Local consultant to conduct the end-project assessment of skills-based programmes, Prishtina, Kosovo, M&E, 2 months, working from home

Contract

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Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The UNICEF Kosovo Programme 2021-2025 is designed to promote and ensure that the rights of children are identified and attended to, either directly or through advocacy with partners and relevant Kosovo institutions. The programme focuses on the significant challenges facing children, adolescents and youth at different stages of their growth and development, embedded across different key programme priorities. Strengthening participation and empowerment of adolescents and youth constitute one of the key priorities of the five-year programme. In this regard, UNICEF works with Kosovo institutions, partners and donors to equip adolescents and youth with the relevant skills to achieve their full potential and become agents of social change in their communities.

As part of the recent partnership with the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), UNICEF Kosovo has engaged over 11,000 adolescents and youth through different programmes and interventions to pilot skills-based programmes in schools through increasing the capacities of teachers and students, provision of fist job experience to youth through supporting their transition from school to work and strengthening of capacities at local level through establishment of four local Innovation Hubs to facilitate adolescents and youth engagement and empowerment at municipal level. The partnership between UNICEF and ADA aims to strengthen participation and empowerment of adolescents and youth outlined under the project ”Institutionalizing and consolidating Innovations for Youth in Kosovo” which covers the period of September 2019 until August 2022. The project outcomes include the following: 1. Strengthened skills-based curriculum and provision of blended learning solutions for the upper-secondary formal education system 2. Institutionalized local social innovation hubs 3. Digital solutions for public institutions 4. Strengthened professional readiness through internship and volunteerism of adolescent girls and boys and young men and women.

In line with the overall UNICEF priorities as per the Kosovo Programme (2021-2025) and the objectives of the partnership with ADA, UNICEF is seeking to hire a local consultant to support in conducing the end-project assessment to document the progress made, identify key lessons learned, including good and promising practices and develop specific recommendations to inform the potential next phases of the partnership. The local consultant will work under the leadership and full coordination of the international consultant who will be the team leader of the assessment.

Scope of Work:

Under the overall supervision of the Child Rights Monitoring Specialist and with support from the Youth and Adolescents Development Officer the local consultant will conduct the assessment of the project “Institutionalizing and consolidating Innovations for Youth in Kosovo”. The local consultant will work under the leadership and full coordination of the international consultant who will be the team leader of the assessment.

The project objectives of the assessment should examine if the project outcomes and outputs have been achieved and contributed to the overall project goal. Measurement indicators of the project are available as per the logical framework which will inform the process of the assessment. The assessment should place a specific focus on gender, equity, human and child rights-based principles.

Methodology:

A detailed assessment methodology is expected to be developed by the international consultant with support from the local consultant as part of the inception report, which should be guided by the relevant UNICEF’s guidelines and ADA Guidelines for Programme and Project Evaluations.

Achievements will be assessed against the overall project objectives, outputs and indicators identified in the project document through a comprehensive desk review, primary and secondary data sources with adolescents and youth, Kosovo institutions, UNICEF implementing partners and other stakeholders. Significant information can be also obtained from the secondary data sources, especially the UNICEF Kosovo Programme Evaluation conducted in 2020 which included a deep dive tracing analysis of the UNICEF skills building programmes.

The local consultant is expected to support the international consultant in preparing a detailed and targeted set of assessment questions and design the data collection tools and protocols for the in-depth interviews and focus group discussions which are to be developed in the inception phase and included in the report. However, the assessment should consider the following criteria and take into account the following questions: - Relevance – To what extent the project is aligned with the needs of the target groups? - Effectiveness – To what extent have the project outputs been achieved against the set objectives and targets? What are the constraints and limitations in delivery of the programme? Has gender been effectively mainstreamed in project implementation? - Sustainability – To what extent the project activities and achievements are likely to be continued or replicated? What measures have been taken to ensure sustainability of the project?

Specific lessons learned and recommendations should be developed based on the triangulation of all information collected and data analysis. Focus on identifying promising practices, mitigating risks, entry points and opportunities is critical to draw on recommendation to inform the potential next phases of the partnership. The assessment report will inform future evaluation of the skills building programmes.

Ethical considerations:

The study will be conducted in full accordance with the following international and regional guidelines for research ethics and methods, as well as personal data protection issues: UNICEF Procedures for Ethical Standards in Research, Evaluation, Data Collection and Analysis; UNICEF Strategic Guidance Note on Institutionalizing Ethical Practice for UNICEF Research; General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a regional law of the European Union (EU) requiring institutions to protect personal data and the privacy of EU citizens inside and outside of the EU. The study design must take into consideration how ethical concerns shall be addressed to avoid stigma, discrimination, any form of harm to children and their parents, protection of confidentiality, protection of rights, ensuring the dignity and welfare of all respondents. The study methodology and tools for data collection will undergo the ethnical review for data collection.

Work Assignment Overview Tasks/Milestone: Support the conduct of a comprehensive desk review of relevant documents

Deliverables/Outputs: Desk review conducted

****Timeline**** June 2022 (2 days)

Tasks/Milestone: Provide inputs to the inception report with a detailed methodology, measurement tools and data collection protocols Deliverables/Outputs: Inception report developed ****Timeline**** June 2022 (2 days)

Tasks/Milestone: Primary data collection (in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and online survey as applicable) Deliverables/Outputs: Quantitative and qualitative data collected ****Timeline**** June 2022 (15 days)

Tasks/Milestone: Analysis of primary and secondary data Deliverables/Outputs: Data analysis completed ****Timeline**** July 2022 (2 days)

Tasks/Milestone: Develop the draft report Deliverables/Outputs: Draft report developed and shared for review ****Timeline**** July 2022 (5 days)

Tasks/Milestone: Develop the final report and presentation of assessment findings Deliverables/Outputs: Final report developed in line with the guidelines requirements and presentation delivered ****Timeline**** August 2022 (1 days)

Minimum Qualifications required: Master’s degree in Social Sciences (Management, Economics, Psychology and/or Sociology)

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required: A local consultant qualified and with extensive experience in evaluation management, programme evaluation, research and analysis, and reporting. Experience in the evaluation of projects benefitting youth and adolescent, education and/or employability programmes is required; experience with OECD/DAC Evaluation Quality Standards is similarly required. Recommended experience and expertise in evaluating cross-cutting issues (gender, environment, minority rights and/or social inclusion). Advanced proficiency in English and Albanian language. The evaluator must not have been involved in the design or implementation of the programme being evaluated.