Midterm evaluation At Plan International

Plan International Jordan is seeking for an individual/agency to carry out a Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) of the Plan International’s project “Strengthening social entrepreneurship for youth and women in Jordan (Irbid, East Amman, Karak and Ajloun)”, also known locally as Ibtikar. This project is being implemented through a partnership with The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN), JoWomenomics (JoWo) and Durrat AlManal (DMDT). The main donor of the project is the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and it is coordinated and co-financed by Plan International Germany.

  1. About Plan International

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child, but know this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. Working together with children, young people, supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges girls and vulnerable children face. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood, and enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We place a specific focus on girls and young women, who are most often left behind. We have been building powerful partnerships for children for more than 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

Plan International Jordan is established in 2016 and has programmes throughout the country on education, youth empowerment, and protection (CP, GBV, SRHR) in (Amman, Karak, Jarash, Jordan valley and Azraq camp). Plan International Jordan aims to confront and challenge discrimination and human rights violations based on gender, including gender-based violence, and other forms of exclusion, challenge stereotyping and unequal power relations between women, men, boys, and girls to promote gender equality, girls’ rights, and inclusion, foster an organisational culture that embraces and exemplifies our commitment to gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion, while supporting staff to adopt good practice, positive attitudes and principles of gender equality and inclusion.

  1. Project Background

Jordan faces far-reaching economic and development challenges, mainly due to high youth and female unemployment, demographics, resource scarcity and high numbers of refugees. The pressure on the economy and society is further intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic. Policymakers, donors and civil society actors agree that social entrepreneurship offers a compelling and sustainable solution to some of the development problems. However, for this to be successful, the right environment must be created for it to flourish. This includes, in particular, appropriate legal frameworks, legalization, decentralization and strengthening of support structures, as well as access to finance, education and awareness raising. Both entrepreneurs and support organizations lack the capacity to successfully start and scale SE. Within the education sector and knowledge institutes, entrepreneurship education is not prioritized or highly valued. Ministries give high priority to job creation initiatives and want to strengthen entrepreneurship and the role of the social economy.

With funding from BMZ and Plan International Germany (GNO), the implementation of a 33-month project, named “Ibtikar”, in partnership with Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN), JoWomenomics (JoWo), and Durrat AlManal (DMDT) started from the 1st of December/2021 and still ongoing.

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to poverty reduction and social inclusion of marginalised groups, especially girls and young women in Jordan. The desired impact of the intervention is to “strengthened and contributes the social enterprise ecosystem to the economic integration and social inclusion of marginalized groups, especially girls and young women, in Amman, Irbid, Karak and Ajloun.” To reach this objective, the project delivers the following 9 results/ specific objectives:

  1. SO1: 100 youth report that they have an employment contract with a duration of at least 3 months.
  2. SO2: 100 youth have founded an SE and started business activities.
  3. SO3: 12 cooperatives between Syrians and Jordanians have been established.
  4. SO4: 400 adolescents have been referred to vocational training opportunities.
  5. SO5: 5 existing curricula have been enriched with additional entrepreurial skills.
  6. SO6: The offered education measures of the project centres correspond to a high degree.to the job market needs
  7. SO7. 4 strengthened support centres (one in each of the project regions) are functioning as SE-support centres and offer qualitative support for Ses
  8. Representatives from MoDEE, MIT, MoSD, private sector, SEs and NGOs prepared and adopted a strategy and agreed on a roadmap for SEs in Jordan.
  9. The level of engagement of local authorities is classified as high.

The direct target beneficiaries of the project include:

  • adolescents (16-18) benefiting from market and entrepreneurial skills training
  • parents/caregivers benefit from awareness raising activities
  • community members benefit from awareness raising activities
  • 500 youth (18-35), of whom 500 will benefit from basic training, 300 young people will benefit from additional extension training and 100 young people will benefit from additional start-up funding and create employment for themselves; 100 young people will be referred to further funding opportunities
  • 100 additional youth will benefit from the employment opportunities created by the supported SEs/SEI[1]
  • 3 partner organisations benefit from capacity building to act as SE support centre for SE in the communities
  • 20 education staff benefit from the training-of-trainers of the training
  • 15 persons from the Advisory Forum will benefit from support to develop their contribution to a supportive framework
  1. Evaluation Focus

– Purpose and objectives of the Evaluation

The purposes of project evaluation are to:

    • Measure the project outcome indicators (Project Result Framework) – Assess the progress of project against the OECD/DAC[2] criteria: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, and coherence and child rights, gender and inclusion – Assess the project implementation approaches and document best practices, strengths and weaknesses, and lessons learnt from the project implementation. – Draw conclusions and provide recommendations for future project designs and implementation.

The external interim evaluation will assess the project’s progress and quality of implementation according to the OECD DAC criteria as required in the project design (see more from 3 Scope of Mid-Term Evaluation). These are shown below with specific reference to the Ibtikar project. In assessing progress on a quantitative basis, the MTE should refer to the project log frame and baseline study. Finally, the MTE should provide recommendations as to how the project, with its partners, might improve its performance for the remainder of the project.

– Scope of work, evaluation Criteria and Research Questions

There are a number of research questions answering to the evaluation criteria as follows:

Evaluation Criteria

Research Questions

Relevance

  • How does the project design target the right groups of the beneficiaries?
  • To which degree is the project designed in line with Plan International Jordan’s Country Strategy
  • What are the lessons we can learn from the design of the project in terms of the project relevance?
  • To what extent did the project tackle relevant developmental challenges of the target groups?
  • Have any changes been achieved in relation to policy / practice / attitudes of decision makers / policy makers etc. in the countries where the project is working?
  • Are the project outputs still relevant to the desired outcomes and impacts for the target population?
  • Are the project goals and objectives still relevant to the current challenges and opportunities in the project area?

Effectiveness

  • To what extent are the project activities and outputs consistent to intended impacts and effects of the project?
  • To what extent has the project reached/realised what were originally planned, including changes against the project indicators or not?
  • What are the major factors influencing the achievements or non-achievement of the project’s objectives?
  • What are the good practices, strengths and weaknesses, and lessons learnt from the project implementation in terms of its effectiveness?
  • How effective were the tools used in the implementation of the project?

Efficiency

  • To which extent were project activities cost-efficient?
  • To what degree were objectives of the project achieved on time?
  • Could a different approach have produced better results?

Impact

  • What are long lasting changes to the targeted group contributed by the project?
  • What are the economic, social and environmental impacts of the project,?
  • To which extent have the activities had an impact on the livelihood of the target group/community?
  • What are the lessons learnt from the project design and implementation in terms of its impact?

Sustainability

  • To what extent do the benefits of the project continue after donor funding ceased?
  • Which of the created structures are likely to work without further involvement of internationally funded development projects
  • What are the major factors that influence the achievement or non-achievement of sustainability of the project?
  1. Users of the Evaluation

The project evaluation report and its annexes will be used by the following organizations and institutions for various purposes:

  • Plan International: As the concrete evidence that will inform Plan International Germany and Plan International Jordan’s program management and the project team about good practices, strengths and weaknesses, and lessons learnt that Plan International Jordan can adapt for the rest of project, and future project design and implementation.
  • Donor (BMZ): For the concrete evidence to inform them the accomplishments that have been made by the project so far, the changes contributed by the project, the good practices, strengths and weaknesses, and lessons learnt during the project implementation, what to improve in the future design and implementation and how effectiveness and efficiency of the project implementation made.
  • Project stakeholders (Partners and relevant ministries)

The evaluation report has to follow the structure given by the donor, please see Annex 3

  1. Process of the evaluation
    1. Data collection methods

To meet the objectives of the project evaluation, the cross-sectional study will be designed and both qualitative and quantitative data/information will be collected and analysed by the external independent consultant. The consultant team is expected to propose their project evaluation methodologies and tools to Plan International Jordan. Below are some suggestions on data/information collection methods:

  • Desk Review: The existing project related documents, but not limited to, project proposal, project result framework, project baseline report, project progress reports, project monitoring reports, etc will be reviewed by the consultant team to get data/information around the project implementation approaches, the project relevance, effectiveness, cost-efficiency, best practices, strengths and weaknesses, and key challenges happened during the project implementation.
  • Surveys: the survey will be conducted with different groups from both gender and nationality to cover all project locations, the survey is to collect data/ information about the change in knowledge and practices on business plans marketing and so on.
  • Focus Group Discussion (FGD): FGDs together will be conducted with groups of projects participants from different locations to gather data/information more detail about the benefits they received from the project, the challenges they are facing with the project; their points of view; and their feedbacks for future project implementation.
  • Key Informant Interview (KII): The KII will be conducted with partner’s staff, to collect data/information about the project relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability, the project implementation approaches, good practices, strengths and weaknesses, key challenges, and lessons learnt.

To collect the data/information through each method, the consultant will develop both qualitative and quantitative tools in consultation with Plan International Jordan.

    1. Sample Size and Recruitment Methods

The primary respondents to be involved in the project mid-evaluation should be:

  • Youth aged (18-35) years
  • adolescents aged (16-18) years
  • Staff members from the project’s partner organizations who have been directly involved in the implementation of project activities. To ensure geographic diversity, the study will cover four locations: Amman, Karak, Ajloun, and Irbid. Within each location, specific sampling procedures will be developed to identify potential respondents based on the above criteria. The sample size for the study will be determined based on statistical power analysis, which will take into account factors such as the desired level of precision, the expected response rate, and the variation within the population being studied. The sample size will be sufficient to provide reliable estimates of key indicators and allow for subgroup analyses by location, age, and gender.

The consultant team is encouraged to propose sampling methods. The sampling methodology will be developed with consideration taken to ensure a 95% confidence level and 5% margin of error on the overall sample size for the project beneficiaries.

    1. Data Entry and Analysis

The consultant team will propose to Plan International Jordan the data entry method for this project evaluation.

In analysing the data, Plan International Jordan expects the data is analysed with disaggregation by gender, nationality, age groups and locations.

  1. Ethics and Child Protection

The consultant is required to provide a statement on the respect and protection of child rights, human rights and dignity of participants compliant with Plan’s Child Protection Policy and Gender Equality & Inclusion Policy. The consultant shall read and sign Plan’s code of conduct as fully understood and in agreement to in all respects and shall follow this in all and every aspect during the term of this employment. The consultant must follow Ethical Principles in a research and obtain written/verbal consent from the targeted populations.

  1. Key deliverables

Deliverable

Format

Length

Due

Detail

Inception Report

Word document

NA

30th of April

Consultant will lead on the inception report

Draft Mid-evaluation Report

Word document

NA

30th of July

Consultant will lead on the draft report

Final Mid-evaluation Report (including Executive Summary)

Word document

NA

10th of July

The period includes the draft revision by GNO and partners

Completed Consent Forms

Word document

NA

7 th of May

Consultant i will be working to finalize the consent forms template and it will be collected in parallel with the data collection

Final Data Collection Tools

Word document

NA

15th of May

Consultant in collaboration will provide the final version of the data collection tools (survey, FGD and KIIs)

Cleaned Data (including transcripts) and analyses

Excel sheet

NA

26th of June

Consultant will provide the analyses for the collected data

Other Communication Products for Dissemination

Power point

10-12pages

10th August

Consultant will lead on producing a PPT to share the general findings

  1. Timeline

Activity

Time

Days of Work

Responsible

Individuals Involved

Background Checks and Contracting;

Inception Call/ Inception Workshop

24th – 30th April

6 days

PIJO

PM/MERL

Submission of Inception Report

30th, Apr – 10th , May

10 days

Consultant

PM/MERL

Preparations for Data Collection

  1. Develop tools

10th of May – 20th of May

May 10 days

Consultants

PM/MERL

  1. Tool translation and automation

20th – 25th of May

5 days

Consultants

PM/MERL

  1. Field piloting

25th – 28 th May

3 days

Consultants

PM/MERL

  1. Tools finalisation

28th of May – 1st of June

4 days

Consultants

PM/MERL

Data Collection

1th – 13 th June

9 days

Consultants

PM/MERL

Data Entry and Cleaning

14th – 18 th June

3 days

Consultants

PM/MERL

Data Analysis

19th – 26 th June

6 days

Consultants

PM/MERL

Submission of Draft

27th of June – 10th of July

10 days

Consultants

PM/ MERL Dep

Submission of Final Report

11th – 24 th July

10 days

Consultants

PM/MERL

Submission of Other Deliverables

25th of July – 10th of Aug

15 days

Consultants

PM/MERL

  1. Project Evaluation Support Team from Plan International (Management of the evaluation)

To support the whole process of the project evaluation, from Plan International Jordan side there is a combination of staff from Plan International Jordan itself, and the project implementing NGO partners. This group will work together with consultant team through our M&E at Plan International Jordan, as a Focal Point.

  1. Budget

For the process of payment, the instalment is divided into three stages as described below and will be charged to budget code:

Milestone

Detail

Amount to be Paid (%)

Expected Timeframe

First instalment

First instalment will be made when the inception report is approved by Plan International Jordan

25 % out of the total consultancy budget

Within 5 working days after approval of inception report

Second instalment

Second instalment will be made when Plan’s team received first draft project evaluation report from consultant.

25 % out of the total consultancy budget

Within 5 working days after approval of inception report

Third instalment

Last instalment will be made when Plan Jordan receive final project evaluation report from consultant.

50% out of the total consultancy budget

Within 5 working days after the receipt of draft report from consultant

  1. Expected Qualifications

One credible independent consultant team will be recruited. The minimum qualifications and experiences required are:

  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Business Administration, social work, or a related field.
  • At least 5 years of experience in research and evaluation on entrepreneurship, social work or non-profit organization setting.
  • Proven track record of successfully developing and implementing social enterprise initiatives or programs.
  • Proficiency in statistics, quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, data analysis and writing project evaluation report.
  • Strong knowledge of business development, financial management, and marketing strategies.
  • Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, including the ability to develop compelling presentations and reports.
  • Passion for social impact and a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing social enterprises.
  • Outline safeguards security measures in place to ensure data confidentiality, data quality assurance and quality control mechanisms available and their efficacy to this study
  • Ability to meet strict deadlines
  • Ability to produce well-written reports, in plain and approachable text, demonstrating excellent analytical and communication skills.
  • Ability to form constructive relationships with the relevant stakeholders
  • Have excellent knowledge in data analysis using Microsoft Excel, Minitab, SPSS, STATA and other statistical software.
  • Consultant team must be gender aware.
  • Should have adequate logistics (such as mobile tablets, mobile apps, and computers to perform all of the services required where applicable)
  1. Contact

For additional information or clarification, please contact:

jordan.procurement@plan-international.org

How to apply

Interested candidates should submit a technical offer along with financial offer in a sealed envelopes to the following address:

5th floor, 60 Issam Al Ajlouni st., Shmeisani, Amman, Jordan

no later than 13th of Apr.

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