Project final evaluation

BACKGROUND AND SCOPE OF PROJECT

UOSSM France is currently engaged in a grant contract with the European Commission/DG NEAR for an original duration of 18 months (now extended from April 2022 to the end of October 2022). The project is called “Strengthening Health Sector Capacities and Networks of Exchange” and started on the 1st of November 2020. The project mostly revolves around health-centric service provision and building long-term sustainable initiatives.

The project’s objectives are summarised as follows:

1. Increase coverage, affordability and quality of healthcare services in Syria.
   • Increased availability and affordability of healthcare services.
   • Improved quality of healthcare services.
   • Strengthened quality assurance, coordination and advocacy capacity of health actors.
2. Enhanced dialogue and capacities of Syrian health practitioners
   • New networking facilities established for purposes of fostering cross-geographic dialogue, capacity building, mentorship and peer-to-peer exchange on technical issues
   • Upgraded medical capacities and skills (interregional).
   • Complementary operational research strengthened to generate evidence to inform implementation.

The project involves different stakeholders and partners in different areas.

Activities vary according to the region of operation and include amongst other activities:

• Supporting 7 Primary Health Care Centres
• Supporting One maternity room
• Provide a Protection activities through 2 Centres (Women and Girl Safe Space and Men and Youth Centre)
• Protection services through Mobile Protection Teams
• Operational Research on innovative ways to engage with private sector in health programming
• Capacity building for health provider through Online training courses and networking platforms
• Mental health consultation and treatment through voucher modality
• Establishing a standardised packages of care and standard setting including costing of the packages

OBJECTIVES OF THE FINAL EVALUATION

The independent service provider will provide UOSSM France Monitoring and Evaluation and Programs Management team with high-quality evaluation of implemented activities as well as a review of processes, policies and procedures in place. This should be done according to three main objectives:

1. Evaluate the project activities and deliverables implemented by the project and its partner organizations in different parts of Syria (standardized evaluation criteria and frameworks can be used for this) from the filed level precpective including field data collection, KI interviews, and FGDs.
2. Evaluate programmatic processes in place, including equity, transparency and fairness and impact of the project overall in the grand ecosystem present in the areas of intervention
3. Provide recommendations including practical guidance on how to improve any shortcomings. The aim is to provide UOSSM France and other relevant stakeholders with recommendations to ensure their work is being carried out in the most effective, ethical and relevant manner.

METHODOLOGY AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The applicant service provider shall provide a proposal of a set of methodologies used to meet the aforementioned set of objectives. In that regard, UOSSM France will equip the service provider with required documents to complete the task, including project design, logframe indicators, workplans, and reports after award notification. As a minimum set of activities, the assignment shall include:

1. Qualitative primary data collection with project stakeholders (e.g. through in-depth interviews).
2. Desk review of processes and policies as well as other project documents, e.g. work plans contracts.
3. Quantitative evaluations for relevant indicators (E.g. using checklists or beneficiary surveys).
4. Assess procurement process for project stakeholders, and the compliance level with their procedures.
5. Assess the potential of conducting site-visits on the ground to assess project implementation and impact on macro level health of the population

Upon notification of award, discussions will commence on adaptation to the proposed methodology to fit the context of the work. All tools and methods should be approved by UOSSM France prior to progressing with the tasks at hand. Relevant tools must be field-tested and piloted to ensure efficiency when it comes to full-scale dissemination of the tools.

It is entirely the responsibility of the service provider to recruit and train data collectors who have extensive experience in collecting such data ensuring that no harm is done neither directly nor indirectly as part of this task. Training of the data collectors should be done in consultation with UOSSM France, and training materials should include key ethical considerations and protection of human subjects, such as obtaining informed consent and data confidentiality. Further, no data collection with minors under the age of 18 years old should be collected without prior approvals and adequate training. Data collection should be kept to a necessary level, and the data collectors will be trained on sensitivity towards respondents. Data collection will be stopped if the participant becomes distressed. Participating or not participating will not have any effect on healthcare or any other benefits respondents may be receiving. Data collectors will need to be careful not to interrupt the routine of the general public or the health structures during activities such as recruitment of participants or conducting the surveys. Although the surveys should be not expected to last long, they should be held during times suitable for the participants and, where possible, in an outdoor space whilst maintaining social distancing to minimise the spread of COVID-19. Use of personal protective equipment should be encouraged and budgeted for ahead of the data collection stage. A consent sheet and a participant information sheet (PIS) must be signed by the participant. The service provider should clearly outline their degree of access to the relevant geographies and demonstrate this through the evidence as part of the proposal.

The contracting service provider must uphold high levels of confidentiality throughout this work through ensuring the right of institutions and individuals to provide information in confidence and ensure that sensitive data cannot be traced to its source through adequate anonymisation of the data. Further, any involved staff/ consultants must sign Non- Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), and under no circumstances shall project documents be shared unless absolutely necessary for the task at hand, and only after the permission from UOSSM France, even after the expiration of the contract.

Any data collection should be in line with the international code of ethics as well as local customs and laws, and relevant approvals should be collected prior to starting the data collection stage. Application for approvals should only take place after UOSSM France is consulted and approval is gained by UOSSM France.

Post data collection, data analysis and reporting should be carried out by the contracted service provider, and a final report of findings should be produced. Relevant sessions to address key milestones in the assignment can be organised with the relevant stakeholders to ensure equal participation and adequate information sharing. Data analysis should consider detailed disaggregation by gender and layers of vulnerabilities at a minimum. Reporting frequency should be clearly outlined in the proposal, including the work plan and schedule of deliverables.

It is a vital condition that the service provider shows a high degree of flexibility, both in methodological approach as well as in attitude and preparedness to deal with contingency situations.

SCHEDULE AND DELIVERABLES

All deliverables should be submitted to UOSSM France according to an agreed-upon schedule and timeframe outlined by the applicant service provider in their proposal. All documents to be submitted as soft copies to the focal points identified during the inception phase of the assignment. The assignment is to commence ASAP and conclude by the 30th of October 2022. Proposed deliverables/ milestones can include:

1. Inception report including timeframe, budgetary breakdown and workplan. This document should take into account any modifications done to the proposal submitted initially reflecting key discussions with stakeholders.
2. Detailed methodology proposal including clear sampling frameworks and locations for approval by UOSSM France.
3. Monitoring and Evaluation tools and data collector’s training material.
4. Bimonthly reports and meetings, outlining key milestones and progress on the assignment.
5. Two orientation workshops gather key stakeholders of the project and report the assignment’s progress.
6. Final report including recommendations and lessons learned. In addition, all raw data should be linked in soft copy and attached to the final report for reference. UOSSM France holds the right to suggest modifications and add comments onto the draft version of the final report, which must be integrated by the contracting service provider.

Key focal points

UOSSM France Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research Coordinator, as well as Project Manager, will supply the service provider with a list of key contacts from the partner’s organisation relevant to the project. They will remain the key focal points throughout the duration of the assignment.

WORK CONDITIONS

Location : Remotely with adequate travel into the targeted geographies (Whole of Syria) all geaographis should be fairly represenative according to the level of activities, and scale of the project

Contract type : Service provider

Starting Date : 15/09/2022

Duration of the assignment : 1.5 months

QUALIFICATIONS AND COMPETENCIES

For the purposes of this procurement process, UOSSM France welcomes international and national service providers to apply. UOSSM France expects:

• Evaluation teams comprised of individuals or firms in academia, social research, or humanitarian evaluation with a background in humanitarian aid, research methods, development economics, development studies, or other related fields.
• Extensive experience of conducting large-scale evaluations and experience of designing evaluation methodology/tools.
• Expert level in data analysis and presentation.
• Experience of working in humanitarian contexts.
• Proven track record (with submitted examples) of working in various geographies in Syria.
• In-depth knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methods.
• A gender balance of team members.
• Excellent presentation and report writing skills.
• Capacity to work collaboratively.
• Excellent analytical skills and writing in English.
• Proficient in Arabic.

SAFETY, CONFIDENTIALITY AND IP RIGHTS DETAILS

The service provider must demonstrate in its proposal that they can ensure the security of the team involved that will be deployed under this assignment.

The provider selected to provide exercise as well as all stakeholders involved in the consultancy (either individual team members or any sub-contractors) will – prior to their collaboration – have to :

• Go through a complete vetting check procedure – to this end, shall be provided to UOSSM France HR department by each individual the following information: full names, birth dates and nationalities
• Sign a Non-Disclosure of confidential information Agreement (NDA)

It is specified that all the deliverables and foreground IP rights resulting from the exercise shall be the property of UOSSM France and shall be utilised by UOSSM France as they deem appropriate.

How to apply

Required documents for the application :

• Technical proposal on how the applicant service provider would approach the task
• CVs of the applicant(s)
• Financial quotation

The requested documents have to be sent by the 21st of september to the following e-mail address: [email protected] with “Final evaluation application” as e-mail subject.