Consultancy service for End of Project Evaluation of the “Tackling Online Child Sexual Exploitation” (TOCSE) Project

Call for Tender Consultancy service for End of Project Evaluation of the “Tackling Online Child Sexual Exploitation” (TOCSE) Project

Project background

Nearly half of the Vietnamese population is using the internet. In Da Nang city, the rate of broadband internet subscribers is about 1.4 subscribers/1 person, 99% of household are connected to internet. A survey showed that almost 60 percent of children in primary school and 90 percent in high school have a Facebook account. Moreover, there are nearly 900 internet or online game shops attracting thousands of children every day. In the baseline survey of TOCSE project, almost half the surveyed children (43.4%) responded that they started using the internet from between 10 - 12 years old, 20% of children began using the internet before 9 years old. Children use the internet from an early age but do not have enough knowledge and skills to protect themselves from the risk of being sexually abused via chat rooms, live streams, web cameras and smartphones. This has resulted in a higher risk of children being exposed to online threats, especially online child sexual exploitation. The issue is aggravated by the lack of cooperation between relevant departments and impractical reporting mechanisms. Child sexual abuse is a taboo topic in communities and there is only limited awareness of internet safety. Based on the above, World Vision International in Vietnam, in cooperation with various government departments in Da Nang City commenced the “Tackling Online Child Sexual Exploitation Project” (TOCSE) in 2018. TOCSE is funded by the Fund to End Violence Against Children and is being implemented by World Vision International in Vietnam (WVI-Vietnam) and until September 2021. The project aims at preventing online child sexual exploitation in 3 districts - Son Tra, Hai Chau and Cam Le - with approximately 15,000 children and 7,000 adult beneficiaries. The nine project’s target wards are Thanh Binh, Hoa Cuong Bac and Hoa Cuong Nam (Hai Chau District); Khue Trung, Hoa An and Hoa Xuan (Cam Le District) and An Hai Bac, Phuoc My and Man Thai (Son Tra District). TOCSE has implemented the following interventions at different levels with five key outcomes:

Hierarchy	Objective	Indicator
Project goal	To protect children from online sexual abuse in 3 target districts of Da Nang city	# of reports of online violence involving children to hotline or online platform per 1000 population aged 18 and under (national statistic)
		% of online violence survivors who receive support services
Individual level interventions
Outcome 1	Children are less vulnerable to online violence or risks of sexual abuse through their increased knowledge and skills of online safety	% of participants (or sample of children) who demonstrate increased knowledge of online safety
Outcome 2	Survivors of online violence have greater access to ‘treatment’ and care.	% of reported online violence survivors who are referred to survivor services
Society level Interventions
Outcome 3	Increased capacity of communities in protecting children from violence and respond to the needs of survivors	% of community participants (Parents, teachers, caregivers) who demonstrate increased knowledge of online safety and reporting mechanisms
		% of social service provider participants (or sample of participants) who demonstrate increased technical skills to support survivors of online violence
Industry level interventions
Outcome 4	ICT industry adopts industry standards that prevent online violence among children	% of industry participants (or sample of participants) who demonstrate increased knowledge of online safety and incident reporting mechanisms
		% targeted ICT industry partners that have implemented functional safeguard and reporting mechanisms
System level interventions
Outcome 5	City has robust city tools to prosecute perpetrators of violence and maintain and restore survivors’ rights	% of government participants and government agencies who demonstrate increased technical skills to prevent online violence and support survivors
		Government led multi stakeholder City Action plan to prevent and prosecute online violence against children and support survivors.

Purpose and Objectives of the Evaluation

Purpose

To evaluate the level of accomplishment, effectiveness and sustainability of the project interventions according to project objectives and indicators.
To help WVI-Vietnam and local partners to draw lessons learnt and provide them with practical recommendations for improving future interventions. .

Specific Objectives

The objectives of the evaluation are to:

Evaluate the extent to which goal and outcome targets as articulated in the original design document were achieved;
Evaluate the extent to which these achievements could be attributed to project interventions;
Evaluate the extent to which there was a correlation between outputs and outcomes;
Evaluate the extent to which project impact in the target communities is sustainable;
Evaluate the extent to which cross-cutting themes, including gender, disability and human rights were given due consideration;
Provide actionable recommendations based on the evaluation findings, particularly on an exit strategy and sustainability measures;

Scope of the consultancy

3.1 Assigned tasks In coordination with WVI-Vietnam, the consultant will carry out the following tasks:

Review relevant project documents;

Develop and reach a consensus on the evaluation plan, which indicates a timeline, particularly methodologies applied (quantitative and qualitative methods) and proposed sample size, data analysis method and plan, report outline, quality control methods, logistics, and other related issues upon discussion with project team. The plan will be developed to address specific objectives as listed above;
Conduct field testing for the data collection tools;
Provide training for field data collectors, including ethical and gender aspects and covering protocols/guidelines to ensure anonymity and confidentiality of interviewees;
Supervise the data collection process in the field, applying relevant methods of quality control;
Analyse the quantitative and qualitative data, explicitly indicating the gender, ethnicity and disability features
Support WVI-Vietnam and project partners to organize a validation workshop to share the initial findings to attain comments/feedbacks on the draft report;
Complete the final report, taking into account the comments and feedbacks from WVI-Vietnam and partners and send a revised report to the project team for final review;
Prepare a presentation of the endline findings for a dissemination workshop.

The consultant must consult and confirm acceptance and compliance with at least the following documents:

Child and Adult Safeguarding Policy
Code of Conducts for Supporting Victims of Trafficking
Ethics for researching children, if applicable.

3.2 Key activities and timeframe The endline is expected to be conducted from March 1st 2021. An indicative timeframe is as follows but this can be adjusted after discussion based on the successful consultant’s proposal.

Activity	Estimated number of days	Expected outcomes
Development of and consensus on methodologies and timeframe	2	An evaluation plan that describes endline tools, methodologies, budget, and schedule.
Desk review and analysis of available project documents	2	Main findings from review of project documents and other relevant documents.
Tools and data collection protocols developed and refined. Training for interviewers;	4	A set of questionnaire tools and data collection protocols completed with inputs from comprehensive review, feedbacks/comments from WVI-Vietnam and project partners, and results from the field pretest. Interviewers equipped with necessary knowledge and skills for data collection.
Field data collection	10	All information on project collected as to purpose of evaluation.
Reporting until final report finalized	12	First draft report (within 10 working days upon the completion of field work) and comments from relevant stakeholders Final report in English (within 07 working days after receiving all comments and inputs on the draft report) for approval by WVI-Vietnam
Dissemination of findings	1	Presentation of findings and recommendations for dissemination workshop
Total	31

Methodology

The consultant(s) will apply a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies using primary and secondary data sources and data triangulation to increase the validity of evaluation findings. The consultant(s) is expected to propose his/her methodology for the evaluation which should include, but not be limited to, description of the overall evaluation design, data sources to be used, methods of data collection and analysis, and sampling size and techniques. Please refer to the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and Baseline Report in the Documents section (at the bottom of this TOR), which states the full list of project indicators needing to be measured in the evaluation. 4.1 Quantitative component: Surveys will need to be conducted for three types of respondent: 12 to 18 year-old children, caregivers and teachers. Children’s surveys should usually occur in the same house as the caregiver surveys but some children can be interviewed at school if no other options are practical. The populations in the target wards are approximately 15,000 children, 7,000 caregivers and 705 teachers. For each survey, the consultant should propose and justify a sample size and sampling methodology which will produce data with a confidence level of 95%. There are 42 ICT industry partners involved in the project. All of these partners should be surveyed. The surveys will use the same structured questionnaire which was used for the baseline report. Some data, such as data on hotline centers, social service centers and case management agencies, is available through secondary sources so does not need to be included in a survey. 4.2 Qualitative component: The consultant should propose the most appropriate mix of qualitative methods. However, based on the evaluation objectives, the main qualitative methods are expected to include:

Document review:

Documents to review include the project design document, log-frame, semi-annual/annual reports and pre/post training test results .

Secondary data review:

Statistics, reports from district and commune departments relating to the project’s goal of online child sexual violence.

Focus Group Discussions:

To obtain community perspective on project activities and identify potential areas for improvement. The groups for discussion could include children, teachers, parents/caregivers, internet shop owners, core teachers’ groups, ward child-protection officers, 111 Hotline operators and counsellors of social service centers.

Key Informant Interviews:

To gain government partners’ perspectives on the project outcomes. The partners for the interviews could include the leadership of DOLISA, DOIC, Center of Social Works and the 3 Districts’ Project Management Board.

Field visits/direct observation:

To verify activities and outputs delivered, and to assess their quality, it is expected that the consultant will observe a children’s club/core children’s group activity and visit a victim/child-at-risk supported by the project (this will be confirmed with DOLISA).

Potential challenges and limitations

The successful consultant(s) should be able to identify limitations of the evaluation and share with all stakeholders. Below are some limitations to be aware of:

The terminology for online risks, abuse and exploitation of children can be a challenge to the assessment process. In Vietnam, the terminology related to internet are borrowed from English, which may be a challenge during interview and consultation, especially with adults. Also, the fast-changing nature and terminology related to the internet may pose a challenge throughout the assessment.
Child sexual abuse is still a taboo topic within Vietnamese society, which will hinder an open discussion on these issues. Embarrassment on this topic may restrain some of the informants from sharing opinions.
The COVID-19 pandemic may affect the planned timeframe and duration of the evaluation if an outbreak occurs in Vietnam.
In an urban context like Da Nang City, children and caregivers may be away home from early morning until late afternoon. Also, city people usually hesitate to accept strangers into their homes. WVV will minimize this potential problem by asking government partners to announce the survey agenda in advance to the targeted ward. It can also be minimized by local partners accompany the interviewer to introduce him/her to respondents.
Interviewing children together with caregivers in their home may influence children’s responses, especially on sexual topics. Interviewers should be trained to minimise this by choosing a suitable space and ensuring enough privacy.

Deliverables

The consultant team should fulfill the following deliverables:

An inception report in English that covers:
- Evaluation Plan: The evaluation plan should include describe the sampling strategies, data collection process, timeline (including data collection schedule) data analysis methods, expected limitations and report framework.
- Questionnaire tools and interview/FGD question guides: A set of questionnaire tools interview/FGD question guides are to be completed, incorporating inputs and feedback from WVI-Vietnam and project partners. The tools should be refined after field testing.
- Desk study findings
A training agenda for the data collection team
First draft report in English
A presentation of findings to World Vision and key stakeholders in a review and feedback meeting. Feedback obtained in the presentation should be incorporated in the final report.
Final report in English: The final report should incorporate all feedback on the draft report and comments made after the presentation of findings.
Presentation of findings and recommendations from final report: The consultant will join the dissemination workshop to present findings and recommendations from endline evaluation.
At the end of the consultancy, the consultant team is expected to share all data sets and related documents with WVI-Vietnam.

Required qualifications, experience and competencies

The endline team is expected to consist of a consultant or consultant team responsible for leading the evaluation from start to finish under the management and supervision of WVI-Vietnam’s evaluation team. The successful consultant should have the following qualifications to effectively carry out the final endline:

A post-graduate degree in social science or a related field and at least 10 years’ experience in conducting external endline (preferably including evaluations on child protection). He/she should have experience/skills in using quantitative and qualitative methods, and in leading the collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data on child protection;
Strong professional experience in planning, design, management, M&E of development projects is preferred;
Strong knowledge and understanding of child online protection, especially online child sexual exploitation/abuse;
Able to work with project staff and stakeholders at different levels;
A strong commitment to delivering timely and high-quality results;
Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and Vietnamese (in case of a consultant team, at least one team member must fulfill this criterion).

Timeline

The consultancy is expected to commence on March 1st 2021. The final evaluation report is to be submitted no later than May 30th 2021.

The evaluation plan is expected to be submitted within 5 working days after the contract signing date
Quantitative evaluation is proposed to be done in March 2021
Qualitative evaluation is proposed to be done in April 2021
Submission for first draft report is 1 May 2021
Submission for final report is 30 May 2021

A detailed timeline will be agreed after recruitment and included in the Evaluation Plan.

Budget and Logistics

Budget

The maximum budget for this consultancy is USD 4,500. This consultant fee includes meals, personal income tax and excludes transportation and accommodation. WVI-Vietnam will arrange the transportation and accommodation related to the consultancy work for the consultant in compliance with the Procurement policy and pay directly to the supplier. The consultant can work independently or form a team to complete this task; however, the maximum amount will not exceed USD 4,500.

Logistics

Logistics for the End of Project evaluation including the following items will be arranged by WVI-Vietnam and local partner:

Recruit in public for data collectors as to suggestion of consultant;
Inform the evaluation agenda to government at city, district and ward level;
In charge of all the logistical arrangement for consultant including accommodation, transportation;
Organize the logistics related to the data collection including training, questionnaire testing, field trip;
Arrange staff/ people to support the data collection;
Translated the report into Vietnamese and design, if needed;
Organize workshop to share the result of evaluation.

WVI Vietnam will cover these logistics costs.

Submission of Bids/Proposals Technical and Financial Proposition

Interested candidates are invited to send a complete application package in English containing:

A curriculum vitae;
An expression of interest letter of no more than 4 pages, outlining how a consultant/ a team of consultants meets the selection criteria;
A proposal for the evaluation, including proposed approaches, outlined timeframe, frameworks and detailed methodologies, sample size, logistics, and personnel;
Two sample reports of external, independent project endline reports done by the consultant on child protection;
A financial proposal that indicates the fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs. The offer must ensure that costs consists of consultant fees (meals and tax included).

Selection Criteria Applications will be assessed according to the following criteria:

Assessment criteria	Points
Qualifications	30%
Technical proposal	50%
Financial proposal	20%
Total	100%

How to Apply The Proposal should be submitted in English via email with subject title “TOCSE End of Project Evaluation” and addressed to Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong, People and Culture Officer, email: nguyen_thi_minh_phuong@wvi.org. Any questions relating to this Call for Tender should be sent to the same email addresses. The closing date for application is: 5:00 PM October 30th 2020, Vietnam time. Due to the amount of applications, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.