Country: Ethiopia
Closing date: 15 Mar 2017
Project Final Evaluation-Inclusive Education Project
TOR Summary
Acronyms **
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
BOLSA Bureau of Labor and Social Affairs
CWD Children with Disability
DPO Disable People Organization
EPPD Expanding Participation of Persons with Disabilities
FGD Focus Group Discussion
H I Handicap International
HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus
IE Inclusive Education
M&E Monitoring and Evaluation
MoE Ministry of Education
NGO Non-government Organization
PwDs People with Disability
REB Regional Education Bureau
ToR Terms of Reference
USAID United States Agency for International Development
USD United States Dollar **
Name of Project
Expanding Participation of Persons with Disability (EPPD)
Type of activity
Final Project Evaluation
Date of the drafting of the ToR
February 16, 2017
Duration of the activity
3 - 4 weeks, starting in May 2017
Introduction
Co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, Handicap International is an independent and impartial organization working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster.
Handicap International work alongside people with disabilities and vulnerable populations, taking action and bearing witness in order to respond to their essential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights.
Handicap International has been operating in Ethiopia since 1986 and has been implementing projects in the area of physical rehabilitation, mine risk education, community based rehabilitation, food security, HIV and AIDS, inclusive education, sexual and gender health, child protection and emergency responses capacity building of local associations of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).
Project Background
As outlined by the Ethiopian Minister of Education, “We cannot attain the MDGs [while] ignoring the marginalized and those with learning difficulties and impairments.” Whilst Ethiopia has advanced as a country in terms of achieving Universal Primary Education (UPE) as per the second Millennium Development goal (MDG), the main challenge remains of educating children in vulnerable situations, including Children with Disabilities (CWD). In order to reach these groups, the government has decided to use inclusive education as the main approach and all schools are obliged to provide an education that is inclusive and takes into account specific needs of children with disabilities. As this is a new approach in Ethiopia which requires new teaching methodologies, adaptation of the school environment to make it accessible and changing of attitudes in communities towards sending children with disabilities to school, the Ethiopian government has required technical assistance to transform political will into changes on the ground.
In light of this, HI developed and started implementing in September 2011 a pilot inclusive education (IE) project, “Pilot project to expand participation of persons with disability in educational programs in Ethiopia” with funding from USAID in three regions: Dire Dawa City Administration, Harari Regional State and Somali Regional State (Jijiga town). The project used a holistic approach to developing ‘disability friendly schools’ and this was implemented in 6 schools. It sought to strengthen the capacities of teachers and the local education administration, increase the accessibility of the school environment and raise the awareness of parents, students and the local community on the rights of all children to education. The pilot project ended in 2013 and based on the experience and the lessons learned from this project, a new inclusive education project was developed called “Expanding the participation of persons with disability in educational programs in Ethiopia.” This project is based on the same model as the pilot model, but extended geographically to reach a total of 49 schools in Dire Dawa City Administration, Harari Regional State, Somali Regional State (Jijiga town and Shinile Zone), Oromia Regional State (East and West Hararge Zones) and Amhara Regional State (North Shewa Zone) and Addis Ababa City Administration.
The current project is a 3 year project and funding was secured from USAID with startup in November 2014. The main aim of the project is to improve access to primary education for children with disabilities through improving the quality of education and to improve the demand for quality education. As was the case in the pilot phase, this project continues to build the capacity of teachers and education employees at school level and different levels in the government education administration. The project is also aiming to increase the accessibility of the school environment and raise awareness in schools and in the local community around the right to education for all children. A special focus in this project is given to the role of the DPOs to create awareness in the local community, to the establishment of disability resource centers, to the engagement of children in addressing the needs of children with disabilities and to the development of reading skills of all students in the schools including children with specific needs. The project is working closely with the Ministry of Education nationally to promote this model and advocate for the expansion of the model to other schools in the country.
Rationale
Handicap International has been implementing the inclusive education project “*Expanding the participation of persons with disability in educational programs in Ethiopia*” in 6 regions in 49 schools ( 2014 - November 2017) . In order to provide a concrete analysis of achievements and challenges of the project to guide the planned 3rd phase of the project, a final evaluation is needed. Although the project will end in November 2017, the final evaluation will be conducted in May/June 2017 as this is towards the end of the school year and it will be possible for the evaluators to meet with beneficiaries that have benefitted from the activities of the project for two full school years. It will also help to give guidance for the close out and provide inputs for the development of a possible extension and/or future development of IE projects in Ethiopia.
Project summary
Total Duration
of the Project
3 years (11/2014 - 10/2017)
Goal and Objectives
of the Project
The Goal:
To improve access of CWD to primary education in six regions based on the lesson learned and successful approaches tested during the pilot phase.
The objectives are:
Improving the supply of quality education services and plans to support inclusive education
Creating demand for quality inclusive education for children with disabilities
Partner(s)
6 DPOs from the target regions
REB staff from the three regions
BOLSA staff from the three regions
MoE Ministry of Education
Target group and beneficiaries (s)
6,700 Children with disabilities
198,200 children without disabilities
350,962 members of families of children with & without disabilities,
1150 Teachers (SNE and mainstream)
460 other school staff
500 DPOs members
71 REB staff
56 BOLSA staff
3 Ministry of education officials
Expected
results
Result 1: Increased enrolment of children with disabilities in cluster and satellite schools.
Result 2: Improvement in reading ability, of all students and especially those of children with disability.
Result 3: Improved school inclusive environment in all target schools.
Result 4: Reduction in drop out and repetition rates of CwDs
Result 5: A functioning cohort of regional education actors responsible and technically capable of implementing inclusive education and reading standards and norms.
Total Budget
1,045,405 USD with a USAID contribution of 940,865 USD
Objective of evaluation
The evaluation is expected to:
Provide an analysis of project achievements according to the set objectives, results and indicators.
Identify and analyze strengths and weakness of the project methodology and implementation procedures with a view to increase impact and sustainability in future projects
The specific objectives of the evaluation are thus:
To evaluate the collaboration with stakeholders (including beneficiary participation, partner cooperation, synergy with all other stakeholders, and ethical behaviour, which respects the universal ethical principles and values promoted by Handicap International.)
To evaluate the project management structure of the project in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and accountability, towards achieving objectives and expected results.
To evaluate the benefits of the project (relevance of the project in terms of the needs of target groups and how to meet them, the changes that have been brought about by the project, the existence or strengthening of local capacities and the organisation’s internal capacities which allow these needs to be addressed, and lastly the sustainability of the benefits brought by the project).
Evaluation Key Questions
In particular, the consultant will assess the following dimensions (please note the list is indicative and not exhaustive and should include aspects in the specific objectives above):
Dimensions
Key questions
Results and achievements
What are the main results and achievements of this project?
Are the project achievements in line with project objectives, results and indicators? To what extent is that the case?
Collaboration with stakeholders
What is the level of beneficiary participation in the project?
How much co-operation was there with other partners and stakeholders?
Was this collaboration in accordance with ethical principles?
Relevance
Was the training provided to teachers, head teachers, school supervisors, and REB staff appropriate and adapted to their needs? (Consider context, content, pace, delivery style, appropriate to their level, useful, clear and understandable etc.)
Was the project strategy relevant and appropriate to the context and situation of the project area ? Was it able to iachieve the relevant objectives?
Effectiveness
Did the project contribute to improving the supply of quality education services and plans to support inclusive education?
Has the education provided at the pilot schools improved as a result of the project? Has there been any change in the learning outcomes of the children enrolled in these schools? Has there been any change in the level of social and active participation at classroom level of children with disabilities attending the pilot schools?
Was the project effective in creating demand for quality inclusive education for children with disabilities?
Efficiency
Did the allocation of the project budget fit the overall needs of the project? Was it appropriate to the context?
Was the project able to be flexible and adapt itself according to different needs and situations that arose during the timeframe?
Were the appropriate resources mobilised throughout the project as far as possible given the context?
Sustainability
Do target schools consider their participation in Inclusive Education as being sustainable and something that they can continue to do without NGO support? Which factors could support or hinder the sustainability of their participation?
Changes and Benefits
What changes has this project had on the lives of the beneficiaries? ( both at family level, community level and school level ) (short term impact, given the length of the project )
What benefits has this project had on the other stakeholders in the project in terms of their behavior change? ( e.g. teachers, parents, other staff)
What benefits have there been at an institutional level?
Challenges
What were the main external and internal challenges that had significant negative effects on the project in terms of implementation, achievements of results, and objectives?
Methodology
The evaluation will draw on the knowledge and experience of HI Ethiopia program. The evaluator shall propose a participatory evaluation methodology addressing main project stakeholders as well as beneficiaries and their families. Activities are expected to include:
Review existing project documentation (project proposal, donor reports, monitoring tools, technical evaluation reports, field tools such as assessment forms, plans templates and training modules, as well as case studies and good practices collected along project implementation)
Meet with relevant stakeholders (project teams from HI and partners, a variety of government stakeholders, community stakeholders)
Carry out field visits to interview beneficiaries, arrange focus group discussions ( for example) and observe activities
Other relevant activities ( e.g. skype meeting with global technical advisor for inclusive education)
Project documentation and data will be made available by HI as required by the Evaluator to meet the evaluation objectives.
Timetable
The total duration for the evaluation process, (including report review) should not last more than 20 working days. Expected field presence is 2- 3 weeks (to be defined with the evaluator). The process will take place starting from May 2017
Geography of the Mission
The mission will be conducted in six regions of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa City Administration, Amhara Regional State, Dire Dawa City Administration, Harari Regional State, and Somali Regional State)
Deliverables
The following will be produced by the Evaluator:
A PPT presentation of the final findings/report, and presentation of findings to HI teams in Ethiopia
A final report of the evaluation including an executive summary (5 pages maximum), a detailed evaluation report (40 pages maximum, including detailed presentation of the project and evaluation methodology, findings, lessons learnt and recommendations), and all relevant annexes (evaluation tools, lists of stakeholders interviewed, bibliography, etc)
Disclaimer and ownership of data
The final report will mention “The report has been produced at the request of Handicap International Ethiopia Programs and financed by USAID. The comments contained herein reflect the opinions of the evaluator only”.
Ownership of the data remains with Handicap International. The Evaluator cannot use the report, as well as information or data collected during the evaluation, without prior written approval of all concerned parties.
Application
The selection of the evaluator will be based on the following criteria and review of required documents.
Required
Desirable
Demonstrates experience in project evaluation & related methodologies, preferably in education development project;
Demonstrates experience in the Education sector;
Understanding of disability inclusive development, including the social model of disability;
Proven excellent communication and writing skills;
Proven ability to work within a multi-disciplinary team and a multicultural context;
Proven experience in participatory methods and facilitation (semi-structured interviews, FGD and other relevant methods);
Proven strong analytical skills;
Fluency in English (both written & spoken)
Experienced in inclusive education setting;
Good understanding of Inclusive education systems and methodologies in low income countries in Sub Saharan Africa, ( preferably including Ethiopia) ;
Experience working with children with disabilities;
Good understanding of the structure of Ethiopia Education authorities particularly recent changes in relation to inclusive education.
Fluency in Local languages (Amharic, Afan Oromo and Somali) is an asset
How to apply:
The application should include:
a cover letter
a review of previous assignments in relation with the proposed consultancy
a detailed technical proposition: tentative work plan & time schedule, proposed methodology for the evaluation
a detailed financial proposition: budget breakdown for the consultancy (including all related costs: fees, travel, per diem etc) Please note that the maximum budget available is 10,000 USD.
Applications are to be sent by March 15, 2017, to the following email address :
Selection of the evaluator will be finalized by April 10 and candidates informed about the selection process outcomes.