Consultant for the final evaluation of the Child Rights in Serbia Project

Job Description

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries, the IRC aims to restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC has been operational in Serbia since October 2015 supporting programs in response to the mass influx of refugees. The IRC works with a group of national non-governmental organizations as well as relevant institutions delivering a comprehensive protection program and continues to design new strategies to further address the needs of the refugees and victims of human trafficking, especially children.

Background

The RS has made significant progress over the past years to reform its legislation related to the rights of the child. The RS has also made efforts to improve its anti-trafficking mechanism by aligning it to the Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on Action against Human Trafficking and by creating a Centre for Human Trafficking Victims Protection. This body has a mandate to provide trafficking victims, including children, with adequate assistance and support.[1] However, its impact has been limited so far, due to a lack of cooperation between relevant institutions and organizations specialized in victims’ assistance.[2]

Further, the identification of victims remains a challenge, particularly among asylum-seeking and refugee children. The number of refugees, unaccompanied children (UAC) and migrant children has significantly increased in RS since 2014. Given that UAC/migrant children are often separated from effective support systems, anecdotal evidence shows that UAC and migrant children face increased likelihood to come into contact with the law due to higher engagement in employment (formal/informal), exposure to the street – including drugs and criminal activity, and other sources of violence and harm.

Childs Rights in Serbia Project (CRIS) is a 28-month project aiming to improve outcomes for children in contact with the law (CiCL) in the Republic of Serbia through systematic application of the rights of the child and evidence-based supports in legal proceedings. The project works to engage stakeholders and identify key areas in need of improvement in relation to Child Friendly Justice; build capacity of relevant professionals to support improved respect for child rights; and expand children’s understanding of their judicial rights. The direct beneficiaries of the project are professionals involved with children in public proceedings, law students, children, and caregivers.

General Goal of the Project - The overall objective of the CRIS project is to improve outcomes for children involved with the Serbian justice system through systematic application of the rights of the child and evidence-based supports in legal proceedings.

Purpose

The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the implementation of activities planned within the CRIS project, whether the stated objectives of the program were achieved and the various reasons if the program did or did not work. The findings of the evaluation will be used to improve future programming and to help senior management team to determine whether it should be continued. The evaluation will focus on the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and adaptability of the CRIS project.

Evaluation Questions

The evaluation will seek to answer the following questions, which may be modified in collaboration with selected Evaluator if necessary:

- What approaches have been used to implement CRIS project?

- How rigorous have the methods of monitoring and evaluations been?

- What are the limitations and challenges of conducting quality actions and interventions within the project?

- What was the cooperation with partners and relevant actors during the project implementation?

- Have possible changes in institutional and policy setting impacted the project activities, and if yes, how?

Relevance

1. Was the project responsive to the needs of children while working on improvement of position of children involved in the Serbian Justice System? If yes, how, and what was its most useful intervention? 2. How were the children involved in the project development and implementation, what was their role, and to what extent has the project contributed to the children rights to exercise them?

Effectiveness

1. To what extent was the CRIS project being implemented as planned. Were program activities completed and output, outcome, and objective targets met? If not, why? 2. Were trainings to stakeholders, service providers, and authorities of high quality and of value to the trainees? Did the trainings successfully address learning objectives? 3. To what extent did the children find the activities (user group sessions, awareness raising sessions, Club DX workshops, etc.) valuable and efficient? Have programmatic changes been made as a result of the feedback provided by children? What changes have been made? 4. Did additional activities introduced through Grant Agreement Amendments meet the project overall and specific objectives, and if possible, what impact they had on the specific target groups?

Efficiency

1. How has COVID-19 affected the CRIS project? How well has the program adapted to COVID-19?

Sustainability

1. To what extent could partners continue the implementation of the project for improvement of position of children involved in the Serbian Justice System without support (financial, technical)? 2. To what extent the project built the capacity of partners who could take up and continue the implementation? 3. What are the lessons learned and best practices in the advocacy and coordination with local and national actors?

Evaluation Approach and Methods

- The evaluation shall be independent, and evidence based. A variety of methodologies will be applied to collect information during evaluation. These methodologies include the following: - A review of documents relevant to projects. These will be provided by the IRC Balkans Office Program staff and documentation available with the partner organization (Anti-trafficking action ASTRA and the Center for Child Rights). Documentation to be reviewed will include:

1. IRC Strategic Action Plan for Serbia 2. Original project document, amendments, workplans 3. Project log-frame and theory of change 4. Project Monitoring Plan, monitoring reports, and a Mid-term report.

- Key informant interviews (KII) and consultations, key stakeholders (including Supreme Court of Cassation, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the RS, the state Judicial Academy, Ministry of Interior and selected academics), implementing partners, NGO representatives of the Project Advisory Board (PAB). The criteria for the selection of stakeholders to be interviewed shall be clarified in the inception report at the beginning of the evaluation.

Accountability and Responsibilities

The evaluation will be managed by the IRC Hellas in coordination with the CRIS Project Manager. IRC Hellas will ensure that contractual requirements are met and approve quality of the Final evaluation report. The consultant is responsible for meeting professional and ethical standards in planning and conducting the evaluation and producing the expected deliverables.

Consultancy Schedule

The evaluation will take an estimated 15 days of work over two-month period. It shall be conducted remotely and through in-person interviews. The consultant is expected to prepare an evaluation plan that will operationalize the evaluation. In the inception report, the consultant shall illustrate understanding of the evaluation questions, and elaborate on methods to be used, limitations or constraints to the evaluation, and schedules and delivery dates to guide the implementation of the evaluation. The timeline of the evaluation is as follows:

Activity

Month 1

Month 2

Review project documents

√

Draft detailed Evaluation plan / Inception report

√

Approval of the Evaluation plan / Inception report

√

Design data collection tools (survey, interview guide, and others)

√

Collect data for evaluation in consultations with the Project Manager

√

Perform analysis of findings

√

Write and submit draft Evaluation report

√

Address questions raised by IRC and revise report accordingly

√

Present evaluation findings to the IRC team in Serbia and at the final CRIS Project conference (scheduled for 16 June 2022)

√

Deliverables

IRC expects the consultancy to result in the following deliverables:

a) A comprehensive evaluation plan (Inception report), which will include a detailed workplan. Once approved, it will become the key management document for the evaluation.

b) Relevant data collection tools.

c) Final accessible, utilization-focused evaluation report written in English and follow a standard format of an evaluation report including an executive summary, introduction, methodology, findings, conclusions, lessons learned, recommendations, and appendices. The report shall not exceed 40 pages (excluding Executive Summary and Appendices).

d) Briefing to IRC Serbia including presentation slides summarizing findings and recommendations of evaluation report.

Description

# days

Inception report with evaluation workplan, and data collection tools

2

Final evaluation report

11

Briefing to IRC Serbia including presentation slides

1

Presenting Evaluation Report at the CRIS Final Conference

1

Total

15

Payment Schedule

Payment will be made in two tranches:

1. First, upon submission of the Final Evaluation Report (end of May 2022) – 80%

2. Second, upon presentation of the report at the CRIS Final Conference (end of June 2022) – 20%

Consultant location

The consultancy is home-based (Belgrade).

- - - - - -

[1] Second and third periodic report submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child by the Republic of Serbia, 30 July 2015 (pages 34-39).

[2]Recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child – How can we achieve them from the perspective of the Coalition for Monitoring Child Rights in the Republic of Serbia. Policy Paper. 2017 (page 21)

Qualifications

Qualifications:

- Advanced academic degree in political science, international relations, or social sciences or similar. - Five years of experience in results-based management, professional project management and monitoring and evaluation. - Ability to present credible findings derived from evidence and reaching conclusions and recommendations supported by findings. - Country specific knowledge and understanding of child friendly justice. - Experience in working with projects/programs in the field of networking among NGOs, analysis of legislation; capacity development and systems’ strengthening, and indirect service provision. - Close to native speaker level of English and Serbian.

Competencies:

- Professionalism: demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter. - Communication: excellent written and oral skills in English. - Teamwork: works collaboratively with project team

APPLICATION AND BIDDING PROCEDURE

Interested applicants should develop and submit a proposal in English to respond to the above-mentioned tasks. The proposal should include:

- Applicant’s CV - Motivation for applying - Relevant professional background including past performance conducting similar assignments - Consultant fee

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Added 2 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: rescue.org