Terms of Reference (ToR) for for the EU Project Final Evaluation

1. Background

Hope and Homes for Children (HHC) is an international NGO committed to ensuring that children grow up in safe and loving families and to ending institutional care. HHC works with governments, communities, and partners to strengthen families, prevent unnecessary separation, and promote the inclusion of vulnerable children, including children and youth with disabilities (CYWDs).

In Rwanda, HHC has partnered with the Government of Rwanda and other stakeholders since 2002 to advance family-based care and child protection reforms. Through its programmes, HHC has supported the transition of children from residential care into families, strengthened community-based support systems, and contributed to the closure of 16 residential care institutions, including four serving children with disabilities.

Despite progress in childcare reform and deinstitutionalization, children and youth with intellectual disabilities and rare impairments continue to experience stigma, discrimination, limited access to specialized services, and increased risks of exclusion, family separation, and institutionalization. Families often face challenges in accessing appropriate care, rehabilitation, protection, and livelihood support within their communities.

To address these challenges, HHC Rwanda, with support from the European Union (EU) and in partnership with Ubumwe Community Center (UCC) and Wikwiheba Mwana (WM), implemented the project “Twubake Umuryango Twita ku Bana Bafite Ubumuga” (Let’s Strengthen Families through Care and Support for Children with Disabilities) in Musanze, Gatsibo, and Rubavu districts. The project implemented an integrated package of interventions aimed at strengthening families, improving access to inclusive services, and enhancing community and partner capacity through four complementary approaches: ACTIVE Family Support (AFS), Inclusive Day-Care Hubs, Community Capacity Building, and Partner Institutional Strengthening.

As the project approaches completion, HHC Rwanda is commissioning an independent final evaluation to assess the extent to which the project achieved its intended objectives and outcomes. The evaluation will assess the project’s relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and impact in line with OECD-DAC evaluation criteria. It will examine achievements, challenges, lessons learned, and good practices, while generating evidence-based recommendations to inform future programming, strengthen accountability to the European Union and stakeholders, and guide potential adaptation, replication, and scale-up of effective approaches supporting children and youth with disabilities and their families.

2. Project Objectives & Targets

Overall Objective: Improve the protection, inclusion, and rights realization of CYWDs in Rwanda.

• Improve equality and inclusion of CYWDs, especially those with intellectual disability and rare impairments.
• Strengthen parent, caregiver, and community capacity to meet CYWD needs.
• Increase access to disability-inclusive prevention and family support services.
• Raise awareness of disability rights and protection mechanisms.
• Institutionalize sustainable-service-delivery capacity within WM and UCC.

Key targets: 110 Local Leaders, 88 Inshuti Z’Umuryango (IZU), 120 families and 118 children and youth with disabilities, 8 peer-to-peer support groups, ·64 children in day care, and 50 Disability Coordination Forum (DCF) members.

3. Purpose of the Evaluation

An independent, evidence-based assessment of the project's achievements and contribution to CYWD protection and inclusion — for EU/HHC accountability and for learning that informs future policy advocacy and model replication. Specifically, the evaluation will:

• Assess progress against planned outputs, outcomes, and impact.
• Test the effectiveness of the AFS and Inclusive Community Hub models, including for children with rare/complex disabilities.
• Assess organizational capacity growth in WM and UCC.
• Determine value for money using the 4-E framework (Economy, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Equity).
• Assess cross-cutting performance on gender, disability inclusion, child rights/safeguarding, and environment.
• Deliver actionable recommendations for scaling and policy influence.

4. Scope & Evaluation Criteria (OECD-DAC, 2020)

• child separation, greater community inclusion, and family transformation.
• Relevance: alignment with CYWD rights, caregiver needs, Rwanda's Child Care Reform (TMM), and EU priorities.
• Coherence: synergy with government social protection frameworks, NCDA, NCPD, and district structures.
• Effectiveness: achievement of targets and performance of project models, including the effectiveness of measures taken to manage operational disruptions.
• Efficiency & VfM: economy of procurement, efficiency of resource conversion, and equity of benefit distribution.
• Impact: evidence of reduced
• Sustainability: institutional and financial viability of WM/UCC and continuity of IZUs and peer groups post-project.

Cross-cutting considerations: gender-disaggregated impacts and caregiver burden; disability inclusion ("Nothing About Us Without Us"); child safeguarding and safe participation; and environmental sustainability of project interventions, including household-level support and Income-Generating Activities (IGAs).

5. Methodology

Mixed-methods, participatory, and disability-inclusive design, developed and confirmed during inception:

• Inclusive tools adapted for children with non-verbal or intellectual disabilities (e.g., visual scoring, storytelling, participatory observation).
• Multi-stakeholder sampling: CYWDs (AFS and day care), caregivers, IZU volunteers, local leaders, Partner Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), and partner staff.
• Triangulation across survey data, KIIs/FGDs, project records, and field observation.

6. Ethics & Safeguarding

• Compliance with HHC Rwanda Child Safeguarding Policy and EU ethical guidelines.
• Informed consent (adults) and child-friendly assent (children).
• Data privacy, anonymization, and secure storage; "Do No Harm" throughout fieldwork.

7. Deliverables & Timeline

• Inception report (methodology, sampling, evaluation matrix, tools, schedule).
• Finalized data collection tools — English and Kinyarwanda.
• Debriefing presentation of preliminary findings.
• Draft evaluation report.
• Validation workshop.
• Final evaluation report.
• Annexes — anonymized datasets, transcripts, tools, respondent lists.

*Illustrative from contract signing; HHC to confirm actual start date. Includes review buffers after inception and draft submission, absent from the original schedule.

8. Consultant Requirements

• Minimum 3 years leading complex donor-funded evaluations; EU experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated expertise in disability inclusion, child protection, family strengthening, and organizational capacity assessment.
• Proven participatory, child-friendly, disability-inclusive evaluation methods.
• Lead Evaluator: advanced degree (Master's/PhD) in Social Sciences, Evaluation, or Public Health.
• Field team fluent in English and Kinyarwanda; [confirm minimum team size and whether a dedicated disability-inclusion specialist is required].
• Previous successful experience working with HHC Rwanda, particularly in project evaluation or related learning assignments, will be considered a strong added advantage, given the value of familiarity with HHC’s programme approaches, operational context, and ways of working.

9. Management & Application

Managed by HHC Rwanda's MERL Manager; the consultant retains professional independence. All data, tools, and reports remain HHC Rwanda's property under strict confidentiality.

Applications must include:

• Technical proposal (methodology, sampling, work plan).
• Financial proposal (itemized fees and operational costs)
• Two sample evaluation reports from comparable assignments.

Submit to: info@hhcrwanda.org  (cc: cmukantaganda@hhcrwanda.org and ibaryinyonza@hhcrwanda.org ) by September 10th, 2026.

Approved by:

VIDIVI KARANGWA Immaculée 

Executive Director

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