Helping Our People Excel (HOPE), Inc.

Ensuring the Social, Educational, and Economic Empowerment of Liberians Sophie’s Junction, Congo Town Monrovia, Liberia Tel: + 231-770767194/+231886838545 Email: info@hopelib.org Facebook: Hope Liberia Website: www.hopelib.org

Project/Consultancy Title:

Project Location(s):

Request for Consultancy to Conduct End of Program Review and Learning

Across all (15) counties in Liberia. However, in addition to Montserrado, physical engagements will be clustered in two regions/counties (Bong and Bomi).

Positions: Consultant (Individual/Team/Firm)

Timeline: December 15, 2023 – February 10, 2024

Application deadline: December 13, 2023

Introduction/Background

Education Out Loud, the Global Partnership for Education’s (GPE) fund for advocacy and social accountability, supports more robust civic engagement to transform education systems in GPE partner countries. Education Out Loud strengthens civil society organizations to mobilize citizens and affect policy change in the education sector. It also helps make advocacy more effective globally, nationally, and nationally, promoting transparency efforts around education policies and practices1. In Liberia, the EducateHER Coalition led by HOPE implements the OC22through the EducateHER: Promoting Gender Equity and Equality in Education Project.

Project Description

The EducateHER project aims to contribute to the effective implementation of the National Policy on Girls’ Education in all 15 Counties in Liberia by 2023 through two specific objectives: increased education sector budget to promote gender equity in education in Liberia and education stakeholders’ capacity and coordination enhanced for the effective implementation and monitoring of the NPGE. The three-year project ends in December 2023. HOPE seeks to conduct an end of

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2 Operational Component 2 (OC2): Strengthen civil society roles in promoting the transparency and accountability of national education sector policy and implementation.

EOL (OC2) End-of-project review ToR for consultancy.

project review to assess the project results and impact while learning to adapt and inform the next phase of the project implementation.

Objectives, Outcomes, Outputs, and Indicators:

The table below gives a summary of the goals, objectives, outcomes, outputs, and indicators of the project

EOL (OC2) End-of-project review ToR for consultancy.

Outcome 2.2: Improved coordination, monitoring and accountability among national

Indicator 2.2.1: # of strategic actions made by national stakeholders

EOL (OC2) End-of-project review ToR for consultancy.

Indicator 2.4.1: # of rural women, girls and

community leaders actively engaging policy

makers on girls’ education

Purpose and Objectives of the Assignment

The Objective of the end of project review is to assess to what extent program objectives, outcomes, and outputs were met in relation to the strategies developed, resources used, and activities carried out in its implementation. It will assess the program against the OECD-DAC criteria (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, coherence) and its logical framework, focusing on contributing to the effective implementation of the National Policy on Girls’ Education. It will identify the program elements that best contributed to that goal and any elements that made the goal more difficult to realize. The review and subsequent learning will guide future education advocacy programs in Liberia or elsewhere, including the approved next phase of the EducateHER project. Its intended audience is the EducationHER Consortium, OXFAM-Denmark, EOL-GPE, the Ministry of Education, and other organizations that tackle education delivery challenges in countries across Africa and the world.

Specific Objectives

1. To assess the performance and achievements of the program regarding goal, outcome, and outputs against the baseline (if available) and IPTT through quantitative and qualitative approaches.
2. To assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, coherence, and coordination of the program and provide concrete evidence of the change the program has been able to achieve, how the program achieved it, and determine the extent to which the program’s outputs contributed to the changes in outcomes.

EOL (OC2) End-of-project review ToR for consultancy.

3. To assess the impact of COVID-19 on the implementation of the program activities and subsequent program adaptations in response to the impact of COVID-19.
4. To extract the lessons that can be learned and good practices from the program that could be used to improve the planning of the EducateHER-2 program and future education advocacy programming.

Approach/Methodology

HOPE will hire an external consultant through a competitive process to facilitate a review of the project implementation with all the project stakeholders (national and county levels) while providing logistical and coordination support. The EOL Regional MEL Advisor will provide technical and quality assurance support to the consultant through HOPE during the implementation of this assignment. The contracted consultant will prepare an appropriate methodology and sample size, including mixed and participatory methods (workshop/FGDs), which will be used to gather learning and reflect on the project implementation. The methodology will integrate and build on deep-dive reflection of the EducateHER Project internally, drawing on monitoring data, including extensive consultation with the project stakeholders.

Consultant Deliverables:

The firm will work with HOPE (EducateHER Consortium) MEL Manager and Program Advisor to prepare and submit these final approved deliverables:

1. Inception report that includes, at a minimum, a detailed methodology and work plan on how each of the deliverables outlined below will be met, scheduled meetings, and planned updates on progress;
2. Desk review (both internal and external) based on the given criteria to gain a better understanding of the program activities and implementation context;
3. Data collection instruments
4. Data collection and pre-analysis plan
5. Raw datasets, including complete qualitative and quantitative data delivered in soft copy; a data dictionary and syntax for analysis should also be submitted together with the datasets.
6. Professional slide presentation on findings, (1) draft presented to HOPE following the submission of the draft report, and (2) final version presented prior to the submission of the final report;
7. Summary report (4-5 pages), which can be externally shared for visibility and influence purposes;
8. Final report (approx. 25 pages) that is learning-oriented with a strong focus on setting the baseline for next-step implementation, subject to final approval by the donor and containing the following sections:

1) Cover Page, List of Acronyms

2) Table of Contents

3) Executive Summary: This section should be a clear and concise stand-alone document that gives readers the essential contents of the review report, including a summary of major findings, lessons learned, and recommendations.

4) Background

5) Description of objectives

EOL (OC2) End-of-project review ToR for consultancy.

6) Methodology: This section should be sufficiently detailed to help the reader judge the accuracy of the report and its findings.

7) Results: This section should provide a clear assessment of progress with respect to indicators/targets/objectives and/or review questions. Reference bi-annual reports and bi-annual assessments, as well as program logic, theory of change, etc.

8) Synthesis, Recommendations, and Lessons Learned: This is space for the consultant and the review team to reflect on the data and results, make concrete recommendations for current or future program improvements, pull out organization lessons learned, and generally comment on data and results. Everything presented in this section should be directly linked back to the information presented in the results section of the report

9) Annexes: These should include a complete file of data collection instruments, a list of stakeholder groups with number and type of interactions; TOR, qualitative protocols developed and used; any data sets (these can be provided in electronic format), any required photos, participant profiles or other special documentation needed.

Implementation Arrangements

The consultant will be contracted by HOPE Liberia in consultation with the EducateHER Consortium and the EOL Regional MEL Advisor. HOPE Liberia shall arrange for the consultant to visit all necessary sites and meetings in the program sites according to the work plan. This includes scheduling key informant interviews with relevant program staff, government officials and other key stakeholders. HOPE will provide all transportation for the assignment. The selected consultant will be directly supervised by HOPE MEL Manager and Advisor, with technical support from the EOL MEL Advisor.

The Consultant will report to: the MEL Manager, HOPE – Liberia.

The Consultant will work closely with: Executive Directors, Program Managers, the Communication Officer, and MoE MEL Department.

Ethical Standards and Intellectual Property:

Ownership and copyright of all data, drafts and final products of the assignment will be EducateHER Project’s sole and exclusive property and restricted for public use. The consultant will submit all original documents, materials, and data to HOPE Liberia.

Timelines

The entire consultancy is expected to last for a maximum of two months, commencing from the start of December 15, 2023, to February 10, 2024, and the proposal to be submitted should reflect such timelines. NOTE: Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis, and applications received after the deadline will not be considered. HOPE reserves the right to contract as many Consultants as necessary to implement this project or none at all.

EOL (OC2) End-of-project review ToR for consultancy.

Required Experience & Skills:

• Minimum six years’ experience in designing, implementing, managing, and coordinating formative/midlines/summative qualitative studies and program evaluations; ● Excellent academic background and a proven track record in conducting formative studies and program reviews and evaluations in Liberia and/or on education advocacy programs; ● Experience in education advocacy issues and working with CSOs and Government; ● Knowledge and experience in using reflection and learning techniques, outcome harvesting, survey concepts, approaches, tools, techniques, methodologies, sampling, etc; ● Experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection, validation, entry, and analysis using statistical software and report drafting skills.

Documents Submission:

All interested consultants/firms should kindly submit the following documents and attached annexes via email in one Portable Document Format (PDF), with the subject line “Consultancy to Conduct End of Program Review and Learning” to info@hopelib.org only before 4:30 pm Local time on December 13, 2023: All submission should contain the following:

• Concept Note that includes a clear and detailed strategy to be used in conducting the end of-program review
• CV(s) of consultant or proposed staff/team members noting identified roles and team lead ● Detailed (proposed) work plan that includes timeline and budget
• CV/s of key persons
• One sample of previous work

Evaluation Criteria

Consultants/Firms will be scored based on the following criteria:

EOL (OC2) End-of-project review ToR for consultancy.

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