Country: Sweden
Closing date: 25 Aug 2017
Plan International Sweden
Call for Proposals/Expression of Interest
Evaluation of Strategic Partnership programme funded by Sida HUM
Purpose of the consultancy
The main purpose of the consultancy is to undertake an evaluation of a humanitarian strategic partnership framework from 2015-2018 providing documentation of performance and identify key learning for Plan International. The achievements presented by the evaluation will inform the coming programming under the new strategic partnership period from May 2018 onwards.
Background and context
Plan International Sweden holds a strategic partnership agreement with Sida's Humanitarian Division for the period 1 May 2015 – 30 April 2018. This agreement includes a wide portfolio of about 20 - 30 different country specific humanitarian and DRR interventions.
The Strategic Partnership agreement entails annual allocations for 3 year resilience projects, 1 year humanitarian projects, a rapid response mechanism and small scale support for Plan International's quality assurance and surge capacity within child protection in emergencies. The total portfolio for the whole agreement is about 175 million SEK.
The overall goal and strategic objective of the partnership programme are:
Overall goal: Girls and boys grow up to realize their full potential in resilient communities and realize all their rights, before, during and after disasters and conflict
Strategic Objective: Plan International Sweden’s DRM projects effectively meet girls and boys needs, and protect children before, during and after disasters and conflict
During the first two years of the strategic partnership agreement, 10 projects with a one year implementation period has been implemented in Cameroon, CAR, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and The Philippines as well as two 3-year projects in Mali and Haiti. In addition, Plan International Sweden has, through the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) been able to support responses to crises in 16 countries amounting to 19 projects.
During the first two years, all 1 year projects were subject to specific project evaluations based on the ALNAP evaluation standards. However, for the final year of the strategic partnership agreement, Plan International Sweden and Sida HUM agreed that during the course of the final third year of the agreement an evaluation at a more aggregated level should be conducted to document key aspects of the cooperation so far, thereby providing important and valuable leaning for both Plan International and the continued partnership with Sida HUM.
A limitation is that an aggregated evaluation at the portfolio level has not been planned from the beginning which should be taken into account when planning and conducting the evaluation.
The proposed evaluation should also be seen as an opportunity of informing priorities in terms of thematic areas, quality assurance, and the geographic focus of the partnership during the renewed strategic partnership agreement that is planned to commence during 2018. Further, the agreement of conducting the proposed evaluation also relates to the opportunities that the recent Swedish Strategy for humanitarian assistance presents.
Scope of the evaluation
The scope of the evaluation will be to review and evaluate performance during the first two years of the agreement period i.e. 1 May 2015 – 30 April 2017. Ongoing projects that started during 2017 can only be accessed as ongoing as they will not have been finalized when the evaluation takes place. In addition, the evaluation is expected to guide upon the overall relevance and added value of Plan International in relation to Swedish humanitarian strategy.
The proposed evaluation would entail carrying out an assessment of a selected number of country specific crisis intervention projects representing a solid average of the projects the strategic agreement period as well as capturing the key focus areas of both the interventions in general. The selection will be done in close dialogue with Plan International Sweden responsible staff and should be based on the following criteria:
Geographical spread;
A spread of 3 year, 1 year and 6 months RRM projects;
A spread of thematic focus in the projects;
Potential projects that could include learnings from a full spectrum and Linking Relief Rehabilitation and Development perspective.
Exact details of the number of countries will be selected during the inception phase.
Objective and key areas to evaluate
The proposed evaluation should be based on quality evaluation standards which would entail OECD/DAC’s Quality Standards for Development Evaluation and use the OECD Guidance for Evaluating Humanitarian Assistance in Complex Emergencies, as well as the ALNAP guidelines. The overall ambition is for the evaluation to be action oriented and has its main focus on identifying lessons learned and providing options for recommended ways forward and in addition to this assess performance.
The main objectives of this evaluation are thus to:
Evaluate to what extent have the individual projects as part of the three year strategic partnership agreement has contributed towards achievements of the overall goal and strategic objective.
Evaluate and review performance of the partnership during the first two years of the ongoing agreement in order to document achievements and challenges.
Based on these findings, identify lessons learned and areas of improvements as recommendations for way forward in terms of identified key areas of the evaluation (see below)
Four main areas to evaluate in more details between the contracted evaluation team and Plan International Sweden as part of the inception phase. Nevertheless these are guiding the revaluation and should be the basis of the expression of interest submitted by consultants.
Key areas to be revaluation with guiding questions:
Relevance
How has the interventions been responding to the identified humanitarian needs of children in an appropriate manner?
How has the interventions under the review period been responding to identified humanitarian needs on the ground.
Efficiency and Effectiveness
Were the project activities consistent with the intended overall goal and strategic objective?
What are the constraints and opportunities for timely implementation?
What can Plan International Sweden do to improve timeliness of interventions?
Appropriateness and accountability to affected population
How could we improve our work with ensuring accountability to affected children and their communities?
How has complaints and feedback been followed up and feedback taken into account?
Are there any main lessons learnt for accountability to affected children and their communities that can be incorporated under next strategic partnership agreement?
How could we improve general MEAL system and are there any opportunities for getting real time data and/or using digital M&E to a higher extent?
Connectedness and coherence
How coherent have project activities been on the child protection minimum standards, and what are the implications?
What are the key successes and challenges of the multi-year programming?
Methodology
The evaluation team is expected to undertake desk studies, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and field visits as part of the evaluation. The detailed methodology is to be discussed in the inception phase with Plan International Sweden. At least one travel to the field will be anticipated.
Materials/documentation available includes:
Annual report from year 1 and year 2
Project reports
Real Time Evaluations from larger emergency responses
Project specific evaluations
Overall result framework and annual applications to Sida/HUM
Core Humanitarian Standards self-assessment
Draft time line and deliverables
The following draft timeline is proposed for this evaluation:
25 August: Deadline for submission of proposals/bids which should include CV and a 1-2 page outline of suggested methodology and time plan for the review
September: Inception report outlining final agreed upon methodology and key areas/questions to be reviewed.
October: Evaluation to be conducted.
End of October: Draft report for feedback from Plan International Sweden
November: Final report
Expected qualifications of applicants
Minimum requirements for consultants or teams:
Previous experience of evaluating humanitarian projects, preferably larger programs that include several projects;
Solid understanding of INGOs;
Good understanding of humanitarian standards, in particular the child protection minimum standards;
Professional level of English communication skills and report writing;
Previous experience of child friendly evaluation methodologies.
How to Express Interest
Interested evaluation teams or consultants should submit an expression of interest detailing:
Updated CVs;
A brief response to the purpose of the review and outline of suggested methodology;
A quote for consulting fee in EUR. Travel costs to be detailed at a later stage and would also be covered by Plan International as well as other costs related to the field visits;
A statement of availability throughout the duration of the evaluation;
One work sample relevant to the assignment.
How to apply:
How to Express Interest
Interested evaluation teams or consultants should submit an expression of interest detailing:
Updated CVs;
A brief response to the purpose of the review and outline of suggested methodology;
A quote for consulting fee in EUR. Travel costs to be detailed at a later stage and would also be covered by Plan International as well as other costs related to the field visits;
A statement of availability throughout the duration of the evaluation;
One work sample relevant to the assignment.
Please send your bid in a sealed envelope by the 25 August 2017 to this address:
DRM Unit
Plan International Sverige
Textilgatan 43
Box 92150
120 08 STOCKHOLM
Mark the envelope: 'Expression of Interest Evaluation'
The other option is to share your expression of interest via email.
Please then share all documents to hr@plansverige.org Mark the email with 'Expression of Interest Evaluation DRM Unit'.