The project is implemented in close coordination with government at the Provincial and District level and through a National level Steering Committee chaired by the National Food and Nutrition Commission (NFNC)
The intervention consists of four main components:
a. Health interventions aimed to increase awareness and demand for health services and the uptake of intermittent iron/folic acid supplements, deworming and other anemia prevention measures such as consumption of iron-rich foods and use of mosquito nets as well as improve access to reproductive health services.
b. Nutrition interventions aimed to improve adolescent, maternal and child nutrition practices and increase uptake of growth monitoring and promotion services
c. Agriculture and livelihood interventions to promote diversified homestead food production in order to increase the year-round availability of and access to micronutrient foods at the household level and livelihoods interventions linked to the same
d. Life skills interventions to build skills and competencies of female youth across the three main categories of life skills (critical thinking/decision making, interpersonal/communication skills and self-management skills). A financial literacy component will also form part of the life skills component.
One of the core components of FYNEP is to gather evidence and document lessons learned about the delivery of such interventions in Zambia with a view to influencing and promoting good practice with both government and non- governmental organisations. The project has a results framework and a full baseline survey was undertaken in 2016. Other data available includes registration data, situational analysis, workshop and other reports and monitoring data including a mid-term review report and meeting minutes. The final evaluation should demonstrate not only progress against the results framework but examine elements of the project design and operations and consider them against the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) criteria (relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, impact), presenting learning for future implementation and possible scale up.
Key questions identified during project implementation have been identified but more may become apparent during the planning for the evaluation. Some important areas are:
· Has the wider community engagement been sufficient and effective in providing support for the girls participation and empowerment? Has the engagement of traditional leaders led to any changes within communities.
· How has the role of the Peer Leaders developed? Do they have the capacity to perform their roles and have there been any additional benefits of these positions?
· Have the girls clubs been successful in strengthening the social capital of the girls?
· Has the project enabled beneficiaries to make better decisions in their lives and how? Has there been a change in status or negotiating power of the female youth?
2. Objective of the Consulting Assignment
FYNEP will end in June 2018 with all field work concluded by the end of March 2018. The objective of this consultancy is to design a mixed methods evaluation based on the results framework and the learning areas that have been identified during project implementation. Data collection would be conducted by firms procured by Concern and in line with the instruments and TOR developed by the consultant. The consultant would then analyse the data generated in order to conduct an impact evaluation of the project based on the results framework and DAC criteria on the relevance, sustainability, efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of the project.
3. Scope of the Work
· Document review to understand project context including a complete review of the baseline survey data and instruments,
· Interviews with key informants (Members of the National Level Steering Committee, World Bank) to understand scope of the evaluation and potential areas of interest for documentation and lessons learned.
· Develop a methodology for the evaluation including two Terms of Reference for the quantitative and qualitative data collection with criteria for the selection of firms or individual consultants.
· Additional consultants/consulting firms will be contracted to conduct data collection based on the design and the consultant will participate in technical evaluation of bids for the end-line data collection.
· Review and develop the tools for the quantitative data collection including the sampling frame.
· Finalise key questions and areas of learning for the qualitative data collection
· Review inception reports from the end-line data collection consultants/firms.
· Lead on the analysis of data from the endline surveys.
· Produce draft evaluation report and present key findings of the survey to Concern Worldwide, National Steering Committee and World Bank. Format in line with World Bank guidelines.
· Produce and submit final report based on feedback from Concern Worldwide, National Steering Committee and World Bank.
4. Capacity Building and Transfer of Knowledge
The consultant will prepare a final report to share with World Bank, Government of Zambia and other stakeholders, distilling learning from the project results and implementation.
5. Reports and Schedule of Deliveries
· Inception report including tools and TORs for the data collection required by 15th January 2018.
· Feedback on technical bids and reports related to end-line data collection expected within 10 working days of receipt of documents (February 2018)
· Final report draft expected with 20 working days of receipt of all end-line data (May 2018).
· Final report expected within 10 working days of receipt of feedback (June 2018)
· Travel to Zambia can be considered in the proposal.
· The consultant daily rate must be quoted in EURO and should be inclusive of 20% Zambian Revenue Authority (ZRA) Witholding Tax (WHT) which will be deducted from all consultant payments (also to be paid in EURO)
- Data, services, personnel, and facilities to be provided by the Borrower
Concern Worldwide will provide all data, services and facilities to support the consultant to carry out this assignment including transport, office access, internet and accommodation if the consultant is required to travel to Zambia. Once the initial TOR has been developed Concern will procure the consultants or firms to conduct the quantitative and qualitative end-line surveys. Concern will not provide IT equipment or software.
7. Institutional and Organizational Arrangements
The Consultant will report to the Country Director and will work closely with the FYNEP Project Coordinator and the World Bank.
8. Duration
The overall consultancy work will commence in January 2018 with a visit and follow up later in 2018. The consultancy will span the period December 2017 to June 2018. No more than 30 days are available for this work.
9. Consultant’s Qualifications
· Post graduate degree in related area (M&E, Heath, Nutrition, Development Studies or Agriculture, for example).
· Demonstrable experience in designing and conducting similar evaluations with experience in working with World Bank standards and guidelines strongly preferred.
· Familiarity with the Zambian context preferred.
· Experience working with governments and government system strengthening.
· Knowledge of statistics and statistical packages essential. Excellent computer skills and experience in editing, formatting, and polishing large documents
10. Applications
Please submit a technical and financial proposal along with CV and at least 3 professional references to [email protected] with copy to [email protected]. No later than Friday 1st December.2017. Please put FYNEP evaluation consultant in the subject line.