The United States Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, acting through the Office of Public Affairs, is pleased to announce a Notice of Funding Opportunity for the following program: Independent Evaluation of Comprehensive in -School Civic Education Program in Bosnia and Herzegovina U.S. Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina has partnered with Civitas in Bosnia and Herzegovina in implementing civic education programs in classrooms at the kindergarten, elementary, and secondary school levels since 1996. Civic education program includes teacher training and certification programs, curriculum development, and social media programs. This evaluation will focus on program performance and examine implementation plans, inputs, outputs and outcomes/results. It will also assess administration of civic education programs, the coordination of civic education competitions, teacher training, and support for quality civic education in BiH. The evaluation will focus on a small sample of participating cantons/regions/districts in order to assess the effects and impact of the program. The report will be used to critically examine Bosnia and Herzegovina’s program administration and help the Office of Public Affairs plan the administrative structure and activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the future. The evaluation team should consist of one American expert, fluent in one of the local languages, or one American expert coupled with a locally hired translator. The team should have prior experience working in Eastern European education, preferably with civic education in the Balkans, and they should not be directly involved in the design or implementation of the civic education programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The evaluation team will be given access to information and should exercise full autonomy in carrying out their research, analysis, and reporting findings. The research team must have the ability to communicate with local staff and teachers in one of three local languages, while producing a final report that analyzes their data in English. The evaluator will need to have quantitative and qualitative research skills including: survey design, interviewing, data analysis, and qualitative analysis skills. It is preferable that the evaluator has experience in analyzing educational and/or non-profit programs in the developing world and expertise in evaluation techniques involving program administration and training components. Evaluation proposals will be evaluated by the U.S. Embassy based on compliance with purpose, focus of the evaluation and the proposed methodology, application guidelines and mandatory components, evidence of clearly formulated goals and target groups, low evaluation implementation costs, past performance in evaluation of education programs in emerging democracies, and the ability of the consultant/applying organization to carry out the evaluation throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Funding decisions will be made pending the availability of funds. The U.S. Embassy reserves the right to cancel this public call for proposal at any time without any commitment to any applicant. All proposals, completed in English, with a maximum of 6 pages, including budget, should be sent to the email address
[email protected] by 5pm on September 8, 2015.