External Consultant for Final Evaluation

Call for Expressions of Interest

External Consultant for Final Evaluation of the Health Services Strengthening and Community Participatory Development (HSCD) Project, Sekong Province, Lao PDR

About SFE
Service Fraternel d’Entraide (SFE) is a French non-governmental organization working in Lao PDR since 1998 in the fields of healthcare and rural development. SFE partners with local authorities to strengthen health systems and improve the wellbeing of vulnerable communities.

Assignment

SFE is seeking a qualified consultant or consulting team to conduct the final external evaluation of the Health Services Strengthening and Community Participatory Development (HSCD) Project (2024–2027) implemented in Sekong Province, Lao PDR.

The evaluation will provide an independent assessment of the project’s performance, sustainability, partnership approach, and readiness for transition to greater local ownership. Findings and recommendations will inform the design of the next project phase (2027–2030).

Scope of Evaluation

The evaluation will assess the project’s contribution in four key areas:

• Health worker capacity strengthening
• Community health and hygiene behavior change
• Youth empowerment and life skills development
• Cross-sector collaboration between health, education, and community stakeholders

The evaluation will focus on the OECD-DAC criteria:

• Relevance
• Effectiveness
• Efficiency
• Impact
• Sustainability
• Coherence
• Partnership and Ownership

Methodology

The consultant is expected to apply a mixed-methods approach, including:

• Review of project documents and monitoring data
• Field visits to project sites in Sekong Province
• Interviews with government partners, health staff, community members, youth participants, and project stakeholders
• Focus group discussions
• Analysis of sustainability and exit strategy readiness
• Validation workshop with SFE and partners
• Preparation of a comprehensive evaluation report in English

Required Qualifications

The successful consultant should possess:

• Advanced degree in Public Health, Development Studies, Social Sciences, Evaluation, or a related field
• Proven experience conducting external evaluations of development or health projects
• Strong knowledge of health systems strengthening, community development, WASH, and gender-related programming
• Experience working in Southeast Asia, preferably Lao PDR
• Excellent qualitative and quantitative research skills
• Strong report-writing and analytical skills in English
• Familiarity with OECD-DAC evaluation criteria

Deliverables
The consultant will be expected to submit:

• Inception report and evaluation methodology
• Data collection tools
• Draft evaluation report
• Presentation of findings
• Final evaluation report incorporating feedback

Location

Sekong Province, Lao PDR

Application Process

• Interested consultants or consulting firms are invited to submit:
• Technical proposal outlining methodology and work plan
• Financial proposal
• CV(s) of consultant(s)
• Examples of previous evaluation reports or similar assignments
• References