Project Evaluation: Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) Project at HORIZONT3000

Background

The project “Sustainable Rural Agro-Enterprise Development Project, Arua, Nebbi and Nwoya” aims to contribute to improving livelihoods of farming communities in West Nile sub-region and Nwoya district by engaging in market-oriented agriculture. Specifically, the project aims to ensure that 625 farmers and their families start engaging in market oriented farming while safeguarding food security and managing their natural resources sustainably through applying the Enabling Rural Innovation approach.

The following four result areas are stated in the proposal:

• 25 farmer groups are strengthened and operational
• Farmers have improved their food security
• Farmer groups have developed profitable enterprises in response to market demands and derive sustainable income from them.
• Farmers have improved their farming skills and apply sustainable natural resource management (NRM) practices
• Capacity Building: RICE WN as an institution and 6 of its staff have acquired expertise in the ERI approach and facilitate farmers to apply innovative approaches and also monitor their performance
• The results of the evaluation will directly feed into shaping the new project phase.

Objective of the Evaluation

• The general objective of the evaluation is to assess the completion and achievements of the project objectives as well as the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the project intervention. The evaluation will provide a well-founded, comprehensive and concretely argued document in order to assess the quality of the project and its implementation.
• The recipients of the evaluation findings are project partners, HORIZONT3000 and donors Austria Development Agency (ADA), DKA Austria, Welthaus Graz, Brother and Sister in Need.
• The specific objectives of the evaluation are to provide information on the following points:
• Evaluate the ERI project to draw out key lessons, strengths and weaknesses of the current project and make recommendations on completion of the current phase and for the development of the next project.
• Analyse the approach used by ERI and state whether it is suitable to be transferred and implemented by other development actors in the region.
• Recommendations for improvement of the package based on modules approach.
• Outline and asses the contributions of the HORIZONT3000 KNOWHOW3000 activities to this project.

Evaluation criteria and guiding questions

Relevance

Assess the extent to which the project is justified and appropriate in relation to the needs and situation of the region.

• To what extent does the intervention conform to the needs and interests of the target group?
• To what extent is intervention in line with national strategies of Tanzania and Uganda?

Effectivess

Assess the extent to which the project stated objectives have been achieved or are likely to be attained by project end.

• What is the progress from the beginning towards the agreed project objective (as determined in the project document)?
• Is the project model realistic to increase access to market?
• What were the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of objectives?
• How is the project contributing to improvement in management of natural resources?
• Specify any unplanned results observed and how it has affected the project in positive as well as in negative way
• Did unforeseen external factors intervene? If so, how flexibly did management adapt to ensure that the project would still achieve the purpose?

Efficiency

Assess the overall project performance, the results in relation to the input, financial management and the implementation time.

• Was the project design appropriate?
• Is the relation between input of resources and results achieved appropriate and justifiable?
• Is a monitoring system in place to gather timely relevant information on the achievement of results and objectives?
• What is the cost-benefit relation in comparison of all partners?
• Organisational set-up: are the number and professional/managerial skills of the project team as well as the organisational set-up, adequate for the activities of the project and where are improvements needed?

Impact

Assess the effects of the project on the general situation of the target group and stakeholders, measuring both positive and negative impact.

• What changes have happened since the project implementation?
• To what extent does the project contribute towards increased income and socio-economic empowerment of farmers in the target communities?
• Is there any impact on neighbouring communities that have not directly been addressed by the project?
• To what extent does the project contribute towards addressing cross-cutting issues like, inclusion of disadvantaged groups, human rights and gender?
• What are the positive or negative, intended, unintended and visible effects of the project on the target groups, surrounding communities, the institutional (ERI partners) level and the district?

Sustainability

Assess the extent to which benefits from the project will continue after the donor support has come to an end.

• Have the local partner organisations/target groups embraced the vision and aims promoted by the project? Can they continue the project independently? Do they have their own problem-solving strategies?
• How self-sustaining is in general are the local/implementing project partners? (Assess each organisation individually).
• To what extent does the project intervention consider factors influencing sustainability e.g. political support, appropriate technology, socio-cultural aspects, institutional and management capacity building?
• What adjustments can be made to the project intervention logic for increased sustainability of future projects?

Participation and ownership

• To what extent have stakeholders been involved in decision-making during implementation?
• How did the implementing team choose the beneficiaries?
• What is the level of local ownership and the identification with the project?
• How satisfied is the project partner with the cooperation with HORIZONT3000? What should be kept, changed or improved?

HORIZONT3000 Knowledge Management

• Did the partner organisation participate in any KNOWHOW3000 activity? If yes, which one?
• What was the benefit of the participation for the partner organisation and for the target group?

Lessons learnt and recommendations

• What are the main lessons learnt from the project?
• What good practices (e.g. approaches, trainings and methods) are suitable to be replicated in other projects with similar objectives?

Evaluation Team

The evaluation will be carried out by an evaluation consultancy firm/company which shall assign a team of at least three experienced evaluators with profound experience in assessing agriculture projects and who have up-to-date knowledge about the local context of Uganda and Tanzania agriculture sector. The consultancy firm will state the name of the lead evaluator who will act as a focal person for communicating with HORIZONT3000 and ERI Project partners, and specifically be responsible for submitting the final evaluation report.

Methodologies

The evaluator chooses the appropriate methods.

Timeframe and tentative timetable

The whole evaluation exercise will take 40 days inclusive of travel, preparation and report writing. The evaluation is planned to start in February and should be concluded by 15 of April 2018. During this period, the evaluation team will carry out all tasks related to the assignment and present / discuss the draft report with the project team before submitting the final report. A tentative timetable is drawn below.

Evaluation Report

• The report shall present findings on the evaluation objectives.
• The report should contain a description of methodologies / design.
• The report should describe the involvement of local actors (project partner, target groups).
• It shall summarize the findings of the evaluation in the light of the criteria mentioned in point 3 above (maximum 5 pages).
• It shall be clear and concise, limiting itself to essential points (maximum 20 pages without cover page, content, appendices etc.).
• The report shall be written in English language.
• The report shall be drawn up using Microsoft Word software and submitted electronically; including tables and graphics were useful and necessary.