Final Evaluation REBUILD III- Resilience Building for refugees and Host Communities (2826-01/2022)

The Context and Background

1.1 About SOS Children’s villages

1.1.1 SOS Children’s Villages International

SOS Children’s Villages is a global federation present in 136 countries and territories via national SOS Children’s Villages associations, working in more than 2000 programme locations worldwide. For more detailed information see https://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/ .  

1.1.2 SOS Children’s Villages Austria (SOS-Kinderdorf)

SOS-Kinderdorf (SOS Children’s Villages Austria, SOS CV Austria) is a member of the SOS CVI federation and has established long-term working relationships and collaboration with SOS CV Uganda since 1991. Through this partnership since 2007, SOS CV Uganda is promoting Family Strengthening Program (FSP) approach with co-founding from ADA. Additionally, SOS CV Uganda has also strengthened its emergency response with funding from ADA since 2018 in Rwamwanja refugee settlement and hosting communities of Nkoma Sub County and Nkoma- Katalyeba Town Council in Kamwenge District.

1.1.3 About SOS Children’s Villages Uganda

SOS CV Uganda affiliated to SOS CV International is primary focusing on providing quality care and protection for children who have lost or at risk of losing parental care and their families. Since 1991, SOS CV Uganda provides support to children and young people and their families through provision of. alternative care and family strengthening programmes. SOS CV Uganda critically reflects on gender dynamics in communities that might result in specific barriers and risks for some community members such as restricted access for women and girls to basic services (e.g., health, education).

1.2 The project under evaluation: ReBuild III

The previous phases: ReBuild I and ReBuild II

SOS CV Uganda extended its operations to humanitarian response to address the challenges and gaps. Specifically, Rwamwanja refugee settlement was reopened in 2012 to accommodate refugees from Democratic Republic of Congo, fleeing from continued conflicts in North and South Kivu, and is a home to 94,778 refugees[1], which accounts for 16.4% of the total district population. Refugee response in Rwamwanja refugee settlement has continued to face its hurdles due to under funding and being the active receiver of new arrivals complicates its operations.

Between September 2017 and March 2022, SOS CV Uganda implemented the projects ReBuild I and ReBuild II in the area of Rwamwanja refugee settlement and surrounding host communities in Kamwenge. These two projects also included project components in Ethiopia, which have been phased out in 2022. In Uganda, the projects focused on improving the resilience of targeted beneficiaries. The interventions were based on following thematic pillars: 1) socio-economic empowerment, 2) psychosocial support and life skills training, 3) gender equality, 4) child protection and 4) capacity development (especially on LRRD).

The end line evaluation of ReBuild II showed that the programme had particularly impact on the socio-economic empowerment of young women and men and that economic empowerment activities have significantly increased beneficiaries’ socio-economic status and resilience to economic and psychosocial shocks. Also, the intervention contributed to significant improvements in child protection and child rights and there has been anecdotal evidence suggesting that GBV, teenage pregnancies and child marriage reduced in the intervention zones. Positively emphasized was the strong coordination with INGOs, government and local district authorities and other ADC-funded programmes, that enabled cost-efficiency, avoided duplication of efforts and supported longer-term nexus programming.

Key challenges in ReBuild I included a perception of aid dependency on handouts and a low literacy level among the beneficiaries. ReBuild II did not progress in improving literacy levels because a service provider could not be identified for the activity. Main challenges in the second phase included repeated external shocks, limiting the sustainability of longer-term interventions. Especially outside of the economic empowerment category, there was limited evidence on the sustainability of activities. Capacity development initiatives increased knowledge and improved practices but approaches to learning were not sufficiently systematic and LRRD capacity gaps remain. Visibility was found to be inconsistent which could imply limited impact and credibility for those beneficiaries with community roles.

Recommendations for Rebuild III have been formulated in the final evaluation report of ReBuild II, summarized these included:

• To prioritize the learning component and to provide more substantial LRRD training.
• To build on the success of economic empowerment activities.
• To implement an adult literacy intervention in Rwamwanja.
• To afford more attention to the most deprived and marginalised groups.
• To conduct more in-depth GBV work in ReBuild III and use indicators to assess progress towards change.
• To employ fuel efficient stoves as an environmentally friendly IGA activity.
• To afford greater visibility in ReBuild III.
• To look into doing sustained (i.e., longer-term) case management capacity building, to ensure successful knowledge and skills transfer.

Recommendations that have been integrated into ReBuild III design and implementation include: New approaches to learning (recommendation 1 and 8, e.g. learning visits to other organisations), a focus on marginalised and most deprived groups (recommendation 4; including victims of GBV), the inclusion of an output on GBV work (recommendation 5; Output 2), an extension of the economic empowerment approach (recommendation 2) and an inclusion of environmentally friendly IGAs (recommendation 6). Visibility was included more intentionally in program interventions (recommendation 7). The implementation of an adult literacy intervention (recommendation 3) was not possible as it was beyond the scope of ReBuild III.

The current project: ReBuild III

Resilience building for refugees and host communities in Uganda (ReBuild III) has a total budget of 333,333 € and is implemented from May 2022 – September 2024.  ReBuild III is the 3rd and final consolidating phase of the ReBuild project, it aims at building on the achievements of 1st and 2nd phase, closing gaps after the 2nd phase to achieve sustainable outcomes for improved resilience of the target groups.

Unlike ReBuild I and II, that have been implemented in Uganda and Ethiopia, ReBuild III is focusing only on Uganda, more specifically the Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement and the host communities of Nkoma Sub County and Nkoma-Katelyeba Town Council in Kamwenge District. The project targets 900 households, 3,240 children, 840 youth and 10,000 other members of the community in the target area.

ReBuild III uses the NEXUS / Linking Relief, Rehabilitation and Development (LRRD)^[2] strategy to improve the resilience of refugees and vulnerable Ugandans by granting effective capacity development of project participants and other project stakeholders to address their urgent needs. The project focusses on improving economic capacity through environmentally friendly IGAs, awareness raising and capacity building on gender equality and child protection. Additionally, increasing knowledge and skills of SOS staff in LRRD/NEXUS programming in Emergency response is key to achieve the project goal.

Intended results of ReBuild III are 1) Improved Economic capacity of target families with special focus on environmentally friendly income generating activities. 2) Families and community support structures have improved capacity to engage in advocacy initiatives for the elimination of gender inequality. 3) Improved participation of girls, boys, women and men to care for and protect vulnerable children among refugee and host communities and 4) Organizational capacity for knowledge management and learning practice including LRRD/Nexus approach improved.

Activities include 1) trainings on entrepreneurship, social and business skills, vocational skills; foster and support environmentally friendly IGAs; deepen value chain approach; provide psychosocial support and short-term assistance; strengthen functional and financial management capacity of VSLA groups; 2) continue role model champions approach; awareness raising, community outreach and media engagement on gender equality, GBV and advocacy; strengthening reporting mechanisms, case management and referral mechanisms; 3) trainings on life skills; awareness raising, community outreach and media engagement, including strengthening community structures on child protection and child rights issues; training on parenting for respectability (p4r), social protection, succession planning (will making); engaging men in care and protection; strengthening reporting mechanisms, case management and referral mechanisms; 4) further develop LRRD handbook (align with Nexus, DAC recommendations, Child protection in emergencies, gender in emergencies) and develop training tool; experience sharing and best practice documentation and dissemination.

 

[1] Uganda’s office of the prime minister/proGresV4

[2] For more information on NEXUS please visit: The humanitarian-development-peace nexus: current status and discourse - World | ReliefWeb

For more information on LRRD please visit: Remaking the case for linking relief, rehabilitation and development: 8882.pdf (odi.org)

The purpose of the consultancy service

The main purpose of this evaluation is learning for future programming and implementation. It also contributes to accountability towards the donor agency and the intended beneficiaries.

The findings from this evaluation will be used by

1. SOS CV and the donor agency
2. Stakeholders such as UNHCR, OPM and local government

Objectives

The main objectives of this final project evaluation are to assess the project’s effectiveness as well as (prospects for) impact and sustainability.[1]

Evaluation of the project’s effectiveness is essential for improving future programming, and for accountability towards donors and project stakeholders. It is answering the question to what extent the projects objectives, outcomes and outputs have been achieved, but also looks at the broader effects of projects interventions and analyses why they worked or did not work.

Evaluation of (prospects for) the project’s impact and sustainability will contribute to the learning process for optimizing the project interventions for future programming and will help to identify measures to further support the sustainability of results. Identification of facilitating and hindering factors for the project’s effectiveness, impact and sustainability will help developing these further measures.

The criteria relevance, coherence and efficiency are not assessed during this end line evaluation as ReBuild III is a third and consolidating phase of the ReBuild project and previous evaluations have already provided good insight.

 

[1]For the definitions of the OECD-DAC evaluation criteria see  https://www.oecd.org/dac/evaluation/daccriteriaforevaluatingdevelopmentassistance.htm .

 

Specifications for the submission of offers

This call is open to all national and international suppliers including independent consultants or companies who are legally constituted and can provide the requested services as per the terms of reference.

Please note that this is NOT a job offer!

Documents to submit

The proposal has to include the following documents:

Technical proposal, clearly responding to ALL requirements of the ToR:

• An outline of the approach and methodology including a justification on the methodology proposed and clearly indicating the sample frame from where a representative sample size shall be drawn.
• Information on how inclusive participation in the research process is ensured.
• A detailed work plan or activity schedule indicating how the activity is going to be executed and the person responsible.
• A division of work within the evaluation team including information on data collectors. Note that the people whose names appear in the team composition template should be the ones to undertake the assessment.
• Information on safeguarding and ethical standards

Financial proposal

• In EUR
• In Excel format
• Separate consultancy fees (per day and per person), travel and other costs
• Outline net, taxes and gross amounts

Please note that non-compliance with the above will lead to rejection of the proposal.

Annexes

• Evaluation team members’ CV, experiences and references including examples of previous evaluations undertaken.

How to Apply

Proposals must be submitted via email not later than 9^th August 2024 by 5:00 PM - EAT to the following:

• Valerie Neuhold-Maurer, Programme Coordinator, Valerie.Neuhold-Maurer@sos-kinderdorf.at
• James Bwomezi, National MEAL Coordinator James.Bwomezi@sosuganda.org
• Veronica Nansasi, Regional FS Advisor veronica.nansasi@sos-kd.org

Here is the link for the TOR: 2826-01_2022_TOR ReBuild III final Evaluation.pdf