Job Description

Background of the program

The current phase, CHASP III, running from 2024 to 2027, builds on the achievements and lessons learned from its earlier phases. The program is designed to expand access to high-quality, gender-responsive reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH) services, guided by the Essential Package of Health Services (EPHS) framework. CHASP III targets over 1.1 million people in Bari, Lower Juba, and Galgaduud, integrating previous investments in community health and social accountability. These include strengthening regional and district health management teams (RHMTs and DHMTs) and supporting community structures such as Community Health Committees (CHCs) and Child Welfare Committees, ensuring inclusive participation of women, adolescents, internally displaced persons (IDPs), minority clans, and persons with disabilities. The programme runs Father to Father (F2F) groups in certain clinics which aim to shift male attitudes and practices, foster shared caregiving, and support women’s and children’s health and wellbeing, including the reduction of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and promotion of women’s and girls’ agency in household decisions. The program promotes a decentralized health system and scales up innovative, high-impact models like ICCM+, Family MUAC, and other community-led health and nutrition interventions. It prioritizes climate resilience by investing in eco-friendly health facilities and establishing preparedness mechanisms such as the crisis modifier fund for anticipatory action and rapid response. The scale up of SGBV prevention and response mechanisms including clinical management of rape, establishment of SGBV service points and a strengthened SRH package are also key in CHASP III to further enhance equitable access for adolescent girls and vulnerable women and ensure gender-responsive service delivery. The program centers on three outcome areas below:

1. Continued provision of the EPHS, including nutrition, ICCM, and with increased investment in SGBV prevention, family planning and other reproductive health services, and strengthened SGBV case management delivered to women and children.

2. Enhanced governance capacity of MoH to sustain equitable and climate-resilient health systems

3. Strengthened community structures to ensure ownership, inclusive participation, equitable access, and service utilization.

Overall Aim of the assignment

The assignment is two-fold: firstly, to identify areas for improvement and adaptation for sustainability in the day-to-day running of the programme. Secondly, the aim is to investigate CHASP’s long-term impact including improvements in vaccination coverage and mortality and morbidity rates related to preventable diseases, in CHASP districts over the 2017-2025 period of its implementation. The evaluation should apply a strong gender-responsive and intersectional lens, ensuring women’s and adolescent girls’ perspectives and experiences are meaningfully reflected throughout data collection, analysis, and interpretation.

Specific Objectives

1.     To assess how the planned outcomes and impacts of the program have been realized, including intended and unintended consequences and identify success and hindering factors (both internal/external factors) that positively or negatively influenced implementation.

2.     To conduct theory of change critical analysis to assess causality, assess whether activities logically led to outputs, outcomes, and impacts as envisioned in the Theory of Change (ToC), and identify synergistic effects of CHASP III interventions and integrated program components.

3.     To evaluate how program innovations strengthened existing health systems, focusing on health system building blocks along with community contribution and ownership in the decentralized health system.

4.     To assess how the project implementation adapted across the three member states (Jubaland, Galmudug and Puntland) in terms of governance and response to shocks (droughts, conflicts, and other emergencies).

5.     To evaluate the progress of the CHASP III transition strategy, assess how well each state aligns with the transition strategy and identify the main barriers and enabling factors affecting its implementation.

6.     To assess to what extent SGBV services are integrated with health, legal, and social protection systems to provide gender-sensitive, adolescent- and women-centered comprehensive support, and how accessible, coordinated, and survivor-centered are SGBV case management and referral services.

7.     To identify scalable, gender-transformative practices aligned with the Theory of Change (e.g., male caregiving, joint decision-making, youth-led advocacy or youth-centered empowerment such as girl’s shine model). This includes evaluation of Father-to-Father (F2F) support groups, with a focus on changes in men’s attitudes, caregiving practices, and the resulting impact on women’s wellbeing and decision-making power.

8.     To examine social inclusion in representation (gender, age, disability, location/migration status, clan minorities) in social accountability mechanisms (CHC, community outreach etc).

9.     To examine how the project upholds to the principle of do no harm, centrality of protection and conflict sensitivity.

10.   To assess trends in child and maternal morbidity and mortality in CHASP districts over the 2017–2025 programme period, using available HMIS, survey, and program data, triangulated with qualitative community feedback. Where data are limited or inconsistent, document gaps and propose strategies to strengthen monitoring for long-term impact assessment.

Methodology of the review

This review will use mixed methods, both quantitative and qualitative approaches to gather data. Quantitative data will be from health service catchment population level survey, triangulated with program indicator performance, HMIS and nutrition data from the MoH. While for qualitative data, individual and group in-depth interviews will be conducted with relevant stakeholders including Ministry of Health directors at federal level, three-member states, beneficiaries, district health management board member, donors, SCI field staff and other authorities in the project area.

Strategies to be used to collect relevant information include:

·         Conduct Interviews with a representative range of samples of beneficiaries to capture information related to the relevance and appropriateness of the program innovation strategies utilized. (Ensure children, adolescent girls, IDP women and women with disabilities alongside male respondents to assess gender-differentiated experiences and outcomes).

·         Conduct In-depth interviews with MoH directors and SCI field staff and other key stakeholders including key district level authorities and community leaders.

·         Document success stories, case Studies, lessons learned, provide recommendation and policy implications/briefs. 

An in-depth approach to data analysis is required. The statistical analysis of the quantitative component is expected to identify factors influencing program outcomes, thus establishing relationships between different variables and the outcomes of interest, as well as validating or challenging assumptions about the status of access and children affected by the crisis. It is expected that qualitative data will be analyzed using emerging codes, thus allowing for the identification of unanticipated factors/patterns. Extensive triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data will be required for validation of results and in-depth understanding of the effects observed. Findings should be disaggregated at multiple levels, including sex, disability, location, rural, urban, type of health facility, IDP/non-IDP condition, and where relevant, most prevalent community livelihood (such as pastoralism, agro-pastoralism, agriculture). 

Output And Midterm Evaluation Criteria

In assessing project interventions, the midterm evaluation must follow The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) six evaluation criteria: relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability plus health system resilience.

Relevance:

·         Was the program design relevant to identified needs.

·         To what extent was the program design adaptive to evolving needs and changing program implementation environment?

·         Is there compelling evidence that points to the need for adjustment of the theory of change and the underlying assumptions that informed the program design?

Efficiency

·         Are the financial resources, human resources and other inputs being used efficiently to achieve program progress?

·         What specific measures can be taken to enhance value for money, and cost sharing in delivering program outputs?

Coherence

·         To what extent has there been cooperation with other organizations/actors working on the same thematic components (in terms of complementarity, harmonization, and coordination with others)? Including other SCI projects)

·         To what extent are the objectives aligned to the national priorities and strategies?

·         To what extent were the program design and implementation aligned to community needs?

·         To what extent is there complementarity between the CHASP program with integrated disease surveillance and response in the program target districts?

Effectiveness:

·         To what extent are the planned program outputs delivered, and how are they contributing to the attainment of program objectives within the required timeframe?

·         What has worked/not worked well in terms of activity implementation and the processes/systems deployed to facilitate the same?

·         What are the barriers to immunization for zero-dose and under-vaccinated children in program target districts/health catchment populations?

Impact:

·         Have key program results and lessons learned been incorporated into advocacy and training work?

·         The program intervention contribution to the outcome of IPC (infection, prevention, and control) and net impact of nutrition intervention. 

·          What has changed in child vaccination coverage and maternal and child mortality and morbidity rates in CHASP program areas since the program started?

Sustainability:

·         What has the program done to ensure sustainability of the health systems supported/developed in the first half of the project?

·         What needs to be done to strengthen the sustainability of the program deliverables in the second half of implementation

Review team

Save the Children (SC) will oversee the review exercise and periodically update the donors of the evaluation progress. Furthermore, SC field and project team will provide necessary support at the field level.

Experiences and Qualifications

Expected Qualification and Experience of the review team

·         The evaluation team must demonstrate gender balance and should include at least one woman with proven expertise and experience in women’s health and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and SGBV in fragile or humanitarian contexts, serving as a lead or co-lead evaluator.
Rationale: Given the strong gendered dimensions of health outcomes, and the influence of unequal power dynamics within communities and health systems, it is essential that the evaluation be designed and led through a gender-responsive and intersectional lens to ensure findings and recommendations reflect women’s and girls’ lived realities.

·         At least 7 years’ experience and knowledge in designing and conducting gender-responsive, child-rights-sensitive program evaluations, including health programmes that target SGBV, SRHR, and adolescent empowerment. Minimum 2 years of experience in SGBV programming to ensure appropriate expertise and a do no harm approach.

·         At least a master’s degree in public health or others relevant discipline.

·         Undertaken similar assignments of large multi area, multi-interventions health programs review in Somalia or a similar context.

·         Share evidence of similar prior assignments.

·         Having exceptional ability in critical and strategical thinking and drawing practicable recommendations and policy briefs from program reviews.

·         Fluency in English (verbal and written), Somali is an added value.

Obligations Of the Parties

a)    The Consultant

·         The lead consultant will assume overall responsibility for the deliverables.

b)    The Client

·         SCI will support all stages of the evaluation process, including providing relevant documentation, assisting in the organization of data collection (giving contact details, ensuring the availability of interviewees and relevant data, providing feedback on drafts of all agreed outputs, including methodology).

The SCI MEAL advisor and research/ evaluation manager (child survival) will guide the evaluation, and they will:

·         Provide input into the proposed methodology and tools

·         Sign off final deliverables (inception report, final report)

Skills Required

Attachment

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