Terms of Reference for Consultancy – Final external evaluation TAMKEEN III (2022-2025) / Plan International Egypt 

(Please download the Terms of Reference for all relevant information to submit proposal).

Only consultancies / individual registered in Egypt will be considered for this assignment or those having a partner in Egypt. 

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child. However, this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it is girls who are most affected. Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable
children.
We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.
We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 75 years and are now active in more than 70 countries.
Read more about Plan International’s Global Strategy: 200 million Reasons at https://plan-international.org/strategy.

Project context
Prevalence of youth unemployment in Egypt in 2021 has been estimated at 19.7% among youth aged 20-24, compared to an overall rate of 7.4% for those aged 15-64. In addition to poverty and skills inadequacy, other hindrances to access and retention of youth in the job market (both in wage employment and self-employment streams) include lack of networking opportunities to penetrate the business environment, lack of training in specific technical areas where
jobs exist and the mismatch between youth aspirations and the available opportunities. It affects young women more severely since the unemployment rate in 2021 for female youth aged 15-29 is much higher than that of male youth, at 35.9% and 10.8%, respectively of the total unemployed population. This is notably due to social norms which restrict women to domestic work and childcare or which add conditions (e.g., proximity to residence or limited working hours),
thus limiting the quantity or quality of job opportunities available to women.

Summary of the project
The project, currently in its third phase, aims to enhance the socio-economic participation of young women (70%) and
men (30%) aged 18-35, from marginalized areas of Cairo, Alexandria and Assiut in Egypt, and promote equal economic
opportunities and decision-making for young women. If youth are able to strengthen relevant technical and innovative skills to access either wage or self-employment opportunities; and key stakeholders have the capacity to promote gender supportive work and business environment, then those youth will earn income and develop confidence, improving their long-term capabilities and economic status. At the design phase of Tamkeen I, PIE decided to have a
differentiated approach to the vulnerability of participants depending on the project’s locations and contexts, as the market needs are different in Cairo and Alexandria compared to Assiut (in Upper Egypt). It relies on the partnership with CDAs (Community Development Associations) in the 3 main locations.
Evaluations of phases I and II insisted on tackling the important need for more gender inclusion training for
government and private sector stakeholders, complementing the existing physical spaces with digital content, widening the targeted areas within the same governorates, diversifying the base of youth participants to include more young women and formalizing a network between youth (Tamkeen Clubs) to share their experience so that there is a beneficial effect on their socio-economic participation. Efforts were also made to strengthen the entrepreneurship training pathway and widen access to funding and scaling opportunities (through incubators for instance) for young entrepreneurs.

Plan International has designed the current Tamkeen III project as a continuous work with phases I and II with the objective to sustain and phase the project over by reinforcing young women and men’s socio-economic participation and enhancing their employability through youth-led structures in an increasingly enabling environment for young
women. According to the project documents, this will be achieved through:
– improving their access to economic opportunities by increasing their skills and prospects for decent
employment or starting small businesses;
– strengthening ‘Tamkeen Clubs’ capacities to create a gender-supportive and enabling environment for better youth employability through capacity-building, networking and advocacy. The structure of the Tamkeen clubs is based on utilizing the capacities of Tamkeen II alumni who are also responsible for skill transfer.
The two-pronged approach will build on and develop young people, especially young women’s, skills for better and decent wage or self-employment opportunities. On another front, Tamkeen clubs, which are alumni clubs aiming to support the project’s youth by passing on their knowledge and experience, will be capacitated to support young people
in a gender-sensitive way to lead the increasingly autonomous clubs, thus strengthening their ability to act collectively mobilizing key stakeholders.
Targeted local and national stakeholders will also have their awareness increased and capacities built to promote youth economic participation in a gender-supportive environment nurturing the sustainability of Tamkeen Clubs. This phase is implemented through the existing partner CDAs while expanding on the geographical outreach to sustain the impact and use the CDAs networks, resources and premises as a springboard.

Overall objective of the project
To reinforce young women and men (18-35 years old) in marginalized areas of Egypt (Cairo, Alexandria and Assiut) for socio-economic participation by enhancing their employability through youth-led structures in an increasingly enabling environment for young women.

Specific objective(s):
➢ Specific Objective 1: To improve access to economic opportunities for young men and women by increasing the skills and prospects for decent employment and starting small businesses.
➢ Specific Objective 2: To strengthen ‘Tamkeen Clubs’ capacities to create a gender-supportive and enabling environment for better youth employability through capacity building, networking and advocacy.
Target Group(s):
Direct beneficiaries: 2000 – as females (70%) and males (30%) aged 18-35 years. 1500 in Cairo and Alexandria & 500 in Assiut.
Indirect beneficiaries: 12,000 family members of the 2,000 beneficiaries. Inhabitants of informal settlements of Cairo,
Alexandria and Assiut targeted by the project. 15 000 community members (7000 in Cairo, 4000 in Alexandria and 4000 in Assiut) benefiting from awareness-raising.

Project partners
Implementation partners:
1. New Fostat CDA in Cairo.
2. Al Reyada CDA in Alexandria.
3. Egyptian Society of Scientific Researchers (ESSR) CDA in Assiut.
Locations of the project:
Greater Cairo area: Giza: Dokki, Bohous, Cairo University, Imbab, El Monib, Faisal and El Haram.
Alexandria governorate: Borg El Arab, El Agami, Al Montazah, Middle and East of Alexandria
Assiut: Assiut District, including Assiut city and urban periphery.

2. Description of the final evaluation
Objectives and scope of the assignment

As envisaged in the project documents, an independent final evaluation of the Tamkeen III project will take place in the final months prior to the end of the project. The overall monitoring efforts during project implementation focused on output and outcome level. However, it is crucial for PIE, as well as for the CDAs, to measure long-term impact and the sustainability of their work. This is also in line with the recommendations of the second phase evaluation stating that the Tamkeen project should develop a more ‘impact-oriented’ M&E system. Therefore, and in line with the DAC evaluation criteria of the OECD, the objective of the final evaluation will be to particularly assess the impact and sustainability of the project. Although the focus of the final evaluation will be on the third phase of the project, considerations of the three phases will be integrated (via the review of previous evaluations and involvement of participants from previous phases). In addition to a review of the impact and sustainability of the project, the study will also need to focus on determining whether the project has had any sort of unexpected effects, including both positive and negative, on project stakeholders and beneficiaries. Finally, innovation and scale up will be questioned.

The scope of work for this consultancy will include, but may not be limited to:

• Impact:
The positive and negative changes produced by the Tamkeen III project, directly or indirectly, intended
or unintended. The main effects resulting from the project on the local, social, economic, environmental
and other development indicators.
• What is the Tamkeen III project’s likely contribution to the overall objective? More specifically,
what could have been done differently to improve implementation and maximize impact at an
acceptable cost?
• Did impact vary for different targeted groups (household vulnerability, beneficiary’s gender,
educational situation, other exclusion factors)? If so, how and why?
• What needs to be done differently to achieve and maximise a positive impact on youth’s lives
and the fulfilment of their rights?
• What can be learned about the changes produced by the Tamkeen III project and those that were
not expected?
• To what extent has the Tamkeen III project contributed to gender equality and empowerment,
as outlined in project documents, and in particular how young men have promoted gender equality and inspired other men to take action for gender equality?
• Can young women equally benefit from decent work and social protection, access markets and have control over resources? Do women have an increased voice, and meaningful participation
in economic decisions? Are young women able to have access to financial institutions under the same conditions and equal to men? Do families show support for young women in an enabling environment to pursue the career of their choice?

• Sustainability:
• Are there signs of lasting influence of the work of Tamkeen III with stakeholders especially on
women socio-economic participation?
• Has the work of Tamkeen III strengthened the capacities of national/state/municipal public and
private institutions, employers’ and workers’ organisations, and civil society regarding socioeconomic
participation improvement in a sustainable way especially for young women? Which
current institutions and organizations have the necessary capacities?
• How has the work of Tamkeen III influenced current attitudes towards socio-economic
participation, as captured by the national dialogue (media, movements, support for civil society,
etc.)?
• How have external factors beyond the control of Tamkeen III played a significant role?
• What synergies have been generated within Tamkeen III interventions and between Tamkeen
and other agencies? What can be learned about the hindrances to sustainability?
• Scale up and innovation
• Were any innovative aspects of the project identified during the evaluation, particularly with
regard to the socio-economic participation of young women?
• What is the level of innovation, replicability and potential for scaling up? How have changes been
integrated at different levels? (processes in place to follow-up change)

3. Evaluation outputs
The expected outputs are the following :
• An inception report, including the final methodology and tools, a clear matrix of roles and responsibilities, a detailed work plan and timeline, the detailed financial breakdown, the explanation on the process for obtaining the  participants’ consent and any necessary government permission;
• Submission of a quantitative survey;
• Organization of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs);
• Organization of Outcome Harvesting or Most Significant Change (MSC) workshop(s);
• A draft evaluation report produced for Plan International and partner CDAs’ review;
• A validation workshop gathering PIE staff, partner CDAs and key stakeholders to share findings and recommendations and receive feedback;
• A final evaluation report, incorporating Plan International, CDAs and project participants’ feedback;
• At least two stories of change based on outcomes (maximum two pages each) included in the annexes or case studies, or Most Significant Change stories.

Publication Date: Today 19^th Dec 2024

Deadline for Submissions: January 6^th, 2025

Please send your application to Plan International to: Egyptco.Procurement@plan-international.org no later than 6th
of January 2025 referencing “Final external evaluation study – Tamkeen III Project ” in the subject line and including
support documents as outlined.

Download the terms of reference to read all the information relating to this consultancy (description of deliverables, schedule, terms, technical and financial proposal, selection criteria and profile sought).