Plan International Bangladesh

Terms of Reference for hiring consultant to conduct

A midterm evaluation of Developing Aspiration and Livelihood for Adolescents (DALA)Project

Project Summary:

Project Name / Developing Aspiration and Livelihood for Adolescents (DALA) Project
Project Location / HatibandhaUpazila of Lalmonirhat district, Bangladesh
Project duration / Start 01 May 2014 to 28 February 2017
Implementing agency / PLAN Bangladesh and Partner NGO
Final report deadline / 15 May 2017

Introduction to Plan International Bangladesh:

With almost 75 years’ experience working with children in poverty, and their families and communities, Plan is one of the most respected and trusted grassroots, child rights based organizations in the world. Plan is independent, with no religious, political or governmental affiliations.

Plan plays an important role in mobilising children, communities and civil society organisations to claim the rights of children and achieve agreed local development priorities. Plan works in 71countries - 21 countries raise funds to support work in 50 developing countries across Africa, Asia and the South America.

Plan has been operating in Bangladesh since 1994. Plan seeks to ensure the rights of children to education, health, safe water and sanitation, protection, livelihood and protection from environmental degradation and natural or man-made disaster hazards throughout the country. Our Country Office is located in Dhaka and we are working in 22 districts having 5 Programme Units (PUs) that are located in Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Dinajpur, Gazipur and Dhaka metropolitan area. We partner with national and local non-governmental organisations, and together our work benefits more than million children and their communities.

Background and overview of the project

Adolescent period is very important in the human life cycle for the transition involving multi-dimensional changes. The effects of gender norms, discrimination, poverty and abuse can magnify the negative effect on young girls and leave them more vulnerable to negative health consequences than boys (UN DESA, 2003). Bangladesh has the highest rate of child marriage in Asia, with 64% of girls getting married before the age of 18[1]. A USAID study stated that more than 10% of married young women give birth to their first child before the age of 15[2].

Girls are considered eligible for marriage at the onset of menstruation. Conservative tradition in our rural society does tremendously affect the health of the rural adolescents, especially the girls. They areoften oppressed and being maltreated if they deny to be married off quite early. When a girl marries, she usually drops out of school and begins full-time work in her husband's parents' household. In the in-laws' house, she often lacks status and bargaining power. When adolescent girls are pulled out of school, either for marriage or work, they often lose their mobility, their friends and social network[3]. Informal discussion with adolescents reveals that lack of mobility particularly of adolescent girls curtails their economic and other non-formal educational opportunities.

It’s not only the poverty and social taboo: the lack of aspirations and future life choices exacerbates child marriage. Limited or no access to technical and life skills, social insecurity and vulnerability to sexual abuse, lack of positive and strong female role models and inaccessibility to financial resources, contribute to a generation of adolescent girls for whom their parents feel marriage is the best and only life option for them, as their role as housewife and mother is seen to be their only viable fate.

In this backdrop Plan International Bangladesh wants to empower and technically equip 3,000 adolescent girls to have confidence, career aspiration and a positive self image which, in turn, promotes protective and positive behaviours to stand against the harmful social practices, and engage in income generating activities by 2016.

Overall Objective of the project:

To empower and technically equip 3,000 adolescent[4] girls to have confidence, career aspiration and a positive self image which, in turn, promotes protective and positive behaviours to stand against the harmful social practices, and engage in income generating activities by 2016.

Indicator of Overall Objective:

  • % of targeted adolescent girls’ are empowered (i.e. having confidence on self-reporting, career aspiration and positive self image)
  • Mean age of girls marriage
  • % of adolescent girls are technically equipped with income generating capacities

Specific Objectives (1)of the project:

Enhanced life skills education of 2400 in-school adolescent girls to a) Access, practice and use all sorts of facilities (decision making, access and use facilities, claim rights etc.) equally as boys as well as approach/address their own gender needs; b) Increased retention rate of targeted girls in school.

Indicator of Specific Objective (1):

  • 1a: % of girls have increased knowledge of life skills
  • 1b: % of adolescent girls use all sorts of facilities of the school equally as boys
  • 1c: % of retention rate of targeted girls in school

Specific Objective (2):

Enhanced life skills and technical skills of 600 out of school adolescent girls to empower with confidence to protect them from harmful social practices and enhance livelihood capacity and career aspiration for making better employment choices.

Indicator of Specific Objective (2):

  • 2a: % of targeted adolescent girls ( out of school) have increased capacities on employable skills to become economically active
  • 2b: % of targeted adolescent girls (aged 14 to 18 year) are involved in income generating activities

Output of the project:

  1. Total 600 school based peer leaders are developed and become role models for their community and other adolescents as peer educators and leaders.
  2. Total 2400 adolescent girls are trained and equipped with knowledge on social issues and life skills-based education (including negotiation skills, self esteem, parental care, practical business and economics).
  3. 600 duty bearers including parents, teachers, local officials and elites are oriented with information on critical factors affecting the lives of adolescents (including issues such as early marriage, discrimination, violence, sexual abuse and exploitation).
  4. Total 120 community based peer leaders are developed and become role models for their community and other adolescents as peer educators and leaders.
  5. Total 600 adolescent girls are trained and equipped with knowledge on social issues and life skills-based education (including negotiation skills, self esteem, parental care, practical business and economics).
  6. 100 duty bearers including parents, teachers, local officials and elites are oriented with information on critical factors affecting the lives of adolescents (including issues such as early marriage, discrimination, violence, sexual abuse and exploitation).
  7. 30 adolescent clubs (KishoriMoncha) are established to give adolescents space to exchange views and interact as a safe place.
  8. 200 adolescents have their own businesses after receiving livelihood training.

Rational of the midterm evaluation:

Midterm evaluation is needed for the project progress against the project objectives(adolescents’career aspiration, positive self-image, confidence).Is there an implementation gap and challenges, learning and further actions or re-planning to be taken to achieve the projects goal so thatthe finalend line result of the project can be measured? If the project lacks behind the set objectives, which recommendations can be given for a redesign to achieve the objective within the given timeframe?

General Objective of the evaluation:

The Midterm evaluation will be carried out to assess the current progress of the project against the project objectives and indicators to compare the result with project targetespeciallyat outcome level. Any implementation gap and challenges, learning and further actions or re-planning to be taken to achieve the projects goal.

Specific objectives of the evaluation:

  • To know the level of empowerment of adolescent girls in target area (i.e. having confidence on self-reporting, career aspiration and positive self-image)
  • To know the mean age of girls marriage in the target area
  • To know the employable technical skill among the adolescent girls (out of school)with income generating capacities to become economically active.
  • To know the level of knowledge on life skill among the adolescent girls in the project area
  • To know the available school facilities i.e. school library, sports events, school grounds for play, and toiletfor boys/girls and teachers
  • To assess the accessibility of girl students in school facilities i.e. school library, sports events, school grounds for play, toilets equally as boys
  • To assess the girl student enrolment and retention in different classes in secondary schools
  • To know the involvement of girls (out of schools) in income generating activities in target area.
  • To assess the level of understanding of Duty bearers (Parents, CBO, Teacher, SMC etc.) on critical factors affecting the lives of adolescents.
  • To know the level of understanding of the adolescents on child rights and protection.
  • To assess which impact the political instabilities had on the implementation of project activities.

Study Area

Area of the study will be HatibandhaUpazila of Lalmonirhatdistrict ofPlan International Bangladesh programme areas.This study will cover 30 selected secondary schools of Hatibandha and its catchment areas.

Study Population

  • Adolescents (in-school and out of school)
  • Parents, school teacher, SMC,
  • CBO, religious leader and relevant duty bearers

Evaluation criteria and related key evaluation questions

Evaluation criteria help focus evaluation objectives by defining the standards against which the initiative will be assessed. Evaluations generally apply the following evaluation criteriato help focus evaluation objectives: Relevance, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Impact, and Sustainability (the OECD DAC criteria[5]) and integrate them into the report’s analysis. For each criterion, evaluation questions should be defined that the evaluation seeks to answer. It is important to be strategic in determining what information is needed most and to prioritize evaluation questions.It is better to answer fewer questions robustly than to answer more superficially. A clear and concise set of the most relevant questions ensures that evaluations are focused, manageable, cost-efficient and useful. More information on standard questions to be considered can be found in Plan’s Evaluation standards[6].

The standard questions are:

  • How much has the programme/project cost to date? (Provide information on total expenditure from the start of the programme/project to the time ofthe evaluation.
  • Approximately how many people has the programme/project reached? (Provide estimated figure on how many people have been directly reached by the programme/project to date, broken down by gender and by children/adults and other criteria as appropriate. The figures should not include people reached indirectly by e.g. national advocacy or public information2
  • How consistent is the programme/project with Plan’s CCCD approach? (For instance: How did the programme/project address inclusion? Did it take a rights based approach? Did it involve duty bearers? Did it promote participation of children and adults and support their involvement as citizens?
  • How consistent is the programme/project with the local Plan strategy (CSP/regional strategy), For instance: Was the programme/project part of the priorities in the CSP, and if not , why? Were relevant regional approaches or strategies considered in the programme/project design?
  • How appropriate was the original programme/project design for achieving the results that were originally expected? ( For instance: Were results clearly defined? Were the assumptions correct? Was it realistic to expect the planned activities to achieve the results within the timeframe with that amount of investment?
  • How well has the internal monitoring system contributed to the evaluation and to ongoing programme/project implementation? ( For instance: Was there relevant data from Plan monitoring? How useful or complete was the information? Were the indicators used relevant and actually measured? Was learning from reviews such as APPR fed back into programming?

Intended users of the evaluation

This section should briefly describe who will make use of the evaluation’s findings and recommendations.

Along with the Project Point person, other staffs of Plan International Bangladesh, it is expected that development workers, organizations working in the similar field, donor will be benefited by this midterm evaluation report.

Methodology

The contracted agency/consultant is expected to prepare an appropriate methodology (preferably mixed method) to meet the above mentioned objectives of the evaluation. The methodology and relevant tools should be adjusted in consultation with Plan International Bangladesh and finalized before implementation.However, due to the adolescent girl focus of the project, the methodology used should be adolescent-girl friendly and participatory wherever possible.

Scope of Work

The agency/consultant is expected to form anevaluation team for the study and manage coordination and communication with Plan International Bangladesh. Tasks and responsibilities of the consultant are as follows:

  • Prepare inception report and share with Plan International Bangladesh.
  • Review coherent literature(both internal and external) based on the given criteria to gain better understanding about the project activities.
  • Develop methodology and sampling framework for the evaluation study and appropriate data collection instruments to collect necessary data from different groups of people.
  • Obtain relevant ethical approval for the research to take place
  • Impart training to data collectors and ensure quality data through monitoring and supervising data collection process in the field.
  • Administer data collection in the field, compilation, analyse and interpret data as required.
  • Produce draft and final report which is informative and learning oriented
  • Present findings of the evaluation in sharing meetings
  • Prepare summary report (4-5 pages) in both Bangla and English with the consultation with Plan International Bangladesh.
  • Maintain regular communication with key contact person(s) of Plan International Bangladesh throughout the assignment period.

Expected Deliverables

The agency/consultant is expected to produce and submit the following deliverables:

  • An inception reportwith detailed work plan.
  • Data collection instruments in both English and Bangla.
  • Draft report and presentation on draft report (preferably in ppt.).
  • 2 copies of final report (hard copy) and soft copy of the final report.
  • Data set (field notes, data set (in SPSS), qualitative analysis and other relevant documents should be submitted).
  • A summary report (5-6 pages) hard & soft copy both in Bangla and English

The report should be learning oriented and take a strong gender sensitive approach in the analysis. The report must contain:

  • Executive summary;
  • Background;
  • Description of objectives, methods and limitations;
  • Findings (ensuring data segregation by sex, age, ethnicity, disability and other exclusion criteria);
  • Analysis/discussion on the findings; based on effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, sustainability and impact
  • Recommendations
  • Conclusion

Expected competencies of consultant

It is expected that the competency of the contracted agency/consultant will include:

  • Possess equal composition of qualified academic background, knowledge, experience and capacity to manage baseline survey.
  • Has a team of experienced human resource in data collection, data entry, editing and analysis.
  • Experience in carrying out research with childand adolescent will be an advantage.
  • Has experience of working with children with no history of violation of child rights
  • Strong analytical and report writing skills.
  • Has good understanding of international and national empowermentinstruments.

Time frame

The consultant will submit a proposed work plan with key milestones within a week of signing the contract; this work plan will be reviewed and approved by Plan International Bangladesh. It is anticipated that the final report will be produced within 75calendar days of signing of the contract. While the draft report is produced, it should be shared with Plan and Plan will provide feedback on draft report by one week after receiving the draft report. During the whole period of the assignment, follow up meetings will be held between the contracted consultant/consulting firm and Plan International Bangladesh as frequently as possible. Any field problems should be anticipated and addressed beforehand.

Time / Activity / Numbers of days
06.12.2015 / Tendering for consultant / 7 days
17.12.2015 / Negotiations and Contracting process / 2 days
22.12.2015 / MoU & Orientation on Child Protection policy / 1 day
23.12.2015 / Inception report with tools, Data collection and processing by consulting team / 30 days
25.01.2016 / Draft report share / 5 days
4.02.2015 / Final report submission to Plan including feedback from PLAN / 2 days

Parameters for Selection of Firm/Individual to Carry Out the Assignment/Task

The following table outlines the selection criteria:

Selection Criteria / Weighted Score / Score Given / Comments
1 / The individual/institution/firm's track record, general reliability, including experience and capacity on technical analysis
-Consultant has provided comparable assignments that they have successfully completed. (5)
-Consultant has a track record of work in the area of technical analysis (10) / 15
2 / The qualifications and competence in the combination of personnel proposed are suitableto undertake the analysis as specified in the ToR
-The consultant possess the academic qualifications, training and experience requested in the ToR (10)
- The consultant is knowledgeable and experienced in working in urban, rural and national level government and CSO stakes (10) / 20
3 / The methodology and the detailed Research plan
-Does the methodology adequately address the objectives and scope outlined in the ToR? (10)
-Is the methodology technically proven and comprehensive? (15)
- Consultant has identified sophisticated tools and techniques for data collection (quantitative and qualitative) (10)
-Does the work plan provide a logical approach to tasks and issues? (10) / 45
4 / Budget
-Does the budget seem realistic? (05)
-Does the budget address all critical costs? (05)
-Is it competitive?(10) / 20
TOTAL SCORE / 100

The Schedule