: Save the Children
: Nonprofits / องค์กรไม่แสวงหาผลกำไร
: 1322
: 19 January 2021
25 January 2021
Consultant for BEST IV Final Evaluation/ PREPS 2020-2022 Progress Review
Save the Children has been working on Thailand for over 35 years, supporting the most vulnerable children with Education, Child Protection, Child Safety and Health & Nutrition programs. Whenever a disaster strikes in Thailand we are ready to deploy an emergency response. In 2020 we have deployed a multi-site, multi-sectoral response to the COVID19 pandemic with a focus on the Southernmost Provinces (Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat) and the border with Myanmar where more than 91,000 refugees still reside in 9 refugee camps and a large migrant population resides.
Since 2013, Save the Children is the lead of the EU consortium ensuring access to basic education services to school-age children residing in the 9 temporary shelters located in Mae Hong Son, Tak, Kanchanaburi and Ratchaburi Provinces. SC is also the co-lead – alongside the Jesuit Refugee Support (JRS) – of the Committee for Coordination of Services to Displaced Persons in Thailand (CCSDPT)’ education sub-committee. SC’s efforts align with its’ 2019-2021 CSP goal ‘The most deprived children receive a high quality multi-dimensional education from infancy to adulthood’.
Refugee Education Program
Over the past decades, more than 200,000 Myanmar nationals sought refuge in Thailand, fleeing conflict and ongoing violence in South East Myanmar. Presently, 91,777 (46,347f, 45,430m) verified Myanmar refugees reside in 9 camps alongside the Thai/Myanmar border (UNHCR, September 2020). 40% of them are children (17,805g; 18,539b). For these children, access to a quality basic education and the recognition of their academic achievements is a fundamental right, an essential component of their wellbeing and development as well as a steppingstone to live a peaceful and prosperous life.
Brief program outline
The BEST/PREPS project contributes to the achievement of durable education solutions for the refugee camp population in Thailand by supporting the provision of quality basic education for students in nine refugee camps along the Thailand-Burma/Myanmar border, supporting teachers to build education capacity, and facilitating progress towards sustainable education solutions. Specifically, BEST/PREPS aims to achieve the following outcomes:
1. Basic education services are maintained and the quality of basic education is improved in nine (9) refugee camps.
2. Children, teachers, and parents have increased knowledge and skills to support successful transition and reintegration into education services in Myanmar.
3. Increased linkages, synergies, and cooperation between relevant local actors on both sides of the border leads to positive experiences of return, particularly related to education transition.
This evaluation and assessment is being conducted at the end of the BEST IV project and the middle of Year 1 for the PREPS project. It will build upon the external final evaluation of the BEST III and mid-term review of PREPS previously conducted in May 2019.
The purpose of the evaluation is twofold:
1) to understand the extent to which the BEST IV and PREPS 2020-2022 achieved/ are achieving its intended results/outcomes according to indicators on the logical frameworks and
2) to establish baseline indicator values for select indicators as shown on an updated logical framework that will be used for Phase V of BEST project starting in March 2021.
The evaluation of BEST IV will answer the following key questions:
The baseline assessment data collection will collect additional data on a few indicators relevant to select basic education activities in the temporary shelters. Agreement of indicators will be determined during the inception period in consultation with the evaluation team.
The Evaluation team will be required to undertake consultation with the SC MEAL Coordinator and the Education Technical Advisor at the commencement of the assignment in order to further refine the evaluation questions.
Due to the changing context and often restricted access within the camps due to COVID-19, the evaluation team will be requested to conduct the evaluation remotely with support from Save the Children. For this, the evaluation will be limited to three camps known to have access to strong internet and/or phone signal. These include Mae La, Umphiem and Nu Poe camps in Tak Province.
The main stakeholders/targeted audiences for this evaluation are:
Stakeholder |
Further information |
Project donor |
European Union and Australian DFAT |
Primary implementing organisation |
Save the Children Thailand, BEST/PREPS Education Team |
Implementing partners |
Adventist Development Relief Agency Thailand (ADRA); Center for Rural Education Development Foundation (CRED), Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) with Karen Refugee Committee Education Entity (KRCEE) and Karenni Education Department (KnED); Karen Women’s Organization (KWO) |
Government counterparts |
Ministry of Interior |
Community groups |
Parent Teacher Associations |
Beneficiaries |
Children and adults involved in the program/project/s and the evaluation |
International development/humanitarian research community |
CCSDPT members and other refugee education stakeholder groups such as KKEST; Migrant education stakeholders |
In addition to assessing the impact of the BEST IV project, findings from the evaluation will be used to evaluate progress of PREPS VII, determine baseline data for BEST V, and inform lessons learnt and good practice for the on-going PREPS project and BEST V extension (2021-2023).
The Evaluation team will be required to propose how the evaluation findings will be shared with each of the different stakeholders in the table above, particularly outlining how reporting back to communities, beneficiaries and children will be conducted in an accessible and child friendly manner.
a) Relevance:
b) Effectiveness:
c) Impact:
d) Efficiency:
f) Sustainability:
f) Cross cutting issues Participation, Gender, Safe programming and inclusion
The suggested research design for this evaluation is a mixed methods design including participatory methods if and where possible. SCI anticipates the methodology to include a review of project documents, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with relevant stakeholders including beneficiaries, observations, and review of project monitoring data. The consultant is encouraged to propose additional methodology that they consider appropriate to the project, which is subject to Save the Children’s approval and must meet ethical guidelines (Annex I).
The evaluation will focus on three camps in Tak province. It will involve children, teachers, relevant local education authorities, project partner organizations, and SCI project team. Participants in the study will be selected through purposive sampling.
All primary data collected during the course of the evaluation must be disaggregated by sex, age, people with disabilities, status and camp location and inclusive of children’s representation.
Save the Children has existing data collection instruments and tools that can be drawn on in the evaluation. These will be shared with the evaluation team.
Save the Children will not provide enumerators to assist with primary data collection. Data triangulation is expected for this evaluation. It will be a requirement of the Evaluation team to source additional external data sources to add value to the evaluation, such as consultations with partners and review of project documents.
A range of project documentation will be made available to the Evaluation team that provides information about the design, implementation and operation of the Program. Example of documents include previous evaluations, mid-term reviews, proposals, and logframes.
It is expected that this evaluation will be:
It is expected that:
The evaluation deliverables and due dates (subject to the commencement date of the evaluation) are outlined below. The lead evaluation consultant will advise [the SC BEST/PREPS Project Manager] immediately of any risks or issues that may impact on their ability to provide the deliverables by these due dates.
Deliverables and Due Dates
Deliverable |
Due Date |
The Evaluation Team is contracted and commences work |
January, 2021 |
Phase 1: INCEPTION PHASE |
|
The Evaluation Team will conduct initial desk research and tool review and develop and submit the Inception report that will include:
Once the report is finalised and accepted, the evaluator/ evaluation team must submit a request for any change in strategy or approach to the Education Technical Advisor and BEST/PREPS Coordinator |
To be submitted within 15 days after signed contract
|
Ongoing Desk Research of project documents and secondary sources |
On-going January-February |
Feedback by SCI |
Within 5 working days after receiving the inception report |
SCI Approval of Inception Report and data collection tools |
Within 1 week after review completed –End of January |
Phase 2: Data Collection and Analysis |
|
|
Early-February (15 days) |
Phase 3: Reporting |
|
Preliminary findings presentation and verification workshop with partners Summary of interim findings
|
Mid- February (1 day) |
Draft Evaluation Report* including the following elements:
|
3rd week in February |
Feedback and approval by SCI |
Within 5 working days after receiving the inception report |
Final Evaluation Report* with submission of data and analysis incorporating feedback from consultation on the Draft Evaluation Report |
End of February (3 days) |
Knowledge translation materials:
|
End of February (1 day) |
*All reports are to use the Save the Children Evaluation report template. Please also refer to Save the Children technical writing guide.
** The Evidence to Action Brief is a 2-4-page summary of the full report and will be created using the Save the Children Evidence to Action Brief template.
Dates and times for deliverables will be changed upon consultation with the candidates.
All documents are to be produced in MS Word format and provided electronically by email to the SC BEST/PREPS Coordinator and Education Technical Advisor. Copies of all PowerPoint presentations used to facilitate briefings for the project should also be provided to Save the Children in editable digital format.
The consultant will report to the Senior Field Coordinator. Additional technical advice will be provided by the Education Technical Advisor, MEAL Coordinator and technical team from Save the Children members. Save the Children should approve all plans and documents developed by the consultant.
The lead consultant is to provide reporting against the project plan. The following regular reporting and quality review processes will also be used:
At the end of the field visit, the evaluator will hold a meeting with the project team and project partners to discuss the preliminary findings of the evaluation exercise.
A draft report should be submitted for feedback and comments. The report should be written in English and approximately 30 pages with executive summary (appendices not included). The final evaluation report will comprise the following contents:
The consultant will revise the report according to the agreed feedback and comments.
The final report will be assessed against Save the Children’s Evaluation Report Scoring checklist (Annex II). The MEAL Coordinator and Technical Advisor will review and sign-off for final submission to the Program Director, who will be accountable for approving the Final Evaluation.
What |
Who is responsible |
By when |
Who else is involved |
Evaluation tender submissions |
BEST/PREPS Project Coordinator |
December |
Senior Field Coordinator |
Tender review and selection of evaluation team |
BEST/PREPS Project Coordinator |
Mid-January |
Procurement teams; Finance: Education Technical Advisor, MEAL Coordinator |
Inception report with data collection tools informed by desk review |
Evaluation team |
End of January |
BEST/PREPS Coordinator Education Technical Advisor, MEAL Coordinator, SCA MEAL Advisor. |
Review of inception report |
BEST/PREPS Coordinator |
End of January
|
MEAL Coordinator |
Logistical arrangements |
Evaluation team with support from BEST/PREPS Coordinator |
Early Feb
|
SC Senior Field Co./Logistics team |
Data collection |
Evaluation team with their enumerators |
Early Feb
|
N/A |
Data management and analysis (coding, transcriptions, data cleaning, integration and analysis) |
Evaluation team |
Mid-February
|
N/A |
First draft of the Final evaluation report |
Evaluation team |
Mid-Feb
|
|
Review of first draft report |
BEST/PREPS Coordinator |
TBD
|
MEAL Coordinator |
Meeting with evaluators and evaluation team to finalize the report |
BEST/PREPS Coordinator |
TBD
|
MEAL Coordinator |
Validation of evaluation findings and recommendations |
Evaluation Team |
Mid-Feb
|
BEST/PREPS Coordinator, SC MEAL staff, Technical advisor, BEST/PREPS Consortium Partners |
Final evaluation report and submission of data and analyses |
Evaluation team |
End of February
|
N/A |
Knowledge translation materials |
Evaluation team |
End of February
|
N/A |
Project team meeting to develop Evaluation Response Plan |
SC BEST/PREPS Field Coordinator |
March
|
Senior Field Coordinator, |
Evaluation final report (together with response plan) posted on OneNet and reviewed |
SC BEST/PREPS Field Coordinator |
March
|
Technical Advisor, SC Peer reviewers |
Key Save the Children stakeholders to be involved in the evaluation are the BEST/PREPS Coordinator; Senior Field Coordinator; MEAL Coordinator; Education Technical Advisor
External stakeholders to be consulted include representatives from the following partners and local education authorities: ADRA, JRS, KRCEE, OCEE, CRED, KnED, and KWO.
To be considered, the Evaluation team members together must have demonstrated skills, expertise and experience in: