Terms of Reference (TOR): For School Base line Assesment and End line Evaluation in Bosnia and Herzegovinain “Promoting Healthier Lifestyles among Youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina by Challenging Gender Stereotypes – Young Men Initiative Project III (YMI)”
Deadline for application: August 23rd 2021, 04 p.m. local time.
CARE’s mission in the region is to contribute to post-war recovery and the socio-economic development of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo* and Montenegro. CARE in the Balkans consists of Offices in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), in Belgrade, Serbia and Pristina, Kosovo*.
CARE’s work in the Balkans started in 1992, when it provided humanitarian support to people affected by war. In the late 90-ties CARE shifted its focus in the region from humanitarian post-war assistance and rehabilitation to socio-economic development engaging in interventions directed at conflict prevention and peace-building, sustainable livelihoods, gender equality and the prevention of gender-based violence.
CARE in the Balkans places the quality of its program at the center of its business and its mission and has developed a regional strategy that encompasses two main program directions: Gender Equality and Social and Economic Inclusion. The goal of the Social and Economic Inclusion Program is to strengthen capacities and create opportunities for marginalized, socially excluded and poor to integrate into society and access rights. CARE’s Gender Equality Program aims to empower women and girls vulnerable to violence, discrimination and poverty, to reach better life opportunities and social justice. CARE’s engagement and contribution lies in strengthening sustainability of key regional, national and/ or local civil society organizations and networks promoting gender equality and diversity, in the context of social inclusion and non-violence.
Gender transformative programming within Young Men Initiative projects started in 2006 and supported by Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) in the last two phases (2014-2017; 2017- current) has brought outstanding contribution to enabling positive and peaceful societies and healthy environment for young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), as well as in the region of the Western Balkans in cooperation with the Austrian Development Cooperation, CARE Deutschland and Oak Foundation from Switzerland.
The third phase (2021-2023) will be focused on producing tangible, long-term systematic solutions, the key one being the official integration of Program Y (for high schools) and Program E (for higher grades of elementary schools) as part of the compulsory curriculums beyond the project duration in the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina as a result of intensive collaboration with the Ministries of Education (Outcome 1). CARE and its partners Association XY from Sarajevo, Institute Perpetuum Mobile from Banja Luka and Youth Power from Mostar will continue to build on the accomplishments of the first two phases and ensure the realization of adequate solutions that will last beyond project lifetime.
This will be accomplished through work on institutionalization, standardization and quality insurance of comprehensive Program Y in high schools as well as piloting and implementing Program E for healthy lifestyle education in elementary schools in BiH. Furthermore, YMI III will continue in paving the way for social change in BiH by gathering support of movement/ coalition building through the development of new alliances that engage teachers, parents, universities, media representatives, young people and citizens in supporting gender equality focused life skills education program (Outcome 2).
Long-term sustainability in terms of institutional and community change will be accomplished through the following key results:
We expect the program to directly reach 10,000 high school and elementary students, as well as 300 teachers over a three-year period. Regarding universities, 100 university students would be enrolled, while 20 academic staff as well will be engaged in embedding Program Y in university curriculum. The campaign activities and YMI movement activities are supposed to reach 200,000 people mainly in 8 targeted communities but also across the entire country.
Having in mind the COVID 19 pandemic and uncertainty related to it, CARE and partners already started contingency planning based on the great success of the tested online programming in the period March – July 2020. From this experience, we gained tremendous know – how related to YMI implementation through online platforms and this phases plan will follow the same direction. If the pandemic continues in 2021, CARE and partners will focus during the first project year on developing and adjusting the online programs, campaigns and materials and organize small scale activities with respecting necessary measures.
The School Baseline Assessment and School Endline Evaluation will be carried out to measure the change in knowledge, attitudes and behavior related to gender-based violence, gender equity, and healthy lifestyles amongst young men and young women (high school students) from Sarajevo, Mostar, Zenica, Bijeljina, Tuzla, Brčko and East Sarajevo participating in the program, and therefore contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the overall project progress. CARE intends to assess the knowledge level, attitudes, and behaviors of youth by conducting self-administered surveys prior to and after the intervention, so that a comparison and assessment of the project results can be made and will contribute to comprehensive Final Project Evaluation. The assessment contributes thus to the accountability towards our main stakeholders (beneficiaries, donor, wider public) as well as to generate learnings to inform future programming.
The baseline assessment is going to be conducted during the autumn (late September or beginning of October 2021 – depends of public health protection measures) while end line evaluation process is going to be conducted during the last phase of the project implementation, in period from February 01st 2023 till June 30th 2023 (detailed the evaluation schedule is described in below written section i.e. The Timetable).
The overall objective of the School Base Line Assessment and End Line Evaluation is to assess and to measure changes in attitudes, knowledge and behavior of main beneficiaries group (high school boys and girls from schools where programme intervention has been implemented within Bosnia and Herzegovina society) related to gender based violence, gender equity and healthy life styles after intervention, focusing on each target group, is finished.
Thus, the specific objectives of this evaluation are to confirm the relevance of the action that was taken by CARE and local partners and to (re)adjust Program Y based on evaluation results on the order of taking action on effectiveness and efficiency way and additionally to address the criteria of impact and sustainability.
The results of the end line evaluation will be used to inform the implementers, responsible ministries that supported programme, schools, the donor and the involved other stakeholders about of impact of intervention done in previous almost three years of intervention and to make an evidence-based recommendation of the future action if considered justified.
Existing survey tools such as the GEM (Gender Equity and Men) scale will be used for the target group of young men and boys by the project team, as these were developed in earlier phases of the Young Men Initiative Program. The implementation of the surveys will be done by the CARE partners’ organization teams by using internet and wireless technology. The consultant is requested to provide oversight of the school base line and end line surveys, to coding questionnaires and data entering in SPSS, STATA or other relevant statistical program, to do data mining and to conduct the assessment of the data from the surveys and to present it in a summary of the base line and end line evaluation report.
The baseline assessment will be done with high school students from 01st and 02nd grade (in 2021/2022 school year, from 15th till 30th of September 2021 (or during first two weeks of October 2021).
The End line evaluation will be done after school based educational and campaigning activities targeting the different groups are finished. With high school students from 03rd and 04th grade (in 2021/2022 school year they were 01st and 02nd grade) and 02nd and 03rd grade (in a case of three Y-NGOs who became partners in last project year) a modified self-administered survey used during a baseline assessment will be implemented. The End line evaluation will be conducted in different stages between February 01st 2023 till June 30th, 2023.
The School Base line assessment and End line evaluation will be conducted collaboratively between CARE, local partners NGOs, Y-NGOs and the consultant. Local partners NGOs and Y-NGOs will secure permissions to enter the schools and collect questionnaires. Leading coordination role is done by the CARE project manager.
Beside the analysis of the intervention logic of the project and by reviewing the relation between the activities and the target output, outcome and impact indicators, the consultant (or a team) will be responsiblefor the following aspects while conducting the research:
Development of Guidelines for the implementation of the School Baseline Assessment and School Endline Evaluation as well as action plans for project partners as main implementators/facilitators of the surveys. The Guidelines should integrate specific considerations concerning the effective participation of students with disabilities and from different ethnicities. The Guidelines and actions plans should be developed in English;
Development of self-administrative questionnaire and consent form for Baseline and Endline Evaluation (testing the tools in the field and modifying them if necessary, prioritizing face to face data collection but also including considerations for online data gathering); It is necessary to include relevant project indicators in the questionnaire that would be listed by CARE – Questionnaire and consent form should be developed in English;
Final determination of sample size (considered between 1,000 – 1,500 high school students)
Coding questionnaires and data entering in SPSS, Stata or other relevant statistical program, data mining and analyzing;
Supervision of the implementation of the Baseline Assessment and School Endline Evaluation in Sarajevo, Mostar, Brčko, Tuzla, Zenica and East Sarajevo;
All subjects will be young men and women, aged 16 -18 years, enrolled in secondary schools. Most will be in the first or second year of enrollment at their school and are expected to be 16-18 years. Student discontinuation rates are low in the Balkans, and it is expected that the large majority of students will remain in school throughout the implementation of YMI and the evaluation.
Most schools draw their students from the surrounding community, which is largely homogenous in terms of ethnic or religious identity. However, across some locations, we do expect that there will be a range of ethnic and religious backgrounds represented.
All research subjects must give their consent to participate.
Developing the School Baseline Assessment Report and School Endline Evaluation Report in English that will include measuring relevant project indicators as well.
End line evaluation will be conducted collaboratively between CARE, local partners NGOs, Y-NGOs and the consultant. Local partners NGOs will secure permissions to enter the schools where target population is and collect questionnaires. Leading coordination role is done by the CARE project manager.
The key research questions underlying the evaluation are:
What is the effect of the YMI program on improving knowledge and behaviors related with health (including reproductive health, mental health and the risks of drugs and alcohol abuse), gender equality and violence among young men and women?
How does the level of engagement with the program (e.g., participation in basic classroom sessions versus voluntary participation in extended workshops/retreats) influence the outcomes observed?
Are there any other mediating factors (e.g., social support networks, family social-economic status, etc.) that also influence program outcomes?
| Description of the activities | Number of Days | Timetable |
| School Baseline Assessment | September/October 2021 | |
| Development of guidelines and determination of final sample size | 1 Day | August 27th 2021 |
| Developing (online) self-administrative baseline questionnaire and consent form (testing included) | 1 Day | August 30th 2021 |
| Action Planning (skype call meeting with partner organization) | 1 Day | August 31st 2021 |
| Supervision of the School Baseline Assessment | 2 Days | September 15th – 30th 2021 (or October 01st – 15th 2021) |
| Coding questionnaires and data entering | 2 Days | October 1st – 10th 2021 (or till 20th of October 2021) |
| School Baseline Assessment Report (and its summary) | 6 Days | October 30th, 2021 |
| TOTAL BASE LINE | 13 Days | |
| School Endline Evaluation | April – May 2023 | |
| Developing (online) self-administrative endline questionnaire and consent form | 0.5 Day | April 01st – 15th 2023 |
| Action Planning (skype call meeting with partner organization) | 1 Day | April 01st – 15th 2023 |
| Supervision of the School Endline Evaluation | 1 Day | April 15th – May 15th, 2023 |
| Coding questionnaires and data entering | 3 Days | May 15th – 31st 2023 |
| Data comparison and analysis | 2.5 Days | June 1st – 15th 2023 |
| School Endline Evaluation Report (and its summary) | 4 Days | June 30th 2023 |
| TOTAL END LINE | 12 Days | |
| TOTAL BASE LINE AND END LINE | 25 Days |
In the case that the Consultant needs to travel all lodging and travel costs will be covered by the Consultant and should be part of consultant’s daily fee and will be included into the proposed budget. CARE will not be able to pay per diem nor cover any other expenses to the Consultant for the time spent at the field.
The Consultant will be paid in two separate instalments.
First payment will be made upon submission the receipt of first invoice and consultancy time sheet (CARE will provide templates) with indicated tasks performed and dates of tasks implementation after first draft of the Base line assessment report and summary of the base line assessment is submitted, no later than 7 days of submission day.
Second and final payment will be made upon submission the receipt of second invoice and consultancy time sheet with indicated tasks performed and dates of tasks implementation after the End line evaluation report is delivered, no later than 7 days of submission day.
The payment for the work defined in Contract will be made upon the work completion and the final product delivered to CARE, with all the necessary documentation as per CARE’s administrative procedures.
The deadline for application is August 23rd 2021, 04 p.m. local time.
CARE invites individual experts, teams of experts, NGOs and agencies for the Balkans region, familiar with the context and subject of the project in question, to respond to this call and present in details their expertise, experience, division of work and responsibility levels/responsible person (in case of teams or agencies).
Comprehensive experience with conducting evaluations (The applicant is requested to send several samples of prior evaluation reports written by him/herself).
Excellent oral and writing skills in English.
Academic background from social – humanistic sciences field with minimum MSc. title and at least five years of working experience in academic or research institution.
Recorded experience in evaluation of gender mainstream projects
Prior experience of working in the Balkans region.
Prior experience with projects targeting young men and women beneficiaries.
Prior experience with projects targeting gender mainstreaming.
Preferably prior experience with projects targeting educational policy.
Knowledge of the national/regional and EU public policies targeting prevention of gender-based violence and promote gender equity.
The lowest financial offer won’t be awarded if above criterions are not fulfilled, especial criterions number 3, 4, 6 and 7. These four above listed criterions will bear per up to 15% of final evaluation of candidates or up to 60% in total. Financial offer will bear up to 30% while rest of criterions will bear up to 10%.
If an individual is applying it is necessary to enclose CV with printed hard copies (or e-documents in PDF format on CD) or active web links that indicates experience described in above eligibility section and daily fee/rate per day in Euro and the number of days predicted for the work. The Consultant should make a breakdown of costs in the budget part of the proposal, including different activities and types of costs (travel related costs should be included into the budget, if any). If company is applying, beside above listed requests, must enclose proof of tax paid.
Offers should be submitted by August 23rd, 2021 at 04.00 p.m. to the following address:
Procurement Team, CARE International NW Balkans, Hasana Kaimije 11, 71 000 Sarajevo or to the e-mail address [email protected]
The offer that is chosen by CARE International NW Balkans will be notified in writing by August 26th, 2021.
Following documents must be submitted in electronic versions:
School Baseline Assessment:
Should be no longer than 15 pages (Arial or Times New Roman, font 11)
Should present disaggregated data based on sex, ethnicity and other vulnerability criteria (i.e., disability).
The report fulfills the requirements listed in the Terms of Reference.
Study should be written in English(text must be edited free from spelling mistakes and unclear linguistic formulations).
Should include baseline measurements of relevant project indicators in targeted schools (SDG 5.2.1; SDG 16.1; Percentage of youth that demonstrate increased knowledge and awareness, and improved attitudes and behaviors related to healthy lifestyles, and gender equality and violence (SADD and disaggregated by country)
School Baseline Assessment Summary:
Should be no longer than 5 pages (Arial or Times New Roman, font 11);
School Endline Evaluation:
Should be no longer than 30 pages (Arial or Times New Roman, font 11)
Should present disaggregated data based on sex and if feasible ethnicity. The report fulfills the requirements listed in the Terms of Reference.
Study should be written in English (text must be edited free from spelling mistakes and unclear linguistic formulations).
Should include endline measurements of relevant project indicators in targeted schools (SDG 5.2.1; SDG 16.1; Percentage of youth that demonstrate increased knowledge and awareness, and improved attitudes and behaviors related to healthy lifestyles, and gender equality and violence (SADD and disaggregated by country)
School Endline Evaluation Summary:
Should be no longer than 5 pages (Arial or Times New Roman, font 11);
Report should be written in English (text must be edited free from spelling mistakes and unclear linguistic formulations).
Coordination/Responsibility
The Consultant(s) is/are expected to include in his/her application:
Curriculum Vitae (indicating contacts on reference persons from at least three former employees/contractors)
Former evaluation reports or other analytical outputs drafted by the applicant(s).
CARE commits itself to:
Prepare and agree on a work-plan with the Consultant(s)
Provide support with implementing the data collection.
Coordinate with the Consultant(s)
Provide requested documentation to Consultant(s)
Provide logistical support to the Consultant(s)
The Consultant(s) will report to Saša Petković, PhD, Project Manager
Preferably in Bijeljina, Tuzla, Brčko, Zenica and East Sarajevo.
CARE International Balkans HQ Sarajevo Office
Hasana Kaimije 11, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Tel: +387 33 536 790 Fax: +387 33 536 791
Sub-office: Aleja Svetog Save 7A, 78000 Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Phone: +387 51 258 200, 258 201
Fax: +387 51 257 361
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