Statement of Work 

Formative Evaluation of “Partnership to Enhance Global Capacity in Child Protection” 

PROJECT BACKGROUND  

The “Partnership to Enhance Global Capacity in Child Protection” is a three-way partnership between ICMC, the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs (USAID BHA), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) which aims to improve capacity in child protection response in emergencies globally. When UNICEF does not have the internal capacity to provide further staff support in response to ongoing emergencies, it relies upon standby partnership agreements with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to help fill the gaps. With the support of BHA, ICMC formally launched its standby partnership with UNICEF in 2020. Through this partnership ICMC deploys child protection specialists from its roster of protection professionals to requesting UNICEF Country Offices that are responding to emergency contexts which align with BHA’s mandate and mission. As the initial project exceeded all project targets, in 2023 BHA approved a second two-year award to continue supporting ICMC’s standby partnership. The current award began on July 21, 2023 and can support the cost of 54 deployment months, or about nine 6-month deployments.   

Theory of Change: If qualified technical specialists are rapidly deployed to meet urgent protection needs, then global child protection response capacity will be enhanced and the ability to identify and address current and future needs will be improved.  

Key Activities of Deployed Specialists: Responsive to UNICEF’s identified needs in the child protection sector, the majority of ICMC deployed specialists fill roles as Child Protection in Emergencies Specialists, Information Management Specialists, and Child Protection Area of Responsibility (AoR) Cluster Coordinators. While the exact activities of deployed specialists are determined by UNICEF’s Terms of Reference (TORs) for each request, deployed experts work to:  

• establish or strengthen child protection coordination structures  

• conduct rapid assessments  

• provide training and technical support to UNICEF child protection staff and partners  

• identify opportunities for collaboration and analysis with other sectors to strengthen and integrate child protection prevention and response   

• monitor trends and emerging child protection issues including the response by the government and other actors  

Through these activities, deployed specialists directly contribute to improved service delivery that addresses diverse, context-specific vulnerabilities and strengthens the protective environment, while also reducing duplication of efforts and increasing complementarity among actors. Additionally, ICMC experts increase future preparedness by strengthening capacity among UNICEF country offices, local NGOs, and government stakeholders.   

Beneficiaries: The primary beneficiaries of this project are UNICEF field offices and their staff, local, national and international NGOs, government officials, and community leaders whereas indirect beneficiaries include the children and families served through UNICEF’s programs.  

Outputs and Proposed Outcomes: The project has four output indicators and one outcome measured through written reports from deployed specialists, performance evaluations, and a survey completed by the benefitting CO. The indicators are as follows:  

• Number of individuals trained in protection (disaggregated by sex)   

• Number of deployment months  

• Percentage of positive appraisals of ToRs   

• Time between requests for deployments and arrivals   

• Percentage of benefitting UNICEF offices with increased capacity   

Progress to Date: As of September 2024, ICMC has five ongoing deployments to UNICEF and two pending deployments, which will bring ICMC to its 54-deployment month target. 

• Child Protection AoR Sector Coordinator, Beirut, Lebanon
• Information Management Officer Child Protection AoR, Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Child Protection Specialist, Gaza
• Child Protection in Emergencies Specialist, Port Moseby, Papua New Guinea
• Mental Health Psychosocial Support Specialist, Myanmar (remote)

 PURPOSE OF THE EVALUATION 

The purpose of this formative evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of the deployments from July 2023 through September 2024 in improving child protection capacity in the emergency contexts and locations of each request. Complementing ICMC’s regular monitoring and evaluation activities for the award, the evaluation will further illuminate progress toward the project’s theory of change and offer insight into the effect of the deployments on UNICEF field office capacity as well as other relevant stakeholders with whom deployed specialists engage, such as clusters and sub-clusters, government stakeholders, and international, national, and local NGOs engaged in emergency response. ICMC, BHA, and UNICEF will use the results of the evaluation to learn from the project’s implementation through September 2024 and inform future project directions. The data collection, analysis, and evaluation report will be completed by a contracted external evaluator over a one-month period between November - December 2024.   

GUIDING EVALUATION QUESTIONS 

1. To what extent has the intervention appropriately assisted the relevant UNICEF office? 
2. To what extent has the intervention appropriately assisted the targeted stakeholders according to the deployment TOR? (Ex: Cluster, sub-cluster or AoR; international, national, local NGOs, etc.)  
3. What changes – expected and unexpected, positive and negative – did targeted beneficiaries and other stakeholders associate with the activity’s interventions? 

EVALUATION METHODOLOGY  

The evaluation will primarily consist of qualitative data collection through written online surveys and in-depth interviews with a sample of key stakeholders from the deployments in Lebanon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gaza, Papua New Guinea, and Myanmar. Considering the various geographic locations of these deployments, data collection will take place remotely via email, online survey, video conferencing, and/or phone calls. In addition to the collection of primary data directly from identified key stakeholders, the contracted evaluator will have access to TORs and requests for each deployment, ICMC’s Baseline and programmatic reporting submitted to BHA to date, and informal feedback provided by deployed specialists in advance of the evaluation.  

The external evaluator is expected to create a survey questionnaire and interview questions that will enable the collection of data to answer the three guiding evaluation questions. ICMC’s US Liaison Office staff will support the creation of survey and interview questions by providing feedback on draft questionnaires. Questions should include but are not limited to:  

• Has the deployed specialist made satisfactory progress towards the objectives outlined in the TOR?  

• How (if at all) has this deployment strengthened the stakeholders’ organization or operation?  

• How has this deployment provided relief or assistance to affected populations?  

• How will the contributions of this deployment be sustained? Or what lasting effect do you anticipate the deployed specialists work will have?  

• Has this deployment led to the creation or funding of a new position? 

• Without the support of the deployed specialist, how would your work be impacted?  

• Have the contributions of the deployee strengthened the broader response to child protection needs? If so, how? 

To facilitate the external evaluator’s primary data collection efforts, ICMC’s US Liaison Office will prepare a formal letter to notify deployed specialists, their supervisors, and relevant contacts that ICMC has commissioned this evaluation, and that the external evaluator will be reaching out with a survey and to schedule an interview. To identify relevant stakeholders for this evaluation, ICMC’s Program Support Associate will contact deployed specialists for feedback on the stakeholders they regularly engage with and their contacts. The external evaluator will corroborate these identified stakeholders with the deployed specialists’ supervisors for their agreement and confirm if other stakeholders should be included.  

Following the collection of data, the external evaluator will collate the data from each deployment together in order to answer the evaluation questions using a project wide lens. While an overview of results from each deployment should be included, the evaluation aims to understand the effectiveness of the project as a model to strengthen child protection capacity.   

DELIVERABLES  

1. The external evaluator is responsible for the creation of a survey and interview questionnaire for use during the data collection period.  
2. The external evaluator is responsible for documenting the results of their evaluation in a written report. The report should respond to the guiding evaluation questions considering all the deployments together while providing supporting evidence from individual deployments. The external evaluator will share a draft report with ICMC to review and provide feedback before submitting the final report.  
3. The external evaluator is responsible for providing all evaluation data to ICMC at the end of the evaluation.  

TIMELINE 

The external evaluator will be contracted for 10 working days over the course of one month. Data collection, analysis, and delivery of the final report is expected within this period.  

EVALUATION FINDINGS DISEMINATION  

The external evaluator will share the written report with ICMC’s US Liaison Office staff who will in turn share it with UNICEF and BHA. ICMC will also share among other communities of practice including the Standby Partnership Network, InterAction, Refugee Council USA, and through the Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC).  

EVALUATOR PROFILE & QUALIFICATIONS 

ICMC is seeking one external evaluator with the following qualifications and competencies:  

Educational Background 

• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in International Development, Program Evaluation, Public Policy, Social Work, Social Sciences, or a related field. 

Professional Experience 

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in program evaluation in humanitarian response, with experience in child protection program evaluation preferred. Previous experience in evaluating USAID-funded projects is a plus. 

Knowledge and Skills 

• Familiarity with humanitarian response systems including cluster coordination mechanisms and child protection frameworks and principles. 

• Demonstrated expertise in conducting qualitative and quantitative evaluations, including the development of evaluation frameworks, tools, and methodologies. 

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage with a wide range of stakeholders, including UNICEF field personnel, government agencies, and NGOs. 

Language Proficiency 

• Fluency in English (written and spoken) required; proficiency in French is a plus. 

To Apply: Interested applicants should submit their CV, availability, work plan, and proposed budget to usliaison@icmc.net with the subject “External Evaluator - Partnership to Enhance Global Capacity in Child Protection” by October 11, 2024. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.