Central African Republic: Consultant: Evaluation of: Protecting children through strengthening schools, families and communities in Bangui, Central African Republic

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 (CAR).

WCUK has worked in CAR for over 5 years in Bangui, Bossangoa, Paoua, Zemio and Rafai with special focus on education and child protection.

In this project WCUK is supporting 1,000 very vulnerable children (400 boys and 600 girls) to enrol in school, providing school fees and supplies. WCUK and partners are strengthening the Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) in 20 target schools in child protection and school management, and improving the quality of child protection through training 200 teachers in child friendly education and addressing the needs of conflict-affected children with counselling. Stakeholders (including students) are involved in developing and implementing a confidential reporting mechanism and attendance monitoring system in schools.

Child Rights Clubs (CRCs) are established in 20 schools in which children participate in training on child protection, resilience and life skills, leading to improved self-esteem and negotiation skills. Community-based child protection committees (CPCs) are established in 8 districts (some in IDP camps) and are supported to develop their own code of conduct and referral pathways. They receive training and support in child protection, child rights, gender and referral mechanisms.

300 women (mothers of vulnerable children) have received business skills training, based on the findings of a market study and 200 of those with viable business plans have received small start-up grants, enabling them to support their families and ensure their children stay in school.

The Outcomes of the project are:

Outcome 1: Quality of and access to primary and secondary education for children is improved in 20 schools in Bangui by the end of the project

Performance Indicators:

• % increase in school attendance for boys and girls of different ages
• 20 target schools are considered safe and child-friendly learning environments for boys and girls of different ages by the children
• 20 schools with active and trained PTAs monitoring school performance, student attendance and protection concerns.

Outcome 2: Children feel safer and are better protected at school, in the home, and in the community in 8 districts in Bangui

Performance Indicators

• % of children in target schools who demonstrate knowledge of child protection concerns and referral options
• % of communities where 60% or more of those surveyed confirm that Child Protection Committees (CPCs) exist in their community.
• # of cases of child abuse, violence and exploitation reported by community members (men and women), especially from the CPCs.
• Increase in KAP of children and community members surveyed in target communities on child protection issues and referral pathways against baseline.
• % of children and adults surveyed in their community who know when, where and how to formally report violations of children’s rights.

Outcome 3: Vulnerable women have the skills and support to initiate profitable small businesses by the end of the project and support their children's education

Performance Indicators:

• % of women trainees who received business skills training and a grant are able to contribute to their household income.
• Increase in the proportion of household income spent on children’s education and well-being due to the livelihoods support.
• % of women reporting improvement of child protection2 through improved livelihood.

Outcome 4: Two local partner CSOs have increased capacity to ensure the effective delivery of responsive child protection programmes

Quantitative Indicators:

• % of partner staff who participated in all training sessions provided or facilitated by War Child UK
• % of partner staff who feel confident in their capacity to effectively design and manage child protection projects.
• % of partner staff who confirm an improvement in their technical, financial and management capacity
• Evidence that FAP and ESF are appropriately implementing policies and procedures for keeping children safe

Overall Purpose of the Evaluation

The end of project evaluation shall document:

• The extent to which the project outputs and outcomes have contributed to improving the protection of the children in schools, households and in communities.
• The relevance and effectiveness of the approach and assumptions to improving the educational status and resilience amongst the children in Bangui.
• Lessons learnt and proposed feasible recommendations to inform future programme design in particular with 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 children in relation to their education, protection, participation and skills-building.
• Increase knowledge of stakeholders on how to improve the educational status of children through providing livelihoods support to mothers
• Report against the outcome indicators as set out in the project log-frame?

The evidence generated through this evaluation exercise is expected to:

• Better inform future programme design/programming with children in relation to their education, protection, participation and skills-building.
• Increase knowledge of stakeholders on how to improve the educational status of children through providing livelihoods support to mothers
• Report against the outcome indicators as set out in the project log-frame?

Scope and Focus of the Evaluation

The aim of the consultancy is to conduct a robust evaluation of the extent to which the project has achieved its expected and unexpected outcomes, and identify evidence that these outcomes have contributed to improved protection and educational status of children in the project areas.

The Consultant(s) is expected to evaluate the project following the OECD DAC criteria4: (i) relevance; (ii) effectiveness (added value, learning and partnership approach), (iii) sustainability (iv) efficiency and value for money (v) impact. For Value for Money, and 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(s) after contract award):

• Did the project reach the most vulnerable boys and girls through its interventions?
• 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 contributed5 to improved education, literacy and numeracy skills and a perceived level of Protection and wellbeing amongst children?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the holistic approach used in this project with a focus on education, child protection and livelihoods?
• Did the project contribute in enhancing safe and child-friendly learning environments in the 20 targeted schools for boys and girls? What was the role of War Child, Parent Teacher Associations, School Management Committees and Community Child Protection Committees (RECOPEs) in this?
• Has the project increased the knowledge, attitude and practices of children and community members in target communities on child protection issues and referral pathways, this includes Child Rights Clubs, Community Child Protection Committees and PTAs.
• Is there evidence that the livelihoods component of the project has increased the proportion of household income spent on children’s education and well-being?
• How did the focus on livelihoods support to only mothers affect the dynamics between the husband and wife within the family?
• What are the common denominators for targeted families who have been successful in education, livelihoods and protection activities?
• What are the common denominators for targeted families who have been unsuccessful in education, livelihoods and protection activities?
• Has the project contributed to improving the capacity of War Child’s local partners to deliver quality livelihoods, education and child protection programmes across the project cycle and meaningfully impacted the lives of children in the target communities?

Process and Methodology

This evaluation will take a course of three to four weeks starting 20th of May 2016 before the project ends on 24th of June 2016. The consultant is expected to develop an Inception Report and the tools for all outcome indicators given above in the beginning of the consultancy. The final reports on the Project Evaluation and Report will be due on or before 26th of June, 2016.

The baseline data is not available for all the outcome indicators (given above) so the consultant will have to come up with a strategy to provide evidence on the project progress that is robust and reliable. The consultant(s) will collect primary data from direct beneficiaries of the project (children, young people and adults) on education, life skills, livelihoods and children’s perceived level of safety6 and also use secondary data where available. 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 to collect data on all the outcome indicators and answer all the evaluation questions stated above. This is required since the project could not collect all the monitoring data during the lifetime of the project due to a variety of reasons including security and availability of required human resources.

The consultant will:

Develop inception report, tools for the evaluation (including tools for all the outcome indicators), 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
• F)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.

Deliverables

Expected Outputs:

1. Inception Report including a detailed work plan, toolkit and guidelines for the project
2. Report in English, no more than 30 pages and free of jargon, excluding annexes. The report must include: evaluation.
3. Draft Evaluation report in English for review with qualitative and quantitative data analysis interface

4. Final Evaluation:

5. Title Page

6. Table of Contents / Figures and Tables

7. Abbreviations / acronyms page

8. Executive summary (2 to 3 pages maximum)

9. Background and a short introduction to the project

10. The evaluation methodology (including evaluation/research questions and tools)

11. Findings

12. Innovation and lessons learned

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

14. Recommendations

15. Conclusion Lessons sharing: dissemination document capturing key impact and learning and presented in a reader friendly and marketable format should be produced both in English and French. It should not be more than two sides of an A4 page.

TIMEFRAME:

• Document Review, development of Inception Report and the data collection tools (quantitative and qualitative). The Inception Report and tools have to be produced in English and should be approved by War Child. Indicative Timeline: 5 Day
• Field data collection including the training of enumerators. The number of days depends on the number of enumerators hired and the data collection plan agreed in the Inception Report. Indicative Timeline: 18 Days.
• Preparation and submission of the Draft Report to War Child including the time to incorporate the feedback received. Indicative Timeline: 5 Day
• Submission of the Final Evaluation Report and Lessons Dissemination Document Indicative Timeline: 1 Day

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 Bangui, CAR. The Consultant is responsible for her/his own accommodation (suggestions can be provided by our country office), subsistence, flights (if required) and all other related costs8.

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 in CAR and War Child UK’s MEAL Adviser.

Funding and Payment: The consultant will be paid by War Child UK as follows (negotiable at interview stage):

• 30% after successful submission and our approval of the inception report and tools to War Child UK
• 30% on successful submission and our approval of the Draft Report and
• 40% on successful submission and our approval of the final evaluation report.

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 Child Protection and/or Education in Emergencies
• Knowledge of and experience in working with internally displaced children in any country in the east or central Africa would be an additional advantage, including a fair understanding of the advocacy and policy environment of CAR.
• Excellent research and monitoring and evaluation skills including participatory methodologies and evaluating education and psychosocial methodologies and approaches
• Excellent verbal and written skills in English and French are essential
• Willingness and ability to travel to Bangui, CAR. The consultant will be provided with a full security briefing both before going into the country and when arriving in the country.

Note: All Consultants will be required to abide by War Child UK’s organizational policies, namely Child Safeguarding 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 required to e

How to apply: Please email Hur Hassnain to request full Terms of Reference and further details

*Once Terms of Reference has been provided on request please submit b**ids to**

Hur Hassnain at hur@warchild.org.ukcopied (cc) to Theodore Nondo

theodoren@warchild.org.uk by:

Deadline: Close of Business Monday 2nd of May, 2016

Budgetshould not exceed GBP 16,000.

Note:Excellent verbal and written skills in both English and French are essential for this consultancy