Terms of Reference – (TOR) for – Project Closeout Monitoring for Emergency Education Access for Vulnerable Crisis Affected Children in Somalia (ESVC)

Introduction and background:

CARE International works with the most vulnerable communities to address the underlying causes of poverty and promote peace and development, through its strategic goal of reducing poverty by empowering women, enhancing access to resources and services, and improving governance. CARE actively work in an Emergency situation providing a wide range of life-saving assistance in the thematic areas of Food Security /Livelihoods (mainly Cash and Voucher Assistance), Nutrition, Health, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), Education in Emergency and Protection.

CARE Netherlands in collaboration with CARE Somalia is currently implementing an ECHO DG 30 months funded Education in Emergency (EiE) project jointly undertaken with Mercy Corps and Daryel Bulsho Guud (DBG) as partners. The project covers 18 districts in the region of Sool, Sanaag, Bari, Nugal, Mudug, Galgadud, and Benadir which were considered among the worst drought and conflict-affected areas in the country.

The project funding was initially 18 months – March 2019 to August 2020. This was followed by a modification phase where the partners received a top-up amount for 12 months extension period from September 2020 to August 2021. The total target beneficiaries of the project are 55,513 individuals of which 31,000 were planned to be reached in the first phase and the remaining number during the modification phase. The latter phase continues to support the original target schools and expand to add new schools and districts in the same target regions where EiE needs are still high. The project was designed to target children from IDPs and vulnerable rural populations in schools and those out of schools. Out of the target beneficiaries, 53,890 are school-aged children (26,406 girls, 27,484 boys) from drought and conflict-affected vulnerable IDPs and rural host communities while 1,623 are education supporting adults consisting of teachers, Ministry of Education officials, Community Education Committees (CEC) members, and local community leadership.

Purpose of the Terms of Reference (TOR):

In line with the contractual agreement with ECHO DG, the lead agency CARE Netherlands is obliged to conduct quarterly field visit monitoring to assess the quality and timely implementation of project activities in Somalia. However, due to COVID-19 related travel restrictions, CARE Netherlands’ team is unable to make field visits to Somalia to monitor the project activities. In order to fulfill the donor requirement and ensure effective project implementation, CARE Netherlands would like to engage a third-party consultant with the required technical skills and experience to conduct the project’s last/closeout quarter monitoring assessment on their behalf as the project is coming to an end by August 2021. This assignment is also meant to ascertain that the quality of the project implementation, achievements, and impacts are in line with envisioned output, outcomes, and results as stated in the project proposal. Closeout monitoring is also meant to assess the project’s relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency. More importantly, the closeout monitoring should unearth:

· Key challenges and risks faced by the projects and how best this would have been resolved

· Document key lessons learned that will contribute to future quality improvement of EIE responses among the Consortium

· Measures to reinforce project accountability and build stakeholders’ participation and ownership

· Ascertain if the project is being implemented in line with EIE Cluster and Federal /State level MoE priorities and objectives for EIE response

· Ascertain the critical education EiE priorities (Gaps) oversight by the partners in the project design and implementation process which can be corrected for long term program strengthening

A project monitoring was done in the first quarter of this year where a third party monitoring was engaged and this assignment is expected to build on that while also assisting the program team to measure quantitative project indicators. The project closeout monitoring will serve two purposes a) monitoring project outcome level performance and b) final quarter monitoring and will complement the other monitoring activities conducted by the partners in the course of the project. Closeout monitoring will pin point major gaps which have not been captured in the past.

The consultant for the proposed exercise is meant to support the CARE Netherlands’ and the project team to conduct project quarter and closeout monitoring on their behalf. The consultant will be hired for 40 working days. This will include 25 days of data collections and 15 days of report production. During data collection, the consultant will engage a wide variety of project stakeholders through Focus Group discussion, Key Informant Interviews, Observation and other techniques to collate views and project data ( both primary and secondary data ) for report production.

The key stakeholders to engage will include:

a) School-based stakeholders -Teachers, Head Teachers, Child Protection focal persons and Community Education Committees (CECs) and learners (both boys and girls)

b) State and District level Ministry of Education officials – this will include state-level MoE DGs, school Inspectors, Regional Education Officers, District Education officials, Teacher training Tutors

c) Federal or National level Education stakeholders – Federal Ministry of Education Director-General and MOE departmental directors in charge of teacher development, EiE, Curriculum development and EIE cluster coordinators.

d) The consortium partners (CARE, Mercy Corps, and DBG).

e) Other education actors including INGOs, UN, and relevant government bodies

The Monitoring assessment will cover all the project target regions and districts. The findings of the assessment will then be consolidated into one final closeout monitoring report and submitted to CARE Netherlands and CARE Somalia 5 days before the end of the contract period. The last day of the contract will be used to debrief the CARE Netherlands and Consortium members project focal persons on the assessment findings and report. The activities to be monitored, and sampled project sites to visit will jointly be discussed and agreed upon by CARE Netherlands, the Consortium Coordinator, and the Consultant at the beginning of the exercise.

CARE has integrated the use of CVA in education under this project and provided basic teaching material and teacher incentive through CVA. The consultant should explore how effective this was implemented and explore further options to integrate this into further EIE programming.

Scope of work:

The assignment will cover ESVC project activities implemented by the three Consortium Members – CARE Somalia, Mercy Corps Somalia, and DBG in Somalia/Somaliland. The consultant will monitor the progress and quality of the activities implemented in the last quarter as well as the impact and efficiency under the 4 project objectives indicated below and provide a quality report in line with these project objectives/activities: **

Objective 1: Increasing access, attendance and retention of education to children out of school or at risks of dropping out of school

Activities:

• Rehabilitation of 66 Classrooms and each equipped with 15 desks (CARE-36; MC-20; DBG-10).
• Construction of 68 new Temporary Learning Spaces of size 8mx5m, each equipped with 15 desks ( CARE-50; MC-18).
• Construction of 485 (each of 5 units -2 twins and 1 single) of Gender Sensitive school Latrines with and washing units (CARE-210; MC-175; DBG-100 ).
• Provision of 11,600 Feminine Hygiene Kits to girls (Reusable Sanitary pads, pants, bar & bathing soap, sanitary bag and basin) (CARE-7,600; MC-3,000; DBG-1,000).
• Conduct 68 Community Mobilization and Enrolment campaigns in 18 districts of 2 sessions each (CARE-34 campaigns; MC-24 campaigns; DBG-10).
• Provision of incentives for 310 (headteachers 58; normal teachers 252) CEC recruited teachers among IDPs and host communities with recently increased enrolment for 11 months (CARE-174; MC-110; DBG-26).
• Provision of Emergency Water supplies to schools: Piping and water kiosks, rainwater harvesting tanks, water trucking in 26 schools (CARE-15; MC-6; DBG -5).

Objective 2: Improving the quality of teaching/learning in schools

Activities:

• Provision of Learning materials to 16,750 school-age going children (CARE-10,750; MC-4,000; DBG-2,000) of which 1,400 children received learning material through CVA modality by DBG in Mogadishu)
• Provision of Teaching Materials to 372 Teachers in target schools (70 schools of a minimum of 5 target teachers) (CARE-240; MC-76; DBG-56).
• Conduct Pedagogical teacher training to 372 teachers. (This includes venue hire, refreshments, facilitator fees) (CARE-240; MC-76; DBG-56).
• Provision of supervision and quality monitoring support (transport & allowance) to Ministry of Education (MoE) officials to Supervise and monitor quality of learning in schools in 68 sessions (CARE-40; MC-24; DBG-4).

Objective 3: Increasing safety of the learning environment for school children, physically and mentally

Activities:

• Training of 438 teachers for 5 days on child protection, Psycho-social skills (PSS), and protection from sexual Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) and school safety – targeting teachers, students, and caregivers.
• Identification and Registration of 300 Traumatized children for P.S.S. Counseling.
• Production of School safety and establishment of Child Protection focal in 150 target schools (CARE-100; MC-40; DBG-10).
• Establish Child-Friendly Spaces in 33 schools, this includes construction materials and play materials such as packs of triangular crayons, storybooks, dolls, balls, and other sports materials, etc. (CARE-5; MC-28)
• Training of 1185 CECs, school management authorities, and local security and administration authorities on Child Protection, PSS and SGBV, and school safety – targeting teachers, students, and caregivers.
• Training children on safe hygiene practices using CHAST approach for 15,500 children
• Training 100 MoE officials and school-based child protection focal persons as resource persons on Child Protection/PSS/SGBV/School Safety.

Objective 4: Early Emergency Response and COVID19 – prevention in schools

Activities:

• Purchase of masks for children and teachers
• Installation of handwashing units with running water and soaps to target schools
• Purchase / Distribution of Soaps (bar soaps and or liquid disinfectants soap) / hand sanitizers to target.
• Purchase of more textbooks for school children to minimize sharing of books.
• Construction of additional learning spaces to decongest classrooms.
• Provision of more desks to reduce close contact/sittings of school children.
• Fumigation of schools.
• Purchase of Radios for schools – to enhance out-of-classroom learning.

Outcome level indicators

The consultant will monitor the project’s performance against the below outcome indicators

• % of school-aged boys and girls continuously accessing quality and protective learning opportunities relevant to the emergency.
• % of school-aged boys and girls retained in schools during the project period
• % of beneficiaries (disaggregated by sex, age, and diversity) reporting that humanitarian assistance is delivered in a safe, accessible, accountable, and participatory manner
• % of beneficiaries (disaggregated by sex, age, and diversity) affected by new shocks reached with a rapid response of education in emergencies.
• % of project total beneficiaries reached COVID -19 prevention messages during the project period.

Methodology:

The closeout monitoring exercise will be done for 40 days with a focus on the achievements of the project objectives and report production. The consultant is expected to dive into the project and engage various stakeholders as listed above as well as make project site visits to ensure quality data collection.

Duration of the Assignment:

The assignment is expected to take place between July 2021 –August 2021. The engagement will be for 40 days (25 days data collection and 15 days report production) covering all the project target regions.5 days before the end of the assignment, the consultant shall submit a detailed consolidated report. On the last day of the assignment, the consultant will do a PowerPoint presentation to the Consortium partner’s project focal persons on the key findings of the assessment.

Liaison and Communication:

The third-party monitoring work will be coordinated at the field level by the CARE Somalia Emergency MEAL Specialists assisted by EiE Consortium coordinator and project focal persons from Consortium Members (CARE Somalia, Mercy Corps Somalia and DBG). The consultant will also liaise with the CARE Netherlands team for any technical issue and brief them on the progress of the fieldwork as well as share findings. **

Deliverables:

• The Consultant will be required to submit the following deliverables: A comprehensive final field monitoring report
• A PowerPoint presentation briefing summarizing major findings of the monitoring will be shared with Consortium members and CARE Netherland field team at the last day of fieldwork.
• Detailed Work plan updated with the Consortium MEAL Manager and Partner Agencies Programme managers showing the project progress status.
• All the tools/checklists used for the field data collection
• Share all data sets including audio files, transcriptions, codebook to CARE Netherlands and EIE Consortium coordinator.

Responsibilities of CARE:

· Provide consultancy fee for the task.

· Provide transport during the engagement and while undertaking activities on the assignment.

· Provide accommodation and per diem at CARE rates while in the field.

· Identification of project sites to be visited and mobilization of key stakeholders.

· Provide timely feedback in reviewing reports and tools

Responsibilities of the Consultant:

· The consultant will be expected to prepare/submit quality and detailed report to EIE consortium coordinator, MEAL Specialist and CARE Netherlands focal point.

· Engage with key stakeholders as stated above to generate adequate information relevant to the assignment.

· The lead consultant(s) to make field visits to project sites.

Qualifications for the Consultant:

· Master’s degree in Education or other related social science combined with a minimum of 5 years’ work s experience in Education programming in humanitarian/development settings.

· A minimum of three-year experience in similar consultancy assignments.

· Experience in working in Education programs in Somalia.

· Experience in project design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting.

· Working experience in conflict and gender-sensitive programming.

· Cultural sensitivity and adaptability to the context.

· High degree of integrity and professional responsibility.

· Flexibility, patience, and ability to work under pressure in challenging contextual circumstances and working with tight deadlines.

· Ability to work independently and at times with little supervision.

· Excellent communication skills (both written and oral English skills). Working knowledge of the Somali language is an added advantage.

· Strong computer literacy.

· Capacity and willingness to travel to/ in Somalia

How to apply: Interested applicants are encouraged to apply for this assignment by submitting the following.

A) Technical proposal that includes but not limited to;

· Demonstrating a clear understanding of the objectives of the assignment.

· Detailed methodology appreciative of the prevailing socio-political context in Somalia including COVID-19.

· Detailed work-plan (program).

· CV of the lead consultant(s) undertaking the assignment

· Copies of similar previous work

· Copy of Master’s degree in Education or other related social

B) Financial proposal:

· Detailed budget of the consultancy fees quoted at per day’s rate

NOTE: Care will be cover all logistic costs

The consultancy proposals shall be sent to procurement department email; Som.Consultant@care.org subject line reading “CONSULTANCY FOR THIRD PARTY- PROJECT CLOSEOUT MONITORING ESVC -2”.

The deadline for application submission is Thursday 13^th July 2021, by 11:59pm.