Terms of Reference
Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant
Seenaryo Scenechangers: Employing Youth and Building their Skills through Theatre in Classrooms
2023-2027
Organisation: SEENARYO
Project: Seenaryo Scenechangers: Employing youth and building their skills through theatre in classrooms
Project Location: Lebanon, Jordan
Consultancy Duration: A maximum of 40 days over 12 months (Spring 2023-Spring 2024)
Assignment Duration: 12 months with the possibility of extension to 4 years based on performance and funding.
Introduction
As the rising generation of leaders and decision makers, youth possess vast potential to bring fresh hope, insight and change to their communities. However, with the world’s highest youth unemployment rate (Jordan at 24% and Lebanon at 37%), youth opportunities are severely limited in the MENA region, and a 2020 survey shows that nearly half of 18- to 24-year-olds have considered emigrating. Meanwhile, teaching quality in schools in both Lebanon and Jordan is limited by lack of resources and training. The lack of opportunity to build transferable skills and the resulting spiral of poverty and low self-esteem has created an urgent mental health crisis, as well as an economic one. World Vision estimates that 541,000 young people in Lebanon are at risk of early marriage and being forced into child labor as parents struggle to put food on the table. In Jordan, 1 out of 10 women are married before the age of 18. The suicide rate in Lebanon has also drastically increased, with 16% of youth aged 12-14 years admitting they have suicidal thoughts. In light of these alarming numbers, it is more crucial than ever to rekindle hope and a sense of agency for youth, as well as to provide pathways for training and sustainable employment.
Having reached over 100,000 children, youth, women and teachers since 2015, Seenaryo believes in the power of theatre to equip people with the tools to collaborate, think critically and build transferable skills - supporting them to be powerful agents of their own lives and positive contributors to their societies. While making theatre, Seenaryo is continuously training up facilitators, trainees and youth leaders to lead the work themselves, with the aim of enhancing our participants’ employability and opening up income-earning opportunities.
Project Summary
Funded by the DROSOS Foundation, Seenaryo is launching the “Seenaryo Scenechangers” project in March 2023 which aims at providing sustained employment pathways for youth who have upskilled through theatre under Seenaryo’s programming. The project will train and employ 128 youth Scenechangers (aged 18-30) to teach the curriculum through theatre, embedding them in schools to run play-based, participatory workshops that respond to curriculum needs for 9-16 year olds. These workshops will in turn build the life skills, engagement and wellbeing of a total of 20,800 School Youth who will participate in workshop-classes taught by Scenechangers. The project as a whole, which reaches 23,680 beneficiaries, will embed theatre into the heart of the school day in a way that is unique in the region, exposing thousands of youth to theatre for the first time, transforming the atmosphere of schools, and, on the long-run, embedding theatre into national educational policy in our countries.
The overall impact of this project is to sustainably employ youth and build their skills for life, by introducing theatre to classrooms. By using theatre as a uniquely powerful way to teach both the curriculum and life skills, the Scenechangers project will “change the scene” in the lives of our Scenechangers; who will, in turn, change scenes for the School Youth they teach; and the project as a whole will change the scene in the 48 schools in which we will work.
Purpose and Objective of Assignment
The consultant is contracted by SEENARYO to conduct an ongoing formative evaluation of the project and document learnings and contributions of the project to the objectives of SEENARYO Programmes. Unlike a traditional evaluation process, this model’s purpose is to follow the project implementation on a continuous basis and provide periodic recommendations and support in fine-tuning implementation based on lessons learnt. The consultancy will cover the implementation period, from 1 April 2023 to 1 April 2024 with the possibility of extension based on performance and funding. A willingness and availability to commit to a long-term consultancy is an asset. The consultants will work closely with the project staff and in close coordination with Seenaryo’s Senior Management Team.
The objectives of the monitoring and evaluation include:
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Develop participatory and practical monitoring and evaluation tools to monitor the impact of project activities, in conversation with Seenaryo team
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Provide ongoing technical support to the project staff in troubleshooting tools and continuing to adapt them as the project continues; as well as ensuring learnings are understood and carried forward throughout the organisation
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Document the learning (process and impact) throughout and at the end of the project
Project Content & Target Group
The project engages two main target youth groups: initially with 128 Scenechangers (aged 18-30) and then, through the Scenechangers rollout, with 20,800 younger School Youth from Grades 3 - 9 (aged 9-16). In addition, the project will reach 352 schoolteachers (Scenechangers will work in 48 schools by Year 4, leading sessions with four different classes in each school). We aim to target two geographic areas in each country (Bekaa and Akkar in Lebanon, and Irbid and Tafileh in Jordan), working with a total of 48 schools: roughly 6 schools in each of the 4 regions. Some initial research & development and pilot sessions may also take place in Beirut and East Amman.
The breakdown of beneficiaries by project activity is as follows:
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Studio Productions & National Tours: 64 youth (4 cohorts of 16) create 4 productions and perform them twice in their local regions, then tour them nationally 2 times each. Their shows reach a total of 2,400 audience members (4 shows are performed 4 times each, reaching 150 audience members at each performance).
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Scenechangers Training: The 64 youth are joined by a further 64 youth graduates from other Seenaryo theatre programmes (who have created theatre with Seenaryo and are looking for further skills development and employment opportunities). The 128 Scenechangers are trained over 10 days. The most promising 96 Scenechangers are then selected to run 3 practice sessions in pairs with 960 youth in local community spaces (48 pairs each work with 20 children).
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Scenechangers Rollout: The fully-trained Scenechangers reach a total of 19,840 School Youth by teaching cycles of six theatre-based sessions in schools. 64 Scenechangers go into schools in the first year of rollout; and 48 in the second and third years.
Scope of Assessment
Review of current tools
- Review the implementation and delivery of all Seenaryo and the tools currently used to evaluate these interventions; provide feedback and suggested adaptations where relevant
Design and guide implementation of an M&E system for the Scenechangers project
- Review the project logical framework and existing monitoring mechanisms
- Develop and improve monitoring and evaluation tools after testing
- Support ongoing reflection on tools and analysis sessions
- Recommend appropriate innovative ideas for reporting and documentation
- Use a participatory approach in building the capacity of the project team
Ongoing process and outcome evaluation- Assess the ongoing results and changes to the direct and indirect target groups in the Scenechangers project, and provide insights on mid-course adjustments
- Reflect and inform on strategic changes – changes in community, social impact
- Distil the learning from interventions to draw clear and practical technical recommendations for the sustainability of the activities beyond the project duration
Evaluate the project impact and document knowledge resulting from the learning:
- Develop a learning and action guide that combines all developed tools through the process
- Develop comprehensive evaluation reports, reporting and analysing project data, and drawing learnings from the and process of ongoing evaluation
- Reflect on the Seenaryo organisation-wide intermediate outcomes and assess the contribution of the project to those outcomes
Expected Outcomes and suggested timeline
1. May 2023: After the final selection, the evaluator or the evaluator team submits an inception report that includes a detailed evaluation methodology and time plan.
2. June 2023: Baseline report including review of the monitoring and evaluation tools
3. June 2023: Collective workshops with the project team on monitoring tools
4. October 2023: Publication of learning and working guide that combines the tools and the process
On an ongoing basis throughout the year:
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Collective quarterly workshops with the project team to provide ongoing support in reflection and analysing information
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Regular monthly update meetings and emails on ongoing evaluation (roughly monthly)
The Scenechangers project will continue beyond the 2023-24 year to end in mid-2027. If the Monitoring & Evaluation Consultant is able to commit beyond the first year to the full four years of the project, expected outcomes in 2024-27 will be as follows:
1. January 2025: Draft of mid-term evaluation report
2. December 2026: Draft of final evaluation report.
3. December 2026: A final comprehensive report on the project outcomes and evidences for change
4. Oral presentation of final report findings to Seenaryo team.
On an ongoing basis between 2024 and 2027:
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Collective quarterly workshops with the project team to provide ongoing support in reflection and analysing information
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Regular monthly update meetings and emails on ongoing evaluation (roughly monthly)
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Annual briefings for the Seenaryo Senior Management Team on the evaluation (max 3 pages) that shall include:
o Summary of the project content and task of the evaluator
o Review of project outcomes
o Key findings at the end of the on-going evaluation process
o Potential for sustainability
o Key recommendations for future projects from the evaluation
Candidate Qualifications
The evaluation may be carried out by an individual consultant or by a team of consultants.
The evaluator(s) should have the following qualifications and skills:
- Demonstrated solid and diversified experience in conducting evaluations of
development projects, preferably creative and artistic projects.
- Solid experience in project and M&E design
- Ability to work with grassroots organisations
- Based in Lebanon or Jordan with extensive knowledge of the context and experience in the SJLP is preferable.
- Willing to travel to locally to and within the areas of implementation
- Willing to work over an extended mandate.
- Fluent in English and Arabic (if a team of evaluators applies, different team members
can cover different language skills).
- Excellent report writing and presentation skills in English and in Arabic.
- Experience in conducting on-going evaluations is a plus
How to Apply
Interested applicants must submit an updated CV and cover letter to rami@seenaryo.org along with a financial proposal for 12 months based on the scope of work detailed above.
The financial proposal should cover all objectives and detail corresponding number of working days per objective, with no more than 40 working days overall (but the total number of days may be substantially less). The financial offer should specify a daily rate within the range of $100-$300 per day, depending on levels of experience. The candidate should list 3 most recent previous consultancies and the corresponding daily rates awarded for each.