Save the Children Denmark (SCD) has been implementing projects in South Sudan for over a decade. SCD has previously been working in partnership with Save the Children UK (SCUK). In November, 2009, the three Save the Children offices in southern Sudan (Sweden, USA, and UK) combined managerial systems to provide a Unified Presence in southern Sudan. This structure is known as Save the Children in South Sudan (SCiSS), and programmes are overall managed by Save the Children UK (SCUK). This integration is Save the Children’s global strategy to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of Save the Children programmes thereby magnifying the impact on the lives of children and their caregivers. SCUK provides day to day management of the programme and implementation of the programme.
In May 2010, SCD joined the SCiSS as a Participating Member of the Country Leadership Group and thereby supports the strategic development of Save the Children’s engagement. Furthermore, SCD closely monitors and provides supportive supervision to all stages of project cycle management.
SCiSS is able to build on the long history of the four member organisations which have been in operation since as early as 1993 and is one of the few international organisations in the country which had a presence during the years of conflict.
The situation in South Sudan Years of war have left southern Sudan with many of the worst humanitarian and development indicators in the world.
Over 90% of the population lives on less than $1/day and the entire region is in a cycle of food insecurity. Food insecurity is threatening the sustainable nature of return and is exacerbating inter- and intra-community tensions. This is particularly felt in drought-affected, short-cycle, sorghum-growing areas located in the Western Flood Plains, including Northern Bahr El Ghazal.
Although advances in education have outstripped progress in other key areas, Government of Republic of South Sudan (RoSS) figures suggest that only 48% of school-age children are enrolled in Primary School, and that only 12% actually complete Primary School. There remains a severe shortage of teachers and most teachers have themselves not completed primary school. Gender disparity continues to be of a major concern as only 14% of teachers are female, three times more boys than girls attend school and the primary school dropout rates for girls, at 25%, are the highest in the world.
Despite having some of the worst health indicators in the world, there has been virtually no expansion in basic health services since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005. The existing health safety net, which covers only 20-25% of the population, is under tremendous pressure as a result of the 2009 economic downturn and shortcomings in funding mechanisms.
Hundreds of thousands of deaths in South Sudan, especially of children, are the direct result of poor water and sanitation. At least one-third of all villagers still rely on rivers for their water and less than seven percent of South Sudan’s entire population has access to improved sanitation. This has inevitably given rise to water borne and hygiene disease outbreaks such as cholera and diarrhea, which is one of the leading causes of childhood deaths.
The situation for children in South Sudan is complex; but it is clear that children face a systemic combination of issues that affect the respect, protection and fulfillment of their rights.
Livelihood options Traditional livelihoods in South Sudan depend on a combination of cattle rearing, crop production, fishing, wild food collection and trade; the level and combination of each varies greatly by the seven livelihood zones. These traditional subsistence livelihood options have not translated into sustainable development; poverty rates are amongst the highest in the world, with over 90% of people living on an income of less than one USD per day . The agricultural sector remains the most promising sector for economic development, given that 90% of land in South Sudan is suitable for agriculture. However, the majority of this arable land remains uncultivated on account of a number of compounding factors, including years of war and on-going unrest; lost traditional farming practices among communities due displacement; lack of technical knowledge; sporadic rainfall; lack of assets (seeds tools, water management systems); poor road supporting infrastructure to markets; limited business skills of traders, among others.
Vocational Training situation analysis
Vocational Training opportunities in South Sudan are scarse, and far less coordinated and standardized than formal education. South Sudan Ministries have recognized the need to develop standardized job-oriented training, supported mainly by the ILO, and under the Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Human Resources Development (the Ministry of Labour) and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (now: Ministry of General Education and Instruction). Unfortunately, lead responsibility between each of these Ministries is less understood and lack of funding and poor capacity has resulted in an uncoordinated approach with limited progress to date. According to an assessment done by the Women’s Refugee Commission in September 2010, “ in addition to the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (hereafter, Ministry of Youth) also has a directorate concerned with Vocational Training. A further six ministries have departments dealing with small-scale Vocational Training provision . As yet there is no mechanism that allows ministries involved in Vocational Training provision to discuss Vocational Training issues directly and to coordinate program planning and implementation.”
TVET programs operating in South Sudan are not necessarily aligned with labour market needs, have not systematically evaluated success of trainees in terms of increased income and livelihood opportunities, and do not adequately address other equally important and complimentary components of Vocational Training in the South Sudanese context. As found in Save the Children’s TVET Centre in Malualkon, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, and supported in other literature, a more holistic approach to TVET should be supported. Some examples include supporting campaigns for enrolment that address the negative perceptions of manual labour and motivation of youth; offering life skills, entrepreneurship / business skills and basic literally and numeracy training alongside TVET courses; provide linkages to micro-financing and apprenticeship opportunities for graduates. Further, particular attention to the needs of young women at TVET sites, including promoting skills development in trades that can be accommodated within the homestead, providing child-care options, and where relevant, considering on and off-site accommodation that addresses security concerns of the sponsoring community, should be prioritized.
Regions of Origin Initiative
In line with the objectives of the Danish Government’s Regions of Origin Initiative (ROI), Save the Children is approaching this Emergency Education VI project holistically. Working alongside other organisations that are supporting the same goal, Save the Children aims to increase access to education in Aweil East both to benefit existing communities as well as to encourage the displaced to return to their homes, with the knowledge that the educational needs of their children will be provided for. By facilitating the peaceful and willing reintegration of displaced families back into their original communities, and by focusing on ensuring their protection with durable solutions, Save the Children will thereby help to support the goals of the CPA in South Sudan.
Save the Children has been implementing education projects under the ROI since 2006. A review of these projects was carried out in February 2008 by Danida and an end of project evaluation took place in November 2008. Below is a response to the key conclusions made by these two evaluations.
Project summary
The project follows a two-pronged approach: 1) to conduct a TVET mapping and analysis, plus a market study, that will be utilized in developing a 3-year Action Plan for TVET in South Sudan; capacity development support to ROSS will be provided in building the Plan with the TVET sub-sector working group; 2) to provide support to an existing TVET Centre to strengthen its programming and build a scalable vocational training centre model on which to draw best practices.
Objective 1: To develop a 3-year Action Plan for technical and vocational youth education, training and employment and supported by relevant county, state and national governments in southern Sudan. Objective 1 will include the mapping of and analysis on the TVET subsector in South Sudan, including a market study relevant to vocational training. Support to national actors to develop of a 3 year TVET Action Plan will also be provided. The mapping and analysis of the TVET subsector will focus on existing government structures and other vocational training provided in all states in South Sudan and link in with the existing TVET sub-sector work spearheaded by the ILO. The analysis will utilise focus group and individual interviews, questionnaires, desk studies and observations. Informants will be line ministry staff management and policy makers, donors, and vocational training provider staff and management. The results from the analysis will serve as the main basis for developing the three year National Action Plan for TVET in South Sudan, which has been reduced to 2 ½ year to coincide with the remaining period of the first South Sudan Development Plan. The analysis will be carried out by a team of local technical specialists trained by the project, headed by an SC consultant, and Regional SC technical staff. National and state government actors will be supported to develop the 3 year TVET Action Plan. This will be facilitated by an SC consultant regional technical staff with support by the SCD Technical Advisor. The capacity development provided will be practical and context based, and will be directly relevant for the development of the Plan. A task force comprising representatives from national line ministries, and relevant private or community key stakeholders will take responsibility for development of a draft plan. The task force will be supported by an SC consultant and SC regional technical staff. The Task Force will develop the first draft of the overall national action plan based on analysis and consultations at national and state level. Consultations will include policy makers, and representatives from line ministries, community representatives, INGOs, donors and other relevant key stake holders. The process will emphasise participatory methods and consensus. The draft national action plan will be presented for review to Ministry of Planning, and Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Finance, before the final approval by Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labour. The national action plan will provide the framework for State Action Plans to be developed 2011 – 2014, as part of the 2 1/2 year action plan.
The SC consultant will be responsible for coordination of and provision of technical inputs to the mapping, TVET analysis and market study as well as working with the Task Force on development of the National Action Plan. The process will also be supported by the SCD Technical Advisor with extensive TVET experience Objective Two: To develop, test and document a successful scalable model for youth education and employment (EYE) using an existing vocational site in Northern Bahr el Ghazal (NBeG), South Sudan
Support to the TVET centre will provide for a replicable holistic and systematic model for economic and social empowerment of young people. The model combines TVET employment, entrepreneurship, numeracy and literacy training, and life-skills training, and uses an approach that enables youth to make changes in their own lives and contribute to development of their local community.
The core elements for the economic empowerment component will include strengthening the TVET centre in NBeG by improving training courses offered and ensuring that they align with local market labour demands. The social empowerment component will be captured through the focus on providing a more holistic program to ensure success of graduates, which will seek to build life-skills and leadership by way of introducing a youth-led club and supporting community activities.
Purpose of and criteria for the Evaluation
The purpose of this End of Project Evaluation will be two-fold: 1) Provide accountability for project results and use of resources; and 2) Summarise key lessons learned. The guiding principles for the evaluation will be to balance the evaluation between assessment of the project performance and soliciting lessons learned for future project cycle management. The evaluation should focus on assessing project relevance/appropriateness, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability. These criteria are understood as follows:
Relevance is concerned with assessing whether the project is in line with local needs and priorities (as well as Save the Children, government and donor policies). Appropriateness is the tailoring of humanitarian activities to local needs, increasing ownership, accountability, and cost-effectiveness accordingly.
Effectiveness is the measure of the extent to which the project attains its objectives.
Efficiency measures the outputs - qualitative and quantitative - in relation to the inputs. It is an economic term which signifies that the project uses the least costly resources possible in order to achieve the desired results.
Sustainability is concerned with measuring whether the benefits of the project are likely to continue after donor funding is withdrawn.
Scope of the Evaluation
The evaluation will cover the accomplishment of all the expected results as outlined in the project document and detailed in the annual work plans during the entire project period. It should also assess all the different project activities as in the approved logical framework matrix.
Approach to the Evaluation
The Evaluation is expected to make use of primarily qualitative techniques in order to assess project performance and solicit lessons learned. The Evaluation is expected to commence with a desk review of Save the Children strategic documents, government education policies and strategies, Danida’s strategy on the Regions of Origin Initiative, project document and annexes, monthly and quarterly reports, and reviews/studies relevant to the project (e.g. Local Labour Market Study and Tracer Study).
Interviews with key informants in Save the Children (including at the TVET Centre), the government at national and local levels, and the ILO-led task force under the Ministry of Labour is expected to form part of the evaluation.
As the Evaluation will be conducted during Centre holidays to allow the project to finish before being evaluated, direct observation in the TVET Centre will not be possible. However, Save the Children will facilitate possibilities to conduct interviews with new graduates from the Centre as well as Centre staff.
Expected deliverables
The following are the key deliverables for the evaluation process; Detailed evaluation framework/design and implementation plan agreed with the Save the Children Country Office. Data collection tools Draft evaluation report Final draft evaluation report
Three hard copies of the final report and a soft copy in CD-ROM to SC office
To apply for the position, visit our website: http://www7.i-grasp.com/fe/tpl_savethechildren01.asp?newms=info1
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