Call for Bids/Tender (Consultant for End of Project Evaluation for the ECHO project) 273 views1 applications

Project title: Integrated GBV prevention and response to the emergency needs of newly displaced women, men, girls, and boys in Borno State, North-East Nigeria.

Project duration: November 1st 2018 to August 31st 2020

Duration of Evaluation: Maximum 15 days

Evaluation Projected Date: 1st to 30th September 2020

Introduction

CARE International in Nigeria is seeking the services of a consultant with experience in the end of project evaluation of humanitarian programmes in conflict-affected areas to undertake a thematic evaluation of the CARE Project ‘Integrated GBV prevention and response to the emergency needs of newly displaced women, men, girls, and boys in Borno State, North-East Nigeria’.

The purpose of the evaluation is to generate learning and evidence on the extent to which the project has:

a) Targeted internally displaced persons (IDPs) and other vulnerable categories of people pertinent to the project rationale and objectives;

b) Supported timely, relevant and effective delivery of GBV services (prevention and response) to target populations;

c) Delivered results in-line with the project results framework;

d) Been able to effectively monitor project activities through a ‘remote management model’- particularly within the COVID-19 period;

The evaluation will provide evidence that will contribute to the management of relief program and to CARE humanitarian approach more broadly. The evaluation findings are also expected to contribute to the common evidence base on humanitarian practice in a somewhat unique context, as well as strategies on how to build resilient within a complex humanitarian crisis.

Background

Under the European Commission Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) funding with support of CARE France, CARE Nigeria has been implementing a Gender Based Violence in Emergencies project. The on-going project is implementing in Bama and Ngala LGAs – Northeast Nigeria, the goal of the project is to contribute to the protection of the lives of vulnerable women, men, girls, and boys most affected by the crisis in North-eastern Nigeria.

At the end of the project it is expected that:

1) GBV prevention, care, and response services are available and accessible to newly displaced individuals and vulnerable host community members at risk of or affected by GBV and

2) Awareness, knowledge and application of humanitarian principles and Sexual Exploitation and Abuse prevention and response principles is improved among humanitarian actors and security forces.

Purpose and Objectives

The purpose of this end of project evaluation is to ensure accountability and identify lessons learned and best practices so as to feed into the decision making process of the project stakeholders, including the donor, beneficiaries, and Government counterparts.

The specific objectives of the end of project evaluation are primarily:

1. To assess progress made towards the achievement of results at the outcome and output levels; include the sustainability of the outcomes of the project, beyond the project lifetime. Also to provide evidence- based information on performance of the project against the intervention logic and existing project and program indicators
2. To assess performance in terms of the following criteria: Appropriateness of design; relevance of results; sustainability (where relevant); transparency and accountability; effectiveness, efficiency of resource allocations, and validity of design/relevance of the project
3. To identify and to document lessons learned and provide evidence-based recommendations for guiding subsequent humanitarian programming or similar future interventions.
4. To assess how the project ensured inclusion of vulnerable and marginalized communities and engaged with affected population and communities;
5. To assess how the project contributed to coordination efforts for improved GBV response

Evaluation Ethics:

Due to the dynamic situation in which CARE operate, as well as the potentially life threatening nature of the issues involved, it is essential that the evaluator adheres to strict ethical and security guidelines. Consultants will only be considered where evaluation ethics and appropriate protocols are embedded into their organisational or private consultancy profile. Consultants have to demonstrate they are keenly aware of particular ethical and security issues that arise from working in this specific environment, including protection of local communities and the need for vigilant data handling and management.

Scope of Evaluation

The geographical scope of the evaluation is Bama and Ngala LGAs of Borno State, NE Nigeria. The technical scope of the evaluation is to assess the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, coordination, and impact/sustainability of the project in light of its objectives and provide recommendations for future programming. Furthermore, the evaluation will assess how the project ensured accountability to affected groups considering the commitments of the Core Humanitarian Standard.

Relevance

The consultant should look at the design of the project and assess the extent to which the stated project objectives address the identified problems or stakeholder needs.

• How has the project design (outcomes, outputs and activities) been relevant to addressing underlying causes of the identified problems?

• What alternative strategies would have been more effective in achieving its objectives? Efficiency

• How has the project been efficient in allocating and managing resources (funds, human resources, time, expertise etc.) to achieve outcomes? Were the management capacities adequate- i.e. management of personnel, project properties, communication, relation management with elders, community leaders, other development partners, etc?

• Do the results achieved justify the costs (human resources, time, energy, money, materials)? If not, why not? Have project funds and activities been delivered in a timely manner? If not, why not?

• Was there a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities by all parties involved?

• Has the project received adequate technical and administrative support from ECHO, CARE France, and

CARE Nigeria?

• How far and in what ways the project was able to strengthen local non implementing partners, communities, government, youth groups (and other relevant groups) and provide suggestions to further improve their capacities.

• Review and assess the quality of the project monitoring and evaluation system, specifically: Assess the appropriateness of the indicators and also assess the robustness of the monitoring protocol and approaches in quantitative and qualitative data collection and compilation by project staff based on the log frame indicators.

Effectiveness

• How the project was perceived by relevant stakeholders (Local leaders and community members) in light of achieving its planned objectives?

• How has the project been effective in achieving its planned activities and outcomes? If not, why?

• Which were the strengths in the project implementation and what are the constraints and challenges faced? How has the project mitigated these challenges?

• How gender and protection have been mainstreamed into project activities and what was the impact of the project on gender equity and related issues

• How have the approaches/modalities followed by the project been effective in ensuring inclusion of vulnerable and marginalized communities?

• Have the approaches/modalities followed by the project been effective in engaging with the communities affected by the crisis? How and why?

Impact/sustainability

• What are the planned and unintended effects, direct and indirect, positive and negative, of the project on the living conditions of the populations in the targeted area?

• What were the linkages between activities such as linkages between the women solidarity groups and livelihood assistance that allow to maximize the effected of the project?.

• Evaluate the sustainability of the project achievements such as GBV committees, sensitization tools, level of capacity building of the staff, partners community leaders and other actors, reduction of GBV incidence, appropriation of the project by the beneficiaries; To what extent do the positive changes resulting from the project continue after the end of the action? In particular through the replication of training activities and continuity of the GBV committees.

• Make proposals for strengthening the achievements of the project.

Coordination

Is the level of involvement and coordination of actions with other actors including local authorities, NGOs, Technical Services present in the area adequate

• Is the level of collaboration through the sharing of information (technical, financial, logistics) and good practices adequate?

• What is positive and negative impact of inter-agency coordination efforts? To what extent does the project contribute to improved collective response on the GBV and SEA vulnerabilities in targeted locations

Accountability

• Are the beneficiaries informed about the activities of the project?

• The situation / participation of girls and women, especially those heads of household?

• Are the existing monitoring and accountability mechanisms used and adapted to the context? If not, how can they be improved?

• Do the beneficiaries know the complaint and feedback mechanism? What are its limits? Do they use them? What feedback do they have on this mechanism?

Deliverable and Time-frame

The consultants will produce the following specific deliverable after signing the contract. The consultant will provide regular briefings to CARE Nigeria and will report his/her preliminary findings before leaving the field.

The expected Outputs deliverable from the Evaluator are:

1. An Evaluation Work Plan, to be agreed prior to the commencement of the evaluation.

This document will operationalize and direct the evaluation. It will describe how the evaluation will be executed, thus refining and elaborating upon the terms of reference. It will be approve by CARE senior management and act as an agreement between parties for how the evaluation will be conducted. The work plan will include the following elements:

• Expectations of evaluation
• Roles and responsibilities
• Evaluation methodology – which is also adapting to COVID-19
• Evaluation framework
• Information collection and analysis methods
• Reporting formats
• Day by day work plan and time-frame for deliverable
• An Evaluation Report (draft and FINAL): At the end of the evaluation, the external consultant shall produce a report and present it to CARE Nigeria. The report will describe the evaluation and put forward the findings, recommendations and lessons learned.

The presentation of results should illustrate a logical progression derived from the information collected. The evaluation report will be presented in two stages: A draft report (for comments within a stipulated period) and a subsequent final report (within an agreed time-frame).

The report will be written in English. The draft and final report will have the following structure:

1. Executive Summary (max. 2 pages)
2. Introduction
3. Methodology, including sampling
4. Analysis and findings of the study
5. Evidences of success/failures
6. Conclusions, recommendations, lessons learned and best practices

Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Technical experience and expertise

• Quality of proposal

• Cost-effectiveness of proposal

Management of the consultancy and logistical support

The principal contacts for this consultancy will be CARE Gender and Protection Sector Manager.

CARE Nigeria will provide all reasonably available secondary information as the Consultant may require to perform his/her obligations under this Agreement. All data gathered is property of CARE. The consultant shall ensure at all times the confidentiality of data, respect the privacy of all individuals concerned.

1. Annexes: ToR, Performance indicator tracking table reflecting the status on each indicator against target and previous results, if any, Relevant maps and photographs of the study areas, bibliography of consulted secondary sources, finalized data collection tools (in English and Hausa and/or Kanuri), list of key informants, raw data in an agreed format.

The consultant needs to produce three hard copies of all deliverable. The final report will also be provided in electronic copy (both PDF and MS Word format). The consultancy is expected to take place in the month of September 2020 in a total of 15 working days (work plan), including preparation, evaluation design, field work, report writing and presentation of findings and recommendations to CARE Nigeria, partners and external stakeholders.

Skills and Qualification

CARE International in Nigeria is seeking the services of an experience and independent consultant evaluator of humanitarian projects who fulfills the following competencies:

 Reliability and effectiveness, with proven knowledge and experience conducting project evaluations of humanitarian programs in complex conflict induced crises; preferably combined with prior experience as a project/programs manager in such contexts.

 Excellent understanding of gender and protection issues; GBV in Emergency experience is preferred

 Fluency in English; Hausa and/or Kanuri are desirable.

 Sound understanding of evaluation design and methods (both qualitative and quantitative), including and understanding of the strengths and limitations of different approaches, and a sound understanding of the challenges posed by remote management.

 Understanding of how to interpret and present findings; advanced analytical and report writing skills

 Knowledge and experience of the crisis essential, and experience with remote management modalities preferred

 Have strong knowledge on Nigeria context is highly desirable

Terms of payment

The basis for payment and payment scheduling will be determined during contract negotiations.