Third Party Monitoring (TPM) for capitation grants provided to target schools in four Federal Member states (Galmudug, Jubaland, Hirshabelle and South)

Terms of References

Third Party Monitoring (TPM) for capitation grants provided to target schools in four Federal Member states (Galmudug, Jubaland, Hirshabelle and Southwest) and Benadir Administration

Job title

Third Party Monitoring consultant

Location

Mogadishu

Reporting to

Program Director – Urban Youth Program/ Education Sector Program Improvement Grant

Period

February/March 2021

Time input

30 days

1. SUMMARY

The Education Sector Program Improvement Grant (ESPIG) 2018-2020, funded by the Global Partnership in Education (GPE) intends to provide accelerated support to implement components of MOECHE’s Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) 2018-2020, with a particular focus on the primary education sub-sector The ESPIG is a partnership between the MoECHE and GPE, with CARE as the selected Grant Agent. The program will cover four Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) Member States (Galmudug, Jubaland, Hirshabelle and Southwest), which have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal MoECHE. Banadir has not been recognized as a state and is under the jurisdiction of the MoECHE until its status changes. Together with Banadir, the states of Galmudug, Jubaland, Hirshabelle and Southwest consist of eleven regions where local education offices are managed by Regional Education Officers (REOs). Each regional office manages district offices: there are 58 district offices across Benadir and the four FGS states.

CARE Somalia is seeking to procure the services of a consultancy firm to conduct a Third Party Monitoring (TPM) for capitation grants to targeted schools in Federal Member states and Banadir Administration under the Education Sector Program Improvement Grant (ESPIG) 2018-2020, funded by the Global Partnership in Education (GPE). The consultant (s) selected to lead the Third Party Monitoring will visit all the target schools to verify the enrollment of out of school children as well as receipt of the capitation grants, working in close cooperation with CARE, its sub-contractor Concern Worldwide and the MoECHE. The consultant (s) will be responsible for all components of the Third Party Monitoring, including its design; compliance with ethics and safeguarding requirements; selection, training and deployment of enumerators; data collection; data quality control; database management; analysis; and reporting.

2.1. ESPIG objective

Improve equitable access to and quality of education outcomes for all Somali primary school children through strengthened system capacity to design evidence-driven ESSP reforms, and collaborate effectively with partners in their implementation.

2.2. ESPIG principles and components

The ESPIG aims to maximize the potential of development investments in education. The three program component objectives are as follows:

(1) Increased equitable access to quality primary education through changes in three intermediate outcomes: Increased access to education for out of school children; strengthened capacity of community education committees; community actions towards improved school safety.

(2) Enhanced quality of education to ensure grade-appropriate learning outcomes through the three intermediate outcomes: effective monitoring of teacher education and management policy, strengthened and harmonized efforts in teacher pre-service training; improved access to teaching and learning materials; and a strengthened assessment framework.

(3) Enhanced system capacity to regulate and manage the education sector, through the combination of the following intermediate outcomes: (i) strengthening regulatory and monitoring system for private, community and government schools and (ii) improved capacity of education officers for planning, budgeting, policy implementation, coordination and progress tracking.

2.2.1. Program beneficiaries

Direct program beneficiaries will include: (i) about 32,000 out-of-school poor or marginalized primary children who will benefit from school inclusion grants; (ii) about 800 Community Education Committees who will benefit from training to improve inclusion, security and learning at their schools; (iii) 6,570 teachers who will benefit from teaching guides associated to the new curriculum; (iv) 240 primary pre-service student teachers who will benefit from new teacher training institutes; (v) 297,168 Grade 1-8 students who will receive textbooks linked to the new curriculum; (vi) 150 education officers will benefit from professional development to improve skills in planning, coordination and monitoring.

2.2.2. Program scope

The ESPIG program is implementing activities in all the four Member States highlighted above plus Banadir. The target schools for high intensity support (school inclusion grants, monitoring visits and CEC capacity building) were selected through discussion with development partners, including non-government organizations and private school umbrellas, and subjected to an assessment of the schools’ capacity to absorb additional students and agreement with the community. As part of the program’s commitment to improving accessible quality education, the Grant Agent and partners are supporting the Federal Government of Somalia and its Federal Member States through provision of capitation grants to a total of 616 public, community and non-profit private primary schools.

Led by CARE in partnership with CONCERN, ESPIG worked with schools, and Ministries of Education (MoEs) in four Federal Member states (Galmudug, Jubaland, Hirshabelle and Southwest) and Banadir Administration – Somalia. The table below shows the geographical spread of the schools disaggregated by state and district

State

District

Number of schools per State

Jubbaland

Kismayo, Afmadow, Bardhere, Dollow, Garbaharey, Luuq, Baladhawo

120

Galmudug

Balambale, Bahdo, Cabdudwaq, Cadaado, Dhabad, Dhusamareb, Galinsoor, godinlabe, Guriceel, Bandiiradley, Galkacyo, Goldogob, Hobyo, Jariban

138

Hirshabelle

Baladweyne, Bulaburde, Matabaan, Maxaas, Balcad, cadale, Jowhar, Mahadaay, Warsheikh

118

South West

Baidoa, Diinsor, xudur, wajid, ceelbarde, Afgoye, Qoryoley, and Wanlaweyn

120

Banadir

Abdicasis, Bondhere, Deynile, Dharkenley, Garasbaley, Heliwaa, Hodan, Howlwadaag, Kaaraan, Kaxda, Madina, Shangani, Shibis, Waaberi, Wadajir, Wartanabada, Xamar Jajab, Xamar Weyne, Yaaqshid

120

Total

616

The capitation grant activities have been implemented and the following were some of the activities so far completed:

1. A mapping exercise was conducted in the four member states and Banadir region to get information relating to the schools.
2. A national Schools Improvement Grant (SIG) guidelines has been developed with main focus on school selection criteria.
3. Based on the selection criteria, State MOEs and MOECHE/BRA (Benadir regional Authority) submitted approved list of schools.
4. TOTs (8 from each school) were trained to train 7 CEC members for each school. They CECs were trained on the SIG guidelines including financial management/budget management.
5. In March 2020, a team from CARE & CONCERN collected additional information relating to the schools, which included; approved list of schools, School Improvement Plans, School profiles, filled Schools Improvement Grant (SIG) applications forms, enrollment data, list of trained CECs approved by the REOs, and details of bank signatories.
6. Banks accounts for schools were verified with Salaam Bank, the transfer agent to ensure accounts are owned by the respective schools. The verification was done by the PMU and the Grant Disbursement Committee.
7. The PMU and the Grant Disbursement Committee approved the disbursement of the grant to the individual school accounts – release of 1st tranche to schools.

It was agreed that each schools benefiting from the grant will maintain a school register and track school attendance on a regular basis. This included submission of details out of school children enrolled in the school

2. TPM PURPOSE AND METHODOLOGY

3.1. Rationale for the Evaluation:

As part of the program’s commitment to improving accessible quality education, CARE and CONCERN are supporting the Federal Government of Somalia and its Federal Member States through provision of capitation grants to a total of 616 public, community and non-profit private primary schools. CARE and CONCERN were to release the funds in March 2020 but this did not happen due to the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic, which resulted into the closure of schools. These funds were released to the schools immediately after the schools were re-opened in October 2020. It is important to note that schools had already identified out school children for the capitation grant before the pandemic but it’s suspected that their enrolment might have been affected hugely. A third party monitoring has been specifically planned at the design stage of the project in order to provide an independent assessment of the capitation grant to complement CARE’s current remote monitoring systems to ensure adherence to donor and CARE quality standards. It’s for the validation of this activity that CARE Somalia seeks to the services of a consultancy firm to conduct a Third Party Monitoring (TPM) for capitation grants to targeted schools – to verify enrolment status and receipt capitation grants in schools amongst others.

3.2. The Purpose of the TPM

The overall objective of this Third Party Monitoring is to provide independent and objective assessments of ESPIG’s capitation grant activity with regards to evidence and quality delivery of the activities and processes. In Particular, this exercise will provide clear feedback on the following specific program implementation elements;

· Level of involvement/participation of Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), Federal Member States (FMS), MoECHE, Head teachers, CECs and village level community leaders in the implementation of the capitation grant. Should include evidence of coordination and participation of all the stakeholders.

· To verify the number of out of school children enrolled in schools disaggregated by gender, IDPs, out of school, children with disabilities. This will help establish if out of school children identified and enrolled in schools for the capitation grant before the pandemic returned after the re-opening of schools.

· Adherence to selection criteria for the beneficiary schools and criteria for disbursement of funds as outlined in the capitation grant guidelines.

· Verification of beneficiary schools from all the target locations. This will include comparison of the details (names of schools, location of the schools, bank account details, etc.) in the approved list of beneficiary schools with the payment sheet.

· Verification of the amount and frequency of cash provided to the beneficiary schools as provided for in the project proposal document. This should include collecting evidence of disbursement to the target beneficiaries.

· Assessment of the cash payment procedure with particular focus on the amounts paid to each beneficiary, the currency of payment, nature of verification done by money transfer and local partner staff as well as general flow of the payment process at cash payment center.

· Verification of any documented lessons or cases from the capitation grant process and how such cases were handled by implementing teams.

· Any other relevant project elements deemed necessary by CARE and the consultant.

3.3. Technical approach and methodology

The consultant /consulting firm is expected to propose an appropriate methodology for this work at the time of submitting the application. It has however recommended that such methodology include the following;

· Desk reviews of relevant project documents such as the proposal, the results framework, past project reports and studies, partner sub agreement, relevant tools for documenting and monitoring project activities, master beneficiary lists and MOUs with money transfer companies if any, and financial support documents. CARE will provide any additional information as requested by the consultant

· Field visit to target schools to physically verify enrolment and evidence of receipt of capitation grants in all the 616 schools.

· Direct interviews (FGD and KIIs) with head teachers, teachers, MoECHE representatives, CEC members, CARE and CONCERN staff and any other relevant project stakeholders.

The consultant should be able to come up with adaptive methods or alternative data collection methodologies to mitigate the effects of insecurity and COVID 19 pandemic.

3. BASELINE SCOPE OF WORK

3.1. Expected Deliverables

· An inception report inclusive of the proposed tools, sampling approach, detailed analysis framework, quality control measures and work plan

· Work plan outlining all tasks to be completed within the duration mentioned for this assignment, responsible persons, timeframe for completion of each task and resources required to complete each task.

· A final report, based on the agreed template. The executive summary section should include a key findings aligned to the objectives, challenges and limitations, lessons learnt and recommendations.

· PowerPoint presentation of findings.

3.2. Timeline

The monitoring and the verification exercise is expected to be completed within one month from the date of signing the contract.

3.3. Professional Skills and Qualifications

Qualifications: bidders are required to provide CVs for all those proposed in the team, clearly stating their roles and responsibilities for this baseline. The proposed team should have technical expertise and practical experience required to deliver the assignment, in particular, with regards to:

· The Consultant must have at least five years’ practical experience conducting TPM or evaluations of education projects.

· The consultant must have the appropriate country knowledge /experience and language proficiency required to conduct the assignment;

· Knowledge and understanding of the education sector in Somalia will be a plus.

· The consultant must have extensive experience in data quality control and database management (including collating multiple large datasets for analysis);

· Ability to manage English to Somali and Somali to English translation with high quality and accuracy, including for transcription and translation of large volumes of qualitative data.