|
Evaluation of the ‘Emergency Nutrition Assistance for Drought Affected Vulnerable
Communities of Turkana County of Kenya’
Project funded by USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign
Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA)
|
Terms of Reference (ToR)
1. Introduction and background information:
Merlin
has been operational in Kenya since 1998 and has been implementing health and
nutrition programmes in Turkana County since 2005. Turkana County covers about
77,000 square kilometres of the country’s arid north western region. The county
is classified as arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya (ASAL) and is historically
drought prone area that experiences frequent, successive and prolonged dry
periods. It has two rainy seasons, the long rains (April–June) and the short
rains (October–December) but rainfall is often unreliable. Since February 1st
2014 Merlin has merged with Save the Children to create a world-class
humanitarian health force for children and their families living in some of the
most challenging places in the world.
The
2011 drought that affected the Horn of Africa region exposed many pastoralist
communities, including those living in
Turkana County to severe food insecurity which eventually led to high
rates of acute malnutrition amongst children under five years and pregnant and
lactating women[1]. The subsequent scaling up of nutrition interventions has resulted in
improvement of nutritional status of children and pregnant and lactating women
although there are indications that malnutrition levels are again on the rise.[2] As part of the general scaling up of nutrition activities, Merlin since
April 2013 has been implementing an OFDA funded emergency nutrition support
project in Turkana County. The project end on 31st January 2014.
Project Objectives and Expected Results
The
overall goal of the project is to contribute to the reduction of levels of
morbidity and mortality amongst drought affected vulnerable communities,
particularly under-five children and pregnant and lactating women, in Turkana
Central, Loima, Turkana South, and Turkana North districts of Northern Kenya.
Main
highlights of Merlin’s strategy for implementation of this action included:
·
Integration
of nutrition and health issues like the prevention and management of diseases
like diarrhea, that negatively impact on nutritional status and vice versa
·
Strengthening
of hygiene practices to reduce the incidence of diarrheal disease associated
with contaminated water in the household including health education toeducate
the community on domestic treatment of drinking water and effective hand
washing (soap/ash) and use of latrines/toilets .In particular, a focus on
longer-term strategies with a behaviour change communication (BCC) component
that would help to translate knowledge to practice.
·
Implementation
of community-led infant and young child feeding practices program with the
involvement of mother-to-mother peer support groups.
·
Distribution
of micronutrients and de-worming.
·
Community
and household level screening together with approaches that will avoid at risk
children deteriorating, especially in the lean seasonal period. One approach
will be the linking of households with children recently discharged from SFP
programme to GFD (FFA), to reduce the relapse cases, due to household food
insecurity.
·
Management
of moderate and severe acute malnutrition
- Supporting district health authorities to developing joint emergency preparedness and response plans
The project is also based upon the partnership
framework between the MoH, UNICEF and other partners to support the delivery of
essential nutrition services in Kenya. This partnership framework envisages
that general principles of support to MoH should
include:-
-
Full integration of a comprehensive package of high
impact nutrition interventions.
-
Results based orientation to programming.
-
Full commitment to coordination.
-
Strategic development of capacity at all levels of
service delivery to enable the MoH function well with minimal or no support
from partners.
-
Direct involvement in service delivery only in
exceptional cases
-
Focus on mentoring, supportive supervision and
on-the-job training.
2. Overall objective of the Evaluation:
As
the ‘EMERGENCY NUTRITION ASSISTANCE FOR DROUGHT AFFECTED VULNERABLE
COMMUNITIES OF TURKANA COUNTY’ grant has ended, Save the Children
wishes to undertake an external evaluation of the project – focusing on
achievements, successes, lessons learnt and best practices. These will be
assessed against the OECD-DAC criteria that are most relevant to the purpose of
this evaluation.
3. Specific Objectives:
i.
Outputs and outcomes: Outputs and outcomes generated by the
program in relation to the stated goal, objectives and desired results. In
particular, the evaluation will assess the effects of the program activities on
the targeted beneficiaries in OTP, SFP and community members reached with the
various services.
ii.
Relevance: whether the program interventions met needs
of the beneficiaries; the appropriateness of results in relation to the needs
of the communities, national policies and priorities.
iii.
Effectiveness: In particular assess the extent to which
program interventions achieved the desired outcomes, factoring in issues of
program management including decision making processes, risk management,
institutional arrangements and partnerships with MOH and other agencies and
their effects on the program results.
iv.
Efficiency: the relationship between the quantity,
quality, and timeliness of program inputs, including personnel, training,
office equipment. In addition, determine the quantity, quality, and timeliness
of the outputs generated and whether the resources were spent as economically
as possible.
v.
Sustainability: assess the readiness of partner (MOH) and
other stakeholders to sustain program interventions, in particular assess the
infrastructure and systems of partners, resources available to sustain the
activities and services, collaborative links and referral networks with other
service providers, and the level of community ownership.
vi.
Program Improvement areas: capture key successes,
best practices lessons learnt, implementation challenges, constraints,
strengths and weaknesses.
vii.
Determine
the extent of complementarity of this project with other related health and
nutrition projects currently supported by UNICEF in Turkana County.
viii.
Role
of beneficiary consultation in programme design and implementation, and areas
for improvement.
- Methodology
The
following methodologies shall be used for the evaluation:
Evaluation Design
-
Both quantitative and qualitative methods may
be used for the study.
-
The qualitative method will for example
employ focus group discussions with target groups, employ interviewer
administered structured questionnaires to stakeholders - government,
beneficiaries, MoH, WFP and UNICEF, as well as in-depth interview of key
informants and document review, both
primary and secondary.
-
The quantitative method will review existing
data related to the outcome indicators supplied by Merlin/MoH, and verify
sample of same in the field.
-
The consultant will use information both from
primary and secondary sources which are directly related to the project. For
triangulation purposes, the consultant is expected to refer to documents from
Save the Children /MoH reports and national and sub-national statistics,
research findings relevant to this project and donor guidance and associated
documents. These sources will be used to validate the results and triangulate
successes and failures for lessons documentation.
Key
evaluation questions
1.1.
How
far has the implementation and delivery of the project activities, especially
the choice of beneficiaries and organisational modalities, facilitated the
achievement of specific objectives?
1.2.
To
what extent has the project addressed the emergency nutrition needs identified
in the target communities as reflected in nutrition surveys conducted prior to
commencement of project implementation.
1.3.
What
is the level of integration of health and nutrition activities in the MOH
facilities in areas of Merlin operation and what lessons can be derived from
current implementation approach?
1.4.
What
is the level of sustainability for the project results? What linkages have been created and or
exploited by the project to sustainably address malnutrition among the target
communities?
1.5.
What
are the costs and effectiveness of implementing the health and nutrition
activities in Turkana? Are the project implementation approaches cost effective
in relation to practical realities on the ground?
1.6.
What
lessons have been learnt through the implementation of this project?
Study Area
The evaluation will
be conducted in locations determined by the evaluator(s) in consultation with
Save the Children, but has to be within Save the Children’s geographical area
of operation.
Data collection and analysis
-
The evaluation should be participatory and
focus on obtaining both qualitative and quantitative information.
-
Quantitative data obtained from Save the
Children on key indicators to triangulate with baseline data.
-
Qualitative data obtained from FGDs, key
informant interviews and structures questionnaires.
-
Project document review, individual interview
of project staff, government, UNICEF, WFP and other partners.
5. Responsibility of the consultant/deliverables
The Consultant
is expected to undertake the following tasks:
-
Design and develop appropriate tools/mechanisms that will enable the
analysis of the supplied information.
-
Analyse collected information and write up a report detailing findings
using Merlin’s evaluation policy and templates.
-
Submit draft report for review
-
Present final report to Merlin.
-
Submit a final hardcopy report
as well as soft copies in word and PDF formats
-
Preparation of a PowerPoint of the evaluation
methodology and key findings, for further dissemination, and a delivery of that
presentation to key project staff.
-
The evaluation process must be impartial,
independent and must provide information that is credible and useful, enabling
the incorporation of lessons learnt, and identify the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats to inform future decision-making process within
Merlin, MoH and donors.
6. Key outputs of the evaluation are
- A report
completed on Save the Children reporting template (final hardcopy report as well as soft copies in word and PDF
formats);
- A
PowerPoint of the evaluation methodology and key findings;
- Presentation
of key findings to project staff and county representatives prior to drafting
the evaluation report;
- An
evaluation report completed with recommendations
7. Required Qualification and Experience
The
consultant should have the following qualifications and experience:
-
Relevant academic and professional background in humanitarian
interventions in complex environments.
-
Extensive practical experience in conducting evaluations of
humanitarian interventions in the ASAL regions of Kenya with preference given
to significant emergency nutrition programming.
-
Technical research skills, including qualitative and quantitative
approaches.
-
Fluency in both written and spoken English and Kiswahili.
-
Knowledge and experience of working in Turkana is preferred.
8.
Proposal details and submission
The deadline for
submission of bid (both technical and financial proposal) is before close of
business on ……11th
March 2014 Soft copies of technical and financial proposals including CV
outlining relevant consultancy work undertaken (including references) should be
submitted, including the title of this ToR to ……kenya.jobapplications@savethechildren.org.
The evaluation
criteria are based on technical and financial responsiveness which also
includes a valid licence and tax registration. The key technical evaluation
criteria are:
-
Known reliability in delivery of timely and quality services
-
Relevant field/country experience
-
Relevant sector specific technical experience and qualifications
-
Relevant evaluation experience
-
Presentation and writing skills evident from the proposal
-
Demonstrated understanding of the work proposed in the TOR
-
Clarification of methodology
-
Cost/budget
- Ownership of the deliverables
Save the Children shall have full ownership of the
report, research, working papers and other results of the Consultant’s work
under this assignment. The Consultant shall not publish nor otherwise use any
portion of the report without the written authorization of Merlin. The
consultant shall waive any copyright to the work produced as a result of the
contract.
- Timeline
In consultation with project staff, the consultant
shall design the review work plan and develop the evaluation instruments
including appropriate questionnaires. The review is expected to take two
weeks and additional six paid days have been catered for report writing. The
study is expected to apply participatory approaches along with quantitative and
qualitative methodologies.
Format for the
evaluation report:
The final report
shall at least consist of the following sections:
a)
Executive
summary
b)
Project
description
c)
Context
of the evaluation
d)
Evaluation
methodology
e)
Findings
f)
Lessons
learnt, best practices, and recommended actions for the review of primary users
g)
Annex
(es) as necessary
10. Logistics/Transport/Accommodation
Save
the Children will facilitate meetings with stakeholders and support the
consultant in conducting interviews and other activities. Save the Children will also take care of the
consultant’s accommodation while in the field.
Expression of interest Form
Description:
Closing
date for submission of EoIs:
|
Section A. General Information
|
||||||||
|
First Name:
|
Last Name:
|
|
||||||
|
Contact Address:
|
||||||||
|
Country:
|
Contact Phone: (+Area Code)
|
|
||||||
|
Email address (mandatory):
|
|
|||||||
|
Applicant Status:
(Please tick one)
|
Private Individual
|
Private Company
less than 10 staff
|
Private Company
More than 10 staff
|
Other
Please Specify
|
||||
|
If Private company or Other, Who will be lead
consultant for this call?
|
|
|
||||||
|
Please mention your source of information for
this EoI:
|
|
|
||||||
|
SectionB: Qualification & Prior experience
|
|||
|
What are your skills
and experience in the proposed area?
(if proposing working as a team, please clearly state the competencies
of each team member to be involved in this evaluation or baseline study)
(max. 250 words)
|
|||
|
Please
state 5 recent similar Trainings you have undertaken in the last 3 years,
explaining what type of services you provided..
|
|||
|
Organisation
to which services were provided
|
Value of
programme evaluated in US$
|
Year
|
Services
offered e.g. Final Evaluation, Mid-term evaluation etc..
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Section C : Addressing the training
Requirement
|
||
|
Briefly explain
the Methodology you will adopt based on the key questions/objectives from the
ToRs (Maximum 500 words) (Please make
sure that proposed design addresses the Evaluation Criteria specified in ToR)
|
||
|
|
||
|
According to the proposed Methodology of
undertaking Training, Please mention the estimated no. of days’ planned for
Primary data collection from target areas mentioned in ToR.
|
||
|
Type of Data collection
|
No of Days Required
|
Responsibility
PI/ enumerators only/ both
|
|
i) Primary data collection from target area
|
|
|
|
ii) Secondary data collection
|
|
|
|
List the
key cross cutting issues you will consider related to this programme and for
each explain how you propose to incorporate/address them during the baseline/evaluation
studies (250 words).
|
||
|
Please specify, what you require from Save the
Children Country Office to deliver on the published ToR? e.g. HR support to
recruit enumerators, Logistician support to plan travel for data collection
and field visit, etc. (150 words)
|
||
|
|
||
|
Section D: Proposed Budget/Costs
|
|
|
What is your daily rate in US$?
|
What is Total Budget
(In US$):
|
|
(Please note that Save the Children will cover
the cost of flights (economy class) and in-country standard accommodation
(bed and breakfast only)
|
|
|
Section E: EoI Submission details:
|
|
All
interested consultants/firms are requested to send this expression of
interest by email to: Kenya.jobapplications@savethechildren.org.
|
