Consultant – Evaluation multisectorielle

Job Title: Consultant – Evaluation multisectorielle

Sector: Monitoring & Evaluation

Employment Category: Consultant

Employment Type: Full-Time

Open to Expatriates: Yes

Location: Bangui, Central African Republic

Job Description

Background of the project

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, IRC provides life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee war or disaster. Operating today in more than 40 countries and 22 cities across the United States, IRC brings security, dignity and hope to millions of people uprooted by conflict or disaster. The IRC paves the way for the return home.

The Central African Republic (CAR) is plagued by recurrent violence and a lack of basic services exacerbated by the country’s very limited human and financial capacities. Access to health and education is minimal, the population does not have the economic means to support itself. Recent violence due to the 2013 crisis has exacerbated problems of gender-based violence, home fleeions, threats to livelihoods and food security. Women and girls remain unprotected and stigmatized in their homes and communities, have minimal access to health care and psychosocial support (Humanitarian Needs Overview 2022).

Of the 3.1 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, 2.2 million, or one in two Central Africans, are in critical need of physical and mental well-being (Humanitarian Needs Overview 2022). According to the Humanitarian Needs Overview 2022 (OCHA, published in October 2021), the Central African Republic (CAR) has 722,000 displaced people. These displaced people are living in conditions of extreme destitution despite the assistance they are receiving, and in a proximity very conducive to the spread of COVID-19.

2.4 million people are food insecure and more than one million children are in need of curative and preventive nutritional assistance according to the HNO.

Since the beginning of 2019, this phenomenon has increased in the south-eastern and central part of the country, including the prefectures of Nana Gribizi, Ouaka, Haut Koto, Basse Koto, Haut Mbomou and Mbomou.

Since 2019, IRC has started interventions in the south-east of the CAR, more precisely in the sub-prefectures of Zemio and its surroundings (Zemio-Rafai axis, Zemio-Djema and Zemio-Mboki axis).

During the implementation of its projects, IRC noted the presence of several needs of the populations on the axes between Zemio-Rafai; Zemio-Djema; Zemio-Mboki and other nearby villages: limited protection services, health facilities unable to meet the health needs of the population especially in times of Covid-19, low livelihoods among the host and displaced population and insufficient and dysfunctional educational services with a high number of children outside the school system.

Scope Of Work

IRC plans to conduct an in-depth multisectoral assessment to gather information on existing vulnerabilities with the aim of analysing the context and proposing a multisectoral programme to cover the needs of the most vulnerable (displaced persons in CAR and host communities) providing assistance that focuses on access to health care, improve the protection and educational services of the community and the opportunity for access and strengthening of livelihoods.

The consultant’s support should provide the data so that IRC RCA can design a contextualized response taking into account the following elements: gender and age dimension, inclusion and diversity (ethnic, religious, linguistic minority), and other determinants of vulnerabilities specific to women, girls and children.

In This Context, a Consultant Specializing In Survey Methodologies, Development And Coordination Of Multisectoral Evaluations Is Sought To Support IRC’s Office In The Central African Republic On

• Improvement and adaptation of the questionnaires used for evaluations
• Train the staff of the MSA team on collection tools and methods in order to deploy them in the field.
• Extract and clean “raw” data in IRC systems, in order to prepare aggregation and analysis (Kobo, etc.).
• Create visualizations and/or dashboards to communicate key data to users
• Consolidation of existing secondary data
• Lead the drafting of the report with the M&E team, the Measurement Technical Unit, the sectoral technical coordinators and the sectoral technical advisers.
• Train a group of staff on the proper conduct of an MSA and the key steps for its preparation in order to capitalize on the experience.

The consultant reports directly to the Deputy Director of Programmes and maintains close working relationships with the technical coordinators (women’s protection and empowerment, child protection, health, economic recovery and development) and the respective technical advisers. He will also work closely with the MEAL Coordinator, the M&E Manager and the Regional Measurement Action Coordinator.

The Needs Assessment Will Focus On

• Dynamics of conflict-related community vulnerabilities
• Needs in the sectors of (Recovery and Economic Development (ERD), Health/Wash Prevention and Infection Control ( ICH), Education and Protection and Empowerment of Women, Protection of Children and People with Special Needs
• Gender analysis and inclusion of access/control of resources and services
• Evaluation of existing services (accessibility, affordability, adaptability, efficiency, sufficiency or not…)
• Mapping of existing public services and their functionality including legal services
• Limiting factors of access to services/opportunities/resources
• Proposals for endogenous solutions/sectoral and integrated recommendations

The objective of this needs assessment is to provide data on the needs of communities in terms of:

• Health-nutrition;
• Protection and empowerment of women;
• Protection of children
• And Protection of people with special needs;
• Education;
• ERD.

This information will be used by IRC to define programs that respond well to the most pressing needs of communities assessed in accordance with the guidelines of IRC RCA’s Strategic Action Plan 2021-2024.

Specific Objectives Of The Evaluation

SO1: understand the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing vulnerabilities;

SO2: Identify priority food security needs of households and livelihoods their survival mechanisms

SO3: Identify the needs of the population in terms of health and mental health and identify appropriate solutions to support the most vulnerable;

SO4: Identify the needs within wash health structures, specifically the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) part (in the context of the fight against COVID-19) and within households hygiene practices

SO5: Identify the needs of girls and boys in terms of inclusive and safe education and population-specific solutions;

SO6: Identify the needs of women, girls and women & girls at risk of acute vulnerabilities to GBV protection incidents including SEA

SO7: Identify the needs of children and children at risk of acute vulnerability in their family, school, community, societal and community environments;

SO7: identify the priority needs of girls and boys in education

Available

• Evaluation questionnaires (multi-sectoral household survey, sector surveys, guidelines for FGDs, Questionnaire for key informants, etc.);
• Excel database of the collected data;
• Dashboard with own data presentation;
• Evaluation report.

Qualifications

Terms of payment of consultation fees

The consultant will be paid according to the following terms:

• Presentation of the data collection and analysis plan and methodological note (25%);
• Submission of cleansed survey data and interview responses (25%);
• Delivery of draft 0 of the 25% report;
• Presentation of the final report by integrating the contributions (comments, remarks, amendments) from the various meetings and/or validation workshops (25%).

Requirement

Education:

University degree preferably in statistics, information management, international development, social sciences)

Professional Experience

• A minimum of five (5) years of professional experience as a consultant in the field of multisectoral assessments in emergency contexts and information management;
• Knowledge of concepts and methods in the development of data collection and analysis tools;
• Experience in effectively supporting the implementation and use of data platforms (Kobo/CommCare, PowerBi,) in a timely manner;
• Experience in coordinating a multisectoral evaluation, aimed at generating a solid database for IRC programming, as well as writing a quality evaluation report.

Demonstrated Skills And Competencies

• Excellent communication and writing skills;
• Excellent problem-solving skills;
• Ability to work independently;
• Language skills: Fluency in English and French.

Application procedure

Interested candidates are requested to submit an application no later than 09/12./ 2021. The following documents must be included:

• The candidate’s CV with the references of at least 3 contacts (names, titles, telephone number, and email addresses)
• Cover letter;
• Proposed work plan;
• Methodological note ;
• A proposal of the data collection tools (questionnaires);
• Explanatory note on the understanding of the Terms of Reference.
• Budget proposal.
• Provide a copy of their 2 best achievements, so that the evaluation panel can get an idea of the candidate’s previous work.

Evaluation

The evaluation of candidates will be made according to the following weighting:

• 70%: technical evaluation.
• 30%: financial evaluation.

In addition to all the commonly requested documents (CV, cover letter… etc.), candidates will have to provide a copy of their 2 best achievements, so that the evaluation panel can get an idea of the candidate’s work.

NB

Standards of Professional Conduct

IRC employees, including temporary claimants, must adhere to the values and principles set out in IRC Way – Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Equality, Service and Responsibility. In keeping with these values, IRC strictly enforces policies on protecting beneficiaries from exploitation and abuse, protecting children, a harassment-free workplace, tax integrity, combating retaliation, combating human trafficking and many others.

Diversity, inclusion and gender equality

IRC recognizes and honors the fundamental value and dignity of all individuals. We are an equal opportunity employer and consider all applicants on the basis of merit regardless of race, sex, colour, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status or disability.

Protection against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PEAS)

IRC CAR is an active member of the PEAS Working Group in the country and signed the RCA Agreement in 2018 revised in March 2021. It actively supports humanitarian aid free from all forms of violence, harassment and sexual abuse and exploitation and practices zero tolerance towards its salaried employees and consultants/contractors in order to protect clients from its interventions.