Call for a monitoring and evaluation consultant to conduct evaluation services in Kenya

Background about Leonard Cheshire Disability

Leonard Cheshire Disability’s is a UK-based charity with over 65 years’ experience and is one of the world’s largest Charities wholly dedicated to supporting persons with disabilities. Leonard Cheshire believes that children and adults with disabilities should have the rights, freedom and opportunities to access education, contribute economically and to participate fully and equitably in society.

The international department implements projects mostly around our inclusive education and inclusive livelihoods model and in partnership with our Global Alliance partner organisations, which are an extensive network of over 200 members in 54 countries. We have five regional offices in Africa and Asia and currently support projects in Bangladesh, China, India, Kenya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia.

GECT Project, Kenya

In Kenya, Leonard Cheshire Disability is implementing a 5 year UK Aid funded Girls Education Challenge Transition (GECT) project. The vision is to further and deepen the educational and vocational opportunities of girls with disabilities in the five sub-districts of: Mbita, Migori, Kisumu East, Kuria East and Siaya in the Lakes region of Kenya. The project started 1 April 2017 and continues until 31 March 2022. It follows on from our UK Aid funded Girls Education Challenge project which successfully completed in March 2017.

Scope of work

The project is seeking to procure the services of an independent External Evaluator to conduct a mixed-method, gender-sensitive evaluation of the ‘Expanding inclusive education strategies for girls with disabilities in Kenya’ GEC-T project over the next five years. The evaluation will assess the delivery, effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, appropriateness, compliance, VfM and impact of the project, and report the findings and lessons learnt throughout the process.

Objectives

• Assess progress towards the achievement of the targets for the three higher level project outcome: (increase learning, transition and sustainability); and the five intermediate outcomes: (improve attendance, teacher quality, self-esteem, attitudes and policy change to support the education and life chances for girls with disabilities) as set out in the project’s log frame.
• Demonstrate the impact of Leonard Cheshire Disability’s GEC inclusive education project at the:
  1. Individual,
  2. Household/community,
  3. School
  4. Systems-level (both local and national systems),

and especially how the project has:

• Increased independence of girls with disabilities to make their own life choices,
• Increased inclusion of girls with disabilities in school and society
• Increased opportunities for financial independence of girls with disabilities and their families.
• Provide key learning and recommendations for shaping LCD’s inclusive education model, especially for the following key components:
  • The inclusive education teaching training programme and support (especially how does teacher mentorship add value to teacher training and support and how does this reflect in practice)
  • Specific teaching and learning assessment for girls with moderate to severe intellectual learning disabilities
  • The male mentorship programme
  • The life skills training and peer mentorship
  • The approach for monitoring the implementation of national and local inclusive policies
  • Mainstream vocational opportunities for girls with disabilities
  • Identify the key components of the inclusive education model which could be considered as examples of good practice to a wider audience.

Expected Outputs

The main deliverables of this work are as follows:

• Inception report: setting out the design of the MEL strategy and plan and tools and associated planning, logistics, quality assurance, child protection measures and risk management information including gender analysis.
• Baseline study report: design, conduct and submit a baseline study that describes the initial conditions (before the start of project activities) against which progress can be measured or comparisons made to show the effects and impacts of the project in the final project evaluation report. A final report structure will be provided by the fund manager.
• Midline project evaluation report: design, conduct and submit a midline evaluation report that assesses the effectiveness, impact and VfM of the project at the midline point. A final report structure will be provided by the fund manager.
• Include presentation of findings
• Final project evaluation report: design, conduct and submit a final project evaluation report that assesses the effectiveness, impact and VfM of the project. A final report structure will be provided by the fund manager.
• Submission of all data sets and transcriptions

Timeframe and Budget

The estimated budget for this work is £100,000 to £140,000. This budget should cover the data collection, analysis and reporting for three [3] evaluation points baseline/mid-line and end-line. This budget is inclusive of all costs covering team member costs, travel, research costs, validation workshops and any other costs associated the completion of the work including where required costs for reasonable adjustment for people with disabilities. Bidders are required to organise and fund their own duty of care arrangements as required.

The project started 1 April 2017 and continues until 31 March 2022. The project is seeking to procure the services of an independent External Evaluator to conduct a mixed-method, gender-sensitive evaluation of the project over the next five years.

Contractual Responsibilities

• Reports to the GECT programme manager and will work collaboratively with learning impact and quality manager.
• The consultant will be responsible for managing the workload and delivering the products in a timely and efficient manner as set out in this document.
• The consultant will have regular reporting points with the Learning, Impact and Quality Manager and the team in Kenya, and will be expected to keep them informed on progress and key issues.
• The consultant will need to regularly communicate with project staff regionally as well as key staff in the UK office.

Knowledge Skills and Experience for the Consultancy

To successfully undertake this assignment, the consultant(s) should meet the following minimum requirements.

Bidders are required to clearly identify and provide CVs for all those proposed by the evaluation team, clearly stating their roles and responsibilities for this evaluation.

Please note that if the enumeration is to be sub-contracted, the evaluator will be ultimately responsible for the enumerators they are subcontracting to.

The proposed evaluation person/team should include the technical expertise and practical experience required to deliver the scope of work and evaluation outputs, in particular, with regards to:

• Evaluation design: the team should include skills and expertise required to design, plan and conduct mixed-method impact evaluation using quasi-experimental techniques;
• Skills in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, particularly applying the difference in differences approach to evaluate treatment effects, drawing findings from multiple sources and handling potential contradictions between data sets.
• Relevant subject matter knowledge and experience: knowledge and experience required on conducting research with children, the education sector, disability and gender to ensure that the evaluation design and research methods are as relevant and meaningful as possible given the aims and objectives of the project and the context in which it is being delivered;
• Evaluation management: manage a potentially large-scale and complex evaluation and research process from end-to-end, including conducting and reporting a baseline study and final project evaluation report.
• Primary research: gender-sensitive design, management and implementation of primary quantitative and qualitative research in potentially challenging project environments,– this includes the design of longitudinal household panel surveys, SEGRA /SEGMA tests, in-depth interviews, focus groups, etc.
• Country experience: it is particularly important that the team has the appropriate country knowledge /experience and language proficiency required to conduct the research required;
• Information management: design and manage gender - and marginalisation - disaggregated data and information systems capable of handling large datasets for MEL purposes;
• Statistical analysis: a range of statistical modelling and analysis of impact data; highly proficient user of: SPSS or STATA; and qualitative data analysis techniques, including the use of software e.g. ATLAS.ti, NVivo or equivalent where needed;
• VfM assessment of education projects: education economics expertise to conduct cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis as part of the assessment of the project’s VfM; and
• Safety considerations: Ensuring the whole evaluation process adhere to best practice for research with children including the implementation of child protection policy and procedures to ensure safety of participants. Note that all bidders are expected to be able to show that they have a child protection policy in place to safeguard children that the research team would come into contact with through the research activities.

Read full terms of reference.

Deadline: 26 November 2017