Final External Evaluation of the Child Rights Consortium III Programme in favour of children at risk in Afghanistan
In the framework of the Consortium III Programme (CRC III), which started on December 2008 and which will end on 21 April 2013, Tdh has been implemented activities in order to better protect children at most risk in Afghanistan and to improve their living conditions with two Afghan non-governmental organisations, Ashiana and Loy Kandahar Reconstruction Organization (LKRO), with the following objectives:
- Overall objective : to strengthen child protection mechanisms;
- Specific objective 1 : street and working children as well as cross border and displaced children are better protected, their living condition and social inclusion have improved;
- Specific objective 2 : Afghan governmental institutions know how to ensure a protective and child rights based setting for children in conflict with the law;
- Specific objective 3 : social protection services are functioning in at least two cities that address special needs of abused children in need of emergency protective care, or socially marginalised on account of severe handicap;
- Specific objective 4 : extremely vulnerable children have their rights protected and upheld in accord with international in relation to labour, abuse, justice and access to education.
Since December 2008, CRC III partners have been running activities in 6 areas of intervention: Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad, Torkham, Mazar-e-Sharif, and Herat.
• Purpose, scope and criteria of the evaluation
The last phase of CRC III Programme is coming to an end and as per the grant agreement signed between the European Commission and Tdh, an impact assessment shall be done by the end of the action. In May 2011, a mid-term internal evaluation has been conducted to assess the achievements and the impact of the CRC III Programme towards the defined objectives. As part of the overall assessment of this programme a final external evaluation is planned in March 2013 and will be submitted to the European Commission. The purpose of this final evaluation is to assess: (i) the relevance of the CRC III Programme within the context of intervention, (ii) the effectiveness and the cost-efficiency of CRC partners’ action in favour of children at risk in Afghanistan, (iii) the sustainability of the intervention in view of the resources and means involved.
The final external evaluation will be conducted in 4 of the 6 areas of intervention: in Kabul, Jalalabad, Herat and Mazar (if security allows field visits). This evaluation will be conducted from end of February (week 25th Feb briefing in Lausanne) to end of March (21st of March debriefing in Kabul – to be confirmed) and the finalized report will have to be submitted not later than 1st of April 2013. It is expected that the external evaluator will meet child beneficiaries, their parents, the CRC partners, the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD), and community members. The external evaluator will be asked to assess the following elements during the assessment and to deliver a final report clearly highlighting the following elements related to the CRC III Programme from December 2008 up to date:
- Output indicators : for each objective, to assess if the targets were reached by the CRC partners, refer to the logical framework output indicators agreed with the European Commission.
- Relevance and appropriateness : for each objective, to assess if the action matched the beneficiaries’ needs, was coherent with the afghan context/policy and with the CRC partners’ specificities in terms of organization and expertise.
- Effectiveness : for each objective, to assess if the activities contributed to better protect children at most risk and to improve their living conditions, and contributed to strengthen child protection mechanisms in Afghanistan.
- Project management: the evaluation will also assess overall management of the project and the consortium model within which it was delivered, including but not limited to; relations between the partners, differences in approach between partners, and the degree of consistency in implementation and monitoring.
- Efficiency : for each objective, to assess the results of the action according to the means of the CRC partners involved in terms of human resources, budget and support costs.
- Sustainability : for each objective, to assess if the action of the CRC III Programme contributed to find mid-term solutions for the child beneficiaries and for the child protection mechanisms in Afghanistan.
Besides, the external evaluator shall take into consideration the risks and assumptions mentioned in the logical framework while assessing the outputs, the relevance, the effectiveness, the efficiency and the sustainability for each objective of the CRC III Programme.
• Methodology
The consultant is expected to propose a comprehensive and structured methodology for the work to be done. - Above all, to collect and analyze the views expressed by the child beneficiaries (from different target groups), their parents, and the community members with a clear methodology on how data collection is done such as semi structured interviews, focus groups, collection of witnesses (e.g. illustrations in the report). A particular focus should be given to the views expressed by the children and to any effective change in their lives due to project activities. - Summary of the history of the CRC program(s) through reviewing documents on CRC such as proposal, reports, mid-term evaluation; - Critical qualitative programmatic review through desk review, discussions and interviews with program stakeholders, including CRC partners staff, MoLSAMD and DoLSAMD staff; - Extraction and analysis of relevant data from existing literature (surveys, studies…) and from data collected from the project (mainly Tdh database).
• Budget available for the evaluation
The proposition of intervention shall cover all expenses: international flights, internal flights, visa, food, housing, translation costs, translator costs, insurance, consultant team daily fees… Tdh will not provide perdiem either insurance (health and evacuation…) The total budget of action shall not exceed 10’000 euros (ten thousand euros). The consultant will be accommodated in Tdh guesthouses.
• Evaluator requirements
Education: master in social science, law or other relevant advanced degree; Experience: Proven experience in conducting external evaluation and research independently in humanitarian context and in complex operating environment; Strong knowledge of the problematic of children at risk and child protection mechanisms; Former professional experience in Afghanistan; Language: Fluency in English both written and verbal; Ability and flexibility to travel in Afghanistan and in remote areas; Knowledge of Muslim environment/context/culture; Commitment to Tdh and CRC child protection policy, code of conduct, and security rules; Former experience in assessing programme in favour of children at risk; Ability to keep calm in highly stressful work situations.
• Application conditions
Application shall include the following document/information: - Technical proposition including understanding of TOR, evaluation matrix and proposed methodology (2 pages max); - Financial proposal shall be detailed with a maximum budget of 10’000 Euros (consultant fees, transport, etc…); - Curriculum of the consultant with references of 2 former evaluation works.
Deadline for submission: 28th of January 2013.
Procedure:
We will only consider complete online applications corresponding to the required profile:http://www.tdh.ch/en/jobs
Your application must include a complete CV and a covering letter.
If you are not shortlisted, your file will be destroyed by us, according to the rules on data protection.
If you face difficulties in applying online, please contact our HR department
The recruitment and selection procedures of Terre des hommes reflect our commitment for child security and protection.
How to apply:
We will only consider complete online applications corresponding to the required profile:http://www.tdh.ch/en/jobs
