Bid number 9182479 for Evaluation of the National Girls Empowerment Initiative- Dawwie

TERMS OF REFERENCE

SHORT TITLE OF ASSIGNMENT

Evaluation of the National Girls Empowerment Initiative- Dawwie  

Today Egypt is home to almost 20 million girls below the age of 19, with 14 million girls between the age of two and ten. Egypt has successfully prioritized gender equality within its Sustainable Development Strategy (Egypt 2030), and the National Women Empowerment Strategy 2030 is paving the way for a more equitable society. Despite the positive trends for women empowerment, girls in Egypt are less likely to achieve their full potential than boys. For example, girls are less likely to receive any kind of education or training and five times more likely than boys to be unemployed, in addition to some harmful practices such as Female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage[1].

 

Globally, the evidence demonstrates how sustained targeted investments in girls improve their lives; yield returns across generations; boost economic growth; and improve the wellbeing of children, fami­lies and communities. For example:

• Each extra year of girls’ education is correlated with a 5–10 percent reduction in infant mortality, and a child born to a mother who can read is 50% more likely to live past the age of five.
• Each year of secondary school for girls increases their eventual earnings by up to 25%.
• If young women were as economically active as young men, annual GDPs could grow up to 4.4 percent faster, alleviating global labor shortages. Currently 40% of employers find it difficult to recruit employees with the right skills. Investing in girls today can accelerate economic growth and increase the skilled labor force of tomorrow.

 

In Egypt, the evidence shows:

• Raising female employment rates to match male employment can increase GDP by 34%.
• Since women invest up to 90% of their earnings on family, boosting their earnings can lead to healthier and better educated children[2].

 

 

Girls’ empowerment is a process of change by which girls gain more control over life choices. This process involves expanding choices available to girls, strengthening their voices, and addressing gender dynamics that limit girls’ control over their bodies and futures. Girls have the right to participate and be a part of decision-making on all matters that affect them and to have their participation and input given due weight by others. To do so, girls and boys require safe and inclusive opportunities (space and platforms) to form and express their own views, as well as adults and peers (audience) who are willing to listen and act on these views (influence).

 

Gender empowerment is a key driver of change in UNICEF current Country Programme (2023-2027), interlocking with several initiatives that seek to support the Government of Egypt (GoE) in meeting its commitments to children. Led by the Social and Behavior Change team, UNICEF is supporting GoE in addressing the national priority of promoting gender equality to support the transition from learning to earning for girls in Egypt, especially the most marginalized.

 

Dawwie is the first National Girls’ Empowerment Initiative launched by GoE in 2019. It is currently a multi-stakeholder’s initiative for girls’ empowerment through enhanced access to quality services, skills development, and opportunities to participate and be heard. By improving the acceptance of empowered girls in Egypt, Dawwie aims to reduce girls’ unemployment and acceptance of harmful practices and violence against children and women. Building on existing evidence (such as the parenting formative research conducted in 2019), the initiative follows a lifecycle approach, but focuses mainly on adolescent girls and boys as the key agents of behavioral change.

 

Dawwie is currently fostered by the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM), and the National Council for Women (NCW), in partnership with several government bodies including the Ministry of Education and Technical Education (MoETE), Ministry of Social Solidarity (MoSS), Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) and Ministry of Culture (MoC), Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MoICT), National Council for Persons with Disability (NCPD) and the National Population Council (NPC), in addition to civil society organizations, Faith-based Organizations and national and international organizations such as UNFPA, UN Women, Plan International and ACDA among others. In 2022, Dawwie was placed under the auspices of the First Lady of Egypt, in commemoration of the International Women’s Day on March 8th marking enhanced political support on girls’ empowerment. 

 

Dawwie is currently being scaled up to 21 governorates with plans of expansion to all 27 governorates. The initiative engaged over 500,000 community members on the ground and over 3.6 million online through dedicated digital platforms. It aims to establish the foundations of a long-term gender transformative strategy in Egypt by addressing gender inequality as the root cause of violence against children and harmful practices.

 

The theory of change rests upon the premise that by creating an enabler that reverses negative behavioral norms at the individual, family, community and overall societal levels, all girls in Egypt will fully enjoy all their rights by 2030. When girls are empowered with a voice, skills, access to information and quality services; when the community is willing to listen to their opinions and aspirations; when there is support on the macro societal levels asking for change, then normatively the picture will be reversed, and girls will enjoy equitable rights from an early on age. The entire family, community and nation would benefit from a more equitable and prosperous society, where violence is no longer accepted and opportunities for stability and development have risen. By such, Dawwie is girl-centered yet follow the socio-ecological model with designed interventions at different levels for girls and boys, parents, community members and leaders to advocate for social support and mobilization. As such, UNICEF Egypt Programs related to Child Protection Education and Adolescence and potentially Health and Nutrition are planning to support the integration of Dawwie within sectors as Child Protection, Education, and - which is critical to establish a long-term transformative change.

 

UNICEF supports the Dawwie initiative , which is interlinked with several UNICEF prorammes such as the child protection’s eliminating violence against children programme; supporting adolescents' skill development programme (Meshwary); and supporting education reform (3.0) programme. The UNICEF country programme (2023-2027) prioritizes the development of an enabling environment for girls empowerment. UNICEF will provide technical support to the government in : 1) strengthening the multi-stakeholders coordination mechanisms with partners; 2) mainstreaming girls’ empowerment indicators in the national monitoring framework; 3) Developing the capacity of service providers (teachers, social and community based workers, volunteers) to support the Dawwie implementation; 4) scaling up community engagement activities (Dawwie circles, viewing clubs and intergenerational dialogue and Dawwie Camps); 5) enhancing access to the skills building package (digital literacy, employability and sports for development); 6) access to data packages and IT.  Currently, UNICEF Egypt is set to support Dawiee to integrate in youth centers managed by Ministry of Youth and Sport, community based and national schools grades 4 to 14 led by Ministry of Education, the cultural centers system managed by the Ministry of Culture in close coordination with the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Ministry of Planning and Economic Development to align with Presidential Initiatives such as Haya Karima, the Family Development Project and National social protection programs such as Takaful and Karama.

 

In the new Country Programme, UNICEF is aiming to support the expansion of Dawwie implementation organically. Accordingly, the evaluation of the Dawwie (2019-22) will examine how UNICEF Egypt Program can develop a better multisectoral synergy and approach internally to support the Government to scale up the Initiative. The Evaluation is hoping to inform how UNICEF can maximize its support to the government. The Scope of the evaluation will focus on the efficiency relevance and effectiveness of UNICEF Support to date aspects and what can UNICEF do to improve its implementation approach and strategy to support the government. Impact goes beyond the scope of this evaluation.

 

Dawiee TOC is included as an annex

 

RATIONALE AND PURPOSE

Rationale

UNICEF hopes for a better positioning, as Dawwie scope aligns with and contributes to Egypt’s 2030 Women Strategy and the National Child Protection Strategy, under the leadership of the National Council for Women and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood.

 

The Evaluation is hoping to inform how UNICEF can maximize its support to the government as it incepts its new Country Programme Support to the government (2023-2027).  The Scope of the evaluation will focus on the efficiency relevance and effectiveness of UNICEF Support to date aspects and what can UNICEF do to improve its implementation approach and strategy to support the government. This is particularly timely with the inception of UNICEF’s new Country Programme this year and the intention of UNICEF Egypt to continue prioritizing its support to the prioritized national girl’s empowerment agenda. Impact goes beyond the scope of this evaluation.  

The evaluation aims to validate and inform UNICEF’s contribution to supporting girls’ empowerment as a national priority. It is timely as it is taking stock of three years of implementation between 2019 and 2022. The evaluation will inform the upcoming country program (2023-2027) implementation with a focus on how to strengthen multisectoral engagement with the Dawwie initiative in all its components (skills, coordination, engagement, advocacy) and draw key lessons and accelerators to capitalize on. It will assess what works and what can be strengthened in the forthcoming Country Programme Cycle (2023-2027) at the advent of national demands on expanding the initiative.

 

The formative evaluation will assess the extent to which Dawwie implementation strategy supported by UNICEF is effectively contributing to its intended results in terms of contributing to addressing gender inequality; enhancing girls’ agency and participation; and improving perceptions of girls’ rights and decision making. Dawiee’s Theory of Change and results framework was participatorily done with the different stakeholders but it is currently being revised. The evaluation also hopes to  inform that revision.

UNICEF Programme support strategy is currently led by the Social and Behavioural team but since the Dawiee initiative is integrated and multisectoral relaying on the three pillars of support the government to upgrade girls’ skills and avail services it is also supported by Child Protection; Adolescence and youth development, Education and potentially Nutrition as planned. The evaluation is integrally focusing on examining the extent to which the support strategy by UNICEF has been integrated and synergized and how this can be maximized to support the expansion of the initiative.

UNICEF support is also integrated with the larger UN support  in the country as its starts its new cooperation framework (2023-2027). The UNICEF supports aligns and coordinates with other UN agencies in one the key pillars of the UNSDCF related to girls and women empowerment and is included in joint workplans in that regard to support the government. In that context, the evaluation will also look at how the synergies of cooperation can be maximised and strengthened.

 

The evaluation should produce evidence through triangulation (IDIs, FGD, and surveys), conclusions, key lessons and recommendations concerning the how UNICEF will maximise its support to upscaling of the Dawwie Initiative. The Evaluation will cover the DAC criteria of efficiency, relevance, effectiveness, sustainability and coherence. Impact will not be covered by this evaluation as the time frame does not warrant -- but findings may inform a later impact evaluation.  The evaluation will focus on strengthening interlinkages between UNICEF sectors and with the UN at large; and working on an efficient approach to expand the initiative capitalizing on key learnings; and informing the new Country Program.

The main users of the evaluation are UNICEF Management. The secondary users will be NCW, NCCM, UNICEF and UNSDCF Programme staff, UNICEF regional Office, and UNRCO major development partners.

For the Government and other stakeholders, the evaluation will bring clarity on the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of Dawwie, and the key role of UNICEF and its support to achieving results and upscale the initiative. A representative group of girls and boys will be part of the steering committee informing the inception phase of this evaluation.

Purpose

The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the progress achieved  to date and the extent to which Dawiee reached its intended results- what worked what did not work and how efficient the implementation strategy and package of support has been – if the initiative  is relevant and how sustainable it can be. This is to inform design and implementation and identify factors that can inform future expansion. The evaluation aims to assess the results of the Dawwie initiative within the targeted governorates.

To the extent possible and given the ongoing nature of the Dawwie (i.e. that it is embedded within a multi-stakeholder context), the evaluation hopes to inform UNICEF’s support and their implementation. It will draw strategic lessons learned from the design and implementation of Dawwie, and provide practical recommendations for future programming.

The evaluation is a mix of a summative and formative one assessing the extent to which the program have achieved its results and how can work better to inform the expansion.

 

OBJECTIVE OF THE EVALUATION

 

The key objectives of the evaluation are:

• Assess the extent to which the strategies and interventions implemented by Dawwie have achieved its expected gender transformative results and unexpected results in terms of the yearly targets/milestones; advise on how the programme can achieve the overall results planned; identify indicative causes and analyse key dynamics/critical success factors that contributed to the achievement and can be capitalized for better support in the new Country Programme.
• Suggest ways to strengthen synergies, and the inter-sectoral cooperation with other UNICEF Programmes, with a particular focus on Child Protection, Education, health and Nutrition and Young people’s empowerment and between the UN agencies (inter-agency) and identify potential synergies that remain unrealized.
• Assess the efficiency and other factors that can contribute to UNICEF Support to the expansion and potential scale-up of Dawwie and alignment with UNICEF Strategic Framework and GoE framework on gender (Gender Action Plan), and national strategic (National Women’s Empowerment Strategy and Egypt SDS).

EVALUATION CRITERIA AND QUESTIONS

 

The Evaluation will cover the DAC criteria of efficiency, relevance, effectiveness, gender, sustainability and coherence. Impact will not be covered by this evaluation as the time frame does not warrant -- but findings may inform a later impact evaluation. 

 

Specifically, the Evaluation will:

1. Review and assess UNICEF Egypt internal governance, resource distribution, management and internal (within UNICEF) and external (interagency and with other development partners) coordination mechanisms and structures, and the extent to which they are conducive to an effective and efficient response, with the ultimate objective of providing actionable recommendations on how these can be strengthened. It will also review and assess the extent to which UNICEF partnership and interagency coordination strategies have been conducive to effectiveness and efficiency.
2. Assess the extent to which UNICEF response was appropriate and relevant for the environment and needs of all the target population (boys, girls, parents and community members) and provide recommendations on how this could be strengthened and improved.
3. Assess the extent to which the strategies and interventions implemented by Dawwie, both internally and in synergy with other UNICEF Country Programme Initiatives in health, education, child protection and youth empowerment, achieved or contributed to achieving expected gender transformative results in terms of the yearly targets/milestones. Assess whether there were any unexpected results achieved, and how it contributed to other Country Programme results.
4. Draw the key lessons and ways by which the initiative can achieve its overall planned results, the indicative critical success factors that contributed and can contribute to the achievement and future implementation.

 

The specific Evaluation Questions as formulated below are indicative. More specific questions will be developed at the inception phase. Following the initial consultations and document analysis, the evaluation team will discuss with the Evaluation Manager and produce a final set of Evaluation Questions and evaluation matrix at the inception phase.

 

Relevance:

1.To what extent has the initiative been aligned to, informing, and influencing the normative girls’ empowerment agenda of the government led by NCCM, NCW and other key government stakeholders?

2. To what extent has the initiative contributed to: (a) the beneficiaries' needs, (b) Egypt's needs and priorities in the relevant sectors of intervention, (c) UNICEF global Strategic Plans and Gender Action Plans, and d) UNDAF agreement and forthcoming UNSDCF agreement.

Efficiency:

1. To what extent has the financial and human resources issues had been used in designing elements of the Programme? What can be recommended for expanding the initiative?

4. To what extent have UNICEF Egypt internal management and coordination mechanisms and structures been conducive to an effective and efficient response? How can these be strengthened?

5. How effective has UNICEF Monitoring and MIS system and support been, particularly to generate evidence and strengthen program implementation? To what extent have national beneficiaries been involved in the design and implementation of the Programme?

6. Is the program being delivered as intended across the dimensions of adherence, exposure, participant responsiveness/engagement, program differentiation?

7. How are inputs contributing to program function including personnel, curriculum/materials, technical support, etc.?

 

 

Effectiveness:

1. To what extent have the planned results of the response been achieved? What are the key lessons learned, accelerators, unrealized synergies and gaps? What have been the key successes and failures in implementation approaches of the initiative? What can be capitalized on for expanding the initiative?  Is the initiative reaching the intended number and groups of participants it meant to? Who is being missed? Why?
2. To what extent is the Initiative using the appropriate mix of methods and implementing strategies for achieving the results (in terms of annual milestones and targets)? Were there any unexpected outcomes?
3. What were the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the results?
4. With a special emphasis on the life skills, harmful practices, and the service and skills components of the Dawiee initiative, how well were the different Dawiee components related to child protection, education, innovation, and health, integrated in the initiative implementation and synergized to achieving the results? What are the key lessons and what can be capitalized on to strengthen the upscale support by the new Country Program? Could this approach be effective as an accelerator in delivering results.

Coherence:

1. How coherent and integrated was the initiative? To what extent have key programmatic interventions, synergies and strategies been conducive in achieving attributable planned results? To what extent have the different interventions of the Dawiee and inter-sectoral cooperation with other UNICEF Programs  and in particular Child Protection FGM harmful practices in addition to Education and youth empowerment and health brought synergies in achieving the desired results?
2. To what extent have UNICEF Partnership and interagency coordination strategies been conducive to program implementation and effectiveness? Was UNICEF’s choice of partners appropriate and based on adequate assessment of capacity?

Gender:

1. To what extent is Dawwie a transformative model for gender initiative?
2. To what extent has the Programme used policies that are gender responsive and fully sensitized about the aspect of gender in their implementation?

Sustainability:

1. How can the initiative have adequate funding, both by fundraising/financing from the external partners/donors or through internal arrangements of support from other programs in UNICEF Egypt.
2. What are the contributing factors that can support an expansion and scale up?

1.  

The overall methodological approach required for this exercise is underpinned by the principles of objectivity, rigor, quality, ethics, and inclusiveness. Throughout the evaluation exercise the engagement and participation of key stakeholders, including UNICEF staff, donors, and partners will be sought. The evaluation will follow a non-experimental approach.

 

The evaluation will adopt a utilization-focused approach and will involve qualitative data collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data gathered through desk review of Programme documents and existing data sources. Data will be triangulated to have a credible evidence base to assess the UNICEF Dawwie initiative. The focus will be on the period between June 1, 2019 until 31th December 2022.

 

The Evaluation will focus on key interventions with high coverage, and with emphasis on intersectoral programmatic interventions and approaches. Geographical focus will be on two higher and two lower performing areas in terms of results reached with regards to monitoring data available with focus on the 3 main governorates, Greater Cairo, Aswan and Fayoum with high coverage and concentration of Haya Karima Initiative interventions. The Evaluation will also focus on lower functioning programmatic aspects as informed by the monitoring data available.

 

A desk review will be done before any primary data collection. The desk review will examine and analyze project monitoring data, progress reports, guides manuals, previous assessments, program monitoring visit reports, MIS data reports and training documents and any other relevant secondary resources and material in addition to existing literature. For the qualitative data collection, a mixture of key informant interviews, focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with beneficiaries will be used. Key informant interviews will be carried out with Key Informants and government counterparts in addition to donors and other development partners.

 

Specifically, a combination of qualitative data collection and analysis and quantitative data analysis is envisioned to ensure that the evaluation will be comprehensive and balanced.

 

The desk review of key documents will cover any relevant past evaluations of the Dawwie Programme, projects and relevant studies, the Theory of Change provided and Strategy Note as developed for the Country Programme Document (CPD) of the Egypt Country Office (ECO), Annual and Mid-term review reports, all Annual Work Plans with different government entities and Partnership documents with NGOs. Furthermore, the evaluation will also use the primary data collected during the key informant interviews that will investigate their perspective. Analysis will involve triangulation of all findings from the document review and the interviews. The evaluation agency will prepare an evaluation matrix to demonstrate the most appropriate and feasible methods of collection of information to answer the evaluation questions. Given that the primary data will be qualitative in nature, its interpretation will be critically dependent on the evaluator's judgement to inform the analysis of the issue.

 

Limitations of the research will be developed further by the contracted institution in collaboration with UNICEF in the inception phase, but some access issues related to some and on delays in getting permits to do field work. A key limitation is the actual TOC and logframe and monitoring data that are now being revised.

KEY STAKEHOLDERS

 

Key stakeholders will be engaged throughout the evaluation exercise. An internal office-based Steering Committee chaired by the Representative, PME as the Chair and composed of primary stakeholders will be developed to provide technical guidance and clearance of deliverables - minutes will be documented in a matrix and shared for strengthening the process. The committee will review deliverables, mainly the inception and the draft report, and provide advice on delays and processes. The TOR will also be approved by the committee. A representative group of girls and boys will be part of the steering committee informing the inception phase of this evaluation. Primary stakeholders will be directly involved in all stages of the evaluations including the planning and design.

 

The Primary stakeholders and users of the evaluation are UNICEF Management. The secondary uses include NCW, NCCM UNICEF and UNSDCF Programme staff, UNICEF Regional Office, UNRCO, major donors, other developmental partners. For the Government and other stakeholders, the evaluation will bring clarity on the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of Dawwie and the key role of UNICEF and its intended support in achieving their results and expansion.

 

SCOPE OF THE EVALUATION

The evaluation will focus on the Dawiee component of the UNICEF supported Programme with GoE for 2018-2022 and it will look at the period from June 1, 2019 to December 31, 2022. The geographical coverage will include both national and sub-national levels. The Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA), equity and mainstreaming gender equality will be assessed.

 

Noteworthy to mention is that the evaluation is expected to take about 25 weeks’ time starting from awarding of the contract to the evaluators to the submission of the final report. The time frame for undertaking the evaluation will be from April 15th 1st to September 30, 2023. This overall duration includes the work period and the periods foreseen for comments, review of drafts and debriefing sessions. 

 

Participation: The evaluation will seek response to the evaluation questions under the different criteria from the implementing partners and the stakeholders of the Programme including UNICEF Program colleagues under the guidance of a management structure of the evaluation, as detailed later.

 

Location: The assignment will take place in 3 governates; Greater Cairo, Aswan Fayoum.

1.  

The evaluation will be based on the secondary information available from the various documents relevant to the initiative that will be made available to the contracting firm, as well as based on the primary data collected via interviews and focus group discussions with beneficiaries and key informants. The exercise will need to be carried out with the set of documents that are available viz., Country Programme Document of UNICEF Egypt Country Office and the Government of Egypt 2018-2022; the new Country Programme (2023-2027) the United Nations Partnership Development Framework (UNPDF) for Egypt 2018-2022; the UNSDCF (2023-2027); and all the Annual Work Plans, Results frameworks, Strategy Notes, advocacy documents, Program monitoring reports and other office documents as relevant, national and international reports with data and evidence for Egypt (e.g., Egypt DHS, MIS base Annual Year Books from NCW, Ministry of Education and Health). 

 

It needs to be noted that the initiative is supported by the basic ‘Theory of Change’ (ToC) (included as an Annex). This TOC requires ample revision and addition as it was done with different GoE counterparts. The TOC synergies between different Programme components are implicit. No specific indicators exist to measure the complementarity of the Programme components.

 

The TOC and RFW were developed in a workshop with key stakeholders in early 2019 and is currently being revised by key stakeholders. When it was first developed the TOC was not complete and there are many revisions currently being done internally by UNICEF staff and Program together with key stakeholders. The Monitoring framework and strategy are also being revised.

 

GENDER AND EQUITY

 

The evaluation will investigate the aspect of whether the initiative has followed a gender transformative approach in its design and implementation. It will not just assess the extent to which the program has been using data and evidence that are gender disaggregated, but will go beyond that level.

 

The evaluation will highlight how aspects of child rights, human rights, gender equality and equity are integrated. The evaluation team should have basic knowledge of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), different human rights legislation, Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), as well as local relevant legislation and policies.

              

GOVERNANCE OF THE EVALUATION AND OVERSIGHT

The contracted consulting agency will report to the Representative aided by the PME Chief and M&E Specialist under the Deputy Representative’s office. The M&E Specialist will be responsible for Managing the evaluation for independence and impartiality in line with UNICEF/UNEG norms and standards. The Social and Behavioral Change (SBC) Section will work with the Deputy Representative’s office to facilitate access to the documents and coordinate the receipt of documents from other involved sections and for interaction with partners and will provide all administrative and logistic support to the consulting agency and implement actions to close all actions included in the Management Response in the UNICEF Global Evaluation Review and Oversight System (GEROS).

 

The M&E Specialist will be the Evaluation Manager and will exercise oversight and approval of deliverables to observe impartiality. The Regional MENA Evaluation Advisor and Gender Advisor will be assuming the quality assurance and guidance role for this exercise. He/she would provide technical input to enhance the quality of the evaluation specifically by reviewing the Inception Report, Evaluation Tools, and the draft report for compliance with UNICEF and UNEG evaluation standards. There is a quality assurance element that the evaluation manager with the support of the regional office will perform and then there is a commenting process for the report that is separate from this.

 

The evaluation will be guided by a Steering committee formed of primary stakeholders which will be responsible for endorsing the evaluation TOR and inception report, and resolving any unforeseen issue related to the evaluation that requires guidance and / or deliberation and provide guidance on any unforeseen delays. The Steering Committee will strive to reach consensus on issues discussed. The committee is to be chaired by the Representative with the Evaluation Manager (PME) as the Secretary. The committee will have at least two meetings and will review and provide feedback on the TOR and Inception report. MENA Evaluation Advisor and Gender Advisor will be a part of the committee.