Consultancy (remote)

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Consultancy to conduct the evaluation of the project “Together: Working in partnership with children and youth to enhance their rights in responses to crisis situations such as COVID-19 and other emergencies”

Location: home-based (full remote)

INTRODUCTION

SOS Children’s Villages International is currently coordinating the implementation of the project “Together: Working in partnership with children and youth to enhance their rights in responses to crisis situations such as COVID-19 and other emergencies” which is co-funded by the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) Programme of the European Union. The project implementation period is from October 2022 to October 2024.

a) Project overview

The “Together” project aims to contribute to better embedding children’s rights in the responses to crisis situations across the EU, by empowering children and young people living in vulnerable family situations and in alternative care to participate meaningfully in decisions and solutions at local, regional and national level on all matters affecting them.

Project coordinator:                           SOS Children’s Villages International

Implementing partners:                   SOS Children’s Villages member associations in Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, and Spain.

Objectives:                                            Through the project, we have developed and delivered a peer-to-peer workshop programme for children and young people to build their capacity to participate meaningfully in public decision-making. An e-learning programme has been developed to raise awareness among public decision-makers and professionals who care for and work with children and young people, on how to improve child and youth participation in public decision-making. A series of information videos for children and young people have been created by the Child and Youth Advisory Boards to build their knowledge on their rights and how they can voice their views. Information webinars will be held for professionals and public decision-makers to increase their knowledge on how children and young people want to be included in responses to emergencies. In addition, a series of policy recommendations will be developed and disseminated on how to improve child and youth participation in public decision-making responses to emergencies.

b) Timing of the evaluationThe collaboration will take place between mid-June and mid-November 2024 (five months).

OBJECTIVES OF THE EVALUATION

Part 1: Training evaluation

The training evaluation aims to determine the quality of the national Training of Peer Trainers and the peer-to-peer workshop sessions delivered to children and young people in each of the participating countries. It also aims at evaluating how meaningful and effective the participation of children and young people has been throughout the training activities, in their role as Mentors, Peer Trainers, and participants of the workshops.

Main tasks:

• Collate and analyse the post-training questionnaires from the national Trainings of Peer Trainers.
• Collate and analyse the results of the final peer-to-peer workshop exercise with children and young people.
• Collate and analyse the number of responses received for the worksheet exercise completed by the workshop participants to reach other children and young people.
• Collate and analyse the findings from the national focus group discussions with children and young people who participated in the peer-to-peer workshops.
• Collate and analyse the results of the post-workshop questionnaires for adults who participate in session six (two questionnaires: one completed immediately after the session, and another three-months later).
• Review and analyse the national reports on the messages developed by children and young people within the workshops.
• Submit final analysis of all evaluation findings in the form of a report (maximum 30 pages – see section 4 below).

Part 2: Project evaluation

The final project evaluation aims to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the activities carried out within the project. It also aims at evaluating to what extent the project indicators have been fulfilled, how sustainable the project is, how meaningful and safe child and youth participation has been, and to make recommendations to the project management. The project evaluation also aims to assess the reach of the e-learning module and information webinars for adults, and the information videos and related campaign for children and young people; how active and meaningful the participation of the Child and Youth Advisory Board members has been; and the relevance/quality of the national policy recommendations.

Effectiveness:                                                                            

• To assess to what extent the project objectives/expected results were achieved/are likely to be achieved.
• To present the main results of the project in quantitative terms (indicators report).
• To identify the major factors that have influenced the achievement or non-achievement of the objectives.

Efficiency:

• To look at whether or not objectives have been achieved on time.
• To assess whether or not the project has been implemented in the most efficient way.

Sustainability:

• To assess to what extent the benefits of the project continue after the project will have been closed.
• To make recommendations for further projects to build upon the achievements made in the “Together” project.

Child and youth participation:

• To evaluate how meaningful and safe child and youth participation has been throughout the project.

Lessons learned:

• To identify lessons SOS Children’s Villages should learn out of the project (at international level and at national level).
• To inform the management of the project about issues which need to be improved in future similar projects.

Main tasks:

• Undertake a desk study analysing all key documents concerning the project.
• Hold semi-structured interviews with project members.
• Collate and analyse the number of participants who enrol on the e-learning module for adults, as well as the post-course evaluations.
• Collate and analyse the number of participants of the information webinars for adults.
• Collate and analyse the number of views for the information videos for children and young people as well as the number of signatures received for the related campaign (“Let our voices be heard!”).
• Collate and analyse the key documents related to the participation of the Child and Youth Advisory Board members within national participation platforms and meetings with public authorities.
• Collate and analyse the key documents for the national policy recommendations and their dissemination.
• Participation at the virtual final project event and final online meeting of project partners (October 2024) to collect final data for the project evaluation.

PLACE OF WORK

The assignment is home based. All necessary documents will be made available in electronic version.

REPORTS

Inception Report

In order to ensure mutual understanding of the consultant's plan of action and timeline for conducting the evaluation as well as to ensure common understanding between SOS Children’s Villages International and the consultant on the interpretation of the TOR, the consultant is asked to submit an Inception Report within 3 weeks of the date of signature of the consultancy contract. It should be submitted in electronic form and contain the following information: i) introduction, ii) survey methods and tools, iii) logistical arrangements, and iv) key limitations and solutions.

Training Evaluation Report

The training evaluation will result in the compilation of the “Together Training Evaluation Report”. The report should be written in English, in a straightforward manner, with a maximum length of 30 pages including the Executive Summary, which should appear at the beginning of the report. It should be submitted in electronic form.

Project Evaluation Report

The project evaluation will result in the compilation of the “Together Project Evaluation Report”. The report should be written in English, in a straightforward manner, with a maximum length of 50 pages including the Executive Summary, which should appear at the beginning of the report. It should be submitted in electronic form. The report should be structured as follows: cover page (title of the evaluation report, project name, date of the evaluation, name of the consultant); table of contents; executive summary (focusing on key purpose/issues of the evaluation, main points of the analysis and main conclusions, lessons learned and specific recommendations); main body of the report (including references to the methodology used for the evaluation); annexes (list of persons interviewed, abbreviations used).

The first draft of the Training Evaluation Report should be submitted to the Senior Project Manager no later than 30 September 2024, and the first draft of the Project Evaluation Report should be submitted to the Senior Project Manager no later than 14 October 2024. The final reports will be submitted to the Senior Project Manager no later than 11 November 2024, and should reflect the feedback project partners gave to the first draft of the report as well as any additional findings derived from further meetings of project partners (where needed).

REQUIRED SKILLS

In addition to a proven track record of having conducted similar assignments, the consultant should have a good understanding of the child protection systems of EU member states, child rights, and child and youth participation. Familiarity with the structure, processes and challenges of an international NGO is recommended. The consultant must have a high level of proficiency in English, both written and verbal.

The criteria that will be used for selection are as follows: education, background and previous similar experience of the consultant, reasonable cost proposal.

DEADLINE AND APPLICATION PROCESS

Applicants are requested to send the following documents:

• Your CV and letter of motivation
• An example of your work in English (preferably a similar evaluation report)
• A financial offer including your hourly/daily rates in Euros with an estimation of the number of days required to complete the work as outlined above.

Please send your application to train4childrights@sos-kd.org by 24 May 2024.

This project is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of SOS Children’s Villages only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.