Consultant for Project Evaluation

1. Background:

Church World Service (CWS) is an American NGO, which began its work in Vietnam in 1954. Since then, CWS has supported Vietnam with projects primarily focusing on improving health services, access to water and sanitation, nutrition for children, education for ethnic minorities and disaster relief.

During 2013-2016, CWS Vietnam and its project partners have implemented two projects focused on Improved Education and on Improved Health and Hygiene Promotion for Ethnic Minority Groups in Muong Te district, Lai Chau province. Both projects are funded by the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (FELM). Within these projects, many activities mainly focusing on capacity building, awareness raising, education improvement, and promotion of health and hygiene behaviors have been implemented to achieve the following objectives and expected results:

Objectives

Improved access and quality of education and health services are delivered to ethnic minority people in project communities.

Expected results

• Education project:
  
  • Teachers of kindergarten, primary and lower secondary schools have improved teaching skills and communication skills in La Hu ethnic minority language.
  • The learning environment has improved towards safe and student-friendly schools.
  • Students, parents, teachers and villagers have enhanced awareness about child rights, including the rights to education and protection.

• Health project:
  
  • Knowledge and capacity of health workers at district, communes and villages is enhanced; work by traditional birth attendants is strengthened.
  • People’s awareness and practices of hygienic behavior and environmental sanitation is improved.
  • The health and sanitation situation in communes and villages is improved.

2. The evaluation:

2.1 Purpose and specific objectives:

Both education and health projects are ending in 2016, and thus there is a need for an external evaluation to collect information and assess achievements and impacts of the projects.

The specific objectives are these:

• To assess the projects, including their relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, process (participation) and sustainability;
• To assess the achievements, successes, and impacts of the projects;
• To identify gaps and challenges in the district education and health sectors and to make recommendations for possible future programming.

2.2 Expected outputs:

The evaluation consultant is responsible for these deliverables:

• Proposal with detailed methodology, field survey plan and data collection tools;
• Timely and thorough implementation of the evaluation;
• Project evaluation draft reports and, after CWS review of drafts, final report.

The final evaluation report should be submitted both in English and Vietnamese should include:

• An assessment of the projects’ relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, process (participation) and sustainability;
• At least 5 stories about project impacts/ stories of change, with 3-5 quality photos each, from either institutional or individual beneficiaries and participants;
• A list of gaps, if any, that may need further resources, and recommendations for possible future programming. 

2.3 Methodology:

The evaluator is expected to design an evaluation with participatory approaches including interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires to collect both quantitative and qualitative information.   

At all times the evaluator, and any others s/he employs, are expected to collaborate with CWS staff and project partners as well as project beneficiaries in Muong Te, either in the office or during the field survey. All survey forms, info-data collection and analysis, draft and final reports should be in consultation with CWS.

2.4 Work locations and timeline:

The evaluation should be done between August and November, 2016. As such, the field survey must be done in project schools, communes and villages in Muong Te in September for the final report to be complete by November 10, 2016. The details of time frame and of major steps in the process should be clearly elaborated in the proposal.

3. The evaluation team and requirements:

It is anticipated that a team consisting of a Vietnamese lead evaluator and his/her team members is needed. The team members will report to the lead evaluator.
These are the requirements for the evaluator(s):

• Experience in rural development project evaluations
• Knowledge of basic education, health and hygiene education, promotion of sanitation at schools and at communities.
• Working experience with ethnic minority populations, particularly those in the northwest of Vietnam.
• Fluent written Vietnamese and English skills

The following experience and skills are seen as advantages:

• Understanding of child-friendly school library, child-centered teaching methodology, particularly for teaching and learning environment in ethnic minority populations 
• Experience in community education and mobilization work and/or the KAP (Knowledge-Attitude-Practice) surveys.
• Good communication, facilitation, analytic and writing skills.

Interested candidates please send an application letter and detailed CVs of the lead evaluator and all team members to [email protected] no later than June 30, 2016.