Hope Agency for Relief and Development (HARD) is a National South Sudanese NGO that was founded in 1995 to respond to the humanitarian needs of the communities in South Sudan.

Our Location:

Hai Daraja, Wau, Western Bahr el Ghazal State, South Sudan.

Nairobi Office:Waiyaki Way, All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) Compound, Ground Plate

We are looking for an individual Consultant/Consultancy firm to undertake an external Midterm Evaluation of a European Union funded Food Security and Livelihood project called Productivity Enhancement and Resilience Strengthening (PERS).

Position: Mid Term Evaluation (MTE) Consultant

Responsible To:Project Manager (Operational and Technical)

                         Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist (Technical)

Location:Western Bhar el Ghazal State (Jur River and Raja Counties)

Provisional Time Frame:26 days

Tentative Start Date: October 1st ,2020.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT:

Productivity Enhancement and Resilience Strengthening (PERS) project that HARD currently implements falls under component II of ZEAT-BEAD - Sustainable supply of agriculture and livestock inputs and services.

The 3-year project was launched in November 2018 in Western Bahr el Ghazal State, South Sudan. The Overall Objective of the project is “To contribute to improved food and nutrition security of targeted households in South Sudan.” The 2 specific objective is ‘’To increase agriculture and livestock production and productivity and income of smallholder farmers.’’

By increasing household agricultural outputs and incomes in the short-term, the project aims to address poverty, hunger and malnutrition in the medium term and contribute to food security and improved livelihoods in Western Bahr el Ghazal State in the longer term. Overall, the logic is to support smallholder rural farmers who have the capacity to increase agricultural production but are constrained by lack of capital and inadequate technical knowhow. Moreover, due to the systemic insecurity and perennial conflicts, the project also aims to enhance conflict resolution mechanisms.

The expected results/outcomes of PERS project are as follows:

Result 1: Increased sustainable crop production and productivity

Result 2: Enhanced conflict resolution mechanisms

Result 3: Diversified livelihood sources

Result 4: Enhanced community resilience to natural disasters.

 

PURPOSE OF THE MID TERM EVALUATION (MTE)

Overall purpose of the evaluation:

The overall objective of midterm evaluation of PERS project is to critically assess the achieved results so far, implementation strategies and progress towards the goal, recommend practicable ways to improve the performance of the project and document the lessons so far learnt.

The mid-term evaluation will also provide opportunity to reflect on the outcomes so far achieved and to develop the learning for the improvement of up-coming activities, as well the identification of potential strategies for sustainability. The evaluation should build upon the baseline and M&E monitoring data, providing an opportunity for more in-depth analysis and understanding on why certain intended or unintended outcomes are/not occurring. In addition, this midterm evaluation will provide the opportunity for accountability towards the project key stakeholders, as well as important learning for the project team and partners.

Finally, the evaluation is also to assess current/potential collaboration and linkages with the IPs of EU funded ZEAT-BEAD II programme and how this can ensure synergies and support the sustainability of project outcomes.

Specific Objectives:

• Relevance: Assess the scope and relevance of the project outputs and outcomes in relation to the intervention logic. Confirm if the intervention logic is still valid in the current context and update the log-frame where necessary.
• Effectiveness: Assess the likelihood of the project achieving its intended outputs and outcomes within the stipulated timeframe taking into account the changing conditions during implementation and other constraints within the implementation environment. Also, attempt to assess any attribution to the overall objective/impact so far.
• Efficiency: Were the financial resources and other inputs spent reasonably well to achieve the outputs? Are there opportunities to improve efficiency?
• Sustainability: Analyse conditions and choices for exiting, scaling up, handover or other types of transitions for guaranteeing the sustainability of project outcomes.
• Recommendations: Provide practicable evidence-based recommendations necessary to improve the performance of the project in the remaining period. This should include on-going/potential collaboration with other Zonal Effort for Agricultural Transformation (ZEAT) – Bahr el Ghazal Zone for Agricultural Development (BEAD) programme Implementing Partners (IPs) and how the synergies can be enhanced

METHODOLOGY:

The process of mid-term evaluation will be conducted in a transparent and participatory manner, including consultation with a broad range of stakeholders in the assessment. The process, as well as the results should be gender-sensitive, addressing and incorporating the specific sensitive aspects and needs, as well as guaranteeing the participation of female stakeholders / beneficiaries in the data collection and analysis process. Ensure sex disaggregation of all beneficiary/stakeholder data.

The consultant is expected to employ a variety of data collection and analysis techniques for both quantitative and qualitative data to ensure a comprehensive evaluation exercise. This will likely include, at a minimum:

• Desk and systems review: Review of existing documentations, including; project reports, project log frame, monitoring and evaluation data, secondary data and Community Intervention Information System- for South Sudan(CIIS) online portal.
• Surveys: Application of structured survey questionnaires with a representative, random sample of target population to quantitatively assess outcomes. This will be in greater in scope, breadth and depth compared to standard routine project monitoring.
• Focus Group Discussions: With target groups and other stakeholders to assess implementation experiences and effectiveness, document successes, challenges and lessons learned, and develop recommendations for improvement.
• Key Informant Interviews: Consultations with key project stakeholders that include; donor representatives, field staff, local leaders, local government officials, Food Security and Livelihood (FSL) Cluster leads and NGO partners. Project team will provide guidance on appropriate stakeholders.

It is expected that the Consultant will develop a detailed work plan that will contain information including but not limited to:

1. Work schedule/plan
2. Assessment methodologies; target respondents, tools, methods and approaches
3. Information collection tools and questionnaires.

The work plan will act as guide between the consultant and HARD as to how the evaluation will be conducted and results expected within the given time frame.

HARD will be involved in and contribute to the evaluation. However, the consultant will provide leadership and bear full responsibility for the process, the findings, the recommendations and the contents of the final report.

 

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CONSULTANT:

• The consultant will be required to perform the following tasks:
• Ensure that the proposed methodology drafted is robust and logical.
• Review available project documentations i.e. project proposal, log frame, M&E plan etc
• To ensure design of evaluation tools according to expected standards.
• Determine the appropriate sample size of the survey.
• Recruit, train, coordinate and supervise survey enumerators.
• Conduct data quality checks throughout the data collection period, data entry, data cleaning and data analysis.
• Visit selected project sites
• To provide overall coordination and guidance of the FGDs, KIIs and household survey interviews. Obtain consent from the households or FGD members to conduct the evaluation.
• Manage any changes to the midterm evaluation plan.
• Prepare and submit draft mid-term evaluation report to HARD for review and feedback.
• Submit final midterm evaluation report incorporating feedback both in soft and hard copies.

• A minimum of eight years’ work experience in the area of food security and rural development with NGOs/UN.
• Experience of working in South Sudan is a must;
• Demonstrated prior work /consultancy experience in conducting evaluations, capacity assessment of development projects and research in food security and development programmes;
• Have significant experience in undertaking food security surveys using quantitative and qualitative methods (design and methodologies, staff recruitment and training, field supervision and data analysis/write up).

• Strong interviewing and communication skills in a field-based setting;
• Familiar with statistical data analysis tools/software such as SPSS, STATA, MS Excel;
• Able to sustain high performance in a stressful environment;
• Excellent analytical and report writing skills;
• Ability and experience in working with rural communities in remote hostile and difficult environments; Fluency in written and spoken English. Knowledge of Arabic or local languages will be an added advantage;

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS:

All Applicants must include the following;

Technical proposal:

The technical proposal should include;

• Interpretation of the TOR and the task to be accomplished and approach to use
• Proposed methodology including sampling framework
• A capability statement demonstrating how they meet the required qualifications and competencies; - Copies of all relevant Curriculum Vitae (CVs). Only CVs for the specific individuals that will form the proposed evaluation core team should be included;
• Draft work/implementation plan.
• Samples of evaluation reports for a similar project completed within the last 36 months (these will be treated as confidential and only used for quality assurance purposes)
• At least two traceable references (including one from your last client/employer) with regards to conducting evaluations in areas of food security & livelihoods/agriculture value chain/agribusiness.

Financial Proposal:

The financial proposal should include:

• Proposed total budget for the evaluation exercise
• Itemized costs per activity line
• Number of people to be hired, logistics etc

SUBMISSION

Interested applicants should submit application by email to [email protected] copied to [email protected] , [email protected] and [email protected].

• Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
• HARD reserves the right to reject any and all bids without giving any reasons.
• Applications submitted after 5:00PM on Friday 25 th September 2020, will not be considered.

NB:Go to this link //hardsouthsudan.org/vacancies.html

 to download the Terms of Reference and application guidelines.