Consultancy Services for EU FPI External Project Evaluation

Who are we?

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a leading international humanitarian displacement organization, supporting refugees and internally displaced persons during displacement, in exile, upon return, or when settling and integrating into a new place. DRC provides protection and life-saving humanitarian assistance, supports displaced persons in becoming self-reliant and included in hosting societies – and works with communities, civil society, and responsible authorities to promote the protection of rights and peaceful coexistence. A core sector that aims to protect conflict-affected communities by improving safety, strengthening community resilience, and building local capacities to reduce and remove weapons-related risks. The work of Humanitarian Disarmament and Peacebuilding (HDP) seeks to address the causes of insecurity through both a weapons-related and people-related approach. HDP works with conflict management, security governance, weapons and ammunition management, and Mine Action (MA). DRC currently has 9,000 staff and 7,500 volunteers with programs in more than 40 countries worldwide.

DRC has been present in Ukraine since the late 1990s with a continuous presence since 2014. Since the escalation of the conflict in 2022, DRC is undergoing a considerable scale-up, opening offices in Lviv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv. In Ukraine, DRC currently implements Shelter, Protection (including Legal Assistance), Non-Food Items, Cash, Economic Recovery, as well as HDP sectors of work. DRC is the only organization in Ukraine that implements all four admissible pillars of Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) – Humanitarian Demining (including Non-Technical Survey – NTS), Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE), Victim Assistance, Advocacy, as well as the cross-cutting activity of capacity building of national HMA duty-bearers.

Purpose of the consultancy

The consultant will work in collaboration with the project team under the guidance of the Economic Recovery, Shelter, and Settlements coordinators, and the Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) Operations Manager. The consultant will be further supported by the DRC Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) Team. The main purpose of the consultancy is to:

• Conduct a participatory external evaluation on the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of the action; through a mixed method approach (quantitative and qualitative methodologies), including household-level questionnaires, key informant interviews, and focus-group discussions with beneficiaries, community members, and stakeholders;
• Prepare an analytical report with key findings, good practices, lessons learned, and recommendations for further program development and M&E of such programs based on the collected data in the research areas.
• Provide a short presentation of key findings and recommendations for the attention of the program and MEAL team.

NB: DRC specialists will provide guidance and approval on all products developed to ensure technical validity, relevance, and quality.

Background

The armed conflict that restarted in 2022 in Ukraine led to a sharp increase in the presence of EO, affecting 15 out of 25 Oblasts. 176 different types of EO, including Anti-Personnel Mines and cluster submunitions, have already been identified. As per ACLED data, 37,777 conflict events have been recorded since February 2022, often in populated areas. By May 2023, the UN has reported 23,606 civilian casualties because of the escalation (8,791 killed and 14,815 injured), with adult men representing most victims. At this stage, there is a lack of clarity on the exact scope, scale, and location of explosive contamination; HNO 2023 reports 25% of all of Ukraine being exposed to armed conflict. According to the 2022 EORE Rapid Needs Assessment on average 49% of the respondents in affected Oblasts have personally seen an EO. The Mine Action Sub-Cluster (MASC) evaluated that the ubiquity of EO currently puts 14.6 million people in peril.

Since 2021 and under the funding of the European Union’s Foreign Policy Instrument (EU FPI), DRC is implementing the second phase of an integrated project (‘Revitalising Frontline Communities Through Humanitarian Demining and Livelihood Support’). This project synergizes DRC’s HMA (including clearance, NTS, EORE, and capacity building), Shelter, and Economic Recovery sectors to improve the physical safety of civilians as well as the resilience of target communities by increasing the level of private income and repairing key social infrastructure. The project’s objective is two-fold: at the community level, the DRC seeks to enhance the immediate physical safety of residents as well as the long-term socio-economic resilience of communities. At the national level, the focus is on the HMA capacity building of national HMA actors in terms of implementing the Mine Action Law of Ukraine (MAL) and strengthening their capacities for oversight and standard-setting in line with their role as defined in MAL.

The objective of the consultancy

The objectives of the consultant are to:

• Measure two project outcomes: 1.) a percentage of supporting communities that have well-maintained and accessible infrastructures, improved economic opportunities, and enhanced physical safety; and 2.) level of satisfaction of key national and local actors with national mine survey regulation;
• Prepare recommendations for further strategic integrated program development between HDP and other sectors of DRC’s work in Ukraine and its monitoring and evaluation.

The consultant will be required to:

• Conduct an evaluation and produce an evaluation report, compliant with DRC Design Guide. As a minimum, this report will include an Executive Summary of the main findings (maximum 2 pages); background information on the context; description of the evaluation aim and objectives; a detailed description of methodology and data collection methods (including their limitations); findings of the evaluation; analysis of findings; conclusions and recommendations; lessons learned on integrated programming; and annexed questionnaires, interview questions, and other methodological tools;
• Collect, clean, analyze, and hand over the entire raw evaluation data plus the cleaned database of the evaluation;
• Develop and present the evaluation via a PowerPoint presentation, inclusive of evaluation results, compliant with the DRC Editorial Manual.

NB: all deliverables are to be provided in English, following professional proofreading services. DRC Design Guide and DRC Editorial Manual will be provided to the successful applicant.

Scope of work and methodology

DRC is looking for a consultancy to conduct a project evaluation in select conflict-affected Oblasts of Ukraine to:

• Develop a mixed-method project evaluation methodology;
• Evaluate the achievement of EU FPI project outcomes in selected communities and project stakeholders as well as the project’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability;
• Provide recommendations for the improvement of DRC’s integrated programming.

The evaluation is expected to focus on Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Zhytomyr Oblasts – currently deemed safe for operations by DRC Safety Team in Ukraine (ceteris paribus). The evaluation should intend, where possible, to differentiate between settlements never occupied, previously occupied settlements, and those close to the contact lines, as well as between rural and urban areas. For sufficient quality evaluation results, DRC recommends a minimum of 70 qualitative survey respondents. Gender and age disaggregation is required, as well as the inclusion of persons with disabilities to the extent possible.

Before data collection begins, the consultant will be required to prepare a detailed methodology and work plan indicating how the objectives of the evaluation will be achieved, and the support required from DRC.

NB: Depending on access and security situations, the methodology may need to cater to a remote management and collection approach. The modifications shall be agreed upon with the technical supervisors at DRC.

Deliverables

The Consultant will submit the following deliverables as mentioned below in the Annex C Terms of Reference.

Duration, timeline, and payment

The total expected duration to complete the assignment will be no more than 31 working days. The consultant shall be prepared to complete the assignment no later than 31 August 2023.

The proposed composition of the team

– Consultant

Eligibility, qualification, and experience required

• Qualification:
  • At least a master’s degree in international development or related social sciences.
• Experience:
  • A minimum of five years of research and/or academic work with experience in conducting (applied) research in difficult contexts;
  • Previous experience in conducting similar evaluations.
• Skills and knowledge:
  • A solid understanding of Ukrainian or similar context.
• Language requirements:
  • Written and spoken fluency in English.
  • Working knowledge of Ukrainian and/or Russian.

The selected consultant will work under the supervision of:

• DRC Economic Recovery Coordinator
• DRC Shelter and Settlements Coordinator
• DRC HDP Operations Manager
• DRC HDP Programme Manager
• DRC MEAL Manager

Location and support

DRC Ukraine offices in Kyiv. DRC will allocate a table and a chair in every office for the consultant – the use of conference rooms will also be possible with advance notice. The Consultant will provide her/his own computer and mobile telephone. The consultant will comply with all applicable DRC safety rules throughout their work in-country.

Travel

Since the evaluation will be conducted in three northern Oblasts (Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Zhytomyr), extensive traveling will not be required. A tourist visa for Ukraine will last for three months; a longer (work) visa cannot be provided for the consultant.

While the consultant will have to budget for and book the international flight (with Rzeszow, Poland,

being the closest international airport), DRC Ukraine will support all in-country travel. The consultants must include all other costs in their financial bid.

For any other information related to the submission of proposals and tender evaluation criteria please check the RFP Invitation Letter and Terms of Reference.