Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant (Short term)
Background
The UNICEF Education Programme in Rwanda is defined within the context of a One UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF 2008-2012). In this framework, the UN supports the Government of Rwanda to achieve its goals for a quality Universal Primary Education as defined in various education sector policies. The government of Rwanda Vision 2020 specifically aims to establish a knowledge based economy with the 9-year basic education policy as a key pillar. There are challenges in that regard however. While access has been largely addressed (NER is 95%) in primary schools, major problems in quality persist also with progressively increases in completion rates to 75.6% in 2010; and transition rates to 95% in 2009 especially among girls and vulnerable groups. It is in this context that the UNICEF Education Programme specifically focuses on ensuring the rights of girls and OVC to a quality basic education, through advocacy and leveraging of resources in sector plans for vulnerable groups.
UNICEF in Rwanda works mainly in partnership with the Government of Rwanda in achieving the goals of the country programme. In the Education sector, UNICEF’s main partner is the Ministry of Education to whom UNICEF provides financial and technical support. UNICEF also works with civil society and in partnership with Non Governmental Organisations, which have expertise in specific areas such as Special Needs Education and Gender Equality, to achieve the goals and objectives outlined in the country programme agreed with the Government of Rwanda.
The UNICEF Education Programme specifically supports ‘evidence based’ policy development, utilizing school/community level modelling and “best practice development”. Key initiatives in this regard are currently at critical stages of implementation. But the programme just finalised a medium term evaluation to assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of UNICEF Rwanda’s contribution within the delivering as one-DAO framework. Similarly, the Education Section currently plans to undertake an independent and comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of project outputs, outcomes, and results with regard to partnerships. The Education Office needs this significant programmatic support in order to deliver on the ambitious UNDAF program 2008-2012, but also to be able to document real result on investment in terms of the level of impact of the partnership projects with several NGOs UNICEF would thus like to evaluate our many partnerships within Rwanda from a broad perspective, including how they have contributed or not to the achievement of UNDAF output and outcome level results, how UNICEF manages those partnerships and how efficiently and effectively the Agency has devised, developed and implemented the partnership initiatives. For this reason, the Country office is looking for the services of a short-term consultant to fill the gap and assist in key areas of project monitoring and evaluation.
Objective of the consultancy
The purpose of this consultancy is to support the Education Section to conduct a review of UNICEF’s partnerships within Rwanda from a broad perspective, including how they have contributed or not to the achievement of UNDAF output and outcome level results, how UNICEF manages those partnerships and how efficiently and effectively the Agency and it’s chosen partners have devised, developed and implemented the partnership projects under review. The evaluation will also assess the level of sustainability of the partnership initiatives and develop recommendations to assist the future direction and scope of UNICEF’s partnerships within Rwanda.
The evaluation will address the following questions:
I. Effectiveness, relevance and efficiency
• How have the partnerships contributed towards the achievement of the relevant education Outputs and Outcomes of the UNDAF?
• How have the partnerships contributed towards the achievement of sector objectives and priorities, in particular in the areas of access to education, equity and inclusion of vulnerable children, and improved learning outcomes?
• What have been the actual outputs of specific partnerships - outcomes, and results as compared to those planned in the original programme documents?
• Have the partnerships been cost-efficient (could they have achieved the same results in more efficient ways)?
• What has been the impact of the partnership initiatives on the most vulnerable children?
• How have the partnerships contributed to building of capacity of education systems at the different levels in which they work?
II. Sustainability
• What is the level of impact of the partnership initiatives in terms of sustained results?
• How have community members, teachers and children been involved in the programme? development and implementation and how have the interventions impacted upon these groups?
• What mechanisms have been put in place to promote government and local ownership for long-term sustainability?
• What are the key strengths and weaknesses of the major partners that are essential to ensure sustainability?
III. Lessons Learned and recommendations
• What should UNICEF do differently in the future to ensure cost-efficient, strategic, effective partnerships with NGOs?
• Would increased UNICEF support to the Rwanda Education NGO Coordination Platform (RENCP) be a potential alternative for a range of separate individual agreements?
• For the schools supported through the project, is it possible to record improvements in terms of enrollment, retention, school drop-out rates and learning achievements, both for boys and girls? What lessons can be learned from such interventions and how relevant are they to support scale up on a national level?
Methodology
The evaluation will be based mainly on Interviews at the Kigali level with UNICEF staff, partner organisations and key officials within MINEDUC; extensive fieldwork on a sample of schools which have been supported directly by the concerned partnerships.
The evaluation will use mainly (though not exclusively) qualitative methods of data collection, analyses and interpretation. Data collection tools and research questions will be agreed in advance of the field work.
An initial desk review will be carried out using the official project documents and reports. This will be followed by a review of other available and selected documents provided by UNICEF or requested by the evaluation team, such document reviews running parallel to other activities during the evaluation.
Information will be collected at the school level, through school records as well as through discussions with school children, teachers, head teachers and members of School Management Committees, and through focus group discussions. These discussions will be guided by questions agreed upon in advance between the evaluation team and UNICEF.
Interviews will be conducted with some of the key stakeholders at the local level such as head teachers, PTA chairpersons, DEOs, community leaders, staff of local partner organisations.
Direct observations will be made on site using an agreed-upon check list.
Focus group discussions and interviews will take place at each selected school and with the communities attached to each school, as well as interviews with selected stakeholders at the school level.
Tasks
Consultant will perform the following tasks:
• Take part in a meeting with UNICEF and partners to finalise and agree upon the exact terms of reference of the evaluation.
• Carry out a desk review of documents related to the partnership projects and UNICEF’s country programme.
• Develop a concept note that includes a detailed methodology and evaluation tools as detailed above and as agreed upon in the planning meetings to collect information during the field visit interviews, focus group discussions and observations.
• Conduct interviews with key stakeholders in Kigali and conduct the field work to collect findings that respond to the assessment questions detailed above.
• Analyse and interpret the collected information and data.
• Conduct debriefings on preliminary findings with the staff members from UNICEF and partners.
• Write a draft and final evaluation report and provide it to UNICEF and key partner organisations for their comments and feedback.
Finalise the report and submit it to UNICEFDeliverables
Outputs to be produced during consultancy period include:
• Concept note of how the consultancy will be done including a time frame indicating how the 10 wks will be used. (This is important and will help the PO supervising to monitor progress etc)
• Evaluation tools developed to collect information during the field visit interviews, focus group discussions and observations.
• Monthly progress reports submitted to UNICEF.
• Internal dissemination session for UNICEF conducted in Kigali in order to share the findings of the assessment.
• Development of a generic monitoring framework and tool to support UNICEF monitoring of its partnerships.
• Draft report prepared and shared with UNICEF;
• Revise draft report based on comments from UNICEF education team;
• Final evaluation report submitted answering the key questions posed above and including recommendations on how future partnership initiatives may be refined or targeted to ensure maximum results.
• For the internal dissemination- the consultant will be required to prepare a power point presentation on the key results of the assignment.
• Consultancy is for a period of 10 weeks. Schedule of work is will be developed and discussed when the consultant is on board.
Profile of the consultant
Candidate should possess following:
Advanced Degree;
3 years working experience in the field of Monitoring and Evaluation;
Skills in the writing and production, as well as utilization of, social research tools;
Proficiency in use of computer, including Excel, Word, and other tools;
Familiarity with UNICEF and with Rwanda context;
Fluency in Kinyarwanda French is desirable and proficiency in English is added advantage.
Fees and conditions
The consultant will be retained at L3 level or approximately for 06 weeks
UNICEF will provide all relevant facilities, including office space, computer, and travel facilitation
Funding
Funding for this Evaluation will be availed from SC/2008/0827 in line with IR 3.1.1 of the 2011 AWP.
The UNICEF Education Programme in Rwanda is defined within the context of a One UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF 2008-2012). In this framework, the UN supports the Government of Rwanda to achieve its goals for a quality Universal Primary Education as defined in various education sector policies. The government of Rwanda Vision 2020 specifically aims to establish a knowledge based economy with the 9-year basic education policy as a key pillar. There are challenges in that regard however. While access has been largely addressed (NER is 95%) in primary schools, major problems in quality persist also with progressively increases in completion rates to 75.6% in 2010; and transition rates to 95% in 2009 especially among girls and vulnerable groups. It is in this context that the UNICEF Education Programme specifically focuses on ensuring the rights of girls and OVC to a quality basic education, through advocacy and leveraging of resources in sector plans for vulnerable groups.
UNICEF in Rwanda works mainly in partnership with the Government of Rwanda in achieving the goals of the country programme. In the Education sector, UNICEF’s main partner is the Ministry of Education to whom UNICEF provides financial and technical support. UNICEF also works with civil society and in partnership with Non Governmental Organisations, which have expertise in specific areas such as Special Needs Education and Gender Equality, to achieve the goals and objectives outlined in the country programme agreed with the Government of Rwanda.
The UNICEF Education Programme specifically supports ‘evidence based’ policy development, utilizing school/community level modelling and “best practice development”. Key initiatives in this regard are currently at critical stages of implementation. But the programme just finalised a medium term evaluation to assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of UNICEF Rwanda’s contribution within the delivering as one-DAO framework. Similarly, the Education Section currently plans to undertake an independent and comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of project outputs, outcomes, and results with regard to partnerships. The Education Office needs this significant programmatic support in order to deliver on the ambitious UNDAF program 2008-2012, but also to be able to document real result on investment in terms of the level of impact of the partnership projects with several NGOs UNICEF would thus like to evaluate our many partnerships within Rwanda from a broad perspective, including how they have contributed or not to the achievement of UNDAF output and outcome level results, how UNICEF manages those partnerships and how efficiently and effectively the Agency has devised, developed and implemented the partnership initiatives. For this reason, the Country office is looking for the services of a short-term consultant to fill the gap and assist in key areas of project monitoring and evaluation.
Objective of the consultancy
The purpose of this consultancy is to support the Education Section to conduct a review of UNICEF’s partnerships within Rwanda from a broad perspective, including how they have contributed or not to the achievement of UNDAF output and outcome level results, how UNICEF manages those partnerships and how efficiently and effectively the Agency and it’s chosen partners have devised, developed and implemented the partnership projects under review. The evaluation will also assess the level of sustainability of the partnership initiatives and develop recommendations to assist the future direction and scope of UNICEF’s partnerships within Rwanda.
The evaluation will address the following questions:
I. Effectiveness, relevance and efficiency
• How have the partnerships contributed towards the achievement of the relevant education Outputs and Outcomes of the UNDAF?
• How have the partnerships contributed towards the achievement of sector objectives and priorities, in particular in the areas of access to education, equity and inclusion of vulnerable children, and improved learning outcomes?
• What have been the actual outputs of specific partnerships - outcomes, and results as compared to those planned in the original programme documents?
• Have the partnerships been cost-efficient (could they have achieved the same results in more efficient ways)?
• What has been the impact of the partnership initiatives on the most vulnerable children?
• How have the partnerships contributed to building of capacity of education systems at the different levels in which they work?
II. Sustainability
• What is the level of impact of the partnership initiatives in terms of sustained results?
• How have community members, teachers and children been involved in the programme? development and implementation and how have the interventions impacted upon these groups?
• What mechanisms have been put in place to promote government and local ownership for long-term sustainability?
• What are the key strengths and weaknesses of the major partners that are essential to ensure sustainability?
III. Lessons Learned and recommendations
• What should UNICEF do differently in the future to ensure cost-efficient, strategic, effective partnerships with NGOs?
• Would increased UNICEF support to the Rwanda Education NGO Coordination Platform (RENCP) be a potential alternative for a range of separate individual agreements?
• For the schools supported through the project, is it possible to record improvements in terms of enrollment, retention, school drop-out rates and learning achievements, both for boys and girls? What lessons can be learned from such interventions and how relevant are they to support scale up on a national level?
Methodology
The evaluation will be based mainly on Interviews at the Kigali level with UNICEF staff, partner organisations and key officials within MINEDUC; extensive fieldwork on a sample of schools which have been supported directly by the concerned partnerships.
The evaluation will use mainly (though not exclusively) qualitative methods of data collection, analyses and interpretation. Data collection tools and research questions will be agreed in advance of the field work.
An initial desk review will be carried out using the official project documents and reports. This will be followed by a review of other available and selected documents provided by UNICEF or requested by the evaluation team, such document reviews running parallel to other activities during the evaluation.
Information will be collected at the school level, through school records as well as through discussions with school children, teachers, head teachers and members of School Management Committees, and through focus group discussions. These discussions will be guided by questions agreed upon in advance between the evaluation team and UNICEF.
Interviews will be conducted with some of the key stakeholders at the local level such as head teachers, PTA chairpersons, DEOs, community leaders, staff of local partner organisations.
Direct observations will be made on site using an agreed-upon check list.
Focus group discussions and interviews will take place at each selected school and with the communities attached to each school, as well as interviews with selected stakeholders at the school level.
Tasks
Consultant will perform the following tasks:
• Take part in a meeting with UNICEF and partners to finalise and agree upon the exact terms of reference of the evaluation.
• Carry out a desk review of documents related to the partnership projects and UNICEF’s country programme.
• Develop a concept note that includes a detailed methodology and evaluation tools as detailed above and as agreed upon in the planning meetings to collect information during the field visit interviews, focus group discussions and observations.
• Conduct interviews with key stakeholders in Kigali and conduct the field work to collect findings that respond to the assessment questions detailed above.
• Analyse and interpret the collected information and data.
• Conduct debriefings on preliminary findings with the staff members from UNICEF and partners.
• Write a draft and final evaluation report and provide it to UNICEF and key partner organisations for their comments and feedback.
Finalise the report and submit it to UNICEFDeliverables
Outputs to be produced during consultancy period include:
• Concept note of how the consultancy will be done including a time frame indicating how the 10 wks will be used. (This is important and will help the PO supervising to monitor progress etc)
• Evaluation tools developed to collect information during the field visit interviews, focus group discussions and observations.
• Monthly progress reports submitted to UNICEF.
• Internal dissemination session for UNICEF conducted in Kigali in order to share the findings of the assessment.
• Development of a generic monitoring framework and tool to support UNICEF monitoring of its partnerships.
• Draft report prepared and shared with UNICEF;
• Revise draft report based on comments from UNICEF education team;
• Final evaluation report submitted answering the key questions posed above and including recommendations on how future partnership initiatives may be refined or targeted to ensure maximum results.
• For the internal dissemination- the consultant will be required to prepare a power point presentation on the key results of the assignment.
• Consultancy is for a period of 10 weeks. Schedule of work is will be developed and discussed when the consultant is on board.
Profile of the consultant
Candidate should possess following:
Advanced Degree;
3 years working experience in the field of Monitoring and Evaluation;
Skills in the writing and production, as well as utilization of, social research tools;
Proficiency in use of computer, including Excel, Word, and other tools;
Familiarity with UNICEF and with Rwanda context;
Fluency in Kinyarwanda French is desirable and proficiency in English is added advantage.
Fees and conditions
The consultant will be retained at L3 level or approximately for 06 weeks
UNICEF will provide all relevant facilities, including office space, computer, and travel facilitation
Funding
Funding for this Evaluation will be availed from SC/2008/0827 in line with IR 3.1.1 of the 2011 AWP.
How to apply
Motivation Letter, CV, P11 form, legalized photocopies of degrees, diplomas or certificates to be sent to: rwajobs@unicef.org
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