CONCEPT FOR UNDERTAKING BONGA in SCHOOLS EVALUATION FOR THE PACES PROJECT

1.0 Introduction.
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 of the civil society. With regional offices in West Africa, East Africa and Asia consisting only of local employees, SF works through local partners in 11 countries. SF has also been working 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 programme ‘Bonga’. Additionally, SF has worked to strengthen the economic empowerment of marginalised and vulnerable persons through vocational training, and through its community managed savings groups model (CMSG). All activities are implemented by local partners and in close cooperation with local governments and relevant line ministries.

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2.0 Background to the AKO PACES Project.
Stromme Foundation with funding from the AKO Foundation is currently implementing the Programme for Adolescent and Children’s Education and Social Empowerment (PACES) Project in the districts of Obongi and Kaabong in the West Nile and Karamoja sub-regions of Northern Uganda. The project is a 3-year project (2021 – 2023) whose overall goal is to ensure children in primary schools, and out-of-school adolescents in Uganda have access to quality formal and non-formal education respectively. The project was conceptualized and integrated as part of SF’s Adolescent Empowerment Programme approach, the ‘’Bonga’’ model, with a special focus on out-of-school adolescents and formal school learners. It is currently being implemented through 3 local implementing partners, PALM Corps, RICE WN (Obongi District) and KAPDA (Kaabong District).

The Bonga in-school programme is currently being implemented as a pilot in 12 primary schools. It targets primary school learners between the ages of 9-13 years-old and supports them to stay in formal school by identifying and addressing the underlying causes of school dropout with a keen interest in the girl child. The project strengthens the capacities of learners and the schools to promote good menstrual hygiene practices by training learners in making reusable sanitary towels, liquid soap, stocking the changing rooms, and training teachers on gender-responsive pedagogy. Debates and dialogues with parents are supported to create sensitization in the communities on the importance of education as well as to challenge the negative sociocultural norms that perpetuate gender inequalities in education spaces. The project empowers Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) and School Management Committees (SMC) to ensure their active participation in support of quality education. All these activities are aimed at creating a child-friendly environment at school so that learners remain in schools.

3.0 Rationale for the Endline Evaluation.
The AKO PACES 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. Lessons drawn from the assessment are expected to foster learning and provide guidance on the implementation of future programmes.

4.0 Main objectives.
• Review the Bonga in schools program curriculum and delivery mechanisms.
• To evaluate the impact of Bonga in school programme on participants and communities.
• Assess the value for money of the Bonga in school programme in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.

5.0 Scope and Focus of the Evaluation.
The evaluation will target implementing partners in Karamoja and West Nile sub-regions. These include RICE West Nile and PALM Corps operating in refugee and host communities of Palorinya settlement in Obongi district and KAPDA in Kaabong district. The primary target participants include Bonga-in-school participants, implementing partner staff, and key informants from the District, Line ministries and Refugee authorities. The consultant is expected to conduct a document review and also benchmark best practices from other organizations doing similar work in a similar context.

1. Review of Bonga-in -schools manuals and curriculum.
• Is the content and duration of the life-skills component and Menstrual Hygiene management training component appropriate for attaining the program objectives?
• Review the appropriateness of the Bonga in school approach?
• Is the Bonga in school programme responding to the needs of targeted group?
2. Study of the impact of the Bonga in School programme on participants and communities.

An impact assessment is the preferred design for this evaluation to understand the role of the Bonga in school programme in building the confidence of children so that they can discuss issues affecting them and advocate for their rights, develop life skills and increase their ability to influence decisions about their own lives. The consultant(s) are expected to take counter factuality into account by assessing both the treatment and control groups. The study should look more in detail at the following issues:
1. What has been the impact of Bonga in school on the lives of participating girls and boys?
• To what extent has Bonga in school improved the ability of girls/boys to make their own decisions?
• To what extent has Bonga in school strengthened the self-esteem and confidence of program participants to address challenges in their daily lives?
• To what extent has training in soap and sanitary soap-making led to improvement in hygiene promotion and menstrual management?
• To what extent is Bonga in school improving children’s school attendance?
• To what extent is Bonga in school improving children’s retention in school?
2. What has been the impact on the communities where Bonga in school has been implemented?
• To what extent has the Bonga in schools program strengthened a gender-focused school learning environment?
• To what extent has Bonga in school program improved teachers’ responsiveness to gender-specific needs in teaching and learning to address equal participation and involvement?
• To what extent has Bonga in school community theatres led to the enrollment of out of school children in the community?
• To what extent has Bonga in school program improved the parents’ attitudes towards girl’s education?
3. Assess the value for money of the Bonga programme in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, looking at:
• The cost per participant enrolling and completing the Bonga programme.
• Social benefits of the program to the participant.
• Reviewing the cost of delivering the bonga in school program.

6.0 Methodology
The evaluation should utilise a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methodologies. 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 project proposals and progress reports. The consultant(s) will take into consideration scientific techniques to avoid bias and aid in generating a representative sample for the study. Key informants among the study population will be partner program staff; Bonga patrons and school management committee members and parents, government support staff; OPM/ UNHCR staff and other organisations implementing similar programs for benchmarking and any other persons that may provide viable information.

7.0 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, finalized 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	2 weeks
9	Submission and presentation of the draft report: Submit the draft report and make a presentation to the selected team	10 days after the field
10	SFEA 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

8.0 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 SF team and selected stakeholders for feedback. f) Policy brief.
g) Making a PowerPoint presentation to the SF team and partners to validate the findings and allow input.
h) An approved final Evaluation Report of no more than 30 pages.
i) An executive summary with the main findings and recommendations of no more than 5 pages
j) All raw data: The consultant will provide a fully cleaned quantitative dataset in SPSS, 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.

9.0 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 Africa 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 intervention including country policies, national development plans and global agenda.
• Good understanding of the current development trends in the Education and refugee programming industry in the region.
• Demonstrated practical experience in quantitative and qualitative research in Education and children programming.
• 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.

10.0 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.

11.0 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 understands 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) Attach 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 PACES project 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