PROJECT SUMMARY

• Type of Evaluation: Mid-term evaluation
• Name of the Project: DANIDA SPA Education and Child Protection Programme in Yemen 2022 – 2025
• Project Start and End Dates: 01 January 2022 – 31 December 2025
• Project Duration: 4 years (48 months)
• Project Locations: Yemen – Sa’ada
• Districts: Razih and Hydan
• Thematic Areas: Child protection
• Sub-themes: Child protection and education
• Donor: DANIDA
• Overall Objective of the Project: Girls and boys of school age (between 6-17) are safe and protected from violence, natural and everyday hazards and conflict in and around schools and have access to safe and inclusive learning environments.

Project Overview

The DANIDA SPA Education and Child Protection Programme in Yemen is being implemented in Sa’ada Governorate, one of the areas most affected by the conflict. As per the latest Education Cluster data, 273,873 school-aged children (53% boys) are in need of humanitarian assistance. Humanitarian actors have a limited presence in Sa’ada due to active fighting and access challenges – frontline. This has led to very few national and international organisations working in education and Child Protection (CP) programmes despite massive needs in the governorate. Based on the Education Cluster severity analysis, all districts (except Razih) in Sa’ada are considered priority 4 with a total number of 139,519 school-aged boys and girls in acute need.

The program outcome indicators:

1. Local civil society, local authorities, community members and school personnel are engaged in processes aiming to develop, strengthen, and implement policies and systems for school safety and protection.
2. Teachers, students, parents, school administration and relevant duty bearers take responsibility for school facilities’ standards of safety, protection and management aimed at protecting children - in and around schools.
3. Teachers, children and community members have increased capacity to develop safe and protective environments and promote positive relationships in and around schools
4. Children with child protection concerns have access to multi sector services and lifesaving information through coordinated case management services and referral mechanisms
5. Girls’ and boys’ voices are considered and echoed in decision-making process by children, humanitarian actors and other stakeholders.

This Mid-term evaluation, through comparison to the baseline findings, monitoring reports and the progress achieved in terms of the IPTT, will come up with an analysis of actions’ impacts on beneficiaries and sound recommendations on how to improve Save the Children programming while maximizing benefits to the supported communities.

SCOPE OF STUDY

This study will be conducted at the third year of the project (2024), to assess the project outcomes and ensure to which extent that the project met its impact as stipulated in the logframe. It will be built upon the baseline results, and benchmark indicators assessment and/or IPTT achievements, Activity completion reports and any other relevant reports.

The objectives of this mid-term evaluation are to:

WHY:

• Assess the extent to which the project met its outcomes as stipulated in the project Logframe.
• Assess the extent of which the project accessed girls, boys, women and men equally in the project activities and services.
• Assess the extent to which project implementation progress contributes and meet the Safe School Common Approach guidelines and standards.
• Assess which approaches and activities are working well and where we should make changes.
• Assess the satisfaction of girls, boys and their caregivers from the case management intervention against the case assessment and plans and their perception of how the project contributed to their needs; and
• Highlight lessons learned (including any unintended outcomes) and recommendations to feedback into current and future SC programming.
• Assess how and why the intervention may have made a difference to the targeted women, girls, boys and men (separately).

WHAT:

• The Mid-term evaluation will consider all above objectives against program implementation in the targeted schools in Sa’ada governorate.
• The Mid-term evaluation is planned to cover the assessment of the implemented activities throughout the project previous period (2022 and 2023).

WHO & HOW:

The primary audiences of this evaluation are the donor DANIDA, Save the Children Member Office and Country Office, Ministry of Education and other project stakeholders, who will use the assessment of program outcomes to inform their evidence-based programming and learning agendas, as well as the evaluation recommendations to inform relevant programmatic and operational processes as well as future program design.

Area of Evaluation Overarching objectives/questions

Implementation/ Process

• How well was the program/project implemented? (see key study questions regarding fidelity and process)
• Did program/project beneficiaries (women, girls, boys and men) have a positive experience with the program? (see key study questions regarding satisfaction and experience)
• Did the program/project activities meet the beneficiaries (women, girls, boys and men) preferences and needs?
• How and why did the intervention make a difference?

Outcome

• Did the program/project achieve its intended outcomes? (see key study questions regarding impact, effectiveness and sustainability)
• Did the program support women, girls, boys and men to develop self-confidence and effective decision-making with regards to the program activities and outcomes?

Impact

• What positive and negative direct or indirect, intended or unintended effects can be attributed to the programme? [DAC definition]
• What positive and negative direct or indirect, intended or unintended effects on women, girls, boys, and men in the targeted community so far?

The selected consultant will be required to undertake external consultation with the HoM/CO MEAL specialist and the PDQ TAs to further refine the Study questions.

EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

The study deliverables and tentative timeline (subject to the commencement date of the study) are outlined below. Head of MEAL and MEAL specialist will agree on final milestones and deadlines at the inception phase.

Deliverables and Tentative Timeline

Deliverable / Milestones Timeline

The consultant is contracted and commences work 7.6.2024

The consultant will facilitate a workshop with the relevant stakeholders at the commencement of the project to develop the inception report. 11.6.2024

The consultant will submit an inception report* in line with the provided template, including:

- Study objectives, scope and key study questions

- description of the methodology, including design, data collection methods, sampling strategy, data sources, and study matrix against the key study questions

- data collection, analysis and reporting plan

- caveats and limitations of study

- risks and mitigation plan

- ethical considerations including details on consent.

- stakeholder and children communication and engagement plan

- key deliverables, responsibilities, and timelines

- resource requirements

- data collection tools (in line with the study matrix), calibration and it's validation plan.

- Considerations to ensure the participation of women, girls, boys, and men with and without disabilities.

- Once the report is finalised and accepted, the consultant must submit a request for any change in strategy or approach to the study manager or the steering committee. 15.6.2024

Ethics submission (if applicable):

Should approval from a Human Research Ethics Committee be required, an ethics submission should include:

- study protocols (participant recruitment, data security and storage, consent and confidentiality etc.)

- considerations for consulting with children and other vulnerable groups (if applicable)

- participant information statement and consent forms 18.6.2024

Final data collection tools (in the report language):

- Survey instrument

- Data collection mechanism 22.6.2024

An [Power Point Presentation] including a summary of formative findings from the study. The focus will be on:

- Summary of interim findings

- Any emerging program issues or risks (if applicable)

- Any changes that have had to be made to the study design (if applicable)

- Key tasks for the next stage of the study and any proposed refinements or changes to methodology (if applicable) 25.6.2024

A Study Report* (Draft Version – template available if useful though external actors may want to use theirs) including the following elements:

- Executive summary

- Background description of the Program and context relevant to the Study

- Scope and focus of the study.

- Overview of the study methodology and data collection methods, including a Study matrix

- Findings aligned to each of the key Study questions.

- The report analysis and report writing should demonstrate data about women, girls, boys and men separately as well as people with disabilities and other minority groups in the community.

- Specific caveats or methodological limitations of the evaluation

- Conclusions outlining implications of the findings or learnings.

- Recommendations

- Annexes (Project logframe, study ToR, Inception Report, Study schedule, List of people involved)

A consolidated set of feedback from key stakeholders will be provided by Save The Children within 1 weeks of the submission of the draft report. 30.6.2024

Data and analyses including all encrypted raw data, databases and analysis outputs based on gender, age and disability 6.7.2024

Final Study Report* incorporating feedback from consultation on the Draft Study Report 16.7.2024

Knowledge translation materials:

- PowerPoint presentation of Study findings

- Evidence to Action Brief** 31.7.2024

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

The following qualifications and skills are expected of the lead consultancy:

Assigned staff must have:

•  An advanced university degree in Psychology, Education and systems management or related field.
•  At least 7 years’ experience in the area of Child Protection and Education.
•  Technical expertise in evaluation research, preferably integrated interventions mainly Child Protection and Education.
•  Technical expertise in evaluation cross-cutting areas in interventions such as gender sensitivity, social equity, disability inclusion and child participation.
•  Previous experience in MEAL, including conducting Mid-term and end-of-project evaluations for large-scale projects.
•  Thorough understanding of data collection methods
•  Strong skills in quantitative and qualitative methods
•  Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
•  Fluency in English is a must, fluency in Arabic (preferred) is an added advantage;
•  Experience/knowledge on gender-sensitive programming
•  Understanding of child safeguarding and child participation procedures
•  Experience of working in the middle east and/ or Yemen is a plus
•  The consultant should get the permission from SCHAMCHA to conduct the midterm evaluation.

Expected outputs

The expected outputs of this evaluation are as follows:

a) Inception report (not exceeding 30 pages)

b) methods and tools

c) data sets

d) Final report. (with an executive summary of max 2 pages)

e) Power point presentation of the findings (not exceeding 15 slides)

f) Presentation of findings to key stakeholders

ABOUT US

The Organization

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard. We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children.We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.