Request for Proposal (RFP)

Consultancy Services to Lead the Evaluation of the Enhancing Quality and Inclusive Education (EQIE) Project in Lebanon, Mozambique, & Palestine

1. Overview of Right To Play

Right To Play is a global non-profit organisation committed to improving the lives of children and youth affected by conflict, disease, and poverty. Established in 2000, Right To Play has pioneered a unique play-based approach to learning and development which focuses on quality education, life skills, health, gender equality, child protection and building peaceful communities. With programming in 16 countries, Right To Play works to transform the lives of more than 2.3 million children each year, both inside and outside of the classroom. In addition to our work with children, Right To Play advocates with parents, local communities, and governments to advance the fundamental rights of all children.

Right To Play is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with offices in the UK, North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Our programmes are facilitated by over 600 staff worldwide. As a child-centered organisation. Our recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to the safety and protection of children in our programmes. To learn more about who we are and what we do, please visit our website at www.righttoplay.com.

1.1 Overview of the Enhancing Quality and Inclusive Education Project (EQIE)

The EQIE project is a five-year quality education initiative being implemented by Right To Play and partners in five countries (i.e., Ethiopia, Lebanon, Mozambique, Palestine, Tanzania) from January 2020 to December 2024. Working with Ministries of Education and other education stakeholders the project aims to use the power of play and creative pedagogies to:

• Improve learning outcomes (in reading and socio emotional skills) among lower primary grade 1- 4 school children,
• Increase enrolment and retention of out-of-school girls and children with disabilities (CwDs)

The implementation strategy of the project is to work with school level actors and education managers at the district level to improve the adoption of play-based pedagogy for enhanced quality of literacy instruction and positive learner-centered experience at school; and to support home/community level actors (such as caregiver/parents, CSOs, and volunteers) to create stimulating home learning environment that reinforces school level efforts and remove barriers to education for girls and children with disabilities.

Both strategies would engage children (girls, boys, CwDs), teachers, school leaders, parents, school management committees and parent-teacher associations (SMC/PTAs), district and sub-national level education officials, teacher trainers/coaches/mentors, and national level agencies under the Ministry of Education.

To deliver on the strategies of the EQIE project, the following core activities are being implemented:

• Teacher professional development: training for teachers and educational staff on play-based learning (PBL) teaching practices to enhance children’s literacy and socio emotional skills
• Supplemental and after-school learning opportunities for children: examples include after-school reading clubs, community reading centres, reading competitions, equipping caregivers with skills and resources for creating stimulating home literacy environments
• Providing additional educational inputs such as reading materials, grade-appropriate story books, teacher manuals, other teacher and learning materials, classroom infrastructure
• Creating safe and inclusive learning environments for all children (including children with disabilities) in educational institutions through community and school structures
• Working with CSOs to address community level barriers to education and learning; and to identify and enrol out-of-school girls and children with disabilities.

Through these activities, the project will contribute to achieving SDG 4, ensuring ‘inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all’, including its underlying principle of ‘leave no one behind’.

2.0 Evaluation Objective/Scope/Deliverables and Specifications

The tender aims to secure the technical and professional services of an evaluation consultant for the midline evaluation of the EQIE project. The appointed consultant (individual or firm) will lead on the process and outcome evaluation of the EQIE project in Lebanon, Mozambique, and Palestine to be conducted within the period August 2023 – March 2024.

2.1 Objective

The primary objective of the midline evaluation is to determine progress being made toward the achievement of project’s planned targets, to identify any problems or challenges that the project may be encountering, and to issue recommendations for corrective action, if needed. This is to provide findings and conclusions from the collected data to meet accountability requirements of the project as well as to generate recommendations and lessons that contribute to quality improvement in the final phase of the project, as well as ongoing organizational learning.

The midline evaluation should not only assess project performance, but also seek to answer the “why” question by identifying factors contributing to (or inhibiting) successful implementation and achievement of results.

2.2 Methodology

By adopting a mixed methods approach, the consultant is expected to longitudinally assess learning outcomes to determine the effectiveness of the EQIE project and its contribution to students’ learning in intervention/treatment schools. In a country where longitudinal reassessment of students is not feasible due to high attrition rate (i.e., student relocating from the schools/communities/districts entirely), a cross-sectional random sample of Grade 4 students in intervention schools could be adopted.

To improve stakeholders understanding of how the project was implemented to deliver the resulting outcomes, it is proposed that sequential concurrent mixed methods research design for process evaluation is applied. Where this is not feasible the consultant will be encouraged to adopt concurrent mixed methods research design.

2.3 Evaluation Questions

Aligned to the midline objectives, the evaluation intends to address the following questions:

Relevance

1. To what extent are the EQIE project intervention packages relevant to advancing Ministry of Education priorities of implementing countries (i.e., Palestine, Lebanon, Mozambique)?
2. Is there early evidence that the EQIE project intervention packages are relevant to the needs and priorities of intended users (i.e., children, both male and female, in-school and out-of-school, living with disability and living without disability; teachers/educators; schools; district education directorates; caregivers/parents; local CSOs)?
3. What can we learn about the contextual relevance of the different intervention packages under the EQIE project?

Effectiveness

1. To what extent is the EQIE project on track in achieving the planned project targets at the outcome (i.e., teachers’ pedagogical practice, enrolment and retention of out-of-school girls and children with disabilities, inclusive learning environment in schools, access to supplemental learning opportunities), and objective (literacy and socio emotional skills) levels?
2. What factors have influenced the achievement (or non-achievement) of the EQIE project’s objectives at midline?
3. Are the activities and outputs of the EQIE project consistent with the overall outcomes and objectives of the project?
4. Does the theory of change (TOC) of the project still hold, and are the implied assumptions of the TOC still valid?
5. How effectively has the project used its risk register, monitoring, and fiduciary systems to remain adaptive and responsive to changing needs, context, and challenges in communities, districts, and countries of implementation?

Efficiency

1. To what extent have the partnership (including implementing partners, and government partners) and operational modalities been conducive and adequate to enable the efficient delivery of the EQIE project and achievement of results at midline?
2. Are the capacities of implementing agencies and partners adequate for continued efficient and effective delivery of the EQIE project?

Sustainability

1. Is there early evidence that local implementing partners and government partners have the capacity (institutional, financial), positive attitude, and ownership mindset to continue the pedagogical practices, and safe/inclusive learning environment activities of the EQIE project?
2. What are the key factors or risks that are likely to affect the persistence of positive effects of the EQIE project in the short, medium, and long term?

2.4 Scope

Working with relevant staff of Right To Play, Implementing Partners and Ministry of Education and its Agencies’ Staff in the three (3) countries, the midline will review project documents, monitoring data/reports, and conduct mixed method primary data collection to deliver the following activities:

• Use EGRA, ISELA and other adapted tools to measure the literacy and SEL skills of lower primary school grade 4 children in implementing schools in all three countries
• Assessment of the project’s pathways through which the outcomes are expected to be delivered and the factors affecting the implementation and the outcomes of the project.
• Review empirical literature on play-based pedagogy and foundational learning outcomes relevant in the evaluation countries and/or within the Southern Africa and Middle East regions.
• Develop/review/refine the evaluation methodology and sampling strategy used at baseline to arrive at most appropriate quantitative and qualitative methods for answering the evaluation questions
• Take lead role in reviewing, revising, developing, and piloting data collection instruments/tools (questionnaires, surveys, interview guidelines, etc.)
• Utilize digital methods for collecting survey data (ideally using SurveyCTO)
• Actively participate in regular meetings with Right To Play, consulting on research plan/methodology/timeframe, discussing results and findings and agreed recommended follow-up actions.
• Undertake project site visits and data collection
• Prepare evaluation reports (draft, and final reports) in accordance with agreed reporting format with Right To Play
• Present final reports to RTP and partners, highlighting key findings, lessons, and recommendations
• Facilitation of and ‘conduct of dissemination’ sessions (including validation workshops in all 3 countries), including the development and delivery of content for the dissemination sessions

2.5 Key Expected Deliverables and Timescale

The expected deliverables for the evaluation will include:

DELIVERABLES

DETAILS

Expected Date

1. An Inception Report

• Draft Inception Report detailing final agreements with EQIE team, reviewed literature, the midline evaluation methodology, data collection tools, pre-analysis plan, and refined work plan (i.e., data collection, analysis, validation, reporting, and final dissemination) for the entire assignment -Sept 15th, 2023
• Final Inception Report incorporating RTP review comments- Sept 28th, 2023

1. Data collection Reports

• Research Assistants/Enumerators Manual including training slide deck- Oct 12th, 2023
• Project site visits and data collection reports for all 3 countries- Nov 17th, 2023

1. Slide deck of preliminary findings and initial conclusions for validation workshop

• Data placemats on midline results for each of the three countries’ validation workshop (x3)- Dec 8th, 2023
• Excel datasets (raw, and cleaned versions with codebook) for all 3 countries

1. Validation Workshop completed

• Facilitate and conduct validation workshop with EQIE stakeholders in each of the three countries- Dec 12 -15th , 2023

1. Reporting template for policy brief and insight pieces

• Concise and clear template for developing policy brief and actionable insights from the evaluation data- Dec 18th, 2023

1. 1st Draft Midline Reports

• Consultant submits draft country midline reports for RTP’s review (x 3)- Jan 11th, 2024
• RTP submits comments on draft reports to consultant- Jan 23rd, 2024

1. 2nd Draft Midline Reports

• Consultant submits 2nd draft country midline reports for RTP’s review (x 3)- Feb 6th, 2024
• RTP submits comments on 2nd draft reports to consultant- Feb 14th, 2024

1. Final Midline Reports

• Consultant submits final country midline reports (x 3)- Feb 23rd, 2024
• Finalized Excel datasets for all 3 countries
• SPSS or Stata versions of the datasets including analysis scripts with clear, easy to understand notes
• Transcripts of all qualitative data collected
• Clean version of the thematically analyzed qualitative data including clear and easy to understand analysis scripts

1. Policy Briefs

• Consultant submits draft policy briefs (x 3) for review- Feb 29th, 2024
• Final policy brief submitted to RTP- March 11th, 2024

1. Presentation (virtual) at final dissemination session

• Consultant presents key findings and recommendations at midline review forum to RTP, implementing and government partners- March 14th, 2024

2.6 Consultant Qualification and Experience

The evaluation consultant (an individual or firm) is expected to have extensive evaluation experience and professional evaluation credentials as well as a strong track record of conducting comparable evaluations. Specifically, the consultant should meet the following:

• Have a multidisciplinary team, with at least 1 educationist and 1 statistician, both must have a minimum of Masters level qualification and at least seven (7) years of education research and evaluation experience.
• The evaluation team put forward for this assignment must include local evaluators/consultants in the region or any of the assignment countries to collaborate on this multi-country project evaluation.
• Experience/evidence of undertaking at least two (2) similar assignment within Africa.
• Experience working in any two (2) of the three (3) countries and an understanding of regional and district level education operations in these countries will be an advantage
• Legally registered and/or can obtain permission from the appropriate authorities in the three countries to carry out the services of this ToRs

The Lead Consultant will be expected to meet the following requirements:

• Advanced degree in Education, International Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, Development Economics, Public Policy, or related field.
• Extensive experience in managing project/programme evaluations, conducting mixed-methods research, and EGRA/ISELA assessment (evidence required)
• Evidence of conducting similar assignments in these countries and/or others within the Africa region (especially at the primary education level), in the past 2 to 5 years. Most recent experience will be highly welcomed.
• Strong working experience and skills in triangulating educational data collected from different sources and with different methods.
• Experience in carrying out analysis of quantitative and qualitative data and conducting econometric analysis (including proficiency in analysis tools such as SPSS/STATA, Dedoose/NVIVO will be added advantage)
• Superior written and oral communication skills in English, including a demonstrated ability to translate complex, technical information into clear, non-technical language that is accessible to a broader audience. Proficiency in Arabic will be an added advantage.
• Ability to translate raw data into effective and engaging data visualizations and infographics.
• Strong research, facilitation and interviewing skills, preferable experience in conducting education related consulting and policy makers’ processes in any of the three countries.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, decision-making and time management capabilities
• Team player with interpersonal skills and ability to work with public sector agencies and staff within education systems.

3.0 Tender Conditions/Requirements/Instructions

Bidders are encouraged to read the RFP document in its entirety and ensure that their proposal addresses all of the items cited in the proposal instructions and meets the selection criteria. All proposals must be submitted by the deadline stated in this RFP. Proposals received after this due date and time will not be considered.

All questions or clarifications regarding this RFP must be submitted to Eric Opoku: [email protected] copying Zoe Dibb: [email protected]. Only written responses from these two named persons will be considered official and carry weight in the RFP process and subsequent evaluation of proposals. Any responses received from other persons , whether verbally or in writing, from employees of RTP, or any other party, will not be considered official responses regarding this RFP.

3.1 Timescales

Subject to any changes notified to potential suppliers/bidders by Right To Play in accordance with the Tender Conditions, the key milestones below shall apply to this Procurement Process.

By 5th July 2023- Request for Proposal (RFP) issued

By 2nd August 2023- Receipt of Proposals/Tenders ends

By 29th August 2023- Consultant identified and contracted

By 29th August 2023- Inception Meeting regarding deliverables

Right To Play is under no obligations to consider any clarifications / amendments to submitted Proposals/Tenders following the submission deadline (as specified in the Timescales section of this RFP). Any proposed amendments received from a potential supplier/bidder as part its tender response shall entitle Right To Play to reject that proposal/tender and to disqualify that potential supplier/bidder from this procurement process.

3.2 Tender Submission Instructions

Interested evaluation consultants (an individual or firm) are requested to submit complete proposal package to Eric Opoku: [email protected] copying Zoe Dibb: [email protected]; Proposals must be submitted by email only with the subject line “Proposal EQIE Midline” not later than August 2nd, 2023.

The submitted proposal must contain the following information and documentation:

• Technical Proposal

The Technical proposal shall describe how the consultant intends to carry out the requirements of the RFP, including a proposed work plan. It should be concise, specific, complete, and demonstrate a clear understanding of the work to be undertaken and the responsibilities of all parties involved. It must demonstrate the consultant’s eligibility, as well as their capabilities and expertise in completing each step of the activity.

Bidders shall include only information necessary to provide a clear understanding of the proposed action and the justification for it. Greater detail than necessary, as well as insufficient detail may detract from a proposal’s clarity. Minimize or avoid the use of jargon and acronyms as much as possible. If acronyms or abbreviations are used, include a separate page explaining the terms.

• Cost Proposal

A detailed budget including narrative that justifies the costs as appropriate and necessary for the successful completion of proposed activities should be submitted. The budget narrative should clearly describe the project and cost assumptions. All proposed costs must be directly applicable to performing the work under the RFP.

The budget narrative should be of sufficient detail so that someone unfamiliar with your organisation or the activity could review and adequately understand and grasp the assumptions, reasonableness and calculation method used.

Budget and narrative must be prepared using Microsoft Excel software. Supporting information must be provided in adequate detail for conducting a comprehensive analysis. All costs must be stated in Canadian Dollars (CAD).

This is an all-inclusive fixed price offering/contract. No additional costs will be considered or can be included after the contract is awarded. All items/ services must be clearly labelled and included in the total offered price. Bidders should submit their most competitive and complete cost proposal.

• Work Samples and CVs

Bidders are required to submit two work samples, ideally reports the consultant/firm has lead authorship on. Clearly label and provide CVs for all individuals proposed to be the core evaluation team, clearly stating their roles and responsibilities for this evaluation. Please note that if the data collection is to be sub-contracted, the evaluation consultant will be ultimately responsible for the third party and will be required to share their qualification with RTP and receive approval for such sub-contracting.

1. 1. Evaluation of Submitted Proposals

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following weighted point scale (totalling 100 points):

No. 1 Criteria- Technical Approach, Methodology, and Implementation plan Points 40

• Comprehensiveness of proposal approach. Clarity and appropriateness of proposed methodology including quality management systems and relationship and risk management.
• Work plan and proposed timeline are realistic and include all proposed elements of the evaluation requirements.
• Responsiveness to the RFP

No. 2 Criteria- Capabilities and Past Performance Points 20

• Organizational, financial, and technical capabilities and resources to implement this work
• Previous successful experience implementing similar activities.

No. 3 Criteria- Proposed Costs Points 30

• Reasonableness of proposed budget based on scope of activities proposed.
• Summary budget, detailed budget, and budget notes included.
• Comparative lowest price

No. 4 Criteria- Deliverable timeframe/Work plan Points 10

3.4 Terms of Award

This document is a request for proposals only, and in no way obligates RTP or its donor to make any award. Please be advised that under a fixed price contract the work must be completed within the specified total price. Any expenses incurred in excess of the agreed upon amount in the contract will be the responsibility of the contractor/consultant and not that of RTP or its donor. Therefore, bidders are duly advised to provide its most competitive and realistic proposal to cover all foreseeable expenses related to providing the requested services.

All deliverables produced under the future award/contract shall be considered the property of RTP. RTP may choose to award a Purchase Order/sub-contract for part of the activities in the RFP. RTP may choose to award a Purchase Order/sub-contract to more than one offeror for specific parts of the activities in the RFP.

Language

The proposal, as well as correspondence and related documents should be in English.

Negotiations

The bidder’s most competitive proposal is requested. It is anticipated that any award issued will be made solely on the basis of an bidder’s proposal. However, RTP reserves the right to request responses to additional technical, management and cost questions which would help in negotiating and awarding the contract. RTP also reserves the right to conduct negotiations on technical, management, or cost issues prior to the award of the contract. In the event that an agreement cannot be reached with a bidder, RTP will enter into negotiations with alternate bidders for the purpose of awarding the contract without any obligation to previously considered bidders.

Rejection of Proposals

RTP reserves the right to reject any and all proposals received, or to negotiate separately with any and all competing bidders, without explanation.

Incurring Costs

RTP is not liable for any cost incurred by bidders during preparation, submission, or negotiation of an award for this RFP. The costs are solely the responsibility of the bidder.

Right to cancel or modify this Procurement Process

By issuing this RFP, entering into clarification communications with potential bidders or by having any other form of communication with potential suppliers/bidders, Right To Play is not bound in any way to enter into any contractual or other arrangement with you or any other potential bidder.

It is intended that the remainder of this procurement process will take place in accordance with the provisions of this RFP, but RTP reserves the right to terminate, modify or vary (to include, without limitation, in relation to any timescales, scope, or specifications) this procurement process by notice via email to all potential supplier/bidders who have already submitted their proposal. Right To Play will have no liability for any losses, costs or expenses caused to you as a result of such termination, amendment or variation.

How to apply

3.2 Tender Submission Instructions

Interested evaluation consultants (an individual or firm) are requested to submit complete proposal package to Eric Opoku: [email protected] copying Zoe Dibb: [email protected]; Proposals must be submitted by email only with the subject line “Proposal EQIE Midline” not later than August 2nd, 2023.