ToR: Qualitative Impact Assessment on Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and Community Care and Support Coalitions (CCSCs)

About SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia

SOS-Children’s Villages (SOS-CV) is a global non-profit-organization established in 1949. SOS CVI consists of 138-member associations all over the world, working in more than 2000 programme locations worldwide. The focus of the organization is to provide support to vulnerable children who have lost or are at risk of losing parental care and their families. In Alternative Care programmes (AC), SOS CV provides a family-like environment to a child or young person and offers quality care and support for their development. Through Family Strengthening programmes (FSP), SOS CV helps parents and communities build capacities to care for their children and prevent family breakdown.

SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia (SOS CVE) launched its programming in 1974, when the first of currently eight SOS CVE location programmes, was established in Mekele under the Alternative Care Programme (ACP). Since then, SOS CVE Ethiopia has expanded its approach and programme to complement direct childcare provision with support provides through the Family Strengthening Programme (FSP), which uses a community-based approach. SOS CVE engages with a variety of community-managed organizations and local government authorities and supports them to provide an enabling environment for most vulnerable communities and families to access vital social services and protection whether in peaceful times or crises, with the goal of ensuring care and protection for all children and youth living in their community.

SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia implements Family Strengthening and Community Development interventions aimed at ensuring that children grow up in a caring and protective family environment. A key component of these interventions is the establishment and strengthening of Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) as local structures for child protection, household economic empowerment, social support, advocacy, and sustainability of program outcomes.

Over the years, SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia has invested significant resources in strengthening CBO capacities through organizational development, governance support, financial management training, livelihood support, networking, resource mobilization, and child safeguarding initiatives. Many CBOs have transitioned through different stages of organizational maturity, while others have evolved into self-sustaining community institutions.

As SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia advances its localization and sustainability agenda, there is a need to assess the long-term impact of these investments and determine the effectiveness, sustainability, relevance, efficiency, and community-level outcomes generated through strengthened CBOs.

The assessment will generate evidence to inform future partnership models, sustainability strategies, community empowerment approaches, and policy engagement efforts.

 Rationale and overall objective of the assessment

The proposed impact assessment is justified by the need to generate strategic learning on whether SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia’s investments in strengthening Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) have led to sustainable and resilient community structures capable of independently promoting child well-being and family resilience. It is also essential for ensuring accountability to children, families, communities, donors, government stakeholders, and SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia by demonstrating the effectiveness and value of resources invested in CBO development.

Furthermore, the assessment will examine the sustainability of supported CBOs by determining their ability to continue functioning effectively, mobilize local resources, maintain services, and adapt to evolving community needs after external support has diminished or ended. The assessment will also generate evidence on successful practices, innovations, challenges, and lessons learned that can inform future programming, scale-up efforts, and strategic decision-making. In addition, the assessment will contribute to SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia’s localization agenda by evaluating the extent to which CBOs have strengthened community ownership, local leadership, and participation in child protection and family strengthening initiatives.

Finally, the assessment will identify existing challenges, organizational capacity gaps, and opportunities for improvement, thereby providing actionable recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness, sustainability, and impact of future interventions.

 Purpose of the Assessment

The purpose of this assessment is to generate qualitative evidence on the contribution, sustainability, effectiveness, and long-term influence of Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and Community Care and Support Coalitions (CCSCs) strengthened by SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia. The assessment will explore stakeholders’ experiences, perceptions, and observed changes related to child well-being, family resilience, community ownership, child protection, and local leadership.

The assessment is intended to document how and why change occurred, identify factors that enabled or constrained success, capture lessons learned, and generate recommendations to strengthen future community empowerment and localization efforts.

Objective of the CBOs’ Impact Assessment

Overall objective

To assess the perceived impact, effectiveness, relevance, and sustainability of Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and Community Care and Support Coalitions (CCSCs) supported by SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia through a qualitative inquiry.

Specific objectives

• Assess how SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia’s support has contributed to strengthening the organizational, governance, and operational capacities of CBOs and CCSCs.
• Explore stakeholder perceptions regarding the contribution of CBOs and CCSCs to child well-being, family resilience, safeguarding, and community-based child protection.
• Examine factors influencing the sustainability, self-reliance, and continued functionality of CBOs and CCSCs following SOS support.
• Assess the quality and effectiveness of partnerships and collaboration among CBOs, CCSCs, government institutions, communities, and other stakeholders.
• Identify promising practices, lessons learned, challenges, and opportunities for strengthening community-based sustainability mechanisms and localization efforts.

 Key Assessment Questions

Theme 1: Organizational Capacity and Institutional Development

Key Questions

How do stakeholders describe changes in the organizational and leadership capacities of CBOs and CCSCs following SOS support?

What governance, accountability, decision-making, and management practices have been strengthened over time?

What factors have facilitated or constrained the development and effectiveness of CBOs and CCSCs?

How do members perceive the functionality and inclusiveness of these community structures?

Theme 2: Contribution to Child Well-being, Family Resilience, and Child Protection

Key Questions

What changes do caregivers, children, youth, community leaders, and service providers attribute to the work of CBOs and CCSCs?

How have CBOs and CCSCs contributed to child protection, safeguarding, referral systems, and community awareness on child rights?

What examples exist of positive changes in the lives of children and families that community members associate with CBO and CCSC interventions?

Which groups have benefited most, and what challenges remain?

Theme 3: Sustainability, Community Ownership, and Local Leadership

Key Questions

To what extent are CBOs and CCSCs perceived as functioning independently and effectively beyond direct project support?

How are CBOs and CCSCs mobilizing local resources and maintaining community engagement?

How do communities perceive their ownership of CBO and CCSC initiatives?

What evidence exists of local leadership and commitment to sustaining interventions?

Is the CBO strengthening approach viewed as an effective strategy for sustaining Family Strengthening interventions?

Theme 4: Partnerships and Systems Strengthening

Key Questions

How do stakeholders perceive the quality and effectiveness of partnerships between CBOs, CCSCs, government institutions, communities, and development actors?

How have these partnerships contributed to sustainability, legitimacy, and local ownership?

What role do CBOs and CCSCs currently play within local child protection and community support systems?

 Theme 5: Learning and Future Programming

Key Questions

What are the most significant changes associated with the strengthening of CBOs and CCSCs?

What successful practices and innovations should be replicated or scaled up?

What challenges have limited effectiveness or sustainability?

What recommendations can strengthen future community development, localization, and child-focused programming?

Methodology

Qualitative Design

The assessment shall adopt a fully qualitative approach designed to generate an in-depth understanding of the influence, contribution, sustainability, and perceived impact of CBOs and CCSCs supported by SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia. The assessment will focus on understanding stakeholder perspectives and documenting evidence of change rather than measuring quantitative outcomes.

Data Collection Methods

The consultant shall employ the following qualitative methods:

Desk Review

A review of relevant program and organizational documents, including:

Program proposals and reports, Annual reports, Sustainability and transition plans, Capacity assessment reports, Partnership agreements, CBO constitutions and bylaws. Strategic and business plans, Child safeguarding documents and Case studies and previous assessments

Key Informant Interviews (KIIs)

Interviews with:

CBO and CCSC leaders, Government representatives, Community leaders, religious leaders, School representatives, Health extension workers, SOS Children’s Villages staff and Development partners

Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)

FGDs with: CBO members, CCSC members, Caregivers, Youth groups, Children, where appropriate and ethically permissible and Community representatives

Outcome Harvesting

The assessment shall identify and verify significant changes that have occurred and explore the contribution of CBOs and CCSCs to those changes.

 Most Significant Change (MSC)

• The consultant shall document stories of transformation illustrating how community members, children, families, and local institutions have benefited from CBO and CCSC interventions.

Case Studies

• Detailed case studies shall be developed to demonstrate sustainability, innovation, community ownership, partnership effectiveness, and child protection outcomes.

Direct Observation

Observation of:

• Governance meetings, Community activities, Project-supported initiatives, Income-generating activities, Child protection structures and Organizational facilities and records

Sampling Strategy

• A purposive sampling approach shall be employed to ensure representation of:
• Mature and emerging CBOs, Functional and less-functional structures, Urban and rural settings, Women and men, Youth and adult participants and Diverse program contexts and intervention models
• Sampling shall prioritize information-rich cases capable of providing meaningful insights into sustainability, effectiveness, and community impact.

Data Analysis

• Qualitative data shall be analyzed using thematic analysis and triangulation across different stakeholder groups and data sources.

The analysis shall focus on:

• Organizational development, Community ownership, Sustainability pathways, Child protection outcomes, Partnership effectiveness, Inclusion and participation, Good practices and innovations and Challenges and lessons learned
• Findings shall be organized around the assessment themes and supported by quotations, narratives, case studies, and documented examples of change.

Scope of the Assessment

Geographic Scope

All selected SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia program locations (Hawassa, Jimma, Bahirdar,Harrar and Addis Ababa) where CBO strengthening interventions have been implemented.

Target Groups

CBO leaders and members, Caregivers and households, Children and youth, Community leaders, Government partners, Development partners and SOS Children’s Villages staff

Time Scope

Assessment of interventions implemented during the agreed assessment period (e.g., last 5-10 years).

Deliverables

• Inception Report, including qualitative methodology and tools.
• Data Collection Tools (KII, FGD, MSC, Outcome Harvesting, and Observation Guides).
• Fieldwork Debrief Presentation.
• Draft Qualitative Impact Assessment Report.
• Validation Workshop and Presentation of Findings.
• Final Qualitative Impact Assessment Report.
• Executive Summary and Learning Brief.
• Most Significant Change Stories.
• Case Study Compendium. Outcome Harvesting Report and Supporting Evidence.

Reporting Criteria

The report shall be aligned with the SOS Children’s Villages Results-Based Management Framework and relevant evaluation standards.

Suggested Report Structure

• Executive Summary
• Introduction and Background
• Assessment Purpose and Objectives
• Methodology
• Findings by Assessment Theme
• Organizational Capacity and Governance
• Child Well-being and Family Resilience
• Sustainability and Community Ownership
• Partnerships and Systems Strengthening
• Learning and Future Programming
• Most Significant Change Stories
• Case Studies
• Good Practices and Innovations
• Challenges and Lessons Learned
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• Annexes

Work Plan and Expected Deliverables

Work plan/timetable

The CBO assessment is expected to be finalized within 45 days after the contractual agreement is signed. The consultant is expected to develop her/his detailed work plan based on the following table.

 

Roles and responsibilities of the consultant

• The consultant/firm shall deploy a team for the gathering and analyses of data
• The consultant will prepare inception report within 5 days after the agreement is signed.
• Complete the task properly as per the agreement signed.
• The firm will submit the findings of CBOs’ impact assessment within the agreed timeframe.
• Facilitate the validation workshop on the findings of CBOs’ impact assessment.
• Finally, incorporate the comments, reflections and feedback, and submit the final CBOs’ Impact Assessment report
• Strong report writing and facilitation skills.

Assessment criteria

 

Child Safeguarding and ethical issues

SOS Children’s Villages is committed to ensuring that all research, evaluation 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, assessment, 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, assessments, baseline, midterm or final evaluations and data collection SOS Children’s Villages has commissioned for ethical oversight of these processes.

Any research, assessment, evaluation and data collection carried out by researchers/consultants on SOS Children’s Villages programmes and participants.

Hence, relevant project coordinator and MEAL coordinators at the locations will ensure that any researchers, evaluators and data collectors should 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 show feasible logistical arrangements for the assignment as part of the technical proposal. National or location-level staff (SOSCV) will be available to help organize the interviews including contacting SOSCV, announcing and local preparation of evaluation, and linking to community duty bearers and national authorities if required.

Duration of the contract and terms of payment

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

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

• 30% on the submission and approval of the inception report.
• 30% on completion of the draft report.
• 40% on completion of the final report.

Duration of contract: the contract is effective from the moment it was signed until the acceptance of work by the SOS Children’s Villages in Ethiopia management team, which shall not exceed 45 days.

Notice of delay

Shall 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 analyze 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, with regard to 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.

Signing of the contract

The signing of the contract will follow the awarding of the assignment.

Rights of SOS Children’s Villages

SOS-CVE has the right to cancel the service contract if the consultant cannot comply with any standards articulated in the service agreement, SOS-CVE has the right to hold the impact assessment result as its own sole property.

Qualifications of the Consultant/Research Team

• Advanced degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, Evaluation, Public Policy, or related fields.
• Minimum 10 years of experience conducting qualitative evaluations, assessments, or research.
• Demonstrated experience in Outcome Harvesting, Most Significant Change, case study development, and qualitative inquiry.
• Experience in child rights, community development, localization, and sustainability programming.
• Strong qualitative data collection, facilitation, analysis, and report-writing skills.
• Experience working with community-based organizations and civil society structures in Ethiopia.
• Knowledge of OECD-DAC evaluation criteria and utilization-focused evaluation approaches.
• Experience conducting participatory and child-sensitive assessments.