Consultant’s Terms of Reference for the End-of-Project Evaluation of ChildFund Australia Partner Capacity Strengthening Project

Organisational Context

ChildFund Australia is an independent international development organisation that works to reduce poverty for children in developing communities. We partner to create community and systems change which enables vulnerable children and young people, in all their diversity, to assert and realise their rights.

Our vision is a world without poverty where all children and young people can say: “I am safe. I am educated. I contribute. I have a future.”

ChildFund Australia directly manages and implements programs with a range of local partners in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, and other Pacific nations, and manages projects delivered by partner organisations throughout Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Our work is funded through child and community sponsorship, government grants as well as donations from individuals, trusts and foundations, and corporate organisations.

ChildFund Australia is a member of the ChildFund Alliance – a global network of 11 child-focused development and humanitarian organisations reaching nearly 32 million children and their family members in 70 countries. ChildFund Australia is a registered charity, a member of the Australian Council for International Development, and fully accredited by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade which manages the Australian Government’s overseas aid program.

Background

ChildFund Australia had been directly managing and implementing a three-year Partner Capacity Strengthening Project since FY2021-22. The project is its third and final year and is due for evaluation.

The goal of the project is that “ChildFund Australia’s partners are better equipped to design and deliver programs with reduced harm to communities and increased participation of excluded groups”. With ChildFund Australia’s partners as its primary participants, the project seeks to provide targeted capacity strengthening support in finance, child and adult safeguarding, and gender, disability and social inclusion. This support will strengthen partners’ institutional policies and procedures, as well as their programmatic approaches. In doing so, there will be a reduction in associated financial, safeguarding and inclusion risks to communities with whom these partners work.

While the project is being managed from the Sydney office, the project is implemented Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Timor Leste through the Country Offices in these countries as well as in Pacific locations where ChildFund Australia does not have a permanent presence. Additionally, the Sports for Development team also delivered outputs that will strengthen GEDSI capacity of partners in Cambodia, Laos, Philippines and Vietnam.

The project targets specific partners, namely, those who are working in ANCP-funded projects, are implementing partners, and are not government bodies. By limiting involvement to implementing, non-government partners, the project aligns with ChildFund Australia’s broader partnership approach to limit institutional strengthening to these types of bodies. As these types of partners participate in a number of assessments including due diligence and organisational capacity assessments, child safeguarding partner reports, and gender, disability and environment assessments, there is an established framework of capacity assessment and strengthening within these partnerships, as well as existing data to support the need for this targeted support.

The project intended to strengthen partners capacities in the areas of finance, child and adult safeguarding, and GEDSI. Finance and safeguarding support are focused on ensuring partners have adequate policies and procedures in place, training them to understand those policies, and mentoring them to ensure their application. GEDSI support does not just involve a review or development of policies, but also focused on training and mentoring to ensure application of best practice in program design, implementation, monitoring and reporting. The project includes provisions to participating partners to receive seed funding to resource the necessary actions to achieve improved practice and minimised risks to communities in line with expert recommendations.

The project has four outcomes, one each for Finance, Safeguarding, Inclusion and resourcing of local partners as follows:

Outcome 1: Partners have adequate financial policies and procedures which safeguard against financial mismanagement and fraud.

Outcome 2: Partners have child and adult safeguarding policies and procedures that minimise potential harm to children and vulnerable people.

Outcome 3: Partners have inclusive program approaches and principles.

Outcome 4: Partners are supported financially to improve their financial management, safeguarding and/or inclusion practices.

Purpose

ChildFund Australia is seeking to engage a Consultant to evaluate the Partner Capacity Strengthening project. The evaluation will:

Assess the overall strengths and weaknesses during the given period and seek evidence of capacity strengthened among the CSO partners in countries and its impact on organisational development and quality of programs.
Examine the extent to which partners have directly or indirectly benefited from initiatives/activities implemented through this project and collaboration with country/regional office counterparts.
Assess the extent to which the project has been delivered. Specifically examine the quality of collaboration between the Sydney Office and Country Office/Partners; between Country Office and Partners in delivering the outputs and assess the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of this modality.
Alongside the intended and unintended outcomes, consolidate the challenges, risks and lessons learned.
Recommend the focus and modality for the future project, while ensuring the current theme of Partner Capacity Strengthening. The outcomes of this evaluation will be utilised by the International Program Team to inform next project design.

Scope of Evaluation

The evaluation will take place in January and February with a view to completing the report at the end of February 2024. Additionally, the three (3) CSO partners participating in the GEDSI Grants in FY2024 will be revisited in May 2024 to assess the impact of investments on the organisations. The findings from this will be annexed to the final report. The evaluation will assess the project achievements (outputs and outcomes), challenges, lessons learned, sustainability, early signs of impact over the life of the project, guided by the OECD evaluation criteria: relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability.

Methodology

The Consultant may utilise a desk review, a short survey, key informant interviews, group interviews, and reflection workshops with staff in Sydney, regional and Country Offices for information gathering and should work closely with the contract manager during the course of work.

Deliverables and Indicative Timetable

(Please note that this is subject to negotiation with the Consultant

The outputs will be a final report presenting the findings of the evaluation. The report should present findings, analysis, lessons learned and recommendations against areas stated in the previous section. The initial and final report should be presented through a face-to-face workshop in Sydney.

**Indicative dates/****Outputs and Activities/**Number of Days

4 January 2024

Submission of Expression of Interest (EoI)

0 Days

8-12 January

Interviews, vetting of Consultant

0 Days

15-19 January

Contract signing

Discussion of work plan with the Consultant

Gathering of relevant ChildFund Australia documents

0 Days

22-26 January

Document review

Inception report including proposal for data collection and analysis. The report includes methodology for data collection, timing, and key people to be interviewed)

Consultant to set interviews/workshop with relevant
Sydney staff/Country/S4D teams/Partners

3 Days

29 January – 9 February

Consultant to conduct individual/group interviews with Country Office managers (Program/Finance/HR), focal points (Partnership/GEDSI/Child Safeguarding) and partners’ representatives

8 Days

12-29 February

Draft report and presentation at Sydney Office with online participants from countries and partners (15 Feb)

ChildFund Australia to send consolidated feedback (22 Feb)

Finalise and submit preliminary report (29 Feb)

Acceptance/sign-off of final report (date maybe extended based on the quality of submitted report)

5 Days

4-8 March

1 day Workshop on next Partner Capacity Strengthening project

Brief project description with key Outcomes, Activities and Interventions

2 Days

6-8 May

Revisiting three CSO partners that are GEDSI Grant recipients

Summary of findings focusing on impact of investment on the organisations

2 Days

Total number of days:

20 days

Management and Reporting Arrangements

The Consultant will report to Rouena Getigan, Partnerships Advisor**.** All reports, not exceeding twenty (20) pages must be written in English and provided in an electronic format (Microsoft Word docx). The report should contain the following:

Executive Summary
Introduction
Methodology
Findings (achievements against intended outputs and outcomes, challenges, lessons learned, sustainability, early signs of impact and unintended outcomes)
Analysis (Consultant’s assessment using the OECD Criteria)
Conclusion and Recommendations
Annexes including ToR, list of participants, interview tools and other relevant documents

Confidentiality

All discussions and documents relating to this Terms of Reference will be treated as confidential by the parties.

Child Safeguarding

The Consultant will undertake the services to a high standard; use its best endeavors to promote the best interests of ChildFund; protect the reputation of ChildFund and work in a manner consistent with the mission, vision and policies of ChildFund (see Child Safeguarding Policy/Child Safeguarding Code of Conduct PSEAH policy and Employee Code of Conduct). ChildFund Australia has a zero-tolerance policy to abuse, exploitation and harassment in all its forms.

Counter-Terrorism and Anti-Money Laundering

ChildFund Australia acknowledges its obligation under the Australian laws relating to counter-terrorism and anti-money laundering. In order to meet its obligation, the consultant is obligated to provide information required for ChildFund to undertake counter terrorism screening before engagement. The consultant’s name, date & place of birth and ID number will be checked against Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) consolidated list, National Security Australia list, World Banks listing and the Asian Development bank listing to ensure not engage with entities or individuals appearing on the lists.

Conflict of Interest

The Consultant must declare any financial, personal, family (or close intimate relationship) interest in matters of official business which may impact on the work of ChildFund.

Fraud and Corruption prevention and awareness

ChildFund Australia has a zero approach to fraud and corruption act. The successful consultant will be required to comply with ChildFund Australia’s fraud and corruption prevention and awareness Policy and act against any form of fraud or corruption and not offer, promise, give or accept any bribes.

Insurance

The successful applicant will be required to have in place insurance arrangements appropriate to provision of the requirement in this TOR including (without limitation) travel insurance.

Acknowledgment and Disclaimer

ChildFund, its Board and staff make no express or implied representation or warranty as to the currency, reliability or completeness of the information contained in this ToR. Nothing in this ToR should be construed to give rise to any contractual obligations or rights, expressed or implied, by the issue of this ToR or the submission of Expression of Interest in response to it. No contract would be created until a formal written contract is executed between ChildFund and a selected consultant.

Submission of Expression on Interest

The Expression of Interest should include resume, referees, proposal containing competence for the required work, professional fee, approaches/methodologies, and timeline based on the Terms of Reference. Submit EOI and relevant documents by 5PM AEST, 19 January 2024 to:

Rouena Getigan

rclemente@childfund.org.au.

Keywords

evaluation capacity strengthening project ChildFund Australia poverty children development community systems change vulnerable rights finance safeguarding gender disability social inclusion policies procedures programmatic approaches financial management inclusion practices outcomes challenges lessons learned future project evaluation criteria relevance coherence effectiveness efficiency impact sustainability methodology findings analysis recommendations workshop management reporting confidentiality child safeguarding counter-terrorism anti-money laundering conflict of interest insurance