HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation (HELVETAS) is actively engaged in development work aimed at improving the living conditions of socially disadvantaged and marginalized social groups in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe by implementing its own as well as mandated projects. HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Ethiopia is registered as foreign charity organization operating in the working areas of Skill Development and Education (SDE), Rural Infrastructure (WIN), Environment and Climate Change (ECC), Local Governance and Peace (GOP), and Emergency Response(ER).

HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation have been implementing Skill and Knowledge for youth (SKY) Project in three districts of Amhara regional states over the last six years to improve the skills, employability and ultimately their livelihoods of out of school youths through enhanced opportunities for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) as well as support to enter in to the labor market.

To this end, HELVETAS Swiss intercooperation Ethiopia would like to hire a consultancy firm to carry out a terminal evaluation in the three implementation sites (Bahir Dar, Debretabor, and Dangla). The findings of this terminal evaluation will be used as a major input for designing the third phase SKY, and of other projects in the same thematic area. 

The Purpose of the Terminal Evaluation: 

The purpose of this final evaluation is to assess whether the project’s objectives are achieved as defined in the project document and to capture learning that significantly indicate direction for the design of the next phase project primarily in this thematic area.

The specific objectives of the final evaluation are as follows:

Purpose of the terminal Evaluation

The purpose of this final evaluation is to assess whether the project’s objectives are achieved as defined in the project document and to capture learning that significantly indicate direction for the design of the next phase project primarily in this thematic area.

The specific objectives of the final evaluation are as follows:

To assess strengths and constraints of the implementation and precisely outline core achievements and failure if any with underlying factors (success factors, factors contributed to failures etc)

To assess the relevance of the project from the project implementation area, the choice of sectors and partners to shape the design of the next phase and make recommendations as such.

To assess the working approach (partnership) used and mode of collaboration with respect to its effectiveness, efficiency, replicability and scalability of the approach.

To assess the communication structure and effectiveness of project´s internal and external communication, and the level of ownership of the involved stakeholders.

To assess the project’s reputation and influence in line with the expectations of beneficiaries, major partners and regional development actors.

To capture key learning that significantly indicate direction for the design of the next phase project in this sector/thematic area to create more opportunities to the youths and realize the functionality of systems under this thematic and related areas.

Draw concreate recommendations that shape design of the next phase project.

Scope and Focus of the Evaluation

The evaluation will cover all the three project implementation locations of Bahirdar, Debretabor and Dangila of Amhara National Regional State. It will cover duration of the SKY II project implementation from January 2018- December 2021 for all outcomes and outputs. It will cover all outcome areas presented in the project document in the eyes of the perspective of the OECD evaluation criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, its potential for sustainability and replication. The evaluation mission will use SKY II Project document as a reference. The focus of the evaluation is a forward looking to capture key learning and best experience that indicate direction for the design of the next phase project.

The most common OECD criteria to be considered, are briefly presented below: 

RELEVANCE: HAD THE INTERVENTION DONE THE RIGHT THINGS?

The extent to which the SKYII intervention objectives and design responded to beneficiaries’ and partner institutional needs, policies, and priorities, and could do if circumstances change.

COHERENCE: HOW WELL DID THE INTERVENTION FIT?

The compatibility of the SKYII intervention with other interventions in the intervention area and was it implemented in the right places?

EFFECTIVENESS: HAD THE INTERVENTION ACHIEVED ITS OBJECTIVES?

The extent to which the SKYII intervention achieved its objectives and its results, including any differential results across groups or City/Urban administrations or across the region. Analysis of effectiveness involves taking account of the relative importance of the objectives or results of the SKY II project in the context of Bahirdar, Debretabor and Dangla.

EFFICIENCY: HOW WELL WERE RESOURCES USED?

The extent to which the SKY II project delivered results in an economic and timely way.

IMPACT: WHAT DIFFERENCE DID THE INTERVENTION MADE?

The extent to which the SKY II project has generated significant positive or negative, intended or unintended, higher-level effects (mainly at structures and systems level).

SUSTAINABILITY AND SCALABILITY: WILL THE BENEFITS LAST AND TO BE REPLICATED AT SCALE?

The extent to which the net benefits/Outcomes/Results/Impacts of the SKY II project continue or are likely to continue in the Project areas and outside of the project areas (at scale).

Evaluation Methods

The evaluation shall apply both quantitative and qualitative methods. It will use primary and secondary data. There will be field visits and review of the project document, Helvetas country strategy and other relevant documents. Primary and secondary data will be gathered from the implementation areas of Bahir Dar, Debretabor and Dangila. The project target beneficiaries and key stakeholders are the major sources for the primary data in the form of quantitative and qualitative. 

As the project has been implemented in relatively different urban administrative settings (Bahir Dar, Debretabor and Dangila), cluster sampling seems appropriate to ensure representation of the target population of in different locations, however, this could be further advised by the evaluator. The evaluator is expected to deploy statistically sound sampling techniques. Data collected from different sources will be analysed using qualitative and quantitative analysis methods. 

Deliverables

Based on the above stated purpose the evaluator will be responsible for producing the following deliverables:

• Evaluation inception report: an inception report shall be prepared and presented by the winning evaluator before going into the full-fledged data collection exercise. The inception report provides HELVETAS and the evaluator with an opportunity to verify that the same understanding about the evaluation is shared and to clarify any misunderstanding at the outset.
• Debriefing: debriefing by the evaluator. Draft findings and recommendations must be included in the debriefing.
• Draft evaluation report: the evaluator will submit the draft evaluation report in English no longer than 35 pages, excluding coversheets and appendix, to HELVETAS Ethiopia within seven days after receiving final feedback. HELVETAS will provide consolidated, written comments to the evaluator within five days of receiving the draft evaluation report.
• Final evaluation report: the evaluator will provide the edited and formatted final evaluation report within one week of receiving final content approval from HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation/Ethiopia. The full final evaluation report should comply with the reporting guidelines (see Annex 01) in terms of structure, content, length and clarity. The findings and recommendations should address at least, all indicative evaluation questions. The report will provide ‘evidence-based’ conclusions. This evidence needs to be clearly illustrated to support the findings in the report. Recommendations should be practical and the majority of them must be linked directly to conclusions. The final evaluation report is expected to contain a chapter with prospective elements, i.e. Innovative ideas/approaches that basically helps to insure efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and scalability of project outcomes, and suggestions, recommendations, etc. for the future of the SKY.  All suggestions and recommendations should consider: 
• Systemic approach
• HELVETAS playing facilitative role
• Multi-stakeholder partnership approach
• Result Based financing as a governing implementation approach
• More inclusive approaches
• Feasibility in small and emerging towns

Job Requirements

Qualifications of Evaluation Team & Assessment Criteria

Expertise & Experience

The evaluating firm will have at least three team members consisting of the following mix of expertise:

• The consultants should have proven experience in the area of Youths Skills Development, Employment, TVET and MSE development, Monitoring and evaluation, Gender and social equity.
• The lead consultant should have more than 10 years of experience in evaluating youth skill training and employment/job creation projects, analysis of local development policies, and/or in leading external performance evaluations and others.
• Provide proofs of at least three consultancy work accomplished in project evaluation and experience in result based financing will be an added value.
• Other members of the team shall have at least 8 years of proven experiences in this or related areas.
• Good writing skills, familiarity with adequate evaluation methods and strong analytical skills are required.
• The consulting firm will lead and coordinate the evaluation and will be responsible for the timeliness and quality of the deliverables.

Consultant Minimum qualification

The lead consultant should have a minimum of MA/MSC in the areas of Vocational Management, Economics, Business Administration or related fields 

The other two experts with MA/MSc in different disciplines relevant for project management and evaluation, gender and social equity etc…

Assessment Process and Criteria

The selection will be based on the organizational approach of 80% designated for technical proposal and 20% for the financial proposal. weighting to the technical quality and price as follows:

Note: For the technical proposal to be eligible for opening the pertaining financial proposal, the technical proposal evaluation rate shall be > 61% out of 80%. Following result of the technical proposal, the finalists shall be requested to deliver presentation on methodology. The winner shall submit inception report within 7 days before the actual field work.

Duration of the evaluation(Schedule)

The total time allotted for evaluation from the beginning of the assignment to submission of final report shall be one month. Details of evaluation mission program should be outlined by the consulting firm.

Ethical Considerations

• The evaluation is expected to respect basic ethical principles of HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Ethiopia and international standardized research codes of ethics. 
• All evaluation participants need to be informed primarily about the objectives and process of the evaluation.
• All the evaluation related documents including data gathering tools, checklists and forms will be HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Ethiopia SKY project office property.

Logistics

HELVETAS/SKY project/ will provide support to the evaluation team in the form of providing project related documents and background materials, scheduling visits to the field or to stakeholders’ offices, facilitating logistical arrangements such flight to project area, daily transportation for arranged visits to project sites.

Reference Documents

• SKY (2018-2021) Project Document
• RBF Manuel
• Tracer study 2019
• HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Country Program Strategy (2019-2023)
• Project Annual Reports of SKY
• TVET strategy and policy, MSE strategy

How to Apply

Submission of Applications

Participation is open to all eligible consulting firms. HELVETAS invites suitably qualified consulting firms to submit expressions of interest for the service. Expressions of Interest must be delivered in one copy to the address below on or before August 1, 2021 at 4:30 P.M. Late submissions may be rejected.

Note: Documents such as personal profiles and other credentials with a covering letter should be included to the technical proposal. Financial and technical proposals should be submitted in a separate envelop.

“Expression of Interest for Terminal Evaluation of SKY Project II”

Address: HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Ethiopia, SKY Project Bahir Dar Office Dr.Abdu Building 2nd floor Tel. 0582208384/ 0582208385 Bahir Dar