Jordan: Evaluation Consultant, Education in Emergencies Project

Terms of Reference for the End of Project Evaluation of “Rebuilding Futures:Provision of Quality Informal Education opportunities for Syrian Refugee children and youth in Za’atari Refugee Camp”

1. Background:

War Child UK (WCUK) is a child rights organization founded in the UK in 1993 with a vision of a world in which children’s lives are not torn apart by war. WCUK exists to support and rehabilitate child victims of war and deal with the lasting consequences of conflict by working with local communities, civil society organizations and local authorities in both conflict and post-conflict countries; ensuring sustainable security for the children; promoting livelihood opportunities and addressing the development needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized children. Currently, we work in six conflict and post-conflict countries: DRC, Uganda, Afghanistan, Jordan (Syria response), Iraq and Central African Republic.

WCUK has worked in Jordan for over two years in Za’atri camp and the host community with special focus on education and child protection.

2. Project Description:

This proposal presents a scale up of the informal education programme which War Child UK has been operating in Za’atari camp since October 2013, through collaboration with IRD and their facilities. Furthermore, it has been designed in consultation with the children and caregivers War Child UK has been working with to date in Za’atari Camp, and responds directly to the needs and recommendations arising from the aforementioned assessments. This project operates in 2 of the 12 districts of Za’atari camp; in UNESCO’s District 10 facility and in IRD’s District 7 facility and as three main components:

Result 1:

200 vulnerable Syrian refugee children receive structured informal education services

Result 2:

200 vulnerable Syrian refugee children benefit from improved access to child protection through recreational services and psychosocial support

Result 3:

Caregivers and community members benefit from strengthened psychosocial wellbeing, parenting skills and involvement in their children’s education

3. Overall Purpose of the Evaluation

The end of project evaluation shall document:

· How effective were the assumptions in the logical framework and how they can be improved in future project designs.

· The relevance and effectiveness of the approach to improving the educational status and resilience amongst the Syrian refugee children and young people.

· The relevance and effectiveness of the approach to increasing caregiver’s and the community’s involvement in their children’s education.

· Lessons learnt and proposed feasible recommendations to inform future programme design in particular with refugee children in a conflict-affected settings within War Child UK, other NGOs, donors and the government.

The evidence generated through this evaluation exercise is expected to:

· Better inform future programme design/programming with refugee children in relation to their education, protection, participation and skills-building

· Better define the educational and psychosocial needs and challenges of refugee children and the usefulness of the approach applied in this project

· Increase knowledge of stakeholders on how to improve the educational status of refugee children through using parental support, community support, etc.

· Gather data on and report to all the outcome indicators in the project log frame.

4. Scope and Focus of the Evaluation

The aim of the consultancy is to reliably evaluate the extent to which the project has achieved its expected outcomes, and identify evidence that these outcomes have contributed to the programme’s desired impact. The areas of focus would correspond with the contractual obligations with the donor, UNESCO.

The Consultant is expected to evaluate the project following the OECD DAC criteria[1]: (i) relevance; (ii) effectiveness (added value, learning and partnership approach), (iii) sustainability (iv) efficiency and value for money (v) impact. For Value for Money consider DFID’s 3E’s as the questions: Is there evidence that the following were considered -

Economy- Are we (or our agents) buying inputs of the appropriate quality at the right price?

Efficiency - How well are we (or our agents) converting inputs into outputs? (‘*Spending well’*)

Effectiveness - How well are the outputs produced by an intervention having the intended effect? (‘*Spending wisely’*);

More specifically, the consultant is expected to develop and implement a methodology that will answer the following questions besides the OECD DAC criteria (to be finalised and agreed between War Child UK, and the consultant after contract award):

Project Evaluation:

· For this project, how is educational achievement and psychosocial resilience of children affected by conflict being defined and how it can be measured in future programmes?

· Did the project reach to the most vulnerable boys and girls through its interventions?

· Is the comprehensive education and child protection approach used in this project to target boys and girls, their caretakers and community members successful? What are the strengths of an intervention with a focus on education and child protection and what are its weaknesses?

· What are the common denominators for refugee families who have been successful in education and protection activities?

· Who has benefitted (women, men, girls and boys) from the programmatic interventions and in what ways? Specifically, is there evidence that the approaches used in the project contributed[2] to improved literacy and numeracy skills? Is there evidence that the approaches used in the project contributed to increased psychosocial resilience and a reduction in conflict-related trauma?

· Has the project contributed to improving the capacity of War Child to deliver quality education and child protection programmes across the project cycle and meaningfully impact the lives of children in a camp setting?

5. Process and Methodology

This evaluation will take a course of three weeks starting 10^th of January 2016 before the project ends. The consultant is expected to develop an Inception Report and the tools in the beginning of the consultancy. The final reports on the Project Evaluation and Report will be due on 1st February 2016.

The consultant(s) will collect primary data from direct beneficiaries of the project (children, young people and adults) and also use secondary data. The evaluation will use both quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as document review and, when available and appropriate, analysis of programme monitoring data. We require a participatory methodology whereby the work engages all key stakeholders including beneficiaries, community members and War Child staff. The consultant will:

· Develop inception report, tools, methodology and a schedule of field activities. It will be approved by War Child and act as an agreement between parties for how the evaluation is to be conducted. The Inception Report should include:

a) Overview of the Programme/Project

b) Methodology for the project evaluation

c) Assessment Matrix with questions

d) Information Collection, Analysis and Reporting

e) Work plan

· Use participatory/consultative methods (including but not limited to – picture/video diaries, case studies) and should provide details of the approach/methods to be used. The assessment should follow War Child UK’s Ethical Research Policy.

6. Deliverables

Expected Outputs:

1.Inception Report including a detailed work plan, toolkit and guidelines for the project evaluation.

2.Draft Evaluation report in English for review with qualitative and quantitative data analysis interface

3.Final Evaluation Report in English, no more than 15 pages and free of jargon, excluding annexes. The report must include:

· Title Page

· Table of Contents / Figures and Tables

· Abbreviations / acronyms page

· Executive summary (1 to 2 pages maximum)

· Background and a short introduction to the project

· The evaluation methodology (including evaluation/research questions and tools)

· Findings

· Innovation and lessons learned

· Case studies/stories should be used to highlight/illustrate the findings

· Recommandations

· Conclusion

4.Lessons sharing/dissemination document capturing key impact and learning and presented in a reader friendly and marketable format.

7. Timeframe

The Evaluation is expected to be initiated ideally by the 10^th of January 2016. The evaluation will continue until 1st February 2016 when the final report is due from the consultant. The consultant(s) will be however required to update War Child throughout the consultancy. The final timeline can be confirmed with the evaluation team at the proposal/Inception Report stage depending on the methodology proposed while below is an indicative timeline for initial discussion:

1. Document Review (3 days)

2. Inception Report and Tools Development (3 days)

3. Pilot Testing of Tools and training of enumerators (if any) (1 day)

4. Field visit for data collection (5 days)

5. Submission of the Draft Report and submit to War Child (3 days)

6. Submission of the Final Evaluation Report and Lessons Dissemination Document (1.5 days)

7. Presentation of the findings to War Child UK on Powerpoint (0.5 days)

Total: 17 days

8. Document review

The consultant is expected to read and reference all possible sources of existing information which include:

· War Child UK ethical research policy

· Project proposal, log frame, budget

· Baseline Report / (Baseline information)

· Sources of existing information e.g. government records, government policies, strategy papers, studies etc.).

· Monthly, quarterly and interim reports of the project.

· Project baseline report/data, M&E tools and guidelines

9. Conditions of the Consultancy

The consultant(s) will use her/his/their own office/resources/materials and technology in the execution of this assignment. War Child will provide local travel/transport to the field sites and office space in Amman. The Consultant is responsible for her/his own accommodation, subsistence, flights and all other related costs.

Supervision and Reporting: The consultant will be responsible to keep War Child abreast of progress and s/he will be supervised jointly by the Country Director and War Child UK’s MEAL Adviser.

Qualifications of Consultant(s), research agency or academic institution(s):

· Masters’ Degree in Development Studies, Social Work, Psychology, Sociology or related discipline coupled with advanced skills and knowledge in Research Methodologies

· At least 5 years’ experience in evaluation of development/humanitarian work specifically in Education in Emergencies and Child Protection

· Knowledge of and experience in working with Syrian refugee children would be an additional advantage, including a fair understanding of the advocacy and policy environment of Jordan

· Excellent research and monitoring and evaluation skills including participatory methodologies and evaluating education and psychosocial methodologies and approaches

· Highly driven, dependable and results oriented

· Excellent verbal and written skills in English and Arabic are essential

Note: All Consultants will be required to abide by War Child UK’s organizational policies, namely Child Protection Policy with Code of Conduct, Evaluation Policy and Ethics Policy and will be required to sign a statement of commitment to these and other organisational policies. The consultant(s) will also be willing to complete references and DBS/police checks in advance of appointment.

Note: Jordanian candidates with education expertise strongly encouraged to apply, as this opportunity is for Jordanians only.

[1] http://www.oecd.org/dac/evaluation/daccriteriaforevaluatingdevelopmentassistance.htm

[2] Evaluator may want to consider the contribution analysis approach 0

10. Recruitment and appointment

Interested applicants are requested to submit the following information as part of the initial bid:

· CV including current geographical location.

· A short one page application letter outlining the evaluation methodology (including calendar, key deliverables and tools, research questions).

· Detailed budget with breakdown of daily rate plus number of days and other costs. The budget should not exceed USD 3500 (inclusive of VAT). The budget will be evaluated alongside the technical proposal and we reserve the right to make alternative suggestions on costing. The consultant is responsible for meeting their own subsistence, accommodation and travel costs.

· Two references from previous clients and one personal reference.

· Example of a recent/relevant evaluation report. Please share web link if it is published online.

The selected candidate(s) will be contracted for the evaluation and will commence work shortly after successful recruitment, references and police checks. A consultancy contract will be signed between consultant and WCUK.

The budget should not exceed the amount of USD 3,500 in total (all inclusive). Local in-country transportation to field sites will be provided by War Child.

Applications should be sent to: Louma Marwan at Loumam@warchild.org.uk, copied to Hur Hassnain at hur@warchild.org.uk by Wednesday December 30th, 2015. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Please note that submissions which do not meet all the above requirements will not be reviewed.