confidential
BACKGROUND
Medair is an international humanitarian organization that provides emergency relief and recovery services in health, nutrition, shelter, and WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene).
As signatories of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Code of Conduct, we believe that aid should be given to everyone who is in need, and not be used to further a particular political, social or religious viewpoint. The needs of the people we serve are our utmost consideration. For that reason, we pursue the highest professional standards of quality, accountability, and sustainability and carry out our projects in close connection with communities, listening to their needs, and supporting improvements and trainings for the future.
Summary of Medair’s Work in Somalia
Medair has been working in diverse regions of Somalia since 2008 to improve the quality of and access to life-saving primary health and nutrition services for the vulnerable host and IDP population. Medair currently works in the Banadir, Middle Shabelle, Lower Shabelle, and Lower Juba regions, offering an integrated health, nutrition, and WASH program through Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities and community-based interventions.
Medair currently supports PHC with integrated management of acute malnutrition in 12 health facilities and 36 outreach sites in Banadir, Southwest State, Jubaland and Hirshabelle, in partnership with four local NGOs. Support includes staff training and supervision, the rehabilitation of health facility infrastructure, including WASH facilities, and the procurement, supply, and management of pharmaceutical and other medical commodities. Community health promotion, supported by Medair, encourages health-seeking behaviours in facilities and increases community-level access through integrated community case management (iCCM) and Care Group models. Medair supports a referral system that includes transportation to access the referral facilities, especially in emergencies. In addition, Medair has supported emergency water trucking to IDP settlements, rehabilitation of community water points, and distribution of key WASH NFI including water containers and hygienic items.
SCOPE OF WORK FOR THE CONSULTANCY
This consultancy is to lead the design, implementation, and analysis of a multi-year project survey in Medair’s operational areas of Hirshabelle, Mogadishu, and Lowerjuba in Somalia. The survey will includ: a knowledge, practice & coverage (KPC), and evaluation.
The purpose of the KPC survey is:
To gather representative household data on the Health, Nutrition, MHPSS and WASH indicators listed in the approved Medair Survey Planning Tool. The KPC will determine progress in achieving project targets for outcome indicators, which relate to both facility and community level activities, focusing on children under five and women of childbearing age.
The purpose of the project evaluation is to
- Generate information about the outcomes and impact of the project – its relevance, appropriateness, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, and cross-cutting issues.
- Establish baseline data and measure achievement against key health, nutrition, and WASH-related indicators at the household level. Findings will be compared to previous results and project targets.
- Assess the current public health situation in project areas and evaluate PHC services and community health, nutrition, and WASH activities to guide decisions regarding future programme priorities;
- Document lessons learned and provide recommendations to improve multi-sector humanitarian assistance to drought and crisis affected communities;
- Support the development of strategies to build resilience and reduce vulnerabilities of the affected populations.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
1. Project evaluation: The main purpose of the end-term evaluation will be to assess the impact, appropriateness, relevance, effectiveness, and sustainability of the BHA-funded activity. The end-term evaluation will also help to draw key lessons learnt and the best practices if any. In particular, the project evaluation will be shaped by the following specific evaluation objectives.
- Relevance and Appropriateness– It will assess the design and focus of the project identifying whether the program was properly designed to meet targeted needs and whether it achieved its overall objectives.
- Effectiveness/Efficiency – Efficiency measures the outputs qualitative and quantitative – achieved as a result of inputs. This generally requires comparing alternative approaches to achieving an output, to see whether the most efficient approach has been used. Instead, effectiveness measures the extent to which an activity achieves its purpose, or whether this can be expected to happen based on the outputs. Implicit within the criterion of effectiveness is timeliness.
- Sustainability Baseline – It will interview stakeholders, including beneficiaries, to understand to what extent the achievements of the projects are likely to be continued upon project exit. It will also assess the effectiveness of the exit strategy in guiding the project toward a sustainable exit and what improvements could be made.
Scope and Focus of the Evaluation.
The following key questions will guide the end of the project evaluation:
- Relevance / Appropriateness: Is the intervention doing the right thing?
Assess the design and focus of the project and identify if the program was properly designed to meet the target group and their needs. Were the inputs and strategies identified, and were they realistic, appropriate, and adequate to achieve the results? Were interventions appropriate and effective for the target group based on their needs? And Which target groups and individuals were reached by the interventions?
- Effectiveness: Is the intervention achieving its objectives?
Describe the management processes and their appropriateness in supporting delivery and how effective has the project been in achieving its objectives. And to what extent do the activity’s interventions appear to have achieved their intended outputs and outcomes? To what extent did the activity help prevent individuals and households from adopting negative coping strategies?
- Impact: What difference does the intervention make?
Did the project have the desired impact? For whom and to what extent? What changes—expected and unexpected, positive, and negative—were experienced by the targeted beneficiaries and other stakeholders? What factors appear to facilitate or inhibit these changes how did the experienced changes correspond to those hypothesized in the intervention Theory of Change?
- Efficiency: How well are resources being used?
How did the Medair support functions (finance, human resources, logistics, MEAL) management processes affect project implementation? What was the level of efficiency and timely delivery of the goods or services?
- Sustainability: Will the benefits last?
Assess the likelihood of continuation and sustainability of project outcomes and benefits after completion of the project. How effective were the exit strategies, and approaches to phase out assistance provided by the project including contributing factors and constraints? Describe key factors that will require attention in order to improve prospects of sustainability of Project outcomes and the potential for replication of the approach. How were capacities strengthened at the individual and organizational levels (including contributing factors and constraints)?
- Cross-cutting issues
Under the cross-cutting issues, the evaluator will assess the following:
· Capacity building: of the Health Facility staff, Community Health Workers and Volunteers, Community Supervisors, and so on.
· Gender: has Medair addressed the different needs of men, women, girls and boys, have health promotion messages have been made gender sensitive? Has Medair encouraged female participation?
· Protection: in the design of health infrastructure, have protection issues been addressed through the construction of modesty walls in front of latrines as well as the position of the latrine? Has Medair incorporated protection principles for humanitarian aid in overall programming
· Participation/community engagement and accountability to affected people: How effective was the project in rolling out AAP? How were community members involved in developing the intervention? Did they help conceptualize the project, establish project goals, and develop or plan the project? How did community members help assure that the program or intervention is culturally sensitive? How were community members involved in implementing the intervention?
· Disability: Involvement of persons with disability among the population and ensuring access to services despite their disability.
· Environmental protection: Ensuring protection of the environment and prevention of environmental degradation.
2. Baseline and follow-up KPC surveys: Design, implement and analyse a KPC survey to gather representative household data on the Health, Nutrition, MHPSS and WASH indicators listed in the approved Medair Survey Planning Tool.
- The KPC will determine progress in achieving project targets for outcome indicators, which relate to both facility and community level activities, focusing on children under five and women of childbearing age,
- Health seeking behaviour of caregivers of children under 5 years, including for immunisation and communicable disease.
- Access to and utilisation of Reproductive Health services, including child spacing methods, prenatal and postnatal care, birth preparations, safe delivery and SGBV services.
- Access to mental health care, delivered at primary health care level.
- Health, hygiene and nutrition promoting behaviours, including MIYCN, health seeking, disease prevention and safe motherhood.
- Awareness of services including for mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) and WASH.
- Results for each indicator will be reported and compared with findings from May 2019 and May 2021 KPC surveys.
- Analyse follow-up data for set indicators in prevailing health and nutrition issues that affect children under five and women of child-bearing age.
- Analyse baseline data for all set indicators for use in comparison with the next annual KPC survey.
METHODOLOGY
- *Project evaluation:***The evaluation methodology will be designed in alignment with MEAL standard guidelines and principles to ensure the quality of evidence. The data collection process will apply both quantitative and qualitative methods. A detailed evaluation methodology will be designed by the external Consultant in consultation with MEAL Manager, Country level Health & Nutrition and WASH Advisors, Senior Project Managers, and Medair GSO-based Sr. Advisors. Medair’s preferred approach will be a mixed method, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods.
- KPC survey: The KPC survey will follow standard tools and questionnaires and will be for the purpose of measuring the outcomes and impact of the current project in comparison to previous years in some locations and to provide a baseline in one location. For comparisons with previous years’ data, a comparative proportions method will be used for sample size calculation. The evaluators will expect to employ a mixed methods approach of both quantitative and qualitative data collection for outcome indicators in line with data collection in their PIRS to ensure the same methods of data collection are used for the baseline and endline in order to enable comparison.
SCOPE OF WORK
Medair will provide a detailed list of specific catchment areas with their population estimates to the consultant.
CONSULTANCY DELIVERABLES
- Desk review of relevant project documents prior to the implementation of the study, including project proposal, M&E plan, and previous KPC evaluation report.
- Inception report detailing the evaluation design (methodology, sampling plan, data collection tools), activity plan, and a proposed report structure. The inception report will be approved by Medair before commencing the evaluation.
- Finalized survey questionnaire in both paper and ODK form.
- Database for data entry and analysis.
- Raw data collected from the household survey, including original field notes.
- Summary tables of findings in Excel using Medair template (needed for data validation) A draft survey report detailing the evaluation design, methodology, samples, tools, work plan, data collection tools, data set with codebook, analysed findings and recommendations.
- Graphs and charts to inform the survey participants of the key findings of the survey.
- Final evaluation report, ready for donor submission
TIMEFRAME / SCHEDULE:
The assignment is expected to commence on 1st May 2023 and to take a maximum of 40 working days, which includes preparation time, data collection in the field, and report writing. The final report must be submitted no later than 15th June 2023. The consultant is expected to submit a detailed work plan highlighting dates for the specific survey tasks including submission of draft and final reports.
MEDAIR SUPPORT TO THE CONSULTANCY
Medair Somalia staff will be available to the consultant for implementation of the assignment. This will include overall coordination of consultant activities with Medair Somalia country program, including review and approval of tools and protocols and design, liaison with the advisor team, and technical support to ensure quality control of the deliverables, as well as final approval of the final report.
CONSULTANT QUALIFICATIONS AND ATTRIBUTES/Evaluator Profile
The evaluation exercise will be undertaken by an external Consultant who will work in close collaboration with the project and support teams. The following skills and qualifications will be required:
CONSULTANT QUALIFICATIONS AND ATTRIBUTES
· Master’s Degree or higher in Public Health, Health system, epidemiology, or related field
· Extensive experience with baseline public health studies and applied statistics in developing countries.
· Extensive knowledge and experience using quantitative representative statistical sampling methodologies in general and Cluster in particular and preferably conducting KPC surveys in developing countries.
· Experience providing training for surveys.
· Experience using data analysis software such as SPSS, STATA, Access, or EPI info.
· Professional efficiency in English and Somali, fluency in both preferred
SECURITY
All reasonable steps will be taken to provide safety and security for the consultant; both Medair and the consultant accept the inherent risks in working in humanitarian contexts. Medair will not be required to do more than what is reasonable and possible in the circumstances whilst providing a safe and appropriate work environment.
CONSULTANCY FEES AND TERMS OF PAYMENT
- International flights and accommodation in transit will be arranged by Medair via pre-selected travel agents and will, therefore, be paid directly by Medair.
- The consultancy fees payable to the consultant will be calculated on the basis of an estimated number of days of work at the agreed rate per day.
- 25% of the consultancy fee will be paid into a bank account designated by the consultant on arrival at the field location, and 50% will be paid upon the completion of the fieldwork. The remaining amount will be paid when the final version of the report has been finalized and approved by Medair.
- Withholding taxes will be deducted at source and remitted to authorities.
- Any visa costs, while in transit will be reimbursed against receipt.
CONSULTANT RESPONSIBILITIES
- Obtain sufficient medical, repatriation, accident, liability and professional services insurance coverage. Proof of adequate coverage is to be submitted to Medair before the starting date of the contract.
How to apply
Interested applicants should submit their applications including the below documents:
- Cover Letter: A letter of no more than 2 pages highlighting specific work experience (beyond what is listed in a CV) that applies to the TOR. Indicate fluency in English and Somali.
- Curriculum Vitae: A current CV, including at least 3 professional references.
- Financial Proposal: A budget for the estimated cost of delivering these services, based on a daily consulting fee rate.
- To be sent to [email protected] on or before 30th April 2023