Jordan: End-of-Project Evaluation of the European Union-Funded Project -JOR/RFP-INF/17/06

(Informal bidding process)
INFORMAL REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
from a firms or a group of individual consultants
“End-of-Project Evaluation of the European Union-Funded Project Technical assistance to enhance accessibility and use of the Jordanian MoE EMIS for evidence-based policy formulation”
Reference: JOR/RFP-INF/17/06
Closing Date: October 31, 2017 (15h00 Amman local time)
Type of Contract: Contract for Services (with firms) or Individual Consultant Contract (with Individuals)
Contract Duration: Four (04) weeks
Expected Contract Starting Date: November 2, 2017
For technical inquiries, please address your questions to the following email addresses collectively (with making reference to the UNESCO RFP number and title): Amman.proc@unesco.org, y.matsuyoshi@unesco.org, p.chapelet@unesco.org

For procurement and contractual related inquiries, please address your questions to: Amman.proc@unesco.org
For and on behalf of UNESCO Mr. Jawad Shalan

Since its creation in 1945, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) mission has been to contribute to the building of peace, poverty eradication, lasting development and intercultural dialogue. UNESCO Office in Amman strives to promote education in Jordan as a fundamental human right while aiming to provide access to quality education for all. Across Jordan, UNESCO is currently implementing comprehensive education programmes that sustain the resilience and support the effectiveness of the national education system.
Since February 2014, UNESCO Amman Office has been strongly supporting the Ministry of Education, Jordan, to enhance its Education Management Information System (EMIS) and make better use of its data for informed decision-making, planning and policy formulation. UNESCO Office in Amman provided its technical assistance through a EU funded project entitled ‘Technical assistance to enhance accessibility and use of the Jordanian MoE EMIS for evidence-based policy formulation’ launched in coordination with the World Bank in the framework of the Government’s Education Reform for Knowledge Economy (ERfKE II) at the request of the Jordan Ministry of Education (MoE). The project, which ends in November 2017, built upon UNESCO’s three-decade experience and commitment in strengthening national capacities of Education sector through in-country ‘up-stream’ services, technical and capacity support in the field of sector-wide policies, planning and management.
UNESCO’s overall objective for the project has been to allow MoE to regain control and ownership of its EMIS and to be able to make better informed decisions within the sector. The overall desired change that the project intended to bring about is better provision of education through the availability of better data. That is, timely, accurate and disaggregated sub-national data for decision-making at central and decentralized levels. UNESCO and its partners aimed i) to ensure that existing education data are put to good use, to rectify the current gaps in the country’s EMIS by replacing the old system with a new system fully owned by the government, ii) to build capacity and transfer technology for the government to update and manage the new EMIS from year to year, iii) to leverage technological mechanisms for education information dissemination (tables, graphs, maps, profiles, dashboards) and iv) to provide data analytics training to education planners to ensure that the data collected by EMIS is integrated with all relevant external data sources in the country for improved decision-making. In addition to various policy level technical advisory services to be secured for the MoE by UNESCO, the overall scope of the more operational level support component related to OpenEMIS implementation was to deliver the following:
(a) A comprehensive scoping of MoE needs for a robust Education Decision Support System;
(b) An open and user-friendly access to data and indicators for informed decision making at all levels;
(c) A new cost-effective, easy to upgrade OpenEMIS pilot-tested and rolled-out at all MoE institutions;
(d) A fully-integrated decision-support system with connectivity to external sources in place;
(e) A system fully owned by beneficiaries and compliant to UNESCO international standards.
Request for Proposal (JOR/RFP-INF/17/06)
“End-of-Project Evaluation of the EU-Funded Project Technical
assistance to enhance accessibility and use of the Jordanian
MoE EMIS for evidence-based policy formulation”

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  B. PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE EVALUATION ASSIGNEMENT
  Purpose of the end-of-project evaluation
  The main purpose of the evaluation is to assess the performance (activities, outputs, outcomes) of the project and to generate lessons and recommendations for UNESCO to improve planning, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation of future similar interventions.
  The evaluation will review the whole project, which began in February 2014 and will conclude on 30 November 2017. The project was implemented in multiple locations in Jordan, at central (MoE/QRC/NICT), Regional (MoE Field Directorates) and school levels (all 7,000 public and private schools in Jordan under MoE’s supervision)
  Toward the final end of project an independent external evaluation is outlined in the Description of Action for the project. It states that the evaluation will focus on the following four key areas:
  (a) Assessing the achievements of the project outputs and target indicators towards the contribution to the outcomes;
  (b) Assessing the effectiveness and efficacy of the project in meeting the stipulated results;
  (c) Drawing lessons for improving the design and management of similar projects in the future including identifying issues encountered through implementation and identify the level of engagement and role of the programme stakeholders;
  (d) Formulating recommendations for strengthening accountability; including exit strategy and sustainability mechanisms
  The evaluation should consider the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the overall project in light of the four aforementioned areas. It should also assess the extent to which gender considerations were mainstreamed in the project.
  Scope of the end-of-project evaluation
  While complying to achieve the aforementioned purpose of the assignment described in the previous section, the evaluator shall provide a detailed evaluation methodology to undertake the evaluation in the inception report with methods of data collection and analysis.
  This will take into consideration access challenges in Jordan, which can be discussed with the evaluation manager. The evaluator will be required to visit various locations in Jordan to collect data. It is expected that the evaluation firm will arrange transportation and logistics for its project staff in order to meet with partners and beneficiaries inside and outside Amman.
  C. METHODOLOGY
  It is expected that a mixed-methods approach will be used due to the nature of the intervention and the implementation context. Gender sensitivities must be mainstreamed throughout the evaluation.
  The evaluation should be participatory to the extent possible given the operational environment in Jordan. The evaluation should collect and analyse both qualitative and quantitative data.
  Evaluation methodology to be used can include, but are not restricted to:
  a) Review of secondary data (project documentation including progress reports, UNESCO, Government of Jordan strategic documentation, implementing partner surveys);
  b) Conduct interviews with key project stakeholders and beneficiaries in Jordan;
  c) Field visits to project implementation sites in Jordan;
  d) Observation;
  Request for Proposal (JOR/RFP-INF/17/06)
  “End-of-Project Evaluation of the EU-Funded Project Technical
  assistance to enhance accessibility and use of the Jordanian
  MoE EMIS for evidence-based policy formulation”
• 4 -
  e) Focus groups with beneficiaries in Jordan (which may require separate ones for males and females and so the evaluation team must be in a position to accommodate this – either with a female lead/junior evaluator or an in country female consultant);
  f) Questionnaires (if feasible within the timeframe); and
  g) Outcome mapping;
  h) Any other valuable methods to determine the best methods and tools for collecting and analysing data.
  POTENTIAL USES OF THE EVALUATION
  The end of project evaluation will contribute to UNESCO’s overall accountability to its donor, the European Union. The findings will support organizational learning and accountability regarding the project overall, in addition to the development and implementation of future UNESCO Education Policy, Planning and Management programmes.
  The key stakeholders / users of the evaluation are the European Union, UNESCO HQ, UNESCO Office in Amman and where applicable the Government of Jordan, UNESCO’s sub-contracted partners and the direct/indirect beneficiaries. The results will be circulated within UNESCO and included as part of the final project report to the European Union.
  E. DELIVERABLES UNDER CONTRACT
  The deliverables for the evaluation are:
  a) Inception Report
  The evaluator should write and submit an inception report (of no more than 7 pages, excluding annexes) following their initial desk review of documentary information and discussion with the evaluation manager. The Inception Report should contain an evaluation plan and list of reviewed documents. The evaluation plan should contain a proposed methodology and an evaluation matrix showing how each evaluation question will be answered by way of proposed data collection sources, data collection methods and data analysis techniques. It is expected that the evaluators will propose evaluation sub-questions to delve further into each component. The evaluators should also design contextually appropriate tools to conduct field work and data collection. The draft tools should be presented with the inception report and may be further refined with the support of UNESCO staff. The report should contain a proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables. The Inception Report will be sent to and discussed with the Evaluation Supervisor. It will be reviewed by UNESCO and the Evaluation Supervisor will approve it and the next steps.
  b) Data Collection/Field Work
  The evaluator will meet with key stakeholders and beneficiaries in the field. It is expected that the evaluator will need to communicate in Arabic and English to successfully complete this work and gender sensitivities must be taken into consideration. All field work will be arranged and undertaken by the evaluator.
  c) Debriefing with key stakeholders
  The evaluator will debrief key UNESCO stakeholders after data collection has been completed where they will present emerging key findings and recommendations for the Draft Evaluation Report. The stakeholders will review and provide feedback on these to prepare for writing the Draft Evaluation Report.
  d) Draft Evaluation Report
  A Draft Evaluation Report, no longer than 40 pages, not including annexes, shall be submitted as per the timeline below. UNESCO will review the report and the Evaluation Supervisor and relevant UNESCO
  Request for Proposal (JOR/RFP-INF/17/06)
  “End-of-Project Evaluation of the EU-Funded Project Technical
  assistance to enhance accessibility and use of the Jordanian
  MoE EMIS for evidence-based policy formulation”
• 6 -
  staff will meet with the evaluators to provide feedback to produce the Final Report. The report should adopt the following structure:
   Executive Summary (2-3 pages)
   Evaluation purpose
   Evaluation methodology
   Main findings
   Lessons learnt
   Recommendations
   Annexes (including review list, key documents reviewed, pictures, etc.)
  e) Final Evaluation Report
  A Final Evaluation Report of no longer than 40 pages, not including annexes, shall be submitted as per the timeline below, according to the agreed structure. A five (5) page executive summary report should also be submitted containing a summary of the main findings and recommendations.
  f) Presentation of final report
  The Evaluator will deliver a presentation of the final report including key findings and recommendations to the key UNESCO stakeholders after the Final Report is approved.
  F. DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT
  It is expected that a maximum of 30 days is required to complete the evaluation in its entirety including the following steps: pre-inception meeting, inception report, field work/data collection and final report including a minimum of 2 visits to Jordan (leaving the length of each visit left to the Evaluator’s discretion but should be carefully assessed by UNESCO). An evaluation team of two individuals (one senior and one junior evaluator) is recommended.
  Overall timeframe: The start date for the evaluation is tentatively on 2nd of November 2017 and ends by 30th November 2017.
  G. ACTIVITIES TIMELINES
  (Note: this is a tentative timeline, the proposer will be have the right to adjust as necessary and will be eventually evaluated according to the work plan considering a creative, suitable and reasonable approach and workplan) MAJOR ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
  The Evaluator will report to the Project Officer (Evaluation Supervisor) in the UNESCO Office in Amman Education Sector. The Evaluation Supervisor will provide all documents and information required to the evaluators and facilitate access to UNESCO staff. All documents for approval, queries and issues will be sent to the Evaluation Supervisor. Deliverables will be approved by the Evaluation Supervisor following internal consultation with relevant staff including UNESCO IOS Evaluation Division and thematic project officers.
  UNESCO will organize an internal meeting for the evaluator to present the findings and UNESCO will send the report to the donor. UNESCO will provide an introduction to Government and Donor, but the evaluators will be responsible for contacting all sub-contracted partners and direct and indirect beneficiaries. Where challenges are encountered in contacting sub-contracted partners, UNESCO may be able to intervene to facilitate meetings.
  All field arrangements will be arranged by the evaluator. UNESCO is not in a position to provide office space for the full period of the evaluation, but with advance notice temporary space may be made available (This needs to be planned in advance with the Evaluation Supervisor and cannot be guaranteed.)

The Offeror shall submit electronically a SIGNED technical and financial proposals by 31 October 2017 – 15hrs00 (Amman local time) in two separate emails. The maximum size of a single email is 10MB. Sample works can be submitted via DROPBOX or WETRANSFER. Technical proposal to: E-MAIL ADDRESS: amman.proc@unesco.org; p.chapelet@unesco.org SUBJECT EMAIL: JOR/RFP-INF/17/06 (TECHNICAL PROPOSAL) NAME OF PDF FILE: [YOUR COMPANY NAME OR NAME] JOR/RFP-INF/17/06 (EMIS External Evaluation) TECH PROPOSAL Financial proposal to be submitted ONLY to: EMAIL ADDRESS: amman.proc@unesco.org; SUBJECT EMAIL: JOR/RFP-INF/17/06 (FINANCIAL PROPOSAL) NAME OF PDF FILE: [YOUR COMPANY NAME] JOR/RFP-INF/17/06 _ (EMIS External Evaluation) _PRICE PROPOSAL Important Note: Financial proposal should be submitted in PDF format with a password protection. UNESCO will contact applicants whose technical proposals were found responsive

SEE LINK FOR MORE DETAILS: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/FIELD/Amman/pdf/JOR-RFP-INF-17-06.pdf