Terms of Reference of Consultant/Firm

Final evaluation of HelpAge’s Global Affairs Canda funded project “Urgent support and protection for at risk older women and men in Eastern Ukraine.”

Application deadline: 26 January 2024

Time requirement and duration: The consultancy can start by 5 February 2024 but must end by 30 March 2024

Total budget for the evaluation: 10,500 USD / 384,800 UAH

The recruitment is open for both International and Ukrainian consultants/firms.

About HelpAge

HelpAge International is a diverse global network of more than 170 organisations operating in over 90 countries, supporting millions of older people to live safe, dignified, and healthy lives. Through our partnership and collaborations, we work to ensure the inclusion of older people across society and strive to deliver a just and fair world for everyone, whatever their age.

Helpage has been active in Ukraine since 2014. Previously the organisation operated close to the previous line of contact, but since full scale invasion we have expanded to provide support across the rest of Ukraine. This includes Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Lvivska, Ivano-Friaksivk and Chernivtsi oblasts.

A key component of our work in Ukraine is our homebased care. This typically involves a social worker visiting a beneficiary at least twice per month in their homes. Through this approach HelpAge social workers establish a care plan which focuses on two to three specific goals to be achieved during their home visits. For example, this could be related to improving a beneficiary’s independence or psychological state. In addition, social workers support beneficiaries to access other services including healthcare providers or assistance from other humanitarian organisations. However, social workers also often provide a varied range of ad-hoc support including helping older people fill out registration forms to receive assistance, ensuring beneficiaries have all their key documents, and fixing broken items within the house.

Regarding other types of support, we provide this includes cash assistance, hygiene kits, winterization kits and assistive products (such as walking sticks and wheelchairs). Many of our recipients of homebased care also receive this support and social workers play a key role in distributing this assistance. In addition, we currently run around 14 community centres where displaced older people can gather and take part in a range of activities and build connections within their new communities. Since February 2022 over 140,000 people have been directly supported by HelpAge and we have worked with over 51 local organisations.

About the project

The project started on the 1st of April 2023 and will finish by 31st of March 2023 and is funded by Global Affairs Canada. The total cost of the project is CAD 3,023,937. The planned direct beneficiaries are 5,000 (1,500 male, 3,500 female). The projects’ locations are Kharkivska, Dnipropetrovska, Zaporizska and Donetska oblasts.

The key activities implemented by HelpAge are (individuals may receive a variety of assistance):

• 3,000 older people will receive homebased care.
• 1,500 older people will receive cash for protection grants.
• 3000 older people will receive multipurpose cash grants.
• 563 older people will receive assistive products.
• 3,000 older people will receive hygiene kits.

It should be noted that some other activities include gender training, social facilities equipped with generators (56), caregivers provided with psychosocial support (150). Furthermore, partner Right to Protection aims to provide legal consultations to 1,500 people.

Purpose

The purpose of this assignment is to undertake an evaluation of HelpAge’s for a project in Eastern Ukraine funded by Global Affairs Canda. This is to assess to what extent the project has met its ultimate objective which is to reduced suffering and increased wellbeing and dignity of most at risk older people, with and without disabilities in eastern Ukraine.

The evaluation specific objectives aim to:

• Assess the project’s performance and identifying the key strengths and areas of improvement.
• Identify vital lessons-learned/best practices to inform future projects.
• Develop, collaboratively with HelpAge, SMART recommendations to improve for future projects
• Communicate findings and recommendations to staff through presentations.

This analysis should be structured using the DAC criteria below.

• Relevance: Did the project respond the most pressing needs of its beneficiaries?
• Coherence: Did the project fit with the interventions of other actors? This can include collaboration with other actors and following sector good practices?
• Effectiveness: Did the project achieve its objectives?
• Efficiency: To what extent did the project deliver results in an economic and timely way?
• Impact: What difference did the project make to the lives of its beneficiaries?
• Sustainability: To what extent will beneficiaries be able to cope without HelpAge support?

Suggested Methodology of the Evaluation

HelpAge will provide flexibility to the firm/consultant to develop their own methodology to achieve the purpose of the evaluation. However, HelpAge envisions this would involve:

• Desk study: Review project reports, assessments, selection criteria, and other documents.
• Survey: HelpAge MEAL team can implement a phone survey of beneficiaries. This can be developed collaboratively, and subsequent analysis feed into the final report.
• On-site observation: Conducting several visits with HelpAge social workers to beneficiaries receiving homebased care.
• Focus group discussions: Conduct FGDs with a range of key stakeholders including a focus on HelpAge social workers and beneficiaries.
• Key informant interviews: Conduct key informant interviews with programme staff. This can be done during a lesson learnt workshop that HelpAge plans in the middle of March in Lviv.

Furthermore, HelpAge MEAL team in Ukraine can offer a range of support including providing key documentation including beneficiaries’ initial needs assessment data, arranging focus group discussions, and conducting a phone survey for this project. What the team may not be able to provide is any translation support.

Evaluation deliverables

The evaluator should produce:

• Short inception report including methodology and budget.
• Presentation & workshop with in-country team to develop recommendations
• The final evaluation report which includes a set of SMART recommendations to improve the quality of HelpAge’s future projects. This report should be translated into English and ideally Ukrainian. Prior to finalisation of this report the consultant should receive a HelpAge management response to their evaluation.
• A presentation to senior management (in English) and a presentation which all Ukraine staff will be invited to attend.
• One page summary in Ukrainian which can be shared with beneficiaries.

Evaluation budget

To conduct this evaluation HelpAge will provide a budget of 10,500 USD / 384,800 UAH. This cost is to cover all costs incurred by the firm/consultant during the evaluation. These include personnel, travel, hotels, insurance, research tools, administrative cost, printing costs and translation costs.

The disbursement will follow the schedule below:

• Satisfactory submission of the inception report– 30%
• Completion of the final evaluation – 70%