Program Consultant

Terms of Reference (ToR) – Project Evaluation

1. Background CWS has supported The Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT) since 2008 to establish safeguarding mechanisms throughout all its communities towards the goal of seeing the CCT become a child safe organization. The CCT comprises of 22 church districts, which oversees around 1200 churches, 31 schools and 8 hospitals. In 2016, the CCT established a CCT-wide Code of Conduct for Child Safeguarding. The Social Development and Services Unit is the department within the CCT mandated in leading efforts towards promoting child safeguarding throughout all the CCT communities (churches, schools, and hospitals).

Principle project activities since 2016 include (i) setting up Child Safeguarding Committees, (ii) facilitating “Code of Conduct” writing workshops, and (iii) implementing the jointly written “Code of Conduct” in targeted schools and church districts. In addition to Thai nationals at Christian schools, target communities also include ethnic minority group communities such as Hmong, Karen, Lahu and Shan.

The CWS Asia Regional Office in Bangkok in addition to funding the child protection program, also serves as a hub for administrative operations and information sharing across country programs in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Thailand.

2. The evaluation 2.1 Purpose and use

This project that has been on-going over the last 13 years, has never undergone an external evaluation to inform on its effectiveness in addressing the needs of the CCT and the communities it serves. This review is intended to inform CWS, CCT, the community and other stakeholders of the achievements, accountability, shareable best practices, and to enable forward planning for the program.

Intended use of the review:

– Providing information to CWS and The Church of Christ in Thailand about achievements and impact since program inception (2008). – Sharing lessons learned and proven best practices/ models with other CWS country teams and other NGOs. – Identifying and prioritizing gaps in current programming. – Identifying further resources, both material and technical, needed for future program design with a focus on expanding impact informed by the findings of the evaluation.

2.2 Key evaluation questions

1) Project relevance and effectiveness – How relevant (useful) were project activities (as designed and implemented) in addressing the rights and needs of project participants (beneficiaries)? – What value did project activities add in relation to Thailand’s government (national) development priorities?

2) Participation of project partners (teachers, students, etc.) – How many people (disaggregated by gender and age; and de-duplicated) joined project activities? To what extent was the project participatory i.e., it engaged beneficiaries as catalysts and actors in their own development.

3) Project achievements, successes, and impacts – How satisfactory were project outputs, outcomes, and results to participants (beneficiaries) disaggregated by group: students, teachers, families, leaders, et al.? – How effective was the project in working towards these outcomes? – What has changed materially as positive results/successes in the lives of participants? – What do people who participated in activities say about changes in behaviors and general atmosphere at the schools? – What were the top 5 challenges and 5 key lessons learned to overcome the challenges? – Were there any unintended results or effects, either positive or negative?

4) Project sustainability, organization, and communication – Can intervention/activities be adapted and more widely replicated to other communities? – Is the project structured optimally for accountability, lines of authority, leadership, and financial co-ownership between CCT and CWS? What changes could strengthen these areas? – Are activities and outputs captured consistently and sufficiently visible for CCT, CWS, and current and potential donors?

5) Gaps between CCT-CWS support and people’s rights/needs and challenges in the communities that may need possible future programming – What are the gaps and challenges that inhibit program growth and depth of impact? – What should possible future programming consider/ prioritize? – Outline what success could look like for the program in 2025. Address people, resources, location, activities, and impact.

2.3 Methodology

This consultancy will adopt both a qualitative and quantitative approach. In preparation for this consultancy and familiarize with the work of this project, the consultant will undertake a desk review of key strategic documents such as strategy documents, work plan, action plan, annual report, and any other document deemed relevant. These documents will be provided by CWS and CCT to the consultant.

The consultant will propose a sampling strategy in consultation with CWS and CCT for the qualitative data collection. The consultant will develop data collection tools and share with CWS and CCT prior to the commencement of actual data collection

For primary data collection, the consultant will conduct interviews with key staff within the CWS and CCT in Bangkok and supported institutions. In addition, the consultant will conduct semi structured interviews with key a select sample of the beneficiaries of the programmes and stakeholders.

While the above outline provides the minimum of what CWS and CCT expects to be done and covered by this evaluation, the consultant will propose additional approaches and strategies for undertaking this evaluation which will be approved by CWS and CCT.

The consultant will be expected to submit an inception report to CWS and CCT detailing their workplan and draft data collection tools when selected.

Details of timeframe and of major steps must be clearly elaborated in the evaluation plan.

For planning purposes, the academic calendar is approximately as follows: • Semester 1: 15 May 2022 to 30 September 2022 • Semester 2: 1 November 2022 to end of February 2023

2.4 Deliverables • Inception report with data collection tools • Draft report for review by CWS and CCT • Final report incorporating feedback from CWS and CCT

The final report, in Thai and English, is due to CCT and CWS by September 15, 2022.

3. The evaluation team and requirements

A team of Thailand-based evaluation specialist/consultant(s) is required. The team member(s) will report directly to their team leader. Together, the team will have these qualifications: – Significant, verifiable experience in conducting project evaluations. – Excellent inclusive/participatory communication and facilitation methods. – Strong skills and experience in analysis and reporting. – Strong knowledge and practical experience in Protection programs, including child safeguarding. – Familiarity with Thailand’s basic education systems and settings, including parochial schools. – Business level language fluency in Thai.