Consultant for Final Evaluation of “Eye Care Project”

1. General Information:

1.1. Context of Eye care and refractive errors:

A global analysis of the data on visual impairment indicates that more than 314 million people in the world are visually impaired, due to either eye diseases or uncorrected refractive errors. Of this number 45 million people are blind (WHO, 2006). Most people with visual impairment are older, and females are more at risk at every age, in every part of the world. About 87% of the world’s visually impaired live in developing countries. Cataract remains the leading cause of blindness globally, except in the most developed countries. Correction of refractive errors could give normal vision to more than 12 million children (ages five to 15). About 85% of all visual impairment is avoidable.

Globally, uncorrected refractive errors are the main cause of visual impairment which partly contributed to blindness in the population. The current refractive error (RE) rate in Vietnam is estimated at 15% to 30% of the population, or about 13 to 26 million people (POP 88.772.884, Census 2012). According to a 2003 survey, about 71% of people with RE had no correction, and a large number (30.6%) wore incorrect spectacles.

Estimated RE rate among schoolchildren in cities of 25% - 40% and in rural areas of 10% - 15%, which mean about 2.131.000 - 2.841.000 children (6 - 15 y/old) need glasses.

1.2. ECF in Vietnam:

The Eye Care Foundation (ECF) aims to prevent and cure avoidable blindness and visual impairment in developing countries. The main focus of the Eye Care Foundation is on setting up sustainable eye care projects in Nepal, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Tanzania and to assist the poorest people for whom medical care is inaccessible or unaffordable.

In Vietnam, ECF has contributed to build eye care capacity in Vietnam since 1993. ECF works on curative and preventive care in Vietnam and its goals are to improve eye care quality and to reduce the backlog with regard to cataract operations. Since 2014, ECF’s main activities are on refractive errors, including:

• Donations of instruments and equipment for establishment of comprehensive eye care services, including Vision Centers;
• Providing training for eye care professionals in various levels at governmental health organization;
• Providing training for commune health volunteers and school nurses in primary eye care so they can more easily recognize eye problems;
• Regular eye screening for schoolchildren and elderly in the remote areas, providing them with spectacles or referring them to an eye clinic.
• Raising awareness for local people on the importance of having good eye sight.

2. Summary of the project:

In collaboration with the Social Disease Prevention Centres, the project focuses on the prevention and treatment of avoidable blindness in poor people living in the rural areas of 4 provinces of Ca Mau, Soc Trang, Dong Thap and Binh Duong for a duration of 4 years. Quality improvement has a high priority. In order to improve the quality, refractive service will be strengthened or added to eye units and departments. Eye care or medical staff receive training. To improve the quality of the service, eye care facilities are provided with adequate instruments, equipment and tools.

This project aims to:

• Improve the quality of the eye care service.
• Set up a sustainable and comprehensive refractive system.
• Provide accessible refractive eye care services for vulnerable people.
• Increase the number of people with corrected refractive errors.

Objectives:

• Achieve uncorrected visual acuity of better than 6/18 to at least 50% of all post-operative cataract patients, operated in the province.
• Establish sustainable and comprehensive refractive services in 4 out of 9 districts in the province and improve the quality of the refractive service in existing eye care facilities.
• Screen 100% of all school children at secondary school level in the selected districts for refractive errors.
• Screen 20,000 people of 50 years and older in the selected districts for refractive errors.
• Raise awareness of local government and community on how eye conditions can be prevented and treated.

Main activities:

• Implement and strengthen the management of post-operative VA protocol after cataract operations.
• Set up refraction service at different levels in the eye care service.
• Strengthen the capacity of refraction services for district level.
• Develop and organise school screening programs.
• Develop and organise screening programs for elderly people.
• Make instruments and equipment available.

3. Final evaluation objectives:

• To evaluate the project outputs and outcomes, identify challenges in the project implementation and to come up with recommendations for improvement in the next phase.
• To evaluate the operation of the Refraction Units under management of the District Health Centers in 4 provinces and recommendations for a model of Refraction Unit development in other districts/provinces.

Scope of work:

For the objective 3.1:

• Relevance:
  
  • Does the project meet the needs of local people in having access to a quality eye care services at primary level and able to solve those problems and issues faced by them?
  • Is the project approach suitable to the context, taking into account the screening outreach including glasses provision, setting up Refraction Unit and building capacity for school nurses and refractionists?

• Effectiveness:
  
  • Are project activities implemented according to the plan? Are the output and outcome objectives achieved as planned? Are there any supporting or hindering factors?
  • What are the effect of the project activities (outreach and glass provision) on elderly people and school children? Are there any changes afterwards?
  • Are there any most significant change that occur during the project implementation?

• Efficiency:
  
  • What is the relationship between the inputs and outcome? Are they appropriate and relevant?
  • Are there any interventions that can achieve the expected outcomes with less cost/inputs? (optional)

• Impact:
  
  • Are there any impact that the project has achieved?

• Sustainability:
  
  • Can the results of the project remain after the project completion?

For the objective 3.2:

• Is the Refraction Unit set up to meet the local demand? How is the quality of refraction service provided by the Refraction Unit?
• What is the output and outcome of the Refraction Units?
• What are difficulties of the Refraction Unit in providing eye care services to local people? In terms of human resources, place, management, financing…
• What are challenges of the Refraction Unit in attaining sustainability?
• What are recommendations to make the Refraction Unit a model for application in other districts or provinces?
• Evaluation methodology

4. Source of information:

• Secondary and first-hand information through interviews with beneficiaries, partners at provincial and district level,
• Qualitative data collection and analysis

5. Timeframe and deliverables:

Timeframe: The final evaluation is expected to be carried out from 1st July and not extend beyond 30th July. The first draft of the report will be submitted to ECF on the 10th August. The final report is due on the 20th August 2017.

Deliverables:

A report that not exceed 20 pages in Vietnamese and English (excluding annexes) comprise of the following parts:

• Summary
• Background info
• Objective, scope and methodologies
• Findings
• Conclusion
• Lessons learnt
• Recommendations
• Annexes

6. Qualifications:

• At least 10 years of experience working in public health, experience in eye health is an advantage.
• Experience in business development.
• Extensive experience in organisational development and capacity building for local health government services.
• Extensive experience in conducting project/project evaluations,  impact  assessment, to provide strategic recommendations for continued support/development of programming/strategies.
• Extensive  knowledge  of  result­?based  management  evaluation,  NGO sector,  procedures,  as  well  as  participatory  monitoring  and  evaluation  methodologies and  approaches.
• Demonstrated  analytical,  communication  and  report  writing  skills.

7. Budget and disbursement:

The  total  budget  for  the  evaluation  will  be  agreed  upon  based  on  the  detailed  evaluation  plan.  The  first  40%  of  the  contract  will  be  made  at commencement  and  the  remaining  60%  of  the  contract  will  be  made upon  delivery  of  final  report  and subject  to  satisfactory  by ECF.

8. Submission of proposal:

• Resume
• Detailed evaluation plan, and
• Proposed budget

9. Deadline for submission: 15/06/2017

All documents including project proposals, project extension document, quarterly reports, monitoring visit reports submitted by the implementing partners will be provided in due time.

For submission, please email to:
Ms. Luong Thi Quynh Lan
Country Representative
Eye Care Foundation
Email at [email protected]