TOR for End line Evaluation for the NEXUS DRA Pilot Project. 1591 views3 applications

1. Background

1.1 NEXUS platform.

NEXUS is a platform for change in response to the contemporary challenges to Somalia and Somaliland. The main goal of NEXUS Consortium is to transform the humanitarian, development, and peace ecosystem. The consortium, led by eight pioneering Somali NGOs, aspires to advance a locally-driven agenda for change by building partnerships between communities, civil society, and the public and private sectors as well as through the implementation of integrated and sustainable interventions across the triple nexus of humanitarian, peace, and development.

Founded in 2019, NEXUS is a paradigm-shifting platform that is now comprised of eight core members. These members possess wide-ranging technical capacities and represent communities across all Federal Member States of Somalia and Somaliland. NEXUS has two international partners who are committed to the localization agenda – Oxfam and Save the Children – and who support NEXUS in different areas of work.

NEXUS embodies the next evolutionary step of the Somali aid system, pioneering a locally-led approach to delivering integrated peacebuilding, humanitarian, and development interventions. By breaking the silos of humanitarian aid, development, and peacebuilding and by creating much-needed spaces for local organizations to lead the way in seeking, scaling, and integrating solutions across these sectors, Nexus proposes local leadership as more than a means of realizing localization commitments.

NEXUS is strategically investing in the institutions of civil society and government, advancing a new, community-driven framework that creates space for local organizations, partners in government, and the private sector to lead the way in identifying, scaling, and integrating community-owned and driven solutions to humanitarian, development and peacebuilding needs.

1.2 DRA project.

The Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) is a coalition of 14 Dutch aid organizations in partnership with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).[1] The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) partners with the DRA by funding Joint Responses. The structure of the DRA enables participating NGOs to respond to major international crises in a timely and effective manner. The rising number of humanitarian disasters around the world has placed an increased burden on international aid organizations. The global increase in the number of armed conflicts – and the deepening complexity of these conflicts – is also adding to the severe strain on the existing humanitarian system. The Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) was established to meet these challenges. Improved cooperation and coordination between NGOs enables them to better respond to major international crises in a timely and effective manner. The DRA members collaborate in humanitarian interventions – delivering greater impact than members operating independently.

The DRA NEXUS project was initially a ten-month pilot project, but the time frame of the project was extended to one year following the approval of a non-cost extension. The project focuses on local humanitarian programming and aims to work on fulfilling commitments to the Grand Bargain and Charter for Change. The project started in January 2021 and will end on 31^st December 2021. The project is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) and is designed to contribute to NEXUS’ vision of assuming a leading role in humanitarian systems that puts the agency and self-reliance of communities at the center through delivering a combination of aid, development and peace programs. In line with the principles outlined in the platform’s perspective of change, the Pilot Joint response program is entirely led and implemented by NEXUS. The total project budget is EUR 2,030,000.

The project is developed in response to the call for proposals from the DRA that aims to pilot a new locally-led way of developing Joint Response proposals and of deciding who participates in the implementation of a Joint Response, on basis of their potential to contribute to a jointly developed Perspective on Change. The Perspective on Change should support enhanced sustainability of interventions. The JR pilot should focus on locally-based decision-making and supporting collaborative impact between local, national, and international partners, connected through DRA shared objectives. The pilot should also consider country/context-specific findings, as well as learnings that can be applied at the DRA level and to be applicable in other countries/contexts. A ‘Future DRA Task Force’ was set up by the DRA to oversee the pilot project, be available for consultation, liaise with MFA and the lead, share learnings within the wider DRA and assess the effectiveness of the pilot compared to ‘regular’ Joint Responses.

This pilot project was an opportunity for the NEXUS platform to more clearly articulate and plan its humanitarian pillar of work. In doing so, the pilot developed intervention strategies that traverse the (traditional) boundaries of development, humanitarian, and peace programming that have a more long-term perspective and bring continuity in responding to the many recurrent crises Somalia currently faces. Moreover, to overcome the structural inequities present in the Somali humanitarian system, the pilot mapped out pathways to shift power towards Somali humanitarian actors. Thus, moving from a predominantly internationally led humanitarian system in Somalia towards a humanitarian system where local organizations are in the driver’s seat.

At the same time, this pilot project is intended as a learning process for the DRA partners in The Netherlands. In regular Joint Responses, the Dutch partners have a pre-defined role in the design of the response and in the subcontracting and monitoring of country offices and local partners. The locally-led nature of the pilot Joint Response through NEXUS is meant to provide lessons on collaboration and complementarity in the field between local and international partners, as well as on the role of partners in NL. Particularly, the findings are meant to provide input for the discussion on risk-sharing among partners across the chain from funding to impact.

The DRA project seeks to innovatively combine elements of humanitarian and development programming in a conflict-sensitive manner. Thus, aiming to apply development interventions across a broader spectrum of groups traditionally targeted by humanitarian aid to foster a transition from short-term crisis response towards longer-term (development) oriented perspectives. The project theory of change is annexed herein for further reference.

The below table outlines the main project components and the members leading on it.

Project component

Led/ implemented by

Triple nexus integrated humanitarian programming (WASH, Food Security & Livelihood, and Protection activities)

CPD (Galmudug region), GREDO (Bay region), HAVOYOCO (Sool region) and KAALO (Bari and Sanaag region)

Anticipatory & Emergency Response Fund

WASDA (fund manager), and activations by CPD, GREDO, WASDA and KAALO

Institutional Development Unit – capacity strengthening of NEXUS members

Save the Children

Thought leadership and advocacy (including localization and women’s leadership)

SSWC

In overall, the program model of humanitarian response seeks to change two long-term outcomes. 1) building affected communities self-reliance through sustainable livelihoods and 2) focusing on strengthened engagement with community members.

2. Scope of the End line evaluation.

The end line evaluation will be implemented during the months January-February 2022 over a period of 6 weeks. The scope of the evaluation is the entire DRA-NEXUS pilot project, encompassing all project components as listed in the project description of the background section. The project time frame considered is from January to December 2021.The geographical scope of the evaluation is Southcentral, Puntland, and Somaliland project target areas.

The project was designed to explore new of working including joint response through a locally-led consortium and implementing triple nexus programming through national actors. The evaluation will include a review of the project design by critically assessing the guiding perspective of change and implementation plan documents. The evaluator will also analyze project management processes including the implementation strategies, monitoring, and exit strategies. Additionally, the extent to which the project results have been achieved, partnerships established and capacities built will be assessed.

3. The objectives of the end line evaluation.

The overall objective of this end-line evaluation is to assess whether the projected objectives of the project have been realized and achieved while also looking at its contribution to local humanitarian leadership. The specific objectives of the evaluation include:

· To assess the relevance/appropriateness of the project interventions: Did the project address urgent needs and were activities suited to the priorities of the beneficiaries that will make a difference to the lives of the most vulnerable communities in terms of access to sustainable livelihood and production

· Assess the efficiency: The evaluator will assess whether activities of the project were cost-efficient, were achieved on time and whether they were implemented in the most efficient way compared to alternatives or not.

· Assess the effectiveness of activities and achievement of targets/outcomes in relation to the project’s objectives and intended results stated in the project design documents, perspective of change and project implementation plan.

· To stimulate learning from various concepts and aspects of the pilot project including the anticipatory fund, institutional capacity building and triple nexus programming. Thus deliberating on the opportunities for improving project design and planning in future.

Evaluation criteria

The consultant would employ a combination of selected OECD/DAC Evaluation criteria and local humanitarian leadership particularly on how the project supported the NEXUS platform to establish itself as localization pioneer and thought leader in assuming a driver’s seat in national humanitarian discussions. The evaluation questions are however suggestive and evaluation managers will welcome further inputs and improvements from the consultants during the initial stage of the evaluation exercise. The selected criteria and accompanying questions for review are as indicated below.

Relevance

• Investigate and make conclusions on the appropriateness of the project concept to the problems/challenges it was supposed to address, taking into account the prevailing political and social economic situation in Somalia/Somaliland.
• Analyse the relevance of joint programming as well integrated humanitarian interventions in the context of localization.
• Review how different components of the project i.e. IDU, triple nexus programming, Anticipatory & Emergency Response Fund and Advocacy have complemented each other to address humanitarian challenges in the targeted communities and humanitarian system in Somalia.
• Assess the appropriateness of the perspective of change and Joint implementation modality and partnership among international agencies (Oxfam & SCI) and NEXUS member agencies.
• How did integrated triple nexus programming meet the needs of the communities compared to conventional programming?
• How did the project contribute to and supported NEXUS in establishing itself as locally led platform?
• Verify the appropriateness of the project implementation approach and the innovativeness and response by project management to bring changes to the social environment in which the project operates

· Did the affected people have information about the NEXUS member agencies implementing integrated humanitarian programming under the pilot project and did they have a good knowledge of what the programme was seeking to achieve and who it would benefit?

· Did NEXUS members regularly consult with communities to assess whether the interventions were meeting their needs, and whether additional or different responses were required. Was LOOP considered an appropriate tool for this in the communities where it was piloted?

· Was the project setup / structure (in particular the roles and responsibilities of the NEXUS members, Steering Committee, Secretariat, Oxfam and Save the Children) appropriate? Did the project structure and set-up promote local ownership and leadership in each phase of the project? What worked well and what could have been improved in the project set-up?

Efficiency

• Assess how well the project activities transferred the available resources into the intended results in terms of quantity, quality and time.
• Determine how the pilot project supported capacity enhancement of NEXUS member agencies, ie through the IDU, to achieve efficient implementation of the project activities and is expected to lead to increased efficiency in future interventions.
• Assess how the project strategy used induced sustainable change, particularly in regard to working with Local government and community participatory processes.
• Assess how inputs and means have been converted into activities and the quality of the results achieved.
• Established how the joint project implementation approach has translated to cost efficiency in project activities implementation.
• Assess the level of collaboration among NEXUS agencies, partnership with other agencies and the various project stakeholders including government structures and donors.

Effectiveness

• To what extent has the DRA-NEXUS pilot project achieved the early outcomes and contributed to the intermediate and long term outcomes as outlined in the Perspective of Change.
• Assess whether planned benefits have been delivered and received as perceived by project management and target groups and will continue towards the intended purpose.
• Analyse the effectiveness of project strategies, perspective of change and implementation structures and establish what objectives DRA-Nexus pilot project has achieved or not achieved.
• Determine how the project enhanced program complementarity and synergy among NEXUS member agencies. What did inter and intra coordination look like?
• Assess the quality of planning operational work, budgeting and how the project managed and mitigated the originally identified risks and others that may not have been foreseen.
• Establish whether the project fostered government partnerships in achieving the intended results.
• Determine whether the intended targeted groups of the project were systematically identified and engaged, prioritizing the marginalized and excluded, to ensure the project results were achieved as expected
• Assess the timeliness of the interventions, especially for the responses under the Anticipatory and Emergency Response Fund.
• Evaluate the support and role of SCI and Oxfam in supporting NEXUS members to implement the project.
• To what extent did the project implementation approach align with the DRA taskforce endorsed design concept.

Sustainability

· Determine how community contributions have enhanced sustainability of the project interventions and whether the community has the intent and capacity to continue to support activities including financial and technical capacities.

· Establish the sustainability of NEXUS member agencies capacity enhancement support through the IDU and how this can further be improved.

· Assess to which level sustainability has been considered in planning and execution of activities particularly in respect to institutions, formal and non-formal, as well as technical and cross cutting issues.

Local humanitarian leadership

The criteria selected for assessing localization support activities embedded in project with associated key performance indicators are;

Quality and Reliable funding.

· How do NEXUS members assess the quality of the pilot project funding: is a reasonable and unrestricted ‘management fee’ provided.

· Did the local partners receive financial transfers from Oxfam timely and according to the plan.

· Determine how procedures are adjusted so as not to cause major cash flow problems among implementing partners.

· Identify if Oxfam and SCI invite NEXUS along during private and institutional donors meetings and support NEXUS in their fundraising efforts

Equal partnership.

· Point out evidence of whether the partnership with Oxfam and SCI has improved the confidence and capacity of local actors to better respond to humanitarian emergencies in the future.

· Determine if the NEXUS members played a leading role in the design of the proposal and budget.

· Identify how NEXUS members are proactively engaged throughout the project life cycle and are fully informed about the program and programme-related decision-making.

· Determine how risks have been shared between the different project stakeholders (NEXUS members, Oxfam, SCI, CARE/Future DRA TF, MFA). Identify some of the good practices around risk sharing and risk mitigation and what could be improved.

Capacity development.

· Determine Capacity-strengthening efforts that clearly differentiate between competency development of individual staff and institutional capacities.

· Explore how Oxfam and SCI provide need-based capacity development support to NEXUS member agencies.

· Do Oxfam and SCI routinely use capacity assessments to inform needed support and is there evidence of efforts to harmonize capacity assessment approaches across sectors and organizations

Visibility.

· Establish how the pilot project increased opportunities for and efforts of the NEXUS platform to assume a leading role in communicating national humanitarian issues in national and international forums.

· Determine how the role(s), contributions, innovations and achievements of NEXUS member agencies are explicitly mentioned in project documents, reports, papers and communication material.

4. Evaluation Methodology.

While Oxfam suggests consideration of the following mixed-methods methodology in order to collect the relevant data, the consultant is expected to determine the final methodological approach for presentation and approval during the inception phase. Final approval will be made by Oxfam and NEXUS secretariat through the evaluation manager.

The evaluation is expected to be based on the findings and factual statements identified from a review of relevant documents including the project proposal, project documents, and monthly project progress reports, and final report. In addition, the consultant will also review NEXUS manuals, strategies and policies, and procedures. Oxfam will provide the external expert with all available project documentation at the beginning of the consultancy.

The consultant will also undertake field visits to the project areas and interview various stakeholders including the NEXUS secretariat, steering committee, government officials, target beneficiaries, etc. Participation of stakeholders in the evaluation should be maintained at all times, reflecting opinions, expectations, and vision about the contribution of the project towards the achievement of its objectives.

The methodology must consider participants’ safety throughout the evaluation (including recruitment and training of research staff, data collection/analysis, and report writing) as well as research ethics (confidentiality of those participating in the evaluation, data protection, age, and ability-appropriate assent processes) and quality assurance (tools piloting, enumerators training, data cleaning). The above-described methodology is indicative; the consultant is expected to provide a detailed methodology and work plan when preparing the inception report.

5. Deliverables.

DELIVERABLE

DESCRIPTION

TIMEFRAME

INCEPTION REPORT

Must contain:

· Logic of end-line evaluation proceedings based on desk review

· Findings from the desk review

· Plan, methods, sources, procedures, and templates for data collection, interviews, analysis, sampling of key indicators. This should be comprehensive enough to address all questions stipulated in the ToR

· Proposed timeline of activities, schedule of tasks, and submission of deliverables

· The report will be shared with relevant stakeholders for feedback and approval

Within 5 days from the start of the contract

DRAFT

REPORT

· This report should structurally mimic the final report, address most of the assessment questions, and work towards presenting meaningful findings, conclusions, and recommendations

· The draft report will separately present the tools used and findings (figures and graphs) of beneficiary data

· Draft report will be shared with relevant stakeholders for feedback and approval.

At the end of 2 weeks of assignment

FINAL

REPORT

The final report will:

· Address the feedback comments of the draft report

· Systematically assess the program’s impact on beneficiary individuals and institutions

· Provide factual evidence of direct and indirect results of interventions

· Synthesize information received for purposes of conclusion and recommendation

· Need to focus on the honest representation of observations from desk review, case studies, interviews and FGDs

The final report will consist of the following sections as a minimum:

1. Table of contents
2. Executive summary
3. Intervention description
4. Scope of the evaluation
5. Purpose and objectives of the evaluation
6. Methodology
7. Findings
8. Lessons learned
9. Conclusion
10. Recommendations

Within one week of receiving feedback and approval of the draft report

Powerpoint presentation

The consultant is required to develop and submit a high-quality and precise PowerPoint presentation to be presented by the consultant and shared with the wider audience such as NEXUS member agency staff, donors, and government stakeholders.

In the last week of the evaluation period.

Timeframe.

the expected time to complete is 4-5 weeks.

Reporting procedure.

The consultant will directly report to the MEAL coordinator during the entire period of this engagement and closely work with the NEXUS Fund Manager as well as NEXUS Secretariate and the Steering Committee.

6. Required essential qualifications.

The specific fundamental requirement for this task is expertise knowledge and hands-on experience on local humanitarian leadership and understanding of grand bargain and charter for change concepts. The principal consultant should also demonstrate a detailed understanding of institutional capacity development, humanitarian advocacy, and working with locally-led consortiums. Other requirements include:

· Extensive experience in research work and in assessments/evaluations. Knowledge of Research Methodologies and application of various tools including practical experience in assessments, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of community-based interventions.

· At least a master’s degree in economics, developmental studies, business administration, and social science or related field for the lead consultant/ a minimum of bachelor’s degree in the relevant academic areas with 7 years of progressive experience in research can be acceptable.

· Strong experience in humanitarian response and knowledge of humanitarian standards (CHS, Sphere, Code of Conduct).

· Proven experience of using participatory methods as the means of data collection and analysis.

· Previous working experience in Somalia is considered an advantage.

· Excellent analytical and report writing skills with skills in using statistical packages such as SPSS, STATA, Infodev

· Fluent in English, understanding of local language will be an added advantage.

[1] The DRA members are: CARE Nederland; Cordaid; Dorcas; Oxfam Novib; Plan International Nederland; Help a Child; Save the Children; SOS Children’s Villages The Netherlands; Stichting Vluchteling; Tearfund NL; Terre des Hommes; War Child; World Vision; and ZOA.