Since being founded in 1999, War Child Canada has worked in 20 countries across the world and we are currently operational in Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Uganda.
Oxfam Canada is an affiliate of the Oxfam International Confederation networked in more than 90 countries as part of a global movement for change. Its vision is “A just and sustainable world” and its mission is “We fight inequality and patriarchy to end poverty and injustice”.
Since its foundation in 1963, Oxfam Canada has been working directly with communities, partners, and women’s rights organizations to challenge the systems that perpetuate inequality and keep people poor. They seek to influence those in power to ensure that women trapped in poverty have a say in the critical decisions that affect them, their families and entire communities.
The Geared for Success Project: War Child Canada (WCC) and Oxfam Canada (OCA) in partnership with 6 community-based organizations in South Sudan and Uganda will be implementing the $14.7m Global Affairs Canada (GAC) funded project “Geared for Success’ – IDP-led and RLOs driving education in Uganda and South Sudan” (GFS).
WCC, OCA, and our partners will implement the 5-year gender-responsive project (2022- 2027) in South Sudan and Uganda and a public engagement component in Canada. Although GFS will directly reach people in Canada, the ultimate project participants are students/learners in Uganda and South Sudan.
The project uses the Canadian Government’s Results-Based Management (RBM) approach to assess project progress and achievements. The ultimate outcome of the project is: “enhanced equitable and inclusive learning outcomes for ‘refugee, internally displaced and host community children and youth, particularly girls and adolescent girls’ in the districts of Yumbe, Terego and Obongi in Uganda and Wau, Malakal and Awerial in South Sudan”.
The intermediate outcomes of the project are outlined below.
- Improved performance of CBOs working on gender-responsive education
- Increased access to gender-responsive quality education for refugees and internally displaced children and youth, particularly girls and adolescent girls, enabled by CBOs
- Enhanced collective action of CBOs to advance the right to gender- responsive quality education for refugee and internally displaced children and youth, particularly vulnerable groups
GFS will achieve this outcome by increasing access to gender responsive quality education for ultimate project participants, driven by local refugee-led organizations (RLOs) and internally displaced people (IDP)-led community- based organizations (CBOs).
CBOs are on the front lines of providing essential education services for refugees and IDPs. To ensure that CBOs are ‘geared for success’, this project will facilitate and provide technical and financial resources to improve their performance -with more female leadership and community support, allowing them to enable access to education and to successfully advocate for the right to education for ultimate project participants. GFS will also strengthen Canadians’ (including diaspora) contribution to education for refugees/IDPs and to the ‘Together for Learning’ Campaign and will advance the evidence base on the role of CBOs enhancing gender-responsive quality education for refugees and IDPs.
Consultancy summary
The baseline will provide analysis of the current context of the project location in line the project outcomes, provide thematic data on education services for refugees and IDP and provide baseline values for key project outcome-level indicators. The primary audiences are both internal/external, namely: WCC, OCA, GAC, WCC and OCA country offices and project CBOs in country. Report and findings will also be shared with other GAC’s Together for Learning partners. With this in mind, the Geared for Success Baseline Study will employ a mixed- methods approach, leveraging both quantitative and qualitative data.
It is expected that the consultant(s) leading the baseline will use a gender lens and conflict sensitivity approach. In this project, WCC and OCA seeks to apply a Feminist Approach to Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (FMEAL). In doing so, it prioritizes seven key foundations, including:
- Understanding feminist MEAL as an approach,
- Positioning MEAL as an integral part of social transformation,
- Shifting power to participants in evaluations,
- Understanding the role of the evaluator as a facilitator,
- Valuing collective, context-driven knowledge generation,
- Providing a learning orientation to evaluative exercises, and
- Rooting feminist MEAL in safe programming, guided by ‘do no harm’.
The successful consultancy team should reflect these foundations in their proposal and subsequent work.
The proposed key indicators for measurement as part of the assessment include:
*please note that these indicators are subject to review and finalization during the project’s planning period
Ultimate Outcome Indicators:
- % of refugee, IDP, and host community learners who report improved access to and quality of education in South Sudan and Uganda (disaggregated by gender)
- % of refugee, IDP, and host community learners who feel supported by their community and local education structures to achieve their education goals (disaggregated by gender)
Intermediate Outcome Indicators:
- % of community members that identify CBOs as key education providers in their community
- Self-assessment scoring of CBOs of their own overall organizational capacity (to promote gender responsive education)
- # of learners enrolled in formal or non-formal education at the pre- primary, primary, lower secondary, upper secondary, and post- secondary education levels
- Stakeholder perceptions regarding importance of CBOs in responding to and addressing the education needs of refugee/IDP learners in a gender responsive approach
- Total # of advocacy and public engagement activities completed by CBOs to advance the right to gender responsive education
Immediate Outcome Indicators:
- Level of confidence of CBOs on their own ability to deliver effective programing (programmatic dimension) on gender-responsive education
- # of individuals with an enhanced awareness and/or knowledge and/or skills to promote women’s participation and leadership in public life
- Perspectives of targeted population on positive attitudes that promote the right to gender responsive education
- % of enrolled refugees/IPDs, especially girls, who feel satisfied, safe, and supported within their educational environment
- % of community members (disaggregated by gender), specifically fathers, stating they believe education, is equally important for girls and boys
- # of teachers trained according to national standards and/or approved teacher training programs
- # of schools that have implemented changes to create welcoming spaces that respond to the specific needs of refugees/IDPs, especially girls
- Change in knowledge and ability of CBOs to advocate for implementation for of gender-responsive education
*These indicators will be reviewed by the project partners during the planning process. Any changes will be conveyed to the consultancy team during the assessment inception period.
Additional themes and questions for assessment include:
- Social attitudes by host communities, refugees, IDPs, and key government stakeholders toward gender-responsive education
- Parent and community participation levels and support for education, especially for girls
- Ability and knowledge of CBOs to collectively advocate with the government for the implementation of gender-responsive quality education policies, programs and services for refugees/IDPs
The project baseline design will be reviewed and adapted for project midline and endline assessments.
The consultancy team will be responsible for arranging their travel and logistics, with coordination and input from War Child Canada and Oxfam project team
members in South Sudan and Uganda.
Approach and Deliverables:
The consultancy team will review all project documents and existing project data in advance to carrying out the assessment. Project staff have developed this scope of work as a general framework from which the consultancy team to propose their approach to measure project indicators and themes outlined above. The consultancy team will develop & finalize the methods and tools to measure baseline and gather thematic data in line with the project’s theory of change results in collaboration with M&E staff.
The consultancy team will be responsible for design of the assessment and tools, coordination and implementation of data collection activities, analysis of data, and reporting. The consultancy team will provide the following deliverables:
- Inception report including data collection tools and approach to data analysis
- Presentation of key findings for validation for project staff (virtual)
- Draft report (this is expected to incorporate feedback received from the validation presentation and draft report)
- Final report (with all feedback incorporated)
The consultancy team will present a baseline report that includes:
- An executive summary that includes a table with key indicators and their baseline values
- One-page infographic summarizing key assessment findings
- Summary of findings by project outcome including thematic findings
- Recommendations for project programming (i.e. sustainability, capacity- building, gender, and inclusion)
- Case studies from representatives of proposed key project participant groups
- Annex of methodology, final tools, detailed tables and summary notes from qualitative data collection, list of stakeholders interviewed/consulted, bibliography of any supporting documentation reviewed, and photos/videos with credit and consent forms (if any)
The final report will have graphic design and will be formatted by the consultancy team, with feedback from War Child Canada and Oxfam Canada.
The successful consultancy team should include and address all potential ethical issues related to this review in its proposal and subsequent inception report. Additionally, the successful consultancy team is expected to undertake the baseline with high respect given to transparency, cost-effectiveness, gender transformative potential, and collaboration with a range of stakeholders.
Confidentiality and data protection:
All the outputs – baseline reports, data base, etc, produced under this assignment will not be disseminated in part or whole without express authority from War Child Canada and Oxfam Canada. Thus, the consultant shall not produce these materials in any form (electronic, hard copies, etc) to a third party without written permission from WCC and OCA.
Evaluation proposals should not exceed $80,000 CAD.
The assessment is planned to occur from 1 December 2022 to 15 March 2023, with final deliverables provided no later than March 15, 2023.
Experience, skills
Consultancy team must demonstrate the following:
- Previous experience performing high quality mixed-method assessments and strong understanding of global best practice program assessment procedures
- Experience utilizing feminist M&E principles and practices
- Ability to facilitate and relate to stakeholders at multiple levels and in diverse contexts
- Proven ability to engage in quantitative analysis, with preference given to experience with mobile-based/technology enabled data collection
- Consultancy team must have strong research, demonstrated quantitative and qualitative data analysis skill, and excellent report writing skills in English
- Experience working on projects related to children’s rights and protection issues and education programs in similar context
- Strong understanding of the GAC program design, result-based model, and evaluation system and standards
- Experience working in Uganda and South Sudan
- Strong English language skills required; other local languages an asset
Travel
Travel to project locations in the districts of Yumbe, Terego and Obongi in Uganda and Wau, Malakal and Awerial in South Sudan is required but subject to security clearance and COVID-19 safety considerations (determined in coordination with War Child Canada and Oxfam teams).
How to apply
Interested applicants/firms are invited to submit the following:
- A cover letter outlining relevant experiences in similar studies (1-2 pages)
- Technical proposal including an outline of the study approach, considerations on how feminist principles will be incorporated, data analysis plan, potential technical and operational challenges, and strategies to ensure timely, high-quality deliverables. A list of key activities and timeframe should also be included (10 pages maximum)
- A staffing and management plan, including details of the team composition and specific qualification of key staff (1-2 pages)
- Financial proposal (detailed budget) The application package should also include:
- A list of three references that can attest to the team’s expertise as it relates to this assignment
- Curriculum vitae of key consultancy team members
- Confirmation of availability for assessment period and ability to travel to project locations (1 December 2022 to 15 March 2023)
- Preferred: two examples of similar work, recently completed Email: [email protected]
Please ensure your submission email has the subject heading: “Geared for Success Baseline Assessment”
Final candidates will be vetted in accordance with War Child Canada and Oxfam Canada’s safeguarding policies, including Child Safeguarding Policy as well as appropriate reference and security checks.
Only those applicants selected for an interview will be notified. For more information about War Child Canada, please visit www.warchild.ca. For more information about Oxfam Canada, please visit www.oxfam.ca