Djibouti: Evaluation of the Church of Sweden's Refugee Programme in Eastern Africa

Background

The overall objective of the Church of Sweden (CoS) Humanitarian Programme 2014-2016 is to save lives, alleviate suffering and strengthen the dignity, well-being and resilience of emergency-affected communities. CoS works worldwide with some of the most vulnerable communities and individuals through its membership in the ACT Alliance (ACT), which has over 140 member organisations and churches. The humanitarian work of Church of Sweden endeavours to respond to emergencies around the world, local or global, large or small, and it is the lead agency within the ACT network in Community-based Psychosocial Support (CBPS).

The CoS Refugee Programme in Eastern Africa (hereafter referred to as the Refugee Programme) is a pilot supported by Sida’s Humanitarian Aid (hereafter referred to as Sida) to try out a new methodology of long-term close support to selected partners working in protracted refugee crisis in a specific region.

In 2014 and 2015 the Refugee Programme supported projects in nine refugee settings in five engaged with providing support to displaced people in Eastern Africa. The volatile situation in the region has created insecurity for millions of people and often the instable situation becomes protracted and chronic for the individuals seeking refuge. Besides the continuous flow of refugees and IDPs in the region this can be seen in the many refugee camps that for a long period of time have been present in many of the East African countries.

During the current programme period (2014–2016 +2017), CoS is supporting the implementing partners in this work in a coordinated effort. The partner organisations have together with CoS identified areas of sharing and learning from experiences. In regional consultations, as well as in a joint workshop for all Refugee Programme projects that was held in September 2014, the partners identified education, livelihood, mainstreaming gender and mainstreaming CBPS as prioritised areas. Drawing on the joint experiences with implementing partners in the region allows CoS and partner organisations to actively contribute to the sharing of best practices for protracted emergency situations specifically.

In 2014 and 2015 CoS, through the Refugee Programme, supported projects in nine refugee settings in five countries, out of which the following seven have been funded by Sida: LWF South Sudan (Maban and Ajuong Thok), LWF Kenya-Djibouti (Dadaab and Kakuma in Kenya, Ali Addeh and Holl Holl in Djibouti), and LWF Uganda (Rwamwanja refugee settlement). In 2016 two more projects have been added, LWF Ethiopia (Jewi camp in Gambella) and LWF Uganda (Adjumani refugee settlement), both supporting South Sudanese refugees. Also included in the Refugee Programme is Church of Sweden’s support to LWF Ethiopia (Sudanese refugees in Bambasi camp) and EECMY-DASSC (Eritrean refugees in Aysita refugee camp), which are fully funded by the Church of Sweden. This evaluation will focus on the Sida-funded projects and will therefore only look into the CoS-funded projects in general terms when relevant for this evaluation.

Purpose

The purpose of the evaluation is to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the Refugee Programme, in terms of its relevance and replicability and, on that basis, to determine the programme’s potential for impact on affected communities. The evaluation will also focus on deriving potential best practices for improvement of future programming both on CoS’s and the implementing partners’ levels. Further, as the evaluation report will form a part of the assessment basis for Sida’s future support to CoS, the added value of CoS (including the role of the Programme Coordinator) to the Refugee Programme is to be examined.

Assignment

The consultant will be expected to gather and to analyse information through desk studies, interviews, and field visits in order to produce an evaluation report.

As specified in the overall purpose of the assignment, the evaluation shall look at the effectiveness, efficiency and the relevance of the Refugee Programme. The evaluation should use the Core Humanitarian Standard and its nine commitments and quality criteria as a point of departure. The assessment areas are stipulated in more detail through the series of questions in the ToR. The inception report will further elaborate on how this methodology is to be used.

The assessment will consist of these phases

• Phase 1: Inception report
• Phase 2: Collection of data
• Phase 3: Collation, analysis and presentation of data
• Phase 4: Production of final report

Time schedule and report format

• Last date for questions: 2016-08-04
• Last date for submission: 2016-08-07
• Selection process finished by CoS: 2016-08-11
• All submissions receive message on success/not success: 2016-08-12
• Planned date for commencement of assignment: 2016-09-01
• Planned date for submission of final report to CoS: 2016-11-15

The final report shall not exceed 30 pages excluding annexes and be submitted electronically. Approval of the Final Report will be based on its adherence to the OECD/DAC Evaluation Quality Standards.

The reports shall be written in English. The final report must be presented in a way that enables publication without further editing, which includes having been professionally proof read. The format and outline of the report shall therefore follow, to the greatest extent possible, the guidelines in Sida Evaluation Manual – a Standardised Format.

Required qualifications and selection criteria

The assignment shall be carried out by a team of maximum two persons. One person should be responsible for initiating and supervising the process (Category I). The members are expected to take shared responsibility for data collection and analysis. The consultant(s) shall submit CVs that include the information below.

General experience required for Category I consultant

• Advanced academic degree in a relevant field of social science e.g. development studies, political science, sociology.
• A minimum of 7 years of relevant professional working experience from development cooperation and humanitarian assistance.
• Fluency in written and spoken English (at least equivalent to Level 2 of Sida’s Language Level Definition).
• Working experience from geographically different regions.
• Work experience within humanitarian assistance shall include experience from both sudden onset crises and from protracted crises (this might include evaluation work, providing technical support, or working with implementation).

Specific experience and qualifications required for Category I consultant

• A minimum of 3 years work experience in evaluating projects/programmes within international development and/or humanitarian assistance.
• Preferably previous experience in evaluating support in refugee settings

General experience required for Category II consultant

• Advanced academic degree in a relevant field of social science e.g. development studies, political science, sociology.
• A minimum of 3 years of relevant professional working experience from development cooperation and humanitarian assistance.
• Fluency in written and spoken English (at least equivalent to Level 2 of Sida’s Language Level Definition).
• Working experience from geographically different regions.
• Work experience within humanitarian assistance can include experience from sudden onset crises or from protracted crises (this might include evaluation work, providing technical support, or working with implementation).

Specific experience and qualifications required for Category II consultant

• A minimum of 2 years of work experience in evaluating projects/programmes within international development and/or humanitarian assistance.

Required qualifications for the evaluation team as a whole

• A minimum of 2 years of work experience in project/programme management
• A minimum of 2 years of work experience in providing humanitarian support in the global South.
• Work experience in the areas of local capacity building (in particular community/ institutional/ organisational), results based management, gender equality, social welfare, psychosocial issues, and beneficiary involvement (this might include evaluation work, providing technical support, or working with implementation).
• Familiarity with the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings and the IASC Psychosocial Intervention Pyramid.

Selection criteria

The selection criteria shall include:

• The consultants’ relevant experience for the assignment, particularly considering the Eastern African and/or refugee contexts
• The quality of the methodology proposed
• The quality of the proposal’s language in terms of clarity and conciseness

Each criterion will be graded on a scale of 1–3, 1 being not adequate and 3 being fully meets requirements.

Days and costs for assignment

Each consultant is expected to spend a maximum of 32 days on the assignment. The total maximum cost for the consultants’ fee is 460,000 SEK, including all costs for carrying out the assignment (e.g. travel) as well as taxes, social security costs, pension costs and vacation and any other benefits.

Administrative / financial information required

The tender should include the following information:

• Budget
• If Swedish consultancy firm: F-tax registration
• If international firm: VAT No.
• Does the company have a comprehensive insurance?
• If Swedish consultancy firm: do you have a collective agreement, or if not, do you have other kinds of employment security in the company?
• International firm: what form of employment security do you have in your company?

Please note that additional administrative information might be required upon signing an agreement.

Download the fullTerms of Reference(PDF)

To apply send an email to kkhumteam@churchofsweden.se with the following documents:

• Tender proposal, including information specified in the ToR under "Administrative / financial information"
• Consultant CVs, including information specified in the ToR under "Required qualifications"
• Contact details