Request for proposals for Midterm and Final Evaluations of McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program (Bia Laafia) Project Background Initiated in 2023, the CRS/Togo Food for Education project Phase II named Bia Laafia1 aims to improve the literacy and nutritional outcomes of 82,582 students. The five-year project runs from October 2023 to September 2028 with a budget of $33,320,000. Bia Laafia will support 202 schools comprising 138 primary schools and 64 preschools across three prefectures in northern Togo. The target prefectures Oti-Sud, Kéran, and Dankpen are among the countrys poorest and most vulnerable. Children and their families in these northern, rural communities face several development challenges. These include chronic malnutrition, limited access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) resources, increasing risks to climate change, limiting social norms that impact girls in particular, and low-quality education, characterized by insufficiently trained and absent teachers and a scarcity of appropriate learning materials. Building on the CRS McGovern-Dole Food for Education (MGD FFE) project Santé, Transformation, et Apprentissage pour une Réussite (STARS), Bia Laafia aims to reach new schools and communities not covered by STARS and deepen engagement with former STARS sites. The project focuses on strengthening local capacity and sustainability to ensure long-term progress. Across all schools, Bia Laafia aims to: 1 Bia Laafia is a phrase, combining local languages Moba and Kabiye, which means childrens wellbeing Togo CRS-implemented McGovern-Dole project. FY24 FY28 5 increase literacy of school-age children through improving the knowledge and skills of teachers and administrators to deliver high quality literacy instruction and promote literacy activities, increase student enrollment and attendance rates by improving teacher/administrator training and encouraging a safer school environment, improve student attentiveness by reducing short-term hunger through school feeding, improve dietary diversity via locally procured nutritious commodities, and address health outcomes by improving key WASH behaviors and infrastructure. Progress at the school-level will be reinforced among students families and communities, particularly to improve nutrition, health, and WASH outcomes. Across all objectives, Bia Laafia places local governance structures and actors including School Management Committees (SMC), Parent Associations (PA), and Village Development Committees at the core of its strategy. CRS will also strengthen connections with prefecturelevel supporters and national policymakers to advance the sustainability of the school feeding program. Building on STARS, CRS has reinvigorated SMCs, PAs, and the Inter-Ministry Committee, and collaborated with the Ministry of Education to improve teacher training and administrative support. Bia Laafia will continue these efforts for a lasting, effective education and school feeding system. Bia Laafia was developed through collaboration with CRSs local partners, as well as key ministries and government agencies, and incorporates insights gained from CRSs work on STARS, which reached 138 schools and provided meals and additional support to more than 80,000 primary and preschool students. This approach makes Bia Laafias strategy both realistic and proven in a challenging environment, while also helping ensure that the project is implemented efficiently and effectively. Tender Link : https://www.crs.org/about/bid-opportunity
