TOR-ALBA-2016-008
Terms of Reference
for the
Evaluation of the “Breaking the cycle of exclusion for Roma children through Early Childhood Development and Education” multi-country project in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Albania,
Funded by the Austrian Development Agency
Table of Content
1.Context
2.Object to be Evaluated
3.Rationale for the Evaluation
4.Objectives of the Evaluation
5.Scope of the Evaluation
6.Evaluation Framework
7.Methodology of the Evaluation
8.Work Plan and Evaluation Management
9.Deliverables, including Structure of the Evaluation Report
10.Procedures and Logistics
11.Ethical Standards and Safeguards
12.Quality Assurance
13.Payment Schedule
14.Resource Requirements
15.Remarks and Reservations
1
Annexes:- Acronym
2. Characteristics of the Project Environment / 7. Dissemination Plan
- Outline of the Evaluation Report
- Evaluation matrix template
- Existing Sources of Information
- Context
Key Inequity to be addressed
Today Roma, with an estimated population of around 12 million people, constitute the largest ethnic minority in Europe[i]. About 35.7 per cent of the Roma population is under 15 compared to 15.7 per cent of the Europe Union(EU) population overall[ii]. The need to address the situation for children amongst Roma is especially urgent considering that they comprise a higher share of this population compared to their share in non-Roma populations in South Eastern Europe (SEE)[iii] - out of the 3.7 million total Roma population, approximately 1.7 million are children, or 46 per cent.[iv]
Roma children in SEE experience significant gaps in the realization of their rights, compared to other groups of children. They are often born into impoverished households, and are at a severe disadvantage from the beginning. For instance, in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Roma children are twice as likely as majority children to be stunted[v], and “one in five children from Roma settlements aged 1–2 years is severely stunted”, in Serbia[vi]. Access to services that could help them have a start in life equal to their non-Roma cohorts is in many cases out of the reach of their families. Inthe former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia only around 3.5 percent of Roma children attend some form of early childhood learning services.[vii] As mentioned their deprivation has roots before even being born with the convergence of multiple discriminations and disadvantages Roma mothers face—along the lines of their ethnicity, economic situation, gender, and sometimes age, in the case of teen pregnancy. The added exclusion Roma women experience is reflected as one in educational attainment. For example in Serbia the percentage of Roma women with no education is 17.1 percent compared to 7.6 percent of Roma men;their completion of secondary education is also lower at 13.9 percent compared to 23.1 percent[viii]. Importantly for young Roma children, in SEE as the economic situation of the Roma has worsened, so has access to prenatal and infant/toddler services for Roma women. Roma women in this region as well as throughout Europe continue to face numerous barriers in accessing health care, prenatal care and health related information, all of which impact heavily on Early Childhood Development (ECD). The social exclusion and deprivation that Roma children and their families in SEE face is therefore a multidimensional and multigenerational phenomenon and its perpetuation starts even before birth, leading to vulnerability, poverty and abuse.
It is fundamentally important to address a set of systembarriers related to the environment (societal stigma and discrimination against Roma and other disadvantaged children, lack of explicit inclusive policies and incentives for policy implementation), the demand (poverty of Roma families and inability to pay costs related to attendance of ECD services and schools, lack of awareness of parents of Roma children on the importance of ECD and education and their low expectation for their children, etc.) and the supply (lack of ECD and school infrastructure in the Roma communities, lack of qualified educators and teachers to deal with the challenges of inclusion, lack of specialized programmes to address specific needs of Roma children in kindergartens, ECD centers and schools) and quality at all levels. UNICEF approach to Roma inclusion in the three project countries considers all these barriers and proposes interventions that are relevant to the context, i.e. as the most critical based on evidence, and/or are not addressed by the Government or other partners.Governments in SEE have supported initiatives to address barriers related to access of Roma children to high quality ECD and education services. While access to ECD and education services has improved over time, in most of the countries impact on children’s lives in terms of improved child outcomes, mainstreaming and sustainability of interventions has been limited. One of the reasons has been the low levels of funding allocated to Roma Decade Action Plans in general, and lack of systematic monitoring and evaluation.
Breaking the cycle of exclusion for Roma children is at the core of UNICEF programming in (CEE/CIS) Region. As part of the broader ECD[ix] and Education[x] programme agenda, UNICEF addresses system barriers above mentioned that affect all marginalized children, not just Roma, and not just Roma children, but also children from other minorities such as Ashkali and Egyptians, children from difficult socio-economic background and children with disabilities. However, UNICEF recognizes that without additional targeted efforts to address specifically Roma as the most excluded groups, it will not be possible for countries to meet their obligations as Parties to the Convention of the Rights of the Child and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG s)”[xi]. Thus as part of this project, UNICEF applies a human rights-based approach to analysing and conceptualizing system barriers and specific challenges faced by Roma children. UNICEF is engaged in developing a systematic and coherent engagement with Roma issues through the key entry points of ECD and basic education.[xii] This approach means supporting specific targeted interventions that address the specific needs of Roma children in the context of system reforms in ECD and education as opposed to replicating “the same old ineffective and inefficient models” of service provision[xiii]. UNICEF’scomparative advantages include access to high-level international expertise in ECD and Education, ability to convene national, regional and local government, civil society, donors and other partners, facilitate national reforms, and monitor and advocate for child rights - allow the organisation to ensure complementarity of efforts supported by other partners and add value to ongoing country reforms.
Relevant Governmental and Sectoral Policies
Following the European Parliament Resolution on the European Union (EU) Roma strategy (2011), the European Commission put forward An EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies up to 2020. This framework puts special emphasis on the importance of ECD, early education, and quality primary school. In addition to monitoring new Roma inclusion National Action Plans developed by the EU's 27 countries, Roma integration strategies and actions plans of accession countries[xiv], including the three project countries, will be reviewed under this framework. The EU, through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, continues to promote social and economic integration and equality of Roma and monitors the development of anti-discrimination legislation, and administrative actions in all three countries.
Albania: The intervention contributes to the objectives set forth in the National Policy Paper for Social Inclusion (2015-2019), regional Decade Action Plan for Roma Inclusion (2005-2015), Albania’s national Action Plan for Roma Inclusion (2010-2015), and National Action Plan for Children (2012-2015). Albania has committed to improving early education by approving the Pre-University Education Strategy (2014-2020). Access to pre-primary year to all children aged 5 has become one of the goals of the National Strategy for Development and Integration (2015-2020)[xv].
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:The proposed intervention is aligned to the Roma Decade strategy on social inclusion of Roma 2012-2014 and its concomitant action plan—with increasing access to ECD and early learning services for Roma children as a priority. The new Law on ECD (February 2013) constitutes the basis for ECD system reform. It foresees the expansion of ECD through community-based ECD centres as cost-effective alternative suited to the needs of the most marginalized groups of children such as Roma, and improvements in quality based on the Early Learning Development Standards (ELDS) as the reference framework for quality support and improved child outcomes. The project will contribute to accelerating the so far weak implementation of Roma inclusion policies and interventions by expanding ECD quality provision and ensuring sustainability in the context of the recently adopted law on ECD.
Serbia: Serbia has adopted a National Roma Inclusion Strategy (2005-2015) and National Action Plans (NAP) for its implementation and the new Strategy for Inclusion of Roma women and men (2015-2025). The Strategy and NAPs cover a wide range of issues relevant for Roma young children, including improving the quality and access of preschool education, and inter-sectoral cooperation with the health sector[xvi]. The health of vulnerable groups is also a priority in the Plan for the Development of Health Protection 2010-2015 with specific plans for child and youth health and specific groups of women of reproductive age; infants and preschool children; school children and youth; disabled persons; and, socially marginalised groups.”[xvii] The health care reform strategy document “Better Health for All in the Third Millennium (2003)” makes the connection between health status and social exclusion. The Regulation on the National Programme of Health Care for Women, Children and Youth was adopted in 2009.”[xviii]In 2016, the Government adopted the Regulation on the National Programme for ECD. A network of Roma Health Mediators to address the health of young children and Roma mothers was established by the Ministry of Health (MoH) in 2009. In the sphere of education, inclusion of Roma children in mainstream pre-, primary and secondary education has been prioritized in the framework law on education. To facilitate inclusion, the mechanism of local inter-sectoral commissions (ISC)[xix] was established in 2010.
Further details regarding the characteristics of the project environment is available as Annex 2.
- Object to be Evaluated
Objective of the object (i.e. the project)
The multi-country project “Breaking the cycle of exclusion for Roma children through ECD and education”,funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), aims at accelerating the equitable inclusion of Roma children in ECD, Early Learning, and quality basic education services in Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia. By working within existing structures, the initiative aims to strengthen capacity of duty bearers to guarantee access for young Roma children and their parents to quality ECD, primary school and health services. In this way, the initiative contributes to reaching each country’s social inclusion goals and breaking the intergenerational disadvantage and poverty of Roma. The project aims at providing Roma children an equal start in life, by ensuring they and their families have access to quality basic services and support during their early years. This increases their chances of achieving their highest potential and of having better success in school and in life in general.
Strengthening ECD and education services for Roma children, and improving health care for Roma mothers, will work toward alleviating these specific UN MDGs:
GOAL 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; GOAL 2:Achieve universal primary education; GOAL 3: Promote gender equality and empower women; GOAL 4: Reduce child mortality; GOAL 5:Improve maternal health. In terms of the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals, ECD is mainly included in Goal 4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” It is specifically mentioned in target 4.2: “By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality ECD, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.”At the same time, it is widely agreed thatECD has a multiplier effect on many of the Global Goals: Goal 1: Eradicate poverty, Goal 2: End hunger and improve nutrition, Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives, Goal 5: Achieve gender equality, Goal 8: Promote decent work for all, Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries, Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption, Goal 16: Promote peaceful societies, and Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation[xx].
ECD is captured in the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2014-2017 (under Outcome 5, Education) and is reflective of the CEE/CIS Regional Priority on “A child's right to inclusive quality early learning and education”(i.e. Regional Knowledge and Leadership Agenda 3/4) as well as “A child’s right to health and well-being” (Regional Knowledge and Leadership Agenda 6/7).
ExpectedResults of the Project
Serbia1.1.Knowledge generated about ECD risks and vulnerabilities (in relation to health, early stimulation and nutrition practices, family separation, abuse and neglect, etc.) used to inform trainings and protocols for service delivery.
1.2.Quality of provision of ECD services as part of the health system (trained professionals, higher quality standards and pro-active outreach) for Roma children and their parents improved.
1.3.National Human Rights institutions enhance their role in ensuring child rights situation reporting, or redress of rights violations, of Roma children and mothers in the areas of health, child development and child protection.
Interventions: In Serbia, the project focuses on quality early childhood care services for young Roma children and their parents, particularly mothers. The project ensure that Roma children and their parents are supported for ECD and care through interventions and education opportunities provided by the relevant service providers (health mediators, paediatricians and patronage nurses). Activities also support improved knowledge, and development and use of effective tools for early identification of developmental risks and psychosocial issues of vulnerable children, and adequate follow-up, support and protection. The project ensures that Roma children and women are better informed about their entitlements in the areas of health care, education and social welfare; and it will facilitate their utilisation of existing services and benefits.
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania:
2.1Number of Community-Based ECD Centres increased in 7 municipalities in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
2.2 Quality of provision in early learning and development improved in 7 municipalities in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and four regions in Albania (where Roma children attend available kindergarten and pre-school facilities).
2.3 Policies provide incentives for Roma participation in pre-school in Albania.
2.4 Local plans and resources support increased provision of early learning services for young Roma children, including mechanisms to monitor attendance and child outcomes, in selected municipalities in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania.
2.5. School staff and other service providers at the local level refer and take actions about out-of-pre-school and out-of-primary-school Roma children in four regions of Albania.
Interventions: In the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania, the project focuses on improving access of Roma children aged 3 to 6 years to inclusive, high quality, cost-effective early learning services. By linking existing system structures to best practices in Roma ECD and education the initiative intends to expand quality early learning and care services in seven municipalities. All capacity building efforts address issues of stigma and discrimination and low expectation that service providers hold for Roma children In Albania the activities support the change in attitudes of public officials toward ECD and education for Roma; and follow up on a recent study to increase quality access of Roma children to existing preschools.
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia
3.1 Coordination between schools, service providers, Roma mediators and parents at the local level supports access of Roma children to primary schooling in 7 municipalities in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
3.2 All local Inter-sectoral Commissions for Education Inclusion (ISC) assess the needs for additional support of Roma and other vulnerable children across Serbia, and 10 municipalities establish sustainable financing of additional support.
Interventions: In the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia, the project also support access of Roma children aged 6 years and above to quality basic education services. Activities in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia support the establishment of coordination mechanisms to improve the successful transition and enrolment of Roma children into the first year of primary school. In Serbia the project serves to support the enrolment of vulnerable children into first grade, by augmenting the capacities of local inter-sectoral commissions.
Logic model/Theory of Change