INVITATION TO BID FOR CONSULTANCY
Save the Children International (SCI) Somaliland program hereby invites interested consultants to bid for the consultancy assignment detailed below
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Title of Consultancy
TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE FINAL EVALUATION OF ESPIG PROJECT IN SOMALILAND
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SCI Contracting Office
Save the Children, Somaliland
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Period of Consultancy
30 working days starting from contracting date.
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Consultant type required
Individual or Firm
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Responsibility for Logistics arrangements and Costs
The consultant will be responsible for organizing logistical issues with no facilitation from SCI as per the consultancy agreement.
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Taxation Provisions
Consultant shall be responsible for all Taxes arising from the consultancy in line with the Somaliland Tax regulations applicable at the SCI Hargeisa Office
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Travel requirements
Consultant will manage all travel costs
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Security requirements
Consultant will comply with standard Save the Children Security procedures, including the completion of SCI online security training prior to travel to Somaliland
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Qualification and Experience
Individual consultants and companies are eligible to apply this consultancy service. However, the applicant must have the following profiles.
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Evaluation Criteria
The following award criteria will be used during the evaluation of the technical proposals.
Evaluation criteria
Weighting marks
Relevancy of the technical proposal to the ToR-15 Marks
Reasonability of the costs presented in the financial proposal-20 Marks
Prior experience for the applicants in doing similar assignments AND the qualifications of the technical team-15 Marks
Methodology and techniques to be applied well stipulated-10 Marks
Interview scores-40 Marks
11-Application Procedure
Individuals/Firms interested in this evaluation are expected to provide the following documentation:
12 Closing date for Applications
Interested candidates shall submit their applications through somaliland.procurement@savethechildren.org no later than 07th January 2023 at 3:30PM (Hargeisa Time)
Terms of Reference (ToR)
Complete ToR with details appended below attached herewith as Annex 1.
TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE FINAL EVALUATION OF ESPIG PROJECT IN SOMALILAND.
Save the children area office in Somaliland have been implementing an education program titled as Education Sector Program Implementation Grant (ESPIG). The ESPIG is four years and nine months (1st July 2018 – 31st March 2023) education project funded by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). The ESPIG project is designed to respond directly to the challenges identified in the Somaliland Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) 2017-2021 facing the MOES in its efforts to provide educational services to boys and girls in Somaliland. These challenges are addressed under three headings: Access and Equity, Quality and Learning Outcome, and Efficient and Effective Education System.
The program centers on primary education, with a strong focus on efficient and effective education systems to institutionalize systems and processes that support Access and Equity, and Quality and Learning. The coverage area for the project is all the six administrative regions for Somaliland namely Marodi-jeh, Awdal, Sahil, Togdheer, Sool and Sanaag. The main partner for the project is the Ministry of Education and Higher Studies for Somaliland.
The overall objective of the program is “by 2022, girls and boys of primary school age, in Somaliland, have acquired the skills and competencies, through safe, protective learning environments”, with an overall outcome indicator of “% girls and boys who demonstrate improved learning/developmental outcomes”
The program has three interrelated outcomes with clear targets shown below table which contribute to the realization of the project purpose and specific objective.
Outcomes
Key Program Targets
Outcome 1:
Enrolment in primary schools supported under the GPE increase by 20% over their baselines, with 50% girls.
Outcome 2:
Pedagogical skills of primary school and ECE teachers (25% women) improved through professional training and certification.
Outcome 3.
Established efficient, effective, and functional monitoring system at MOES central and devolved levels (REO/DEO/school).
The purpose of this evaluation is to assess performance and achievement of the program by focusing on the extent to which the activities are suited to the priorities and polices of the target group (relevance); achievement of purpose and planned results (effectiveness); sound management and value for money (efficiency); likely continuation of achieved results (sustainability), mutual reinforcements (coherence); and GPE value added. The final evaluation process should also highlight challenges encountered during the project implementation: document key lessons learnt, contributions to any intended and unintended impacts at school, community, and system levels; and the best practices which can be replicated for future programs.
The specific objectives of this final evaluation are to:
The evaluator is expected to employ OECD/DAC evaluation criteria for this exercise, the following guiding evaluation questions are expected to be followed:
Relevance
Effectiveness
Efficiency
Impact
Sustainability
In addition to the above OECD/DAC criteria, the evaluation team will also assess:
Based on the findings of the above generate lessons learnt, challenges, and best practices make a realistic and feasible recommendations for girls and boys of primary school age, in Somaliland, have acquired the skills and competencies, through safe, protective learning environments
The program covers all six administrative regions of Somaliland (Awdal, Marodijeeh, Sahil, Togdheer, Sool and Sanag) and currently targets 270 primary schools. 75% of the target primary schools are in the rural areas and 25% in the urban settlements. 25 schools for Alternative Basic Education (ABE) are also among the targets. However, the evaluation process will draw a representative sample from the target considering proportionality for the target groups. The newly constructed or rehabilitated classrooms should be sampled adequately.
An external consultant under the guidance of the SCI education team and the Ministry of Education will lead the whole process of the final evaluation. The consultant will develop the data collection tools, train the data collection team, coordinate the field data collection process, interpret the data, and produce a comprehensive final evaluation report.
The methodology to be adopted by the evaluation shall generate both quantitative and qualitative information, that specific methodology to employ should be participatory, and to enable triangulating data from the key stakeholders including children. Quantitatively, it should include well developed study tools or questionnaires with proper random selection of participants where appropriate. Qualitatively, it should mainly comprise of desk review, use of primary and secondary data and field consultations with the different stakeholders (children’s & teachers benefiting from the project, CECs, REOs/DEOs office, teacher training college and MOES departments. Case studies are expected to be used to document changes brought about by the project on specific cases, lessons learnt and good practices that can be replicated elsewhere. The lead researcher (consultant) will be responsible for further development of the methodology and the evaluation tools to show how data for each evaluation objective will be captured.
The consultant is expected to perform throughout the process of the assignment from inception to dissemination of the report findings. Some key activities during these phases include the development of data collection tools, document review, data collection, analysis/interpretation, report writing, and presentation to key stakeholders.
The final evaluation will be conducted from February – March 2023. The consultant shall develop detailed work plan in his technical proposal and will be reviewed and approved by the SC education management team.
a) The Consultant:
b) Save the Children:
The consultant will report directly to Save the Children office in Hargeisa. The Area MEAL Manager will be the focal person who will lead this exercise in coordination with the education program team and the MOE&S at all levels.
The consultancy is expected to produce a quality report focusing on each project outcome with deep dives on project output indicators as well, which provides clear information during implementation, differentiating findings, conclusions, and recommendations. The consolidated summary shall pull together the key intended and unintended findings from the project target areas and stakeholder, recommendations should focus on improving similar programming in the future. In addition to the report the consultancy shall submit raw data, methodology used, interview outlines, list of people interviewed/met, etc. SC Somaliland office will disseminate the findings and lessons learnt, which means the consultancy shall have no exclusive copyright of the report.
The title rights, copyrights, and all other rights of whatever nature in any materials used or generated under the provisions of this consultancy will exclusively be vested with Save the Children Somalia/Somaliland Country Office. All products developed under this consultancy belong to the project exclusively, guided by the rules of the grant contract. Under no circumstances will the consultant use the information of this evaluation for publication or dissemination to any individual or organization without official prior written permission from Save the Children Somalia/Somaliland Country Office.
The consultancy will be contracted by and report to Save the Children in Somaliland. The project team, country office technical team will also support the final evaluation, providing necessary and available documents and information needed, they will also provide technical assistance.
Location:The consultancy will take place in Somaliland.
Evaluation criteria
Weighting marks
Relevancy of the technical proposal to the ToR-15 Marks
Reasonability of the costs presented in the financial proposal-20 Marks
Prior experience for the applicants in doing similar assignments AND the qualifications of the technical team-15 Marks
Methodology and techniques to be applied well stipulated-10 Marks
Interview scores-40 Marks
Professional Fee: The consultant will come up with his/her own rate, which will be subject to negotiation within the bounds of donor requirements, market price and set standards of SC in Somaliland. The consultant is expected to estimate all relevant costs for the exercise, including costs for data collectors, vehicle rent, venue, stationary, travel costs, accommodation, and others, which he/she is expecting to incur while undertaking activities related to this evaluation.
Save the Children’s work is based on deeply held values and principles of child safeguarding, and it is essential that our commitment to children’s rights and humanitarian principles is supported and demonstrated by all members of staff and other people working for and with Save the Children. Save the Children’s Code of Conduct sets out the standards which all staff members must adhere to, and the consultant is bound to sign and abide to the Save the Children’s Code of Conduct.
A contract will be signed by the consultant before commencement of the action. The contract will detail terms and conditions of service, aspects on inputs and deliverables. The Consultant will be expected to treat as private and confidential any information disclosed to her/him or with which she/he may come into contact during her/his service. The Consultant will not therefore disclose the same or any particulars thereof to any third party or publish it in any paper without the prior written consent of Save the Children. Any sensitive information (particularly concerning individual children) should be treated as confidential.
An agreement with a consultant will be rendered void if Save the Children discovers any corrupt activities have taken place either during the sourcing, preparation, and implementation of the consultancy agreement.
The consultant shall be expected to go through mandatory On-line Security and Hostage and Kidnap trainings and submit the certificate of completion to SC before the commencement of the task. Failure to deliver this will lead to an automatic disqualification. SC will advise on the security plan on appointment.
Individual consultants and companies are eligible to apply this consultancy service. However, the applicant must have the following profiles.
Candidates interested in the position are expected to provide the following documentation:
Interested candidates shall submit their applications through somaliland.procurement@savethechildren.org no later than 07th January 2023 at 3:30PM (Hargeisa Time)