International Consultancy on Formative Evaluation of the School Readiness Programme Tender

Procurement Summary

Country : Azerbaijan

Summary : International Consultancy on Formative Evaluation of the School Readiness Programme

Deadline : 01 Sep 2019

Other Information

Notice Type : Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 35572290

Document Ref. No. :

Competition : ICB

Financier : United Nations Secretariat

Purchaser Ownership : -

Tender Value : Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

Purchaser : UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN`S EMERGENCY FUND
24, Neftchilar avenue, Dalga Plaza Baku AZ1095 Republic of Azerbaijan Visitors` address UNICEF 24, Neftchilar avenue, Dalga Plaza Baku AZ1095 Telephone Country code 994 City code City Code: 12 - for Int`l calls 4923013 (multiline) 4980578 4372283, 4372284 -UNICEF switchboard Facsimile (944.12) 4922.468
Azerbaijan
Email :baku@unicef.org

Tender Details

Tenders are invited for International Consultancy on Formative Evaluation of the School Readiness Programme.

The purpose of this evaluation is to measure the success of the School Readiness Program against specific objectives SRP and summarize good practices and lessons learned for both UNICEF, the donor and the government counterparts for consideration. The overall purpose of the evaluation is to determine the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the SRP as an approach to strengthening the access to formal preschool education.

Although it has been 10 years that the program is under implementation it has never been evaluated. Considering this UNICEF had a mutual agreement with the MoE to conduct a formative evaluation of this programme.

The results of the evaluation will provide practical recommendations for improving the quality of SRP and stimulating expansion of other or introduction of new alternative preschool models to cover more preschool-aged children.

The primary audience of the evaluation will be:

· Government policy makers, such as the Parliament, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Finance will acquire good practices and lessons learned from this programme, and will possibly use the results to contribute to other policy and programme development.

· Implementing institutions - the Government, Ministry of Education, local education authorities, and international organizations, as an important source of information for the further scaling-up of this initiative - more specifically to identify lessons learned during the implementation, understand the preliminary impact of the programme in providing equitable access to quality preschool education for all children.

· Schools and preschool education institutions and local communities in expanding access to preschool education for all children.

· Associations of parents representing the interests of children to further strengthen their monitoring and advocacy efforts.

· Civil society organisations for community outreach to parents and families for increasing demand for early childhood education.

· Academia for supporting research for expanding alternative preschool education models.

· The UNICEF Azerbaijan CO for future programming and support to the implementation of the National Education Strategy, as well as for informing the development of the 2021-2025 Country Programme.

The information presented in the final evaluation report should be easy to understand and comprehensible. Recommendations should be based on evidence and analysis, be relevant and realistic, with priorities for action made clear.

Evaluation Objectives

The overall purpose of the formative evaluation is to measure the extent to which the SRP has achieved the planned results and help ensure that the focus is kept on equity, inclusion and quality in the process of national scale-up of the programme.

The specific evaluation objectives are:

§ Provide feedback to the UNICEF Azerbaijan Country Office and the Ministry of Education on the soundness (defined as relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability) and preliminary impact, i.e. longer-term contribution, of the SRP;

§ Reveal good practices and gaps in approaches; and

§ Based on the experience from the Programme implementation to extract general lessons learned and recommendations aimed at further enhancement of the initiative; the evaluation outcomes will potentially inform strengthening of other existing or emerging models of preschool education to address inequity in access to preschool education in Azerbaijan;

§ Assess the potential for replication of the model in other countries by capturing the changes at policy and programmatic levels.

Evaluation Scope

The evaluation should cover the period of SRP implementation (2008 to 2018). The geographical coverage is nation-wide.

Evaluation Framework

The program evaluation questions are formulated as per OECD-DAC evaluation criteria: relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and impact. Additional criteria such as coverage, coordination and coherence should also be used in the evaluation.

Below are a set of guiding questions that should be responded by the evaluation. However, it is expected that the international consultant may suggest additional questions or sub-questions, and during the evaluation, additional information that adds substance to the key questions will be collected and included in the final evaluation report.

Relevance

The extent to which the program meets the needs of target groups and right holders.

· To what extent does the programme, in terms of its design, scope and achievement of its objectives, address the underlying causes of the low coverage of children (girls and boys) in Azerbaijan by preschool education?

· Has the programme been designed according to international norms and agreements on human rights (HR) and gender equality (GE) and in line with national strategies to advance HR & GE?

· To what extent is the program design relevant vis-à-vis the overall program goal and the achievement of its objectives in the given period of time?

· To what extent did the program minimize the exclusion of the most underserved children?

Effectiveness

The extent to which program activities achieve their outcomes. In evaluating the effectiveness of a program, the following questions should be considered:

· To what extent have the planned results/objectives been achieved to date (quantitative and qualitative)?

· What were the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the programme objectives to date? Has the programme provided any additional (not directly planned) significant contributions/outcomes?

· Is there a demonstrable improvement in state knowledge and capacity related to coverage of the preschool-aged children?

· To what extent the approach was effective in identifying and addressing the different needs/rights issues of boys and girls?

· Have legislative acts and policies improved as a result of program implementation?

· How satisfied were the right holders from the program?

Efficiency

The extent the management of the SRP ensure timelines and efficient utilization of resources.

When evaluating the efficiency of a programme, the following questions should be considered:

· How well have the financial resources been used/were funds managed in a cost-effective manner / what is the correlation between funds utilized and outputs/results achieved / could the same results be achieved with fewer resources?

· Did the program ensure co-ordination with other similar interventions to encourage synergy and avoid overlaps?

· To what extent were activities implemented as scheduled, how flexible was the program in adapting to changing needs?

· Were there other resources made available apart from UNICEF?

Impact

The extend the program increased the system-s capacities to ensure that excluded children benefit from SRP. When evaluating the impact of a programme, the following questions should be considered:

· Is there evidence of the programme contributing to the raising of the awareness of the relevant government and parliamentary institutions in relation to the importance of ECE expansion for child development and overall societal growth?

· Is there evidence of the programme contributing to an increase in the enrolment of children in preschool education in the country, particularly in relation to children affected by poverty and children living in rural areas?

· To what extent have achievements fed into national-level policy dialogue and supported the environment for implementation of child rights?

Sustainability

Sustainability is concerned with measuring whether the benefits of the program are likely to continue after donor funding has been withdrawn.

When evaluating the sustainability of a programme, it is useful to consider the following questions:

· To what extent do the newly developed and approved policy (National Education Strategy, Preschool Education Law, and Preschool Education Curriculum) and the level of ownership of the initiative within the Ministry of Education and preschool institutions provide a good ground for a sustained and quality increase in the preschool enrolment rate after the end of external support?

· What were the major factors which influenced the achievement or non-achievement of sustainability of the program?

· What capacities have been built at the institutional level and were they sustainable?

· To what extent has the program promoted the strengthening of already existing partnerships and establishment of new ones and to the strengthening of inter-sectoral and cross-sectoral cooperation both at the national and local level?

In addition to the 5 main evaluation criteria, the evaluation shall also focus on assessing the human rights-based approach and relevant cross-cutting issues, coverage, coordination and coherence.

Cross-cutting:

· To what extent are sex and age disaggregated data collected and monitored?

· In what ways and to what extent has the program integrated an equity-based approach into the design and implementation of its interventions?

· Does the program actively contribute to the promotion of child rights, especially the most vulnerable?

· To what extent and how does the program ensure a non-discrimination and equity focus?

Coverage:

§ Did the program ensured the inclusive coverage?

§ Which groups have been reached by the program and what is the different impact on those groups?

§ Have vulnerable children been rea

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