TOR: Impact Study Research

October 4, 2022 YMI News

Terms of Reference CARE International Balkans’ Young Men Initiative Program: Impact Study Research

Application Deadline: October 16^th 2022

Duration of the Assignment: 3,5 months / October 20^th 2022 – January 31^st 2023

Countries covered: Western Balkans (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania)

Introduction

CARE International is a global confederation of 16 member and 4 candidate and 1 affiliate organizations working together to end poverty. In 2020, CARE worked in 104 countries around the world, implementing almost 1.400 poverty-fighting development and humanitarian aid projects to reach more than 92.3 million people directly.

CARE started working in the Balkans in the early 1990s to provide emergency and medical assistance to people affected by crisis, violence and displacement that engulfed the region due to the Yugoslav wars. CARE today works in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo*and Albania. Since the 2000s, CARE’s main focus is on socio-economic inclusion of marginalized groups and gender equality. 

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 by equally engaging men and boys as allies in that process. 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.

Background

Since 2006, a coalition of local, regional, and international organizations have been promoting positive masculine identities under the banner of the Young Men Initiative (YMI). Coordinated by CARE International Balkans, implemented by collaborating youth civil society organizations and governmental institutions in five countries, and evaluated by external researchers, YMI seeks to promote a lifestyle that prioritizes good health, nonviolence, and gender equality through a combination of educational workshops and community campaigns. YMI had started with a small size qualitative research exploring young men`s attitudes and behaviors that have helped develop the program framework with the key thematic areas and the most adequate approaches based on the context and the research findings. Over the years, it grew into a comprehensive program with different components targeting young people, parents, teachers, educational workers, university students, journalists and other important stakeholders. Since the beginning, the program has reached directly over 130,000 young people across the Balkans while an indirect reach came to over 13 million people.

The core of the YMI intervention is a series of group educational workshops accompanied with social norms campaigns that promote a critical and personal reflection on gender, masculinities and health, with a strong focus on violence prevention. The workshops are highly participatory and address health and relationships issues from a gender lens, including sexual and reproductive health, communication and negotiation, drug and alcohol use, anger management, and violence prevention. Since 2014 CARE and partners started with development of tailored program for youth -which has become one of the cornerstones of the intervention. The heart of YMI is Program Y (youth), which is focused on transforming the school environment to one that supports and nurtures gender equality and promotes a culture of non-violence. It presents a documented success in the Western Balkans and is being implemented in elementary and high schools, allowing for a high direct reach and levels of participation among young men and young women aged 14 – 19. Program sessions are led by trained facilitators and are in different forms integrated into the school syllabus, whether as individual classes, extracurricular activities of parts of head-teacher classes. The YMI project is ongoing in all five countries and currently supported by the following donors:

1. Oak Foundation (1 May 2021 – 30 October 2022) for the activities in Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo; 
2. Swiss Development Cooperation for the activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1 January 2021 – 31 December 2023) and
3. Austrian Development Agency for the activities in Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania (1 March 2021 – 29 February 2024). 

Purpose 

The purpose of this Study is to assess the impact of the Program Y in its key program areas: (1) gender attitudes; (2) violence prevention; (3) sexual and reproductive health; (4) alcohol and drug abuse and (5) prevention of sexual violence covering the period 2014-2020. The study further aims to identify the methods and approaches that have contributed to the success, but also presented obstacles and limitations. The purpose if not only to identify WHAT the key accomplishments have been so far, but also HOW they have manifested and WHY they have happened. 

The lessons learned will on the one hand provide a valuable learning resource for CARE and partners aimed at program improvement and scaling up. On the other hand, it will directly contribute to the Young Man Initiative Movement Future4Youth that aims to bring diverse voices of civil society, informal citizens groups, parents, teachers and other stakeholders around the same goal – toaddress and advocate for violence prevention, gender equality, life skills and health education (including sex education as integral part) in schools across the Balkans.

This Impact Study is expected to be conducted in the period October 20^th   – January 31^st, 2023.

Objective

The objective of the impact study is to find out the changes which happened related to perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of young people in the in the time period of 2014-2020 in key program areas: (1) gender attitudes; (2) violence prevention; (3) sexual and reproductive health; (4) alcohol and drug abuse and (5) prevention of sexual violence (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Kosovo and Albania), as a result of direct CARE and partners’ engagement. The study will present how the identified changes have happened and why. 

CARE intends to find out the level and the type of impact in the three following domains all linked to the 5 key areas mentioned above:

1. Change at level of knowledge, skills and confidence of high school boys and girls  as a result of directly participating in the Program Y school based workshops, school and/or community based campaigns and Be a Men clubs.
2. Change at the level of attitudes and behaviors of high school boys and girls as a result of participation through school-based workshops, campaigns and Be a Men clubs as well as the capacity to adequately respond when happening to them or others.
3. Methods and approaches that worked best in the given context and circumstances.

These pre-defined domains can be adjusted during the inception period (report), when the final questions, tools and methods suggested by the Consultant/Team will be reviewed and approved. The study will also elaborate on unintended changes that would surface during the process.

Subject and Focus

This impact study analysis will consist of several components providing for a comprehensive overview of the effectiveness of the preventative tools, methods and approaches used over time through the Program Y in the given context and 2014-2020 period. It will contribute to increasing the sustainability potential of this programmatic focus and approach, the advocacy efforts related to life skills education but also for the wider model replication. Therefore, the consultant or team will use the following methods: 

1. Context overview: a brief regional analysis and country overview on peer, gender based and sexual violence among youth between 14-19 years of age in Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, the analysis will show the state measures that are ensuring the prevention of all forms of violence on national/cantonal/local level.
2. Desktop analysis: review the data collected through a series of school-based Endline evaluations and project related studies and reports in the period: 2014-2020. In every project phase, researchers and the YMI team collected relevant data and inputs through School Baseline Assessments implemented at the beginning of each project cycle and School Endline Evaluations conducted at the end of those project cycles. The data collected related to: (1) gender attitudes; (2) violence prevention; (3) sexual and reproductive health; (4) alcohol and drug and (5) prevention of sexual violence should be assessed and the difference/change in the norms, attitudes and behaviors of the same group of young people over two to three school years of program implementation, ensuring thereby high qualitative and evidence-based evaluation and impact measurement. The findings of these project-based evaluations have been used for building a case with respected ministries and advocating for the introduction of life skills education (with a focus on sexual education), Program Y in particular, into the mandatory high school curriculum. These separate research reports need to be analyzed and utilized to present the impact of Program Y on youth in the field of the four mentioned key areas along with other project reports, final project evaluations, audio-visual material like video clips/short movies and studies produced over the course of the YMI implementation. 

1. Interviews: The consultant will develop the interview guides based on the Context overview and YMI documentation analysis. The contacts will be provided by the CARE project staff but will include senior level management and programme staff of CARE and local YMI youth partner organizations, focal points from responsible ministries for education, school pedagogues, teachers, parents and youth as a key the action beneficiaries:

1. Focus group discussions with beneficiaries who participated Program Y programming in high schools -minimum 5 (1 per country) with up to 10 persons)
2. Individual or group interviews with representatives of schools´ staff (directors, pedagogues and teachers), parents, community members, etc. based on inception report and agreed plan -minimum 10 interviews (min. two per country)

Given COVID 19 and limited budget for travel, rather than the consultant traveling to conduct in-person meetings, the consultant will be expected to conduct remote/online interviews through Skype/Zoom/Google Meet or other available application. Consultant will be responsible for protocols for capturing the interview including work 1) digitally recording the interviews, 2) having them transcribed, and then 3) translated into English.  

Consultant/Team

CARE YMI team will have a designated person to coordinate the development of the impact study with the support of the admin/finance team. CARE YMI study coordinator will communicate directly with the Consultant/team, share the relevant documentation, ensure the timeline set and the contractual obligations are being respected. He/she will also be in charge of communicating with the local partner organizations in each target country for providing additional information and material, if needed. 

The Consultant/Team will be in charge for the entire set of this deliverable and for implementing all the phases of the study development. The process will include the submission of the inception report, preparing of the situation analysis, the revision of existing YMI documentation, conducting interviews, producing the report document, the abstracts as well as the Power Point Presentation with the key findings and recommendations. 

The Consultant/Team Qualifications:

• Relevant academic degree in international development, non-profit management, social studies or relevant fields.
• A minimum of five years’ experience and expertise in conducting evaluations, impact assessments and research in the field/sector of youth development, education, violence prevention, social inclusion and/or gender equality.
• Knowledge of national/regional educational policy context
• Relevant experience in the Balkan region
• Knowledge of the national/regional and EU public policies targeting prevention of gender-based violence and promoting gender equality is an asset.
• Excellent oral and written English skills and at least one local language (BHS or Albanian) 

Timeline and Deliverables

A total of 45 working days is currently estimated for this assignment.

Timetable

Action	Responsible	Deadline	Working days
Submission of proposal (electronically)	Consultant/team	October 16
Contract signed, and documents provided	Contract signed between CARE and consultant/team	October 20
Kick-Off meeting – online possible	Meeting between CARE team and Consultant/team	October 21-22
Context overview and desk research	Consultant/team	November 6	5
Development and submission of draft inception report including interview guides	Consultant/team	November 13	3
Feedback to the inception report and context overview	CARE	November 16
Submission of final inception report incorporating the feedback from CARE	Consultant/team	November 20	1
Data analysis, focus group and individual interviews and draft impact study	Consultant/team	November 20-December 31st	30
Submission of the draft final study	Consultant/team	January 10th
Feedback to the draft study	CARE	January 16th
Incorporating CARE’s input and submission of the final impact study	Consultant/team	January 20th	2
Abstracts and PPT draft development and submission	Consultant/team	January 27th	3
Final submission of all the agreed deliverables in electronic version	Consultant/team	By January 31 at latest	1
Total	Consultant/team	January 31 2023	45

CARE will be in charge for ensuring the translation of the study, the abstracts and the PPT into Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian and Albanian by February 28^th 2023.

Cost

The Consultant shall suggest a daily fee/rate per day in EURO or BAM (1 EUR=1,95583 BAM) and the number of days predicted for the work per category. The payment will be done in three instalments, the first one (30%) after the approved inception report, the second one (30%) after the approved draft impact study and the final upon the approval/acceptance of the final study, the abstract and the PPT by CARE.

The Consultant is required to make the daily work report in accordance with CARE Balkans policies (i.e. through daily time sheets).

Deliverables

The Consultants will submit the following final package in written using Calibri/Ariel/Times New Roman font size 11:

• Context overview analysis (max 10 pages)
• An inception report including interview guides (max 5 pages) 
• Impact Study including the executive summary (max. 50-60 pages) 
• 5 abstracts (2 pages) per program area (1) gender attitudes; (2) violence prevention; (3) sexual and reproductive health; (4) alcohol and drug abuse and (5) prevention of sexual violence 
• a Power Point Presentation with the key findings and recommendations.

All the deliverables will be in English. 

The findings of the impact should be presented in a clear and structured way. An outline of the report’s structure needs to be presented and agreed upon during the inception phase. 

Co-Ordination/Responsibility

Ms. Emilija Ubiparipovic, CARE International Balkans, Youth Engagement Advisor [email protected]  

Applications

Individual experts, companies or evaluation teams are eligible. The candidates (individual, company or teams) are expected to include in the application: 

1. Cover letter 
2. Technical Offer covering all aspects and tasks required in the ToR. The technical offer must include:

• Approach, methods and design including tentative work plan and division of responsibility (if team of consultants is applying) suggested by the applicant (max. 3 pages)
• Professional profile of the evaluator(s) (CVs of all individuals included in the consultancy team)indicating contacts on reference persons from at least three former employees/contractors; 
• Track record of previous impact/evaluation reports or other analytical outputs produced by the applicant closely related to the thematic focus of the assignment.
• At least one sample of the relevant document produced clearly demonstrating the required skills (analysis and synthesis, language and writing skills)

1. Financial Offer includingcost breakdown. 

• The consultant(s) shall suggest the global price in EURO or BAM (per position if evaluation team applies) and the number of days predicted for the work. 

Note: If you are sending the offer as a physical person the amount should be net. Related benefits and taxes for physical person will be calculated and paid by CARE.

Offers should be submitted by October 16^th, 2022 by 5 pm CET to the following e-mail address: [email protected] 

The selected will be notified in writing by October 20^th, 2022.