Consultancy Opportunity: Final Evaluation Multi-Country Humanitarian Programme

Feb 24, 2020 | Christian Aid Ireland
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Christian Aid Ireland is an international aid and development agency of the Protestant Churches of Great Britain and Ireland. As part of the Christian Aid network, they work across 37 countries to support poor and marginalised people, whatever their beliefs, sexuality, gender or ethnicity, to lift themselves out of poverty.

2020 is the second of three years for Christian Aid Ireland’s (CAI) Irish Aid Humanitarian Programme Plan (HPP) Grant. CAI wishes to commission an external evaluation of this programme.

HPP was developed with and is implemented by local partner agencies, in line with CA’s belief that working with local partners is key to ensuring locally owned, long-lasting change. HPP is implemented across four programme countries: Burundi - Makamba and Rumonge Provinces; Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - South Kivu Province; Myanmar - Northern Shan and Rakhine States; South Sudan - Northern Bahr el Ghazal State.

The goal of HPP is to ‘protect and empower women, men, girls and boys living in vulnerable communities in conflict-affected areas, so that their lives are saved, their dignity is maintained, and their resilience to ongoing and future natural and man-made shocks and stresses, including those resulting in violence, is increased’.

To achieve this goal each country programme works at each of the following three objectives:

  • Humanitarian Response: The needs of communities affected by conflicts in protracted crises are met in a way that restores livelihoods, maintains dignity, and builds resilience. **
  • Violence reduction, conflict resolution and social cohesion: To reduce and respond to the risk of violence, including gender-based violence, in target communities, by identifying and tackling the root causes of conflict and violence, providing appropriate services and support to GBV survivors and promoting transparent and inclusive peacebuilding processes.
  • Resilience and community empowerment: To empower target communities to anticipate and adapt to crises and risks related to conflict, violence and the environment in an inclusive and equitable way by taking organised action to increase their resilience.
  • Work under this outcome follows Christian Aid’s Integrated Conflict Prevention and Resilience approach. Specific results vary per context as this objective is community led, but typically include food security, DRR, Early Warning Systems and local level violence and conflict.

Across all outcome areas Christian Aid is committed to an inclusive programming approach to ensure no one is left behind, and to implementing programmes in a conflict-sensitive manner.

Evaluation Purpose

The primary purposes of the evaluation are:

  • To provide an independent assessment of the quality of the HPP programme to Irish Aid.
  • To create quality and ethical analysis and insight to inform future programmes and projects.

The secondary purposes of the evaluation are:

  • To inform improvements for the final year of programming.
  • While the secondary purposes are important, resource constraints mean that the evaluation process must prioritise primary purposes, and meet secondary purposes where feasible (as agreed between CAI, Country Teams and External Evaluation Team), and in line with evaluation principals.

Evaluation Principles

Respect for People; Independence & Impartiality; Utility; Credibility; Validity; Transparency;

Evaluation Scope

The evaluation will evaluate the HPP programme as a whole, as well as provide programme (country)-specific findings.

  • The Evaluation scope encompasses all four HPP countries and all associated partners. The evaluation will assess programme implementation since 1st January 2019. All three programme outcomes funded by Irish Aid, as well as the value added of CAI (as outlined in specific questions) are within scope.
  • During the evaluation year, the HPP is commissioning further research on its Integrated Conflict Prevention and Resilience approach, led by an external research team. The evaluation will aim to be complementary to that process and will avoid duplicating areas of inquiry.
  • The evaluation will produce partner-specific findings but a report will not be produced for each partner.

Key Evaluation Questions

In responding to all questions, the different needs, preferences and experiences of different genders, ages, PWDs, ethnic/ religious groups, should be considered.

1.    Relevance (20%): To what extent did the programme respond to the needs of Primary Stakeholders in the evolving context?

  • Did the logic of intervention hold true and were the assumptions valid?
  • Did Christian Aid and partners adapt project strategies and means of delivery during the programme to achieve programme objectives? Where yes, what factors caused, informed and facilitated adaptation?
  • Are the project strategies and portfolio of work appropriate for the organisational priorities and capacities of partner organisations?

2.    Effectiveness (60%): Is there evidence that anticipated results are being achieved at the current stage of the programme?

  • To what extent has the HPP programme achieved the programme results as anticipated, and for whom?
  • Are any programme outcomes making (or likely to make, by programme end) more progress than others? If so, why?
  • Has the programme led to any unanticipated changes (positive or negative) in the lives of primary stakeholders and what can we learn from this?
  • To what extent can the emerging results be attributed to HPP funding?
  • How well are the different parts of Christian Aid* supporting the achievement of results?

3.    Sustainability (20%): To what extent did the organisation build institutional capacity of local partners (‘local partners’ here are considered Christian Aid’s formal partners, as well as CSOs, community groups and local government supported by the programme)?

  • Where attitudinal, relational and behavioural results (in the areas of gender, inclusion, social cohesion and peaceful coexistence) are emerging, how likely are those changes to be sustained? What supported or limited this sustainability?
  • Did the programme enhance local ownership and capacity to influence policy?
  • Did the programme contribute to localisation of humanitarian aid?
  • For each of 3a, 3b and 3c, what has worked well/ not worked well, and why?

Evaluation Methodology: Phases, & Key Deliverables

The Evaluation methodologies must be ethical, entail no risk of harm for primary stakeholders and evaluation participants and, in particular, pay close attention to Evaluation Principal, ‘respect for people’. All methodologies used must be alert to issues of gender and other inclusion issues (such as age, disability, ethnicity, literacy), as well as conflict sensitivity.

The evaluation methodology will be defined in collaboration with the External Evaluation Team. Methodologies should take into account the diverse experiences and perspectives of programme stakeholders. It is anticipated that the methodologies will be primarily qualitative, although where useful some evaluation questions might benefit from development of a rubric developed (by External Evaluation Team with input from CAI) to assist in interpretation and comparison of qualitative information. The methodology should take into account sectoral standards and norms (e.g. Sphere, CHS). There is scope to review and refine the methodology following the first country-specific evaluation.

Design phase April – June: Deliverables - Detailed Inception report & Country-specific Terms of Reference

  • HPP induction for external evaluation team and initial document review and interviews with CA staff completed by External Evaluation Team.
  • Thorough document review (using monitoring data, field trip reports, Result Frameworks, emergent research findings) and interviews with CA staff. Review and interviews to be structured, and documented using a clear framework which responds to the evaluation questions.
  • Develop a detailed methodology.
  • Develop country-specific ToRs which respond to the HPP-level ToRs

In-country evaluation - June – end October 2020: Deliverables - 4 Country-level reports

  • In each programme country conduct in-depth data collection / creation, interpretation and evaluate programme against evaluation questions
  • Findings and draft recommendations to be shared with country team, partners and other stakeholders for feedback and validation.
  • Draft reports, including recommendations, to be produced and finalised following feedback from Country Teams and Evaluation Reference Group.

Synthesis - completed by end December 2020: Deliverables - HPP-level report

  • Use findings from all programmes to evaluate the overall HPP programme.
  • Draft report, including recommendations, to be produced and finalised following review by the Evaluation Reference Group.

Response completed by end January 2021: Deliverables (by CAI) Programme-level and HPP level Management responses, ‘Lessons Learnt’ document from evaluation experience

  • Following completion of each report, a management response will be completed.
  • A light ‘lessons learnt’ document on the evaluation process will be produced for organisational learning.

External Evaluation Team Requirements

  • The external evaluation team will comprise one lead evaluator and at least one additional team member. The team must be able to travel to all programme locations.

The external evaluation team should possess the following qualities:

  • Demonstrated experience and understanding of the HPP technical areas, including relevant sectoral standards (e.g. Sphere, CHS) and an understanding of gender and inclusion and conflict sensitivity as cross-cutting issues
  • Demonstrated experience and expertise in evaluating large, multi-country programmes
  • Fluency in English and French and clear verbal and written communication skills
  • Experience of the International NGO sector and appreciation for the principals of working in partnership.
  • Experience and understanding of at least some of the HPP programme countries
  • Understanding and ability to apply the evaluation principals.

Financial Information

The budget for this evaluation is €60,000.

How to apply

Content of proposals:

  • A brief outline of the overall approach and proposed methodology to produce the identified deliverables
  • A statement of availability for conducting the evaluation
  • A profile of the proposed evaluation team, including key roles and responsibilities
  • Costed proposal, with breakdowns by key deliverables and estimated number of days
  • With the proposal please also submit two pieces of work completed by the proposed team, and the Curriculum Vitae for each team member

Submission of proposals

Please submit your proposal to Maria Collison at mcollison@christian-aid.org, with the subject line, ‘Irish Aid Final Evaluation’. Deadline for submissions is 5pm GMT 19th March.

A full RFP document, as well as additional information and clarifications can also be obtained from the same address.

Selection Process

Applications will be assessed based on the quality of the proposal, ability to meet requirements above, and overall budget. A shortlist of applicants will be interviewed the week of 30th March.

The selected Evaluation Team will be asked to sign and abide by Christian Aid’s Code of Conduct and a non-disclosure agreement (as personal information will be handled during the evaluation).