Consultant / team to carry out the Mid-Term Review of the programme “Strengthening Civil Society to End Child Marriages in East and Southern Africa”

About Plan International

We strive to advance children’s rights and equality for girls all over the world. As an independent development and humanitarian organisation, we work alongside children, young people, our supporters and partners to tackle the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood and enable children to prepare for and respond to crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge. For over 80 years, we have been building powerful partnerships for children, and we are active in over 75 countries.

Plan International Germany (GNO), founded in 1989 and based in Hamburg, is supporting the implementation of development and humanitarian projects through sponsorship and grants projects. It is part of the global Plan International network and specialised among other priority areas on the promotion of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in its’ partner countries of the Global South. In the East and Southern African Region, we are currently funding a multi-country programme to end Child and Early Forced Marriage in four countries, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with support sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and private funds.

Plan International Germany and the Plan Centre of Excellence 18+ (CoE), based within Plan Zambia are seeking one consultancy or consultant team to conduct the Mid-Term Review jointly in all four countries plus the Plan International African Union Liaison & Plan Africa Programme Office (PAO). The consultancy or consultant team should be qualified and experienced in the sector of Child and Early Forced Marriage with a focus on community mobilization and youth empowerment to conduct the Mid-term Review of the project “Strengthening civil society to end child marriage in East and Southern Africa”.

Programme Background

The programme “Strengthening Civil Society to End Child Marriages in East and Southern Africa” has as its main objective to significantly reduce the occurrence of Child Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) and Early Pregnancy (EP). The main drivers of CEFM include religious practices, traditional practices, social norms and poverty. Added to that is the lack of information on SRHR leading to EP. The project engages young people and the traditional figures of authority to pursue the implementation of laws and where appropriate, to report cases where child marriage cases persist. The measures are being implemented by country offices of Plan International in close collaboration with the following not-for-profit independent partner organisations: Girls Empowerment Network (GENET) in Malawi, Women In Social Entrepreneurship (WISE) in Tanzania, and Simukai Child Protection Programme (Simukai) in Zimbabwe. In Zambia, Plan International is implementing the project without a local partner. The Plan Centre of Excellence 18+ (CoE), based within Plan Zambia is responsible for the regional coordination of the project and for implementing the activities at sub-regional level. The Plan International African Union Liaison & Plan Africa Programme Office (PAO), based in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia is implementing advocacy activities to exert political influence at regional level to contribute to policy change beneficial to ending CEFM and EP. Thus, the CoE, the four Plan Country Offices and local partners jointly implement project measures to create structures at all levels that will intensify the exchange of knowledge and exertion of political influence and to, eventually, achieve the objective of the programme. Regular programme calls with all offices involved aim to strengthen further coordination, cooperation and the exchange of experiences, lessons learnt and good practices to support one another.

The main donor of this programme is the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, having donated 75% of the total programme budget of 2,537,407 Euro. The official duration of the programme is three years from 1^st December 2018 until 31^st December 2021. Due to several administrative delays, the start of project activities was in June 2019.

The programme collaborates with around 50 traditional figures of authority at community level in each programme country. The other target group of the project are young people (approx. 70 per cent young women and 30 per cent young men) who participate directly in programme activities, and benefit from them. The direct numbers of the target groups are 50 traditional figures of authority, and 1,500 young people in each of the project countries.

The number of indirect beneficiaries of the programme includes the families of the young people concerned; because the participation and empowerment of the young people leads them to pass their knowledge on within their families. It is also expected that the peers of the participants are benefiting from the project, because they also indirectly build up knowledge thanks to the exchange of information with and knowledge acquired by the participants, and they will be motivated to act accordingly. As part of the work with the traditional figures of authority, it is expected that they transmit their commitment and the knowledge they have acquired to their communities, and motivate the people there to act and to end child marriage.

Evaluation Focus

Purpose of the Evaluation

One objective of this evaluation is accountability to the main donor, the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Another objective is learning from the first phase to improve and build on good practices in the second project phase.

The focus of this Mid-Term Review will be:

1) To assess the majority of the programme indicators for the midline of the programme. Programme indicators have been collected internally as far as possible and necessary. The programme team has a reliable monitoring system. The external consultant will re-check the collected indicator values against the sources of verification and measure some of the not yet collected indicator values. A Baseline has been conducted at the start of the programme activities in each country by independent local consultants. The consultant shall compare the current indicator values at midline with the baseline indicator values and reported indicators value during the course of the project as far as possible.

2) To assess the five OECD-DAC evaluation criteria and answer corresponding evaluation questions.

A special focus will be on the criteria effectiveness and relevance. The criteria efficiency, impact and sustainability will be assessed in less depth but shall also be taken into account in the data collection.

3) To present, validate and discuss the results of 1) and 2) with the programme team of the four implementing countries and relevant stakeholders in a Review and Learning Workshop in order to find causes for the findings and to develop solutions to potential challenges.

Evaluation Criteria and Questions

The tender documents can be requested by e-mail from [email protected]

Users of the Evaluation

The Mid Term Review will be used by all Plan International offices involved and its’ local partner organisations. That is the Country Office of Plan International in Malawi, in Tanzania, in Zimbabwe and in Zambia plus the Plan International office in Germany and its local implementing partners Girls Empowerment Network (GENET) in Malawi, Women in Social Entrepreneurship (WISE) in Tanzania, and Simukai Child Protection Programme (Simukai) in Zimbabwe.

The MTR findings and recommendations will be shared with key stakeholders in the project countries on meso and macro-level, that is, with local authorities and communities, with politicians and e.g. officials of the African Union and SADAC, as well as the donor in Germany.

Country Offices, Liaison Offices and Regional Hubs in the South East Africa Region will also make use of the Review findings and recommendations to improve programming and influencing initiatives.

Methods for Data Collection and Analysis

1) To assess the programme indicators for the midline of the programme:

To measure and double-check the indicator values at midline, the consultant(s) shall base the overall methodology on the currently used monitoring approach and tools, where possible and recommended. The consultant canrefine or complement existing tools and develop additional ones, if needed (see table under 3.2).

2) To assess the five OECD-DAC evaluation criteria and answer corresponding evaluation questions:

The Mid-Term Review should use a mixed-methods approach integrating both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection in order to assess the evaluation criteria and to answer the evaluation questions outlined above under 3.3. The consultant(s) shall ensure that triangulation of information gathered is possible.

The data collection methods may include but are not limited to:

• Desk review of background documents (programme documents, e.g. programme proposal, monitoring and evaluation framework, monitoring data, activity and progress reports, baseline reports).
• Document Review of records, participation lists, meeting minutes, etc.
• (Online-)survey with project staff (e.g. with Plan International and partner project staff for SWOT-analysis)
• Key informant interviews
• Focus group discussions
• Household survey with community members
• Plan International’s “Gender Transformative Marker” (will be provided upon contract signature) to assess the degree to which efforts towards gender equality and inclusion are done in implementation

It is expected that the consultant (s) will develop a detailed methodology for data collection, data management and analysis. This methodology should be in direct response to the evaluation criteria and evaluation questions and will be further unpacked in the inception report by the consultant once the evaluation is underway.

When developing data collection tools for data collection with children and youth, the consultants shall aim to use child friendly, age appropriate approaches.

The data collection tools need to be feasible in each country or shall be contextualised and adapted to comply with country-specific Covid-19 regulations and restrictions.[1]

3) For the Review and Learning Workshop to validate and discuss the results of the data collection with the programme team of the four implementing countries and relevant stakeholders:

The data collection results for (1) the indicators, (2) the assessment of the evaluation criteria and evaluation questions including the SWOT-analysis per country and cross-country shall be summarized in a report on data collection results. This report will form the bases of discussion in the review and learning workshop.

The workshop shall be prepared and facilitated by the external consultant in coordination with the M&E Specialist of GNO and the Programme Coordinator.of the CoE in Zambia.

The consultant is expected to develop interactive workshop methods to discuss and validate the results and to answer potential follow-up research questions during a 4-5 day workshop. The facilitation methods shall also be adequate and feasible in a virtual workshop setting.

Sample

The consultant is expected to suggest a tentative sampling strategy and sample size for data collection which is to be refined in the inception report.

1) The consultant shall suggest a sampling strategy and size (number and type of locations, persons, groups) for data collection to assess the evaluation criteria and to answer the evaluation questions.

a. The sample for the SWOT analysis shall include the vast majority of direct project staff in all four programme countries and the Plan International African Union Liaison & Plan Africa Programme Office (PAO).

b. In addition, further Key Informants and Stakeholders can be included in the sample as per suggestion of the consultant.

2) To assess and/or double-check the indicator values, the consultant shall take into account the sampling strategy and size used in the baseline and in continuous monitoring. It is upon the consultant’s appraisal if he/she needs to collect data using a different sampling strategy or size to double-check or assess the respective indicator values.

All data should be disaggregated by gender and age (minimum <18 years and ≥ 18 years).

3) Participants of the Review and Learning Workshop shall include relevant Programme Implementation staff of local partner organisations and Plan International offices in all four implementing countries (project coordinators, M&E officers, project facilitators, 18+ advocacy/influencing team) the programme coordinator at the Centre of Excellence in Zambia and the programme Specialist and M&E Specialist at the German Plan International Office (GNO).

The consultant(s) are welcome to suggest additional participants for this workshop, e.g. suggesting one day of the workshop for meeting public stakeholders or government workers in the area of child marriage and early pregnancy, youth club members, members of local child protection committees, or others.

Participant selection and recruitment

As a minimum requirement, the following key stakeholders and target groups should be given the opportunity to provide feedback on the programme to the consultant (s):

• Project staff of local partner organisations and Plan International offices in all four implementing countries (project coordinators, M&E officers, community development facilitators)

• The programme coordinator at the Centre of Excellence in Zambia

• Traditional figures of authority and community leaders at district, ward and community level in all four implementing countries (male and female)

• Project beneficiaries and intermediaries, i.e. youth club members; community structure members; child protection committee members; public and private, formal and informal health providers, and others.

• Community members (men, women, adolescent girls and boys, with and without disabilities)

The consultant(s) could also identify and suggest additional stakeholders that they feel are important to involve ensuring they get the information they need to answer the Evaluation Questions.

Ethics and Child Protection

Plan International is committed to ensuring that the rights of those participating in data collection or analysis are respected and protected, in accordance with Plan International’s Framework for Ethical MER and Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy. All applicants should include details in their proposal on how they will ensure ethics and child protection in the data collection process. Specifically, the consultant(s) shall explain how appropriate, safe, non-discriminatory participation of all stakeholders will be ensured and how special attention will be paid to the needs of children and other vulnerable groups. The consultant(s) shall also explain how confidentiality and anonymity of participants will be guaranteed.

All staff working with children throughout the Mid-Term Review should provide an expanded police certificate of good conduct. No work will start without signature of Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy by the consultant(s).

Key Deliverables

The consultant(s) is/are expected to lead, accomplish and submit the following deliverables within the agreed timeframe and budget:

· Inception Report including:

• an updated timeline;

• an evaluation matrix

• detailed methodology, including draft sampling methodology and size;

• draft data collection tools;

• ethical considerations;

• consent forms for any primary data collection;

• (draft) methods for data analysis;

• brief justification of the methods and techniques used (including relevant underlying values and assumptions/ theories) with a justification of the selections made (e.g. of persons interviewed).

· Draft report on data collection results including:

• double-checked and measured indicator values for the midline plus appraisal of the progress so far

• data collection results of the assessment of all OECD-DAC criteria

• data collection findings regarding the evaluation questions

• final sampling methodology (including unit of sampling and sampling frame) and size

• final Data Collection Tools

· Delivery of successful Preparation & Facilitation of the Review and Learning Workshop and corresponding documentation

· Draft Mid-Term Review Report which will be an adjusted version of the draft report on data collection results (see above) complemented by the results of the Review and Learning Workshop, among these: **

• Best Practices (strengths) and Opportunities per country and for the overall programme, based on the data collection and workshop results

• Lessons Learnt (weaknesses) and risks per country and for the overall programme, based on the data collection and workshop results

• recommendations on how to adjust the programme during the second half of the implementation period to overcome weaknesses and mitigate risks and how to use strengths and opportunities, based on the findings of the data collection and Review and Learning Workshop.

· Final Mid-Term Review Report (including Executive Summary)

Cleaned Data including data files (e.g. Excel, SPSS), transcripts of qualitative data syntax/ codebooks etc.

Completed Consent Forms if applicable (for children and their caregivers and adults)

Timeline

The tender documents can be requested by e-mail from [email protected].

Budget

The consultant’s proposal should include a detailed budget breakdown including number of working days, consultant fees, expenses / per diems, VAT/taxes, social and medical insurance, translation and interpretation, software licenses, electronic devices, travel and VISA costs (if applicable), costs for the development of (remote) data collection tools, and all output-related costs.

The tender documents can be requested by e-mail from [email protected].

Expected Qualifications

The consultant or the consulting team should have the following experience and formal qualifications:

• Postgraduate degree in Social Sciences, Anthropology, Human Rights, Political Science, Public Health or comparable.

• Thematic expertise and experience in the area of Early Forced Child Marriage and related policies and service systems in East and Southern Africa

• Knowledge and experience in gender issues, awareness on inclusion, child protection and child rights issues.

• At least three years of proven experience in carrying out evaluations and systemic reviews, including data collection and entry, data management and storage, preferably for international NGOs.

• At least two years of proven experience in planning and facilitating workshops on learning, reflection and planning of projects and initiatives.

• Proficiency in qualitative methods of data collection

• Proficiency in quantitative methods of data collection

• Proven experience with quantitative and qualitative data analysis

• Proficiency in statistics

• Excellent command / highly proficient in spoken and written English.

• Experience with working with local communities in Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe would be a comparative advantage

• Proficiency in local languages of the programme regions in Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe would be an asset.

We encourage interested consultants and institutions to suggest a team composed of international and local consultants or to sub-contract local consultants to support data collection in the field (virtual or physical) in the four programme countries.