Capitalization - Terre des hommes - Emergency Response to the Ukrainian crisis in Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Ukraine

1- Presentation of Terre des hommes in Europe

Terre des hommes (Tdh) is the leading Swiss organization for children’s aid. Through our health, protection and emergency relief programmes, we provide assistance to over four million deprived children and their families in more than 30 countries each year through innovative and sustainable solutions.

In Ukraine, Tdh has been operating through 3 offices: Kyiv, Sievierodonetsk, and Mariupol. Due to the drastic change in context, we had to make the painful decision to halt our activities in the East of Ukraine severely bombed since February 24 and focus on the staff's security. Now, Tdh is focusing on the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast in the West and has recently reopened its office in Kiev.

The Tdh Offices in Romania and in Moldova deploy projects related to child protection, migration and access to justice in mobilizing communities and in collaborating with professionals. As for the Office in Hungary, it is the Regional Hub in Europe. It possesses significant experience in managing regional projects involving interventions in East and South Europe.

2- Context and project

Considering the urgency of the crisis, Tdh offices in Moldova, Hungary, and Romania launched an emergency response, building on the in-country presence, operational advantages and positioning. Tdh teams have been deployed on the entry points of the neighbouring countries’ borders or/and the reception/transit centers. This emergency intervention was performed to directly address humanitarian assistance to beneficiaries, mainly refugees, especially women and their children but also unaccompanied children. At the same time, it has allowed Tdh to engage with local actors and the civil society to ensure that local capacity is maintained in the medium and long term. The emergency response has included Child-Friendly Space, Mother-Baby Corner, Psychological First Aid, MHPSS activities, case management, distribution of hygiene and dignity kits, cash transfer, information, individual protection assistance and referrals.

As of today, activities in facilities put in place have been adapted to the decrease of the refugee’s flux and their needs. Tdh Teams in the region are still working on the emergency response as many refugees are still at risk in Ukraine and in the neighboring countries facing important lack of basic services, livelihoods, adequate information, legal documentation and may be impoverished over time.

3- Objective of the capitalization

The objective of the capitalization is to transform information collected about the emergency response to the Ukrainian crisis into shareable knowledge. It should help to develop appropriate solutions to concrete situations through a combination of contextual analysis, theoretical references, and practical analysis. The aim is thus to analyse the know-how including both gaps and best practices and learn from this operation.

The capitalization will produce lessons learned, best practices, and recommendations based on the emergency response to the Ukrainian crisis. The capitalization is meant to transform knowledge that is disperse or perhaps contained within a small circle of people into knowledge that is relevant and accessible to all. By performing a critical reflection of this experience, the consultant will examine the steps that were taken, what worked and what didn’t and why. It should help to transform and improve the processes and practices of the organization.

The capitalization’s exercise should serve the Foundation to get:

1. A critical reflection of the experience gathered during this emergency response, lessons learnt, what worked, did not work, why, why not – with the objective to inform the follow-on period of the response, and inform course corrections.
2. A process that explains what actions were taken during the first phase of the emergency response to the crisis and why these actions were taken.
3. A source of learning for future similar emergency responses, contributing to the rebuild of emergency management experience and systemic learning at Tdh.
4. A development of a toolbox (process simplification and specific tools for emergency) that could serve the response to emergency at Tdh in the future.

4- Scope of the capitalization

The driven question is the following: How Tdh has been able to respond this complex crisis? The report will concern all 4 countries: Romania, Moldova, Hungary, and Ukraine. The capitalization understood as a learning from experience will focus on the different phases of the emergency response, the decisions taken at each stage, the processes in place, and the capacity to deploy the teams.

The report will concern the following areas:

• How has Tdh managed this emergency response (ER)?

Specific aspects to look at are preparedness, coordination, ER project cycle, program investments, dissemination of the information, management of the processes, level of support within the organization, ensuring of common understanding of the response, short term impact on beneficiaries.

• How has Tdh HR capacity adapted to the response?

Specific aspects to look at are delegation’s adaptation and scale up process, task division, workload absorption, Regional Coordination Team, capacity and competencies of the staff, relevance of the positions.

• How Tdh has coordinated the communication on the emergency response?

Specific aspects to look at are internal flow of communication at HQ level for Operations and Supports and at delegation level, efforts on advocacy, donor’s visibility requirements.

• How the programmatic decision-making has been coordinated?

Specific aspects to look at are the relevance of the strategy incl. regional approach, management of system complexity and internal know-how.

• How Tdh balanced its resources with the volume of its operations?

Specific aspects to look at is Tdh resources and the capacity to deploy emergency operations based on the volume of the needs.

• How has Tdh managed internal processes?

Specific aspects to look at are recruitment of staff, logistic/supply chain, fundraising/finance, MEAL/data collection and analysis, communication, advocacy, bottlenecks identification. What good practices were applied and why? What could be simplified or made more relevant/efficient?

• How has Tdh developed partnerships?

Specific aspect to look at are the complementarity with partners, partnership agreements, evaluation of the networks’ strengthening and expansion, impact for mid/long term projects in the region.

• How has Tdh coordinated with other humanitarian actors including Tdh Federation?

Specific aspect to look at is the development of the relationship with other international NGOs and Tdh federation.

5- Intended users of the capitalization

The results of the final capitalization’s report will be used by the:

• Portfolio working for Europe and the field teams: to reflect on and learn from how the regional project has performed and how it can inform the follow-on implementation.
• The Emergency Response Team: to reflect on the best ways to support the Portfolio and field teams facing humanitarian crisis.
• The broader Operations with focus on Migration programme and Child Protection expertise: to learn from the project, build institutional knowledge, and assess how it can generally inform future programming in this field.
• Senior management of Tdh HQ: to assess how the project can inform future programmatic portfolio decisions and strategy-making, and what effective and corrective actions might need to be taken going forward in similar or continuation projects.

6- Timeframe

The foreseen timeframe and number of working days for the assignment are indicated in the table. The final schedule and number of days will be mutually agreed between Tdh and the selected applicant.

Steps/phases & deliverables

Timeframe/deadline

Starting date of contract/assignment xxxx

Inception meeting 0.5 day

Desk review of available documents 7 days

Development of data collection methods and tools 3 days

Inception report 5 days

Data collection phase 15 days

Data analysis and drafting of the final report 8 days

Presentation of the draft report and preliminary findings 1 day

Finalization of the capitalization report 3 days

Closing date of contract, final administration and payment (upon approval of the report by Tdh) xxxx

7- Methodology

Interested applicants are invited to propose their methodology that should be robust and allow for a proper reflection and lesson learning exercise.

The project team members should be closely involved in the data collection (for consultation).

Generally, a participative approach should be followed during the capitalization’s process. People that will be involved in the capitalization are the task force members, the portfolio, the emergency manager, the emergency team and all people that have been directly involved into the emergency response at delegation level in the 4 countries, Head, HR, Log, Fin (MCD East Delegation (Romania and Moldova), the Hungary Regional Hub, the Ukraine delegation). A list will be submitted to the consultant.

The evaluation methodology should keep in mind the following underlying principles:

• Equality and non-discrimination of any individual involved in the data collection and consultation process.
• Participation and inclusion of different diversity groups to the extent possible, while ensuring that participation and inclusion does not cause any harm or distress to the individual.
• Transparency and accountability throughout the evaluation and assessment process towards all organizations and individuals involved.
• Empowerment of marginalised children whenever children are involved at any point of the process e.g. communication of capitalization findings;
• Confidentiality must be preserved, and names and personally identifiable information should not be collected or, if they are necessary, they should be duly coded and encrypted.
• Informed consent and assent: should be sought from all participants, including providing them with information on the objective of the evaluation and how data will be used as well as ensuring the opportunity to ask and confirm questions before agreeing to participate.
• Child safety: whenever children are involved, the evaluator(s) and anyone affiliated with the evaluation (assistants, translators) must sign the Tdh Child Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct and adhere to its principles.

8- Deliverables

The consultant will be required to submit the following deliverables (all in electronic version):

• Inception report (approx. 15 pages plus annexes) – in English that includes the following: the proposed methodology and data collection tools, an analysis plan, and overall work plan for the assignment.
• Draft final report (approx. 30 pages plus annexes) – in English, with the preliminary results of the analysis for the project team’s review and feedback. The final report shall include an executive summary, narrative report, summary table with main conclusions and recommendations and lessons learned. The report shall also contain all usual annexes such as terms of reference of the capitalization, data collection tools, consent forms and protocols, tables, graphics, list of desk review references, transcripts, and the PPT presentation of the findings.
• Presentation of the draft report and preliminary findings – in English in a dedicated meeting, attended by the consultant and the portfolio/programmes/expertises/Emergency Service/field teams representatives.
• Final report – in English, with full and final analysis results and incorporation of the feedback received on the draft report.

The consultant is also expected to be available for regular and brief check-in calls, as necessary, throughout the assignment to share updates on the progress.

9- Profile of the consultant

Tdh will accept applications from both individuals, teams, academic entities, NGOs and companies as long as they are officially registered with a local state tax number (i.e. are able to issue an invoice) and have capitalization, evaluation, research, impact study or similar and/or consultancy as their object of activity, which can be proven by legal documentation.

In case the evaluation is conducted by a team, the team should ideally be diverse and gender balanced.

Required experience and skills:

• At least 3 learning exercises or other similar, relevant research/studies prepared for 3 different projects. Examples can be annexed unless confidential. Previous experience in conducting learning exercises of projects around emergency response and child protection to massive population displacements is an essential asset.
• Have at least one field experience in the emergency field
• Proven skills in using participatory and qualitative animation techniques and analysis methods.
• Strong understanding of diversity and inclusion incl. age, gender and diversity sensitivity aspects.
• Strong writing skills and ability to convey technical and complex information in a structured, logical, clear and concise manner for different audiences.
• Full written and oral proficiency in English for data collection and production of quality reports. Knowledge of the local language in the implementing countries is an asset.
• Strong computer proficiency to prepare quality written reports with clean data visualization and presentation of findings.
• Experience in the countries of implementation (i.e. Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Ukraine) is an asset.
• Master’s degree (or higher) in social sciences, economics, public policy, law, research and evaluation, management or other related field(s) from an accredited university.
• Capacity to issue invoices with tax registration in Europe (UK and Switzerland included).

The person in charge of the capitalization must not have been involved in the design, implementation or monitoring of the project at any stage, nor have benefitted from the project activities in any way.

10- Budget

The proposed budget for the capitalization will be provided by the consultant in the Financial Offer. Upon the review of the Financial and Technical Offers, Tdh may choose to negotiate the final price with the preferred applicant in light of the Financial Offer and Tdh’s available budget. Tdh may go with 2 different consultants for the capitalization depending on the combination of the quality and competitiveness of the Technical and Financial offers.

Tdh will not be able to support with translation during data collection. Any necessary translation/interpretation work, and costs should be clearly noted in the Technical Offer and costed accordingly.

11- Application procedures

The application package shall include:

• Technical Offer – max. 10 pages;
• Financial Offer – with a detailed line-item budget, indicating costs in CHF. The indicated prices should be 1) NET amounts to be received by the consultant plus 2) all local taxes.
• Up-to-date CV of the consultant – max. 3 pages/CV;
• Example of previous work carried out (if any, unless confidential or if it can be anonymized);
• Contacts of 3 professional references;
• Confirmation of legal registration (e.g. tax number, EU VAT number) of the applicant for providing capitalization services and the ability to issue an invoice.
• Declaration of impartiality (in the applicant’s format).

Applications – incl. all annexes – must be in English. Other languages will not be accepted.

Applications must be submitted as a single application package. Documents sent separately will not be accepted. Tdh will confirm the receipt of each application within 2 working days.

The Technical and Financial Offer must be signed on the first and last page and stamped (if an official stamp is available). Both offers shall contain the name and contacts of the consultant (or the representative if it is a team, company or similar).

Applications will be assessed based on the following criteria: Assessment criteria

• Technical Offer (40 points) – based on:

1. the understanding of the nature and objectives of the assignment;
2. understanding of the ToR;
3. data collection methodology proposed;
4. specific schedule, plan and approach proposed for the data collection.

• Financial Offer (40 points) – based on:

1. price-value ratio and demonstration of maximum value for money;
2. completeness of information;
3. consistency with the technical offer and approach.

• Profile and experience of the applicant (20 points) – based on:

1. submitted CV(s);
2. submitted previous work.

TOTAL : 100 points

12- Reference documents & annexes

The selected consultant will be provided with the following documents upon contract start:

• Original project proposals and main annexes
• Project reports submitted to the donors
• Project management documents, such as work plans, M&E plans, indicator progress trackers, reporting tracker etc.
• Minutes of project coordination calls
• Response strategy workshop notes (regional and country-level)

Information Management Assessment – final report.

How to apply

Questions relating to the assignment, the project or the application process can be submitted to the Response to Disaster Unit Manager**, Laurence Gaubert-Henry at Laurence.gaubert@tdh.ch**

Answers that may concern all applicants will be shared with everyone as deemed necessary.

Interested applicants shall submit their application via e-mail to the following e-mail address: Laurence.gaubert@tdh.ch.

The e-mail should have the subject-line: Tdh’s Ukrainian crisis response - capitalization.

The deadline for submission is 30th of November 2022 (23:59 CEST).