Project Evaluation consultant

Project Background

Safadi Foundation’s social development strategies encompass the Community-Based Participatory Approach in order to strengthen the resilience of all inhabitants in every aspect of their lives. Within this strategic framework, in 2015, the Foundation embarked on a comprehensive Social and Socio-Economic Participatory Assessment (SSEPA) in the old city of Tripoli. This assessment resulted in a set of 21 wide-ranging projects designed to respond to the socio-economic needs of the area under one programme entitled Revival of the Old-city’s Society & Economy (ROSE).

The first project to be implemented under the ROSE programme is the project Accelerated Vocational Training Centre for the Economic Inclusion of Tripoli’s Youth with the financial support of RDPP. This project began implementation on the 1^st of September 2017 and is expected to close on June 30, 2018. The project’s overall objective was to stimulate local economic development through fostering sustainable economic participation and resilience of vulnerable youth. Its specific objectives were to enhance the job skills of youth through accessible accelerated market-based training programs, to increase the integration of youth in the labour market through direct linkages to employment opportunities and to create a collective mechanism for promoting the economic rights of skilled youth.

Evaluation Purpose and Target Audience

The project evaluation aims at conducting a detailed assessment on the project objectives, outcomes and impact, with a focus on the method of implementation in reaching the desired effect on Tripoli’s youth and their economic inclusion under the framework of livelihood interventions. The evaluation consultant will be required to assess the project’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability and will have access to all key stakeholders of the project.

Target audience: The evaluation will be used by the Safadi Foundation’s MEAL stakeholders, including executive management to determine the performance of the project and to improve on project design of all the organization’s livelihood interventions. The evaluation will also be submitted to RDPP (DANIDA) to share with them the impact of their financial support in the project.

Evaluation Tasks and Questions

In order to understand the impact of the project and the Foundation’s programmatic strategy, the evaluation consultant needs to focus on determining how activities, methods applied, and overall outreach each played a role in the impact of the project.

In order to do so, the evaluation should answer the following questions:

Relevance:

• Did the intervention respond to key challenges that are confronted by youth in Tripoli and surrounding areas?
• Did the beneficiaries, local population and local employers find that the project responded to their/local needs?

Effectiveness

• Were the training programmes able to build the necessary capacities for youth to find jobs? What were its weaknesses/strengths?
• What are the strengths of accelerated vocational training?
• Can advocacy, soft skills or other psycho-social support contribute to improved competencies?
• What are the direct and indirect intended or unintended immediate and medium-term results of this first phase of the project as a livelihood intervention?

Sustainability

• To what extent will the benefits of the project continue to affect the beneficiaries after completion of training?
• What level of institutional sustainability was/can be reached by the Accelerated Vocational Training Centre.

This evaluation will include the following steps:

Preparation: Key project documentation will be provided to the consultant and will include the project proposal, logframe, internal activity reports, and monitoring data. The consultant will subsequently draft a revised methodology plan, work plan and evaluation tools, which will be reviewed and finalised with the SF project team.

Fieldwork: The consultant will then collect data, carry out interviews and focus group discussions. The fieldwork will be carried out in Tripoli and in some informal settlements for Syrian refugees.

Analysis: All collected data, obtained through the methodology, should form part of a comprehensive analysis that leads to lessons learned and list of recommendations.

Presentation: At the end of the fieldwork and before submitting the draft report, the consultant will lead present their initial observations, conclusion and recommendations to the project team.

A draft report responding fully to these terms of reference to be revised by assigned team members.

A final report taking into account the observations and comments of the Foundation’s team.

Deliverables

• Evaluation plan
• Tools for data collection
• Presentation
• Draft report
• Final report