Provision of Consultancy Services – Conduct Mid-term and Endline CLWR Project Evaluation

Job Description

LWF World Services

Provision of Consultancy Services – Conduct Mid-term and Endline CLWR Project Evaluation

Job description

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is an international humanitarian organization that has global presence in countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Central America. The global headquarters of LWF is in Geneva, Switzerland. The LWF Kenya Somalia Programme is headquartered in Nairobi Kenya to serve both the Kenya and Somalia country programs.

The Lutheran World Federation provides quality humanitarian assistance to displaced and affected communities and focuses on three priority programmatic areas; Quality services: covering the areas of education and WASH – with primary focus on education; LWF provides other life-saving humanitarian assistance occasioned by natural disasters (drought, floods, etc.) through quick impact projects in its areas of operations. Protection and social cohesion: protection services to support vulnerable and at risk persons with major focus on child protection, persons with specific needs (PWDs, older persons), child mothers, and women at risk, and also supporting community social cohesion/peace building activities and Climate resilient and livelihoods: climate friendly livelihood interventions in crop and animal production, vocational skills training and development, enterprise development, micro-finance and business development skills training. More information about the LWF Kenya-Somalia program can be obtained. https://kenyasomalia.lutheranworld.org/

2. TIMEFRAME/DURATION

The Gender Responsive GBV Risk Mitigation in Conflict Affected Regions project is a two (2) year project (2024-2026) aimed to provide holistic gender-responsive support, ensuring the well-being and dignity of conflict-affected populations, with a particular focus on addressing the unique challenges faced by women and girls. The project builds upon the findings of two comprehensive assessments conducted between August and September 2023, which highlighted widespread gender-based violence (GBV) emphasizing the urgent need for targeted prevention and response measures. The project responds to these needs through a multifaceted approach, which includes access to basic services, Water and sanitation services, supporting service delivery in the existing safe spaces for survivors, offering legal aid to promote justice and accountability, delivering psychosocial support to aid recovery and conducting awareness campaigns to challenge harmful norms and raise community-level consciousness about GBV.

The project is earmarked increase access to and understanding of protection mechanisms and reduce reliance on life threatening coping mechanisms for IDPs, returnees, and hosts in Jubaland. It is designed to align with the IASC Guidelines and to reflect gender dynamics concerning access to and control of resources, community norms and gender roles, risks and safety concerns, and community-level understanding of SGBV and prevention/response mechanisms.

The project aims to enhance community structures with technical and material support to maintain WASH infrastructures post-program. It will establish gender-balanced water user committees (WUC) to manage water schemes and promote household water treatment practices, addressing the current male-dominated leadership in community-based water and sanitation committees. LWF WASH Officers will train these committees alongside local water bureaus. Gender-balanced WASH committees are crucial for gender-equitable outcomes, providing women leadership opportunities and addressing their specific concerns. These committees will develop governance structures, receive targeted hygiene and sanitation training, and serve as community mobilizers. The program will also distribute context-specific WASH kits and sanitation tools, and conduct gender-sensitive hygiene promotion campaigns. Additionally, it will provide menstrual health management (MHM) supplies and training to women and girls who largely depend on humanitarian aid for these supplies.

The project aims to reach a total of 30,000 (18,000 women/girl, 12,000men/boys) beneficiaries across Kismayo and Dhobley districts. This population has been carefully selected based on vulnerability and exposure to GBV risks, ensuring that the intervention addresses the most pressing needs of the affected communities. The target population comprises 60% internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict, violence or natural disasters but remain within their country’s borders, 20% host community members who reside in the areas where displaced persons have taken refuge creating stiffer competition on already scarce resources. The remaining 20% are refugee returnees, individuals who have returned from displacement in neighboring countries. This breakdown represents a diverse group of individuals each with unique needs and challenges which must be addressed through the project.

To achieve the overarching goals of the project, it is designed to focus on attaining the following key outcome objectives;

• Improved utilization of gender responsive protection and SGBV response services in conflict-affected communities across diverse regions with a particular emphasis on women and girls.
• Increased gender-equitable access to WASH services and hygiene items among IDPs and host communities, including latrines and water points.
• Improved gender-equitable access to safe and dignified shelter and NFIs among IDPs, returnees, and host communities, particularly women and girls.

3. OVERALL, PURPOSE OF THE CONSULTANCY

The overall purpose of this Request for Proposals is to find a prospective bidder(s) to support in measuring the effectiveness of the project interventions so far by comprehensively assessing the extent to which the project is in progress to achieve its intended and unintended (if any) outcomes based on the objectives and indicators, provide in-depth analysis and understanding of why certain intended outcomes are deemed unattainable, analyze the challenges faced, provide recommendations and document lessons for improving projects implementation.

The evaluation will provide data-driven insights for adaptive project management allowing for course corrections and enhances accountability to stakeholders by sharing interim results. It will help in building evidence for the final evaluation by identifying trends and changes over time while strengthening stakeholder engagement to ensure the project remains relevant and effective in meeting beneficiaries’ needs.

4. OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The assignment has the following objectives;

• Assess the progress of the project’s interventions to ensure alignment with outcome objectives and identify key barriers affecting implementation.
• Assess the project progress towards achieving relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability with special emphasis on the evaluation’s Key questions.
• Harvest and document lessons learned, best practices, challenges encountered and put forth practical recommendations for effective project implementation.

5. SCOPE OF WORK

Period under review: The evaluation is anticipated to encompass the project duration from July 2024 up to June 2025.

Geographical Coverage: The exercise will cover all areas targeted by the project and within Dhobley and Kismayo districts of Jubaland State of Somalia.

Thematic Priorities**:** The evaluation will focus on specific interventions under the four identified thematic areas; safety and wellbeing, community feedback and response mechanisms, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and WASH.

Target Beneficiary Category and Stakeholders**:** All target beneficiary categories and relevant stakeholders as outlined in the project documents with a particular focus on IDPs, host communities and refugee/returnee households in a ratio of 60%, 20%, and 20%, respectively.

Evaluation exercise: To coordinate the evaluation exercise and submit the final report.

6. APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY

The consultant(s)/firm is expected to recommend empirical approaches and methodologies that incorporate both qualitative and quantitative methods that are in line with the OECD DAC criteria. The consultant(s)/firm will use a gender-responsive and inclusive methodology to ensure the perspectives of women, youth, and other marginalized groups are adequately captured. The consultant(s)/firm is encouraged to expand on these criteria using key evaluation questions to assess various aspects comprehensively.

The recommended approaches and methodologies MUST prioritize inclusivity, active participation and adhere to ethical considerations. As LWF is a CHS-certified organization, the nine Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) commitments will guide and complement the OECD DAC criteria during the evaluation. For more information, refer to the Core Humanitarian Standard.

7. DELIVERABLES

The consultant will be responsible for preparing and submitting the following deliverables;

• An inception report.
• Training for the enumerators and piloting the tools.
• A draft report of the findings submitted to LWF program team for feedback (including related materials from interviews conducted).
• A final report written in English (soft copy), maximum 50 pages including findings, best practices, lessons learned, recommendations and annexes. The structure and format of the final report will be agreed upon by LWF and the consultant/firm.

8. SUBMISSION CRITERIA

PART A: TECHNICAL PROPOSAL

The Technical Proposal shall be straightforward and concise, describing how the consultant intends to carry out and deliver on the above mentioned tasks. No cost or pricing information is to be included in the technical proposal. Technical proposals are limited to 12 pages in total.

The technical proposal shall be formatted using the following sections:

Technical Approach– Narrative not to exceed five (5) pages.

• The bidder shall demonstrate his/her understanding, ability, and overall approach to perform the requirements described in the Scope of Work/Tasks/Activities. S/he shall clearly explain how they propose to structure, design, manage, and execute the work required that meets LWF objectives.
• The Technical Approach must include a methodology, timeline or Gantt chart of the deliverables required to execute this project.

Capability Statement – Narrative – not to exceed two (2) pages.

• The bidder shall demonstrate his/her specialized competence about the requirements of the tasks/activities. S/he shall demonstrate they have the necessary personnel to successfully comply with the contract requirements and accomplish the deliverables.

Past Performance – Narrative not to exceed five (3) pages.

• The Bidder shall provide at least three (3) examples of past performance of implementing similar projects. The past performance examples must be within the last three (3) years and similar in scale and relevance. S/he must provide references for each example, including the reference’s name, title, phone number, and email address.

Personnel/Staffing – A narrative not to exceed two (2) pages.

• A summary describing the proposed staff for the project, including up to three team members. The summary shall include names, relevant qualifications of similar experience, and the proposed role for each individual.
• The firm’s technical lead person/ individual consultant must have at least a master’s degree or PhD specializing in peace, education, protection, livelihoods, food security, research and Monitoring and evaluation, or related qualifications, with extensive expertise and experience in evaluating development programs. S/he should have at least 10 years of experience working with international organizations and donors on monitoring, and evaluations or climate change-related programs, with particular experience in the context of Somalia.

Annex: Not included in the technical proposal.

• Bidders are encouraged to provide an Annex or “portfolio,” not exceeding 10 pages, of samples CVs (not exceeding 3 pages) of each of the proposed key personnel and samples of similar assignments. The Annex can include copies of photographs, reports, proposals, other visual representations, and media/social media clippings.

PART B: Financial PROPOSAL- (Separately)

• The bidder shall propose realistic and reasonable costs for this work using His/her technical approach. The price should be in dollars (USD) and include all applicable local taxation. The financial proposal shall list all costs associated with the assignment.
• Items described in the technical proposal but not priced shall be assumed to be included in the prices of other items.

9. EVALUATION CRITERIA

This solicitation is open to firms or companies registered in Somalia and Kenya that specialize in measuring learning outcomes and/or education research.

The selected Consultant will coordinate with LWF to design and execute all activities outlined in this Request for Proposal.

Proposals will be evaluated using quality and cost-based selection, with a total score calculated out of 100% of which 80% is the weight of the technical proposal and 20% is the weight of the financial proposal.

Proposals meeting the mandatory requirements will be evaluated for technical merit based on the criteria in the chart below. Proposals scoring 65 points or higher (out of 80 points) will be considered for cost-effectiveness.

Proposals meeting the mandatory requirements will be evaluated for technical merit based on the criteria in the below chart. Those proposals scoring 65 points or higher (out of 80 points) will be considered for cost-effectiveness

To access the RFP document and evaluation, please use the link below.https://kenyasomalia.lutheranworld.org/content/tenders-offer-31

10. MANAGEMENT OF THE CONSULTANT EVALUATION CRITERIA

The Program Manager of LWF Kenya-Somalia will hold overall responsibility for contract management. However, the Consultant will collaborate directly and work closely with the field program team, led by the Somalia Sub-Program Team Leader, Project Manager, and the PMER unit during the evaluation.

Skills and qualifications

• Advanced Degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Monitoring & Evaluation, or related field.
• Proven Experience in conducting midline evaluations or assessments for similar projects, preferably in the context of development, humanitarian, or social impact initiatives.
• Strong Analytical Skills with expertise in qualitative and quantitative research methods, data analysis, and impact evaluation techniques.
• In-depth Knowledge of project management and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks, including familiarity with logical frameworks (log frames), theory of change, and result-based management.
• Excellent Communication Skills, with experience in preparing evaluation reports and presenting findings to diverse stakeholders.
• Ability to Work Independently with a high degree of professionalism and attention to detail in delivering results within specified timelines.
• Experience with Stakeholder Engagement, including interviews, focus group discussions, and consultations with beneficiaries, project staff, and other stakeholders.
• Knowledge of the Somali context and Somali language is surplus.

How to apply

To access the RFP document and evaluation, please use the link below.https://kenyasomalia.lutheranworld.org/content/tenders-offer-31

Interested and qualified consultant(s) should submit their technical and financial proposals to procurement.kismayo@lutheranworld.org with the e-mail subject line clearly marked; CLWR Protection Project Midline Evaluation by 21st of April 2025 at 5:00 PM Eastern African Time