Незалежні експерти/ки для проведення оцінки в Україні

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

External Evaluation Experts Team
For Ukraine Emergency Response Programme

SOS Children’s Villages International (hereinafter SOS CVI) is requesting proposals from qualified External Evaluation Experts to conduct evaluation in Ukraine during the period of April 24,2023 – June 03,2023 for Ukraine Emergency Response Programme.

The evaluation is to be conducted on following locations in Ukraine: Lviv, Brovary, Fastiv (including SOS CV National office based in Kyiv) and Poltava.

The Terms of Reference can be found below.

1. Background

SOS Children’s Villages International is a non-governmental organisation focused on supporting children and young people without parental care or at risk of losing it. It was founded in 1949 and operates in 135 countries and territories. SOS CVI provides alternative care services for children without parental care and works with families and communities to prevent child-family separation.

SOS CVI complies with Core Humanitarian Standards approach to ensure that the organisation, its operations and staff abide to minimum standards in all humanitarian sectors, do no harm to the children and young people and do not expose them to the risk of harm and abuse.

SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine is an independent legal body and a member of the federation SOS Children’s Villages International. SOS Children’s Villages is one of the few organizations in Ukraine that comprehensively approaches the problem of orphanhood, working not only with the consequences, but also with prevention – by supporting vulnerable families. If the preservance of the family is not possible, then a full-fledged replacement in alternative care is provided, guided exclusively by the interests of the child.

Since March of 2022 the SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine is implementing Humanitarian Response to the war in Ukraine that quickly became SOS CVI’s single largest Emergency Response Programme.  Due to the geographic & financial size of the project as well as very unpredictable and volatile environment, SOS CVI decided to contract next to an internal audit, external evaluation.

The External Evaluation experts will need to focus on the sectors of:

• Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (hereinafter CPiHA)
• Basic foods and non-food items provision through Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA)
• Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS)
• Accommodation and support in Transit centers throw Implementing partners in the Easter regions of the country

2. Evaluation Team – Criteria

The evaluators should meet the following criteria:

• Experience in conducting evaluations in the field of humanitarian response and in the field of child protection specifically. Previous experience in Eastern Europe countries is a strong asset;
• Minimum two references of successfully conducted relevant evaluations.
• Fluency in English is necessary and at least one team member should speak fluent Ukrainian. Knowledge of Russian is of an asset
• Willingness and ability to travel to agreed project locations
• Cost of the service
• Team comprises of at least two members, including at least one woman.
• Evaluators must declare that no conflict of interest exists and that they will inform their focal point on SOS CVI level if any such conflict should arise in the course of their duties.

The evaluators are responsible for:

• Defining the methodology for the program evaluation;
• Carrying out activities related to the evaluation;
• Drafting and submitting the final report in English language.

3. How to Apply

All interested qualified individuals are requested to submit their proposals, which include:

• Curriculum Vitae
• List of previous assignments,
• Statement about availability for the stated period
• Willingness to carry out the evaluation in the stated locations
• Cost per day of work

to [email protected] by 10 April 2023 with subject “External Evaluation Ukraine”.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

1. Background

SOS Children’s Villages International (hereinafter SOS CVI) is a non-governmental organisation focused on supporting children and young people without parental care or at risk of losing it. It was founded in 1949 and operates in 135 countries and territories. SOS CVI provides alternative care services for children without parental care and works with families and communities to prevent child-family separation.

The organization includes 118 national SOS Children’s Villages associations. As members of the federation, each SOS Children’s Villages association is committed to applying the federation’s statutes, standards for quality child care, and stringent financial and administrative practices.

SOS CVI complies with Core Humanitarian Standards approach to ensure that the organisation, its operations and staff abide to minimum standards in all humanitarian sectors, do no harm to the children and young people and do not expose them to the risk of harm and abuse.

SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine is an independent legal body and a member of the federation SOS Children’s Villages International. It was registered on 28.02.2006 in the Unified state register of legal entities, individual entrepreneurs and public organizations of Ukraine. SOS Children’s Villages is one of the few organizations in Ukraine that comprehensively approaches the problem of orphanhood, working not only with the consequences, but also with prevention – by supporting vulnerable families. If the preservance of the family is not possible, then a full-fledged replacement in alternative care is provided, guided exclusively by the interests of the child.

In February 2022 the foster families supported by SOS CV Ukraine with many children were evacuated from Ukraine to Poland due to the war.  Since March of 2022 the SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine is implementing Humanitarian Response to the war in Ukraine that quickly became SOS CVI’s single largest Emergency Response Program with a budget for 2022 of approximately 20 million Euros. In 2023, according to the recently submitted project plan (log-frame, budget, quick form) the budget and size of the program is expected to be of at least the same size.

Currently SOS Children`s Villages Ukraine is providing the humanitarian support to IPDs and affected local population all over Ukraine either with their own capacities or through the implementing partners. The new Family Strengthening Centers were opened in Uzhgorod (Zakarpattia region), Ivano-Frankivsk (Ivano-Frankivsk region), Lviv (Lviv region), Fastiv (Kyiv region), Chernihiv (Chernihiv region), Poltava (Poltava region), Chernivtsi (Chernivtsi region).

Due to the geographic & financial size of the project as well as very unpredictable and volatile environment, SOS CVI decided to entrench additional structure within the Regional Office supporting SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine. That structure, Ukraine Support Team, comprises of technical experts responsible for supporting the project design, implementation, capacity building of staff and monitoring & evaluation.

Ukraine Support Team (hereinafter UST) jointly with relevant staff from the Regional office have visited few program locations (L´viv, Uzhghorod and Ivano-Frankivsk) five times in the period from March 2022 to February 2023. However, these visits were support visits to motivate the staff of SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine and to conduct superficial monitoring of the locations for complaints mechanisms, programme participants satisfaction and similar. Detailed program monitoring visit was conducted.

The operations focus on the sectors of:

• Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (hereinafter CPiHA)
• Basic foods and non-food items provision through Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA)
• Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS)
• Accommodation and support in Transit centers throw Implementing partners in the Easter regions of the country

Target Group:

1. Foster families
2. Kinship families
3. Families who adopted children during the war
4. Vulnerable families severely affected by the war (incl. single-parent headed families, families with children with disabilities)
5. Children who lost a care-giver due to the war
6. Families who lost a child due to the war
7. Children severely traumatized due to the war

2. Purpose & methodology

The purposes of the evaluation will be to:

• Determine progress toward project goals defining lessons learnt
• Document project activities and processes defining challenges
• Provide evaluative information/ideas to the project team for future planning and project improvement

The evaluation will be framed by the following key evaluation questions:

1. How adequate are the monitoring mechanisms in place[2]?
2. How adequate are Feedback & Complaints Mechanisms in place (including locations of implementing partners)?
3. How well are CPiHA risks mitigated?
4. Are Core Humanitarian Standards implemented consistently by implementing partners?
5. Is the project effective and has it reached it objectives?

3. Time frame and location

The External evaluator in SOS CV Ukraine´s Humanitarian Response programmes and National Office should be conducted during the period between 24 April – 3 June 2023.

Evaluation is to be conducted on following project locations:

• L´viv location
• Brovary and Fastiv (including National Office based in Kyiv city)
• Poltava location

4. Evaluation Team – Criteria

The evaluators should meet the following criteria:

• Experience in conducting evaluations in the field of humanitarian response and in the field of child protection specifically. Previous experience in Eastern Europe countries is a strong asset;
• Minimum two references of successfully conducted relevant evaluations.
• Fluency in English is necessary and at least one team member should speak fluent Ukrainian. Knowledge of Russian is of an asset
• Willingness and ability to travel to agreed project locations
• Cost of the service
• Team comprises of at least two members, including at least one woman.
• Evaluators must declare that no conflict of interest exists and that they will inform their focal point on SOS CVI level if any such conflict should arise in the course of their duties.

The evaluators are responsible for:

• Defining the methodology for the program evaluation;
• Carrying out activities related to the evaluation;
• Drafting and submitting the final report in English language

5. Findings and audit report

The evaluation team provides the Deputy International Director Region CEE/CIS/ME, with a final report no later than June 3, 2023.

The report should include findings as well as recommendations for actions and necessary improvements directed at SOS CV Ukraine, UST & IOR.

If during the audit, the audit team learns about other incidents and that in accordance with the national legislation the alleged incident must be reported to the relevant national authorities, the investigation team should immediately contact IOR CEE/CIS/ME to agree on further steps.