Consultancy Assignment to Conduct Program Review Assessment at African Development Solutions (Adeso)

Project: Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Program (DEPP)

Position Type: Consultancy

Study/Assessment Topic: Consultancy Assignment for Program Review Assessment

Position Location: Nairobi, Garissa, Marsabit, Kenya

Duration: 20 Days

Reporting To: Project Director

Working With: MEAL Officer and DEPP Lab Program Team

Starting Date: Immediately

Application Deadline: 30th January, 2019

Vacancy Contact: Please Send Applications To consultancy@adesoafrica.org – Adeso Will Only Respond to Short-Listed Applicants.

PROJECT SUMMARY

Adeso is leading in the implementation of Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Program (DEPP) Innovation Lab, a 22-month project under the AIM (Adeso, iHub MasterCard) Consortium. The objective of this program is to increase preparedness and resilience of disaster-prone communities in Garissa and Marsabit counties of Kenya by drawing on their deep knowledge of pastoralist and coping with drought disasters.

The Consortium has formed Maarifa Kona community innovations labs in Garissa and Marsabit where rural communities are using the labs to research and develop their ideas for preparing against drought. Selected community innovators are also able to prototype and incubate their innovations which could be scaled for commercialization. It is from this background that a number of community innovators are engaged with the labs to refine and prototype their ideas.

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE FOR CONSULTANCY

The purpose of this review of the DEPP project is to assess the progress and achievements of the program, to identify and document lessons learnt (including lessons that might improve design, process and implementation of the DEPP project) and to provide recommendations to guide the remaining implementation period of the project.

The assessment is expected to serve as a means of validating or filling the gaps in the initial assessment of relevance, effectiveness and efficiency obtained from monitoring activities. The assessment will help provide Adeso, iHub and MasterCard teams with the opportunity to assess early signs of project success or failure which will help them to make prompt necessary changes during implementation. It will also serve as an opportunity for DEPP project management team to take stock of project progress and assess the direction of the project intervention towards achieving its objectives.

Tasks:

To gather evaluation data from sample project innovators and the Key informants from the community that can be used to assess the impact of the project and innovations to the community

Assess the extent to which needs assessment, response analysis, intervention strategies, research, accountability, monitoring and evaluation were met considering level of appropriateness.

To analyze and assess the impacts of the project in project areas and document differences in existing practices in relation to the new way of intervention.

To analyze and document lessons learnt and best practices on the innovation process, project engagement with the innovators and community in the project areas in relation to targeting criteria, gender relations, copying strategies and impact of project on the community.

METHODOLOGY

The methodology will be further reviewed by the consultant. The consultant is expected to use triangulation of data methodologies that would facilitate extraction of critical information necessary to provide answers to the assessment questions. The following are expected to be considered while developing evaluation methodology.

Literature review of different secondary data and reports about innovations and innovation processes.

Review of existing reports and other project related documents.

Presentation on evaluation methodology to program team and modify the changes in methodology based on the feedback.

Develop data collection tools and framework to guide the process of data collection.

The assessment is expected to cover regions of Nairobi, Marsabit and Garissa in Kenya, where the Innovation project is being implemented.

Field work visits; the consultant will be required to visit the areas for assessment.

The Adeso field teams working on ground are available to support basic data collection with appropriate guidance and training.

The Consultant should submit detailed work plan for the stipulated period of consultancy assignment.

SCOPE OF WORK

Adeso is seeking an established and qualified consultant(s) or consultancy firm in carrying out to conduct a program review of the DEPP innovation labs program. This project is being implemented in the regions of Garissa and Marsait. The program started in July 2017 and will run until the July 2019.

The consultancy is for a period of 20 days which is expected to start in February 2019. The consultancy will include desk review work, field data collection, data analysis and report writing. The consultant will be expected to travel to the 2 counties of program implementation, namely Garissa and Marsabit.

The outcomes and findings of the assessment will be useful to determine the way forward for engagement, strategic decisions and project implementation in the project areas.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

The following key issues need to be addressed by the assessors under the following criteria. The present list however is not exhaustive and additional issues might come up during the mission.

• Relevance (including coherence and the appropriateness of project objectives to the problems that it was supposed to address, and to the physical and policy environment within which it operated)
  • Appropriateness of the design towards community and human centered approach used to meet the specified goal and objectives of the project;
  • Relevance of the targeting approach to reach the vulnerable households
  • The consistency of the project planning and response in implementation.
• Effectiveness (assess the contribution from the project results and how assumptions have affected the project) in relation to:
  • Project design as the best approach to achieving the set objectives;
  • Effectiveness of beneficiary targeting and selection criteria used to reach the most vulnerable;
  • Number of participants reached within the different components of the project (broken down by gender)
  • Capacity building and behavior change activities success rate
  • To what extent did the external assumptions in the proposal hold true and how well were the mitigating measures put into use?
  • Document lessons learned by the project so far. What are the lessons learned and how can this knowledge be used for the remaining project period? Which were the best practices?
  • Assess the possible intended or unintended outcomes and impact.
• Impact (the effect of the project on its wider environment, and its contribution to the wider objectives summarized in the project overall objective)
  • Result 1: Develop innovations/process that will strengthen disaster-prone communities’ resilience and preparedness to drought-related disasters and effects.
  • Result 2: Labs have found suitable innovators from within their target community and able to influence innovations for successful scaling potential
  • Result 3: Community members have participated in the design process and now have capacity and desire to innovate/ think about innovation.
  • Result 4: Labs has facilitate useful external engagement (formal or informal partnerships (i.e. mentors) for innovators and also Innovation labs that provide useful services to innovators
  • Result 5: There is increased learning across lab to contribute to the humanitarian sector and development programs in general.
• Sustainability (the likelihood of a continuation in the stream of benefits produced by the project)
  • Design of the project in relation to sustainability;
  • Sustainability of project output;
  • Assessment of the effectiveness of measures taken to ensure project achievements are not lost and provide suggestions for improving the sustainability of the project.
  • Ownership of objectives and achievements: to what extent were the stakeholders consulted and involved in defining the objectives, the selection process for activities and project participants, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
  • Institutional capacity:
  • Assess the degree of commitment of stakeholders, the measures taken to strengthen their capacity and suggest improvement for the future
  • Assess the appropriateness of the institution strengthening methods applied.

CONSULTANCY PERIOD

The evaluation shall be completed within a period of 20 days. The final report is expected to be finalized by the 8 March 2019 more consultations may be done on call basis.

DELIVERABLES

• Initial work plan and inception report for the assessment and presentation to program team on the evaluation methodology and process of data collection.
• Final plans and data collection tools for approval by the program team.
• Interim progress report with preliminary analysis and observations to program quality team for feedback and comments.
• Presentation of evaluation findings for final consensus building.
• Final evaluation report for external circulation after approval by program director and heads of program.

POSSIBLE FIELD WORK

The consultant(s) will prepare an evaluation schedule to operationalize and direct the assessment for the stipulated period of consultancy assignment. The work plan will describe how the assessment will be carried out, bringing refinements, strategy, specificity and elaboration to the terms of reference.

Consultant(s) will need to provide his/her own travel insurance and the same will be applicable to personnel independently deployed for data collection.

MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION

The consultant will report to the M&E focal point and will work closely with Program Team and Field Program Teams.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Economics, Development Studies or Social Sciences and other areas relevant for the assignment.
• At least seven years of relevant professional work in social research or undertaking related studies.
• Extensive experience in undertaking outcome and impact evaluation of social innovation projects and experience of conducting studies business start-ups innovations in humanitarian context.
• Thorough knowledge and understanding of emergency programming approaches and related to Disaster emergencies preparedness its linkages.
• Extensive experience in working with INGOs and local NGOs, local authorities and communities.
• Demonstrated analytical and writing skills.
• Excellent knowledge of English and Swahili

COPYRIGHT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

In consideration of the fees paid, the Consultant expressly assigns to Adeso any copyright arising from the works the consultant produces while executing this contract. All images (whether used for online or print purposes) must however bear the consultant’s photo credit, as specified by international intellectual property rights. The consultant may not use, reproduce or otherwise disseminate or authorize others to use, reproduce or disseminate such works without prior consent from Adeso.