Consultant - Final evaluation: Make the Link – Climate exChange Project

Plan UK wishes to contract a consultant to undertake an end of project evaluation of the ‘Make the Link – Climate exChange’ programme.

Purpose of the evaluation

The purpose of the final evaluation will be to gain an independent assessment of the extent to which the project has achieved its objectives and to identify key lessons for Plan and our partners that can help to inform future programming in this area. We are especially interested to gain further insight of the extent to which the project has been successful in improving learning and promoting youth-led advocacy on the issue of climate change adaptation in Africa.

Project description – Make the Link - Climate exChange

The Make the Link - Climate exChange project is funded by the European Commission and led by Plan UK in partnership with Partners Bulgarian Foundation, Plan Kenya, Plan Malawi, Plan Netherlands, Plan Senegal and the Citizenship Foundation (UK).
It is an innovative three year programme designed to promote learning, dialogue and action on climate change mitigation and adaptation amongst 36,000 young people, aged 11 – 19, from 400 schools and youth groups in Europe and Africa.

The overall objective of the project is to increase public awareness of the links between climate change, poverty and child rights and secure public support for EU policy on climate change issues. To increase actions at individual, school, community, local and national level that reduce contributions to greenhouse gases.

The specific objective of the project is to develop meaningful interaction between young people in carbon-consuming EU countries and young people in vulnerable African countries, generating learning and action in support of climate change mitigation and adaptation at the local and global level.

Expected results include:

1. 36,000 young people are well informed about climate change and empowered to become local change agents.
2. 369 teachers have increased competence to sustain curriculum and extra-curricular work on climate change in schools and promote cross-cultural understanding.
3. An effective platform developed for linking young people in Europe and Africa to learn and exchange experiences on reducing climate change and poverty.
4. Young people take action in their schools and communities to raise public awareness and support for policy on climate change and poverty reduction.
3. Existing project Monitoring and Evaluation procedure and information

There have been several methods of data collection and evaluation employed by the project to date. This monitoring and evaluation evidence should be utilised by the consultant to provide context for and frame the Final Evaluation strategy.

The tools used include a year 2 baseline survey, a mid-term evaluation, and a school journey document, which incorporate information and feedback from key project stakeholders, including teachers and young people, to provide evidence of the impact of the project. In addition, an end of project survey has recently been distributed, which will gather key monitoring data on the schools and individuals engaged on the programme. The results of this will be finalised in November and should be used to support the final evaluation. A complete list of the monitoring and evaluation tools used by the project to date can be found in Annex 1.

The data gathered on the project to date has been predominately quantitative, so the focus of the final evaluation should be more on qualitative data collection in order to provide a more complete representation of the project. In addition to assessing the extent to which the project has achieved its objectives, we are particularly interested in identifying:

- The key lessons for Plan in terms of how effective the approach to teaching has been in encouraging advocacy actions and meaningful participation of young people on climate change adaptation issues in Africa.
- The impact the project has had on key project stakeholders, resulting in changes in their behaviours and attitudes towards climate change issues.

Methodology

It is anticipated that the evaluation will begin with a review of existing monitoring and evaluation information and field visits to one or two European countries (United Kingdom, Netherlands or Bulgaria) and one African country (Malawi, Kenya or Senegal).

Plan expects that effective engagement with the four key stakeholders groups will be critical to the evaluation:

- Target group 1: young people

Young people who have participated in the project through formal and informal learning; Youth Climate Networks (established by Plan) in each of the project countries; and in particular those school groups that have received grants to organise campaigns.

- Target group 2: educators

Youth group leaders and teachers from a range of subjects who have utilised the learning resources created by the project, attended training as part of the project or contributed to discussions on the web platform.

- Target group3: local and national level decision-makers

Local and National Level Decision-Makers who have been the targeted through small scale advocacy and awareness raising campaigns organised by young people at local and national levels.

- Target group 4: members of the European Parliament (MEPs)

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) – who, as part of the project, have been specifically targeted through a coordinated European wide advocacy and awareness raising campaign. The consultant should conduct additional follow up evaluation on the EC advocacy campaign activity. Plan expects the appointed consultant to use the DAC principles for the evaluation of development assistance (namely: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability) to guide the evaluation throughout.

Indicative techniques include:

i. Semi-structured remote interviews with key project staff in each country;
ii. Semi-structured remote interviews with educators in Europe;
iii. Focus groups with young people in one or two European countries;
iv. Semi-structured remote interviews with Youth Climate Network in Europe;
v. Semi-structured remote interviews with decision-makers in Europe;
vi. One-to-one interviews with teachers in one African country;
vii. Focus groups with young people in one African country;
viii. One-to-one interviews with decision makers in one African country; and
ix. Semi-structured remote interviews with decision-makers in Europe.

Key outputs

The consultant will submit to Plan:

1. Draft methodology, work-plan and schedule (by the end of October 2012).
2. Draft evaluation report (by 11th January 2013).
3. Final evaluation report which should include an executive summary and be written in a format which uses clear language and is easily accessible to all stakeholders. The report should be approximately 25 pages, with any additional documents appearing as appendices. Data and analysis should be sex and age disaggregated wherever possible, and the report should include sections on methodology, results (in terms of log-frame), DAC criteria questions, lessons learned and challenges, and achievements (by 8th February 2013).

Required skills and experience of the consultant

- The selected consultant will need to demonstrate significant previous experience of effectively evaluating projects or programmes that take child rights-based approaches to development.
- They will need to be able to demonstrate experience of working well with young people, decision makers and educators, at all levels, to evaluate projects using a range of suitable participatory techniques.
- Ideally they will have used these techniques previously to evaluate international global learning or development education programmes that have a strong element of campaigning, youth action and web-based communication.
- They will need to be familiar with the linkages between child rights, poverty and climate change – and demonstrate a strong understanding of how young people can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation in Europe and Africa.
- They will ideally be able to speak and write fluently in French and possess superb written and verbal English communication skills. They’ll be capable of presenting the evaluation findings, results and recommendations in a clear, structured and accessible manner.
- It will be necessary for the consultant to have (or be willing to undertake) a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check.