Short Term Consultant for external evaluation “Supporting Children’s Access to Learning and Educati (Kabul, Afghanistan)

Consultancy summary

The consultant will lead a mixed-method evaluation of War Child Canada’s project, Supporting Children’s Access to Learning and Education (SCALE)” in Afghanistan.

This evaluation will provide an opportunity for all project stakeholders including  beneficiaries, children, their parents, schoolteachers, officials of district and provincial education department, and community based child protection mechanism (CBCPM) members to review accomplishments and provide feedback on their experience of the project. This evaluation will document success and lessons learnt that can be Incorporated into future programming.

The consultant will finalize and lead an evaluation team.  War Child Canada encourages the participation of its staff as well as those from the provincial education department, Ministry of Education and community members in planning and conducting this evaluation.

The consultant will review all project documents and existing data in advance to carrying out the final evaluation. 

War Child Canada conducted a baseline at the start of the project and will conduct an end line survey with data collection specific to the program. The consultant will use the data from the baseline and end line and will finalize the evaluation approach, methods, questions, and tools to measure results under the two objectives (see above). 

The project will be evaluated using seven core principles: 1) Relevance and strategic fit; 2) Program design; 3) Efficiency; 4) Effectiveness; 5) Sustainability; 6) Coherence; 7) Management and coordination.  More specifically War Child Canada has identified the following areas that must be included in the evaluation:

Review of technical approach and progress towards results: relevancy of activities related to specific interventions, progress toward results; effectiveness of the interventions; any changes in the technical approaches outlined in the Detailed Implementation Plan (DIP) and rationale; unexpected successes or constraints. 

Community Mobilization: to what extent has the community responded to the different mobilization techniques employed by the project; how have these activities been used to refine program implementation plans; what kinds of barriers existed to prevent members of the community, especially women, from benefiting from the project, and how have these been addressed; what factors in the political and socio-ecological environment (such as security, competing community priorities, etc.) have impacted the project’s ability to mobilize the community and what steps has the project taken to address these factors?

Children’s learning outcomes:  to what extent the project has benefited children’s education and learning (especially those 6,990 children including 2,100 enrolled in the CBE classes) e.g reading, writing and mathematics skills

Support to provincial education department: to what extent the support extended to the provincial education department (PED) e.g. temporary learning spaces, supplies of educational material, training of PED teachers has contributed to improvement of both access to and quality of education for children

COVID-19:  To what extent, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the project outcomes, children’s access to education and what alternate measures have been adopted

Capacity Building: what capacity building efforts have been carried out for stakeholders e.g CBPMs, PED, School Shura (CBPMs). How have the organizational capacities of the local partner and other stakeholders changed since the beginning of the project?  What factors/interventions have most contributed to those changes?

Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy: How effective was the monitoring and evaluation of the project activities? What system is in place to measure progress towards program objectives?  How is the system of collecting, reporting, and using data at all program levels?

Project transition and sustainability: How promising is the sustainability of the program interventions especially transitioning of all the children from CBE classes to the MoE’s hub schools; what preparation has been done, and what has been agreed between the project and the MoE/PED.  How will the capacity building efforts and support mechanism will be taken forward after this project ends? 

Behavior change communication: Is the project’s approach to behavior change appropriate and effective? How was the project addressing current barriers to behavior change? Has the project developed any innovative approaches that have been particularly successful in changing behavior amongst specific target groups?

Approach and Deliverables:

Cover page
Table of contents
List of abbreviations
Two page executive summary outlining key accomplishment against project goal and comparison of results with baseline
The main accomplishments of the program under each objective (Objective 1 and Objective 2).
Progress made in achieving program objectives.
Lessons learned
The main constraints, problems, and areas in need of further attention.
The capacity-building impact of the program both with local partners and project beneficiaries.
Prospects for sustainability of program outcomes
Success stories or brief case studies on beneficiaries
Conclusions and recommendations (resulting from this evaluation) to War Child Canada, the donor, and Ministry of Education

Proposed recommendations on how War Child Canada can build on successes and incorporate learnings into future programming

War Child Canada works with war-affected communities to help children reclaim their childhood through access to education, opportunity, and justice. War Child Canada has over 15 years of experience working in communities in conflict and post-conflict zones. All work is implemented in direct partnership with local communities, local NGOs and other stakeholders using a child-centered approach. War Child Canada is currently operational in Uganda, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Afghanistan, Jordan, and Iraq. War Child Canada is a registered Canadian charity based in Toronto.

In September 2019, War Child Canada started implementation of a multi-year project called “Supporting Children’s Access to Learning and Education (SCALE)” in Afghanistan.

The overall goal of the project is: to strengthen the protection of children and increase access to quality education among refugee returnee, IDP and host communities in Kabul province. The project is implemented directly by War Child Canada in several districts of Kabul.  Specific objectives of the project are: 

1) Objective 1: Support refugee returnee and IDP children to access quality education in safe and protective formal and non-formal settings according to their specific learning needs;

2) Objective 2: Strengthen the ability of refugee returnee, IDP and host community children, families, and communities to protect and promote children’s rights through community-based child protection mechanisms and the child-to-child approach

Key requirements

Master’s degree with strong research, data analysis; and excellent report writing skills
In-depth understanding of child protection and education sector especially the community based education model in Afghanistan
Previous experience performing high quality mixed-method evaluations

Strong English language skills required; Dari and Pashto will be an asset

Travel

Travel to Kabul is required, though the consult can submit final report from home.  visit to field location (within Kabul province) is subject to security clearance. 

Interested applicants are invited to send an expression of interest electronically including:

Curriculum vitae
Accompanying cover letter outlining relevant experience and skills
Proposed methodology and timeline
Proposed fee to complete the required deliverables
Confirmation of availability
Two reference

Email: jobs@warchild.ca

Please ensure your application email has the subject heading of “Supporting Children’s Access to Learning and Education (SCALE)” in Afghanistan

War Child Canada is committed to providing a work environment in which all individuals are treated with respect and dignity.  Final candidates will be vetted in accordance with War Child Canada’s Child Safeguarding and PSEA Policies, including appropriate reference and security checks.

Only those applicants selected for an interview will be notified.  No phone calls please. For more information about War Child Canada, please visit www.warchild.ca.

Submission Email
jobs@warchild.ca