Local Consultant for Child Life Skills Empowerment Project End-of-Project Evaluation

Terms of Reference

Local Consultant for Child Life Skills Empowerment Project

End-of-Project Evaluation

1. Organisational context

ChildFund in Laos is the representative office of ChildFund Australia – an independent international development organisation that works to reduce poverty for children in developing communities.

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.

ChildFund began working in Laos in 2010 and works in partnership to create community and systems change which enables vulnerable children and young people, in all their diversity, to assert and realise their rights. Projects are implemented in Houaphanh, Xieng Khouang, Phongsaly, Sayabouly, Luang Prabang, Khammouane, Savannakhet, Sekong Provinces and Vientiane capital.

With a focus on upholding child rights and improving access to quality education, ChildFund in Laos also prioritises projects which focus on child nutrition, sexual reproductive health and rights, media literacy, and job readiness.

1. Background

In the efforts to modernize Laos, young people without adequate knowledge and skills have been vulnerable to risky migration, vulnerable employment and exploitation. Young women in Laos often have limited opportunities for quality education and migrate for income opportunities. Often their lack of skills and knowledge of their own rights have led to challenges related to managing money, workplace exploitation and abuse. The increasing COVID-19 cases in Lao PDR foreshadows the addition of a socio-economic crisis to a public health one, set to leave millions out of work with no savings, household debts and, ultimately, threatened access to food security and basic services; accelerating the need to promote key life and financial literacy skills to build resilience to economic shocks.

While there are little to no literature on children’s financial literacy in Laos, a survey conducted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbiet (GIZ) assessing financial literacy in rural Laos found that 69.67% of their adult participants think financial issues should be introduced and taught to children in primary school level. Banks in Lao PDR and microfinance institutions have also pushed to increase financial literacy in the country, especially to younger populations as they are open to new concepts. Importantly, one of the issues identified in the annual National Children’s Forum co-hosted with NCAWMC that brought together youth leaders from six provinces is that young people in Lao PDR lack adequate financial literacy skills, this concern exacerbated during the current COVID-19 crisis and feared economic downturn.

All Lao children deserve to learn from quality education to help equip and prepare them for their future. To bridge the equity gap, there were recommendations to strengthen school curricula to prepare children for their transition into adulthood and empower them with key financial and life skills they need to respond to challenges, risks and opportunities in their environment.

Alongside the challenges identified above, societal understanding in Laos about the importance of child participation is limited and mechanisms at the local, national and regional levels are not widely known or fully utilised by children and duty bearers, including the government. The National Commission for the Advancement of Women, Mothers and Children (NCAWMC) is tasked with overseeing the policies and practices regarding child rights and child and youth participation at all levels of government and society.

The project’s three outcomes and their performance indicators:

Outcome 1: Children have increased financial literacy knowledge and skills

Performance indicators:

% of children (female, male, with/without disability) with increased SEL skills (self-efficacy, planning and goal-setting, teamwork skills and responsible decision-making) developed through financial literacy instruction

% of teachers with improved knowledge, skills, attitudes and practices to support students (female, male, with/without disability) to develop SEL skills through financial literacy instruction.

Outcome 2: Children have increased life skills that build their capacity to support their peers, meaningfully participate in forums where they can express their views and have these views listened to

Performance indicators:

% of children (female, male, with/without disability) with increased SEL skills developed through life skills development sessions

% of children (female, male, with/without disability) who report an increased level of meaningful participation in their schools and communities (Children’s Clubs and Local Children’s Forums)

Outcome 3: Children are supported to lead planning and implementation of activities in their schools and communities that achieve positive change

Qualitative examples (case studies) of the practical ways in which students through the child-led small grants initiatives have put their SEL and Safe Steps skills into action (including strategies used, challenges and successes and outcomes)

% of and qualitative examples of Village Education Development Committee members and other duty bearers who perceive the value of child participation in school and community action

3. Purpose

This project has undertaken a baseline study and towards the end of the project, this project requires an external, independent end-of-project evaluation. The evaluation questions should be driven by the OECD evaluation criterion of relevance, coherence, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability, as well as cross-cutting issues including children’s right and participation, gender inclusion, disability inclusion, community participation and inclusion of marginalised groups. In the findings, the consultant will also help to highlight the potential lessons learnt, challenges, solutions, and recommendation.

Target audience and key stakeholders of this endline evaluations will be master trainers, teachers, children and government counterparts from district to provincial level and ChildFund staff.

3) Organisational Learning

Drawing from the above two areas, an assessment of project implementation challenges and evidence of promising practices and lessons learnt, areas for further development, and ultimately resulting in a set of recommendations to inform both future project design and ChildFund’s Child Rights Governance programming and advocacy to relevant stakeholders.

3.      Key Taks and Responsibilities

It is expected that the consultant(s) to conduct the following tasks:

1. To conduct a desk-review in order to gather and review relevant project documents and reports including the baseline, project reports and related manuals from ChildFund in Laos and related government and implementing partners.

2. Prepare a detailed inception report for submission to ChildFund for review and approval. This shall clearly describe evaluation methods and tools in detail, data collection tools, work plan to undertake the assignment etc.

3. Focusing on outcomes and their performance indicators (as mentioned above); review and update existing tools and develop new tools if necessary, including the Focus Group Discussions and Key Informant Interview approaches in order to measure the progress towards these outcomes and indicators, as well as output indicators.

4. Train enumerators on both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods.

5. Conduct field level data collection based on agreed assessment tools, maintain quality and accepted norms and standards, lead the data entry and analysis.

6. Develop a comprehensive draft report on findings/results of the study with input from ChildFund/project team.

7. Prepare presentation slides in both English and Lao of the endline evaluations for ChildFund and relevant stakeholders.

8. Incorporate comments and suggestions forwarded and produce final report as per the agreed timetable.

9. Methodology

The consultant, in consultation with ChildFund in Laos and ChildFund Australia Education and MEL advisors, is expected to develop the appropriate methodology to collect data.

The methodology and tools have to:

• Be both quantitative and qualitative and strongly support the active participatory approach and engagement from the project stakeholders including youth volunteers, youth trainers and child protection committee, teachers, government counterparts and ChildFund in Laos staff.
• The methods, data collection and analysis should also consider and include the perspectives of different genders and people living with disabilities (PLWD). The tools used during baseline study should be utilised or modified to suit the capacity of participants (such as the ones with disability and/or from ethnic minority groups) and need for end of project evaluation, wherever relevant.
• The right to participation must be balanced with the right to protection, recognising that placing excessive or inappropriate expectations on children denies them the right to take part in decisions they are capable of making.
• Data collection methods should be guided by the project SMART indicators and other useful information to give a clear picture of the project. The consultant is expected to develop a clear guideline to assist the process.
• Should there be a baseline tool established, the endline consultant is expected to use the same methodology to collect the data to measure some performance indicator to ensure comparability.
• Both qualitative and quantitative data should be collected and reported, and data sources clearly cited.
• Tools and methods must coherently respond to the project objectives and performance indicators.

1. Deliverable and Indicative Timetable

This 30-day consultancy opportunity period is from June to the end of August 2024. A full version of the ToR, including deliverable and timetable are available upon request. Please contact to  Phitsamais@childfund.org.la.

Submission Procedure:

Applications can be made by email to Bamboo HR (linked will be identified when the announcement is launched); all other applications will be rejected. Interested applicants should submit

1. CV of the lead consultant and their team (if any) and a cover letter
2. Technical proposal
3. Financial proposal

NOTE: The financial proposal should specify a total lump sum amount and a breakdown of a daily professional fee and communication costs etc. Applications without a financial proposal will be regarded as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

ChildFund in Laos does not require interested candidates to submit copies of certificates, ID cards or any other information.

ChildFund in Laos is an equal opportunity employer and has a strict child protection policy and background checks will be undertaken prior to any offer of employment.  All candidates should submit two professional referees including their current or most recent employer.

Please submit your application via https://teamchildfund.bamboohr.com/careers/506,  before 4:30 pm of 21 June 2024

ChildFund is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and strongly encourage people from all backgrounds, abilities, and identities to apply for any vacancies.