Call for Expression of Interest: Project Monitoring and Evaluation

Just.Childhood has been registered as a local, non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) with the Lebanese Ministry of Interior under number 2112 since 2014. It operates in the education sector and is autonomous, as well as politically and religiously independent.  Our goal is to actively protect the childhood of socially marginalized and traumatized children in Lebanon and to support them in their right to play, learn and develop in safety. Just.Childhood sees education as one of the core issues of its development work: especially early childhood education is the foundation of any secondary education. Improving early childhood education not only has an immediate positive impact on further education, but also shows positive effects on further education and employment opportunities in the medium and long term. Counteracts possible radicalization at an early stage. For these reasons, access to quality early childhood education is one of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. Just.Childhood's educational approach is based on the methods of early childhood Waldorf education. This approach, which is new in Lebanon, challenges the traditional mindset of early childhood education in the Palestinian camps and in various refugee contexts in Lebanon. Waldorf education promotes peaceful behavior by making a clear connection between violence and the way parents and teachers educate children, and recognizes that early childhood education is a critical developmental period. 

The project of Just.Childhood described here takes place in cooperation with the German association Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiner e.V. (Friends of Waldorf Education [FEW], a German NGO) and in particular with its Emergency Pedagogy department. The Emergency Pedagogy as an institution has been working in the field of psychosocial work in numerous crisis regions of the world since 2006. Emergency Pedagogy as a pedagogical concept is based on trauma pedagogy in connection with Waldorf education, Anthroposophical medicine and its extended therapies. The target groups of the Emergency Pedagogy are psycho-traumatized children and adolescents in war and disaster zones, and serves the psycho-social stabilization of those affected. They are to be supported in coping with traumatizing experiences and integrating them into their own biographies. The work of Emergency Pedagogy is neutral, impartial and independent.

Due to current developments in Lebanon such as the refugee situation (lack of return prospects and precarious living conditions for Syrian refugees, unresolved political situation with consequences for recognition, employment,and lifestyle of Palestinian refugees), COVID-19, the explosion disaster in the port of Beirut, and the absolute impoverishment and livelihood threat to Lebanese families, a strongly increasing need for psychosocial counseling services can be observed.

Within the framework of the main project of the local project executing agency, there were repeated requests from the community for psycho-social support. There is a particular need for capacity building and training of educators for child-friendly, non-violent interaction, especially with traumatized children, as well as psychoeducation seminars for parents. In the run-up to the project, Just.Childhood contacted existing structures and is part of the MHPSS task force, which is directly affiliated to the Ministry of Health.  There is contact with organizations working in the field of psychosocial support. The practical trauma education approaches are to be actively continued by the communities, governmental and non-governmental actors concerned after the end of the project period. This is done primarily through the intensive involvement of the actors involved and the community already in the project development, during the project planning phase and capacity building. In doing so, the approach is always a participatory one; this is the only way to ensure that the projects are meaningful, accepted and further developed. Just.Childhood aims to build a network of support with other stakeholders and interest groups to ensure that decision-makers further advance the conceptual safeguarding and sustainable anchoring of trauma and emergency education in the locally existing structures. 

The project to be evaluated consists of the following three main measures, which are to be implemented within the project period, and the targeted project sub-objectives (outputs):

1. Development of a Center for Emergency and Trauma Pedagogy and Family Counseling. Output: 1100 beneficiaries strengthened in dealing with trauma or stress-related experiences and reactions
2. Emergency and trauma pedagogical services for children aged 3 to 12 years in the Sabra and Shatila Camp, Karantina in Beirut, and adjacent neighborhoods. Output: Children and adolescents are strengthened in their ability to act after potential traumatic events.
3. Further training in Emergency and Trauma Pedagogy for lecturers, students and specialists in education, psychology, therapy and medicine. Output: Capacities of staff from various organizations are expanded in Emergency and Trauma Pedagogy

Due to the pilot character of the project, it is particularly important for the continuation of the project to scrutinize the effects of the work with a project-specific monitoring system and an evaluation based on baseline data at the end of the project in order to identify possibilities for change and need for action and to use limited resources effectively in the future. 

1. Purpose, Objectives and Use

In order to be able to check the progress of the project, a monitoring system has to be set up, which will help the local project executing agency to make well-founded decisions during the project period; and to possibly be able to make adjustments and to create a basis for the evaluation at the end of the project. 

A mixed approach of internal and external evaluation will be used. Project staff work hand in hand with the external evaluator, who brings experience and an outside perspective. In this way, employees gradually build up competencies, and the external evaluator ensures a neutral view. Scientifically based results on the effectiveness of emergency and trauma pedagogical methods as applied in the project create an important basis for future collaboration with other organizations and in cooperation with state institutions. The population affected by traumatic events in Lebanon will also benefit from the impact-oriented work beyond the project's duration if it is adapted on the basis of the monitoring and evaluation results.

For further details please refer to the pdf attached.