Evaluation Consultant

Background and Evaluation Objective

Hay el Gharbe is an impoverished area in Beirut which hosts poor Lebanese families, many of Dom ethnicity, and Syrian refugees. People living in Hay el Gharbe have little to no access to public services including healthcare, education, sanitation, and security. Additionally, the Dom population, although allowed the right for naturalization, do not own formal legal documentation which further excludes them from accessing these services. Without an ID, a person cannot get officially married, and their children in turn cannot receive IDs and will also be unable to access public services.

IRADE is a program which focuses on improving the population’s social, economic, and mental wellbeing through several components. Through IRADE, the Dom population are assisted to obtain IDs which would allow them to be integrated in the society and gives them access to different public services. Another component of IRADE is the ILearn@Home program which provides informal education to out-of-school Syrian refugees and Dom children. Educated mothers from the community are trained by the Tahaddi Education Centre coordinator and teachers to teach children in their homes. To increase the population’s economic wellbeing, IRADE provides pre-vocational and vocational training to youth and adults in order to find job placements and make income. Some of the trainings include but are not limited to, sewing, IT skills, mediation skills, and financial literacy. Considering the poor mental and emotional wellbeing of the population in Hay el Gharbe as a result of traumas, the program provides individual and group psychosocial support to those in need per referrals or request. The parents also participate in positive parenting support groups where they are taught about how to strengthen their relationships with their children. The final component of the IRADE program is recreational activities provided to youth to develop creative aptitude and improve psychosocial wellbeing. These activities include football training, storytelling, and drama.

Between December 2018 and February 2019, Tahaddi conducted a community assessment in Hay el Gharbe while integrating tools from Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) to facilitate the process. Throughout this period, Tahaddi conducted 12 focus group discussions, transect walks which helped produce a community asset mapping, and two outreach activities. The first outreach activity focused on employability and training, surveying employers to gain a better understanding of youth opportunities in the labour market and labour demand. The second outreach exercise sought to identify new markets for the Tahaddi income-generating sewing program, with focus on bulk orders.

Program Goal

To promote and improve social, economic, and mental wellbeing of vulnerable households living in Hay el Gharbe.

Program Outcomes

Long-term Outcomes (6 years)

1. Marginalized community members have enhanced perceived and actual agency to advance their rights and execute their responsibilities within their community and families;
2. Out-of-learning children and adolescent youth realize improved educational outcomes, and vulnerable of-age youth and adults have marketable skills and decent work opportunities;
3. At-risk children, youth, women, and men are better able to cope with social and economic stresses.

To achieve the long-term outcomes, this project aims to attain the following intermediate outcomes in three (3) years:

1. Marginalized Lebanese and Syrian community members have the knowledge, resources, and motivation to secure identification papers and/or access public services;
2. Out-of-learning children and adolescent youth have improved access to educational and vocational training actives, and vulnerable of-age youth and adults have access to skills training and income-generating opportunities;
3. At-risk children, youth, women, and men engage in enhanced support systems and community mechanisms to promote mental health and wellbeing.

The objective for this evaluation is to identify key lessons learned and recommendations for the following three years of the program to achieve the long-term outcomes.

This evaluation will inform the re-designing process of the following three years of the program.

Goal

   a. Evaluation goal

To gather lessons learned for the recalibration of the following three years of the program and to gain an understanding of the relevance, impact, and effectiveness of the program's first three years in the lives of the population in Hay el Gharbe. All five components of the program need to be evaluated individually.

   b. Evaluation objectives and questions

The objectives and questions are organised according to OECD-DAC criteria for evaluating humanitarian action:

Relevance: Whether and to what extent the projects addressed the needs and priorities of the target groups and were aligned with relevant partner and donor policies and priorities.

• Did beneficiaries feel that the IRADE activities were relevant to their needs and priorities?
• Did Tahaddi feel that the IRADE activities were relevant to the needs and priorities of the beneficiaries in their communities?
• Did Tahaddi have the capacity, experience, and expertise to carry out the activities envisaged?
• What lessons can be learned for future program activities, especially to ensure they are relevant to community needs and priorities? 
• What opportunities exist to expand future IRADE program activities that are relevant to the challenges Lebanon faces nationally?

Effectiveness: Whether and to what extent the projects delivered the outputs and achieved the intended outcomes.

• What were the supportive factors and obstacles encountered during the implementation of the project which influenced the achievement or non-achievement of the objectives?
• Are the beneficiaries satisfied with the quality and delivery of project activities?
• To what extent have program activities focused on, addressed, and resulted in gains in gender equity, disability inclusion, and inclusion of marginalized groups?

Impact: Whether and to what extent the projects have had a positive impact on the economic, social, and mental wellbeing of project beneficiaries.

• What were the direct and indirect, intended and unintended, positive and negative impacts that program activities made on the lives of beneficiaries?  
• Were program activities realistic or effective given the realities?
• What can be done to maximize the impact of future program activities?

Methodology

This will be a participatory evaluation providing for active and meaningful involvement by beneficiaries and other relevant stakeholders. This evaluation will include interviews with key MERATH and Tahaddi staff; Focus Group Discussions and/or phone call interviews with beneficiaries of previous project phases; as well as desk research.

Deliverables/Expected Outputs

The consultant will draft a report that will be shared with the partner organisations involved in the projects.  Additionally, the consultant will provide direct feedback, as required, to the partner organizations. 

The Consultant is responsible for:

• Guidance and directions to achieve the purpose and objectives of the evaluation.
• Conducting the evaluation.
• The day–to–day management of operations of this evaluation assignment.
• Regular progress reporting to MERATH’s Program Coordinator, particularly if any unforeseen issues arise.
• The development of results.
• Consolidation and presentation of evaluation findings and writing the final evaluation report.
• The production of deliverables in accordance with contractual requirements.
• Inception Plan

Qualifications Sought

• Consultant will have strong expertise in responding to different crises in complex contexts such as Lebanon, as well as substantial experience in M&E.
• Consultant will have significant prior experience conducting similar high-quality lessons learned exercises.
• Consultant will have a keen understanding of community-based development projects and will also ideally have experience working with small-scale community-based organizations to carry out relief and development projects.
• Consultant will follow participatory, strengths-based approaches to the evaluation. Consultant will demonstrate respect for all project implementers and focus on capturing the strengths, successes, and lessons learned of the projects and not solely the problems or challenges.
• Consultant will have a keen understanding of the significant challenges of working within the Lebanese context, especially in Hay el Gharbe.
• The consultant will engage openly with the local community, listen to, and synthesise varied perspectives.
• Consultant will ensure children, youth, women, girls and people with disabilities participate in the evaluation process.