Final Project Evaluation “Youth Leaders of Ukraine”

1. Background

Danish Red Cross (DRC) and Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS) initiated their partnership in 2014 as the crisis escalated in Ukraine. The ongoing violence continues to negatively influence Ukraine’s overall development prospects. It has caused a socio-economic decline at all levels of society, which is deeply affecting the population of Ukraine. Problematic issues with models of dialogue and rhetoric have exacerbated and aggressive or hostile expressions towards those who do not share the same values or opinions, are becoming more common and accepted. These issues particularly influence the young population of Ukraine as they are going through the stage of forming their values, outlooks and social behaviour, and hence are in need of support.

The concept behind this project stems from the large pool of young Ukrainians who are eager to develop their communities and participate in decision-making processes, but lack the empowerment, knowledge and tools. In recent years, Ukraine has initiated reforms aiming towards increased civil society engagement and collaboration between state and non-state actors. Engaging with youth in terms of non-formal civic education, to empower them to participate in the social life in Ukraine and building their skills, as well as raising awareness on the rights of youth to participate in community life, is essential.

This project tackled the needs and gaps at all levels: it empowered young Ukrainians to participate in social life and develop their communities by providing the necessary tools and knowledge to participate in different community activities and/or develop their own. The activities were organised in an easily accessible manner, with a focus on making them inclusive, open and easy to participate in. Furthermore, by training Youth Leaders to take active part in shaping and changing their local communities through community activities and democratic participation the project equipped youth to participate in local decision-making and influence decision-makers to improve the well-being of their communities. The partners of this project, the Danish Red Cross, the Danish Red Cross Youth and the Ukrainian Red Cross Society ensured widespread communication on the proposed activities to raise awareness of young people’s possibilities to participate.

Project’s Immediate objective is to empower young people of Ukraine to take active part in shaping and changing their local communities through community activities and engaging in democratic organizations and institutions – thereby contributing to a more peaceful and stable Ukrainian society. This is achieved through the following three outcomes: **

Outcome 1: Youth Leaders implement community-led humanitarian initiatives that address community needs.

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Outcome 2: Youth Leaders are actively participating in local democracy through engaging in democratic civil society organizations or formal institutions.**

Outcome 3: Youth Leader capacity is strengthened and anchored within Ukrainian Red Cross Society.

The project was implemented in two regions of Ukraine: Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk. The target group was people between 14-35 of age regardless of gender, which is how “youth” is officially defined in Ukraine. In total, the project trained over 36 youth leaders at different levels and reached approximately 9000 beneficiaries. The project also included online and offline exchange between Ukrainian and Danish Youth Leaders. The project duration was 18 months.

The project faced the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the overall schedule and other implementation risks. Wherever feasible, it adapted to the context through a proactive and need-based planning.

In order to be able to assess achievements of the entire project Danish Red Cross is commissioning this final external evaluation. The final evaluation is planned in October-December 2021 – during the last months of the completion of all activities of the project and two months before completion of the project itself (in December 2021).

2. Purpose, Objectives and Scope

2.1 Purpose

The main purpose of this final evaluation is to assess and document project’s immediate objective and outcomes as well as identify lessons learned in terms of project’s approach and activities. This will allow The Ukrainian Red Cross Society and Danish Red Cross to consider the final evaluation’s findings and apply its key recommendations, in terms of approach and activities, into the formulation of new projects for Ukrainian youth in the future, especially for the DANEP funding.

2.2 Objectives

The overall objective of the evaluation is to assess how effective and accountable URCS activities have been empowering young people through Danish Red Cross support, and to make recommendations for strengthening durable capacities in the youth engagement sector of the National Society.

The specific objectives of the evaluation are:

· To assess the project’s achievements vis-à-vis its intended immediate objective and outcomes as set out in the project logical framework with specific focus to:

· Establish the endline value for project objective and outcome indicators

· Assess how outcome results have contributed to reach the immediate objective of the project

· To make recommendations on how the project can improve impact and effectiveness through more sustainable approaches at country and regional/branch level

2.3 Scope

The evaluation will cover the project period in its entirety both in terms of timeline (1^st July 2020 – 31^st December 2021) and geographic coverage (Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions). The evaluation will focus on the complete range of engaged stakeholders primarily, participants of community initiatives and youth leaders and their teams.

2.4 Research questions

The final evaluation shall comprise but not necessarily be limited to the following areas/ questions:

Relevance

· To what extent have the youths been engaged in assessing the community humanitarian needs?

· To what extent the community activities were relevant to the needs of the communities?

· To what extent did the project successfully build on the skills and knowledge of youth?

Effectiveness

· To what extent have the project objectives and outcomes been achieved?

· What conditions facilitated the achievement of the immediate objective? What conditions were obstacles to achieving the immediate objective?

· How could DRC better enable participation of youth in civic rights and volunteer initiatives?

Efficiency

· To what extent did the project implement activities in the most efficient and impactful way?

· To what extent have the skills and knowledge of the youth leaders been increased by the project?

· What could be improved in the youth-led outreach activities and participation in local democracy?

Sustainability

· To what extent are the youth leaders confident in continuing addressing the social problems in their local communities after end of the project?

· What partnerships and youth networks can sustain the project’s approach beyond the end of the project?

· How could DRC better support relevant youth activities sustainability?

3 Methodology

This final external evaluation shall be carried in close collaboration between URCS and DRC. The review will involve a combination of methods as follows:

· Secondary data review (relevant documents and reports, training and communication materials, etc.).

· Beneficiary feedback survey (semi-structured survey focused on relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency of community activities; sample size of 300 participants).

· Semi-structured survey via web-forms with youth leaders and volunteers.

· The Consultant should focus on the key questions (section 2.4) while developing questionnaires.

· Inception report with proposed methodology and timeframe shall be provided and agreed with the DRC team.

· A presentation containing key findings and a draft report will be sent to DRC for comments and further discussion. After receiving the comments, the Consultant will finalize the report and submit it to DRC.

4 Roles & Responsibilities

The final evaluation team will be led by the Сonsultant in close collaboration with the Local Consultant, DRC and URCS.

DRC evaluation team shall be responsible to:

· Facilitate access to documentation

· Support the coordination and the debriefings

· Link with the Local Consultant, URCS project staff and volunteers.

· Make payments in DKK or relevant currency as per the signed contract with the Consultant within two weeks of the submission of the invoice and the final evaluation report.

URCS shall be responsible to:

· Recruit the Local Consultant/team

· Facilitate access to documentation and contacts lists of beneficiaries, staff, and volunteers

· Identify URCS’ staff/volunteers engaged in data collection

· Facilitate the logistics

Consultant shall be responsible to:

· Lead the evaluation team and evaluation process

· Prepare and submit an inception report

· Conduct a debriefing and/or PowerPoint presentation summarising the findings and recommendations of the evaluation.

· Present the initial findings to the DRC CO team for the suggestions and feedback.

· Prepare and submit the draft report and final report to DRC as per the DRC final evaluation template.

Local Consultant shall be responsible to:

· Participate in development of methodology and schedule

· Prepare data-collection tools and techniques

· Instruct the URCS’ staff/volunteers engaged in data collection

· Conduct the data collection and the data analysis

· Contribute to the consolidation of the draft final report.

5 Schedule

The assignment will take place in October-December 2021 and last up to 15 working days*.*

Due to COVID-19 potential travel disruptions and nature of this evaluation, there is no expectation of travelling in country for this consultancy.

2 Skills & Qualifications

The selection of the external evaluation consultant/s will be based on the qualifications outlined below:

· Understanding of youth development, volunteer management, advocacy, community based humanitarian response;

· Sensitive to the complexities and constraints associated with Red Cross and Red Crescent mandate;

· Excellent written and spoken English skills required, as well as excellent analytical and presentation skills;

· Knowledge and experience in Ukraine would be an advantage.

3 Budget

The Consultant is asked to submit a budget proposal outlining the costs for working days (fee), along with a tentative work plan including the working days for the main activities and milestones.