External Evaluator Consultant

CARE is a humanitarian non-governmental organization committed to working with poor women, men, boys, girls, communities, and institutions to have a significant impact on the underlying causes of poverty. CARE seeks to contribute to economic and social transformation, unleashing the power of the most vulnerable women and girls. Amongst CARE International’s key imperatives is putting people it serves first through implementing cutting edge programming in areas it operates. CARE International in Lebanon (CIL) has been mainly responding to the Syria crisis, but now shifting to a new strategic direction assisting as well vulnerable Lebanese households and other underserved communities.

CARE International presence in Lebanon stems from 2006, and recently it has been relaunched in 2013 to support Syrian refugees that were displaced in Lebanon from crisis. Over the course of 7 years, it has supported over half a million beneficiaries by providing protection, livelihoods, and through humanitarian programming such as shelter, WASH, and the distribution of food and non-food items. CIL currently operates across six governorates; Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Akkar, North Lebanon, Beqaa, and South Lebanon, contributing to the needs of populations in complicated protracted emergency situations, delivering immediate and long-term assistance, and complementing the efforts of the Lebanese Government and other humanitarian partners. CIL’s mission is to foster and enhance the protection and resilience of the most disadvantaged people and populations, with an emphasis on the rights of women, children, and the youth. CIL’s programming focuses on enhancing community capacity and serving women, girls, boys, and men to restore stability as part of a non-discriminatory society, with a focus on social cohesion and self-reliance. CIL aims to address the most fundamental and immediate needs by delivering essential services through Protection, WASH, Shelter, and Livelihood interventions.

Project Overview

The “Lebanon Beirut SHO” in Lebanon is a 12 months SHO Cooperating Aid Agencies Netherlands-funded Shelter Rehabilitation project that was implemented from the 6th of August 2020 till the 31st of July 2021, as a response to the Beirut Blast. As part of this project, CARE international in Lebanon considered and rehabilitated minor and medium damaged houses. Affected households were assisted with cash for rent or cash for rehabilitation, referred to as cash for shelter, or received direct technical support to ensure their right to adequate housing in coordination with the Cash taskforce and Shelter sector.

In line with CARE’s Emergency Response Strategy addressing the needs of the population affected by the 4th of August 2020 blast, CARE international in Lebanon engaged with two experienced local partners NUSANED and ANERA to rehabilitate the homes of households affected by the Beirut Blast, and whose houses, shops and buildings sustained minor or medium damages including blown out windows and/or doors, and damaged sanitation facilities such as bathrooms, kitchens and toilets. NUSANED is a local women-led organization aiming to support under-served Lebanese communities to become self-sustaining by offering access to food security, building shelter and providing ongoing opportunities for productive economies, and ANERA is a regional organization providing humanitarian assistance and sustainable development to advance the well-being of refugees and other vulnerable communities in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.

Objectives of project

The objective of this project is to respond to the immediate sheltering needs of the most vulnerable households through the following:

1. Contribute to longer term repair or rehabilitation and occupancy of damaged buildings
   1. Conducting shelter rehabilitation of minor – medium level damage to 270 homes for the most vulnerable as the shelter sector partners will upgrade units in substandard residential/ non-residential buildings to minimum/ humanitarian standards (in accordance with shelter sector guidelines, SPHERE, UNHCR SoPs and other shelter standards)
2. Livelihoods and Household Security:
   1. Enhancing 10 youths’ capacities and income opportunities; youth are employed in the rehabilitation of housing units (including family members if CASH)
   2. Giving 200 vulnerable individuals in need the chance to be part of the working force to rehabilitate housing units and benefit at the same time (contractor - indirect)

Purpose of consultancy

CARE International in Lebanon (CIL) is seeking a consultant to, in collaboration with CARE MEAL Department, Project Manager, and Programs/Support Departments, conduct the External Evaluation of the SHO Project.

The consultant is expected to conduct a desk review of CARE international impact goals and relevant project documents, data collection and analysis, meet with CARE MEAL focal point, CARE Program Department and relevant stakeholders, and participate in consultation and debriefing meetings. Then he/she is expected to develop a detailed evaluation methodology, appropriate data collection tools, a detailed data analysis plan, and a final report at the end of the project, and to conduct the relevant data collection.

The consultant will be expected to develop a mix of quantitative and qualitative data collection methods such as surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and field observation visits.

For the end evaluation of the project, the consultant shall provide an impact evaluation report (which should not exceed 30 pages, including the narrative of the project) summarizing the methodology followed for the evaluation and the results achieved. The consultant will also be responsible for the logistical planning for the meetings, interviews and field visits with the support of CARE Program and MEAL departments.

The purpose of this external end evaluation of the project is to assess the effectiveness, relevance, efficiency, sustainability, and impact of the project which will allow CARE and its partners working in shelter to learn from the project and present results, conclusions, and lessons learnt that will feed into the design of other projects. The external evaluator will help in assessing the level of achievements in the activities of the project and to verify to which extent the project’s activities contributed to improving the adequate housing conditions of the targeted population in the project’s catchment areas.

This external evaluation shall be used as part of the organizational learning process, aiming to replicate best practices and increase programs’ effectiveness. The findings deducted from this external evaluation will be shared to all stakeholders to ensure visibility of project results and sharing of lessons among partners, beneficiaries, and at local and national government/non-governmental levels.

Baseline and midline assessments were previously conducted at the beginning of the project and throughout the project’s implementation respectively. Therefore, the consultant will also be required to measure project’s indicators and provide end-line values to allow for comparisons of results prior and after the implementation of project’s activities.

Criteria and Questions of the Evaluation

1. Relevance: whether the project design and choice of the interventions (listed above) and approaches have properly addressed the needs of the beneficiaries, taking into account CARE’s mandates; whether the planned and actual activities and outputs were consistent with the intended outcomes; what is the project innovation and comparative advantage in this area of work vis a vis other similar interventions.
2. Effectiveness: whether the project components/ interventions and methodologies used have achieved planned objectives and yielded intended results; what factors have influenced the outcomes of this project, either negatively or positively.
3. Efficiency: have resources and funds been used efficiently, leveraging in-house expertise, previous interventions, and other resources to optimize the project outcomes; have the project interventions been delivered in a timely manner; what factors have affected the swift, efficient and timely implementation of the project interventions.
4. Sustainability: what ensures the project interventions’ sustainability; what mechanisms and structures were out in place to make sure that the project legacy is maintained once the intervention ceased, what lessons learned can be drawn to ensure so.
5. Impact: to what extent does the project achieved its outcomes? What opportunities or potentials are there to capitalize on? How did designed and utilized methodologies negatively or positively impact individuals’ shelter and livelihoods conditions? What unexpected impacts did this intervention have on individuals, communities, private sector, and institutions? How did the used method of partnership impact the delivery of activities?

Deliverables:

1. Inception report, within seven days from signing the contract.

The inception report is expected to clearly define the evaluation methodologies (qualitative and quantitative) with details of sampling (method and sample size), target groups, and evaluation timeline with specific deadlines for each deliverable.

2. Data collection tools

The consultant will be responsible for developing, coding, and digitalizing the quantitative and qualitative data collection tools.

3. Data collection, cleaning, and analysis

Data is expected to be cleaned; qualitative raw data and its analysis will be presented in excel spreadsheets, and FGD and KII transcripts and analysis will be reported in English

4. Draft of the evaluation report

Draft Evaluation report to be submitted within 10 days of the completion of the data collection. The evaluator is expected to amend the report after the review and feedback from CIL’s team. Many rounds of review could be requested based on the quality of the final report and the extent to which the comments and suggestions from first round have been incorporated.

5. Validation workshop

The validation workshop will take place at the last stage where the evaluator is requested to present the results of the evaluation, agree on recommendations, and present the key findings and lessons learned.

6. Final evaluation report

Three days after the validation workshop, the final report is expected to be submitted, incorporating the comments of the workshop held. The report should be written in English and should include evidence, lessons learned and recommendations.

Deliverables & Milestone:

Conduct the desk review  -

Submit the inception report  - 17/10/2021

Draft and validate the qualitative and quantitative data collection tools in both English and Arabic

24/10/2021

Collect the data, clean it, and analyze it. Present the raw and analyzed data - 12/11/2021

Develop a draft report -22/11/2021

Conduct the validation workshop - 07/12/2021

Draft the final report after reviews by CARE teams - 12/12/2021

The total budget available for this consultancy is $3,300. The payment will be issued on deliverables after receiving the good-received note from the Line Manager regardless of the number of days worked. Noting that the consultant is required to respond to any request for modification or additional information for a period of 2 months after the finalization of the deliverables (sending the first draft).

Consultant Profile

• At least   3-5  years of relevant experience of management position, especially with NGOs, academic organizations, standard-setting bodies, public agencies focused on Monitoring and Evaluation procedures.
• Great understanding of MEAL tools, External Evaluations, and Accountability to Affected Populations frameworks.
• Master’s degree in one or several of the following areas: Business, MEAL, Management, or any related Major.

Competencies

• Excellent interpersonal, communication and listening skills.
• Ability to lead workshops.
• Extensive knowledge in Shelter and Emergency projects and programs.
• Fluent in Arabic and English (written, spoken, listening).
• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to build strong internal relationships and networks.
• Motivated self-starter who enjoys working in a collaborative and international environment

PSEA and Child Safeguarding

CARE International in Lebanon is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

CARE International in Lebanon and its employees and stakeholders abide by the CARE International Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) and Child Safeguarding Policies.