: ActionAid Thailand
: Nonprofits / องค์กรไม่แสวงหาผลกำไร
: 1105
: 17 August 2023
31 August 2023
Terms of Reference (ToR) for Final External Evaluation
Project: Building an active, networked civil society to improve delivery and access to quality education in Thailand 2020 – 2023
CSO – LA/2019/410-136
Activity: Final external Evaluation
Budget line: 102072/5.4.2
1. Project Title: Building an active, networked civil society to improve delivery and access to quality education in Thailand
2. Background:
Active since 2001, ActionAid Thailand (AAT) has considerable expertise in CSO capacity building and empowerment of poor communities to actively participate in civic life and to demand quality public services and more accountable and transparent governance processes. In 2014 AAT undertook a nationwide needs assessment to critically assess whether the public education system met the needs of the poorest and most marginalised communities. The status and poor quality of education delivered by small schools (making up 50% of schools, they are defined by government as those with less than 120 pupils) was the most urgent gap. Almost two thirds are at risk of closure or merger with other schools with negative impacts on remote communities. In response AAT developed a Small Schools Model that builds sustainability of local schools based on greater community involvement and bridges the gap between communities, civil society and local authorities. Piloted in 8 provinces, preliminary results indicate positive changes to quality of education and behaviour change in stakeholders. This call for proposals presents an opportunity for the co-applicants, all experienced in education, to develop the capacity of Thai CSOs to further develop and scale up this model, potentially to national level and influence the Thai Government to protect and improve small schools. The action has been designed in two workshops held in December 2018 that brought together co-applicants, local education specialists, teachers, and school administrators.
The objectives of the action as given.
The action aims to enhance the capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) to support the government of Thailand in achieving sustainable development and engaging citizens through transparent governance processes. It focuses on building CSO capacity to address local education concerns, mobilize communities for greater involvement in policymaking and school management, and increase women's participation in community activism and school management. The main tool developed is the Small School Model, which prioritizes quality, access, and responsiveness to local needs. The expected outcomes include CSOs becoming credible partners for the government, increased knowledge of rights in communities, improved understanding of responsibilities by government stakeholders, and greater participation of women in leadership roles. The action faces risks related to school closures and policy changes but assumes further schools will join the model and communities will be supported by local authorities. The action involves capacity building for CSOs, fostering partnerships between communities and authorities, and advocacy with the government. Cross-cutting issues like human rights, gender equality, and good governance will be mainstreamed. The final evaluation will assess project implementation at specific objective levels and measure achievements and gaps in outputs, activities, and inputs of the project. It will involve desk study, field visits, surveys, focus group discussions, and interviews with stakeholders and beneficiaries. On-site and online approaches will be used for evaluation.
3. Objectives and purpose of the final evaluation
The final evaluation will be conducted by external consultant/evaluation team to assess the project implementation of building an active, networked civil society to improve delivery and access to quality education in Thailand at specific objective level and to measure the achievements and gaps in outputs level related to intervention, activities, and inputs of the project. This process will consist of desk study, field visits, survey, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and interview key stakeholders and beneficiaries, as well as participating in some events of the project implementation amid final evaluation period, on-site and online approach can be arranged properly.
4. Final evaluation objectives
1) Assess to what extent the project has attained the overall objective or expected impact to increase participation of Thai CSOs working to increase the capacity of Thai civil society to promote active citizenship, contribute to more responsive state education development and transparent governance processes.
2) Measure to what extent the project has contributed to solve the needs and identified problems, especially framing policies and measurements through essential public services, small school systems, build the capacity of civil society organizations and networks and empower marginalized communities to engage in the management and governance of small schools enabling children in 8 provinces in central, North and NE Thailand to access quality and affordable education.
3) To measure the project’s degree of implementation and its relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability, as well as gender perspective, but not limits to communication and visibility against the targeted results of the project.
4) Identify and document lessons learned, best practice, achievements, gaps, and challenges, as well as stories of change from project stakeholders and beneficiaries.
5) To engage and get involved project partners in the evaluation process to strengthen their evaluation capacities and to build sense of partners ownership through key findings and recommendations for their communities when the project closure.
5. Key evaluation questions
Relevance
“The extent to which the activity is suited to the priorities and policies of the target group, recipient and donor.”
1) To what extent are the needs of the small schools, especially those of people/children living in poverty, remote communities, and other vulnerable groups, being met by the project?
2) To what extent the activities have done according to Human Rights Base Approach (HRBA)?
Effectiveness
“Measurement of the extent to which an activity achieves Education project objectives.”
1) Does the project/response have any effect or is likely to influence educational policy?
2) Does the project/response carry out ActionAid's stated Values and Way of Working?
3) To what extent have we done what we planned?
Efficiency & Value for Money
Efficiency “measures the outputs -- qualitative and quantitative -- in relation to the inputs.”
Value for Money: “Refers to both the input: output ratio as well as outcomes in relation to all inputs and resources.”
1) Have we made the right decision about the reasonable price compared to the outputs?
2) To what extent we have used the resources efficiently in line with the guideline of EU grant management by strictly complying with AAIT procurement procedures and meet target key indicators as per project plan and to be in line with EU general condition?
Impact
“Positive and negative changes resulting from development interventions either directly or indirectly intentional or unintentional?”
1) Does our intervention during the project make a difference in the targeted schools?
2) Creating educational innovations in small schools. How does it affect students in different ways?
Sustainability
“Sustainability is concerned with measuring whether the benefits of an activity are likely to continue after donor funding has been withdrawn. Projects need to be environmentally as well as financially sustainable.”
1) Will the results and positive impacts of the intervention last after the end of the project?
2) Is the project dependent on ActionAid Thailand?
Gender perspective
“Measurement of knowledge and skills of civil society organizations which leads to entry and deployment to achieve gender equality after the project ends.”
1) Is a gender perspective included in the implementation of the project?
2) There is training for understanding and awareness of gender equality issues. Female participants have the power to change roles in participating activities and courses?
Visibility and communication
“Visibility refers to awareness and recognition of specific and general audiences about the EU support for the project.”
“Communication refers to ability to effectively express the added value, the results, impact and lessons learned from the project.”
1) Are the visibility and communication plan and activities in line with communication and visibility requirements for all EU external actions?
2) To what extent did the visibility and communication activities achieve their objectives as identified in the communication and visibility plan?
6. Expected approach to the evaluation
ActionAid Thailand concerns approaches to ensure all aspects during final evaluation process will be included as listed below.
Reporting back: The external consultant/assessment team should strive to return important findings and recommendations to civil society organizations and schools involved in the assessment.
Transparency, ethical standards: the external consultant/evaluation team should explain clearly to communities involved in the evaluation what the purpose of the exercise is, and how people’s information will be used. The evaluation should follow ActionAid’s ethical standards for research and data collection and should include a risk assessment covering security risks to communities.
Community voices: it is essential that the evaluation reflects the voices of affected communities. People should be consulted as part of the evaluation, and their voices should be included in the evaluation report as direct quotes and case studies. In line with ActionAid’s mandate the evaluation should prioritize people living in poverty and exclusion, especially women.
Women’s participation: It is essential that women’s voices are heard clearly in the evaluation as a guide at least 60% of the people consulted should be women. The timing and location of evaluation activities, and the composition of the evaluation team should be designed to maximize women’s ability to participate in the evaluation.
Participatory approaches: ActionAid expects that the evaluation should be as participatory as possible. For final evaluations, it is expected that a participatory evaluation approach will be used, with partner organizations as well as communities’ representatives to be engaged in reflections and recommendation toward the project in evaluation platform.
Transparency about methodology: The evaluation should include details and transparent discussion of the methodology used and key decisions taken in designing and implementing the evaluation. This should include information about the sampling (approach to sampling, numbers of people/communities covered, to what extent it was representative), what tools were used and why, and methodological limitations and gaps in the evaluation.
Disaggregated data: data must be disaggregated in as much detail as possible. As a minimum this means disaggregation by age and sex.
Responding to urgent issues: Any information identified by the evaluation that requires urgent action should be highlighted immediately to ActionAid, without waiting for submission of the formal evaluation report.
7. Methodology
In terms of this final evaluation, the applicants are encouraged to outline the proposed methodologies that are ensured that are practical during the expected timeframe. It is expected that the final evaluation will be conducted through desk-based review on related documents to understand the project and its specifics and to assess progress against the evaluation questions. The sources for desk research include the project proposal, theory of change, log-frame, M&E framework, quarterly reports, annual reports, case studies, mid-term evaluation, baseline, policy briefs, research, and other documentation, such as reports, video documentaries, communiqués, etc. This evaluation also requires a field visit to the target areas to implement Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and interview key stakeholders and beneficiaries. Additionally, the evaluation team needs to participate in some events of the project happening during the final evaluation period. The project collects monitoring data against the project indicators, and this should be used to triangulate data collected in the evaluation.
ActionAid Thailand expects for using both quantitative and qualitative methods to collect and analyze data for the final evaluation. The applicants should consider the methodologies of this evaluation should be designed to generate participation from key stakeholders and create innovation from the project. Additionally, gender perspective should be included in this evaluation. Moreover, the findings should be available to incorporate and apply for the future measurement of crisis or outbreak response and recovery.
It is expected that a draft of the report will be submitted to Project Management Team (PMT) of EU Education project at an agreed time prior to the final submission date, to allow for review and comments before the report is finalized.
8. Intended Users:
ActionAid Thailand and partner organizations will be incorporated findings from the final evaluation report in the final report of the project and examine key findings from the report carefully to understand the results of the project. The final evaluation report will be submitted to the European Union Delegation (EUD) with the final report of the project. Some recommendations from external consultants will be proposed to the project’s stakeholders.
9. Expected timetable and budget
|
Activity |
By when |
|
External Evaluation TOR released/shared |
July 2023 |
|
Application deadline |
31 August 2023 |
|
Review of applicants and selected process |
8 September 2023 |
|
Selected candidate/evaluation team developing evaluation work plan and sign contract |
15 September 2023 |
|
Commence final evaluation process in line with evaluation work plan |
22 September 2023 |
|
Field visits and data collection and analysis |
25 September – 27 October 2023 |
|
Evaluation team present key findings to get feedbacks and suggestions from committee/AAT |
15 November 2023 |
|
Submit first draft report of final evaluation with reviews and commence provided from committees/AAT |
22 November 2023 |
|
Evaluation team present final report of evaluation and comments provided from committee/AAT |
30 November 2023 |
|
Revision process |
6 December 2023 |
|
Submit full report of final evaluation |
20 December 2023 |
Budget: 200,000THB
10. Roles and responsibilities
External consultant/final evaluation team will be hired to conduct final evaluation of EU Education project while working closely with EU Field Project and M&E Officer, as well as the partner organizations of the project. The activity will be overseen by Project Management Team (PMT) of EU Education project. Staff of the EU Education project will be assisted in contacting the key-stakeholders and beneficiaries, as well as facilitating during field visits.
11. Expected outputs
The agreed outputs of the final evaluation are:
Final evaluation report of no more than 35 pages in both English and Thai languages, (excluding annexes) to include:
* The external consultant/evaluation team are required to make a presentation of key findings and recommendations to EU Education project Management Team (PMT), Project Staffs and key stakeholders under the project.
* A Power Point presentation summarizing key findings and recommendations that can be used to disseminate findings within ActionAid Thailand and with external stakeholders.
* The raw data (all transcripts, quantitative data, data collection tools, photos etc.) must be handed over to ActionAid Thailand together with the final evaluation report.
12. Key references
13. Evaluation team qualifications and how to apply:
Interested candidates are requested to submit an electronic copy of the Curriculum Vitae, final evaluation proposal and financial proposal by August 2021 with the subject Final Evaluation for EU Education project to Jobs.Thailand@actionaid.org
