South Sudan: Independent Final Evaluator, BRAC South Sudan education programme

BRAC is development organisation dedicated to alleviating poverty by empowering the poor.
BRAC is seeking a consultant to conduct an Independent Final Evaluation of our education programme in South Sudan. BRAC has been working in South Sudan since 2006 and continues to run programmes in the areas of education, youth empowerment, peace building, healthcare and nutrition, agriculture and food security, and the livelihood programmes.

This education programme sought to provide four academic years of quality primary education, based on the Republic of South Sudan’s primary curriculum, to 9000 out-of- school children aged 8-11 (60% girls) from poor and marginalised families in four states in South Sudan, enabling them to transition into government schools. The project also sought to build the capacity of 330 women as para-professional teachers and Community Organisers (COs), providing them with improved skills and sustainable livelihood opportunities and enabling them to act as agents of change by promoting educational opportunities for girls.

The evaluation has two explicit objectives:

1. To independently verify (and supplement where necessary), the record of achievement of the project as reported through its Annual Reports and defined in the project logical framework.

2. To assess the extent to which the project was good value for money, met objectives, apply principles of effectiveness, economy, efficiency, deliver MDGs, and align with national priorities of expanding access to education in South Sudan.

Please find the full Terms of Reference here on the BRAC UK website.

Profile of the Independent Final Evaluation provider

The Independent Evaluator should be a suitably-qualified and experienced consultant or consulting firm. The consultant profile should include:

· An evaluation specialist with extensive experience in education, programme/project evaluation in an international development and/or conflict context (a mixed approach that incorporates the technical skills of an evaluation specialist but includes some inputs from a sector specialist is most effective);

· Experience of results-based monitoring and evaluation;

· Ability to design and plan the evaluation approaches and research methodologies, including quantitative and qualitative research methods.

· Relevant subject matter knowledge and experience in global education sector, gender, non-state actors, and economic growth to ensure the evaluation design and research methods are as relevant and meaningful as possible given the project objectives and country context

· Ability to manage a potentially large-scale and complex evaluation and research process, including interpreting baseline data and conducting a final evaluation;

· Ability to design, manage and implement primary research in potentially challenging project environments, such as fragile and conflict affected states. This may include the design of surveys, in-depth interviews, focus group and other research;

· Design and manage data and information systems capable of handling large datasets for monitoring and evaluation purposes;

· Appropriate country knowledge of South Sudan desirable.

To apply, please send a brief expression of interest, your CV(s), examples of previous evaluations or research work, and a quotation to emilia@bracuk.net by 18th April 2016.