Terre des hommes Romania is seeking a qualified external researcher for a Participatory Research part of “Comprehensive service provision for the protection, well-being and non-formal education of refugee children, youth and families in Romania” – funded by UNHCR and implemented by Terre des hommes (Tdh) Romania.
1. Presentation of Terre des hommes
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.
Tdh’s Emergency Response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis focuses on ensuring refugee children, youth, women from Ukraine receive relevant, tailored and quality child and family-support services and in-kind support in Romania in coordination with local and national authorities. Through our mobile teams, our intervention concentrates on the provision of: mental health and psycho-social activities; psychological first aid; educational activities; protection assistance; material support; referral and information; and support in health, legal and housing affairs.
2. Context
Title: Comprehensive service provision for the protection, well-being and non-formal education of refugee children, youth and families in Romania
Start and End date – duration: July-December 2022 (6 months)
The intervention funded by UNHCR responds to the protection, information, psychosocial and educational needs of children, youth, women and families who crossed the border from Ukraine and are hosted in Romania, including third-country nationals. This will be achieved by providing assistance and services to refugees including psychosocial and protection support; access to education, safe spaces and protection in schools; material assistance; recreational activities; and identification and referrals to specialized services.
The main objective of the project is to address immediate and medium-term PSS, health, protection, safeguarding, information and education needs to children and women and quality local service provision.
The intervention is based on two components:
- Increased access to coordinated services through establishment of safe spaces for children, youth and women from Ukraine in three locations: Bucharest, Constanta and Brasov.
This element covers multiple activities: screening, identification and access to individual protection assistance; mental health and psychosocial support activities (MHPSS); setting up five Child-Friendly Spaces, one of which will include a Resilience Innovation Facility (RIF); establishing a referral pathway; and providing information, particularly on child-safeguarding and child protection related risks. Moreover, Tdh provides material support and needed supplies for transit and semi-permanent centers.
- Increased access to education for refugee children and youth with a focus on integration and child protection in schools.
To achieve this component, the following activities will be carried out: dissemination of information and outreach activities to encourage school registration; establishment of a safe space within three schools (covering an after-school program for both Romanian and Ukranian children); capacity building for Romanian school staff on Tdh methodologies for the inclusion of Ukranian children; material assistance to schools; and provision education items. Additionally, a Child Advisory Board is set up and consulted regularly throughout the implementation of the project.
3. Objectives of the research
The external evaluation has two main objectives:
- Accountability: to investigate the relevance and appropriateness of Tdh’s services for Ukrainian refugees. Accountability is towards the beneficiaries, exploring the value and impact of the project for them, considering their views and exploring their real needs.
- Informing operational decisions: Resulting from the lessons learnt and further needs assessment, 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 and projects aimed at supporting Ukrainian refugees, including:
- What other Ukrainian refugee needs Tdh could focus on in their next interventions
- How Tdh could increase the relevance and appropriateness of the services it is currently implementing
4. Scope of the evaluation
The research refers both to assessing the effects of Tdh’s intervention on Ukrainian refugees, as well as assessing their needs for future programing. It requires exchange of information between the researcher, Tdh staff and the Ukrainian beneficiaries Tdh supported in Bucharest, Constanta and Brasov.
The external evaluation should focus on gathering data and information from:
- Tdh and partners' staff
- direct beneficiaries
5. Intended users of the research
The results of the research will be used by the Terre des hommes Foundation (project staff, the national delegations, HQ) and the other partners involved will directly benefit from the research results in developing future projects aimed at supporting Ukrainian refugees: how to best adapt future interventions based on the beneficiaries’ current satisfaction with Tdh services and their emerging needs.
6. Research criteria and questions
I. Accountability
- Relevance: To what extent has the project adequately targeted the real needs of the population?
- Did the project respond to the specific needs of the following target groups, including age, gender and diversity-specific ones; what are the emerging needs of:
- Ukrainian children and youths
- Ukrainian parents
- What are the main lessons learned and recommendations suggested for increasing the relevance of future interventions aimed at supporting Ukrainian refugees?
- Potential duplication efforts: what other services from other NGOs and the Government to Ukrainian refugees receive?
- What are the services and support that refugees receive/value the most?
- What gaps do Ukrainian refugees experience in terms of support received?
- The refugee needs that Tdh can respond to as an experienced Child Protection Organization fall in the following categories:
- Individual Protection Assistance (IPA)
- Supporting access to services (Translation/transcription and information provision with specific guidance, referral, accompaniment)
- Access to health information and/or health services
- Information on rights, protection and integration
- Child Friendly Spaces – with Mental Health and Psycho-Social (MHPSS) activities, including Resilience Innovation Facilities
- Material support and supplies for residential / accommodations centers
- Cash and Voucher Assistance
- Gender Based Violence Prevention
- Topics of interest/need for youth group activities:
- Sexual and reproductive health
- Labor rights
- Social skills
- Opportunities for social and recreative activities
- Others
- Access to education:
- Counseling for formal education opportunities
- Psychosocial activities in school
- Safe space for children in schools
- educational kits for children
- educational hubs with integration support activities
2. Usefulness
- What overall lessons can the organization learn for increasing the usefulness of its future interventions for Ukrainian refugees?
- How could Tdh best measure the impact of its activities, including suggestions for data collection tools aimed at measuring impact by type of activity?
- What recommendations are proposed for the intervention’s future implementation on what, where, how and to whom should the organisation provide services (including the Resilience Innovation Facilities and Individual Protection Assistance)? How can Tdh adapt its intervention to include gender-sensitive activities?
- Informing operational decisions
The transversal element of the research is focused on lessons learned from the needs of Ukrainian refugees and their perceived usefulness of the activities Tdh has implemented so far to support them. These should inform future Tdh interventions focused on Ukrainian refugees.
- What needs should the organization focus on in future initiatives, being mindful of potential duplication from other NGOs and/or the Government? Particular focus on:
- Gender Based Violence
- Child Protection Risks
- Access to services
- Types of information needed
- Material needs
- Mental Health and Psycho-Social vulnerabilities
- Access to education
- Psychological support
- Integration barriers
- What recommendations are suggested for increasing the effectiveness of the organization’s initiatives focused on Ukrainian refugees?
6. Methodology
Interested applicants are invited to propose a short methodology for conducting the research. Qualitative approaches to data collection 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 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 evaluation 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 evaluation 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.
7. Deliverables
During the contract, the Researcher will provide as deliverables (all of them in English):
- INITIAL (INCEPTION) REPORT – in 1 week within contract start - comprising:
- Context analysis based on project basic documents: Initial project (annex to the grant agreement), subsequent agreed changes, Internal Tdh regulations, partnership agreements.
- Data collection and analysis plan, methodology and instruments for the:
• desk research on the needs of Ukrainian refugees (types of documents to be analysed and key analysis)
• semi-structured short interviews and/or focus groups with beneficiaries (list of people to be interviewed, interview and focus group guides),
• feedback/views collected from beneficiaries (list of beneficiaries to be contacted, discussion guides).
- DE-BRIEFING and presentation of findings from the field – in 3 weeks (after previous stage) - comprising:
- 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 – in 1 weeks (after the previous stage) - comprising:
- 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 – in 1 weeks (after the previous stage) - comprising:
- Executive summary (max. 3-4 pages);
- Narrative report (max. 25 pages);
- 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.
9. Chronogram
We estimate that the researcher will require at most 30 days. The intermediary stages upon the Final Research Report are flexible, but it should be submitted by December 30th, the latest. The final schedule will be mutually agreed considering Tdh`s timeline and the suggestions made by the Researcher in the Technical Offer.
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Deliverables to be provided: Provisional Calendar: |
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10. Roles and responsibilites
Tdh will designate a Research Manager (the Emergency MEAL Officer) 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.
11. Profile of the consultant/researcher (team): qualifications and experience
Tdh will accept applications from individuals, teams, academic entities, NGOs and companies as long as they are officially registered with a European tax number (i.e. are able to issue an invoice) and have evaluation, research, impact study or similar and/or consultancy as their object of activity, which can be proven by legal documentation.
Required experience and skills:
- At least 3 quality research/evaluations/impact studies prepared for 3 different projects. Examples can be annexed unless confidential. Previous experience in conducting evaluations of projects in the area of refugees or child protection is a significant asset.
- Proven skills in using quantitative and quality data collection and analysis methods.
- Strong understanding of diversity and inclusion incl. age, gender and diversity sensitivity aspects.
- Strong writing skills and ability to convey technical and complex information in a structured, logical, clear and concise manner for different audiences.
- Full written and oral proficiency in English for production of quality reports. In case the applicant does not have the language requirements for conducting the data collection process with Ukrainian refugees, Tdh can cover separately the costs for the translator(s) selected by the consultant.
- Strong computer proficiency to prepare quality written reports with clean data visualization and presentation of findings.
- Master’s degree (or higher) in social sciences, economics, public policy, law, research and evaluation, management or other related field(s) from an accredited university.
- Capacity to issue invoices with tax registration in Europe (UK and Switzerland included).
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Contract awarding criteria: |
No. of points |
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Technical Offer – best approach: The Technical Offer will contain: Methodology and tools proposed, showing understanding of the objective of the study and the Terms of Reference (ToR); A chronogram showing details for the realization of each of the research phases. The best Technical Offer will be granted with 50 points out of the total score of 100. |
50 points |
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CV and expertise corresponding to the required criteria |
25 points |
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Financial Offer –demonstrating congruence with the technical approach submitted The Financial Offer with will be granted with 25 points out of the total score of 100. Prices will be expressed in Euro and should be inclusive of all expenses, charges, taxes incurred by the Contractor in fulfilment of its obligations. Additional costs for logistics, translation, transportation, accommodation, per diem etc. will not be covered separately by Tdh. |
25 points |
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TOTAL possible |
100 points |
The points thus received will indicate the hierarchy of the bidders and the one that will be contracted. The Technical Offer will be evaluated by a Commission of 2 representative staff from Tdh Romania. All bidders will be informed by email over the results of the selection.
12. Budget
The proposed budget for the research will be provided by the consultant in the Financial Offer. Upon the review of the Financial and Technical Offers, Tdh may choose to negotiate the final price with the preferred researcher in light of the Financial Offer and Tdh’s available budget. Tdh may also consider the combination of the quality and competitiveness of the Technical and Financial offers. Half of the payment will be made at the beginning of the research, with the other half being paid after its conclusion.
13. Application procedures
Questions relating to the assignment, the project or the application process can be submitted to bogdan.bors@tdh.ch. Answers that may concern all applicants will be shared with everyone as deemed necessary.
Interested applicants shall submit their application via e-mail to the following e-mail address: bogdan.bors@tdh.ch.
The e-mail should have the subject-line: Tdh Emergency UNHCR Research. The deadline for submission is the 8th of November 2022 (23:59).[BB1]
The application package shall include:
• Technical Offer – max. 10 pages;
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- Expression of interest
- Methodology and tools proposed, showing understanding of the objective of the study and the Terms of Reference (ToR);
- A chronogram showing details for the realization of each of the research phases. The schedule proposed should include time for briefing and debriefing with Tdh representatives as far as possible.
The Technical Offer will be developed by the bidder on its own design, but it will not exceed 10 pages.
The Technical Offer will mention on the first page the following information: Company/NGO name, Address, Phone number, email, registration number, legal representative name and function, contact person (if different) name and function, phone number and email, if different. The Technical Offer will be signed and stamped on the last page by the legal representative, mentioning the company/NGO, name of the legal representative, date, signature, stamp.
• Financial Offer – with a detailed line-item budget, indicating costs in EUR. The indicated prices should be 1) NET amounts to be received by the consultant plus 2) all local taxes.
• Up-to-date CV of the researcher(s) – max. 3 pages/CV;
• Example of previous work carried out (if any, unless confidential or if it can be anonymized);
• Contacts of 3 professional references;
• Confirmation of legal registration (e.g. tax number, EU VAT number) of the applicant for providing research services and the ability to issue an invoice.
• Declaration of impartiality (in the applicant’s format).
Applications – incl. all annexes – must be in English. Other languages will not be accepted.
Applications must be submitted as a single application package. Documents sent separately will not be accepted. Tdh will confirm the receipt of each application within a 1 working day.
The assessment of the applications will last until the 10th of November. During the research process, Tdh Romania, may ask for clarifications and check the references provided.
