ECHO Endline Evaluation Consultancy – RI

By Admin Last updated Feb 9, 2022

Job Description

Organization	Relief International
Job Title	ECHO Endline Evaluation Consultancy
Donor	ECHO
Period	The evaluation is scheduled to start on 5^th March 2021 for 25 days
Location	North Darfur localities , East Darfur, Blue Nile
Implementation period: Darfur	1 April 2019 to 31 March 2021

Background

Relief International (RI) has been a key humanitarian actor in Sudan since 2004 providing an array of services in Nutrition, Health, Food Security and Livelihood, Water Sanitation, and Hygiene across three states; North Darfur, East Darfur, and Blue Nile. In East and North Darfur, the protracted displacement of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the influx of South Sudanese in both camp settings and host communities continues to strain basic service systems that already struggle to provide minimum levels of health care, and nutrition services. In Blue Nile, years of conflict have devastated the health system with limited availability of basic services across the state. Through this project, RI provided a package of basic minimum services in health and nutrition, and WASH while also building local capacity to provide services, in IDP camps, refugees, and under-served host community.

RI health sector provided services primarily provides basic primary health care services including consultations of communicable and non-communicable disease, reproductive health including Focused Antenatal Care (FANC); Intrapartum care Basic emergency obstetric and Neonatal Care (BEmONC), family planning; EPI vaccinations, laboratory diagnostics, community health education through 10 health facilities in El-Fasher, El-, Al-Malha, and El-Tewisha localities of North Darfur State; 6 facilities in Abujabra, El-Ferdous, Bahr Al-Arab localities of East Darfur; and 6 facilities in Blue Nile along with 1 mobile clinic which reaches 3 additional locations.

The nutrition interventions include treatment services for SAM and MAM cases; and a prevention program that focuses on Infant and Young Children Feeding (IYCF) counseling. The OTP service forms the basis of a community-based approach aimed at treating cases of severe malnutrition without complications amongst children under five (6 to 59 months). TSFP treats MAM children aged 6 to 59 months and malnourished pregnant lactating women (PLWs).

RI provides these services through field level partnerships with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Food Program (WFP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization (WHO) in addition to a mandated technical agreement with the Sudan Ministry of Health (SMoH), Groundwater and Wadi Directorate (GWWD), Sudan Department of Water, Environment, and Sanitation (WES), and national and state-level sector clusters.

Summary

RI, in collaboration with SMoHSD, supports 22 facilities (East Darfur: 6 in Abujabra, in Bahr El Arab, and El Ferdous; North Darfur: 10 in Al Malha, in El Fasher serving Zamzam Camp, and in Eltwesha, 6 in Geissan, Bau, and Kurmuk localities). RI served a total of 475,250 beneficiaries in North and East Darfur and an additional 26,625 in Blue Nile. Further, RI provides technical and training support to SMoH staff, pharmaceuticals and supplies to facilities to ensure the provision of free, high-quality health services including curative consultations, laboratory testing, dispensing of medicine, maternal and child health, and EPI services for CU1. Most of RI’s PHCCs also provide CMR service for SGBV cases requiring medical care. RI sources and ensure adequate and timely delivery of essential pharmaceutical commodities and equipment to all health facilities. RI also supports the rehabilitation of health clinic infrastructure.

Program Objective

To contribute to the reduction of morbidity and mortality among vulnerable IDP, returnee, and host community populations through the provision of integrated, lifesaving nutrition, health, WASH, and multi-purpose cash transfer (MPCT) activities in Blue Nile.
To improve the health and nutrition status of children under five years of age and PLW in North and East Darfur through the provision of quality and sustainable services ensured by the strengthened health system

Purpose of Evaluation

This evaluation is to serve as an opportunity for learning, growth, and reflection for RI and stakeholders. The evaluation will cover overall program implementation sectors such as technical areas, logistics, finance, monitoring and evaluation, stakeholders and beneficiaries; and will be participatory to maximize the learning opportunities of RI staff in the review of program achievements.

The following table outlines the areas of focus and guiding questions that will be covered by this evaluation

Appropriateness of Design and Monitoring systems	Determine how well the program was designed and monitored, against the objectives, benchmarks, and processes established in the program design document.
Coherence	Analyze how the project was coordinated with the activities of otheragencies (including national bodies) and how coherent are the activities with national policy, RI country strategy, and other
Coverage	Were activities coverage met as planned and did the project respond to the needs of the target group?
Target versus actual	Assess the progress made towards achieving each Project Goal (or technical sector) based on the current log frame, design, and monitoring data.
Results	Determine the changes/results and/or potential impact of the program.
Strengths/ Weaknesses	Determine strengths (including successful innovations and promising practices) and weaknesses (factors impeding progress) of the program planning, design, implementation M&E, and ongoing community management in the program.
Efficiency and Effectiveness	Determine whether the resources (financial, human & materials) have been used economically and wisely for the well-being of the community.
Equity	Determine how the program involved and benefited different genders, ethnic minorities, children, and the disabled throughout the planning, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, and ongoing management of the program.
Capacity	Assess RI structure and staff capacity to undertake program implementation. Assess the status of stakeholders (primarilyhealth/nutrition facility staff, community volunteers, and community leaders) to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate activities.
Ownership and Sustainability	Assess the overall management and structure of the program, particularly focusing on the potential for the program to be owned by local people and for benefits to continue after the RI may close.
Participation	Assess the level and quality of participation by women, children, people with disabilities, and the poor.
Cross-cutting issues	Assess what measures RI put in place to ensure gender equality and sensitivity to other gender issues throughout the program cycle; and security to employees?
Beneficiary accountability	Assess what effective and feasible systems were in place to gather beneficiary feedback? How was the feedback addressed and outcomes fed back to the community? Was community feedback used to inform programmatic changes?
Lessons learned	Identify the lessons learned in terms of overall program management, activity implementation, monitoring, reporting, etc.?
Recommendations	Provide specific, actionable, and practical recommendations for future programming.

Evaluation Methods

The study design should entail a holistic evaluation, comprising both the qualitative and quantitative methodologies designed to capture the performance of health and nutrition sectors. The consultant and his/her team are expected to use different data sources, comprising of primary data (through qualitative and quantitative household survey questionnaires) and secondary sources including project documents, progress reports, assessments, etc. Furthermore, the study will be undertaken in a participatory and collective manner based on the active involvement of project beneficiaries and other stakeholders.

The following data collection and analysis methods will be used to address the evaluation questions:

Review of documentation and secondary data – The evaluator will assess project records and reports as well as the results of prior surveys carried out with beneficiaries.
Site visits and observations – The evaluator will visit various communities where program activities have been implemented.
Semi-structured stakeholder interviews & focus groups with beneficiaries – The evaluator will prepare a loose questionnaire, and facilitate focus group discussions with beneficiaries and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, such as the representatives from the local authorities, SMoHSD, and selected beneficiaries.
Staff interviews – Evaluator will discuss with program, finance, HR, Logistic staffs.

The evaluator will be responsible for the analysis, interpretation, and compilation of data and writing of the final evaluation report.

Scope of work

The evaluation will be conducted in the project sites of North Darfur, East Darfur and Blue Nile States. In North Darfur, the evaluation will cover localities including Al Malha, in El Fasher serving Zamzam Camp, and in Eltwesha); in East Darfur, it will include Abujabra, in Bahr El Arab, and El-Ferdous localities; and in Blue Nile will include Geissan, Bau and Kurmuk localities. Visits to each site will depend on time available.

Procedures Schedule:

The duration period for the evaluation to be 30 days.

Reporting:

Relief International requests the following sections in the report:

Background
List of Acronyms
Table of Contents which identifies page numbers for the major content areas of the report.
Executive Summary (2 to 3 pages) should be a clear and concise stand-alone document that gives readers the essential contents of the evaluation report in 2 or 3 pages, previewing the main points to enable readers to build a mental framework for organizing and understanding the detailed information within the report. Also, the Executive Summary helps readers determine the key results and recommendations of the report. Thus, the Executive Summary should include major lessons learned; maximum of two paragraphs describing the program, a summary of targets and intended outcomes; areas of meaningful under or over achievement.
Methodology: sampling method including strengths and weaknesses of the method used the inclusion of stakeholders and staff, rough schedule of activities, description of any statistical analysis undertaken, including justification and software package used. The discussion of any random sampling used should include details on how the random respondents were identified and invited

to participate. This section should also address the constraints and limitations of the evaluation process and rigor. The methodology section should also include a detailed description of the data collection techniques used throughout the evaluation.

Discussion of findings: The main body of the report shall elaborate on the points listed in the Executive Summary. It will include references to the methodology used for the evaluation and the context of the action. In particular, for each key conclusion, there should be a corresponding recommendation.
Recommendations: should be as realistic, operational, and pragmatic as possible; that is, they should take careful account of the circumstances currently prevailing in the context of the action
Limitations of the study: this should also include areas for further research.

Other required outputs: In addition to the report, Relief International requests the following outputs:

Copies of the raw data
A presentation to the RI field team, and Khartoum staff to discuss preliminary findings

Notes:

While RI undertakes the responsibility of facilitating travel and organizing meetings for the evaluator, it is the evaluator’s ultimate responsibility to follow through and ensure that all relevant parties are interviewed and relevant project sites visited.
Travel to and within the project locations involves some risk. Other than providing standard security arrangements and information, RI takes no responsibility for the safety of the evaluator and/or his property during this exercise.
Early in the course of the evaluation, the evaluator must submit a list of people/groups that s/he will wish to talk with so that the program staff can arrange meetings. Examples include the local authorities, local partners involved in the program, and select beneficiaries (the evaluator must indicate the general demographics of the beneficiaries s/he would like to meet – for example, women, men, etc.).
Upon completion of the evaluation, a soft copy must be sent to the team for review and feedback.

Requirements:

Fluency in English and Arabic languages
Technical knowledge of health, nutrition, in-facilty WASH programs
Solid experience in program evaluation, and other similar assessments
Facilitation skills

Tentative Timetable – Subjected to Change

Date	Activity
5th March 2021	Report to the RI Khartoum Office for discussions with team
6^th March 2021	Travel to field sites
7th March 2021	Meeting with key field staff for planning on the field visit
8^th March 2021	Training of enumerators
9th – 19^th March 2021	Fieldwork
20^th – 21^th March 2021	Meeting with partners and line ministries
23rd March 2021	Meeting with Khartoum staff
25^th March 2021	Share update to Key staff
27^th March 2021	Presentation of key findings to staff
30^th March 2021	Final report submission

Interested applicants can send their technical proposal, financial proposal, and CV before 24^th February

2021

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