TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR MID-TERM EVALUATION Promotion of Quality Childcare, Protection, Youth and Community Empowerment in Banadir Location (2025–2027)

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Background information

About SOS Children’s Villages

SOS Children’s Villages is a global federation of 118 national SOS Children’s Villages associations, working in more than 2000 programme locations worldwide. We work together with a single vision: every child belongs to a family and grows with love, respect and security.

We provide long-term, family-like care for children who have lost parental care (alternative care service), and we work with vulnerable families and communities to help strengthen them and prevent child abandonment (family strengthening service, FS). SOS family like can have different forms such as SOS families where small groups of children are cared for in a family-like environment, foster families, small group homes and crisis intervention (short-term care).

SOS Children’s Villages Somalia is a non‑governmental social development organization that has been active in the field of children’s rights since 1985, committed to addressing the needs and concerns of vulnerable children and young people throughout the country. As a member of the global SOS Children’s Villages federation, the organization works in the spirit of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), ensuring that every intervention upholds children’s rights to care, protection, participation, and development. SOS Children’s Villages Somalia provides alternative care for children who have lost parental care, supports vulnerable families and communities to prevent unnecessary family separation, and advocates for child rights across Somalia.

For more than 40 years, SOS CV Somalia has implemented a comprehensive range of programs in Alternative Care (AC), Family Strengthening (FS), Education, Youth Empowerment, and Health Services. The Banadir Programme is one of the organization’s largest operational hubs and delivers diverse services including Family-Like Care (FLC), Foster Family Care (FFC), Kinship care, and Supervised Independent Living (SIL). It also provides Early Childhood Development (ECD), primary and secondary education, health and nutrition services, WASH support, youth employability training, and entrepreneurship development. Humanitarian protection services, including support for unaccompanied and separated children and GBV survivors, form a critical part of its emergency response mandate.

The organization’s work in Banadir and across the country is guided by international and national frameworks, including the UNCRC, the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, the Somalia National Development Plan (NDP‑9), and priority Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 1, 3, 4, 5, and 8). Programme implementation is also aligned with the SOS Federation Strategy 2030 and the SOS Care Promise, which collectively guide efforts to ensure that children grow up in a safe, caring family environment and are supported to realize their full potential.

Description of project and context

SOS Children’s Villages implements its programmes in Banadir Region, a densely populated urban area that hosts the highest concentration of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia. The programme units in Mogadishu covering Alternative Care (AC), Family Strengthening (FS), Education (ECD/primary/secondary), Youth Empowerment, and Emergency Child Protection serve communities affected by decades of armed conflict, chronic poverty, and recurrent climate shocks. The surrounding communities consist largely of displaced families living in informal settlements, facing limited access to basic services, unstable income sources, and weakened family support systems. Needs assessments conducted in 2022–2023 revealed alarming levels of parental loss, family separation, educational exclusion, and child protection risks, with many children living in extended family care arrangements characterized by poverty, overcrowding, and inconsistent caregiving. Findings also highlighted an urgent need for foster care expansion, MHPSS support, WASH services, school assistance, and livelihood strengthening to prevent further family breakdown.

In response to these challenges, the project aims to deliver a comprehensive and integrated package of services benefiting 2,746 program participants in Banadir. At the outcome level, the project seeks to ensure that 427 children and young people without parental care receive adequate, family‑based alternative care through FLC integration, expansion of foster and kinship care, and strengthened SIL pathways. A further 2,350 children will gain access to quality ECD, primary, and secondary education through improved teaching capacity, better learning resources, and inclusive school environments.

Similarly, 1,000 youth will benefit from employability, technical, vocational, and entrepreneurship programs particularly through health‑sciences training, internships, and job placement. The project also seeks to reinforce community‑based child protection networks, support emergency care for UASC and GBV survivors, and transition key service units toward financial sustainability, in line with SOS Somalia’s strategic direction and the project’s Results Framework and Monitoring Plan.

Objectives of the mid-term evaluation

Overall, Purpose

The overall purpose of this Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) is to assess the project's design, relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and emerging outcomes; determine progress toward intended results against baseline values and annual targets; validate the assumptions underpinning the project's Theory of Change (TOC) and results framework; assess the quality and functionality of the project's MEAL system; and generate evidence-based, actionable recommendations to improve performance, support mid-course adjustments, and optimize implementation during the remaining project period (2026–2027).

Specific Objectives

2.1 Relevance, coherence, and strategic alignment

The evaluation will critically assess the design, relevance, and coherence of the project in relation to the needs identified in the 2022–2023 needs assessments and the wider contextual challenges in Banadir. This includes examining the extent to which the project's strategies, interventions, and service packages appropriately address child protection risks, loss of parental care, education barriers, and youth livelihood needs identified in those assessments. The evaluation will determine how well the project aligns internally with SOS Children's Villages policies particularly the SOS Care Promise, Alternative Care and Family Strengthening service descriptions, safeguarding standards, gatekeeping guidance, and social integration guidelines and externally with national priorities such as the Somalia National Development Plan, the Education Sector Strategic Plan, the National Youth Policy, and the SDGs. It will verify whether the project's overall logic and assumptions remain valid and responsive to emerging needs and strategic commitments.

2.2 Overall programme performance

The evaluation will assess the extent to which planned outputs and outcomes have been achieved on time and within available resources and budget, measured against baseline values and annual targets in the Results Framework. This includes assessing the efficiency and timeliness of activity implementation and the adequacy of resource allocation across service areas. The evaluation will examine progress toward expected results, identify the key factors contributing to or hindering achievement, and surface emerging changes and early impact signals both intended and unintended particularly in relation to child well-being, quality care, family self-reliance, youth empowerment, and community strengthening. Progress will be reviewed specifically in relation to alternative care transitions, caregiver capacity development, youth skills acquisition, access to education, child protection case management, and sustainability initiatives. The evaluation will determine whether the programme remains on track to achieve its intended end-of-project outcomes and will critically examine the continued validity of the project's Theory of Change and the core assumptions underpinning it.

2.3 Organizational delivery, partnerships, and risk management

The evaluation will examine project organization, implementation performance, and delivery quality across all service areas, including alternative care, education, youth empowerment, family strengthening, and emergency child protection. It will assess the functionality and quality of partnerships with government ministries, community-based organizations, UN agencies, and other stakeholders, distinct from the formal partnership agreement addressed under 2.4. The evaluation will also assess how risks including insecurity, safeguarding concerns, staff capacity gaps, and operational disruptions have been identified and managed throughout the implementation period, and will identify strengths, operational bottlenecks, and areas where internal systems may require strengthening to ensure continued delivery of high-quality services.

2.4 Significant programme changes and alignment with programme service regulations

The evaluation will assess the implementation and effectiveness of significant programme changes introduced in line with SOS Programme Service Regulations and Care Reform commitments. This includes changes in family-like care, reintegration, and the integration of SOS families into community-based settings; diversification of alternative care options with particular attention to foster care, kinship care, and short-term care services; the status and effectiveness of repurposing vacant facilities within SOS Children's Villages; the refocusing, scaling-up, and quality improvement of Family Strengthening and other preventive services; and the extent to which resources have been strategically shifted from residential alternative care toward services that prevent family separation and strengthen families.

2.5 Partnership agreement review and adaptation

The evaluation will assess whether the current partnership agreement remains fit for purpose in light of implementation experience, emerging lessons, and contextual changes. It will examine how effectively the agreement has guided collaboration, communication, accountability, and decision-making among stakeholders, and will identify areas requiring revision, adaptation, or renegotiation to strengthen strategic alignment and effectiveness during the remaining implementation period.

2.6 MEAL System Quality and Functionality

The evaluation will assess the quality, functionality, and reliability of the project's MEAL system in generating credible data for decision-making, tracking progress against targets, and supporting adaptive management. This includes reviewing data collection and reporting processes, the use of evidence in programme adjustments, and the system's capacity to support end-of-project reporting and accountability.