Terms of Reference for External Evaluators/Consulting firms

Mid-Term Evaluation for the SAHAYATRA project

Context and Background  

VSO is the world’s leading independent, international development organization that works through blend of community, national and international volunteers. VSO is working in Nepal since 1964 to improve the lives of impoverished people, particularly focusing on marginalized groups, vulnerable women, and girls. We believe that people are the key to overcoming poverty, and that is why we work through Volunteering for Development Approach that people are empowered, public services are inclusive and accessible and decisions makers are held to account. 

With funding from EU, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) for a better, inclusive, and resilient education system in Nepal, VSO has been implementing SAHAYATRA project (January 2021-June 2024) in four districts (Bara,Rautahat, Parsa and Sarlahi) of Madhes province  Nepal. The focus of the project is to strengthen governance to ensure inclusive quality education for marginal community girls and children with disabilities in the context of COVID-19 and other disasters.

This project also envisions a world where even severely marginalized girls and children of disability at grade 1-5 are empowered and in the COVID 19 context through inclusive quality education to improve literacy, numeracy, and life skills. Under this approach, Big Sisters model is used to support the marginalized learners and children with disabilities bring them into classroom and retain them into classroom.  In partnership with Jan Jagaran Youth Club (JJYC), National Campaign for Education Nepal (NCE-N) and Prerana, the project targets 1,600(F 900; M 700; 50 people with disabilities) marginalized people. 

Major project interventions of SAHAYATRA providing mentoring support to marginalized and vulnerable children, developing capacity among the teachers and parents with regard to gender responsive education, developing CSOs capacity, strengthening capacity and supporting of the federal level, provincial and local government to develop inclusive education policy and governance. Moreover, Child Protection and Child Safeguarding are other major focus areas of the interventions.

SAHAYATRA is a four-year project started in January 2021 and scheduled to end in June 2024. The overall impact of the project is ‘Inclusive quality education for marginalized girls & children with disabilities through resilient, gender-responsive education governance enhanced by CSO’. 

There is co-funding requirement for VSO for achieving outcomes of SAHAYATRA and ACTIVE is contributing to this process with increased alignment of volunteering for development.

Overall objective: Improve inclusive education for marginal girls and children with disabilities through resilient, gender responsive education governance enhanced by CSO engagement. 

Specific objectives: 

• To increase inclusive access to quality education and learning for marginalized girls and Children with disabilities in the Covid and post Covid
• To enhance local authorities’ accountabilities for resilience and gender responsive education governance 
• To improve civil society influence and engagement in promoting right to education and advocating for resilience, gender responsive education governance. 

This will be achieved through the following outcomes.

Outcome 1: To increase literacy, numeracy, and life skills for marginalized girls and Children with disabilities in Bara and Rautahat. 

Outcome 2: To promote school-centered civic engagement in four districts of Madesh Province with marginalized communities collaborating to minimize educational barriers.

Outcome 3: To enhance palika capacities in engagement in four districts of Madesh Province on DRR, resilience, governance, inclusive education, and data.

Outcome 4: To strengthen CSOs capacity to contribute to good governance in education, advocacy, and DRR in Madesh Province. 

VSO is currently looking for an external evaluator/consulting firm to carry out the mid-term assessment of SAHAYATRA project.

 2. Theory of Change (TOC)

The theory of change of the project posits that the socio-cultural and political barriers that marginalized girls and boys face in primary level education contributes to their low educational access, retention and attainment.  

• At individual level, children lack a voice to advocate for their own education, and girls in particular are made to feel unsafe and unsupported in school. 
• At family and community level, entrenched poverty makes it difficult for parents to prioritize their children’s education. At the same time, poor knowledge of educational rights, equity provisions (equal access to education, equal value to girls’ and boys’ education, equal time for literacy and learning at home etc.), and school management processes hinder the ability of parents to advocate for their children’s enrolment and learning. Within the community, social norms, harmful traditional practices such as early and forced child marriage, migration for labour, and expectations around gender roles keep marginalised children out of school and limit their aspirations for learning. 
• At school level: Schools and school authorities struggle to materialize inclusive education policies and fail to develop teachers with child-centred, gender-responsive teaching skills. 
• At CSOs level: Inadequate capacity and low engagement of CSOs in policy, planning and governance​.
• At government level: Policy makers lack evidence on how to implement inclusive education policies in the new federal system and where local and provincial units require guidance and capacity building to perform their roles. Poor implementation of inclusive policies and lack of accountability by duty bearers and service providers

The successful applicant will design, plan and conduct a mid-term evaluation of the project consisting of mixed-method, gender-Responsive evaluation, persons with disabilities and marginalized girls.

The evaluation will need to assess the delivery, effectiveness, contribution of Volunteering for Development, impact of the project and recommend the findings and promising practices of the project interventions on marginalized students' education and their lives. The findings from the study will primarily be used:

a) By the project management team, project partners and stakeholders to inform improvements in the delivery of the project during its lifetime.

b) To demonstrate accountability for the funding received from the EU.

c) By the project management team to leverage additional resources from existing and new partners and stakeholders to scale-up and sustain the activities/benefits delivered by the project.

d) By the project management team to support the on-going development and implementation of the project’s sustainability and succession strategies.

3. Scope of the work

These below are the principles underpinning the study:

• Results in learning that is useful not just for partners, EU, and VSO but the education sector more broadly. 
• Builds on the priority learning areas.
• Solicits input at key points from all the stakeholders.

 For Detailed ToR please click here