ToR: Conducting kelafo FCS Project most significant change Terminal Evaluation under Gode location Programme

Description of program location and context

 SOS Children’s Village Program Gode as one of the eight children’s village programs in Ethiopia was established in 2004 and formally inaugurated on 03 October 2005. The program in Gode has 5 units namely: the Alternative Childcare in which disadvantaged and orphaned children and youth are nurtured until they become self-reliant; the Family and Community Empowerment Program Unit where families are enabled to provide adequate care to their children; Herman Gmeiner School with primary and preparatory levels; SOS kindergarten; and SOS Medical Centre with both inpatient and outpatient care.

Since February 2015, the SOS Children Villages Gode Program has been carrying out the Kelafo Family and Community Development Program. After completing the phased project successfully, the program started its second phase, which was larger than the first. In addition, the program began implementing its third phase, which is significantly larger than the second phase. In February 2023, SOS Children Villages envisaged upgrading the Kelafo family and community empowerment project to the program, which commenced in January 2024 in its Fourth Phase.

This program aims to contribute towards the improved well-being of children and the empowerment of families and communities in the Kelafo district of the Somali region, Ethiopia. This program has six specific Objectives namely; School-age children are educated and skilled, Children are cared for and protected, Families and youth have sustainable economic capacities; Children and youth are growing up healthy, Improved DRRM capacity of the community, and improved capacity KIPs in responding to the situation of children at risk and their families.

The project, titled “KELAFO FAMILY AND COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT PROJECT”: Improving the social skill development, economic empowerment, and child wellbeing among Communities in Kelafo District Funded by the Switzerland PSA, the project is implemented by SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia Gode program Location.

The project targets Five Kebeles of Kelafo woredas Somali regional states. It is designed to contribute towards the improved well-being of children and the empowerment of families and communities in the Kelafo district of the Somali region by fostering social stability and family cohesiveness. The project aims to reach a total of 9,598 direct participants (beneficiaries) and 53,674 indirect participants (beneficiaries) within the target communities.

Objectives of the Final Evaluation

General Objective

The primary objective of this terminal evaluation is to analyze the most significant changes of Kelafo family and community empowerment program responses and the benefits it had on families in terms of social skill development, economic empowerment, and child wellbeing on its intended impact and outcomes, and provide actionable recommendations to it sustainability after the project phase out.

The FS project aims to ensure children’s and young people’s rights are fully realized within their families of origin by supporting those at risk of family separation through:

•  Family strengthening towards Self-reliant: “strengthening parents’ ability to guide childdevelopment, manage their households, and coach children on education and career opportunities to empowering women through socioeconomic activities and asset ownership.
• Community Empowerment (SACCOs & Cooperative Farmers): Building the technical and financial capacity of the SACCOs and Farmer cooperatives for career opportunities, and at empowering girls and women to lead change in their families and communities”.
• Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC): Utilizing targeted awareness campaigns to address normative barriers that community practices such as traditional harmful practices (FGM, gender inequalities and early marriage) that hinder socioeconomic activities.

Specific Objectives

The specific objectives are:

• Document significant changes experienced by participants due to project interventions.
• Identify the most valued project outcomes from the perspective of participants and stakeholders.
• To assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of the project’s interventions and integrated approaches in improving the overall well-being of target communities.
• Generate evidence on changes related to child wellbeing, family resilience, education, livelihoods, and community empowerment.
• Understand factors contributing to successful outcomes and sustainability.
• Capture lessons learned and good practices for future programming.

Most Significant Changes Domains

Stories shall be collected under the following domains:

Domain 1: Child Care and Protection

• Improved parenting skills.
• Reduced child neglect, abuse, and harmful practices.
• Enhanced child protection mechanisms.
• Increased community responsibility for child wellbeing.

Domain 2: Education and Life Skills

• Improved school attendance and academic performance.
• Increased retention and transition rates.
• Enhanced life skills and aspirations among children and youth.

Domain 3: Economic Empowerment and Family Strengthening

• Improved household income.
• Increased livelihood diversification.
• Strengthened financial management.
• Women’s economic empowerment.
• Improved food security.

Domain 4: SACCO and Cooperative Development

• Access to financial services.
• Increased savings culture.
• Improved cooperative governance and management.
• Enhanced agricultural productivity.

Domain 5: Health, Nutrition, and Resilience

• Improved health-seeking behavior.
• Better child nutrition.
• Enhanced disaster preparedness and response capacity.

Domain 6: Gender and Social Behavior Change

• Reduction of harmful traditional practices.
• Improved gender equality.
• Positive attitude and behavior changes regarding child rights and protection.

Project Outcomes and Outputs

The overall goal of the project is “To Contribute towards the improved wellbeing of children and empowerment of families and communities in Kelafo district of Somali region by 2026.”.

Outcomes and outputs:

Outcome 1: Children are cared and protected.

Output 1.1         Families have improved parental skills to care for and protect their children

Output 1.2         Caregivers have improved awareness of child protection

Output 1.3         Community and school’s establish initiatives to strengthen child protection.

Output 2:           Children are educated and skilled.

Output 2.1         Children have improved educational outcomes and developed essential life skills.

Output 2.2         Partner schools strengthened to provide quality education for children

Output 3:          Families and youth people have self-reliance when exiting from the project.

Output 3.1          Families have improved agricultural practices

Output 3.2         Families have improved livestock farming and management practice

Output 3.3         Families and youth have improved and diversified off-farm income

Output 3.4         SACCOs are capacitated to respond to the financial needs of families

Output 3.5     Farmers’ cooperatives are capacitated to respond to the agricultural input need of        the families

Output 4:          Children and youth are growing up healthy

Output 4.1         Caregivers and children have access to preventive health services

Output 4.2         Children are well nourished

Output 4.3         Communities are strengthened to protect themselves from disasters

 Major Final Evaluation Questions

Before the Project

• What was your situation before participating in the project?
• What challenges were you facing?

Changes Experienced

• What specific changes have occurred?
• Who benefited from these changes?
• How did the project contribute to these changes?
• Which interventions were the most important?

Significance of Change

• Why is this change important to you?
• Why do you consider it the most significant change?
• How has this change affected your children and family?

Sustainability

• How do you see the continuity of the project benefits after the project is phased out?
• What factors will help sustain these changes?
• What challenges might threaten sustainability?

Child Wellbeing

• What changes have you seen in children regarding:
• Education
• Protection
• Health and Nutrition
• Psychosocial Wellbeing

Economic Empowerment

• What changes have occurred in your income, savings, assets, or livelihood?
• How has the SACCO/cooperative support affected your household?

Behavioral Change

• Have your attitudes or practices changed regarding:
• Child protection
• Early marriage
• Gender equality
• FGM
• Shared parenting
• Education for girls
• Please explain.

Lessons and Recommendations

• What worked well in the project?
• What should be improved in future projects?
• What lessons should SOS Children’s Villages apply in future programs?
• Is there anything else you would like to share?

The commissioned consultant should further list relevant and possible evaluation questions and most significant change questions by referring to the project document and the project result framework and show the terminal evaluation questions during the inception report presentation.

Scope of the Final Evaluation

This evaluation will cover the project’s implementation from its commencement in January 2015 through the midyear period of 2026 (the first 66 months of the 4-year cycle). The evaluation covers all implementation areas across the Kelafo Woreda, specifically focusing on Niri, Musadon, Dabakatur and Boholo-Aweys and Hilo-ba’ad, Addis Ketema, Bur-gabo and Bargun respectively the previous intervention Kebeles of the woredas.

The summary of project participants (beneficiaries) is stated below:

 

 

Evaluation Methodology

The consultancy firm to be recruited is expected to develop appropriate standard quantitative and qualitative methodologies that can generate the highest quality and most significant changes evidence. The commissioned consultant should use mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative methods) to answer the Final evaluation questions. Most importantly the consultant should use qualitative methods like the most significant change methods. As far as possible, the consultant should disaggregate data by sex, age while collecting and analyzing data. The consultant should also clearly explain which questions will be answered using which methods. Data collection methods proposed by the consultant should be linked to the specific target group question(s). In addition to the data collection methodology, the consultant should refer to the relevant desk review of the project agreement documents. Moreover, the consultant is expected to explain the design and process of data collection tools including KAP survey questionnaires, data collection plans and data analysis instruments. The consultant is also expected to test data collection tools before the actual utilization.

Sample

The Commissioned consultant is expected to use appropriate sampling techniques and set acceptable sample size for both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. Based on the project objectives, results, the market and livelihood assessment equations and the Edu Care project result framework, the consultant should produce best sampling methods and ensure representativeness of the sampled households or respondents, and the sampling frame is from target youth of the project.

 Work plan, consultant’s responsibility and deliverables

Work plan

The winner consultancy firm is expected to finalize the task within 40 days after the contractual agreement is signed. The consultant is expected to develop her/his detailed work plan based on the following table.

 

 

Responsibility of the consultant:

• The awarded consultant shall show feasible logistical arrangements for the assignment as part of the technical proposal
• Refer to the project document, result framework and indicators and develop Evaluation questions and detailed tools for both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods.
• Recruit and train data collectors/ enumerators
• Covers transport and per diem costs for data collectors
• Develop inception report with data collection tools, data collection plans and present for SOS CVE team and data collection plans
• Compiled draft and final evaluation report based on scheduled time

Expected Deliverables

The evaluation team is expected to deliver the following products, all of which must be submitted in English:

• Inception Report: A detailed document outlining the proposed methodology, sampling frame, final data collection tools, and a comprehensive work plan. This must be approved by the SOS CVE MEAL Department before field mobilization.
• Draft Final Evaluation report: A preliminary report presenting the initial findings, data analysis, and responses to the mid-term evaluation questions for review and feedback by the consortium partners.
• Final Evaluation Report: A high-quality, comprehensive report (maximum 30–40 pages, excluding annexes) that incorporates feedback from the draft stage. The report must include an executive summary and a dedicated section for strategic recommendations.
• Presentation of Findings: A validation workshop or slide presentation delivered to the SOS CVE NO Team and key stakeholders to discuss results.
• Cleaned Datasets: All raw and cleaned quantitative data (in Excel/SPSS/STATA) and qualitative transcripts or field notes.
• Success Stories/Case Studies: A minimum of three (3) narrative-based success stories that highlight the project’s impact on individual or community efforts.

Report Criteria

The reporting criteria for the final evaluation report shall be in line with the SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia result-based management (RBM) toolkit, and SOS Children’s Villages will share the result framework, the project document and the reporting template with the winning consultant

Ethical Standards and Safeguarding

SOS Children’s Villages is committed to ensuring that all research, evaluations and data collection processes (i.e. evidence-generating activities) undertaken by SOS Children’s Villages and its partners are ethical and respect child safeguarding policy and procedure. The consultant must respect the rights, dignity and protection of children and other vulnerable population groups and should ensure special protection for children and other vulnerable groups during any data-generating activities to minimize any potential risks. Any research, evaluation and data collection SOS Children’s Villages is directly carried out or is involved in as a partner. Ethical practices need to be ensured in the following circumstances:

• Any research, baseline, midterm or final evaluations and data collection SOS Children’s Villages has commissioned for ethical oversight of these processes.
• Any research, evaluation and data collection carried out by researchers/consultants on SOS Children’s Villages programs and participants.

 

Hence, the relevant project coordinator and location MEAL coordinator of the program location will ensure that any researchers, evaluators and data collectors receive awareness training on, sign and adhere to SOS Children’s Villages core policies:

Obtaining consent from research participants is central to the research relationship and signals respect for the research participant’s dignity, their capability to express their views and their right to have these heard in matters that affect them. Informed consent is an explicit agreement which requires participants to be informed about and understand the research/assessment. This must be given voluntarily and be renegotiable, so that participants may withdraw at any stage of the research process.

Logistical arrangements

The awarded consultant shall present feasible logistical arrangements for the assignment as part of the technical proposal. National or location-level staff (SOS CVE) will be available to help organize the interviews, including contacting SOS, announcing and local preparation of the evaluation, and linking to community duty bearers and national authorities if required.

Duration of contract and terms of payment

Payment will be made only upon SOS Children’s Villages’ acceptance of the work performed under the above-described deliverables. Financial proposals should include proposed stage payments. Payment will be transferred by bank transfer in birr.

Funding and Payment: The consultant will be paid by SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia as follows:

Payment will be made in instalments based on the successful delivery and approval of the following milestones:

• First Instalment (40%): Upon submission and approval of the Inception Report, including finalized data collection tools.
• Second Instalment (20%): Upon submission of the Draft Evaluation Report and presentation of preliminary findings to the consortium.
• Final Instalment (40%): Upon approval of the Final Evaluation Report, submission of cleaned datasets, and delivery of at least three narrative success stories.

Notice of Delay

Should the successful bidder encounter a delay in the performance of the contract, which may be excusable under unavoidable circumstances, the contractor shall notify SOS Children’s Villages in writing about the causes of any such delays within one (1) week from the beginning of the delay. After receipt of the Contractor’s notice of delay, SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia shall analyse the facts and extent of the delay and extend the time for performance when, in its judgment, the facts justify such an extension.

Copyright and other proprietary rights

SOS Children’s Villages shall be entitled to all intellectual property and other proprietary rights including, but not limited to, copyrights, and trademarks, about products, processes, inventions, ideas, know-how, or documents and other materials which the Contractor has developed for SOS Children’s Villages under the Contract and which bear a direct relation to or are produced or prepared or collected in consequence of, or during the course of, the performance of the Contract. The Contractor acknowledges and agrees that such products, documents, and other materials constitute works made for hire for SOS Children’s Villages. All materials: interviews, reports, recommendations, and all other data compiled by or received by the Contractor under the Contract shall be the property of SOS Children’s Villages and shall be treated as confidential and shall be delivered only to SOS Children’s Villages’ authorized officials on completion of work under the Contract. The external consultant is obliged to hand over all raw data collected during the assessment to SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia.

Termination

The termination of the service agreement for the assignment will be in accordance with the contractual agreement to be included at the formal agreement’s actual signing.

Qualification of the Researcher/Reasearch Team

Academic Background:

• The applicant consultant shall have MA/MSc degree  in a relevant field such as Economics, Sociology, Agricultural Economics, Development studies, or related fields. (Lead consultant). study such Sociology, Social Work, Cooperative & Accounting, Economics, Project Management, Monitoring & Evaluation and other related fields per the required assignment. The consultant or consultancy team must possess the following qualifications and expertise to be considered for this assignment:

Professional Experience:

•  A minimum of [5-7] years of progressive professional experience in conducting evaluations for Family strengthening and community empowerment projects in Ethiopia, specifically within the Somali context.
• Proven experience in using both quantitative and qualitative research methods, including but not limited to key informant interviews (KIIs), focus group discussions (FGDs), surveys, and case studies.
• Previous experience working with or for international NGOs, especially in the context of Ethiopia or the specifically Somali region, is highly desirable.
• Willingness to travel and undertake the study in harsh environments.

Technical Skills:

• Strong analytical and report-writing skills, with the ability to present complex data and findings in a clear, concise, and accessible manner.
• Proficiency in data analysis software (e.g., SPSS, Stata, R, or Excel) and familiarity with mobile data collection tools (e.g., Kobo Toolbox, ODK Collect).
• Familiarity with the project management and evaluation standards of major donors and international organizations.

 Soft Skills:

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to effectively engage with a diverse range of stakeholders, including project beneficiaries (Children, Youth and Caregivers), community leaders, project staff, and government officials.
• Ability to work independently, manage time effectively, and deliver high-quality outputs within a strict deadline.

Language:

• Fluency in English is required; knowledge of local languages (Somali and Amharic) within the team is highly desirable. Both are more advantageous.