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Independent Consultant, MADE, Nigeria
Location: Sub-Saharan Africa
Location: Nigeria
Job Code: 3129
Description
Market Development in the Niger Delta
Terms of Reference: Midterm Internal Assessment
Background and Context
Programme Rationale
Nigeria has high income disparity between men and women, and the states of the Niger Delta are amongst the worst performers. Women often operate in the most marginalised market sectors, and undertake crowded roles in value chains, which have little room for maximising returns.
The Niger Delta is a critical region for Nigeria’s social and economic development: the serious problems of poverty and instability in the Niger Delta have an impact not only on the 31 million people living in the Delta but also on Nigeria as a whole.Poverty levels in the Delta are not as high as in the far north of Nigeria, but across a range of poverty indicators, it is arguably the next poorest region. Data from the Conflict Analysis commissioned by MADE (QUEST ref 4496006) suggested that in the Niger Delta: (a) little more than a third of households have access to electricity; (b) the number of doctors per head of population is between a half and a third of the national average, and access to healthcare in remote areas falls as low as 2-5%; (c) 30-40% of children are enrolled in primary school, compared with a national average of 76%; (d) an estimated half to three-quarters of households do not have access to safe drinking water [1]. Eight of the nine states experience poverty rates above 50% (the exception being Akwa Ibom at 46.5%), while two are above the national average of 65% – Cross River at 67.8% and Delta at 72.5% [2].
Furthermore, the concentration of oil industries in the region has created wage and commodities inflation raising the cost of living and intensifying the experience of poverty among the poor. Overall, this has led to feelings of injustice (given the wealth which the region generates from oil), and this has fuelled the criminality and eruptions of violence and insecurity common in the region – further aggravating and perpetuating the incidence of poverty. According to the UNDP human development report (2006), self-reported poverty for the region is very high, at almost 75%.
Programme Summary
Market Development in the Niger Delta (MADE), a £14m DFID funded programme being implemented by Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI), is a rural and agricultural market systems development programme for the nine states of the Niger Delta. The programme design is based on the recognition that poverty is the result of the structure of market systems in which the poor participate. The approach is also based on the understanding that when markets work efficiently and produce equitable outcomes for the poor [3], such markets become powerful vehicles for delivering growth and poverty reduction. MADE is using the M4P approach to drive sustainable development at scale in the Niger Delta, is focusing on poor women and men who strive to earn a living in the Niger Delta. By raising incomes and improving market linkages, the programme has an opportunity to help to both address poverty and contribute to longer term stability.
MADE programme focuses on value chains in which planned interventions are most likely to have the maximum impact on wealth creation and employment, particularly among women, beginning with palm oil, household poultry, fisheries, cassava and agricultural inputs. In Year 2 (April 2015- March 2016), the programme added finished leather goods sector and a cross-cutting access to finance sector. In each of the value chains, MADE applies the ‘Making Markets Work for the Poor’ (M4P) approach by identifying the underlying systemic constraints of why markets do not work for the poor in the value chain, and thereafter facilitate change to the behaviour, capabilities, incentives and relationships of market systems in order to improve the market systems and create the conditions for markets to be continuously strengthened even beyond the lifetime of the programme.
The design phase of the MADE programme (September 2013 to February 2014) focused on establishing the project in the Niger Delta as well as conducting thematic and technical research and analysis. This enabled MADE to select and design sector interventions aligned to the programme’s objectives. The selected sectors are palm oil, aquaculture, smoked fish, and poultry, along with the service sector of agricultural inputs.
The Pilot phase started in March 2014 and ran up to 31 August 2014. The focus of this phase was on prototyping, testing and refining interventions through demonstration activities across three selected value chains – Agricultural inputs, fisheries and oil palm. Other activities included to test the assumptions laid out in the sectorial analyses, set up the baseline for the M&E performance measurement, and develop a network of private sector partnerships for collaboration.
The current Implementation phase has a life span of 3-5 years, starting in September 2014 and ending on 28 February 2018. A final evaluation of the programme will be conducted in 2020, two years after the implementation phase.
Expected Results
The goal of the Programme is to increase the income of at least 150,000 poor men and women in the Niger Delta by promoting a market development programme that supports the non-oil economy by (a) stimulating sustainable, pro-poor growth in selected rural markets, and (b) improving the position of poor men and women in these markets, to make them more inclusive for poor people.
Implementation of the MADE Programme is expected to result in systemic change in each of the target markets. These changes, which include greater efficiency and production of resources, should benefit the poor in the different target markets. For smallholder farmers, such benefits can include improved access to input and support services that drive primary production and more efficient processing, which will then result in increased yield/productivity and sales and eventual increased gross margins. Entrepreneurs on the other hand, are expected to experience higher margins, increased volumes and improved market access. Even consumers are expected to benefit from the programme in terms of better access to products and services, lower prices and wider choices.
MADE Programme logframe, recently revised, contains a total of nine key performance indicators, two at impact level, two at outcome level and a total of five at the output level. The goal of the programme is to increase the income of smallholder farmers and entrepreneurs in target markets. For this reason, the two impact indicators are measure beneficiaries’ income change attributable to the programme.
The outcome level indicators capture both the benefits of market systems improvement such as higher yield/productivity and sales for smallholder farmers and entrepreneurs (Outcome indicator 1) as well as target beneficiaries’ adoption of innovations and best practices introduced through the market development interventions. Given the facilitative role of MADE, the Programme works through lead firms, who then engage with local service providers to reach smallholder farmers and entrepreneurs.
Two outputs are expected from implementation of the planned interventions. The first focuses on better access to inputs, products, technologies and services, while the second focuses on how the programme influences a wide range of actors (development agencies, support service providers at the private, public, and NGO level and private investors) to change their approach to engaging with the poor in the Niger Delta region. The two outputs were designed to be interlinked in the MADE logframe and to feed off one another to create a sounder environment for change. This is based on the argument that it takes strong and committed partners to engage with MADE to deliver the results, but to ensure sustainability of outcomes, the partners must own (and continually adapt) their interventions and develop new ones.
Purpose of the Assessment
MADE is seeking an independent consultant to conduct a mid-term internal assessment of the Market Development Programme in the Niger Delta at the output and outcome levels. The assessment will identify successes, lessons learned, effectiveness of MADE as a project, and help inform future activities under MADE project.
Scope of Work
The purpose of the assignment is to assess the progress towards effectiveness (outputs to outcomes) and to understand the pathways to impact through testing the outcome to impact assumptions in the theory of change (refer Annex 1) that underpins this project. The evaluation, in examining the logical framework and other documents, and in consultation with project proponents, must also identify unexpected or unplanned issues that may have hindered or facilitated the success of the project. Additionally, the review is expected to outline the lessons learned, which is aimed at capturing key lessons to assess what worked best during project implementation.
Specific Objectives
The midterm internal assessment has two primary objectives. These are:
- to examine, as far as possible, the effectiveness of individual interventions under the MADE and;
- to provide recommendations for improving implementation during the remainder of the programme duration and aid the design/implementation of similar future programmes in future.
Furthermore, the midterm internal assessment is expected to go beyond assessing implementation of project activities, reach and the effects of interventions on end-users. It should also assess:
- the overall relevance of the project, in the Niger Delta context, in influencing private sector investment;
- its potential for sustainable economic growth and;
- its potential for wider replicability/adaptability of some of the activities in similar locations and other future interventions/programmes.
Evaluation Questions
It is expected that the assessment questions will be guided by the OECD DAC criteria for evaluating development assistance, which are: relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. The additional criteria of coverage and inclusiveness are also relevant here. It is anticipated that the evaluation will address the following questions: Table 1: Mid-Term Evaluation for DFID MADE project
More Information
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