Consultancy for an Evaluation of Swiss Church Aid’s Cash-for-Work Project(s) in Lebanon

Please find attached the ToRs with Annexes

Description of the intervention

HEKS/EPER has been providing humanitarian assistance through its local partner Najdeh in Lebanon through unconditional cash and cash for work interventions since 2013 as a response to the Syrian Crisis. These interventions have been taking place in the two Palestinian Camps Shatila and Borj el Borajne.

The overall goal of the cash for work interventions have been to increase the resilience of the refugee families from Syria and host families in these two camps. With the main outcomes:

• Improved living conditions of the most vulnerable PRS through shelter rehabilitation in Shatila and Borj el Borajne camps
• Good environmental health conditions in the camps through camp cleaning activities in both camps
• Improved social cohesion between refugee and host community through joint Cash for Work activities serving the public good (diapraxis)

The project targeted the most vulnerable PRS[1] as well as PRL families in these camps. The project was developed in the belief that the resilience of the refugees could be increased if project activities contributed towards their integration into the host community. Thus, the Cash for Work activities aimed at increasing the social cohesion between these two communities and reducing tensions due to the competition for already scarce resources. For this purpose, members from both communities were encouraged to participate in these activities which should benefit both communities (e.g. camp cleaning).

Purpose and Scope of the Evaluation                                                                           i

Swiss Church Aid (HEKS/EPER) seeks to procure the services of a consultant, to design, plan and conduct an evaluation of its cash-for-work projects in Lebanon.

The purpose of the consultancy is three-fold:

• To assess whether an increased social cohesion between PRS and PRL can be observed and if so, to what extent the cash-for-work activities have contributed to this increased social cohesion.
• To develop recommendations for future cash-for-work projects in similar contexts in order to maximise their contribution to social cohesion.
• To validate the Theory of Change for social cohesion interventions.

The target audience of this evaluation are the management staff of the partner organisation in Lebanon (Najdeh), the Country Director Lebanon and the Desk Officer for the Lebanon portfolio at HEKS HQ. They will utilize the results of the evaluation to adapt their programming, and to transfer lessons learnt to other interventions. The results will also be utilized by the Thematic Advisors for Conflict Transformation and Conflict Sensitivity to refine HEKS/EPER’s strategy on social cohesion in humanitarian interventions, and by the M&E Unit for reporting purposes.

The specific intervention to be covered by this evaluation is the project “Improving living conditions and social cohesion among PRS and PRL” The project and its previous phases which included this Cash for work approach have been implemented since 1.1.2017 with an overall budget of around 2 Million CHF in Shatila and Borj al Barajneh camps in Lebanon. Project implementation will end on December 31^st, 2018

Please see Annex 1: for the Theory of Change for social cohesion interventions (draft version) and Annex 2 for an overview of the indicators to be assessed as part of this consultancy.

Evaluation Criteria and Questions                                                                                i

The evaluation will primarily assess the OECD-DAC criterion of effectiveness. To the extent possible, the OECD-DAC criterion of impact should also be assessed.

1. Effectiveness

Has there been an increase in social cohesion between PRS (Palestinian Refugees from Syria) and PRL (Palestinian Refugees from Lebanon) in Shatila and Borj al Borajne?

            More specifically, has there been an increase between PRS and PRL in:

• Contact,
• Positive communication,
• Respect,
• Trust,
• Self-perceived security?

1. Impact

• To what extent have the cash-for-work activities contributed to this increased social cohesion?
• How did this change happen?

Evaluation Methodology and Process                                                                          i

The evaluation should utilize a mixed-methods approach with a representative, quantitative survey to assess the effectiveness question, and purposive, qualitative interviews to assess the impact question, i.e. the contribution of the cash-for-work activities to increased social cohesion. Due to the absence of robust baseline data and the absence of a comparison group, the assessment of impact using a counterfactual evaluation design is not possible. It is therefore anticipated that impact will be assessed using a combination of checking the consistency of evidence with causal relationships and ruling out alternative explanations[2].

The evaluation process consists of several stages:

Home-based:

• Application: Bidding, selection of consultant
• Inception: Document review, inception report, data collection tools for exploratory research

Field-based:

• Preparation of data collection – Part 1: Exploratory research (qualitative interviews with PRS and PRL, as well as with staff from the partner organisation) to define key concepts of social cohesion, such as respect, trust, and self-perceived security
• Preparation of data collection – Part 2: Developing the quantitative and qualitative data collection tools
• Data collection: Training enumerators, field-testing the data collection tools, conducting the quantitative and qualitative data collection
• Data analysis: Preliminary analysis based in the field as a pre-requisite for validating the Theory of Change for social cohesion interventions
• Validation workshop: Validating the Theory of Change for social cohesion interventions in a participatory manner with PRS and PRL representatives, and staff from the partner organisation

Home-based:

• Data analysis: Conduct full data analysis
• Reporting: Drafting and finalising the report

Deliverables                                                                                                                   i

Application stage:

• As part of the application, the consultant is expected to comment on the proposed methodology and process; other comments on the ToR are also invited

Inception stage:

• Inception report (draft, final), detailing the methodology and process for the evaluation, including an evaluation matrix, a draft sampling strategy, a suggested sample size, and the draft tools for the exploratory research

Field phase:

• Data collection tools (draft, final)
• Training conducted for enumerators on the sampling framework, research instruments, and research ethics. Duration and content of the training to be determined by the consultant
• Fully “cleaned-up” dataset in Excel
• Transcripts of qualitative data (this is open to discussion)
• Validation workshop conducted

Data analysis and reporting stage:

• Evaluation report (draft, final), including recommendations for future cash-for-work projects in similar contexts which also aim at increasing social cohesion

Schedule and Budget                                                                                                     i

15^th  January 2019: Application deadline

31^st  January 2019: Hiring of consultant(s)

February 2019

• Document review
• Inception Report
• Data collection tools for exploratory research

• 5 days

March /April 2019

• Exploratory research
• Data collection tools (quantitative, qualitative)
• Train enumerators, translate the data collection tools, field-test the data collection tools (as part of the enumerator training)
• Facilitate/conduct data collection
• Data Entry
• Preliminary data analysis
• Validation workshop

• 15 days

April 2019

• Full data analysis
• Writing the report

• 5 days

The consultant is expected to submit his/ her daily rate, including VAT, and the estimated travel costs to and from Beirut as part of the application

Management Roles and Responsibilities           i

The consultant will be responsible for designing, planning and implementing the evaluation, including the methodological preparation, the data collection and analysis, and writing the evaluation report.

The Steering Committee consisting of the Desk Officer responsible for the Lebanon portfolio, the Conflict Transformation Advisor, and the M&E Officer based at HEKS HQ in Zurich, as well as a representative of the partner organisation Najdeh. They will oversee the administration and overall coordination of the entire evaluation process, including monitoring progress. The main functions of the Steering Committee are:

• Establishing the Terms of Reference;
• Reviewing, commenting on and endorsing the Inception Report;
• Engaging periodically with the substance of the evaluation and providing preliminary feedback to the consultant;
• Managing the commenting process on the draft evaluation report;
• Reviewing, commenting on and endorsing the final report; and
• Establishing a dissemination and utilization strategy.

The partner organisation Najdeh will assist the consultant by providing all necessary documents (proposals, logframes or alternative results models, workplans, budgets, reports) and by facilitating access to key stakeholders and specific information or expertise needed to complete the evaluation. Najdeh will also coordinate the field research, including meetings, transportation and logistics, as well as organising the debriefing / presentation workshops.

The Consultant will report directly to the Desk Officer for the Lebanon portfolio.

Follow up of the Evaluation        i

1. Assessment of the reports: The inception report and the evaluation report will be assessed by the M&E Officer (HQ) against Swiss Church Aid’s Quality of Evidence checklist.
2. Management response: The Desk Officer for the Lebanon portfolio will write a management response, providing HQ’s perspective on the results and recommendations. The Desk officer will also develop an Action Plan to ensure that findings and actionable recommendations are disseminated, and appropriate action is taken.
3. Swiss Church Aid will publish a summary of the evaluation report on its website. Further external dissemination will be discussed by the Steering Committee.

List of Documents

Documents for the desk review will include:

• Project proposal
• Theory of Change
• Evaluation on Cash for Work 2016

Evaluation Team / Qualifications                                                                                 i

The consultant is expected to meet the following qualifications:

• Master’s degree in the social sciences (sociology, anthropology, development studies, conflict and peace)
• At least 5 years of research and other relevant professional experience
• Sound expertise in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis
• Strong analytical skills and proficiency in writing in English
• Ability to deliver quality reports/analysis and results in line with established deadlines
• Profound understanding and expertise of social cohesion among/within different social groups as well as knowledge of cash-for-work interventions in humanitarian situations
• Previous research and/or work experience in the Middle East, ideally in refugee camps in Lebanon/with Palestinian refugees
• Excellent facilitation and coordination skills
• Fluency in English, Arabic is considered an asset

Interested and eligible candidates should submit the following:

• A cover letter, indicating how the candidate meets the required qualifications (maximum 2 pages)
• A CV (maximum 3 pages)
• Comments on the methodology and process, and other comments on the ToR
• Two references

If selected for an interview, the candidate will be requested to submit one example of previous, similar work.

The following criteria will be used when evaluating the proposals:

• The experience and competence of the consultant(s) in relation to the Terms of Reference;
• The proposed methodology for the assignment in relation to the Terms of Reference;
• The consultant(s) ability to perform the assignment in the appropriate time; and
• The budget for the assignment.

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