TOR for final evaluation Somalia Drought joint response project Consultancy

1. Background.
   1. Drought response project.

The Somalia Drought Joint Response is a crisis response project that has a total budget of EUR 2.5 million for 6 months to provide life-saving assistance to severely drought affected populations. The project started on 28th January 2022 and is phasing out at the end of July 2022. The project that is implementing under the auspice of drought response consortium is implemented in several regions in Somalia including Lower Juba, Bay region and Bari region.

1. 1. Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA).

The drought response project is implemented through a consortium of Dutch Relief Alliance members. The Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) is a coalition of 14 Dutch aid organisations 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 organisations. 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 enable 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.

1.3 The project overview.

Title

Dutch NGO’s Joint Humanitarian Response for the Somalia Drought

Goal

JR is to provide 111.008 severely drought affected people with life-saving and life-sustaining humanitarian assistance.

Project Results.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Hygiene Promotion – WSH-R1: Number of people having regular access to soap to meet hygienic needs

Excreta Disposal – WSH-R2: Number of people having access to dignified, safe, clean and functional excreta disposal facilities

Water Supply – WSH-R4: Number of people having access to sufficient and safe water for domestic use

Hygiene Promotion (awareness) – WSH-R6: Number of people reached with hygiene promotion/awareness raising activities

Food security and livelihood.

Short-term livelihood support – FSC-R1: Number of people provided with resources to protect and start rebuilding livelihood assets

– Provision of seed and farming input packages and livestock support (with provision of goats/shoats and grass seeds), as well as climate resilient agriculture training

Availability of, access to and consumption of food – FSC-R2: Number of people enabled to meet their basic food needs

– Provision of three-monthly rounds of food voucher-for-work assistance for vulnerable households (following the MEB recommendation for food transfers)

Multi-purpose cash.

Unconditional and unrestricted cash – CSH-R1: Number of people benefitting from unconditional and unrestricted cash

– Provision of unconditional cash transfer for 2829 households. Partners will align their transfer values with the Cash Working Group’s recommended value per region for the drought response.

Partners

SCI (Partnering with GREDO)

CARE (Partnering with WASDA)

Oxfam (Partnering with WASDA and ADESO)

Tearfund/World Concern (Partnering with WRRS)

IRC (Partnering with KAALO)

Target Area

Map of the target areas can be downloaded from Here

1. Scope of the End line evaluation.

The end line evaluation will be implemented during the months July-August 2022 over a period of 6 weeks. The scope of the evaluation is the entire drought response project, encompassing all project components as listed in the project description of the background section. The project time frame considered is from 28th January to 27th July 2022. The project design involved determining the significance of joint programming to respond to emergency crisis and partnering with national/local actors to improve the agency and project delivery. The evaluation will include review of the project design by critically assessing the project implementing approach and project 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.

The endline evaluation will be undertaken in all the project target areas. This is to ensure the exercise is participatory and consequently covers all the project sectors i.e FSL, WASH and Protection. The lead agency will assess the accessibility and security situation of the project target areas before starting of the field data collection exercise.The detail of the project target areas is as below.

Region

District

Partner

Bari region

Bender beyla/ Iskushuban

OXFAM/ADESO

Qardho

IRC/KAALO

Bay region

Burhakaba/Bardale

SCI/GREDO

Lower Juba

Kismayo

OXFAM/WASDA

Afmadow / Badhade

CARE/ WASDA & WORLD CONCERN/ WRRS

1. The objectives of the end line evaluation.

The overall objective of this end-line evaluation is to understand and document the main results and changes brought on by the Drought joint response project to the lives of the project beneficiaries. The specific objectives of the evaluation include:

• Make an overall assessment about the performance of the project, paying particular attention to the outcomes and outputs of the project interventions against its objectives.
• Assess the intended and unintended outcomes of the project and determine the level of the project’s contribution to these outcomes and contribution to drought response effort during the project timeframe.
• Assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of project strategies and activities.
• Identify and document key lessons learned and best practices and to propose practical recommendations for follow-up interventions.

1. Evaluation criteria

The consultant would employ a combination of selected OECD/DAC Evaluation criteria and other criteria for program review such as local humanitarian leadership, accountability and gender equality and timeliness.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.

Evaluation Criteria

Key Question

Relevance/appropriateness

Measures the extent to which the objective of the response has been achieved. In particular

• Did the project address the needs of the right target group?
• Were the needs of target group(s) in project-targeted area met?
• To what extent was the programme able to adapt and provide appropriate response to changing local needs, changing local context and the priorities of the people?
• Were relevant humanitarian standards considered?

Efficiency

Efficiency concerns how well the project transformed the available resources into achieving the intended objectives and creating the outcomes observed, and the quantity, quality and timeliness of associated outputs. Comparison should be made against what was planned. More specifically;

• Were activities of individual organizations and for the overall consortium cost-efficient?
• Was the programme or project implemented in the most efficient way compared to alternatives?
• What could have been done differently to complete the project more efficiently?

Effectiveness

How far the project’s specific objectives were achieved. The analysis of Effectiveness will focus on issues such as:

• To what extent were the project objectives achieved?
• What were the major factors or actors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the objectives?
• What could have been done differently to complete the project more effectively?

Sustainability

This will focus on the need to ensure that the activities of a short-term emergency nature are carried in a context that takes longer term into account.

• How is the community and project partners prepared to continue with the project outcome?
• Is there evidence of community contributions and ownership of the different project interventions?
• How likely is it that any positive changes may be sustained in the short- and medium-term?

Other criteria

Local humanitarian leadership

• Identify how national partners were proactively engaged throughout the project life cycle and are fully informed about the program and included in programme-related decision-making.
• Explore how DRA member agencies provided need-based capacity development support to the project local partners.
• Establish how the drought response project increased opportunities for and efforts of the local partners to assume a leading role in communicating national humanitarian issues in national and international forums.

Timeliness

• Was the programme approved in time by MoFA to be able to start in time (start within 3 weeks after approval of the slow-onset acute crisis)?
• Could funds be re-allocated in time during implementation to respond to new developments?
• Was implementation done in a timely manner?

International standards

• To what extent has the JR been able to adhere to SPHERE standards and Core Humanitarian Standards? In case of deviation of these standards please explain why the JR could not meet the standards.
• How satisfied are beneficiaries with their involvement in the project?

Gender equality

• How was gender equality taken into consideration in all relevant areas?
• Did the programme conform to the implementing organization’s gender equality policy?

Accountability

• How were vulnerable and marginalized groups (e.g. elderly, disabled, children, people living with HIV) and other groups that suffer discrimination and disadvantage actively involved throughout the intervention cycle?

1. 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 through Program and Consortium Coordinator and the evaluation manager.

The evaluation is expected to be based on the findings and factual statements identified from review of relevant documents including the project proposal, project documents, and the project progress reports In addition, the consultant will also review Partnership 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 partner project field staff, consortium focal points, 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.

1. 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 3 weeks of Engagement/ Start of the consultancy.

FINAL

REPORT

Final report will:

• Address the feedback comments of the draft report
• Systematically assess the programme’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 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 learnt
9. Conclusion
10. Recommendations

Within one week of receiving feedback and approval of draft report

Power point presentation

The consultant is required to develop and submit a high quality and precise power point presentation to be presented by the consultant and shared with the wider audience such as partner agency field staffs, donor and government stakeholders.

In the last week of the evaluation period.

1. Reporting procedure.

The consultant will directly report to Oxfam MEAL coordinator during the entire period of this engagement with matrix supervision by Program and Consortium coordinator, and closely work with partner agencies program managers as well as M&E focal point persons.

1. Required essential qualifications.

The specific requirements for this assignment are hands on experience with evaluating a joint response program implemented through partnership between international and national partners and proven and documented knowledge on evaluating multi-sectoral integrated emergency response. other requirements are as detailed below.

• 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 on the relevant academic areas with 7 year 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.

Tagged as: Oxfam Novib, Somalia