Endline Evaluation for the Building Resilient Communities in Somalia (BRCiS) Consortium
Terms of Reference
Purpose of assignment
Background information
The Building Resilient Communities in Somalia (BRCiS) Consortium was established in October 2013 with the overall objective to improving the resilience of vulnerable communities and households in seven regions, 27 districts and 90 communities of Somalia. Cutting across the ‘Humanitarian – Development’ spectrum, the BRCiSprogramme balances its response to short-term humanitarian needs with the longer-term aim of building community and household capacities to deal with the shocks and stresses. This way, the project provides a continuum of humanitarian and rehabilitation/development assistance that seeks to improve the absorptive (short-term) and adaptive (medium- and long-term) capacities of communities and households.In the communities that BRCiS works, this generally includescombinations of interventionsrelated to Food Security, Livelihoods, WASH,disaster risk reduction, and natural resourcemanagement.
Project Summary
Through funding from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DEVCO)’s support, BRCiS completed a three-year resilience programme between 2015 December and 2019 March December in Somalia. With the involvement of four out of the six BRCiS Members (CESVI, IRC, NRC and SCI), the programmeset out to strengthenthe resilience capacity of rural communities and IDP households. More specifically,the projectobjective was to reduce vulnerability and enhance livelihoods, as demonstrated through: 1) increased community-level resilience capacities to cope with recurrent shocks and stresses 2) strengthened physical infrastructure needed to support enhanced livelihoods 3) diversified livelihood options and increased productive livelihoods capacities 4) learning and advocacy that aim to increase stakeholder capacity and understanding of resilience. The programme targeted 109,543 direct beneficiaries in six regions in Somalia consisting of Banadir, Bay, Galgudud, Gedo, Hiraan and Mudug covering 11 district in total.
Objectives and Scope of Work
The primary purpose of the evaluation is to identify lessons learned by evaluating the Consortium’s resilience-building efforts in rural and urban areas. Analytically, while the commissioned report should follow a traditional evaluation approach and answer the most pertinent evaluation questions with regard to the programme’s relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and impact, the main focus of the study shall be on collecting learnings relating to differences between resilience-building efforts in different geographical contexts including urban, peri-urban and rural settings. This is with the goal of learning more about the variability of approaches between urban and rural resilience-building processes and providing the BRCiS Consortium and its members with evidence-based and actionable recommendationsto improve programme implementation as well as future resilience and livelihoods programming.
Specifically, the evaluation should assess the Consortium’s work from the following aspects:
Relevance: Assess the extent to which the objectives of the programme were consistent with the beneficiaries’ needs and the operational context in Somalia as well as analyze the appropriateness of the overall theory of change and the main programme assumptionsstated in the proposal.
Effectiveness: Evaluate the extent to which the project objectives and outcomeshave been delivered and evaluate their level of quality. This should include an analysis of differentprogramme implementation strategies employed to reach desired results as well as adocumentation of challenges and best practicesin resilience-buildingapproaches in urban and rural areas,analyzing differences aroundtargeting, community engagement and local authority consultations to name a few.
Efficiency:Assess how the programme resources were used to achieve expected results including the collection of the Consortium’s financial data and the cost-effectiveness analysis of BRCiS investments made at the community level.
Sustainability: Examine the extent programme results will be sustainable in the long term and whether the program led to any lasting changes in policies, practices, and attitudes of informal and formal power-holders which is likely to benefit the project’s target group.
Impact: Consider the changes in beneficiaries’ lives brought about by the BRCiSprogramme by looking at various types of effects including positive and negative, intended and unintended, direct and indirect as well as short-term and long-term impacts.
The list of specific evaluation questions will be further refined with the selected consultant.
Methodology
The commissioned evaluation is expected to rely on a range of qualitative and quantitative methods including desk reviews, key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews, field observations and visits, and short surveys collecting information from various programme stakeholders including project staff, community leaders, local authorities, as well as BRCiS beneficiaries amongst others. Villages for primary research will be selected in consultation with the BRCiS technical working group(TWG). The precise methodology will be agreed upon between the selected consultant and BRCiS before evaluation activities commence.
Deliverables
The selected consultant will be responsible for three key deliverables:
Inception Report: The Inception Report will detail the agreed upon methodologies to be employed and should also include the finalised activity plan and an outline of the final evaluation report. The inception report should be shared and approved by the BRCiS TWG before commencement of the data collection.
Draft Report: The Draft Report must summarize the key findings covering both primary research and secondary research as well aslessons learnt and actionable recommendations, as outlined in this ToR.
Final Report: The Final Report is expected to be no more than 40 pages (excluding references and annexes) and should be submitted to the BRCiS Consortium no later than one week after the consultant has received feedback from all relevant programme staff through the consortium management unit.
Estimated duration of contract
It is estimated that the contract will take approximately 60 working days between April and August 2019 from which at least 30 days should be spent on collecting primary data in at least 12 communities.
Official travel involved
The consultancy requires extensive travel to BRCiS project sites across Somalia which should be covered in the consultant’s budget.
Supervisor
The supervisor of the consultant is the BRCiS M&E Manager. More generally, the Consultant will work in close collaboration with the Consortium’s M&E Team and with relevant technical working groups and field teams.
Qualifications and evaluation Criteria
Strong technical background including advanced university degree (Master’s) in Social Sciences, Sociology, Anthropology or a directly-related technical field(s) – PhD preferred
At least 5 years of experience in evaluating resilience programmes in the context of Somalia; especially in the field of community engagement, governance and natural resource management and early warning and early action with proven previous experience in DEVCO-funded humanitarian programmes
At least 5 years of experience experience conducting and leading mixed-method evaluations with extensive research skills for designing evaluation, managing, and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data with demonstrated project examples
Strong familiarity of the context in Somalia and extensive field presence
Quality of the technical proposal submitted
Value for Money in the financial proposal attached
Application
We welcome applications both from individuals, partnerships, and firms with a deadline of 29March2019, 12:00 am (East Africa time).The consultant candidates are expected to submit a proposal covering the following content:
Consultant profile detailing relevant previous project experiences
Evaluation questions and methodology
Field work and analysis plan
Detailed budget broken down by key milestones and consultancy days
Timeline
Proposed team structure and respective CVs
Samples of previous relevant evaluation work
References
Only selected candidates will be contacted.
The Applications should be submitted not later than 29th March, 2019- 12:00 am (East Africa time). and be sent to the undersigned:
Send the documents through this Email: so.procurement@nrc.no
SOURCE: Terms of Reference Endline Evaluation for the Building Resilient Communities in Somalia (BRCiS) Consortium