National Consultancy for End-of-the Project Assessment of Integrated Programme for Climate Resilience and Empowerment in Attapeu Province, Lao PDR – Child Protection

UNICEF in Vientiane, Lao PDR is looking for a National Consultancy for End-of-the Project Assessment of Integrated Programme for Climate Resilience and Empowerment in Attapeu Province, Lao PDR – Child Protection. The duration of this assignment is 5 months, starting as soon as possible and the Consultant shall be home-based and occasionally come to the UNICEF office when needed.

UNICEF is a UN organization mandated by the UN General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. In Lao PDR, UNICEF is working with its partners to support the Government to realize children’s rights on survival, development, protection and participation.

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UNICEF in Vientiane, Lao PDR is looking for a National Consultancy for End-of-the Project Assessment of Integrated Programme for Climate Resilience and Empowerment in Attapeu Province, Lao PDR – Child Protection. The duration of this assignment is 5 months, starting as soon as possible and the Consultant shall be home-based and occasionally come to the UNICEF office when needed.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

The assessment will appraise the effectiveness of the implementation strategy and the results. This will include implementation modalities, roles and responsibilities of implementing partners, coordination, partnership arrangements, government institutional capacity strengthening, beneficiary participation, prospects for replication and sustainability of the programme. The assessment will include review of the project design and assumptions made at the beginning of the project development process. As for project management including the implementation strategies and project activities, the assessment it will appraise the extent to which the project results have been achieved, partnership established and/or strengthened, capacities built, and gender and human/child rights addressed. It will also assess whether the implementation strategy has been ideal and recommend areas for improvement.  Furthermore, the assessment will also consider to what extent the results from this project contributed to meet the overall Theory of Change for Child Protection Programme, UNICEF Lao PDR, which are:

• Lao PDR has a functioning, adequately resourced and staffed child protection system, where all stakeholders are aware of and perform their responsibilities in a coordinated manner to ensure adequate protection
• Children, families, and communities have better access to and use quality preventive and responsive services for addressing child protection vulnerabilities and violations.
• Parents, caregivers, children and their communities promote positive social norms and adopt behaviours that reduces violence, abuse and harmful practices against children and ensures children in need access support to recover.

Finally, the assessment will pay special attention to scalability of this Attapeu model. To meet these objectives, the below key questions shall be addressed. To meet these objectives, the below key questions shall be addressed.

To meet these objectives, the below key questions shall be addressed.

Assessment Questions:

1. The following key questions will guide the end of project assessment:

• Relevance- Design and focus of the project
• To what extent is the project outputs and outcome are aligned to relevant global goals including SDGs?
• To what extent is the project outputs and outcomes are aligned to relevant country policies and priorities?
• To what extent did the project address the national priorities of the government?
• Was the project relevant to the identified needs of beneficiaries?

2. Effectiveness- (Project implementation management processes and appropriateness in supporting implementation)

• Was the project effective in delivering desired/planned results?
• To what extent did the Project’s M&E mechanism contribute to meeting the results?
• How effective were the strategies and tools used in the implementation?what are the bottlenecks that have been removed?
• to what extent the CP system changed thanks to this intervention?
• if changes have been witnessed, what is the outcome of these changes in the psychological wellbeing of children?

3. Efficiency – (of Project Implementation)

• Was the process of achieving results efficient? Were the resources effectively utilized?
• What factors contributed to implementation efficiency?
• Did project activities overlap and duplicate other similar interventions in the same target areas? Are there more efficient ways and means of delivering more and better results with the available inputs?
• Could a different approach have produced better results?
• How was collaboration among implementing partners, including involved national institutions of the Government of Lao PDR, development partners, and the Steering Committee?
• How efficient were the management and accountability structures of the project implementation?
• What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the project implementation process?

4. Sustainability

• To what extent are the benefits of the project likely to be sustained after the completion of this project?
• What is the likelihood of continuation and sustainability of project outcomes and benefits after completion of the project?
• How effective is the currently planned exit strategies, and approaches to phase out assistance provided by the project including contributing factors and constraints?
• How were capacities strengthened at the individual and organizational level from implementation (including contributing factors and constraints)?
• What are the key factors that will require attention in order to improve prospects of sustainability of Project outcomes and the potential for replication of the approach?

Which features, aspects, characteristics of this intervention can inform a modeling of CP The assessment will be managed and supervised by UNICEF Child Protection and PME, in collaboration with representatives from implementing partners and international consultant. Under the overall supervision of the Child Protection Specialist, the consultant will work closely with both the Child Protection Specialist and PME Specialist. The consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

Field visits to selected project sites in Attapeu province, coordinating with government partners, preparing for field visits and together with international consultant, do a briefing and debriefing sessions with UNICEF and the relevant Government officials, as well as with a development partner (KOICA) are envisaged. Data collected should be disaggregated (by sex, age and location), as appropriate, and all information should be summarized in both Lao and English for the government partners and international consultants. In order to use the existing sources/information and avoid duplication, data will be mainly collected from various information sources through desk review that will include the comprehensive review and analysis of relevant documents, information, data/statistics and reports. Data will also be collected from key informant interviews with stakeholders, focus group discussions and observations in field missions. This phase will be comprised of:

(i) Work with an international consultant to review and analysis of relevant documents, including the UNICEF CPD (Country Programme Document), UNICEF KOICA programme documents & reports, relevant recent studies and research reports.

(ii) Support International consultant to analysis and comparison of available data from National level multi-sectoral LSIS II and LSIS III available raw data (currently ongoing) for Outcome level assessment.

Expected Deliverables:

1) Inception report: The national consultant will support the international consultant to prepare an inception report in both the Lao and English versions, which details the understanding of the assessment and how the key assessing questions will be addressed. This will ensure that there is a shared understanding of the assessment among UNICEF and related implementing partners. The inception report will include the assessment matrix summarizing the assessment design, methodology, key assessing questions, data sources and collection analysis tool for each data source and the measure by which each question will be assessed. The report will include the scope of work, work plan, time frame, analysis, after 5 working days from starting the assessment process. The inception report should include a proposed schedule of tasks; activities and deliverables, with clear responsibilities for each task or product. The inception report will be discussed and agreed upon with UNICEF and involved stakeholders.

2) Supporting Draft Assessment report- the national consultant will support the international consultant to draft KOICA-funded UNICEF Child protection programme in Attapeu assessment Report in both Lao and English, considering the proposed format of the report. And the report will be submitted to the UNICEF review and comments. UNICEF will share with relevant stakeholders, and a national consultant will need to combine and summarize the comments from relevant stakeholders and share with the International Consultant within 10 days after the reception of the Draft report.

3) The final report (30 to 50 pages): this report needs to be done in both the Lao and English language, which will incorporate comments from the Validation workshop with UNICEF and relevant stakeholders. The final report includes a full narrative report, two case studies, and one presentation, which summarizes the final report.

Submission of applications:

Interested candidates are kindly requested to apply and upload the following documents:

Letter of Interest (cover letter)

▪ CV or Resume

▪ Performance evaluation reports or references of similar consultancy assignments (if available)

▪ Financial proposal: All-inclusive lump-sum cost including travel, medical insurance with medivac and accommodation cost for this assignment as per work assignment.

Assessment Criteria:

For evaluation and selection method, the Cumulative Analysis Method (weight combined score method) shall be used for this recruitment:

The Contract shall be awarded to candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores, subject to the satisfactory result of the verification interview.

Please find the TOR here:  National_ToR_KOICA ATP assessment for VA.pdf

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