Caritas Switzerland (CACH) is a non-profit organization founded in 1901, and is a member of the Caritas Internationalis network. CACH is committed to a world guided by solidarity, justice and peace, in which the inviolable dignity and rights of every human being are respected. CACH works to ensure that each person not only has access to food, water, housing, health, work and education, you can also expand your abilities and opportunities to lead the life you value. CACH provides professional, effective and efficient help to people in need and in poverty, both in Switzerland and abroad, regardless of their political or religious beliefs, gender or ethnicity. CACH is committed to improving livelihoods and guaranteeing all the human rights of migrants,especially of vulnerable Venezuelan migrants in South America.
Caritas Germany (DCV) was founded in 1897 and gave rise to all other Caritas organizations in the world. It is an international humanitarian organization that provides humanitarian aid and rehabilitation during and after disasters, supports social programs for children, people with disabilities and the elderly, advocates for the empowerment of women and promotes peace-building activities in Germany and in 165 other countries around the world, working collaboratively with other Caritas organizations in Eastern European, Latin American, African and Asian countries.
Cáritas Germany ( DCV ) and Cáritas Suiza ( CACH ) were among the first international humanitarian organizations in the region to respond to the impact of the migration crisis from Venezuela through the EuroPana program and previous projects since 2016.
- Program summary
Structure and implementation
The EuroPana Program is implemented through the Caritas Switzerland (CACH) and Caritas Germany (DCV) consortium, organizations that have worked together to respond to the migratory crisis in the region within the framework of comprehensive human development and the construction of sustainable peace. This consortium is developed with the Humanitarian Aid Office of the European Commission (ECHO) to address the migration situation that occurs in various countries in the region. In this, assistance and protection actions are carried out in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Venezuela, as follows:
- In Colombia, National Secretariat for Social Pastoral / Colombian Caritas (SNPS / CC), Social Pastoral of Riohacha (SEPAS)
- In Ecuador: Cáritas Ecuador
- In Peru: Cáritas Peru and CEDEH (Center for Human Development)
- In Brazil: Cáritas Brasileira and Servicio Pastoral Dos Migrants ( SPM )
- In Venezuela: Cáritas Venezuela
Places of action:
- Venezuela: Mara, Insular Padilla, Guajira, Páez, Ciudad Guayana
- Colombia: Apartadó, Turbo, Necoclí, Caucasia, Riohacha, Maicao, El Bagre, Ipiales, Ocaña and Ábrego.
- Ecuador: Tulcán, Lago Agrio, Ibarra, Quito, Cuenca and Machala
- Peru: Juliaca, Puno, Desaguadero, Zepita, Arequipa, Lima, Tacna, Tumbes
- Brazil: Boavista, Pacaraima, Porto Velho, Rio Branco, Brasileia, Manaus, Cuiabá
Duration
The project is developed in this way from December 1, 2022 to May 31, 2024 ( on June 1, 2023, implementation began in Venezuela and on November 30 2023 ended in Colombia ).
General objective
Contribute to access to food and fill critical gaps in humanitarian assistance through multipurpose cash transfers to vulnerable Venezuelan citizens and vulnerable host communities in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil, particularly for women, children, indigenous populations, people with disabilities and the elderly
Specific objective
Provide humanitarian assistance to 59,252 migrants, asylum seekers, returnees and local people.
Results
- Result 1 Multipurpose currency transfers: Multipurpose currency transfers for highly vulnerable migrants.
- Outcome 2 Food assistance and livelihoods: Improving access to food and food security for the target population.
- Result 3 Protection: Improve the protection conditions of the migrant population through safe and informed transit.
- Result 4 Refuge and settlements: Improvement of shelter and migrant conditions for beneficiaries in coordination with the institutions.
- Result 5 Water and sanitation: Access to water and hygiene items to make migration safer.
- Result 6 Crisis Modifier: Disaster Risk Reduction / Disaster Preparedness.
2. Objective of the contract to subscribe
Hire professional services for the design and implementation of an external evaluation of the “ program Promote protection, assistance and food security to migrants, asylum seekers, victims and vulnerable local populations in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Venezuela. ECHO / -AM / BUD / 2022/91036 ”, so that:
- Analyze the structures, processes, methodologies and approaches, identifying the best practices, weaknesses and strengths of the program in the current context.
- Evaluate the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of the program.
- Make recommendations that can serve to strengthen local partners and the consortium. This both at the level of joint action and at the operational level, taking into account best practices and lessons learned locally by the partners.
This call is open to all natural and legal persons who consider having the appropriate profile described here. It is not discriminated on confessional, race, age, gender or any social or economic condition.
3. Requirements and commitments by people interested in participating in the call.
Both individuals and work teams are requested to comply with professional training, experience, skills, competencies, general and specific obligations of the position, as indicated below:
a) Vocational training and experience
- Professional in Social, Human, Economic, Administrative Sciences or related to the development of the position.
- Desirable to have a postgraduate degree or extensive demonstrable experience, in evaluation and / or project management.
- Proven technical capacity and proven experience of at least 5 years in conducting results or impact evaluations of similar humanitarian aid projects.
- Desirable to have experience in evaluating humanitarian projects and financed by ECHO.
- Desirable to have experience in evaluating regional projects and involving multiple organizations.
- Experience in survey design, survey, and statistical data analysis.
b) Specific knowledge
- Extensive knowledge of both quantitative and qualitative research methods and techniques and evaluation of social projects.
- Ability to analyze to identify strengths and areas for improvement, as well as critical aspects of the reality analyzed and the intervention of the project based on a human rights approach, differential approach (gender, ethnic, population).
- Analysis capacity to identify the impact of project actions on participating communities.
- Extensive knowledge of human rights, international humanitarian law, humanitarian aid and comprehensive protection.
- Respect for cultural diversity and religious beliefs.
- Have no family ties to the staff of the main or local partners.
- Not having a direct relationship with personnel hired in the project and not having been employed for this project.
- Knowledge of the Portuguese and English language (Desirable)
- Office package management.
c) General requirements:
- Carry out the activities under the coordination of the coordinating committee of the EuroPana program.
- Punctuality in complying with the plans and deadlines stipulated by the contractor for the fulfillment of the tasks under his charge, as well as in the conditions and criteria for the delivery of results for the entrusted activities.
- Immediate and permanent availability to execute the tasks at your expense.
- Protection, reservation and effective confidentiality of files, programs and other information obtained and produced by virtue of the execution of your contract, that Caritas Switzerland and Germany have not expressly and formally authorized to use for personal gain, and / or deliver and disseminate to third parties.
- Strict observance of the procedures and technical criteria agreed with the financing sources.
d) General Competences
- Organization and team leadership.
- Methods and methodologies for working with communities and social organizations.
- Ability to work with interdisciplinary teams.
- Ability to relate to different types of population.
- Aptitude and critical, conciliatory, proactive and purposeful attitude.
- Comply with the processes and procedures established in the institution.
- Punctuality in compliance with the terms and criteria stipulated by the contractor for the delivery of products and activities established in the contract.
e) Specific tasks
- Design the evaluation and schedule work plan and fully comply with it, in accordance with the times agreed with the contractor.
- Identify and analyze the available documentation on the context of the regions targeted by the project to be evaluated.
- Design, apply and analyze methodological instruments (qualitative and quantitative) that allow objective and reliable information on the objectives of the final evaluation of the project.
- Conduct review of documents and sources of information: narrative request, logical framework, intermediate technical reports, characterization of beneficiaries and supports for the delivery of aid and care – including the monitoring system.
- Participate in progress monitoring meetings with the regional project team for content validation and socialization of methodologies (face-to-face or virtual).
- Make trips to the field to visit project implementation municipalities in three countries (Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador) agreed with the coordinating committee. The visit should be made to the municipalities targeted by the project, in accordance with the methodology described below.
- Drafting of intermediate and final project evaluation reports, with criteria of effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and impact, identifying good practices, lessons learned and recommendations for future actions.
- Formally present the results of the intermediate and final evaluations in at least one institutional space convened by the contractor.
- Comply with the legal requirements in force in the country for the hiring of the personnel assigned to carry out the consultancy.
- Comply with the ethical and behavioral standards established by the Caritas network and the financing agency.
f) Deliverable
Deliverable 1: Evaluation work plan specifying:
- Methodologies to develop
- Instruments to be used to collect information
- Work schedule: detailed schedule of the tasks to be performed (work plan).
- Detailed budget
- The role and responsibilities of each member of the evaluation team.
For the production of the evaluation plan, the proponent will have access to key program documents such as technical design, project performance reports and donor guidelines, among others.
Activities to develop:
- Documentary review of key program documents and meeting with monitoring team to define and understand the scope of the evaluation.
- Attend coordination and follow-up meetings virtually or in person.
- Review all key program documents, namely technical design, logical framework, reports submitted to the donor, post-distribution monitoring reports, among others.
- Design and agree with the Coordinating Committee of the EuroPana Consortium, a detailed implementation plan that responds to the objectives and expected results of the contract.
- Design qualitative and quantitative data collection tools with their respective methodologies.
- Synthesis report of the results, which identifies lessons learned, good practices and recommendations for future actions.
Deliverable 2: Interim evaluation report
- Synthesis report of the impacts.
Activities to develop:
- Displacement to the field to visit project implementation areas in three countries (Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador), in agreement with the Coordinating Committee. The contractor will provide the corresponding contacts.
- Virtual meetings with the project implementing teams at the national and local levels of the five countries, in agreement with the Coordinating Committee.
- Face-to-face and / or virtual meetings with key informants, including the donor and external actors.
- Collect data and analyze the set of quantitative and qualitative data for the study, from the duly refined sources of information.
- Present preliminary versions of all products to obtain feedback from the Coordinating Committee. Collect feedback on all delivered products and make requested adjustments and improvements.
- Collect and analyze secondary sources of information compatible with the objective of this evaluation.
Deliverable 3: Final evaluation report
- Final evaluation report with its corresponding annexes (supports for the collection and systematization of information).
- Synthesis report of the results, which identifies lessons learned, good practices and recommendations for future actions.
- Synthesis report of the impacts
Activities to develop:
- The final document must have complied with the adjustments after the comments of the Coordinating Committee of the EuroPana Consortium.
- The final report should not exceed 50 pages (not counting annexes). These will be accompanied by an executive summary, of a maximum of 3-5 pages. Both the final report and the summary must be presented in Spanish and English. The summary should incorporate the essence of the information contained in the report with particular emphasis on the main results, conclusions, recommendations and lessons learned.
The reports must contain the following structure:
- Table of contents
- Executive summary
- Acronyms
- Introduction:
- Background and objective of the evaluation.
- Initial questions and value criteria: definition.
- Summary description: of the evaluated intervention, summary of the background, organization and management, actors involved and context in which the intervention is developed.
- Methodology used in the evaluation.
- Methodology and applied techniques.
- Conditioners and limits of the study carried out.
- Analysis of the information collected, and evidence around the previously established issues. Interpretation of the evidence in relation to the evaluation questions set forth in title 4 of this document.
- Conclusions of the evaluation, in relation to the key evaluation criteria established in title 4 of this document.
- Lessons learned that emerge from the general conclusions that indicate good practices and that can be extrapolated and feed back the actions of the intervention in execution or for future interventions.
- Recommendations derived from the evaluation classified according to the criteria chosen by the evaluation team. Whenever possible, mention the actor (or actors) to whom the recommendation is addressed in a particular way.
g) Other considerations to take into account
As basic premises of ethical and professional behavior on the part of the contracted work team, it is required:
- Anonymity and confidentiality: The evaluation must respect the right of people to provide information, ensuring their anonymity and confidentiality.
- Responsibility: Any disagreement or difference of opinion that may arise between the team members or between them and those responsible for the intervention, in relation to the conclusions and / or recommendations, must be mentioned in the report. Any statement must be upheld by the team or record disagreement about it.
- Integrity: The evaluation team will be responsible for highlighting issues not specifically mentioned in the TDRs, if this is necessary to obtain a more complete analysis of the intervention.
- Independence: The team must guarantee its independence from the evaluated intervention, not being linked to its management or any element that makes it up.
- Data protection: The consulting firm or natural person, undertakes to maintain the strictest professional secrecy and confidentiality regarding the personal data to which it had access by reason of the evaluation carried out, as well as diligently fulfilling the duty of guard and custody imposed on them by the Organic Law on Protection of Personal Data. These duties will be required of the evaluating company or natural person during the term of the service provision contract, and even after it has been terminated for any reason thereof. Likewise, the evaluating company or natural person expressly undertakes to adopt the necessary technical and organizational measures that guarantee the security of personal data to which it has access and to avoid its alteration, loss,unauthorized treatment and access, given the state of the technology, the nature of the data stored and the risks to which they are exposed, whether they come from human action or from the physical or natural environment, and must comply at all times with the provisions on this point in Organic Law 15/1999, of December 13, Protection of Personal Data.
- Copyright and disclosure: It is clarified that any copyright that results from the services object of this call belongs to the contracting entity of the evaluation.
- Sanctioning regime: In case of delay in the delivery of the reports or in the event that the quality of the reports delivered is manifestly lower than agreed, The penalties and arbitrations established by the contracting entity in the Administrative Clauses of the contract to be signed with the evaluating entity will be applicable.
4. About the evaluation to be carried out
The external evaluation of the project is proposed according to the following evaluation matrix in which the key questions will be analyzed according to the following criteria, as well as any other aspect that is considered of special relevance during the data collection process and its analysis.
This proposed matrix will be discussed with the evaluation team for possible expansion and improvement, and may result in another matrix without reducing the selected criteria.
Key evaluation questions and questions.
- Adaptation of the project to the context in which it is executed (PERTINENCE)
- ¿Have the beneficiaries participated in the identification of the project? How?
- ¿Do the problems identified correspond to the proposed objectives?
- ¿Have the actions carried out in the intervention reached the target communities?
- ¿Does the intervention correspond to the priorities and needs of the beneficiary population?¿Does the implementation of the project respond to humanitarian challenges and the current situation in the country?
- ¿Has the project achieved its objectives? (EFFECTIVENESS)
- ¿Was the specific objective well formulated and has it been achieved?
- ¿Do the planned indicators allow an adequate measurement of the achievement of the specific objective?
- ¿Are verification sources reliable, timely and reasonably expensive?
- ¿Have the interventions been adequate to achieve the specific objective?
- ¿To what extent has the project been adapted to external conditions (hypotheses) to continue benefiting the target groups of the project?
- ¿Have corrective measures been taken for unforeseen negative effects suffered by the beneficiaries?
- ¿Have you used the right resources to achieve the results? (EFFICIENCE)
- ¿Has the project had the necessary / adequate material and human means for its correct execution?
- ¿Have the budgets initially established in the document been respected?
- ¿Have the schedules and expected times been respected?
- ¿Have goals been achieved efficiently with available resources?
- ¿Were the expected results and their indicators well formulated and have they been achieved?
- ¿Has there been adequate monitoring of project activities and corrective action when necessary? ( carrying out new activities in the face of new needs or after changing an activity ).
- ¿Has the project been aimed at causing positive impacts? (IMPACT )
- ¿Is there a positive real impact on participants or is it limited to technicians and promoters of local partners and their associations?
- ¿Are there any expected or unforeseen negative impacts on direct beneficiaries? ¿To what extent has project management taken the appropriate corrective measures?
- ¿Have the most vulnerable groups benefited from the intervention?
- ¿Are the perceptions of the communities more positive since the arrival of the project?
- Level of appropriation of knowledge by the communities on the strategic axes of the project (Food Security, PTM, Water, Refuge and Protection) of which they were beneficiaries.
- ¿What has been the impact of the project on the situation of women (participation, decision-making, their position in the community, etc.)?
5. Duration and execution period
The provision of services will begin on February 26, 2024 and will end on May 26, 2024.
6. Payment method
Payment will be made like this:
- Deliverable 1 – 30%
- Deliverable 2 – 30%
- Deliverable 3 _ 40%
7. Budget
The maximum budget for payment for this service is EUR 10,000. Due to the nature of the service, all expenses incurred to carry out the results of the contract (including trips) must be considered within this value. This value must be broken down in the economic proposal
8. Responsibility, security and protection
The Consultant is primarily responsible for its own safety. You have an obligation to learn and understand the security situation, the political, social and cultural characteristics of the assigned project area. Inappropriate or offensive behavior can put Caritas in a difficult position, harm operations, and jeopardize staff safety. The Consultant must comply with all Caritas policies on safety and protection.
Caritas accepts no responsibility for the costs of illness, injury, disability or death. There is no form of insurance for this allocation.
Caritas is not responsible for unapproved or unaccounted for expenses, nor for unapproved activities beyond the attached approved amounts.
How to apply
Proposals will be evaluated based on technical and financial feasibility.
Consultants who meet the minimum requirements and are available within the indicated period of time, must present:
- Life sheet.
- Copy of the academic diplomas obtained (university, postgraduate, master’s degrees, etc.).
- Copy of the professional card (if applicable).
- Labor certificates that demonstrate the required experience (minimum 5 years).
- Complete contact details of at least two references.
- Technical and economic proposal breaking down the costs to develop the external evaluation, based on the total allocated budget and the obligations described above. The proposal must have a maximum of 10 pages and a document of the proposed work plan and schedule will be attached to it.
Caritas Switzerland reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal without giving reasons. We will only contact the shortlisted consultants. Only proposals will be evaluated with the complete documentation.
Please send an electronic copy of the proposal to Caritas Switzerland to the following emails vjimenez@caritas.ch and lsarmiento@caritas.ch indicating as subject “ Call for External Evaluation EuroPana ”.
The deadline for submission of the proposal is February 16, 2024