Consultant to External Evaluation

Project: “Improved Education for Ethnic Minorities in Muong Te district, Lai Chau province”

TOR for external evaluation

1. Background:
Church World Service (CWS) is an American NGO, which began its work in Vietnam in 1954. Since then, CWS Vietnam has supported Vietnam continuously with projects primarily focusing on improving health services, access to water and sanitation, nutrition for children, education for ethnic minorities and disaster relief.

Starting from January 2010, CWS Vietnam and its project partners in Muong Te district, Lai Chau province began the project “Improved Education for Ethnic Minorities in Muong Te district, Lai Chau province”. The project is funded by the Finish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (FELM) and lasts for three years, 2010-2012. Under this project, many activities mainly focusing on capacity building, development and promotion of a child-friendly learning environment, raising awareness and promotion of health and hygiene behaviors in ethnic minority communities of the Muong Te district, have been implemented to achieve the following impact and outcomes of the project:

Impact
Improved quality of life for ethnic minority people in Muong Te district by increasing the access to and the quality of the educational service.

Outcome
More ethnic students, especially girls, at preschools, primary and lower secondary schools enroll and graduate from their respective level

2. The evaluation:
2.1 Purpose and specific objectives:
The project is now coming to its end in 2012, and thus there is a need for carrying out an external evaluation to collect information and evaluate project achievements as well as to measure initial impacts of the project.

The specific objectives are including:
To assess the extent the project has met its objectives and targets
To assess performance and progress of the project, including strengths and weaknesses, relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, process (participation) and sustainability;
To assess the achievements, successes, and initial impacts of the project;
To identify gaps and challenges in the district education sector that may need resources for further possible programming;
To make recommendations for possible project phase 2 programming;

2.2Expected outputs:
The consultant will produce the following deliverables:
1)Proposal paper with detailed methodology, field operational plan and final data collection tools.
2)Draft evaluation report
3)Oral/visual presentation of the draft report for CWS staff and project partners
4)Final evaluation report

The final evaluation report should be submitted both in English and Vietnamese, to CWS, and it should include:
An assessment of project progress compared to work plans and a description of why plans were or were not achieved
An assessment of the project performance, focusing on relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, process (participation) and sustainability, and recommendations on strengthening of project implementation
Four to five stories from individuals involved/participated/benefited from the project
Gaps that may need further resources and recommendations for possible project phase 2 programming 

2.3 Methodology:
The evaluation team leader is expected to design a proposal paper with suitable approaches to collect both quantitative and qualitative information for the evaluation.   

At all times the consultants are expected to collaborate with CWS staff and project partners in Muong Te, either during the field survey or in the office. All survey forms, data collection and analysis, draft and final reports should be in consultation with CWS.

2.4 Work locations and timeline:
The consultant service is expected to be implemented within the period from April to June, 2012. As such, the field survey (of about 10 days including travel time) is expected to be conducted in project communes and schools in Muong Te during late April early May for the final report to be available by June 30th, 2012. The details of time frame and of major steps in the process should be clearly elaborated in the consultant’s proposed work plan.

3. The evaluation team and requirements:
It is anticipated that an evaluation team consisting of a leading evaluation consultant and his/her assistant is needed. The consultant will lead the team to carry out the evaluation. The team member will report directly to the leading evaluation consultant.
The below are professional requirements for the leading evaluation consultant:
Experience in development project evaluations
Knowledge and practical experience in basic education and in health and hygiene promotion in schools.
Good understanding and working experiences with ethnic minority populations, particularly those in the north-west of Vietnam
Fluent written Vietnamese and English skills

The following experience and skills are seen as advantages:
Experience in the child-friendly school library, the child-centered teaching methodology, and the IEC (Information-Education-Communication)
Good communication, facilitation, analytical and writing skills.

Interested candidates please send an application letter and detailed CVs to [email protected] no later than March 20th 2012.