Consultancy to carry out Impact Evaluation

1. Evaluation Purpose

This evaluation aims at generating evidence on effectiveness of strategies and processes used during project implementation. It will document innovative aspects of the project, lessons learned and mains challenges related to strategies used and make recommendations for the implementation of future shelter, WASH, protection and humanitarian coordination programming.

The evaluation seeks to assess the project performance by examining its delivery/outcomes a well as the quality of its implementation. As a change-oriented evaluation approach, it is especially attuned to assessing any discrepancies between the logic model and outcomes of the project and what is happening in reality, to analysing strengths and weaknesses, to uncovering obstacles, barriers or unexpected opportunities, and to generating understandings about how the project could be better implemented in the future or in another similar context.

Assessing to what degree the project has been successful in promoting an integrated approach and increasing experience sharing and learning will be part of the evaluation.

The intended direct and indirect users of the evaluation are: advocacy, Project teams, Core Competencies Specialists, Heads of programmes, Regional Advisors, Monitoring and evaluation units, key national (ministries, etc) and regional stakeholders in Nigeria and the donor (BHA).

1. Background Information

Activity name

Building the resilience of conflict-affected communities in Borno and Adamawa State through an emergency and multi-sectoral response

Period of Performance

September 20, 2021 to September 19, 2023

Active Geographic Region

Borno and Adamawa States-Nigeria

Across Borno and Adamawa States, basic needs are increasing to a scale not seen since the outset of the Northeast conflict. In addition, frequent outbreaks in multiple States across the country have increased humanitarian needs.

The conflict has resulted in the destruction of existing water supply and sanitation infrastructure, with the majority of the most affected population residing within the local government areas. The displacement patterns are characterized by movement of populations into the peri-urban areas and the capital of Local Government Areas, which are considered relatively safe. However, this has led to congestion and overstretching of the existing services, including the WASH infrastructure.

Conditions and services in most of IDP camps are still deficient. The reasons for this lie in the operating environment and to some extent in the policy environment. The security and access situation has long made it hard to transport materials and humanitarian staff, to provide assistance and build as well as maintain an environment for safe and healthy living.

In Northeast Nigeria, communities are grappling to overcome legal and civil documentation (LCD) and Housing, Land and Property (HLP) challenges and rights violations. LCD determines the extent to which one exercises certain rights such as the right to freedom of movement and to access basic services, including education, health, employment, and opening of bank accounts. Despite the importance attached to LCD, the majority of the Nigerian population do not possess any form of legal identity.

In order to address the issues highlighted, NRC’s WASH response proposes a two phased approach to address the immediate critical WASH needs; emergency response informed by rapid needs assessments through emergency water trucking, distribution of RRM hygiene kits, mass hygiene promotion, desludging to provide for continued access to latrines and through the convention response to provide among others access to water and access to sanitation.

NRC shelter and settlement has been providing first and second line response under BHA grants to address ongoing needs, specifically focusing on areas where there is a gap in assistance or presence of other partners and will continue this approach under this project.

Beyond planned programmatic activities on Housing, Land and Property (HLP), Conflict and Dispute Resolution (CDR) and Civil and Legal Documentation, NRC has contributed to building the capacity of target participants on HLP and CDR in order to increase their knowledge.

With BHA funding, NRC targeted the most vulnerable communities across its areas of operations with a multi-sectoral response based on rapid needs assessments throughout the lifecycle of the project. This response included Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) in informal settlements and camps in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) and Jere, as well as an integrated multi-sector shelter, WASH and protection response in NRC’s areas of operation. NRC has also addressed emergency needs that arise due to ongoing displacements and natural disasters (eg floods/fire). In addition, it provided a rapid response to meet the basic life-threatening needs of IDPs through the distribution of basic WASH and Shelter NFIs, emergency shelter kits, water trucking and hygiene promotion.

NRC has promoted an integration of the intervention, either with activities funded by BHA or with alternative donor funding, to ensure a comprehensive and inclusive response that will provide pathways towards early recovery. Through the response, protection is expected to be mainstreamed in activities with the objective of protecting target participants from any harm.

1. Evaluation Timeline & Deliverables

The evaluation will be conducted between July and September 2023 and the estimated number of working days to complete the evaluation is 40 working days.

The following phases will be followed.

Phase 1

• Scoping meeting with the steering committee
• Review of all relevant documents
• Preparation of the inception report including an evaluation matrix, work plan, data collection tools, analysis plan and methodology

Phase 2

• Pre-test of tools
• Data collection
• Data analysis

Phase 3

• Preparation of the interim report
• Submission of the first draft of the report to NRC
• Presentation of initial results to NRC and stakeholders

Phase 4

• Comments and suggestions of NRC and steering committee on the interim report
• Integration of the comments and submission of the final report

Evaluation Type

NRC will commission a final evaluation of the project conducted by an External consultant. A steering committee with representatives from NRC, BHA and project participants will manage the overall implementation of the evaluation.

Evaluation Questions

The evaluation will cover project intervention areas and the whole duration of the project since September 2019 in Nigeria. It will consider the strategic and operational aspects that contributed to achievements. Specifically, it will focus on the following elements:

• Analysis of the relevance of the objectives, indicators, activities, implementation strategy and approaches used;
• Measuring and analysis of the level of achievement of the results (outcomes) including processes; focus will be put on the analysis of the deviations between project initial forecasts and progress achieved;
• Identification of unintended positive or negative effects resulting from the implementation of the project;
• Identification and analysis of external factors (social, economic, political, geographical, cultural) that participated in the project implementation and their effect/impact on results and processes.

The evaluation is intended to assess the project’s performance against the following five (5) criteria: (i) relevance, (ii) efficiency and effectiveness, (iii) impact, (iv) sustainability, (v) Non-discrimination and gender.

However, we are conscious that the timing of the evaluation does not lend itself to a consideration of (iii) given that some mid and long term impacts will take time to manifest. As such, the evaluation is expected to focus on assessing the short term and likely future impacts and sustainability of the project, as well as ideally proposing a reflective practice approach and a ‘resource light’ approach that can be used for capturing future impacts.

The mains deliverables are as follows:

Deliverable 1: Draft Inception Report – The draft inception report should set out any changes proposed to the methodology or any other issues of importance in the further conduct of the evaluation. The inception report will:

1. include a desk review;
2. describe the conceptual framework that will be used to undertake the evaluation;
3. present an evaluation matrix: sets out in some detail the approach for data collection, the evaluation methodology, i.e. how evaluation questions will be answered by way of data collection methods, data sources, sampling and selection criteria, and indicators;
4. provide a detailed work plan for the evaluation, which indicates the phases in the evaluation and key deliverables;
5. set out a plan for data collection, interviews or discussions;
6. present an analysis plan;
7. set out the list of key stakeholders to be interviewed.

Deliverable 2: Inception Report – The inception report will be finalised upon consultation with the Steering Committee Members (max 2 weeks review).

Deliverable 3: Draft Evaluation Report (40 Pages max) – including an Executive Summary of key findings, conclusions and recommendations, and database.

The draft evaluation report will be produced upon completion of the desk review and after the conduct of field work and informal feedback meetings with the steering committee. The draft report will be validated through:

(i) an evaluation stakeholders’ workshop to be organised by the steering committee. The evaluator is expected to facilitate and deliver a presentation of key findings.

Deliverable 4: A final[1] evaluation report (40 pages, in English) structure as follows:

1. Cover page
2. A list of acronyms and abbreviations
3. A table of contents
4. An executive summary
5. Introduction and background
6. Scope and objectives of the evaluation
7. Methodology
8. Results
9. Conclusions
10. Lessons learned and recommendations

Appendices of the report, including:

1. Terms of reference
2. Evaluation matrix
3. List of documents consulted
4. Evaluation tools
5. List of persons and organisations/institutions consulted

A management response plan will be prepared by the project teams in both countries after the finalisation of the evaluation. It will specify key actions to be undertaken, key partners to be involved in the execution of these actions and the implementation schedule.

Deliverable 5: Participatory video as an additional mean to convey messages coming out of the evaluation.

1. Evaluation Findings Dissemination

The report will be disseminated through the following: Nigerian INGOs Forum (NIF); policy briefs; publications in peer reviewed journals; blogs (IDMC, NRC), conferences & seminars, restitution workshops with participants and posters.

The participatory video will also be used to share findings with staff and stakeholders.

1. Evaluation Team Composition

This external evaluation will be managed by a scientific committee composed of the Country M&E Manager, a Core Competency Specialist, a BHA representative and a project participant focal person. The committee will ensure oversight and quality control.

NRC would seek expressions of interest from people with the following skills/qualifications:

• Advanced university degree or equivalent in Humanitarian/Development Studies, Social Sciences, statistics or other fields related to the provision of humanitarian assistance in WASH, Shelter, RRM, protection and/or humanitarian coordination;
• Relevant experience and proven expertise in the humanitarian sector, with at least five years in evaluation;
• Significant experience in assessment, data analysis, visualization, and data verification and validation systems,
• Strong quantitative and qualitative research skills;
• Knowledge of the current literature/practice on displacement-related protection/ICLA, WASH and Shelter programming. Familiarity with Nigeria/West Africa emergency response preferred;
• Ability to work independently and achieve quality results with limited supervision;
• Strong analytical, synthesis, and writing skills;
• Excellent command in written and spoken English;
• Experience of participatory, equity and gender responsive evaluations.

1. Reference Documents

The evaluation team will need to review activity documents to better understand the activity being evaluated. An illustrative list of documents to share includes:

• The project technical narrative;
• The M&E Plan and Indicator Tracking Table (ITT);
• Detailed implementation plans;
• Project progress reports;
• Project database;
• Post distribution monitoring reports;
• Post-construction monitoring reports;
• Maps to describe geographic areas of operation and/or target populations.

Application

The technical and financial proposals of up to 12 pages maximum (excluding annexes) should include the following:

• Proposed methodology;
• Composition of the team;
• CV of the member(s) of the team including references;
• Detailed budget of the offer;
• An extract (3-5 pages) from similar assignments;

A cover letter, your capacity and experience as well as your availability

How to apply

All interested bidders should visit the NRC website; https://www.nrc.no/procurement/; https://www.reliefweb and https://www.devex and download the package in order to apply for this tender.

All applications/proposals are accepted in English, must duly be completed and submitted via [email protected]

Late bids shall be rejected and no liability will be accepted for loss, late delivery or non-delivery, whatsoever.

NRC reserves the right to select/reject any bids, in part or full, as it may deem necessary. No liability or claim in that respect would be admissible or entertained whatsoever.

In case you have any questions regarding this consultancy, please direct them to: [email protected]

Please note one can submit questions until 12th July 2023 at midnight (Nigeria time). All questions will be gathered, and the responses posted at the NRC website https://www.nrc.no/procurement/ by 13th July 2023.

The application should be titled either:

“20/NRC-NOT/NG/2023 – Consultancy to carry out Impact Evaluation” in the e-mail subject.

The deadline for submission is 18th July 2023 at mid-night (Nigeria Time). Failure to meet the closing date will result in the bid being rejected. Only short-listed/successful candidates will be contacted.

Tender documents

Download the full TOR with detailed instructions HERE