Tender Notice
Organization Hoffnungszeichen | Sign of Hope e.V.
www.hoffnungszeichen.de, www.sign-of-hope.org
Position Final Evaluation Consultant
Type of Contract Short-term consultancy
Location Kenya and Ethiopia; Field mission travel to Turkana Isiolo and Marsabit counties in Kenya, and South Omo region and Borena zones of Oromia region in Ethiopia.
Relevant Languages English (Required),
Application Deadline 16th October 2024
Starting Date 28th October 2024
Project Title Multi-Country Cross Border Humanitarian Emergency Lifesaving Project (HELP) for severely food insecure population in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan.
Total Project Budget
Hoffnungszeichen | Sign of Hope e.V. (SoH) is announcing an open tender procedure for consultancy services for a final evaluation in Kenya, Ethiopia (including travel to the field) and South Sudan (without travel to the field).
Background and Rationale
Hoffnungszeichen | Sign of Hope e.V. (SoH) is a Christian motivated organisation for Human Rights, Humanitarian Assistance and Development Cooperation. From its base in Constance, Germany, SoH is committed to helping those in distress and exploited people worldwide.
This final evaluation is commissioned under the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) budget for humanitarian assistance and humanitarian mine action projects run by private organizations.
SoH is the private German executing agency and the contracting party, working with Caritas Marsabit, Merti Integrated Development Program (MID P), Ethiopian Catholic Church- Social and Development Commission/Caritas Ethiopia (ECC-SDCO), Spiritan Community OutReach Ethiopia (SCORE) and the Catholic Diocese of Rumbek (CDOR) as the local implementing partners.
The Multi-Country Cross Border Humanitarian Emergency Lifesaving Project (HELP) aims to ensure that critical lifesaving and protection needs of the most vulnerable drought and flood affected, severely food insecure communities in Northern Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan are met through improved access to Multi-purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA), food assistance, WASH, protection services, and capacity building. The project which runs from July 1, 2023 to December 31, 2024 is being implemented in Turkana and Marsabit counties in Northern Kenya, Lakes and Warrap States in South Sudan (Rumbek North and Tonj North Districts respectively), and South Omo of Southern Nationalities People (SNNP) region and Borena zones of Oromia region in Ethiopia. SoH is cooperating with local partners in the various regions who collaborate with local governments and community committees to implement the HELP project. The beneficiaries in the areas are mainly households affected by disasters such as drought and floods, those with poor developmental indicators, and those affected by frequent communal and resource-based conflicts. The interventions are designed to have long-term positive effects in the community including rebuilding a community that has been devastated by prolonged drought, directly supporting the local economy through cash transfer programme, enabling the community to safeguard and make use of their productive assets and, preventing the community from adaptation of negative coping strategies such as distressed selling of productive assets or taking children out of school.
Purpose, Objectives and Use
The purpose of the evaluation is to provide SoH and partners with a comprehensive assessment of the project, conducted systematically and impartially, as well as analyse the implementation and results of the project, propose actions to ensure sustainability of the results, identify lessons learned and information for potential future projects. The study will provide concrete, credible and practical recommendations that will assist with the timely incorporation of the findings into the decision-making process and contribute to the organizational learning of all implementing organizations.
The study will support the project quality assurance measures implemented by SoH and meet the donor requirements towards the development projects implemented by German private organizations.
The evaluation will address evaluation questions based on the standard OECD/DAC evaluation criteria of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and impact (please see https://www.oecd.org/dac/evaluation/revised-evaluation-criteria-dec-2019.pdf). The objectives of the evaluations are to:
- Assess the extent to which the project has sustainably achieved its objectives and results (see annexe 1), including the extent to which the lives of the project beneficiaries have been improved,
- Identify the strengths and weaknesses in terms of planning, management, implementation and monitoring of the project,
- Evaluate sustainability measures,
- Identify cross-cutting issues addressed through the project, including gender equality, human rights, marginalised groups, inclusion, and other issues,
- Identify risks and weaknesses and make recommendations for the successful completion of the project.
- Document lessons learned that could contribute to the improvement of the design of future projects.
- Evaluate efficiency of programme resource utilization against implementation processes and the achieved results.
- Assess how effective the programme risks were anticipated and adequacy of mitigation measures. Validate whether the risks identified by the programme document were the most important ones and whether the risk ratings applied were appropriate and the learnings.
- Assess the extent to which programme management systems, procedures & structures in place were aligned for effective programme implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
- Evaluate whether the partnerships were appropriate and effective for programme implementation and how stakeholders have been involved in the project’s performance management.
Duties and Responsibilities
The Evaluation Consultant will work in close cooperation with the responsible SoH Officer and the local implementing partners.
The duties and responsibilities of the Evaluation Consultant will include:
- Develop a work plan outlining the proposed research methodology, geographical coverage and schedule to conduct the study,
- Conduct a desk review of relevant documents,
- Carry out a project site visit to project locations to conduct research, collect data and establish contact with the local implementing partners, project beneficiaries and relevant project stakeholders,
- Review and evaluate available data and existing sources of information, including the project proposal, annual reports, conducted studies and other documents,
- Examine institutional, technical, staffing and financial capacities of the implementing partners as well as its relationship with the target group and other relevant stakeholders.
Expected Deliverables
The study will produce the following deliverables:
- An inception report, including the proposed research methodology and data collection tools, a table of content and timeline of research activities prior to the site visit to the project location,
- a comprehensive report of a maximum of 30 pages with practical recommendations and relevant annexes (including raw data and documented records).
A template will be provided to serve as a guide and may be used to structure the final report.
Study Quality and Ethical Standards
The study team will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the study is designed and conducted to respect and protect the rights and welfare of the people and communities involved. Furthermore, the study should be aligned to the following standards and applicable practices:
- Utility: the study must be useful and used.
- Feasibility: the study must be realistic, diplomatic and managed in a sensible, cost-effective manner.
- Ethics and Legality: the study must be conducted in an ethical and legal manner, with particular regard for the welfare of those involved in and affected by the Study.
- Impartiality and Independence: the study should be impartial, providing a comprehensive and unbiased assessment that takes into account the views of all stakeholders.
- Transparency: the study activities should reflect an attitude of openness and transparency.
- Accuracy: the study should be technically accurate and credible, providing sufficient information about the data collection, analysis, and interpretation methods so that its worth or merit can be determined.
- Participation: the Stakeholders should be consulted and meaningfully involved in the study process when feasible and appropriate.
- Collaboration: Collaboration between key operating partners in the study process improves the legitimacy and utility of the study.
The study must be in line with the SoH guiding principles and Code of Conduct.
Process/Timeframe
The total duration of the assignment is up to 45 working days within the period from 28th October to 11th December.
Planning meeting with handover of relevant documents 3 days
Initial document review and inception report preparation 3 days
Sharing inception report with SoH and partners 3 days
Finalisation of inception report 3 days
Data collection site visit to project locations 15-23 days
Data analysis, draft report with annexes 5 days
Incorporating received feedback and report finalization 5 days
Qualifications and Experience
Essential:
- Minimum of 5 years of project evaluation and/or implementation experience in the result-based management framework
- Proven experience of conducting feasibility studies, evaluations and other research projects
- Technical and methodological knowledge to conduct research projects and formulate conclusions based on a solid methodology, assessing projects for relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of projects
- Experience working with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and partnered projects
- Fluency in written and spoken English
Desirable:
- Experience in the relevant field/sector
- Professional familiarity with the project country/region
- Practical experience of working for and/or evaluating GFFO-funded projects
- Fluency in written and spoken English
- Demonstrated experience in quantitative and qualitative data analysis;
- Knowledge and experience with livelihoods, WASH and protection is desirable;
- Ability to produce high quality work under tight timeframes.
- Excellent skills in synthesizing information, report writing, and generating summaries
Academic Background
An advanced level university degree (Masters’ degree or equivalent) in social sciences, public administration, international development studies, law and/or any other relevant field. A first-level university degree in combination with additional 10 years of qualifying experience may be accepted.
The Evaluation Consultant is to be independent and impartial with no liabilities to any other organization or government entity regarding this evaluation.
Please submit the following documents as PDF files with the subject line “GFFO HELP Project Evaluation in Kenya and Ethiopia” to [email protected] no later than 16th October 2024; 23:59 CEST/CET/EAT:
- A resumé indicating all relevant experience (max. 2 pages),
- contacts of at least two professional referees,
- a cover letter, including a brief description of the proposed research methodology (technical proposal max. 1 page) and a comprehensive breakdown of costs (financial proposal), including professional fees and all other relevant costs, including travel expenses,
- a writing sample of the document of similar research value (e.g. a feasibility study, an evaluation report).
Companies as well as independent consultants are invited for this tender. Female and differently abled candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
Please note that due to a large number of applications we may limit establishing contact to shortlisted applicants.
Bids received after deadline will not be considered. If offers are incomplete, bidders may be able to hand in missing documents within a deadline upon request by SoH.
The selection of the consultant will be conducted by SoH and interviews with shortlisted candidates will be held online within two weeks of the deadline.
The consultancy agreement will be set up by SoH.
Criteria and weighting for the evaluation of the submitted proposals:
- Essential and desirable competencies, proposed methodology: 30 %
- Financial proposal (fee): 30 %
- Performance during interview: 20 %
- Writing samples: 10 %
- Minimum amount of years of relevant experience: 5 %
- Language skills: 5 %
