Consultancy for the development a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Framework for DRR in the Education Sector

Save the Children is working globally, regionally and nationally to promote the Comprehensive School Safety Framework (CSSF) and the integration of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the education sector. In the South Asia region, with funding from ECHO, Save the Children and partners are about to start school safety programmes in six countries focused around pillars 2 and 3 – school disaster management and risk reduction and resilience education. The focus of these programmes is on integrating DRR within the education system with the vision of ensuring government education authorities’ at all levels from national, sub-national to school and community level are able to implement DRR activities and have increased knowledge and capacity of school disaster management.

The focus of the current programme is on the country level. However, there is a recognised need for promoting synergies and where possible, harmonisation in terms of tools and approaches across the South Asia region and beyond. To strengthen and support this and ensure countries are sharing learning with each other, Save the Children is organising support in such a way that each country has access to 1) technical specialists, 2) a consistent regional knowledge management and monitoring and evaluation framework, and 3) support in the development and implementation of advocacy and influencing strategies. These three supporting areas of work have been designed to streamline support provided to participating countries, reduce costs and duplication of efforts and to ensure programmatic quality.

Save the Children is also a member of the Global Alliance for DRR in the Education Sector (GADRRES) and works in partnership with a range of NGOs and UN agencies on this topic. Save the Children has a leadership role in the Comprehensive School Safety (CSS) Framework which is the foundation for the GADRRRES and the 2015 launch of the Worldwide Initiative for School Safety (WISS). In GADRRES Save the Children holds positions on the Steering Committee, co-chairs the School Disaster Management Working Group and facilitates the ad hoc Committee on Targets and Indicators for GADRRES and WISS. The tools and framework developed as part of this consultancy will be shared with GADDRES partners as part of our commitment to global coherence and joint working on the topic of school safety. It will also be shared with the ASEAN School Safety Initiative (ASSI) team.

Objectives

• Develop a regional level MEAL framework and supporting set of user-friendly MEAL tools that can be used to monitor project activities and demonstrate the impact of school safety for use in South Asia initially and then beyond.
• To capture the experience of government officials at national, sub-national and local level in increasing their knowledge and understanding as well as changes in policy and practice through their participation in these programmes.
• To understand the influencing and advocacy components of these programmes and how they are able to influence governments and others working on school safety.
• To capture learning and experience and demonstrate change on the safety of children in schools as a result of these interventions.
• To align the tools produced as part of this consultancy with Save the Children internal tools including Quality Learning Environment (QLE), Advocacy Monitoring Tool (AMT) and others as much as possible.

Scope

• Conduct a mapping of existing tools and review a of selection of between 10-15 Save the Children and other partners MEAL frameworks and tools with a particular focus on those used in school safety and education programmes. These can be used as a basis for the MEAL framework and tool development as part of this consultancy. Mapping the current accountability mechanisms being used, and using this to make recommendations for the MEAL framework.
• Interviews with key stakeholders within Save the Children and other partners including the M&E advisor of the education global initiative, the humanitarian M&E advisor, senior DRR and education advisor as well as country M&E advisors as appropriate. Up to eight interviews with expert stakeholders are anticipated. These interviews will be a key source of information to gather feedback on best practices in MEAL within SC and partner organisations and to feed into the tool development part of the consultancy.
• Develop the regional MEAL framework and associated tools which will be used by technical coordinator, project managers and M&E advisors in six countries in South Asia.
• Outline of a sample national MEAL framework for country adaptation for use by country level project managers and M&E advisors.
• Share the draft tools with Save the Children for an initial review.
• Update based on feedback received and submit final products to Save the Children.

Deliverables

• Mapping of current MEAL frameworks and tools (Estimated 3 days)
• A regional MEAL framework (Estimated time 5 days).
• A template for country level MEAL frameworks outlining synergies between region and country (Estimated time 3 days).
• A series of simple, user friendly tools no longer than 2-3 pages each (to be agreed with the consultant).