End of Project Evaluation (Education Project)

Terms of Reference (TOR) for End of Project Evaluation

Increasing the access & quality of education in Somalia with a special focus on IDPs and girls/women Project

ACRONYMS
CED Centre for Education and Development
HARDO Humanitarian Action for Relief and Development Organization
HH Household
M&E Monitoring & Evaluation
ON Oxfam Novib
TOR Terms of Reference

I Background:

Since 1991, Somalia has been engulfed by a long ravaging civil war in which the central State disintegrated and infrastructure like schools stopped functioning. The South-Central regions of Somalia in particular have continued to suffer under violent conflicts and constant destruction of education systems. In Somalia, two generations have reached adulthood with practically no access to education . Somalia has one of the lowest primary school enrolments in the world. It is estimated that 1,590,000 children are out of school in Somalia with a large percentage of out of school children being girls . Instability in the whole country has caused major barriers to education provision. This is especially the case in South Central Somalia where continuous fighting has resulted in over 1.4 million people becoming internally displaced. Thousands of students who were studying in the capital and the other big cities have discontinued their studies due to the civil war and are now living in makeshift camps and huts in the outskirts of the capital city as well as the neighbouring regions in Middle Shabelle, Lower Shabelle and Galgadud. The idle youth become prey to rival factions and extremists that recruit them as fighting forces. What is also apparent in the whole of Somalia is that boys are being prioritized for education over girls. Girls have an enrolment rate of 24.3 per cent and boys 36.3 percent . This number substantially drops for girls when they reach around 10 years of age with few that are able to attend secondary and tertiary levels .

The legacy of the conflict is an inhibiting factor to the provision of education for all, even in areas where local administrations are established like Somaliland and Puntland, because they lack adequate technical and economic resources. The goal set by Education For All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals 2 and 3 are still very far from being achieved, considering that there are only 30.3%of children enrolled in primary schools (2006/7 UNICEF Primary School Survey figures).

Moreover, the persistent conflict in South Central Somalia has had a serious negative implication on the few operating privately owned schools, institutes and universities as result of continuous clashes between warring groups. Most of school sites and other buildings remain devastated; this led to the majority of IDPs who are former students and other school age children wandering around IDPs camps in the Mogadishu outskirts and other regions in the country with no access to any form of basic education.

It was against this backdrop that Oxfam Novib in partnership with a local organisation (CED) implemented a two year project focused on basic education services for children, youth and adults, with a particular attention to the disadvantaged groups of IDPs and girls/women. Schools were built or rehabilitated where schools already exist.

The overall objective of the project was to improve access to basic education to conflict affected and other impoverished children, including girls to attend classes; focus on critical elements that promote effective teaching and learning, including curricula, training, professional development and support, instruction and learning processes, and assessment of learning outcomes. Besides, the project was formulated based on INEE (Inter-Age Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies Network for Education in Emergencies)Minimum Standards, in the areas of community involvement in project management cycle, accurately analyze and coordinate education assessments and responses, strengthen the capacity of education stakeholders, enhance the service delivery mechanisms, and undertake continuous monitoring and post assessment surveys, and evaluation. Therefore, the need for emergency education has become very important in saving the lives of these children and adults whose access to any form of basic formal and non formal education remains far from achievable.

II Target Locations and population

The project targeted the four most densely populated regions in the South Central Somalia, which are Banadir, Lower Shabelle, and Middle Shabelle and Galgadud region reaching 12,039 families.

III Objectives of the Evaluation

The overall objective of the consultancy assignment is to:

1. To review the relevance, feasibility and target setting of indicators established in the project’s log frame
2. To determine the quality and access to emergency education in south central Somalia(Project area )
3. Outline the impact of the project on communities and families to support children’s education
4. Flag up issues of protection and accountability and how the project has addressed protection issues through the education intervention.
5. Highlight the main issues concerning children, teachers/volunteers, head teachers, parents/other adults.
6. impact of project on both men and women

In view of the above, it is envisaged that the evaluator will collect, collate and analyze education data and existing education services available in the target districts. Furthermore, the findings and recommendations developed from the evaluation will be used for future programming.

IV Specific outputs

• A thorough analysis of status and situation of emergency education in terms of access/enrolment rate, quality of education, relevance of education, internal efficiency, equity, perception of parents and communities towards child education and girls' education (status, challenges, opportunities etc.).
• Quantitative and qualitative data on children in difficult circumstances by category indicating specific obstacles they face in accessing quality education.
• The status of existing educational interventions by various agencies including government aimed at supporting children in difficult circumstances in the project area.
• Evaluate the percentage of sampled trained teachers in the targeted schools demonstrating use of gender-sensitive and learner centered approaches.
• Propose strategies and options for enhancing access and quality of primary education that helps to improve implementation of the project and future interventions

V Focus Area of the evaluation
The evaluation will address but not limited to the following areas:

• Teachers: % of trained teachers, % of female teachers and assessment of teacher's skills in lesson planning, learner-centered methodology and continuous assessment etc.
• School-community relationship: types and magnitude of community contribution, capacity of CEC, areas of improvement, level of involvement in decision making and mechanisms used.
• School level EMIS system, documentation and reporting practices of schools.
• Supervision and support system between schools, district, regional and national education authorities, challenges and gaps related to their specific roles and responsibilities as stated in government policies
• Level of responsiveness of schools to the diversified needs of children such as girls, children from poor families, IDPs, Pastoralist communities, children with disabilities etc. Impact of psychosocial support and counseling to students suffering post traumatic stress disorder and those in need of special care.
• Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) [alternatively simply numbers enrolled] and retention of students in the project schools disaggregated by sex and age.
• Other actors and major intervention areas in project areas.

VI Scope of Work
The scope of work include, though not be limited to the following broad areas:

i. Conduct an in depth desk study of documents containing information relevant for the evaluation. These include project document, UNICEF INEE Minimum Standards document, Ministry of Education (MoE), Education Management Information Systems (EMIS), Education Sector Committee, Millennium Development Goals on education, Dakar Framework of Action (DFA 2000), Education For All (EFA) reports by other education sector stakeholders e.g. on girl child education, emergency education etc.

ii. Prepare an Inception Report (IR) for the evaluation study and submit for approval by Oxfam. The content of an IR shall include preamble, evaluation objectives, proposed data collection methods and instruments, sampling techniques and sample size, analyses to be performed. To facilitate the preparation of an IR, contracted consultant(s) will be provided with project documents.

iii. Conduct in-depth data collection and share draft report.

iv. Submit final report to Oxfam.

v. Make presentation of findings to Oxfam & partner staff

VII Methodology
The evaluation will be undertaken in a participatory manner involving all education stakeholders at regional, national, district and community levels. Thorough investigation of existing secondary documents on emergency education and primary education in Somalia; the consultant shall propose and design a suitable methodology for collecting both qualitative and quantitative data from the key respondents so as to capture the delivery of education services in emergency context.

In light of the above, the consultant(s) will submit an Inception Report (IR) detailing inter alia proposed work plan, methodology that will be agreed upon between the consultant and Oxfam.

VIII Expected deliverables
The lead Consultant is expected to deliver the following outputs:

1. An Inception Report - before the commencement of the evaluation elaborating methodology, types of data analyses that will be performed and work plan.
   a. A detailed methodology for implementation of the evaluation (include samples size).
   b. Draft data collection tools for all indicators (within and outside the scope of this study).
   c. An updated and detailed schedule for the evaluation.
   d. Submission of a draft report for comments by Oxfam.
   e. Feedback and comments by Oxfam team
2. Evaluation report
   a. Pictures taken in the field
3. Presentation of findings

IX Tentative Timetable

This consultancy will be for a period not exceeding 25 days within the month of June/early july, with fieldwork in south Central Somalia estimated to last two weeks.

X Organisation and Management of the Evaluation
The evaluation will be conducted in four regions of South central. Oxfam Novib will have an overall responsibility for coordination/guidance, logistical arrangements, and provision of the needed project documents for review, arranging interviews, meetings with stakeholders.

The Consultant will be responsible for the development of methodologies and evaluation tools, conducting the data collection, analysis and reporting.

Expertise Required

This consultancy can be undertaken by a consultancy firm or independent consultant(s). The consultant should have expertise in the following areas: -

• International experience on program management in Horn of Africa Countries. Experience in research work, monitoring and evaluation consultancies, education assessments/evaluations, including previous working experience in Somalia
• A degree in education or other relevant fields. A post graduate degree in any of the main sub sectors will be an added advantage.
• Demonstrated experience in managing development, relief and emergency programs.
• Have excellent analytical and writing skills.
• Previous working on Education in emergency projects will be an added advantage as well as consultancy team composition of Somali speaker(s).
• Ability to access the programme area critical

How to apply:

Interested consultancy firms or independent consultant (s) should send the information listed below tovacancy.Heca@oxfamnovib.nl by COB on the 07 June 2013

o Technical proposal not exceeding 5 pages, the attachments comprising of summarized firm profile, CVs of the lead and associate consultants should not exceed 10 pages in a technical proposal.

o Financial proposal.

Note: This should not be taken as a full time engagement for the consultant(s) but rather time specific assignment as in the work plan above.