Terms of Reference for

Development of a Framework and Template for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Provision of Employment Services of the Employment Agency of the Republic of Kosovo (EARK)

Background

Swisscontact is implementing ‘Boost Employment’ (BE) project in Albania and Kosovo among other active projects. This project is financed by the city of Zurich, Medic or Foundations, among other donors. As part of the Swisscontact Development Programme, it is co-financed by SDC (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation,
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA). The objective of this project is to enhance labour market services,
access and resources and make them more accessible to the unemployed populations.

To reach the objective the project is working on:

1. Strengthening of the capacity and linkages of the main public, civil and private employment services for socio-economically marginalized persons, institutionalizing employability coaching for long-term unemployed and lowly unemployable persons.

The project aims to improve the quality of the provision of the public employment services in Albania and Kosovo for the unemployed jobseekers who are structurally lowly employable by ensuring sustainability and quality assurance of these services. In the framework of improving public employment services, the project is extensively engaged in strengthening the systems and capacities of the two employment services and of a good number of NGOs providing employability coaching in Kosovo. At the same time, the project is involved in implementing the political agreement for job mobility between Albania and Kosovo.

2 .The development of a phone app and web platform https://mundesiplot.com/ to facilitate socio- economically marginalized 'persons' access to the labour market information and opportunities for jobseekers and aspiring micro-entrepreneurs who are at present structurally lowly employable by facilitating their competency
development, and their journey towards employment.

The web platform and app are user-friendly and adaptable. They provide innovative tools such as e- learnings and
facilitate the target group’s access to labour market insertion service providers (for coaching, training, job mediation and micro-business establishment, respectively). This should give the target group information and orientation for their progressive engagement to Albania and Kosovo's labour market.

Current monitoring and evaluation of the provision of employment services implemented by EARK enables a variable structure and is marked by a flexible approach. Formalized processes and structured data collection methods are currently not in place. It is essential to establish a
comprehensive understanding of monitoring and evaluation in the provision of employment services, including defining the methodology, determining the timing, specifying the template to be used, identifying the responsible parties conducting the process, outlining the approval process and mapping out the subsequent steps for improvement.

1. Objectives of the assignment

The main objective of this assignment is to support the EARK in developing a Framework and the main Template for monitoring and evaluation of the Provision of Employment Services. This Framework and the Template that will be elaborated under this assignment will ensure the standardization of the process, orient the data collection from employment offices and facilitate the results’ provision. The primary emphasis lies in monitoring and
evaluation of the counsellors' adherence to the requirements outlined in regulations and manuals. Specifically, this involves ensuring that physical files meet established criteria, registration requirements are properly executed, and essential documents are appropriately archived for jobseekers and employers. The preparation of a Framework and the Template at this stage will serve to physically test such a standardized process, which can then be transferred to the Employment Management Information System (EMIS)of the EARK, as per concept proposal outlined in this assignment.

2. Timeframe and deliverables

Swisscontact expects the Framework and Template for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Provision of Employment Services of the EARK to be submitted as per the following suggested timeline:

The consultant will submit to Swisscontact the deliverables as per the table above in English and Albanian languages, while the approved Framework and Template for monitoring and evaluation of the Provision of Employment Services of the EARK should be submitted in Serbian language as well.

This assignment is planned to have a maximum duration of 18 days. The final report can be submitted only in English by May 31st, 2024.

3. Profile of the consultant

• Master’s degree in Social Sciences, Economy, or related field.
• Knowledge of monitoring and evaluation methodologies, tools, and best practices.
• Proven experience in designing and developing monitoring and evaluation templates, forms, and documentation, ideally in labour market.
• Proven experience in collecting, analysing, and reporting data.
• Excellent facilitation and communication skills in Albanian and English language.
  

4. Application requirements

For the application process, the consultants interested in this assignment are expected to send, in an electronic format:

1. CV and one-page description of experience in other similar assignments.
2. Financial proposal: The fee must be all inclusive and cover all tasks listed (max 1 page).
   Please make sure that any travel and other expenses related to the implementation of the assignment are included in your daily fee offer.
3. Proposed methodology (max 2 pages).
4. Proposed workplan for completion of the assignment (max 1 page), specifying the distribution of days for each activity.

5. Submission instruction

The deadline of submission is no later than 17:00 hours, on 22 March 2024. Please note that in case your application
will be sent later than the deadline for submission, Swisscontact may decide to disqualify your submission and not
consider this eligible for further phases of evaluation.

All applications will be submitted only by email (signed and scanned) by the deadline above mentioned to

[email protected] and [email protected]

Please specify in the email subject, the Call for Proposal title: Framework and Template for Monitoring and
Evaluation of the Provision of EARK’s Employment Services.

The application MUST containall required documentation, otherwise may be automatically eliminated by Swisscontact without a further request for clarification and/or completion.