Disabity Projects Evaluation

MAP Project Evaluation Terms of Reference

Organisation

MAP’s vision is of a future in which all Palestinians can access an effective, sustainable and locally-led system of healthcare and the full realisation of their rights to health and dignity.

To achieve this, we work in collaboration with Palestinian communities and trusted local partners to answer a wide range of health and social needs, from providing vital medical aid in emergencies, to developing better health services for the long term. We also uplift the voices of Palestinians, and campaign for an end to the barriers to health and dignity that come from living through occupation, displacement, discrimination and conflict.

Background of assignment

MAP has been supporting three disability projects in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon. One in North Lebanon (Beddawi and Nahr el Bared camps) implemented in partnership with local NGO Community Based Rehabilitation Association (CBRA) with continuous support for around 5 years. The second project is run by local partner Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation (GKCF) in Mar Elias camp in central Lebanon area, but it serves families from other camps (Shatila and Burj el Barjneh) and impoverished neighbourhood in Beirut. MAP has been supporting this project continuously since around 8 years. The third disability project is implemented by the Palestinian Women Humanitarian Organisation (PWHO) in Al Bass camp in South Lebanon with continuous support from MAP since more than 11 years. The project’s services are accessible to families from surrounding camps (Rashidyeh and Burj el Shemali camps) and Palestinian gatherings in Tyre area.

For these projects, MAP’s financial contribution usually varies between 20-70% of the projects overall budget. Although there are some differences between these three projects in terms of the available services and the approach, all three work to raise community awareness to promote inclusion, support caregivers and involve them in intervention plans, and provide early intervention specialised services to children with disabilities.

Unfortunately, MAP did not have the opportunity to externally evaluate the three projects in recent years. With the funding limitations and significant increase in needs of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon amid the country’s worst economic crisis, MAP is working to ensure support to the most impactful interventions that respond to the community needs and promote the health and wellbeing to this highly marginalised and vulnerable population group. Thus, the evaluation will help inform our future planning in this thematic priority area, Lebanon programme developments, and prioritization of support.

Objectives of the Evaluation

The purpose of the evaluation is to:

• Audit the outcomes, quality, and measurable impact on health and well-being of the three projects.
• Inform MAP’s decisions related to future projects planning, improvements, developments, and continuity of funding.
• Inform MAP’s decisions related to prioritization of support and Lebanon programme developments in general.
• Provide assurance to MAP related to supported projects’ quality, responsiveness to community priority needs, and impact.
• Highlight what is working well and less well.

The scope of the evaluation: The evaluation will be limited to review projects phases between 2021- 2023.

The primary intended users of the evaluation are MAP and the local partners running these projects.

Assess the extent to which the project has performed against the following framework

(a) Availability. Functioning services have to be available in sufficient quantity for the entire target population. If not, prioritization or selection criteria in place are sensible and ensure inclusion of the most in need.

(b) Accessibility. Services must be accessible to everyone without discrimination, within the target group and area. Accessibility has four overlapping dimensions:

i). Non-discrimination: services must be accessible to all, especially the most vulnerable or marginalised sections of the target population, without discrimination on any of the prohibited grounds.

ii). Physical accessibility: services must be within safe physical reach for all sections of the target population, especially vulnerable or marginalised groups, such as ethnic minorities, women, children, adolescents, older persons, and persons with disabilities. This includes adequate access to buildings for persons with disabilities.

iii). Economic accessibility (affordability): services must be affordable for all. Any payment for services has to be based on the principle of equity, ensuring that these services are affordable for all, including socially disadvantaged groups. Equity demands that poorer households should not be disproportionately burdened with expenses as compared to richer households.

iv). Information accessibility: accessibility includes the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas concerning health issues. However, accessibility of information should not impair the right to have personal health data treated with confidentiality.

(c) Acceptability. All services must be respectful of medical ethics and culturally appropriate, i.e. respectful of the culture of individuals, minorities, peoples and communities, sensitive to gender and life-cycle requirements, as well as being designed to respect confidentiality and improve the health status of those concerned.

(d) Quality. As well as being culturally acceptable, services must also be scientifically and medically appropriate (where relevant) and of good quality. Quality health services should be:

• Safe – avoid harming those people receiving services.

• Effective – providing evidence-based services delivered by suitably skilled professionals. This includes:

• Reviewing quality of the services provided by the projects and the technical soundness of their approaches and alignment with international standards and best practices related to this area of work in similar contexts.
• Looking at the way and tools used to measure impact of the projects for the assisted children and their families and the community in general and suggesting recommendations for improvements when needed.

• People-centred – providing care that responds to individual preferences, needs and values.

• Timely – reducing waiting times and potentially harmful delays.

• Equitable – providing care that does not vary in quality on account of gender, ethnicity, geographic location, socio-economic or other status.

• Integrated – providing care that makes available the full range of health services throughout the life course.

• Efficient – maximising the benefit of available resources and avoiding waste.

(e) Accountability. Beneficiaries are able to influence decisions about the services they receive and can give feedback and complain if they feel those services are not planned, delivered, or developed well.

(f) Participation. Participation should ensure that all concerned stakeholders, especially our partners and beneficiaries, have meaningful input to all phases of the programming cycle: assessment, analysis, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and learning. Such participation is the foundation for true accountability in our work.

Project Impact:  

Impact evaluation question 1: Are the projects contributing to reducing inequitable access to health care services for people with disabilities.

Impact evaluation question 2: Are the projects contributing to promoting social inclusion and participation of people with disabilities within community-based services and activities.

Proposed Sources of Data

1. Review of project documents
2. Review of needs assessments, situational reports, briefings and other reports that help understand the situation and needs of Palestinian refugees with disabilities in Lebanon.
3. Field visits and observations
4. Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions and/or surveys with MAP, partners, key stakeholders (if needed), and project beneficiaries/local community

Duration

The evaluation is expected to start in November 2023 and be completed by mid-December 2023.

Deliverables

• Inception report in English for MAP discussion and approval before beginning data collection
• Sharing draft data collection tools in advance
• Draft final report in English with relevant findings and recommendations
• Present and discuss report findings with MAP and partner organisation(s).
• Final report in English and make all original data, interviews and transcripts available to MAP.

Qualifications of consultant/team

• Proven experience in measuring programme quality and impact on health and well being
• Experience in the implementation or evaluation of health programmes with a focus on disability.

• Technical expertise in the area of disability.
• Proven strong statistical analysis skills and use of a recognized statistical package
• Experience in project design, monitoring, evaluation, and coordinating participatory research
• Strong analytical skills for developing and delivering best practices and lessons learned
• Understanding of the Palestinian health system in Lebanon
• Awareness of & commitment to good safeguarding practice
• Has a rights-based approach to disability
• Has experience in the MENA region
• Excellent analytical and report writing skills
• Excellent command of English. Speaking/understanding Arabic language is a plus.

Application and selection process

Proposals should include the CVs of the evaluation team (including references), a proposed work plan/schedule and budget. Applicants will be evaluated as follows:

• Technical Approach and Methodology: 50%
• Qualifications and Experience (include CV/s): 30%
• Financial proposal: 20%

Interested consultants/companies/organisations are encouraged to send their technical and financial proposal to [email protected] with email title “External Evaluation- Lebanon Disability projects”.

The deadline for receiving proposals is 12^th October 2023 15:00 Lebanon time.

For regional consultants, MAP and/or partner NGOs will facilitate needed permits to enter the Palestinian camps where the projects centres are located (if needed) and will support on logistic arrangements. MAP will also provide a full safety and security briefing for the consultants prior to commencing field work. The selected consultant(s) will be required to abide by MAP’s Safeguarding policy and to sign our Code of Conduct.

Budget

The budget limit for this assignment is no more than USD 10,000. This amount includes all costs including travel, accommodation, and all expenses needed by the consultant to complete the evaluation.

N.B: Please check the attached ToRs for more details.