Terre des hommes Romania is seeking a qualified external researcher for a Final Evaluation.
About Terre des hommes Foundation
Terre des hommes (Tdh) is the leading Swiss child relief agency. Founded in 1960, we are committed to improving the lives of millions of the world's most vulnerable children. Through our innovative protection and health projects, we provide assistance to over three million children and their families in almost forty countries each year. In Europe, Tdh intervenes directly or indirectly in many countries, relying on teams based in Budapest, Albania, Greece, Kosovo, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. Every year thousands of children and their families benefit from projects implemented either at a national or regional level. In Romania, Terre des hommes (Tdh Ro) has been active since 1992. For the past few years, the delegation has been working on three main intervention areas: (1) Strengthening child protection and juvenile justice systems, (2) Protection of children affected by migration and/or trafficking, and (3) Social inclusion of minorities.
Working in Moldova since 2004, Terre des hommes (Tdh) is dedicated to ensuring the fulfilment of all children’s fundamental rights and to contributing to the improvement of the Moldovan child protection system. By means of its projects, Tdh Moldova aims for sustainable prevention of and response to violence, neglect and exploitation against children at the community, district and national levels. Tdh Moldova is geographically operating in the entire country. Currently, Tdh’s work in Moldova is built along three complementary axes – Child Protection Systems, Children Affected by Migration and Access to Justice, and seeks to develop synergies between them as well as with other key thematic areas of Terre des hommes Foundation.
Context
Terre des hommes Elvetia Foundation in Romania (in short: Tdh Romania) and Reprezentanta din Republica Moldova a Fundatiei "Terre des hommes" Lausanne-Elvetia (Tdh Moldova) are implementing an EU-funded project entitled: Joboteca – a pilot programme for youth employment in Moldova (JOBOTECA). The project started on the 1st of February 2021, and will have a duration of 36 months. The activities within the project are taking place in the Republic of Moldova, under the overall coordination of Tdh Romania.
Title: Joboteca - a pilot programme for youth employment in Moldova
Start and end date – duration: February 2021 – January 2024
Project Description
Joboteca - a pilot programme for youth employment in Moldova is a project implemented by Terre des hommes Romania and Moldova, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Research of Moldova.
Joboteca or job libraries – are youth-friendly spaces set up in schools with the necessary tools and equipment for organizing online and offline sessions for young people to be acquainted with possible career pathways.
The overall goal of the project is to enhance participation of youth in Moldovan society and economy by piloting an integrated student-centred and demand driven programme for youth (self-) employment. To meet this goal, the team is guided by three specific objectives, so that the project intervention is comprehensive and complete:
SO1. Develop and implement an extra-curricular school programme for building 3000 young people’s (15-25 years old) key competencies for participation and employability
SO2. Empower community-based organizations to conduct initiatives that support the integration of 250 youth in local economic activities
SO3. Build a network of internship opportunities for youth from 24 communities through linkage with a network of local private companies and entrepreneurs
Objectives of the research
The final evaluation is a mandatory deliverable for the donor European Commission. In addition, as per Tdh’s Minimum Requirements for M&E, every project that is multi-country and multi-year must undergo a final external evaluation to ensure a robust and neutral external assessment and judgement on project performance.
The objectives of the evaluation are three-fold:
- Accountability and credibility: to the donor, to the project team and the corresponding organizations, and ultimately to the beneficiaries (professionals and children). It will also ensure transparency and openness about the performance and quality of the project.
- Organizational learning and knowledge: to conclude all important lessons learnt from the way the project was set up, implemented and managed; and how it has succeeded or, potentially, not succeeded to achieve all its intended (or unintended) results.
- Informing operational decisions: Resulting from the lessons learnt, the evaluation will help to reveal what the project team and the corresponding organizations can take further and/or may need to change in future programming.
Scope of the research
The final (external) evaluation will cover the entire Joboteca Pilot Project in 25 communities in Moldova.
The external research should focus on gathering data and information from:
- Tdh staff – who were involved in the project implementation
- Local facilitators – teachers who implement the extra-curricular Joboteca Programme in their communities (Career guidance, Entrepreneurship, Digitalisation)
- Youth participating regularly in Joboteca activities (Career guidance, Entrepreneurship, Digitalisation)
- Community-based organizations – 15 in total
- Joboteca Initative Groups[TR1] – which implemented ideas of businesses and social projects
- Participants in camps (Summer School of Entrepreneurship, Spring School)
- Mentors – more than 10
Local authorities, schools and other stakeholders – 25 schools and local public authorities
Intended users of the research
The results of the final evaluation will be used by:
- The Donor (European Commission): to assess how its support and funds have contributed to delivering project objectives and positive changes.
- Joboteca project team: to reflect on and learn from how the project has performed and how it can inform the follow on future initiatives.
- Terre des Hommes Moldova and Romania: to learn from the findings, build institutional knowledge, and assess how findings can generally inform future programming in this field.
Research criteria and questions
- Assess the project’s effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability for the Donor.
- Transversely gather information on impact on direct and indirect beneficiaries, relevance and lessons learned to be used for the planning of the second phase of the project.
Effectiveness: To what extent has the project achieve its intended objectives and goals?
Efficiency: To what extent has the project been implemented efficiently and has been cost efficient?
Sustainability: To what extent will the net benefits of the intervention continue, or are likely to continue?
Impact: To what extent has the intervention generated or is expected to generate significant positive or negative, intended or unintended, higher-level effects?
Relevance: The extent to which the intervention objectives and design respond to the needs and priorities of the youths and their schools and communities?
Lessons Learned: What are the main lessons the implementation team and their partners can learn from the Pilot Project?
Methodology
Interested applicants are invited to propose a short methodology for conducting the research. In-person qualitative approaches to data collection with all project stakeholders will be preferred. Generally, a participatory approach should be followed throughout the research.
The research methodology should keep in mind the following underlying principles:
- equality and non-discrimination of any individual involved in the data collection and consultation process;
- participation and inclusion of different diversity groups and child participation to the extent possible, while ensuring that participation and inclusion does not cause any harm or distress to the individual;
- transparency and accountability throughout the research and assessment process towards all organizations and individuals involved;
- confidentiality must be preserved and names and personally identifiable information should not be collected or, if they are necessary, they should be duly coded and encrypted;
- informed consent and assent: should be sought from all participants, including providing them with information on the objective of the research and how data will be used as well as ensuring the opportunity to ask and confirm questions before agreeing to participate;
- child safety: whenever children are involved, the researcher(s) and anyone affiliated with the research (assistants, translators) must sign the Tdh Child Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct and adhere to its principles.
Deliverables
During the contract, the Researcher will provide as deliverables (all of them in English):
- INITIAL (INCEPTION) REPORT:
- Context analysis based on project basic documents: Initial project (annex to the grant agreement), subsequent agreed changes, Internal Tdh regulations, partnership agreements, mid-term evaluation report, review mission report.
- Data collection and analysis plan, methodology and instruments
- DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS, DE-BRIEFING and presentation of findings from the field:
- Data collection report (documents analysis, discussions with the team and beneficiaries, feedback from beneficiaries)
- Short review indicating the first findings, provisional conclusions, main trends identified etc.
- PRELIMINARY REPORT:
- Narrative report (min. 20 - max. 25 pages);
- Summary table with the main conclusions, main lessons learned and recommendations;
- Short review and PPT with main lessons learned, recommendations and conclusions.
- FINAL REPORT:
- Executive summary (max. 3-4 pages);
- Narrative report (max. 25 pages);
- Online Workshop to present the findings to main stakeholders;
- Summary table with the main conclusions, main lessons learned and recommendations
- Annexes: Containing the technical details of the research, surveys protocols and questionnaires when the case, protocols of interviews, tables or graphics, secondary review references, persons and institutions contacted, a PowerPoint presentation of the findings and recommendations, transcription of relevant selection of interviews, focus groups, observations
After each stage, a feedback meeting is organized with Tdh and feedback is incorporated in the research document. The researcher is also expected to be available for regular and brief check-in calls, as necessary, throughout the assignment to share updates on the progress.
Roles and responsibilities
Tdh will designate a Research Manager who will be the main focal point vis-à-vis the researcher. The key roles and responsibilities of the Tdh Research Manager will include:
- Managing the administrative tasks of the process and internal liaison within the project team.
- Sharing all key project documents and facilitating access to key individuals (project staff and beneficiaries) selected for data collection.
- Communication will mainly take place via e-mail, and online chat and conferencing platforms (MsTeams, Zoom etc).
- Acting as a focal point for the researcher in case of any queries and sharing updates if any.
Roles and responsibilities of the researcher:
- To deliver the assignment as per the signed contract, Terms of Reference and the Technical and Financial Offer and relevant annexes, including Tdh policies where applicable (e.g. those related to Data Protection and Child Safeguarding). To submit all required deliverables as per the agreed deadlines.
- To ensure that all the underlying principles (described in the methodology section) are respected throughout the research.
- To ensure that the Research Manager is regularly informed in case of any questions and issues (particularly, delays and blockages) that may emerge during the assignment and may require mutual discussion/planning.
- To be available for quick updates, whenever requested, on the progress of the assignment.
- To generally ensure the confidentiality of the process as well as the information and documents received from the Research Manager and the people involved at any stage in the research.
- To immediately inform the Research Manager in case of any risk of not being able to comply with any of the above points.
Please see the Chronogram, the Profile of the consultant/researcher (team) and the budget terms, as well as application procedures in the document attached below.
