and experience of the consultant;
The consultants shall have the following expertise and qualifications:
· A minimum of 7-8 years direct related consultancy experience in one or more professional disciplines with a Master’s degree (post-graduate degree) in Education, Law, Social Work, Sociology, Psychology and other related fields, with sound knowledge in child rights and Child Rights Governance.
· Excellent understanding and experience in child rights, child focused polices and Child Rights Governance in Ethiopian context.
· Knowledge and experience of using participatory methodologies
· Strong analytical, presentation and high quality writing and reporting skills in English language
· Proven experience in conducting quality evaluations and assessing development program, or submit testimonials of similar works
· Should have experience on quantitative and qualitative research methods and analysis.
· Strong child rights programming skills (child participation skills an asset)
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