Save the Children Denmark is seeking consultants to conduct a comprehensive impact evaluation of the Horuminta Elmiga (HE) Somaliland Education Sector Programme.

Background

Save the Children is an international organisation dedicated to promoting children’s rights, providing quality education, and enhancing child protection and health. Save the Children has worked in Somalia for over 70 years and are a national and international leader in health and nutrition, education, child protection and child rights governance.

In Somaliland, Save the Children, together with CARE International and the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES), has been implementing the Horuminta Elmiga (HE) Education sector Programme since 2012. This programme aims to strengthen the education sector and enhance learning and employment opportunities for Somaliland’s youth.

Over 10 years on from the programme’s inception, Save the Children is seeking a Consultant to work on the Impact Evaluation of the HE Education Sector Support Programme. This evaluation will assess the long-term impact of programmatic support, with a focus on three primary areas: access to quality, equitable education, vocational training and job creation, and strengthening education system governance. The evaluation will document key achievements, identify valuable lessons, and provide actionable recommendations to guide future programming.

In 2012, the HE programme was launched to strengthen the education sector and enhance learning and employment opportunities for Somaliland’s youth. It is an education programme funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented in Somaliland’s six administrative regions (Awdal, Marodi-Jeh, Sahil, Sanaag, Sool and Togdheer) by a consortium of Save the Children as lead agency and CARE International in partnership with the MoES. Since the beginning in 2012, the project has supported 386 primary schools and 140 secondary schools in the six administrative regions.

The four programme cycles of the HE have included the following key activities:

• HE I (2012–2015): Capacity building for MoES at all levels, expanding educational access for children and youth, and strengthening pedagogical skills of teachers and trainers.
• HE II (2015–2018): Extending Basic Education (BE) and Non-Formal Education (NFE) to underserved areas, mainstreaming Basic Education for Pastoralists (BEP) and reaching children with special needs, implementing technical and vocational training, and advancing education systems management.
• HE III (2019–2021): Expanding educational opportunities for girls and children with special needs, implementing a literacy boost program at scale, and increasing female representation in teaching roles, and building on HE II’s education management systems and rolling out nationally.
• HE IV (2022–2025): Focussing on equitable access to education and inclusive vocational training, linking opportunities to job creation, and strengthening public institutions’ capacity for sustainable governance.

Purpose of the evaluation

The main objective of this consultancy is to conduct a comprehensive impact evaluation of the HE programme. The specific purpose is to:

1. To identify, analyse, and document higher level effects of more than ten years of support to the HE Education Sector Support Programme
2. To extract lessons learned and provide actionable recommendations to inform future programming.

Scope and evaluation method

The HE Education Sector Programme has a Somaliland wide reach with education sector strengthening, vocational training and school based activities in all of the regions of Somaliland. Please see the evaluation ToRs and Annex to the ToRs for a full list of regions, districts and schools.

The evaluation will focus on the OECD DAC Impact criteria. The other five DAC main criteria: Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Coherence and Sustainability, will also be assessed by the evaluation team using existing data and reports combined with KIIs. The evaluation will also include an additional (beyond DAC) criteria exploring operational issues around the implementation of the programme.

The evaluation is expected to employ a mixed-method approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. Methods should include Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), and other context-relevant tools. The evaluation is also expected to use an education system thinking approach for the aspects of the evaluation looking at the education sector systems strengthening.

It is expected that the evaluation will apply a quasi-experimental design using comparison groups through matching, regression discontinuity, propensity scores or another means for answering parts of the evaluation questions on the causal effects of programme activities. The focus will primarily be on phase 4 program activities, which involve 90 primary schools and 38 secondary schools across the six regions of Somaliland. These activities aim to improve job creation and/or learning outcomes. The exact focus of the quasi-experimental design of the evaluation will be decided in dialogue between the chosen consultants and the evaluation reference group and based on prior exploration by consultants of what is possible given the Somaliland context. The exact details of the design is to be provided in the Inception Report.

The evaluation will focus on three primary impact areas:

1. Access to Quality Education: Assess improvements in primary and secondary education access, quality of learning environments, and educational outcomes, with an emphasis on reaching vulnerable groups, including rural communities, girls, and children with special needs.
2. Vocational Training and Job Creation: Assess the socio-economic impact of vocational training initiatives on job creation and economic empowerment, especially among Somaliland’s youth, and the effectiveness of linking educational outcomes to employment opportunities.
3. Strengthening Education System: Assess the HE programme’s contribution to strengthening the education system in Somaliland including MoES’ capacity to lead, monitor, and govern the education system, including policy development, quality assurance, and institutional resilience. The assessment will also explore the programme’s impact on coordination with donors and alignment with international education standards.

The evaluation will be participatory, involving key stakeholders such as MoES, Save the Children staff, CARE International, and local communities.

The consultants will be responsible for conducting the qualitative and quantitative data collection, which should be done in collaboration with a local partner. This would include getting any permissions or approvals (including local ethics approval if required) for data collection, field team training, administering the survey, facilitating the interviews, monitoring etc. Data cleaning and analysis for the quantitative data needs to be performed in a standard statistical software (STATA, R, SPSS etc.). All reports should include context-based insights and adhere to Save the Children’s ethical standards, including safeguarding and data protection policies.

Deliverables

1. Inception report detailing evaluation criteria, methodology, data collection tools, sampling strategies and ethical considerations
2. Data collection tools for both qualitative and quantitative data collection, interview guidelines, and data mechanisms
3. Data and data analysis files for both quantitative and qualitative data, including raw data, programming files, cleaned data and any analysis files
4. Interim report with preliminary key findings and recommendations, identifying emerging and programmatic insights and risks
5. Draft evaluation report and final evaluation report summarizing findings, lessons learned, and actionable recommendations

Timeline

The evaluation is expected to be conducted between January to March 2025 with a final report available in April 2025.

Estimated manhours

A total of 10 weeks is estimated for the Team Leader

A total of 8 weeks is estimated for the Education Sector expert

A total of 10 weeks is estimated for the Somaliland based consultant

Please note that all the costs of the evaluation including the costs for data collection, hiring of enumerators and transportation, and travel costs for the consultants must be covered by the consultants and factored into the financial proposal to be submitted.

CONSULTANT PROFILE

The consulting team should have:

• Experience in designing and conducting outcome and impact evaluations in the education sector, including using experimental/quasi experimental design, and experience with Education System Thinking evaluations.
• Experience in conducting ethical and inclusive studies involving children and child participatory techniques.
• Experience in conducting evaluations in humanitarian contexts.
• Sound and proven experience in conducting evaluations based on OECD-DAC evaluation criteria, particularly utilisation and learning focused evaluations.
• Strong written and verbal skills in communicating technical and/ or complex findings to non-specialist audiences (especially report writing and presentation skills).
• Evaluation Team Leader (TL) must have more than 10 years’ experience designing, conducting, and leading outcome/impact evaluations, including using experimental/quasi experimental design and including experience from East Africa, preferably Somalia/Somaliland.
• Evaluation Team must have one international technical education sector expert with more than 10 years of experience undertaking assessments and evaluations in the education sector, including experience from East Africa, preferably Somalia/Somaliland
• Evaluation team must have Somaliland based consultant(s) or company registered to work in Somaliland as part of the team.
• CV and cover letter
• Technical proposal
• Financial proposal (all-inclusive rate, including estimated data collection and travel costs)
• Three professional references
• Three recent evaluation reports authored by the consultants
• Copies of registration certificates for the local firm in Somaliland

How to Apply:

Financial proposal

Save the Children seeks value for money in its work. This does not necessarily mean "lowest cost", but quality of the service and reasonability of the proposed costs. Proposals shall include personnel allocation (role / number of days / daily rates / taxes), as well as any other applicable costs.

Please note that all costs for data collection including hiring of enumerators and data collection team locally and all costs incurred with logistical arrangements such as domestic and international travel of consultants, accommodation, and rental of vehicles must be covered by the consultants and factored into the financial proposal to be submitted.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Submit the following by December 16th, 2024 to complete your application as per the ToR requirements.

Please send applications by email to evaluation@redbarnet.dk NO LATER THAN 12:00 CET December 16th, 2024