Terms of Reference

Evaluation of the Stromme Foundation Bonga Programme in East Africa

Background

This evaluation is commissioned as part of Stromme Foundation’s 2019-2023 framework agreement with Norad. 

Strømme Foundation (SF) is a rights-based development international Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), established in 1976 in Kristiansand. SF works towards a vision of a world free from poverty. Our values are human dignity, justice, and solidarity. Our most important interventions in the fight against poverty are inclusive quality education, job creation and strengthening of civil society. With regional offices in West Africa, East Africa, and Asia, SF has programmes in eleven countries.

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SF does not implement directly but works through local NGO partners. This approach provides a framework for collaboration with local organisations to strengthen their capacity, promote local ownership and ensure sustainability. All partners have a good understanding of the challenges facing the communities where they work, as well as an understanding of local power structures, cultures, and traditions. This contextual expertise maximises the likelihood of achieving the set objectives in each country.  

SF’s current Strategic Plan (2019-2023) is closely aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and has three thematic goals: strengthening civil society, ensuring inclusive quality education for marginalised groups, and improving the livelihoods of the rural poor through enhanced income generation. In 2021, SF reached a total of 540,125 individuals, of which 68% were women. 

In East Africa, SF is implementing programmes in South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. In line with the three thematic goals, SF efforts in East Africa are concentrated on reaching pre-primary and lower-primary-aged children, adolescents, youth, and women in poor rural communities to improve their access to education, economic activities, and decision-making.

Through SF’s Bonga programme (‘let us chat’ in Swahili’), adolescent girls and boys learn life skills that help them strengthen their self-esteem, become aware of their rights, resist peer and family pressure, and develop a clear vision of the life they want to pursue. The programme targets out-of-school girls and boys (70%F, 30%M) between the ages of 13 to 19 years. The first two months of the programme focus on mobilisation, establishing the centres and enrolling participants. In the following six months of the programme, adolescents are trained in life skills, numeracy, and literacy. Thereafter, they are taken through four months of occupational skills training to become entrepreneurs and earn an income. After graduating from Bonga, the participants are then organised in a Bonga Forum for continuous learning and advocacy.

Programme Objectives: The main objective of the Bonga programme is that participating adolescents become empowered to realise their social and economic rights. Since 2011, 30,570 adolescents (9% boys) have participated in the Bonga programme. 

The specific objectives of the Bonga programme are:

• Targeted adolescents gain access to life skills education, improved confidence, and awareness of their rights.
• Adolescents increase their participation and influence in decision-making processes within families and communities.
• Adolescents improve their livelihoods through vocational skills training and engage in incomegenerating activities.

Evaluation Rationale

To assess and document the programme’s impact, Strømme Foundation is commissioning a comprehensive external evaluation of Bonga consisting of three main components: desk review, impact evaluation, and value for money analysis. The main purpose of this evaluation is to document the long-term impact of the programme and assess the return on investment that the programme offers with an aim to improve programme efficiency and effectiveness. To this end, the evaluation should focus on gathering evidence of the long-term impact on Bonga graduates, and the cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the programme. The evaluation further serves to develop recommendations for adjustments that will improve the programme as SF enters a new Strategic Period (2024 - 2028).

Main objectives

• Review the Bonga program curriculum and delivery mechanisms
• To evaluate the impact of Bonga on the lives of adolescents.
• To assess Bonga’s efficiency and effectiveness.
• To document gaps, lessons learnt and make recommendations to SF to improve the programme.

The evaluation should include three main components:

Review of Bonga manuals and curriculum

• Is the content and duration of the life-skills component and vocational skills component appropriate for attaining the program objectives?
• Review the appropriateness of the Bonga approach regarding vocational training in relation to younger adolescents vs. a targeted focus on return to school
• Is the Bonga programme responding to the needs of out-of-school adolescents?

2.            Study of the long-term impact of the Bonga programme on participants, households, and communities.

SF has gained vast experience and learned lessons during each cohort of the Bonga programme since 2011. An impact assessment is the preferred design for this component of the evaluation to understand the role of the Bonga programme in empowering and strengthening the ability of out-of-school adolescents to claim their rights and secure their economic and social empowerment within their families and the local community. It is expected that the impact evaluation will identify the positive and negative, intended, and unintended, direct and indirect long-term impacts produced by the Bonga programme with a carefully designed research methodology targeting adolescent girls and boys, parents, communities, and other key stakeholders. The study should include a representative sample of communities from Uganda and Tanzania and should be carried out in communities where Bonga centres were established between 2017 and 2019. Strømme Foundation and partners will support the process to identify the sample. The study should look more in detail at the following issues:

1.            What has been the impact of Bonga on the lives of participating adolescent girls and boys?

• To what extent has Bonga improved the ability of girls/boys to make their own decisions?
• To what extent has Bonga strengthened the self-esteem and confidence of adolescents to address challenges in their daily lives?
• To what extent has Bonga influenced adolescents’ attitudes and behaviours?
• Does marriage/teenage motherhood have an impact on Bonga participants' outcomes?
• What is the impact of selected vocational trades on adolescents’ income? Are there gender disparities in access to employment opportunities?
• To what extent are the Income Generating Activities (IGAs) aligned with labour market assessments and the private sector?
• What is the impact of start-up kits in achieving sustainable economic outcomes?

2.            What has been the impact on the communities where Bonga has been implemented?

• To what extent can observed changes in the community be attributed to Bonga?
• To what extent are the girls/boys able and/or given the opportunity to empower one another after graduating from Bonga?
• What is the impact of the follow-up Bonga Forums?
• Do Bonga forums lead to more sustainable spill over effects on individuals and communities?
• What are the results of advocacy initiatives started by Bonga centres/forums?
• What are the trends of early pregnancy, early marriage, and domestic violence in communities of intervention?
• What are the community, partner, and local government’s perceptions of what has been done and achieved by the Bonga programme?

3.            Assess the value for money of the Bonga programme in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, looking at:

• The cost per participant enrolled in the Bonga programme
• The cost per participant completing the Bonga programme

And:

• Undertaking a cost-benefit analysis
• Evaluate the return on investment / socioeconomic returns

Methodology

The evaluation should utilise a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Separate research frameworks need to be developed for the three components and they should all include a gender perspective. Specifically, for component 2) SF expects that the consultants conduct an impact assessment that compares two different groups i.e., out of school adolescents that completed Bonga against a control group of out of school adolescents that did not participate in Bonga to find out the factors contributing to the impact of the intervention. Careful consideration should be given to ensure that the control group is comparable to the initial target group and not influenced by spill over effects of the Bonga programme and that ethical considerations are included in the design. Bonga centres are to be selected from 2017 to 2019, proportionately from the selected partners. From each centre, depending on the sample size, a minimum number of adolescents would be sampled. The tools to collect quantitative and qualitative data should include individual surveys, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with adolescents, Bonga support members, parents, and key stakeholders. 

The research design, selection of partners and centres, and the sample size will be finalized between the consultants and relevant stakeholders. There can be causal links at impact level that may be difficult to establish and/or influenced by numerous factors. The analysis should take these factors into account but concentrate on the wider impact of the programme.  The consultants are expected to take the counterfactual into account.

Consultants

Given that the evaluation is composed of three distinct components and will require fieldwork in rural areas of Uganda and Tanzania, SF strongly encourages prospective applicants to propose a team combined of both international and local consultants with a strong record in conducting impact evaluations to carry out this task. The team is expected to demonstrate:

• Extensive experience working in East Africa in general, and in Uganda and Tanzania specifically, with strong knowledge of the local context
• Proven experience in commissioning impact evaluations is a necessity. Examples of previous work are required.
• A team member with strong experience on commissioning Value for Money studies is highly desirable
• Proven experience in producing high-quality evaluation reports in English
• Relevant quantitative and qualitative evaluation skills, demonstrable experience with adolescentfriendly methodologies
• Sound knowledge of the rights-based approach

Gender is a key dimension of SF’s work. Applicants are encouraged to include both male and female evaluators at both local and international levels.

The team is expected to carry out fieldwork in Uganda and Tanzania. Strømme Foundation will work closely with our local partners to help facilitate the fieldwork, including logistical support. 

SF expects the consultant to provide an inception report with a clear evaluation design, suggested methods, and timeline, along with the budget. The plan should include details on the tools used for conducting interviews and surveys, and for the processing and analysis of data collected. All terms and conditions will be included in the consultancy contract agreement. 

Deliverables

The evaluation report should be no more than 30 pages long with an executive summary of maximum four pages that focuses on key findings and recommendations.

• Inception report, including a detailed work plan for the assignment
• Workshop/online call to validate methodology and tools
• Draft report
• Validation workshop/online call to discuss draft report, key findings, and recommendations
• A final report in English including an executive summary
• Donor-friendly evaluation brief of max four pages
• A clean version of all the data used in the analysis, including data on the respondent level

Timeframe

The work is expected to take place in the first and second quarter of 2023 and last around 12 weeks. The final report should be submitted to Strømme Foundation by 30th of June 2023. Proposed timeline:

Application Specification

We will consider proposals from individual consultants and companies/organisations. To apply for the assignment, please send the following documentation to consultancies@stromme.org by 17th of February 2023, specifying ‘Bonga Evaluation’ in the subject line. For any questions or clarifications, please use email listed above. 

• A proposal responding to the ToR, with a specific focus on addressing the Main Objectives and Key Questions, timeline, and methodology to be used
• An Initial work plan based on the methodology outlined, and confirming the availability of the applicant
• Company or organisation profile (where applicable) and CVs of consultant(s) who would deliver the work
• A minimum of three references (organization or individual consultant as appropriate)
• Sample of recent program evaluations/research produced by Consultant/Company within the last three years (if available). Examples of Tracer Studies and Value for Money analysis are highly desirable.
• Budget breakdown based on expected daily rates and initial work plan