ThaiNGO

Consultant to undertake End-line Measurement and Final Evaluation for IMPACT Project

1. Background

The Improving Migrant Protection and Assistance for Children in Thailand (IMPACT) project develops local child protection mechanisms that are relevant to government policy framework, and integrate these into existing child protection systems so migrant children can live within an effective protection system and have access to effective care, education and health services.  The specific objectives of the project include 1: Strengthen child protection mechanisms to effectively support and protect children who are on the move, primarily Burmese (80%) and Cambodian (20%) children, 2: Strengthen and promote effective, appropriate and innovative programs for delivering basic services, preventing risky movement and responding to issues faced by migrant children, 3: Raise awareness of local child protection mechanisms with the vision of integrating them into regional (ASEAN and Mekong) and national policy frameworks.

The project strengthens child protection mechanisms including: child protection committees, Multi-Disciplinary Teams for case management, alternative education, centers which support basic maternal and child health, and mobile health units, to identify the most vulnerable children who are at risk of abuse, neglect and exploitation, and respond to these children’s needs. The project improves the quality of protection support for children through capacity building with government and non-government stakeholders, and will enhance cooperation among relevant agencies that are responsible for child protection and welfare. Consultations by trained social workers with relevant duty-bearers will be conducted to determine the best solutions for children who are in difficult circumstances. Standards of care and alternative care practices for separated and unaccompanied migrant children will also be developed and promoted to all practitioners and service providers who work directly with children.  

At the district and provincial level, Save the Children (SC) supports local partners to build relationships with and train local authorities on data collection and delivering quality services. At the national level, SC organizes consultations with children on migration and trafficking issues and bring their recommendation to the government. This mechanism will raise awareness on migrant children’s issues. SC has also been working closely with the National Child Protection Committee on alternative care and is also a board member for the committee for implementation of Convention on the Right of the Child. At the Regional level, SC raises concerns of migrant children and ensures their issues will be on the agenda of the ASEAN Commission on the Protection of Women and Children (ACWC) by organizing consultations with ACWC members. The members of ACWC are high level officials from each country in ASEAN.

This project seeks sustainability through working within existing government frameworks and integrating mechanisms within current child protection systems, and through sustained capacity building for local NGO partners, community based organizations, and government officials (Social Development and Welfare). SC aims to engage the sub-district administrative offices and municipalities to continue providing services to migrant children and families after the completion of the project. We will set up this initiative with local government bodies and work with migrant children and their families to develop innovative ways to encourage ongoing and sustainable participation.

2. Purpose and scope of this consultancy:

SC intends to conduct a final (external) evaluation of the IMPACT project to generate substantive evidence based knowledge by identifying good practices and lessons learned from intended impact and unintended consequences of the project interventions (Result Framework in Annex I). This evaluation is intended to assess the extent of change that has taken place in the lives of targeted children, migrant learning centre practices, community and local level government agencies, and to determine its significance on the well-being of children as well as to assess partnerships among Save the Children, partner organizations and government agencies. The results from this evaluation will be highly useful in providing recommendations for the future project strategy that aligns with Save the Children’s country strategic plan and global breakthroughs.

The overall objectives of this consultancy include:

• Evaluating project performance, including progress and achievements towards the project goal and objectives (i.e. progress/outcome assessment), the overall impact of the project, including unintended consequences and the factors that influenced change at all levels of the results framework
• Consolidating key success stories and lessons learned from the projects
• Assessing to what extent the project has made impacts to change at policy level and/or advocacy with local and national government

The evaluation should include assessment and discussion around relevancy, effectiveness, efficiency, impacts and sustainability as per the following framework and learning questions:

Relevance

• To what extent have the project interventions including its objectives been responsive to local contexts and how are they aligned with local and national development policies and plans and Save the Children country strategy?
• What are the socio-cultural barriers/ enablers to the approach adopted by Save the Children in delivering project outcomes, and how has Save the Children worked to identify and respond to these barriers/ enablers?
• To what extent have SC integrated broader gender and other social inclusion concerns and child safeguarding issues into the design and implementation of its interventions?

Effectiveness

• To what extent has the project been effectively achieving its goal and objectives? To what extent have the stated project outcomes been achieved?
• How effectively has the project reached the most vulnerable and marginalized children, women, men in targeted area and how have the needs of ‘most vulnerable’ communities been addressed from the project?
• How have the program management, partnership, and monitoring and evaluation contributed to the effectiveness of the project?
• How effectively and appropriately have we worked with government organizations, partners and local communities and involved them in relevant stages of the project?
• How effective the project interventions are in changing policies, practices, knowledge and attitudes in specific institutions, groups and individuals related to project goals and objectives?

Efficiency

• How efficiently has the utilisation of human, financial, administrative and time resources been used to achieve goals and objectives according to the targets and timelines of the project? Are there any alternatives to project implementation that could have been explored that might have been more efficient?

Sustainability

• What are the challenges and factors which positively or negatively impacted the sustainability of the project?
• Are the national and/or local level commitments and capacities strong enough to maintain the changes made by the project?

Design and methodology:

An independent consultant will be recruited to lead this evaluation. The project is being implemented in migrant communities in two provinces namely Tak and Bangkok. This evaluation expects to collect information to adequately represent all project locations. The evaluation design should be in line with ethical considerations in Annex II.

It is anticipated the methodology for this evaluation will comprise:

• Both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis for addressing each of the evaluation criteria. Data will be collected through both secondary and primary sources and will be presented as per sex/age/children with disabilities
• Methodology will be comprised of the following critical stages: Literature/ Desk review and preparation of evaluation framework; Secondary data collection; Primary data collection; Data analysis; Validation workshop and discussion of findings with key stakeholders; Formulating recommendations.

Literature/ Desk review

• Literature review of relevant documentation;
• Desk review of Save the Children project level documentation, including MEAL reports;
• Preparation of evaluation framework based on literature and desk reviews;
• Prepare the primary data collection tools and method through a peer review process;
• Design secondary data collection process.

Secondary data collection

• Collection of secondary data from various sources including project level beneficiary data, government data, UN data and other authenticated sources

Primary data collection

• Survey project beneficiaries, partners and key stakeholders
• Interviews and Focus Group Discussions with relevant key informants, including community representatives in project locations (including children, people with disabilities), government officials, Save the Children staff, relevant technical and policy advisors, INGO representatives etc.;

Data Analysis

• Data will be analyzed using qualitative and quantitative data analysis software. Quantitative data analysis will be limited to descriptive statistics analysis (descriptive summaries, frequencies, and cross-tabulation etc).
• Quantitative data will be segregated as per sex/age/people with disability
• Data validation has to be done in checking data to ensure that the information gathered from different data sources is clean, accurate and in a standard format.

Discussion of findings with selected experts

• Findings will be discussed with selected experts in Save the Children before formulating the recommendations.

3. Timeframe

The consultant will be required to dedicate an estimated 25 days’ time to this consultancy work during March-April period, subject to the requirements and agreements with Save the Children.

4. Schedule and deliverables

All materials collected in the undertaking of the consultancy process should be lodged with the MEAL team focal point prior to the termination of the contract.

5. Management of the consultancy:

The consultant(s) will report to Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Coordinator, with technical support from Children Protection Specialist and Program Development and Quality (PDQ) Director who will provide inputs throughout the evaluation process including on the proposed methodology and data collection tools, analysis and interpretation and recommendations. Furthermore, IMPACT Project Coordinator will support logistics and arrangements for field work. Support requirements for tasks such as translation and data entry will be discussed with the successful applicant.

The consultant/s will be responsible for

• Coordinating the evaluation
• Developing the evaluation framework, processes and tools
• Training the data collection team
• Overseeing the data collection
• Data entry and analyzing data
• Compiling and submitting the evaluation report including documentation of findings, learnings and recommendations for programming

6. Name of Partners Involved

• Help Without Frontiers (Tak province)
• Foundation for Rural Youth (Urban Bangkok)
• Foundation for Child Development (Urban Bangkok)

7. Consultancy Fee

The consultant(s) is asked to propose the budget. The financial competitiveness of the fee will be considered in the selection process. Costs involved in the research, such as materials, travel and applicable taxes, should be included in the proposed budget.

8. Qualifications

• At least master’s degree in education, research, social sciences or other related field
• Expertise in qualitative and quantitative research methods
• Strong qualitative and qualitative data analysis skills
• Experience conducting large scale surveys or similar
• Expertise in issues related to child protection and education is an asset
• Experience in the migrant context is preferred
• English language proficiency
• Ability to work within strict deadlines

9. Submissions for the consultancy

The submission must address the terms of reference and include:

• The resume of the candidate
• A cover letter explaining the candidate’s interest and suitability
  • Experience in conducing evaluation in multicultural, multilingual and sensitive context like migrant communities will be an asset
• Evaluation plan and proposal including a research methodology and timeline (5 pages maximum)
• A detailed budget in AUD (including travel and other costs)

10. Close date for submissions:

Applicant should submit your interest by 6^th March 2017. Submissions should be addressed to: hr.thailand@savethechildren.org

Please indicate in the subject as “Apply for Measurement and Final Evaluation for IMPACT Project._(Name of candidate)”

Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

“We need to keep children safe so our selection process reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.”

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Annex I Results Framework

Link:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/jb09nojk3h13sgd/ANCP%20Thailand_16-17%20LogFrame_finaldraft_clean.docx?dl=0

Annex II Ethical Guidelines

Before undertaking any monitoring and evaluation activity with children or adults an ethical assessment should be undertaken by the Country Office. Where appropriate, approval for an activity should be obtained from all relevant ethical or institutional review boards in-country prior to the commencement of the activity.

As per the minimum standards, at each of these stages the responsible individual or office must:

• Make sure the information gathering activity is necessary and justified:
  • Make sure that the purpose of the activity is clearly defined
  • Use the minimum sample size required to get statistically significant or valid results
  • Consider carefully the ethics of using a comparison or control group
• Adopt informed consent and voluntary participation procedures:
  • Participants must give their informed consent (either written or verbal) to participate. When children are involved consent must also be granted from an appropriate adult. Consent forms should be field tested before use. Save the Children’s Practice Standards for child participation can give more guidance.
  • Ensure that participants are well informed on the purpose of the activity and how the results will be disseminated
  • Make sure that individuals are informed that their participation is voluntary and that they have a choice to opt out
  • Confirm that participants understand the limits of the activity, in terms of benefits, and the next steps
  • Consider very carefully the use of incentives for participation and try not to use incentives where possible
• Adopt appropriate confidentiality procedures, sensitive to children’s needs
  • Ensure that all persons involved in the activity, including data gatherers, data input staff, translators etc have received training on the confidentiality procedures and signed an appropriate confidentiality agreement
  • Confidentiality may need to be breached to provide immediate protection to a child. Children and adults must be made aware of the confidentiality procedures before being asked to provide any information.
• Ensure that the costs to children of participating in activity do not outweigh the benefits, and ensure their safety at all times:
  • Adhere to Save the Children’s Child Safeguarding Policy
  • Ensure that participation is in the children’s best interests and does them no harm
  • Ensure that information gathering with children is appropriate to their age and stage of development
  • Anticipate adverse consequences and develop appropriate responses
  • Be cautious and protective and undertake ethical checks as you proceed with any activity
  • Be sensitive and flexible; if situations change you must be prepared to stop or change an activity if ethical issues cannot be resolved
• Be consultative
  • Determine whether local permission from community stakeholders or authorities is needed to proceed and adhere to any locally established institutional policies or guidelines for conducting research.
  • Information about the activity must be provided to all stakeholders
  • Prepare local communities and explain the purpose and aims of the activity
• Be sensible and prepared
  • Researchers have a responsibility to be mindful of cultural, religious, gender, and other significant differences within the research population in the planning, conduct, and reporting of the study findings
  • Ensure that those gathering information from children and/or vulnerable communities are adequately trained and ready to follow up or refer children who might need special attention as a result of research/investigation in sensitive themes.
• Respect the dignity and autonomy of those participating in the activity
  • Ensure children and/or vulnerable communities are not simply used as a means to achieve research objectives
  • Know that study participants have a right to remain anonymous.
• Be accountable
  • Adhere to the International Accountability Charter
  • Make sure that a complaints and feedback mechanism is in place for children and adults participating in the activity
  • Ensure accuracy of information during analysis, interpretation and reporting. And remain open to the findings of any study and do not allow vested interests to interfere
  • Make sure that proper acknowledgement is given at all stages, as appropriate.

Ethical issues

Every data gathering exercise involving children and vulnerable communities is theme or context specific therefore you must review all ethical considerations before undertaking a new activity.

Whenever we conduct research on people, the well-being of research participants must be our top priority. The research question is always of secondary importance. This means that if a choice must be made between doing harm to a participant and doing harm to the research, it is the research that is sacrificed.

In some cases you may decide that you cannot proceed with a monitoring and evaluation activity because of ethical issues.  In this case you may need to re-design the activity or cancel it altogether if an ethical solution cannot be found.

More details: https://acfid.asn.au/sites/site.acfid/files/resource_document/Principles-for-Ethical-Research-and-Evaluation-in-Development2016.pdf

Annex III: Evaluation Report Checklist

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l3n0y54018qsjvn/evaluation%20checklist_draft.docx?dl=0

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