Terms of Reference (TOR) for

National Consultant on

Monitoring, Reporting, Evaluation and Learning (MREL)

Duty Station:                           Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Languages Required:              English and Malay

Duration of contract:               60 working days (12 weeks) over the period of six months (tentatively the assignment will commence from 23 November 2020. However, the date will be finalized after completion of the hiring process)

Background

The Skills for Prosperity in South East Asia Programme (SfP-SEA) aims to contribute to increasing national capacity to achieve sustained and inclusive growth through the enhancement of skills development and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

To achieve this objective, the programme works with government agencies, employers’ organisations, trade unions, educational institutions and other partners in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines to facilitate review and reform of the countries’ skills development and TVET system strategies and policies. In the region, the SfP-SEA provides opportunities for mutual learning among the three countries and the other ASEAN nations, and beyond—not only showcasing the results of the pilots and lessons learned from the programme but also facilitating the sharing of best practices in the region and other parts of the world.

In Malaysia, the Programme focuses on increasing skills development and TVET systems’ readiness to meet the skills needs of the future of work and those of vulnerable groups, through enhancing four areas of the TVET system and delivery:

• Equity:  Inclusiveness in skills development and TVET systems
• Quality: Future-ready & coordinated skills development and TVET systems
• Relevance: Demand-driven skills and TVET/skills recognition
• Cost-Effectiveness: Improved skills/TVET financing models

   

The SfP Malaysia Project focuses on TVET inclusiveness, quality, relevance and readiness whilst addresses skills mismatch issues in the area of critical needs for skills development and TVET to support the industry development and socio-economic progress. It intends to assist national partners in improving policies to ensure industry-led TVET in public and private sectors and increase employment and career progress opportunities for TVET students at national and sub-national levels. The national and sub-national activities at two states, namely Sabah and Kedah, will target:

• The primary beneficiaries: youths (ages 16-25) and women; and
• Other beneficiaries (vulnerable groups):
  • Members of the B40
  • Persons with Disabilities
  • Individuals Not In Employment Education or Training (NEET)
  • Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
  • Workers in the informal economy
  • Self-employed individuals
  • individuals employed in the gig economy

In order to ensure that the SfP-Malaysia Project effectively collect and report results and respond to programme management needs in assessing progress and identifying lessons learned, the ILO requires on-going specialized services of a national consultant on MREL.

Objectives of this assignment

The overall objective of the assignment is to provide expert Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) knowledge and assist the SfP-Malaysia project team in collecting, analysing and reporting data as designed in the Malaysia MREL plan that demonstrates the impact of the programme.

Specific objectives of the assignment are:

• To ensure the result indicators designed for the SfP-Malaysia Project, including the MREL matrix and plan, are validated by the ILO constituents and stakeholders and appropriately correspond to the country needs;
• To ensure completion of country level MREL related tasks (data collection, analysis and reporting) and deliverables on target demonstrating impact of the programme; and
• To develop high-quality progress report for the programme results indicators.

   

Scope of Work

The consultant will support all country level MREL related activities for the SfP-Malaysia programme, including data collection, tabulation and analysis, and reporting. More specifically the following key activities will be undertaken by the consultant:

• The consultant will ensure all results indicators and their measurement methods are validated by the ILO constituents, partners and stakeholders. In order to do that, the consultant will:
  • Work closely with the Chief Technical Advisor and the country team to organize meetings with ILO constituents and stakeholders on validating the logframe and MREL plan and will also attend the meetings as an M&E expert.
  • Support the country team in ensuring that the partners and stakeholders understand the data collection requirements as envisioned in the MREL plan. S/he will also gather feedback from the stakeholders which will be used as rationale to the refinement of the results indicators, if and when required.
  • Develop a set of recommendations to the ILO on how to improve or make changes to the logframe indicators and measurement methods proposed in the MREL plan upon consultation with ILO constituents, partners and stakeholders as well as SfP staff. The recommendations will include fitting rationale for the changes proposed and will be presented using the recommended format provide by the ILO.
  • Work with the Regional M&E Officer to improve the MREL matrix and plan and refine the indicators and their measurement methods.

     

• The consultant will support the SfP-Malaysia Project in implementing the MREL plan of the programme by ensuring completion of country level MREL related tasks and deliverables on target in consultation with the Chief Technical Advisor and Regional M&E Officer. In order to do that, the consultant will:
  • Support the country team in preparing an internal work plan for the MREL activities that aligns with the data collection and reporting frequencies designed in the MREL plan.
  • Work with the Regional M&E Officer to develop necessary tools for monitoring and data collection ensuring they captures the country results correctly.
  • Help disseminate the proper usage of the tools among the ILO constituents and stakeholders.
  • Reach out to the stakeholders each month to ensure that the data collection tools are in place and data on results indicators are collected in accordance to the determined frequency, maintaining the disaggregation criteria.
  • Organize meetings with the SfP-Malaysia team to collect necessary data from the programme records in accordance with the determined frequency, maintaining the disaggregation criteria.
  • Gather all data from the country team and the stakeholders in an ILO-recommended format. The data will be analysed by the consultant and a high-quality results report will be prepared based on the analysis. This result report will be included to the bi-annual donor report of the programme.
  • Identify, analyse and document lessons learned, best practices, success stories and other project accomplishments together with the country team and the Regional Communication Officer and ensure they are presented in a concise manner.
  • Support programme management in addressing recommendations from monitoring, reviews and evaluations through development of a follow-up action plan.

Responsibilities of the Consultant

• Collect relevant documents from SfP-Malaysia and its partners, clarify Terms of Reference (ToR) and prepare a work plan with a timeline.
• Develop work plan and methodology for the assignment and take ILO approval.
• Maintain close contact with the SfP-Malaysia team and the Regional M&E Officer as well as the focal points of ILO constituents.
• Organize consultative and review meetings on MREL with ILO constituents and partners if/when necessary.
• Prepare meeting notes and recommendations from the MREL related stakeholder consultations.
• Recommend necessary support including training and other capacity building activities for the stakeholders of MREL.
• Coordinate with the partners of the programme as needed to ensure smooth and efficient data collection, seeking required permission from relevant authorities, and ensuring all required permissions have been granted.
• Collect, clean data and prepare the transcript.
• Share data analysis plan with the ILO.
• Analyse data and prepare results report on key findings.
• Incorporate ILO feedback to the result report and provide a final edited version.
• Prepare and deliver presentation on the monthly or quarterly results to the ILO, its partners and donors, as and when required.
• Maintain confidentiality of information.

Responsibilities of the ILO

• Help the consultant to liaison with ILO partners.
• Provide necessary programme documents to the consultant.
• Provide support to finalize work plan and methodology and approve them.
• Review and approve data collection tools.
• Randomly supervise data collection, cleaning, and data transcription.
• Review and approve the data analysis plan.
• Approve all deliverables.

Essential qualifications, skills and experience

The consultantt must possess the following competencies:

• Bachelor’s degree in development studies, monitoring and evaluation, international development, public administration, law, economies or other relevant field of social science is required. Post-graduate degree will be an advantage.
• Minimum of three years’ experience working in M&E, results based management (RBM) and progress reporting of development programmes and projects; demonstrated knowledge of Project Cycle Management (PCM) will be an advantage.
• Experience in the field of skills development or TVET is desirable; experience of working with UK funded projects will be an advantage.
• Proven knowledge of collecting and analysing gender equality and social inclusion data and value for money (VfM) data.
• Proven ability to present data in a concise manner and to draft clearly and concisely, and prepare project reports and studies.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills to engage with the SfP-Malaysia constituents and stakeholders.
• Personnel with excellent command (oral and written) over English and Malay.
• Good IT skills and advanced user of MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint; experience in MS Project preferred; or willingness and ability to learn and apply.

Deliverables and payment schedule with indicative dates

• Total duration of the assignment is 60 working days (12 weeks) over the period of six months with expected contract period from 23 November 2020 to 22 May 2021.
• The following table sums up the key deliverables to be produced by the consultant and the linkage between the deliverables with the payment schedule. However, the dates and details of the deliverables are subject to change.
• All tasks and deliverables must be satisfactorily completed and accepted by the ILO in order to facilitate payment.
• Please note that all deliverables are subject to several rounds of revision by the ILO and SfP-SEA programme.

   

Sl no.

Indicative due date

Output

Payment schedule linking to deliverables

30 Nov. 20

03 stakeholders consultations organized and attended to validate logframe indicators, milestones and indicator measurement methods (MREL matrix)

20% at end of Dec. 20 upon completion of stakeholder validation of logframe & MREL plan

11 Dec. 20

A set of recommendations presented to the ILO on how to improve or make changes to the logframe indicators or the measurement methods proposed in the MREL plan.

11 Dec. 20

Rationale developed for each of the changes proposed.

22 Dec. 20

Necessary revisions made to the logframe indicators and MREL matrix ensuring all input from the stakeholders are incorporated.

4 Dec. 20

Internal MREL work plan prepared and cleared by the CTA and the Regional Coordinator

25% in Jan. 21 upon finalization of all data collection tools

7 Jan. 21

Existing data collection tools reviewed and new tools prepared and cleared by the Regional M&E Officer

15 Jan. 21

Data collection tools disseminated among ILO constituents and necessary support provided to them for properly using the tools

22 Jan. 21

Data collection and analysis plan developed and approved by ILO

Monthly

• Stakeholders contacted each month for ensuring data collection and reporting by the stakeholders on time.
• Data entered and analysed using ILO recommended format.

25% in Mar. 21 upon completion of data collection and analysis for the months of Nov.- Dec. 20 & Jan.-Mar. 21

15 Dec 20 and

15 May 21

• Results reports produced for all results indicators from the analysis of data and cleared by the ILO for bi-annual donor reports (end of Dec. 2020 and May 2021)
• Results report include lessons learned, best practices, success stories and other accomplishments of the programme

30% upon completion of data collection, analysis and reporting in May 21

Reporting

The consultant will report technically and administratively to the Chief Technical of the SfP-Malaysia Project and will also receive guidance and support from the Regional M&E Officer in ROAP-Bangkok and other relevant technical specialists.

Documents to be Submitted

Interested individual consultants or institutions must submit the following documents/ information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Curriculum Vitae
• Proposal describing how he/she will approach and conduct the work (3 pages maximum).
• Sample work (M&E plan and progress reports written by the consultant)
• Estimated budget (financial proposal), i.e., professional fees (daily rate and expected number of working days) and additional expenses (e.g. transportation costs), for completing the work.

The interested consultants are requested to submit the above documents electronically to [email protected] and [email protected] by 13 November 2020 by 4:00 pm MYT. 

Contract duration

The contract will tentatively commence from 23 November 2020 – 22 May 2021. The date will be finalized after completion of the hiring process