Terms of Reference – Tadamon COVID-19 Response Programme Evaluation

End-term Programme Evaluation - Tadamon COVID-19 Response

Terms of Reference – Tadamon COVID-19 Response Programme Evaluation

Programme Background:

Fragility impedes achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Exposure to conflict has immediate effects on food and water security.  Inequality and discrimination exacerbate food and water security, cause and perpetuating fragility. Women, the elderly, adolescents, youth, and children, persons with disabilities, indigenous populations, refugees, migrants, and minorities experience the highest degree of socio-economic marginalization in the region. Marginalized groups have the lowest access to water and food because of geographical location, political affiliation or discriminate policies. Women and youth are overall disproportionately affected in emergencies due to the lack of access to effective surveillance and early-warning systems, and health services.  The COVID-19 outbreak is predicted to have significant impacts on various sectors. The populations most at risk are those that: depend heavily on the informal economy; occupy areas prone to shocks; have inadequate access to social services or political influence; have limited capacities and opportunities to cope and adapt and; limited or no access to technologies.

Somalia has made significant progress since the re-establishment of the Federal Government in 2012. However, the country continues to struggle with recurrent food and water crises, widespread insecurity, political instability, drought and floods which multiply the COVID 19 pandemic effects. More than half a million on the brink of famine.

Programme Strategic Objectives:

The overall objective of the programme is to contribute to the stability and/or economic prosperity of the communities that the programme is implemented, by preventing, containing and responding to the negative impacts of the COVID 19 on youth economic inclusion in Somalia.

The programme’s specific objectives are:

• Provision of short/vocational/on the job training for 90 health care staff; Development of 2 communication and awareness raising campaign/WEBINAR on COVID-19 pandemic emergency response (linked to Tadamon Component 1: Emergency in Health)To deliver vocational education for 650 women, youth, other vulnerable groups and prepare graduates for the labor market tailored to COVID-19 realities and market demands (linked to Tadamon Component 2: Emergencies in Education);To place 500 women and youth into jobs through a higher education to jobs trajectory; 90 Start-ups supported in freelance and home-based business sector (linked to Tadamon Component 3: Building resilience: income generation). (linked to Tadamon Component 3: Building resilience: income generation).

Objectives of the Programme Evaluation:

The objective of this mid/end-term programme evaluation is to contribute to SPARK’s learning and accountability processes, by identifying lessons from the programme’s performance.

The evaluation is expected to begin in August and end September and will include preparation, evaluation design fine tuning, field data collection in the programme’s areas, report writing and presentation of findings and lessons learned and recommendations to the programme’s SPARK team, local partner organizations and donor.

Additionally, the evaluation will be conducted within a 3 week period which includes reporting.

Tasks of the Final Programme Evaluation:

For this Final Programme Evaluation, the following tasks will be conducted:

• Meetings (physically and online) with SPARK Programme Staff and Monitoring & Evaluation staff
• Desktop review of existing documentation
• Development of evaluation inception report, including workplan and time line of evaluation activities
• Focus group discussions and/or interviews with beneficiaries
• Interviews with local partners’ staff
• Analysis of gathered data through desktop review, focus group discussions and interviews
• Presentation of preliminary findings (before leaving the field) to SPARK and Monitoring & Evaluation staff
• Development of draft evaluation report and submission to SPARK and Monitoring & Evaluation staff
• Processing of feedback on draft report from SPARK and Monitoring & Evaluation staff
• Finalisation of evaluation report and submission to SPARK and Monitoring & Evaluation staff

Deliverables:

The consultant(s) conducting this evaluation will produce the following deliverables for this evaluation:

1. Inception report (that includes Methodology and Evaluation matrix, Work plan and detailed timeline) which will be approved by the Programme Management.
2. Presentation of preliminary findings before leaving the field to SPARK and Monitoring & Evaluation staff
3. Draft and final report, which will have the following structure[1]:

• Executive summary
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Analysis and findings per activity
• Conclusions of findings, lessons learned and recommendations per activity
• Annexes: Relevant maps and photographs of the evaluation areas, desktop review references, data collection tools, list of interviewees and anonymized participants in focus group discussions and raw data in an agreed upon format

The final evaluation report will be written in English, in PDF and Word format, the consultant will be provided a specific template for the report upon selection. The report will be published on the SPARK website.

Payment Scheme for the Final Programme Evaluation:

The payments for the Final Programme Evaluation will be done through the receipt of invoices and upon deliverables approved by the SPARK LEAD and Monitoring & Evaluation staff, according to the following scheme:

Expertise required for the Final Programme Evaluation:

The evaluator(s) should be (a team of) experienced and independent consultant(s), freelance or from a consultancy organisation, with at least the following expertise:

• Advanced university degree in International Development, Social Sciences, Higher Education or any other related field
• A minimum of 7 years of professional experience with leading and conducting programme/project evaluations
• Experience within the international development or humanitarian aid sector;
• Experience within the green/tech/agri entrepreneurship, employability and labour markets, etc., (leave/add here the ones applicable) will be considered an advantage;
• Previous professional experience in East Africa will be considered an advantage
• Experience with programmatic/organisational learning will be considered an advantage;
• Advanced communication, analytical and reporting skills
• Fluent in English and Somali (both reading and writing)
• Advanced (intercultural) communication skills;

To apply, send your application to [email protected]  by no later than August 22nd.

All applications should include the following:

• Cover letter (maximum 1 page) stating the candidate(s) availability during the months August and September
• CV’s of all evaluation team members, including three references with contact details.
• Technical proposal, which should include:
• Understanding of the evaluation’s ToR
• Draft work plan including a detailed time schedule
• Financial Proposal: Which should include consultancy fees that include VAT and logistical costs, with a breakdown of days*fees per deliverable

Please note that incomplete applications will not be considered. Due to the large volume of applications we receive there may be a delay between the application deadline and the moment we contact selected applicants. If you do not receive a reply, we regret to inform you that we have continued with other candidates.