Lebanon: External Evaluation

Terms of Reference for External Evaluation

Integrated Shelter & WASH-based Improvements with Gender, Protection, and Social Stability Mainstreamed in Urban Tripoli: Phase III

Ø Background

CARE Lebanon’s mission is to support and enhance the stabilization and resilience of the most vulnerable populations and communities, with a particular focus on the rights and needs of women and girls, to ensure that they are empowered through greater social justice and sustainable economic development. CARE’s current programming in country has been focused on WASH, shelter, protection, and livelihood. In the last four years. CARE’s shift to a program approach is just now starting as the humanitarian response to the Syria crisis in Lebanon reaches the end of the 7^th year.

Ø Project Overview

.1 Overarching Goal:

The Integrated Shelter & WASH-based Improvements with Gender, Protection, and Social Stability Mainstreamed in Urban Tripoli: Phase III project, funded by Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (BPRM) and implemented by CARE Lebanon, aims to contribute to building the resilience of the affected population in Tripoli through the rehabilitation of shelters, promotion of social protection, and development of social capital. It employs both a community and neighborhood-based approach which has been developed since Phase I of the project which launched in September 2015.

.2 Key Objectives of the Project:

CARE and its partner, Akkarouna, have built on Phases I and II of its BPRM-funded project to continue improvements in dwellings and buildings, while enhancing community-based protection structures and activities, in this 12-month project. Linked with its community-based protection activities, this project aimed to include greater participation of beneficiaries in the decisions which affect their housing options, social services, and have a demonstrated impact on social stability and cohesion. More specifically, the project objectives have been:

Objective 1: Syrian refugees and host community individuals have improved shelter and WASH conditions in urban Tripoli.

Objective 2: Syrian individuals and host community individuals have enhanced knowledge of and access to protection services

Ø CARE’s Approach

CARE’s partnership approach

CARE Lebanon is guided by its partnership strategic pillar, which embraces empowerment and capacity building of local institutions as an integral part of its work across all programmes.

In line with its partnership strategic pillar, CARE Lebanon involves implementation through CARE partners as a mean of building local crisis response capacities and empowering local communities. This is a fundamental part of CARE’s commitment to enhancing resilience in the crisis-affected communities where it works; partnership empowerment is a sustainable investment in community-based capacities to respond to crises now and move from emergency relief to sustainable development over the longer term. In this project, CARE Lebanon draws on its longstanding partnership with Akkarouna to implement the components of the project.

CARE’s approach to fostering resilience and social cohesion

Through the “*One Neighborhood Approach*”, CARE Lebanon supports the most vulnerable within communities: the approach intentionally benefits both Syrian refugees and members of the Lebanese host community; this has been recognized by CARE as one of the key strategies to avoid exacerbating tension between refugee and host populations. Given the large influx of refugees, the fact that most of them are living within urban areas, and the pressures this has placed on Jordanian social services and the economy, this is a critical part of CARE’s conflict sensitivity strategy in a context where increasing tensions have been documented. This approach is part of a strategy to support social cohesion, and to recognize the stresses of the host community along with those of the refugee community.

CARE also uses community-based targeting approaches: This not only ensures protection for the most marginalized individuals but, by establishing community-based outreach, is also a critical means for assuring conflict-sensitivity.

Ø Evaluation Goal and Objectives

CARE Lebanon requires an external project evaluation of the Integrated Shelter & WASH-based Improvements with Gender, Protection, and Social Stability Mainstreamed in Urban Tripoli: for the last 3 phases of the project during the period of 2015-2018. The evaluation will be participatory in nature, and assess both the direct and indirect impact of the project. Also, it will give full consideration to gender integration at all stages of the process, and will ensure that lessons learned are disseminated to relevant stakeholders within the project as well as the broader humanitarian assistance community. Furthermore, the evaluation should consider the cumulative results of BPRM’s support from the previous phases of project (i.e. Phase I and Phase II)

The evaluator/s should conduct a thorough end of project evaluation to guide CARE and its partners in building their internal capacities and learn from experience. The programmatic and operational dynamics of the institution in general, and the project specificities in particular, should be considered in the analysis while covering the standard OECD/DAC evaluation criteria. The relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the project’s interventions should be studied to assess all of the project’s stages; design, management, implementation, closing and monitoring.

The specific objectives of the assessment are to:

1. Assess the performance of CARE’s Integrated Shelter & WASH-based Improvements with Gender, Protection, and Social Stability Mainstreamed in Urban Tripoli: Phase III project according to the following evaluation criteria:

Ø Relevance: Evaluate the validity of the strategic choices and the matching level of services provided with the actual needs of the targeted population

Ø Efficiency: Measure the input to output ratio resulting from decisions related to the project design, type of interventions and the operational processes employed to generate the expected outcomes

Ø Effectiveness: Assess the completion level of the project’s targets, study the comprehensiveness and suitability of the log-frame, and finally, the accuracy of the assumptions linking different stated objectives

Ø Impact: Identify, categorize and quantify the levels of direct vs. indirect and short term vs. long term effects of the project’s interventions.

Ø Sustainability: Determine the durability of the impact and the ability of the local community to replicate on their own the interventions implemented by CARE and its partners

1. Evaluate the overall approach of CARE Lebanon to addressing social stability , enhancing resilience, and social cohesion through CARE Lebanon’s One Neighborhood Approach, with a focus on Gender and women issues. Finally, the evaluator should be able to present and test a theoretical model linking the goal of building community resilience to the interventions of the projects. The suggested impact pathways logically connecting outputs, preconditions and goals should be empirically validated while stressing on the result augmenting factors such as adopting gender transformative and neighborhood approaches.

The evaluation will also:

· Assess the extent to which the project was accountable to the stakeholders (beneficiaries, donor, etc.);

· Identify unintended consequences of the project, both positive and negative;

· Document the enabling factors and challenges that influence programme implementation;

· Provide programmatic recommendations for future initiatives based on the successes and lessons learnt;

· Explore the extent to which any gains from previous phases projects continue to be felt by the target population and the extent to which these effects are cumulative and reinforce the existing intervention.

Additionally, the evaluation will look at the strategic link between relief, recovery and achieving long term developmental objectives, as it has been essential to ensure a fast response to the urgent needs, and at the same time, sustainability of the interventions. Hence, the evaluation criteria will not only be restricted to assessing the components relevant to the relief services, but the developmental initiatives that falls under promoting good governance and social cohesion at the local level. Special attention should be paid on the roles of the neighborhood committees and ability to expand their communities’ capital.

Ø Evaluation Methodology

The following provides a guide on the methodological process expected for this assessment. A final methodology will be proposed by the selected evaluator in an inception report and presented to the reference group overseeing the assessment for their endorsement.

To the extent possible, this assessment will be carried out in phases in order to cover both, the breadth and depth of the experience:

1. Desk review

2. Field phase

3. A synthesis phase

4. Discussion seminar

A methodology combining both qualitative and quantitative tools should be relied on to gather the needed data from a range of key stakeholders. These will likely include literature review, survey of beneficiaries, key informant interviews, focus group discussions with beneficiaries, case studies, CARE staff, partners and donors This mixture should be able to achieve the following; 1) attain a balanced scope which takes into consideration the technical and programmatic aspects of the project, 2) implement a clear data verification practice which compares the results of a diverse set of evaluation tools and 3) employ a result verification method based on the perceived impact of the interventions by different key stakeholders.

The opinions of the beneficiaries, neighborhood committees, local authorities, informal leaders, CARE & Akkarouna’s staff members, other NGOs, etc. should be captured, analyzed, triangulated, and reflected in the report using the data visualization tools whenever it possible.

The methodology should be suitable for the project indicators as specified in the project proposal and logframe and it will help also to assess the progress that was made in this project and previous phases cumulatively.

Furthermore, all samples must be representative samples for its populations, and fulfills the scientific roles of sampling design as well as keeping the error margin at the minimum percentage, 7% and the confidence level is 95%.

6.. To this end, CARE will ensure to:

• Provide the consultant with the suggested documents for desk review

• Provide the consultant with the quantitative data collected

• Facilitate access to the beneficiaries and research participants for the qualitative data collection

• Review / approve evaluation methodology and data collection tools

• Review deliverables of consultancy

Ø Deliverables & Timeframe

The milestones of the overall evaluation should be completed within 6 weeks, and the deliverables should include the following;

• A clear proposal stating the evaluation methodology, indicators, tools to be used, targeted population, evaluation tools and questions

• Desk review of the project documentations, lesson learnt from external sources and the stakeholders as well as sampling design that will be targeted in the evaluation

• A draft report which includes at least the following sections;

o Executive Summary

o Lebanese Refugee Context

o Evaluation Methodology

o Assessment areas & Findings;

§ Relevance

§ Effectiveness

§ Efficiency

§ Impact; Theory of change (Pathways to Resilience) + Empirical Evidence

§ Sustainability

o Inclusive Governance, Community Development & Neighborhood Committees

o Lessons Learnt & Recommendations

• A final report that is developed based on CARE’s revision and remarks to the draft report

Ø Consultant/Team Qualifications

Consultant(s), whether representatives of a private company or working independently, will be evaluated according to the following criteria;

a. Completed a post-graduate degree from an accredited academic institution, or the professional equivalent

b. Minimum 7 years of experience in Strategy and/or Project evaluation

c. Demonstrated experience in working with local non-governmental organizations in Lebanon

d. Demonstrated knowledge of international, regional and local contexts, particularly related to humanitarian response strategic initiatives

e. Good analytical skills

f. Ability to develop and use qualitative and quantitative tools

g. Adequate experience in writing comprehensive evaluation reports

h. Good Command of Arabic & English

Ø Required Documents

The application file should be sent before the 21^st of June, 2017 to procurement@careliban.org

a. Firm portfolio and consultants Resume, demonstrating previous experience with focus on relevant/similar assignment

b. A sample of assessment (or summary) reports developed by the consultant(s)

c. A brief proposal demonstrating the approach, methodology and timeline of the evaluation

d. Budget (consisting of the proposed daily fee, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses).