CONCEPT FOR UNDERTAKING END TERM EVALUATION FOR THE NORWEGIAN MINISTRY OF
FOREIGN AFFAIRS PEACE PROJECT

1.0 Introduction:
Stromme Foundation East Africa (SFEA), ADRA Uganda and YGlobal Uganda received a grant from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Uganda to implement a project aimed at empowering children, youth, and women. Programme for Education, Advocacy, Counselling & Economic Empowerment (PEACE) is implemented in a Norwegian consortium by SFEA, ADRA and YGlobal in the refugee settlements of Palorinya, Bidi Bidi and Kiryandongo in Northern Uganda. The programme has three main areas of focus: Inclusive Education (IE), Economic Empowerment (EE) and Psychosocial Support for refugee (70%) and host (30%) communities. The three consortium members draw on their experiences working within the refugee settlements and the respective host communities to improve their livelihood, access to inclusive quality education, and decent work, mainly targeting children, women, and youths.

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Stromme Foundation (SF) is a rights-based development NGO established in 1976 in Kristiansand, Norway. SF works towards a vision of "a world free from poverty". SF values are human dignity, justice, and solidarity. SF's most important interventions in the fight against poverty are education, job creation and strengthening civil society. With regional offices in West Africa, East Africa and Asia consisting only of local employees, SFEA works through local partners in 11 countries. SF has also worked in Uganda for over 20 years, mainly focusing on improved education through teacher skills training, early childhood development in pre-primary schools and SF's adolescent empowerment program 'Bonga'.

Additionally, SF has worked to strengthen the economic empowerment of marginalised and vulnerable persons through vocational training and its informal saving groups model (CMSG). Local partners implement all activities and closely cooperate with local governments and relevant line ministries. In response to the refugee crisis in Northern Uganda, since 2017, SF has continued to work with South Sudanese refugees in the Palorinya refugee settlement.

ADRA Uganda: ADRA has worked in Uganda for approximately 30 years. ADRA Uganda's focus is health, education, economic empowerment, water and sanitation, and emergency management. ADRA Uganda has several MOUs with various government agencies, including The Office of the Prime Minister – OPM (section on government in charge of disaster, relief, and refugees), the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, and other government departments. All interventions in the preceding sections of the concept note are informed and aligned to the UNHCR and Government of Uganda Refugee Emergency Response Framework, Refugee and Host Community Empowerment Plan for South Sudanese Refugees in Northern Uganda and West Nile (ReHope).

YGlobal: Since 2016, YGlobal Uganda has been working closely with relevant local authorities, including the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and the Kiryandongo District Local Government, for its project interventions. YGlobal coordinates with UNHCR and Danish Refugee Council while planning and implementing the project activities. The organisation has a good dialogue with health centres and the Uganda police, as the clients approaching the psychosocial counselling centres are also further referred to police and hospitals/health centres when necessary. YGlobal Uganda follows ministry guidelines and complies with the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF). Furthermore, the organisation has involved the education sector in the refugee settlement regarding the psychosocial well-being of refugee children.

2.0 Background to the MFA PEACE Project
SFEA, in consortium with ADRA and YGlobal, have been implementing Programme for Education, Advocacy, Counselling & Economic Empowerment (PEACE) since 2021. PEACE's overarching goal is to empower children, youth and women in refugee settlements and host communities in northern Uganda. The PEACE project's four primary areas of focus include (1) Inclusive Quality Education, (2) Socio-Economic Empowerment, (3) Psychosocial Support and (4) Advocacy. Key interventions include Early Childhood Development (ECD), adolescent and youth empowerment (Bonga and Peacemaker Groups), Community Managed Savings Groups (CMSGs) and Psychosocial Support Training (PST).

3.0 Rationale for the Endline Evaluation
The MFA PEACE project is in its final year of implementation. The endline evaluation will adopt the OECD/DAC criteria of relevancy, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and coherence to measure the impact of programme intervention on the livelihoods and economic inclusion of targeted rightsholders. Lessons drawn from the assessment are expected to foster learning and planning and guide the implementation of future similar programmes.

In addition to the OECD/DAC criteria mentioned above the specific objectives include:
a) To assess the extent to which the PEACE program met its intended results in line with the project's indicator targets.
b) To assess the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and coherence of the project's interventions and results.
c) To assess the extent to which the MFA's cross-cutting issues have been integrated into the design and implementation of the PEACE project.
d) To ascertain the extent to which programme implementation contributed towards the UNSCR 1325 realisation and provide recommendations drawn from the results.
e) To identify what has worked and what has not worked, draw lessons and recommendations to strengthen future interventions for the target groups.

4.0 Scope and Focus of the Evaluation
The evaluation will target implementing partners and supported programs (see Table I below) in the specific refugee and host communities. Primarily target participants include implementing partner staff and programme participants from the Community Managed Savings Groups (CMSGs), adolescent girls and boys supported under the "Bonga" and TVET programmes, Psychosocial Support clients, and children in pre-primary schools. The evaluation will look at the following areas: program relevancy, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, value for money, and coherence of the project's interventions and results; synergy and implementation models across the consortium partners; economic inclusion and; program engagement of Right-holders and duty-bears . The Consultant is expected to conduct a document review and benchmark best practices from other organisations doing similar work in the region.

Table I: Proposed Partners and Programs for Evaluation

Partner	Program location	Programs for evaluation
SF CEFORD	Palorinya - Obongi	TVET, ECD, Bonga, Psychosocial support, CMSG
SF RICE	Palorinya - Obongi	TVET, ECD, Bonga, Psychosocial support, CMSG
SF PalmCorps	Palorinya - Obongi	TVET, ECD, Bonga, Psychosocial support, CMSG
ADRA	Yumbe – Bidi-Bidi	TVET, ECD, Bonga, Psychosocial support, CMSG
Y-Global	Kiryandongo	TVET, ECD, Bonga, Psychosocial support, CMSG

The Consultant is expected to cover the following aspects during the evaluation and seek to answer the following questions.
a) To what extent has psychosocial support integration been achieved, and its impact on target groups?
b) To what extent has the programme implementation contributed towards the UNSCR 13 realisation, and provide recommendations drawn from the results?
c) What are the factors contributing to and undermining program sustainability?
d) To what extent have the supported programs been integrated, and what is the resultant synergy?
e) How are rights-holders engaging with duty-bearers in claiming their rights?
f) How have the supported intervention engaged with duty bearers in fulfilling their obligations?
g) To what extent have the supported programs built the capacity of rights holders to advocate for their rights? What are the capacity gaps?
h) What has been the added value of working as a consortium?
i) What are the challenges of working in a consortium?
j) What best practices can be benchmarked from implemented programs and other organisations implementing similar programs that can be scaled up to improve program delivery?

All-inclusive quality education programs (ECCE and Bonga) will seek to answer the following questions:
1. To what extent has the program intervention prepared learners for school?
2. To what extent have the supported program interventions improved access to inclusive early childhood development and learning?
All Livelihoods programs (CMSG and TVET) will provide answers:
• To what extent are the livelihoods (TVET, Savings groups) programs lead to job creation and employment?
• To what extent have the implemented programmes led to improved livelihoods (income and food security) for project participants? Counselling – Psychosocial support
• To what extent has psychosocial support been integrated into programme interventions and what has been the impact on the target groups?
• To what extent have survivors from refugee and host communities been integrated back into society?

5.0 Methodology
The evaluation proposes the services of an external consultant. The evaluation will adopt a "mixed methods" approach where the Consultant (s) will facilitate core processes while involving consortia staff, partners and community/stakeholders in activities, workshops etc at defined stages of the evaluation process. The study will devise both qualitative and quantitative study methods. The Consultant (s) will engage target participants using appropriate and mixed data collection methods and tools. The Consultant (s) will be availed with Key program documents including baseline, annual reports, and routine program reports. The Consultant (s) will devise scientific techniques to avoid bias and aid in generating a representative sample for the study. Key among the study population will be partner program staff; community program structures like Bonga Support Teams and school management committees, CMSG executive committees; government support staff; OPM/ UNHCR and refugee implementing agencies, rights-holders; other organisations implementing similar programs for benchmarking and any other persons that may provide viable information.

6.0 Evaluation Schedule

No	Task	Duration
1	Terms of Reference sent out to prospective consultants	24th August
2	Deadlines for receiving responses to Terms of Reference by interested bidders.	7th September
3	Reviewing of proposals and Selection of the best 2 bidders	5 days
4	Presentation by the best two bidders	1 day
5	The signing of the Contract and commencement of the assignment	1 day
6	Evaluation launch meeting: Meeting with SFEA team and sharing relevant program documents for review	1 day
7	Submission of evaluation work plan/inception report: This will include a specific outline of the evaluation, finalised learning questions; it will identify sampling, timing data collection, Data collection tools, quality control measurements and methodology. The inception report will be reviewed and approved prior to any data collection.	5 days after contract signing
8	Field data collection	3 weeks
9	Submission and presentation of the draft report: Submit the draft report and make a presentation to the selected team	15 days after the field
10	Consortium and Royal Norwegian Embassy in Uganda provides feedback on the report	2 weeks after sharing draft
11	Final report: Provide 2 bound hardcopies and a soft copy of the final evaluation report with recommendations incorporated, supporting tables and graphs, visuals, and appendices as per the requirements.	1 week
12	Dissemination of evaluation results to the Consortia team and key stakeholders	1 day

7.0 Expected deliverables from the Consultant shall be:
a) An inception report showing emerging issues from the review of the project documents and the TORs. The inception report shall include the proposed approach for undertaking the task.
b) Copies of the data collection tools, Mixed-methods data analysis plan, and data cleaning log.
c) Detailed work plan and milestones: provide a detailed work plan incorporating all relevant tasks and milestones from start to finish.
d) Attendance at all evaluation steering group committee meetings
e) Submit a draft report to the consortium team and selected stakeholders for feedback. f) Policy brief.
g) Making a PowerPoint presentation to the consortium team and some partners to validate the findings and allow input.
h) An approved final Evaluation Report.
i) All raw data: The Consultant will provide a fully 'cleaned-up quantitative dataset in SPSS or STATA or R file format accompanied by the code used to carry out analysis and a variable codebook. The Consultant should also provide transcripts from all the qualitative interviews and their coding in NVivo. This data should also be disaggregated by defined demographics e.g., age, sex, residence, implementing partner etc.

8.0 Required Expertise
The evaluation team will be led by a team leader with at least a Masters' Degree and extensive experience in conducting evaluation studies in the East African region. Suitable applicants to conduct this study should demonstrate the following expertise and competencies:
• Extensive knowledge in development work particularly Development Education, refugee programming, Child Safeguarding, Youth programming, Livelihoods, mental health, and Microfinance intervention including country policies, national development plans and global agenda.
• Good understanding of the current development trends in education, mental health, refugee programming and the microfinance industry in the region.
• Demonstrated practical experience in quantitative and qualitative research in Education, Livelihoods interventions and the Microfinance industry.
• Excellent knowledge of the use of statistical packages like SPSS, STATA, R-Analysis Epi-info, NVIVO and MAXQDA.
• Strong analytical skills
• Excellent oral and written skills
• Ability to meet deadlines.

9.0 Management of the consultancy
The Consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Strømme Foundation Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor who will provide all necessary guidance as well as administrative and logistical support in fulfilling the stated tasks. He will work in collaboration with contact staff ADRA and Y-Global.

10.0 Contents of the bid
SFEA proposes to have a competitive bidding process to undertake the evaluation. Potential Consultant (s) will submit the following in their bid.
a) Technical proposal clearly showing how he/she understood the tasks, suggestions in relation to the TORs, proposed methodology, and detailed schedule.
b) Financial proposal with a detailed budget for undertaking the assignment.
c) Attached are key personnel resumes with relevant experience in undertaking similar assignments and references.
d) At least a copy of a completed similar assignment within the region

Interested consultants (individuals and firms) with experience in executing similar assignments are invited to submit their expression of interest/bids by 6:00 pm on 7th September 2023 with the subject field – "Expression of Interest for undertaking PEACE project End of Term Evaluation" to the addresses below:

Strømme Foundation East Africa
Plot 1, Kololo Hill Drive
P O Box 27200 | Kampala – Uganda
Phone: +256 414 532 842/4
Email: eastafrica@stromme.org