Ethiopia: Consultant Mid-term Review: Promoting Resilient Livelihoods in Borana

1. Objective and Scope of Work

2.1. Objective of the Evaluation

The general objective of the evaluation is to assess the progress, achievements, constraints and lessons of RESET II project and produce sufficient evidence that would help achieve the project overall objective. In line with this, the mid-term evaluation intends to achieve the following specific objectives:

• To review the status of performance and progress of the project implementation in line with the expected results and performance indicators set out in the project log frame;

• To generate evidence on how the project is contributing to CARE’s 2020 global strategy based on CARE’s global impact and outcome indicators;

• To understand the difference that the project activities have so far made in changing people’s lives;

• To draw and document lessons, both from best practices and gaps, learnt under each of the five project components

• To provide a basis for decision-making on necessary amendments and improvements in the second half of the project period;

2.2 Scope of work

The mid-term evaluation will look in to the progresses, achievements, constraints and lessons of the project under all the five components/ Expected Results: Access to basic services, Disaster risk reduction, Livelihood promotion, knowledge management and women empowerment. Temporally, the evaluation will cover project implementation until the end of year two of the project, i.e. from 1^st October 2016 – 30^th September 2018). The consultant will be expected to include the work of the three implementing organizations: CARE Ethiopia, AAH and OSHO. Hence, the consultant will travel in to all the six woredas of program implementation, namely Dillo, Arero, Moyale, Miyo, Dhas, and Dire (security permitting). However, this may be further dealt with during preparation of technical proposal on the basis of kind of activities accomplished/ sampled per woredas.

The consultancy is for a period of 21 working days which is expected to start in October 2018. The consultancy will include desk review work, field data collection, data analysis and report writing and presentation of findings on validation workshop to be organized by the project holder.

2. Key Evaluation Questions- Evaluation Matrix

The Mid-Term Evaluation shall be based on the OECD/DAC criteria: Relevance, Efficiency, Effectiveness, sustainability (likelihood) andImpact (likelihood) of the project. In line with this, the evaluation is expected to respond to the following key evaluation questions supported by qualitative and quantitative evidence in each case. The present list however is not exhaustive and additional issues might come up during the mission.

1. Technical Approach and Methodology

The evaluation exercise is intended to be inclusive and participatory, engaging multiple actors, within as well as outside the project. The consultant shall use mixed research methods including but not limited to desk review, key informant interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), sample surveys, and observation. The required data for the evaluation should be collected from both primary and secondary sources. Hence, the informants include direct and indirect beneficiaries (basic service users, Rangeland Council members, model farmers, VSLA members SAA group members, etc.), local government structures at appropriate levels, and project staff from the three implementing organizations. The evaluation will also utilize the data gathered during the participatory quarterly monitoring, action research and will employ the data from the kebele level assessment and baseline study as the benchmarks for the results accomplished under the project.

The consultant is expected to design simple but numerically sensitive data collection tools which could help to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. The sample size must be statistically representative of the population. The analysis will involve statistical and content analysis using appropriate packages as deemed fit by the consultant. The analysis among others should show trends and should be disaggregated by gender and age (to the extent possible). Unless otherwise necessary, the consultant shall use the sampling techniques consistent with the baseline for comparability with baseline performance and target.

The Mid Term evaluation will make recommendation for programmatic improvements during the remainder of the action. The implementation plans and changes that result from the Mid Term evaluation will be identified during the validation workshop after which a Mid Term evaluation report will be finalized and shared with key stakeholders. The project activities will be evaluated based the current project log frame and the extent of achievements of expected results and against selected CARE’s global impact and outcome indicators under “Food & nutrition security and climate change resilience” and “Women’s economic empowerment”. (The project log frame and CARE’s impact and outcome indicators list are annexed with this TOR).

The consultancy is for a period of 21 working days which is expected to start in October 2018. The consultancy will include desk review work, field data collection, data analysis and report writing.

4. Deliverables

All deliverables shall be submitted to the CARE in English, including:

• An inception report: submitted one week after the start of the contract, explaining the methodology, work programme and timetable for the evaluation. This should also include draft data collection tools, both qualitative and quantitative.

• A draft report: including a complete raw data

• A final report: to be submitted at the end of the evaluation (not later than 15^th November 2018) with a maximum extension of 30 pages excluding annexes.

The final evaluation report will be structured as follows:

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

Affirmation

Glossary/Acronyms and Abbreviations

Executive summary

• Overview of the project

• Evaluation objectives and intended users

• Methodology

• Limitations and delimitations

• Most important findings and conclusions

• Main recommendations

• Introduction

• Scope and purpose of the evaluation, intended users, team composition and structure of the report

• Evaluation questions and criteria

• Eventual changes to the initial request (objectives and questions)

• Methodology

• Description of methods used and rationale

• Description of project ToC if any

• Limitations and constraints, potential bias and mitigations measures

• International standards used as reference for the evaluation

• Context: Analysis of the context

• Core sections (Key Findings of the report) by evaluation criteria and questions. Presentation of the evidence gathered, triangulation and findings) focusing on the five OECD Evaluation criteria:

• Relevance of the Project

• Efficiency of the Project

• Effectiveness of the Project

• Impact/ Likelihood/ from the project

• Sustainability/ Likelihood) of the Project

• Conclusions: final appreciation (clear and defensible basis for value judgments. Provide insights pertinent to the intervention that has been evaluated and to the purpose of evaluation.

• Recommendations: clear, specific and relevant, implementable, linked with conclusions and reflect consultations with stakeholders, presented per priority level, with timeframe and suggestions of where responsibility for follow up should lie.

• Lessons Learned from the evaluation Process

Annexes

• Terms of Reference

• List of groups people interviewed (anonymized) and sites visited during the evaluation

• List of documents consulted and secondary data used (please provide the sources through web transfer or drop box)

• Data collection instruments

• Evaluation matrix

• Power point presentation of the main findings and recommendations

• Relevant maps and photographs of the study areas

• Raw data in an agreed format

1. Tasks of the consultants

The consultant will undertake the following specific tasks:

• Review existing project documentation and other secondary data relevant to the project’s interventions and project areas;

• Design a participatory methodology and develop both quantitative and qualitative tools for conducting the evaluation;

• Conduct field work in the project districts including interactions with project beneficiaries, implementing partners, other stakeholders and key informants and regular debriefing with the CARE team;

• Conduct the evaluation in line with these terms of reference and approved methodology as contained in the inception report;

• Present evaluation findings and draft evaluation report to the CARE team and other project stakeholders in a validation session organized by CARE.

2. Guiding Principles and Values

The consultant shall adhere to the “Do No Harm” principle and any other humanitarian principles. The consultant will be required to follow CARE Ethiopia’s security advice. The consultant shall ensure at all times the confidentiality of data, respect the privacy of all individuals concerned and make all data collected available to CARE in a usable format.

3. Evaluation Schedule

The total number of days for implementation of this Mid-Term Evaluation will be 21 working days in a calendar month. The assignment shall start the latest on 15^th October 2018. A first meeting shall be held before the assignment starts in order to review the ToR and agree on tentative work plan.

4. Proposal contents:

Qualified consultants or consultancy firms interested in the assignment are expected to submit the following documentation;

• A technical proposal (max 5 page): interpreting the ToR and elaboration of the proposed methodology and design, including (1) draft work plan; (2) brief overview of the consultant/consultancy firm and the skills and experiences they would bring to the assignment (including CVs of all team members assigned to the evaluation); (3) contact details of three referees from other organizations that have recently contract the consultant/consultancy firm to perform similar work for the last 1- 2 years.

• A financial proposal: clarifying the following costs: (1) budget with professional fee per day, excluding logistical costs (vehicle hire, accommodation and living costs; stationeries, and supplies needed for data collection; and other costs related to field mobilization and validation workshop ) as these will be provided by CARE Ethiopia.

6. Profile of the consultant

The evaluator should be an experienced and independent consultant with the following expertise:

• Proven experience in evaluating development programmes

• Experience with international (I)NGO’s

• Good writing and communicative skills

• Good command of English

• Experience in evaluating governance programme

• Experience in evaluating lobbying and advocacy programmes

• Work experience in conflict context; Ethiopia would be an added advantage.

7. Logistics

CARE will provide all the necessary logistical arrangements required for data collection in all the districts.

Application procedures

All applications should be admitted to the following link:

https://cvselectie.net/consultant-mid-term-review-promoting-resilient-livelihoods-in-borana

Deadline: the latest by October 8^th, 2018 attachments in pdf and a subject line Technical and Financial Proposal for Mid Term Review- RESETII.