End of Project Evaluation and learning document for a global inclusive education project – Bangladesh

Task:

We are looking for a consultant to conduct an end-of-project evaluation of our “Improving learning opportunities for children and young people with deafblindness in eight countries across the world” three-year project and produce a learning document to provide credible assessment of successes and recommendations to inform direction for a new phase of the project.

Introductions:

Sense International (SI) is a disability specialist charity, partnering with local organizations
in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Nepal, Peru, Romania, Tanzania, and Uganda. We have
over 20 years of experience working with people with deafblindness/multi-sensory
impairments (MSI), who are among the most marginalized and vulnerable due to complex
communication needs. SI supports people with deafblindness to transition from isolation to
inclusion, ensuring they have the emotional, health and educational support to live, learn
and thrive.

Project Title

Improving learning opportunities for children and young people with deafblindness in eight countries across the world.

Implementation period:

1st April 2020 to 31st March 2023

Overview:

This project brings together the potential of technology, with our on the ground understanding of the diverse challenges that face children and young people (CYP) with deafblindness. Working in all our eight countries (Bangladesh, Kenya, India, Nepal, Peru, Romania, Tanzania and Uganda), this project has the children and young people with deafblindness at its centre.

The project aims to address the following challenges, common to all of the countries that we work in:

• Many people believe children and young people with deafblindness cannot learn. The project will challenge those attitudes, by empowering the children and young people with deafblindness to explain their experiences and needs.
• There are not enough people trained to work with children and young people with deafblindness to help them learn. The project will address this through establishing online and physical training hubs, and using our local expertise and knowledge to train those who need it most.
• Resources and training materials for educators and parents and carers are scattered and hard to find. We have researched the best way to provide a central hub for resources and training materials, and we will be creating on and offline training resources, making sure that those that need them can access them.
• Governments are not ensuring appropriate education to meet the needs of children with deafblindness. Through this project we will influence decision makers to respond to the learning needs of children with deafblindness.

Objectives of the evaluation:

1. To assess the extent to which the project outcomes and milestone targets have been met by the end of the project.
2. To document lessons learnt.
3. To account to beneficiaries, partners and our donors (principally Nelumbo Foundation) on the achievements and challenges.
4. To provide recommendations to inform direction for a new phase of the project (short, medium term and long-term) particularly the Global Resource Hub, and local hubs in relation to resources required by people with deafblindness and those that support them.

Proposed Timeframe:

The evaluation should cover the full duration of the project implementation, which is from 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2023. The end of the project evaluation process needs to be undertaken during March 2023, including the desk research, field research and draft report writing. We expect the feedback process and final report to be completed by 30th April 2023.

Proposed itinerary (tentative dates, for further discussion)

• 27th March 2023 – Deadline for expressions of interest.
• 28th-31st March 2023 – Evaluator selected and a contract drawn up.
• w/c 3rd April 2023 (approximately 2 days) – Tools preparation and document review (pre-reading shared).
• w/c 10th and w/c 17th April (approximately 10 days) – field visits to project beneficiaries and partners in three countries (one in E.Africa, one in Asia, one in Europe) and online meetings with staff in other countries of implementation.
• w/c 24th April 2023 (approximately 5 days) –report writing.
• 1st May 2023 –deadline for the draft evaluation report.
• w/c 8th May 2023 – presentation of draft report, validation.
• 19th May 2023 deadline for feedback from Sense International.
• 26th May 2023 – Consultant to submit a final draft evaluation report for final feedback
• By 31st May 2023 final evaluation is expected to be available.

How to apply

If you are interested in applying to undertake this evaluation and learning document, we look forward to hearing from you and receiving your Expression of Interest.

For the Expression of Interest, please email a CV and a maximum four-page Expression of Interest which responds to the following questions:

1. Your experience in evaluating statutory/ institutional donor-funded projects.
2. Your experience with evaluation methods.
3. Your proposed methodology for this evaluation.
4. Your experience in the disability and development field.
5. Any knowledge of the work of Sense International, or other work relevant to disability.
6. Your availability to travel for consultation meetings within SI countries of operation in March 2023.
7. An indication of your consultancy fee expectation/day rate, for an estimated duration of approximate days of work for the evaluation.

Please click on the following link to download the ToR: https://www.senseinternational.org.uk/footer-links/jobs/end-of-project-evaluation-and-learning/

Send all queries and expressions of interest with the subject of ‘Global IE Expression of End of project evaluation consultancy’ to email: harriet.smith@sense.org.uk.

The deadline to receive applications is on 27th March 2023.