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Save the Children International is looking for Consultant to undertake Final Evaluation for OFDA Project in Deep South

JOB TITLE:  Consultant to undertake Final Evaluation for OFDA Project in Deep South

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Program Development and Quality      

LOCATION: Thailand                           Type of Contract: Consultancy

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3 – the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or young people.

1. Background

Migrants from Myanmar in Thailand

Save the Children in Thailand, in collaboration with local partner - Luuk Rieng, is implementing a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) project called “DRR and Comprehensive School Safety (CSS) in the Deep South of Thailand (The Alert Little Tun)”, funded by USAID/OFDA (Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance). This project aims 1) to improve the knowledge and skills of schools and local communities in disaster risk reduction (DRR), including disability inclusive DRR, in the southern border provinces of Thailand and, 2) to integrate lessons learned into national policy through the Comprehensive School Safety program. The project commenced on 1st March 2016 and will have implemented for 15 months by June 2017.

This project makes use of the unique position of Save the Children as a national and regional leader on child-friendly DRR and Comprehensive School Safety to address the urgent and distinct DRR needs of the communities in the target provinces as well as to influence DRR policy and curricula at the national level to make it more sustainable, coherent, child-friendly and disability inclusive across the country. In this way, the project will make a concrete and lasting contribution to safeguarding children’s right to safety and security in schools, and to educational continuity.

2. The purpose of this consultancy

Save the Children Thailand intends to conduct a final (external) evaluation of the OFDA-supported Disaster Risk Reduction (DiDRR) project to generate substantive evidence based knowledge by identifying good practices and lessons learned from intended and unintended impact of the project interventions (Result Framework in Annex I). This evaluation is intended to disclose the nature of the change that has taken place in the lives of targeted children, community and local level government agencies, and to determine its significance on the well-being of those people as well as to assess partnerships among Save the Children, partner organizations and government agencies. Save the Children is seeking evidence about impactful strategies and approaches, leveraging existing resources and strengths to scale up effective child-centered DRR interventions. The results from this assessment exercise will be highly useful to provide recommendations for future project strategy and implementation that aligns with Save the Children’s country strategic plan, the regional Education Safe from Disasters Strategy, emerging common approach to Comprehensive School Safety, and global breakthroughs.

The overall objectives of this consultancy include:

• Evaluating the project performance, including progress and achievements towards project goals and objectives (i.e. progress/outcome assessment), strengths and weaknesses, and overall impacts of the projects (intended and unintended, positive and negative);
• Conducting comparative analysis on changes at school and community level against the baseline, using the CSS assessment tool (Annex II);
• Consolidating key success stories and lessons learned from the projects, particularly on implementation of DiDRR initiatives;
• Assessing to what extent the project has made impacts to change at policy level and/or advocacy with local and national government and contributed to ASEAN CSS framework.

The findings from the evaluation will inform the baseline data and strategy of the second phase of the project. 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?

Effectiveness

• To what extent has the project been effectively achieving its goal and objectives? To what extent have the stated project outcomes been achieved? And how effectively has the project reached the most vulnerable and marginalized girls and boys, women, men in targeted area? How effectively has the project reached children with various types of disabilities, and their teachers and caregivers?
• How effectively and appropriately have we worked with government organizations, partners and local communities and involved them in relevant stages of the project?

Impact

• What changes in policies, practices, knowledge and attitudes have occurred in specific institutions, groups and individuals with the support of the project?
• How have the needs of ‘most vulnerable’ communities been addressed from the project? What significant changes have occurred in lives of boys and girls, women, men, and individuals with disabilities in targeted communities?

Efficiency

• How efficiently have human, financial, administrative and time resources been used in reducing the prevalence rates? Was the project implemented in the most efficient way compared to alternatives?

Sustainability

• How are the changes made by the project in children’s, women’s, men’s, lives likely to be sustained? And 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 team of consultants will be recruited to lead this evaluation. The project is being implemented in 12 pilot schools and 1 special education school in three provinces in the deep south of Thailand namely Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. This evaluation expects to collect information to adequately represent all project locations. The evaluation design should be in line with ethical considerations in Annex III.

It is anticipated the methodology for this evaluation will comprise of:

• Both qualitative and quantitative data 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/people with specific 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; Discussion of findings with groups of expertise; Formulating recommendations.

3. Timeframe

The consultant will be required to dedicate an estimated 20 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 DRR 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, OFDA 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
• Assuring ability to collect data in local language of beneficiaries
• Overseeing the data collection
• Data entry and analyzing data
• Compiling and submitting the evaluation report including documentation of findings, learnings and recommendations for programming

Save the Children will be responsible for:

• Providing consultant and team with child-safeguarding orientation

6. 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, insurance and applicable taxes, should be included in the proposed budget.  Consultant should budget for local language interpreter to support field data collection.

7. 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
• Expertise in issues related to child protection and education is an asset
• Experience in conducing evaluation in sensitive and insecure context will be an asset
• Experience in disability-inclusive approaches will be an asset
• English and Thai language proficiency
• Ability to work within strict deadlines

8. 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
• Evaluation plan and proposal including a research methodology and timeline (5 pages maximum)
• A detailed budget in THB (including travel and other costs)

9. Close date for submissions:

Applicant should submit their interest by 21^th March 2017. Submissions should be addressed to: hr.thailand@savethechildren.org

Please indicate in the subject as “Apply for a Consultant to undertake Final Evaluation for OFDA Project in Deep South_(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.”