Designing a Theory of change (ToC) for Terre des hommes
Terms of reference (ToR)
Context of the demand
Founded in 1960, Terre des hommes (Tdh) Foundation’s mission is to assist children in
need. It endeavours at all times to defend the rights of children by binding humanitarian and
development approaches. Today, Terre des hommes Foundation is the largest nongovernmental organisation (NGO) for children’s aid in Switzerland. Besides, Tdh has
development projects and emergency relief programmes in more than 38 countries
worldwide. Over the past fifty years, Terre des hommes has developed in two core areas:
healthcare and child protection.
The 5-year strategic plan “Terre des hommes – Making a difference for children – 2016/2020
Strategic Plan” lays out the primary goals the Foundation will pursue in its programs and
various departments. As part of this plan, Tdh would like to enhance its impact on the living
conditions of crisis-affected children and their families and stand out in its sector thanks to:
 Its focus on two areas of intervention (health and child protection) which merge five
priority programmes (migration, exploitation, juvenile justice, mother and child
healthcare, humanitarian crisis) and two specialised programmes (specialized care
and advocacy).
 Proximity and an operational presence in the field in five regions of intervention
(Africa, Middle-East, Asia, Latin America and Europe)
 Clear goals and a capacity to demonstrate the quality of the results through a
coherent and efficient steering, monitoring and evaluation system;
 A strengthening of the Foundation’s accountability towards the stakeholders with
whom and among whom they operate;
 Innovation as a key demarcation factor vis-à-vis other actors present.
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On a general level, Tdh carries out the following types of actions:
The thematic policies1 reinforce this framework from a thematic and technical point of view
in order to support the design of projects and programs by teams and partners in the field:
 Children in street situation (2007); Maternal and Child healthcare/nutrition (2010),
Fight against Child trafficking (2010), Working with children and their environment
(Psychosocial reference document – 2010), Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (2010),
Protection System strengthening (2011); Child Protection (Manual for intervention in
humanitarian crisis- 2008), Restorative Juvenile Justice (2014), Food Security and
Livelihoods (2015).
These documents intend to clarify the concepts, define Tdh operating approaches, give
examples and frame Tdh interventions: support to system strengthening, empowerment,
capacity building, promotion of coordination, advocacy as well as community based
development.
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Some thematic policies (Health; Water, sanitation and Hygiene; PSS) also develop
“models for action” defined in the Project Cycle Management Manual as the approach
which the project wishes to adopt vis-à-vis its beneficiaries. It proposes a
representation of the reality that is sufficiently simple to be useful for professionals in
charge of planning, implementation and follow-up of projects.
However, if these documents define a global approach and an operating framework, it
remains too general to harmonize Tdh interventions and to effectively assist Tdh staff
and partners for the design of projects and programs on the complex issues tackled
by the organization.
Moreover, these thematic policies have to be adapted to the recent changes decided
within the programs of the organization, which is particular the case for Maternal and
Child Health. It should also be noted that Migration did not exist as a specific program until
now (Protection against child trafficking. until recently) and Exploitation was not focused, as it
is the case today, on the value chains of large companies.
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https://www.tdh.ch/fr/mediatheque
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With the completion recently of our visioning process, Terre des hommes has defined its
values and commitments2 that propose some principles of action: Commitment,
Courage, Respect and Ambition are required by Terre des hommes in addition to the Charter
written by Edmond Kaiser in 1960.
For its part, the 2016-2020 Strategic Plan of the Foundation defined its method of
intervention as follows:
“Through a rights-based approach, Terre des hommes’ aims to guarantee a respect
for and the implementation of the rights of children to bring about positive and
sustainable change, both at institutional and community level. The children’s well-being
and living conditions cannot be improved in the long-term unless all stakeholders work
together towards this goal.
This is why Terre des hommes’ intervention:
Is part of a participative approach adopted and developed by a group of stakeholders,
represented by the children, their families and communities, formal and informal civil
society organizations, businesses, state and local authorities.
Adapts itself to the local context, based on systemic, detailed and ongoing analyses,
with a particular focus on maintaining social cohesion, on gender-based discrimination
and a respect for the specificities of the operational context.
Encourages and helps countries to fulfil their obligations and institutionalize services,
mechanisms and good practices by strengthening protection and health systems.
Focuses on building the resilience of children, their families and communities affected
by humanitarian crises by reconciling short term responses with long-term objectives.
Applies the most appropriate methods of action: support and advice, individual and
collective capacity building, developing social innovation, enabling dialogue, support for
coordination, advocacy or direct action, by default and always on a provisional basis.”
Objective of the consultancy
On the basis of the existing defined approaches and practices, Terre des hommes needs to
define with further details its Theory of change, an adaptive and nuanced framework able to
tackle complex problems at individual, social and institutional levels.
The expected Theory of change (ToC) should respond to the following characteristics:
 A clear support of communication to facilitate the dialogue with its partners – donors,
INGO as well as national authorities and civil society organizations in countries of
intervention,
 A TOC that offers a more consistent approach in Tdh and help to harmonize
interventions, making programs easier to steer at institutional level and more effective
services supports at HQ and region levels.
 A helpful, simple and engaging framework that will assist staff and partners in the
design of projects and programs to tackle complex social problems. The different
types of intervention will be clarified and their interconnections are highlighted
according to different types of contexts.
 A framework that will support critical thinking to adapt it for a specific context, taking
into account particular problems and existing resources.
It is important to mention that this is a first consultancy will be followed by others in
order to support the implementation of the different types of action (“pillars”) that will
be identified in this consultancy.
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The work will be carried out in two stages:
1. A technical and methodological support to help Program Managers, to consolidate
ways of intervention more frequently followed in each program (migration,
exploitation, juvenile justice, mother and child healthcare, humanitarian crisis).
This first stage will help to elaborate the institutional theory of change, but will also
contribute to develop the operational plans to implement Programs strategies that
have been defined in the 2016-2020 overall Strategy. As a matter of fact, the design
of operational plans will take place during the same period.
Estimated period: February to April 2017
2. On this basis and with a cross cutting approach, the TOC of Tdh will be defined,
identifying the main “pillars” of action and their most relevant and effective
combination to contribute to system strengthening.
Estimated period: May to July 2017
Methodological prerequisites
Tdh recommends the following inclusions in the methodological approach to be proposed:
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An important desk review has to be carried out to capture the main ways of
intervention within Tdh programs through the different thematic policies, key projects
and most relevant ex-post evaluations and capitalizations.
The study of a short sample of projects in each program should be considered, to
analyze the ways of intervention actually implemented,
Interviews with staff at HQ (senior management, programs management,
humanitarian aid division, regions management) and at field levels (country
representatives, programs coordinators and project managers) should be carried out.
Working groups involving program managers, humanitarian aid desks and regional
representatives should be envisaged.
A strong methodological support must be provided to help staff to organize the work
needed to consolidate the existing ways of intervention, in the most effective way and
in close collaboration with field staff and even national partners.
A meeting with all Tdh Country Representatives is planned to be held in July that
could offer a space to share, even to finalize the Theory of change.
A strong expertise in Child protection and mother and child health will help to
question our way of intervention and to identify the most relevant and effective ways
in a very diversified organization.
N.B. Two consultancies have been launched in December 2016: one in Jordan to develop a
resilience based theory of change; a second one in Moldova to design a theory of change for
capacity development projects. These two consultancies are expected to nourish an
institutional work on these topics.
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Deliverables
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The consultant team will develop TOC narrative and visuals. The narrative will be a
summary of the theory that explains the overall logic and highlights major
assumptions of how and why change might happen as an outcome. The narrative will
also have for objective to convey easily and quickly the main elements to Tdh teams
and partners and to help delegations to communicate about this theory.
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A PowerPoint explaining the change pathway with visuals and narrative
explanations.
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A final report with the narrative, the visual materials, recommendations for
strategic orientations and recommendations for the next consultancies per type
of intervention. The report should not exceed 20 pages without annexes.
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An executive summary
Organization of the consultancy
The consultancy will be steered by the Management Committee of Operations Divisions
(CODIR OP) and specifically under the responsibility of the Programs Director, Beata
Godenzi, in close link with the Board of Directors.
All work should be done in collaboration with Terre des hommes whose focal points are as
follows: Nathalie Lauriac, Head of Quality & Accountability Unit and Pierre Philippe,
Technical Resources Director
The consultancy will be conducted by a team of external consultants specialized in
theory of change design and experts in the field of Child protection:
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Sound Technical knowledge and understanding of Child Protection and Mother and
Child Health in emergency contexts, protracted crises and long term contexts
Sound experience in developing theory of change for NGOs
Good experience in strategic planning
Training and facilitation capacities on theory of change methodologies.
Budget and mode of payment
The exercise should start by the beginning of February 2017 for a maximum length of 6
months.
The estimated budget for this consultancy is around 30 000 and 35 000 € (inclusive of all
taxes).
The mode of payment is the following:
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30 % at the launching of the mission.
40% of the total amount at the reception of the 1st report
30% after the delivery of the final report integrating Tdh feedbacks.
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Submission of applications
To be considered, interested and qualified consultants teams must submit the following
documentation:
 Technical offer explaining your understanding of the consultancy, the objective and
the methodological approach describing the differents steps planned, their specific
objective, the methods, tools that will be used for each one, the means and
deliverables for each step,
 Financial offer with a detailed budget
 Curriculum vitae (max. 3 to 4 pages highlighting work experience and qualifications
relevant to this evaluation)
 Full contact details of at least two references from among recent clients
 One sample report highlighting experience relevant to this evaluation
Applications not comprised ofabove-mentioned documents will not be considered.
Please submit your application exclusively via email to Mrs Nathalie Lauriac
([email protected])
Deadline for submissions is January 17, 2017. Only applicants submitting complete
applications and under serious consideration will be contacted.
Fondation Terre des hommes
Avenue de Montchoisi 15
1006 Lausanne
SWITZERLAND
Terre des hommes Child Safeguarding Policy
Tdh Lausanne commits to best practice in Child Protection in the implementation of its
projects, following its own Child Safeguarding Policy. Besides, in the event of partnering with
local organizations, Tdh Lausanne ensures that they also develop and apply a Child
Safeguarding Policy.
In this framework and provided that the volunteers will be in contact with Tdh partners and
beneficiairies, they will be requested to sign and follow Tdh Child Safeguarding Policy and
will therefore be briefed accordingly.
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