TOR: Evaluation of DIF funded research project in the Netherlands, Colombia and Uganda At War Child Holland

Starting date: mid-November 2021, if feasible.

Duration: Final report to be submitted by latest end of March 2022

Period to evaluate: 2019-2021

Requirements: Interested applicants with the right profile/s should submit 1) A methodology proposal describing how to carry out this evaluation (including budget in a separate file), 2) a CV, and 3) a written evaluation sample from previous work

Deadline: No later than 23:59hrs CET on November 7, 2021

Send application to: cibelle.chaocheva@warchild.nl with subject line ‘DIF Evaluation’

Background of the Project

Systematic and enduring child protection challenges demand new and effective approaches, particularly in volatile humanitarian contexts. Building on evidence that community-owned and community-driven approaches bring about improved outcomes, this project intended to test the feasibility of one bottom-up approach to child protection (community-driven approach to child protection in conflict-affected settings) with two applications; 1) community-driven child protection and 2) stigma reduction, in two contexts (Colombia and Uganda), allowing for cross-learning, comparison and alignment.

In November 2019 War Child started the Communities in the Driver’s Seat project funded by DRA Innovation Fund (DIF). The end date of the project is end of December 2021. Together with other NGOs such as Save the Children Netherlands, Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation (TPO-Uganda) and with private partners with expert knowledge on change management, coaching, data science and communications and design thinking, this consortium aimed to produce evidence on standard community-driven approaches with two innovative applications. These applications need to be, next to working towards an evidence base, easy to understand and implement, and yet adaptable to any humanitarian contexts and to allow for scale-up and dissemination among the wider humanitarian community. This will, in the end, bring about increased relevance, impact and sustainability in the field of child protection.

• The innovations: brief description

The approach and the two applications are based on two key elements: (a) communities work to actively identify, develop, adapt, own and execute actions, with a key role for already active (in)formal community actors of change (frontrunners on social change), and (b) humanitarian actors serve as facilitators and catalysts of this social norms change process. The applications provide a guided, common process -contextualised and applicable in different settings – that enables humanitarian actors to act rapidly in response to urgent needs in partnership with communities.

The first application of the community-driven approach looks at child protection risks broadly and includes the role of a local coach, who will guide community actors in a process of change. This coach role is to be tested as a catalyser for community ownership in conflict-affected settings. The second application aims to address stigmatising norms specifically, supported through a digital app facilitating data visualization, allowing for quick analysis of community information. Community actors of change and a humanitarian actor will identify, adapt and implement previously successful strategies to tackle drivers of stigma such as fear and blame. Core to the approach is adjusting power imbalances, specifically present in humanitarian settings, with communities themselves addressing disempowering social norms, attitudes and practices.

• Background about the intended project results

The project intended to answer the overarching learning questions about the two applications through an intervention research study:(1) can the approach work? (2) how will the approach work? and (3) does the approach have potential? The underlying research questions were:

• Acceptability: How do targeted individuals – humanitarian actors, community agents of change and community members – react to the approach?
• Implementation: Can the intervention be fully implemented as planned and proposed?
• Practicality: Which resources and competencies are required for delivery of the approach?
• Unanticipated consequences: What positive or negative consequences may emerge?
• Outcome measurement: What instruments exist to measure change at various target groups? What are local perceptions on outcome?
• Adaptation: Which elements need modification, prior to outcome evaluation?
• Comparison: What cross-learnings will emerge? What are future alignment possibilities?

The purpose and objective of the evaluation

All DIF funded projects are required to complete an evaluation. Furthermore, an evaluation will provide an opportunity for the project and stakeholders involved to learn from the process and progress of an innovation research project. The evaluation will start as in the last quarter of 2021 and end with the final submission of the evaluation report by end of March 2022.

Learning is the main priority to this evaluation. The evaluation centers around two parts: questions regarding the implementation of the project, and regarding the intended results of the innovation (the two applications). Please note! These are draft questions that can be reformulated with the evaluator in consultation with the project team.

1. DRA project implementation:
   1. Evaluate the learnings on the process. This should include the (unusual) partnerships and the approach the project has taken in its innovation journey.
   2. Evaluate if the project has done what it had intended to do, whether there were any unintended outcomes and how it dealt with deviations.
   3. How can innovation funds fit research projects? What is the interplay between innovation funding research? What challenges do these types of projects face and what support is needed from donors and other relevant stakeholders to ensure contribution to improved humanitarian aid?
   4. How did external circumstances such as force majeure (Covid-19 pandemic) impact the project? Which processes worked and which did not and why?
2. Innovation:
   1. Evaluate if/how the innovation has addressed the challenge/problem statement. Has the innovation provided a (part of the solution)? And if /how (part of) the innovation project can contribute to improve the humanitarian aid sector?
   2. Reflect on the learning questions and assumptions developed at the beginning of the project and/or during the implementation and identify challenges and successes in answering the learning questions throughout the project.
   3. Was the innovation able to adapt to the changing environment and incorporate learning during the implementation?
   4. Does the innovation have a scaling journey/plan? What are the recommendations to support scaling?
   5. Where were the innovations unsuccessful? What were the challenges, how were these addressed and what can we learn from that?

Expected Deliverables

It is expected that the Consultant will develop, propose and finalize the methodology and related tools with the incorporation of internal stakeholders’ feedback and approval. The expected time frame for completion of the evaluation should be between 15-20 working days. Indicate in the work plan how many days each activity will take.

• Inception brief
• Detailed work plan and budget breakdown
• Detailed methodology and tools
• Presentation of process, key findings with actionable and specific recommendations
• Final report with strong executive summary

Profile/requirements for the evaluator

• Experience leading/ conducting an evaluation with a minimum of 3-4 years of experience;
• Demonstrated ability to design evaluation methodology/tools, conduct data analysis etc.;
• Ability to provide strategic recommendations to key stakeholders;
• Culturally sensitive with capacity to work collaboratively with multiple stakeholders;
• Experience working in humanitarian contexts, good understanding of humanitarian response work, innovation and ideally research;
• Expert-level analytical skills, presentation and writing skills;
• Experience conducting ‘appreciative inquiry’ & knowledge of how to incorporate relevant steps within design;
• Experience with remote data collection where access may be extremely limited.
• We accept worldwide applications.