Background
War Child Canada is an international charity organization registered in Toronto, Canada, dedicated to helping children and their communities overcome the devastating effects of active and post war. Its vision is “Accelerating Peace by disrupting the cycle of violence” and its mission is “Driving Generational Change for The Hardest Hit by Investing in The Power of Local Communities”
Since being founded in 1999, War Child Canada has worked in 20 countries across the world and we are currently operational in Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Uganda.
Oxfam Canada is an affiliate of the Oxfam International Confederation networked in more than 90 countries as part of a global movement for change. Its vision is “A just and sustainable world” and its mission is “We fight inequality and patriarchy to end poverty and injustice”.
Since its foundation in 1963, Oxfam Canada has been working directly with communities, partners, and women’s rights organizations to challenge the systems that perpetuate inequality and keep people poor. They seek to influence those in power to ensure that women trapped in poverty have a say in the critical decisions that affect them, their families and entire communities.
The Geared for Success Project: War Child Canada (WCC) and Oxfam Canada (OCA) in partnership with 6 community-based organizations in South Sudan and Uganda will be implementing the $14.7m Global Affairs Canada (GAC) funded project “Geared for Success’ – IDP-led and RLOs driving education in Uganda and South Sudan” (GFS).
WCC, OCA, and our partners will implement the 6-year gender-responsive project (2022- 2027) in South Sudan and Uganda and a public engagement component in Canada. Although GFS will directly reach people in Canada, the ultimate project participants are
students/learners in Uganda and South Sudan.
The project uses the Canadian Government’s Results-Based Management (RBM) approach to assess project progress and achievements. The ultimate outcome of the project is: “enhanced equitable and inclusive learning outcomes for ‘refugee, internally displaced and host community children and youth, particularly girls and adolescent girls’ in the districts of Yumbe, Terego and Obongi in Uganda and Wau, Malakal and Awerial in South Sudan”.
The intermediate outcomes of the project are outlined below.
1- Improved performance of local partners working on gender responsive education in Uganda and South Sudan
2- Increased access to gender-responsive quality education for refugees, internally displaced, and host community children and youth, particularly girls and adolescent girls, enabled by local partners in Uganda and South Sudan
3- Enhanced collective action of local partners to advance the right to gender- responsive quality education for refugee, internally displaced, and host community children and youth, particularly
vulnerable groups in Uganda and South Sudan
GFS will achieve this outcome by increasing access to gender responsive quality education for ultimate project participants, driven by local refugee-led organizations (RLOs) and internally displaced people
(IDP)-led organizations in target locations. This project is being implemented jointly with the following local partners: Refugee Led Organization Network of Uganda (RELON), Community Empowerment for Creative Innovation (CECI), Youth Social Advocacy Team (YSAT), Hope Agency for Relief and Development (HARD), Care for Children and Old Age in South Sudan (CCOSS), and Upper Nile Youth Development Association (UNYDA).
These local partners are on the front lines of providing essential education services for refugees and IDPs. To ensure that partners are ‘geared for success’, this project will facilitate and provide technical
and financial resources to improve their performance -with more female leadership and community support, allowing them to enable access to education and to successfully advocate for the right to
education for ultimate project participants. GFS will also strengthen Canadians’ (including diaspora) contribution to education for refugees/IDPs and to the ‘Together for Learning’ Campaign and will
advance the evidence base on the role of local partners in enhancing gender-responsive quality education for refugees and IDPs.
Consultancy Summary
This outcome assessment is planned to provide an analysis of project implementation thus far and provide updated values for key project outcome-level indicators. The primary audiences are both
internal/external, namely: WCC and OCA country offices, local partners, WCC, OCA, and GAC. Report and findings will also be shared with other GAC’s Together for Learning partners. The Geared for Success
outcome assessment will employ a mixed- methods approach, leveraging both primary and secondary quantitative and qualitative data.
It is expected that the consultant(s) leading the outcome assessment will use a gender lens and conflict sensitivity approach. In this project, WCC and OCA seeks to apply a Feminist Approach to Monitoring,
Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (FMEAL). In doing so, it prioritizes seven key foundations, including:
• Understanding feminist MEAL as an approach,
• Positioning MEAL as an integral part of social transformation,
• Shifting power to participants in evaluations,
• Understanding the role of the evaluator as a facilitator,
• Valuing collective, context-driven knowledge generation,
• Providing a learning orientation to evaluative exercises, and
• Rooting feminist MEAL in safe programming, guided by ‘do no harm’.
The successful consultancy team should reflect these foundations in their proposal and subsequent work.
The proposed key indicators for measurement as part of the assessment include:
Ultimate Outcome Indicators:
• % of refugee, IDP, and host community learners who report
improved access to education in South Sudan and Uganda
(disaggregated by gender)
• % of refugee, IDP, and host community learners who report
improved quality of education in South Sudan and Uganda
(disaggregated by gender)
• % of refugee, IDP, and host community learners who feel
supported by their community to achieve their education goals
(disaggregated by gender)
• % of refugee, IDP, and host community learners who feel
supported by their local education structures to achieve their
education goals (disaggregated by gender)
Intermediate Outcome Indicators:
• # of learners enrolled in formal or non-formal education at the
pre- primary, primary, lower secondary, upper secondary, and
post- secondary education levels (disaggregated by gender,
disability status, and age)
• % of learners surveyed that are satisfied with inclusivity of
education at targeted schools
• Level of confidence of local partner staff on their own ability to
advocate for the education needs of refugee/IDP learners in a
gender responsive approach (disaggregated by gender and
age)
Immediate Outcome Indicators:
• Level of confidence of women in local partner organizations
in their ability to play leadership roles
• # and % of community members that believe local partner
organizations are key enablers of gender responsive
education (disaggregated by gender, location, and age)
• # of actions taken by community members that promoted
local partners as education providers
• # / total of local partners reporting the ability to address the
needs of target schools
• # / total of local partners reporting knowledge and ability to
advocate for implementation of gender-responsive education
• # / total of local partner staff reporting effectiveness of their
platforms, networks and alliances at the local and national
levels
Analysis using OECD DAC criteria, focusing on the following questions:
• Relevance:
o How do project participants perceive the relevance of the project? How well do project activities align with participant and community needs and challenges?
o Is the project in line with the policies and objectives of national policies on refugee, IDP, and host-community education?
o To what extent are project activities and implementation integrating and responding to gender issues? Are there changes needed to the project design to improve gender responsiveness of activities?
• Coherence:
o What steps have been taken to coordinate project activities with other initiatives in the project locations? How can this be improved upon?
o How can coordination and collaboration between project stakeholders be improved and strengthened?
• Effectiveness:
o To what extent are the project activities contributing to the overall project goal? How have outputs been
translated into outcomes, if any?
o Has the proper accountability and risk management framework been put in place to mitigate risks during project implementation?
• Efficiency:
o How adequate are the available resources? Have available resources been utilized optimally?
o Are appropriate planning, management, and MEAL systems in place?
• Impact:
o What evidence has been generated to demonstrate impact of the project interventions?
o How have the activities implemented impacted the lives of participants? Are there any stories of change?
• Sustainability:
o What steps have been taken to ensure sustainability in the project? What can be improved to ensure future project outcomes are sustained?
o What steps have been taken to ensure community ownership of the project? What can be improved?
o What steps have been taken to prepare stakeholders to participate and support the project interventions? What can be improved?
Additional themes and questions for assessment include:
• Social attitudes by host communities, refugees, IDPs, and key government stakeholders toward
gender-responsive education
• Gender inclusion and gender sensitivity in all programming and implementation
• Parent and community participation levels and support for education, especially for girls
• Key lessons learned so far in the course of implementation
The assessment design will be reviewed and adapted for future data collection throughout the project implementation period.
The consultancy team will be responsible for arranging their travel and logistics, with coordination and input from War Child Canada and Oxfam project team members in South Sudan and Uganda.
Approach and Deliverables
The consultancy team will review all project documents and existing project data in advance of carrying out the assessment. Project staff have developed this scope of work as a general framework from which
the consultancy team to propose their approach to measure project indicators and themes outlined above. The consultancy team will develop & finalize the methods and tools for outcome measures and
gather thematic data in line with the project’s theory of change results in collaboration with M&E staff.
The consultancy team will be responsible for design of the assessment and tools, coordination and implementation of data collection activities, analysis of data, and reporting. The consultancy team will provide the following deliverables:
• Inception report including data collection tools and approach to data analysis.
• Presentation of key findings for validation by the project’s MEAL working group and other key project staff (virtual)
• Draft report incorporating feedback received from the validation representation
• Final report (with all feedback on draft report incorporated)
• Presentation of key findings and recommendations to project staff (virtual)
The consultancy team will present an assessment report that includes:
I. An executive summary that includes a table with key indicators and their values
II. One-page infographic summarizing key assessment findings
III. A summary of findings by project outcome including thematic findings, disaggregated by country, project location, age, sex, disability status, etc.
IV. Recommendations for project programming (i.e. sustainability, capacity- building, gender, and inclusion)
V. Case studies from representatives of proposed key project participant groups (i.e. learners, community members, parents, etc.)
VI. Annex of methodology, final tools, detailed tables and summary notes from qualitative data collection, list of stakeholders interviewed/consulted, bibliography of any supporting documentation reviewed, and photos/videos with credit and consent forms (if any)
The final report will have graphic design and will be formatted by the consultancy team, with feedback from the project’s MEAL WG and key project staff.
The successful consultancy team should include and address all potential ethical issues related to this review in its proposal and subsequent inception report. Additionally, the successful consultancy
team is expected to undertake the assessment with high respect given to transparency, cost-effectiveness, gender transformative potential, and collaboration with a range of stakeholders.
Confidentiality and data protection:
All the outputs – assessment report, database, etc., produced under this assignment will not be disseminated in part or whole without express authority from War Child Canada and Oxfam Canada. Thus, the consultant shall not produce these materials in any form (electronic, hard copies, etc.) to a third party without written permission from WCC and OCA.
Assessment proposals should not exceed $60,000CAD.
The assessment is planned to occur from February 1, 2025 to April 15, 2025, with final deliverables provided no later than April 15, 2025.
Experience and Skills
Consultancy team must demonstrate the following:
• Previous experience performing high quality mixed-method assessments and strong understanding of global best practice program assessment procedures including outcome harvesting
techniques
• Experience utilizing feminist M&E principles and practices
• Ability to facilitate and relate to stakeholders at multiple levels and in diverse contexts
• Proven ability to engage in quantitative analysis, with preference given to experience with mobile-based/technology enabled data collection
• Consultancy team must have strong research, demonstrated quantitative and qualitative data analysis skill, and excellent report writing skills in English
• Experience working on projects related to children’s rights and protection issues and education programs in similar context
• Strong understanding of the GAC program design, resultbased model, and evaluation system and standards, and experience conducting evaluations for GAC projects
• Experience conducting similar assessments in Uganda and South Sudan on similar projects
• Team includes South Sudanese and Ugandan nationals familiar with the project context
• Strong English language skills required; other local languages an asset
Travel
Travel to project locations in the districts of Yumbe, Terego and Obongi in Uganda and Wau, Malakal and Awerial in South Sudan is required but subject to security clearance and safety considerations (determined in coordination with War Child Canada and Oxfam teams).
Application Process
Interested applicants/firms are invited to submit the following:
▪ A cover letter outlining relevant experiences in similar studies (1- 2 pages)
▪ Technical proposal including an outline of the study approach, considerations on how feminist principles will be incorporated, sampling plan, data management and analysis plan, potential
technical and operational challenges, and strategies to ensure timely, high-quality deliverables. A list of key activities and timeframe should also be included (10 pages maximum)
▪ A staffing and management plan, including details of the team composition and specific qualification of key staff (1-2 pages)
▪ Financial proposal with detailed budget breakdown The application package should also include:
▪ A list of three references that can attest to the team’s expertise as it relates to this assignment
▪ Curriculum vitae of key consultancy team members
▪ Confirmation of availability for assessment period and ability to travel to project locations (February 1, 2025 to April 15, 2025)
▪ Preferred: two examples of similar work, recently completed
Email: [email protected]
Please ensure your submission email has the subject heading: “Geared for Success Outcome Assessment”
Final candidates will be vetted in accordance with War Child Canada and Oxfam Canada’s safeguarding policies, including Child Safeguarding Policy as well as appropriate reference and security checks.
Only those applicants selected for an interview will be notified.
More Information
- Job City South Sudan, Uganda
