Sustainable Agriculture and Livelihood for Economic Recovery (SALER) Project Final Evaluation Terms of Reference-Job Vacancy July 2014
Terms of Reference for Final Evaluation
Sustainable Agriculture and Livelihoods for Economic Recovery
Project Name: Sustainable Agriculture and Livelihood for Economic Recovery (SALER)
Country: South Sudan
Duration: 3 Weeks
1. Introduction: With funding of $896,673 from OFDA, WCDO the project “Sustainable Agriculture and Livelihood for Economic Recovery” (hereafter called SALER).
The SALER project is implemented as a follow up to a previously OFDA funded, “Sustainable Economic and Agricultural Recovery” project.
The SALER project proposes to transition activities toward sustainability and resilience, such as distributing fish nets to training fisherfolk in smoked fish production, from conducting seed fairs to training farmers in seed multiplication and marketing, and from not only distributing commodities through rent to own, but private enterprises, training blacksmith, welders and potters to make plow shares and household granaries and repair ox plows and treadle pumps out of locally available materials.
Brief description of the project: Food security in Warrap State continues to be threatened by vulnerable livelihoods and a high incidence of likely shocks, such as flooding, drought, conflict, and continued displacement.
Warrap has one of the highest levels of severe food insecurity among states in S. Sudan and ranks the worst in levels of food diversity.
Warrap is rated worse than the 9% national average of households (HHs) that can afford to provide their children with the minimum number of daily meals.
Food security and market restoration are intimately tied in Warrap where most households rely on crop farming or animal husbandry as their primary source of livelihood.
Without better, more consistent access to tools, training, and market, neither farmers nor SMEs will be able to move beyond mere subsistence.
WCDO will address Warrap State’s food insecurity through seed multiplication, agricultural training and post-harvest preservation.
To achieve sustainability in these sectors, WCDO will teach practicing artisans skills in farm implement repair and grain storage container production, offer urban youth opportunities to learn trade skills and build capacity by improving access to capital through Accumulating Savings and Credit Associations (ASCAs).
As a follow-on to the current Sustainable Economic and Agricultural Recovery (SEAR) project, the Sustainable Agriculture and Livelihoods for Economic Recovery (SALER) project proposes to transition activities toward sustainability and resilience, such as moving from distributing fish nets to training fisher folk in smoked fish production, from conducting seed fairs to training farmers in seed multiplication and marketing, and from not only distributing commodities through rent-to-own, but building private enterprise, training blacksmiths, welders and potters to make plow shares and household granaries and repair ox plows and treadle pumps out of locally available materials.
Project Objectives:
a) Improved access to food through increased agricultural production and post harvest preservation
b) Increased access to business opportunities through capacity building
2. Purpose of Final Evaluation:This final evaluation will produce an evaluation report containing a detailed list of lessons learned and recommendation for future programming, increasing transparency, strengthening accountability and allowing all stakeholders a voice in the outcome.
The evaluation report is aimed at critically assessing the achievements of the project through participatory approaches, measuring to what extent the objectives/outputs/activities have been achieved against the results and resources framework and identify factors that have hindered or facilitated the success of the project.
The lessons learned section is aimed at capturing key lessons to assess what adaptation approaches/measures were effective in various thematic areas (e.g Agriculture and food security, Economic recovery and markets).
3. Scope of Evaluation
SALER will be evaluated using the following criteria:
a) Relevance and appropriateness:The final evaluation will review and assess the appropriateness of the project concept and design, the relevance of the project outputs and the extent to which they contributed toward the overall development objective.
b) effectiveness, (comparison of outputs to impacts): The extent to which the project achieved its immediate objectives or produced its desired outcomes
c) efficiency, (comparison of inputs to outputs): The optimal transformation of inputs and results
d) Timeliness
e) Sustainability.
The evaluation will look at some of the project aspects that are designed for transfer to the community and how sustainable they are.
The final evaluation will focus on the following aspects:
- Assess whether the project has produced its outputs effectively and efficiently
- Identify the major factors that have facilitated or impeded the progress of the project in achieving its desired results.
- Extent to which the project addressed the felt needs of the beneficiaries
- Extent to which the project served the most vulnerable
- How appropriate was the project logic in light of prevailing context, beneficiary needs and local capacities
- How appropriate was the implementation strategy and the approaches adopted
- Extent to which WC activities were clearly communicated to beneficiaries (for example, the time and places for trainings, co-payments for ox plows, reasons to include or exclude beneficiaries from participation in activities.)
- Extent to which project objectives have been achieved based on the selected indicators
- Extent to which direct and indirect beneficiaries actually benefitted from the project
- Extent to which direct beneficiaries adopted new behavior as a result of trainings
- Beneficiary perceptions of the value, quality and quantity of the project in relation to their felt needs
- Examine extent to which project intervention logic was implemented and what factors if any may have hindered implementation
- Examine extent to which the project planning and implementation process adopted contributed towards greater efficiency in terms of time and resources input
- Unintended changes, positive or negative, as an outcome of the project
4. Expected outputs / Deliverables
a) Evaluation plan – the plan should outline the overall strategies, action and timeline of the evaluation. The evaluation will seek qualitative and quantitative analysis and aim for statistically significant findings.
b) Evaluation report – the evaluation report should not be more than 30 pages, written in English. It should be structured along the outline indicated in Annex 1. It includes detailed lessons learned component and list of all people interviewed in annex.
The first draft should be submitted within 1 week after signing of the contract. The second draft should be submitted within the three days of field mission. The final draft is to be presented within a week after receiving inputs from WCDO staff members.
5. Methodology / Approach of Evaluation
The key steps to be followed are:
c) Review of project documents: The evaluator will review project proposal, quarterly reports and all other relevant documentation.
d) Interview in the field with stakeholders: The interview will include the beneficiaries, staff, implementation partners and Government officials.
e) Field visit and observation of the projects
6. Attributes of the evaluation consultant
The consultant should ideally have the following competencies, qualifications and attributes:
- Demonstrable analytical skills
- Excellent English writing and communication skills
- Excellent facilitation skills
- Masters degree in a relevant field such as agriculture, community development, statistics, project planning and management, M&E
7. Timeframe and budget consideration
The evaluation work will be for a period of three weeks.
The evaluation will start end of July.
The consultant should present a budget proposal and methodology document for consideration.
Timeline (draft agreed June 2014)
Date Action
23rd July Start date of the evaluation
23rd July Meeting South Sudan Leadership on the Evaluation
24th – 25th July Desk review
26th – 31st July Field work / Interviews
1st August Preliminary presentation of findings to South Sudan staff
6th August Delivery of draft report
11th August Review and comments on the draft report
15th August Delivery of final report
Application Guidelines and Deadlines:
Interested and qualified professionals (individuals, Agencies or Institutions) should submit their applications/bids in sealed envelopes and should include a proposal entailing the following:
a. Work plan & Methodology proposed
b. Proposed Budget
c. Profiles of consultants/CV
d. References upon request
Deadline for Applications: 21th July 2014
Notes:
Please DO NOT send original documents and/or heavy attachments beside the CVs
Additional information will be required only in case of pre-selection and short-listing.
Only those short-listed will be contacted for an Interview
How to apply: CVs & Cover Letters only to be sent to joycem@wcdro.org
Annex 1
Report Sample Outline
1. Executive Summary
- Brief description of project
- Context and purpose of the evaluation
- Main conclusions, and Recommendations
2. Introductions
- Purpose of evaluation
- Key issues addressed
- Methodology of evaluation
- Structure of evaluation
3. The project and its development context
- Project start and its duration
- Challenges that program sought to address
- Objective and goal of the project
- Main stakeholders
- Results
4. Findings and conclusions
4.1 project formulation
- formulation process
- Linkages to other projects and sectors
- Indicators
4.2 project implementation
- Delivery
- Financial management
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Implementation modalities
- Coordination with other stakeholders (WFP, FAO etc)
4.3 Results
- Attainment of project goal/objectives
- Attainment of outputs
- Sustainability
- Replicability
5. Lessons learned
6. Conclusions and recommendations
7. Annexes
- Questionnaire used and result summaries
- List of documents reviewed
- Summary of field visit and schedule
- List of people interviewed