Consultancy for the Endline Evaluation of RAPID+ Program 12 views0 applications

Background

The Millennium Water Alliance (MWA) is a permanent global alliance of leading humanitarian and private organisations that convenes opportunities and partnerships, accelerates learning and effective models, and influences the WASH space by leveraging the expertise and reach of its members and partners to scale quality, sustained WASH services. Founded in the year 2002, MWA seeks to advance high standards for program quality, transparency and accountability and work with its members, governments, communities, private sector partners and other key stakeholders to bring to scale effective and sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene education solutions. MWA therefore sees WASH beyond a service but as a platform for advocacy, social enterprise, economic empowerment, and gender justice.

The Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Integrated Development Plus (RAPID+) program is a five-year program running from November 2021 – October 2026 convened and led by MWA. The program has primary funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation (SDC) and contributions and investment funds from private sector actors, four facilitating partners including CARE Kenya, the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Food for the Hungry (FH) and World Vision (WV) and five hosting county governments. RAPID+ aims to improve access to water and rangeland services for 200,000 people in the five counties of Garissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Turkana, and Wajir counties. RAPID+ activities are being implemented using a gender transformative lens and systems development approaches. These two aspects are expected to embed sustainability and inclusivity in the program.

Project Goal and Objectives

The goal of RAPID+ is to improve access to safe and sustainably managed water and rangelands in RAPID+ counties to contribute to resilient livelihoods for communities in a peaceful environment. The program is contributing to this goal through two outcomes: (1) Pastoralist communities have increased access to sustainable and safe water for multiple uses benefiting men, women, and youth, and (2) Pastoralist communities have improved access to safe and ecologically healthy rangeland resources that promote greater integrity, social cohesion, and gender equity.

The RAPID+ Theory of Change states that “If we improve access to sustainable and safe water for multiple uses that benefit men, women and youth and also improve access to safe and ecologically healthy rangeland resources that promote greater integrity, social cohesion and gender equity through strong public, private and community institutions; then communities in the target areas will have increased income, gender equity and empowerment, enhanced livestock systems, a more peaceful environment, conserved ecosystems and improved health status; and therefore, resilient livelihoods that promote peaceful cohesion and gender equity will be achieved.”

Summary of Program Achievements

Over the past four years, the RAPID+ programme has demonstrated strong performance against its original targets across the five counties. The programme has met its targets for transboundary rangeland management committees, establishing 31 committees against a target of 26, and reached 232,821 community members—surpassing the target of 200,000 women, men, and youth. Targets for water management committees were fully achieved, with all 45 committees established as planned. Progress against institutional strengthening targets was also substantial, with 10 out of 11 Water Resource User Associations supported and 396 county government front-line officers reached against a target of 400, reflecting near-complete achievement in these areas.

More importantly from a systems change perspective, the program has created mind-set shifts in private sector participation with all stakeholders (private, government, INGO and donor) involved in the program. Through working on public–private engagement, locally led models, and market-responsive approaches, the program has successfully mobilised significant private-sector co-investment in service delivery. RAPID+ has also introduced and tested innovative models, ranging from PAYGO irrigation and enhanced O&M financing mechanisms to community-based insurance schemes, that deepen sustainability in the water sector. In parallel, rangeland value chains, such as gum Arabic, honey, and fodder production have grown, contributing to diversified livelihoods and stronger local markets. These achievements are articulated below.

• RAPID+ has formally partnered with 11 private-sector actors, including Acacia Water, Aqua Clara, Boreal Light, Davis & Shirtliff, Epicenter Africa, Global Communities, Maji Milele, Solargen, Virridy, Coca‑Cola Foundation, and Alseyee Bio. Engagements have ranged from supporting the establishment of regional branches in Northern Kenya (e.g. Maji Milele) to piloting telemetric monitoring of borehole functionality (e.g. Virridy).
• Through these partnerships, RAPID+ has leveraged an estimated USD 2 million in private-sector investment for water and rangeland interventions, including contributions from both formally engaged partners and informal private-sector actors operating at county level.
• The programme has piloted three models to strengthen private-sector engagement in the water sector: the Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) irrigation model; the Drought Resilience Impact Platform – Fixing Uptime Now and Decision Improvement (DRIP FUNDI) model; and the Diocese of Lodwar Insurance Scheme to support the operation and maintenance of water systems.
• One of the operation and maintenance models developed under RAPID+, DRIP FUNDI, facilitated 63 borehole repairs across the five programme counties in 2025, contributing to improved service reliability and community-level climate resilience.
• In Turkana County**, nine rural water points** have been transferred to the rural water utility, Turkana Rural Water Company (TURWASCO), demonstrating progress in operationalizing rural water service delivery models.
• Through targeted institutional-strengthening support, Marsabit Water and Sewerage Company improved its standing in the Water Services Regulatory Board league tables, rising from 87th to 78th position- a 10-place improvement in water service delivery performance. This upward movement signals strengthened financial and operational management at the utility and enhances its credibility with funders and partners, positioning it closer to long-term commercial viability.
• The program supported the generation of USD 44,830 in revenue from rangeland products, including gum arabic and honey, strengthening livelihoods in rural communities across the RAPID+ counties.

Purpose of the Evaluation

The Endline Evaluation will assess the outcomes of RAPID+ and the attribution, causality, and contribution of program interventions over its five-year implementation period from November 1, 2021, to April 30, 2026. The period between May 2026- October 2026 is focused on program close-out activities and hence will not be included during the evaluation.

Evaluation Questions / Objectives

The evaluation will have four key objectives outlined below:

1. Assessing the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of the program based on the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Criteria.
2. Establishing unintended and emergent outcomes and systemic shifts generated by the program through outcome harvesting.
3. The evaluation will inform MWA and its partners if the approaches employed successfully met the program’s goal of expanding sustainable access to water and rangelands services through systems development approaches.
4. The evaluation is expected to inform future programming which will focus on improving water access for inclusive economic development in Northeastern Kenya. The consultant is expected to highlight opportunities and pathways (based on their evaluation of RAPID+) of leveraging water for economic development.

The Endline Evaluation will provide conclusions and recommendations on the following questions:

1. Relevance: To what extent did the RAPID+ design respond to beneficiaries, and partner/institution needs, policies, and priorities.
2. Coherence: Were the result indicators for the RAPID+ program and their means of verification adequate? What possible adjustments would be recommended in future programming?
3. Effectiveness: To what degree have the program activities met the intended outcomes and results set out in the logical framework?
4. Efficiency: To what extent did RAPID+ deliver results in an economical and timely way?
5. Impact: To what extent did RAPID+ generate significant positive or negative, intended, or unintended, higher-level effects?
6. Sustainability: To what extent will the net benefits of the intervention continue.
7. Gender mainstreaming: To what extent was the program gender transformative?
8. Synergies: To what extent were synergies achieved with other activities implemented by other Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) as well as with local initiatives?
9. To what extent has the program embraced Systems Development (SD), Private Sector Engagement (PSE) and Development (PSD) in water and rangelands service delivery?
10. Program design: Which program design components need to be improved, changed and or omitted in similar programming in the future?

Scope of work and Evaluation Methodology

The endline evaluation shall;

a) Cover the entire project duration until start of the evaluation (November 2021- April 2026) while also taking into consideration ongoing activities.

(b) Cover all the program target counties- Wajir, Garissa, Marsabit, Isiolo and Turkana.

(c) Cover other program partners including county governments, implementing partners, private partners among others.

The consultant shall propose the methodology to be used to carry out the review that adopts a consultative and participatory approach. The proposed methodology should sufficiently address the preliminary questions outlined within the ToR, specifying the review approaches, questions, methods of data collection and analysis that will be undertaken. It should encompass a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The consultant would be required to align the end-line approach with what was used in the MTR for ease of comparison.

This evaluation will adopt a quasi-experimental research design. It will also involve a mixed methods approach integrating both quantitative and qualitative data. With this in mind, the evaluation team is expected to propose an evaluation methodology and analysis tools that guarantee the highest degree of rigor to ensure credible findings. Qualitative data will be collected from diverse stakeholders, individuals, and groups in the community. Qualitative data-gathering procedures will entail but are not limited to Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with RAPID+ facilitating partners, private sector partners, Borehole Rapid Response Teams (BRRTs), Borehole Operators, households, and County Government Water Department and Rangelands staff among others. The consultant will identify the respondents in the exercise purposively.

Data collected should be linked with the program’s log frame to answer specific evaluation questions linked to outcomes and outputs and to provide a platform from which to understand systemic, behaviour and actors’ changes over time. The project is targeting 200,000 beneficiaries, of whom 150,000 should be rural, peri-urban and urban dwellers with access to water for multiple uses, and 50,000 should pastoralists accessing improved rangelands and rangeland management services. The consultant needs to propose a clear sampling methodology and size to be employed in the evaluation. This approach needs to be clearly articulated within the proposal submission. The program sites will purposively be selected by the project implementing partners in each County, in consultation with MWA Kenya. Data management, validation and dissemination shall be proposed by the consultant.

Roles and responsibilities

1. Millennium Water Alliance (MWA)

The MWA together will collaborate with the selected consultant to undertake the following roles:

• Provide consultant with background documents, reports and available secondary data for review.
• Host an inception session for the consultant and implementing partners to agree on timelines.
• Organize validation and dissemination workshops for the presentation of preliminary findings to the program stakeholders.
• Review and provide input on all consultant’s deliverables.
• Ensure smooth flow of consultancy engagement processes including contractual obligations.
• Share the final evaluation report with all key stakeholders, including key program staff, partners, donor representatives, and national and county governments.
• Organize a reflection session to support program close-out activities with all RAPID+ stakeholders.

1. Facilitating partners

The roles of the facilitating partners shall include the following:

• Coordinate with the consultant to plan for logistics and support during the enumerators’ training.
• Facilitate the consultant to successfully engage with target communities and stakeholders by ensuring community sensitisation and mobilization of sampled respondents.
• Scheduling Key Informants with the County Government and other required KIIs.
• Provide supervision support during the field data collection

1. Consultant

The roles of the consultant(s) shall include the following.

• Conduct desk review of relevant program documents and other secondary sources.
• Develop an inception report, detailing the agreed upon study design, methodologies for data collection and analysis, indicators, data-gathering tools, work plan schedule and budget to carry out the assignment, in consultation with MWA.
• Develop or refine quantitative and qualitative data-gathering tools in consultation with MWA.
• Recruit and pay enumerators in each county.
• Plan and coordinate quantitative and qualitative data collection.
• Conduct training for the data collection teams including pre‐testing of data collection tools.
• Work with the facilitating partners in evaluation planning and logistics.
• Review, clean and analyze collected data.
• Document indicators progress from baseline and mid-term values to inform of progress and give related recommendations.
• Draft and end-line report capturing findings and recommendations.
• Present preliminary findings and draft report to program stakeholders for validation.
• Incorporate input from program stakeholders and develop and submit the final End-line evaluation reports (full and summary versions).
• Produce county-specific reports (Maximum 5 pages)
• Arrange and pay for travel, accommodation and per diem during the assignment.
• Facilitate the program reflection session during close out.
• Provide enumerators with tablets/mobile phones during data collection.

Deliverables and Timeline

1. Inception report: The report shall detail the evaluation methodologies which must include the proposed data collection and analysis methods to address the key evaluation questions and required indicators, limitations, and ways to mitigate them, and an operational work plan. The inception report shall also include questionnaires and interview protocols. The timelines are 10 working days after the inception meeting with MWA.
2. Weekly Reports: During fieldwork, the consultant must submit weekly reports to update on progress and any logistical challenges that require mitigation. To be provided within the field data collection period.
3. Draft Evaluation Report: Within 15 working days after the end of fieldwork, the consultant must submit a consolidated draft evaluation report, including all data aggregated per county and combined, for preliminary comments. This will facilitate effective review by MWA in preparation for the presentation during the validation meeting. A cleaned quantitative dataset (for quantitative data collection methods) in Excel must be submitted alongside the draft evaluation report. The timeline is 14 working days after the completion of fieldwork. Fieldwork is expected to take about 14 calendar days (including weekends).
4. Copies of raw and cleaned data sets including field notes, audio tapes, photographs, and transcribed material including documentation of the processes followed in data verification and cleaning. Submitted alongside the draft report.
5. Presentation of Report: During this meeting, the team will present the major findings of the evaluation to key stakeholders virtually. A PowerPoint presentation will be made by the evaluation team and submitted two days before the presentation. The debriefings shall include discussions of methodology, limitations, key findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
6. Final Report: Within 7 working days after the online debrief, a final version of the endline evaluation report shall be presented. The final report shall incorporate the comments and suggestions from MWA and stakeholders. The format shall include an executive summary (highlighting key findings and lessons learned), table of contents, list of acronyms, background information, evaluation design and methodology, limitations, findings, lessons learned, conclusions and annexes. The report shall be submitted electronically in English. The final report must not be more than 50 pages excluding annexes. The report will be presented as one consolidated report with county-specific reports as annexes (Maximum 5 pages).
7. A summary of the final endline evaluation report (the popular version), not exceeding 15 pages, excluding any potentially procurement-sensitive information shall be submitted (also electronically, in English) for dissemination among implementing partners and stakeholders. The summary will be submitted 10 working days after the submission of the final report.
8. Learning materials on the core thematic areas of the program- Gender, Market Systems Development and Peace Building. These will be 5-page case-studies that can be shared widely on digital platforms.

Duration of assessment

*The endline evaluation will be conducted from April 2026 – June 2026 and is expected to take a maximum of 60 days.

Consultant Qualification

Below are the preferred qualifications for the consultants applying for the consultancy:

• Minimum 10 years’ experience in the evaluation of WASH and rangelands programs including leading evaluations of multistakeholder programs for development organizations in Kenya ASALs.
• Extensive experience in conducting outcome harvesting.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• The evaluation team will require a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in RAPID+ core areas of Water, Rangelands Management, Market Systems Development and Gender. The consultant(s) must demonstrate how they are structured for the assignment and the role each staff will play including the CVs of the key personnel who will take part in the consultancy. Consultants proposed for the strategy should not be swapped out at later stages unless there are extenuating circumstances.
• Demonstrated skills in research, data collection, monitoring and evaluation of water, rangelands, Market Systems Development (MSD) and Gender donor-funded programs in ASAL areas with at least 8 years of practical experience.
• Proof of experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative studies using mobile data collection.
• Experience with quantitative and qualitative statistical analysis packages (SPSS, STATA, Nvivo and MAXQDA) and excellent experience in mobile data collection.
• Excellent report writing, analytical, and communication skills are essential.
• Consultants based in Kenya but with other global offices are preferred.
• Consulting firm must provide tablets/mobile phones for data collection.

Reporting and Communication

Internal: The consultant will be reporting to the MWA Monitoring and Evaluation Manager while keeping a close working relationship with the RAPID+ Program Director, the Water Intervention Manager and Rangelands Coordinator at the MWA RAPID+ Program Hub. The consultant will be expected to communicate regularly with the County Coordination Units (CCUs) in the field during the exercise.

External: The consultant will be in close communication with other stakeholders including County Government staff, private sector partners, water management committees, rangeland management committee and the community members served by targeted boreholes or range units. Consultants must adhere to the MWA Code of Conduct and Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) policies when carrying out their duties and interactions with external parties.

Application Process

Interested firms must submit detailed technical and financial proposals (in Kenya Shillings) that clearly explain their understanding of the Terms of Reference, approaches, and methodologies to be used to undertake the assignment.

Preparation and Contents of Proposals

1. The Technical Proposal

The proposal shall include, but not be limited to, the following information:

• An application/cover letter. The letter should be no longer than two pages.
• The CVs of the team leader and other key team members.
• A company profile.
• Description of the firm’s experience in providing similar consultancy services to international development agencies or organizations. A specific listing and description of engagements, current or prior, with Foreign Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) funded activities, if any in the last three (3) years. Provide contact details of three (3) organizations.
• Proposed methodology and a detailed workplan based on an understanding of the objectives of the assignment.
• One sample report produced for a similar assignment within the last three years.

1. The Financial Proposal

The proposal shall include, but not limited to, the following information:

The fees proposed must be a total “fixed price” quotation indicating the overall total amount in Kenya Shillings. With a breakdown of cost related to:

• Professional fees. The calculation of fees should indicate cost associated with the time-effort included in your technical proposal.
• A detailed breakdown of reimbursable including logistics, travel, per diem, communication, and any other related costs.
• Payment terms.

Administrative and fiscal documents to be provided:

Interested consultants are expected to submit the following statutory documents as part of the mandatory requirements:

• Kenyan firms: copies of a valid Kenyan certificate of tax compliance, certificate of incorporation, and company KRA PIN certificate.
• Kenyan individuals: copies of a valid Kenyan certificate of tax compliance, KRA PIN certificate, and National Identification Card/ Passport.
• International firms: Copies of Company Incorporation certificate, Tax-payer registration documents, Tax compliance certificate for your respective countries.
• International Individuals: Copies of Tax-payer registration documents, Tax compliance certificate (where applicable), Passports/ National Identity card for your respective countries

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated to ensure that they meet all mandatory requirements and are responsive. To determine responsiveness, a proposal must include all documentation as listed above. The proposals that fail to meet these requirements will receive no further consideration. Responsive proposals will be evaluated and ranked according to the criteria below.

Technical Qualification

• Technical and education experience in the team
• Understanding of the scope and/or assignment
• Proposed methodology and approach.
• Demonstrated experience in conducting and coordinating similar studies.
• Experience in the ASALs conducting similar studies.

Consultants with a minimum score of 70% will be considered technically qualified, their applications will proceed to the financial evaluation stage, and they will be invited for an oral interview.

Financial Proposal

Only the financial proposal of the technically qualified consultants will be evaluated. The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal. All other financial proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

Final Interview

Consulting firms with the required technical expertise and with a reasonable financial proposal will be invited for oral interviews to gauge their approach to the assignment and availability of the proposed consulting team. Following this a final candidate will be selected to execute the assignment.

How to apply

All applications should be submitted electronically to the following email address: [email protected] on/before 31st March 2026 at 5:00 pm EAT The email subject should be clearly titled “Consultancy for the Endline Evaluation of RAPID+ Program in Isiolo, Marsabit, Wajir, Garissa and Turkana Counties”.

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