Consultant – Final Evaluation South Sudan Project

Preventing Violence and Increasing the Protection and Security of Civilians in South Sudan Project

Consultant – Final Evaluation

Statement of Work

BACKGROUND

Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP), an International NGO founded in 2002, recruits, trains and deploys unarmed civilians to reduce violence and protect vulnerable populations in conflict-affected areas. NP has been operating in South Sudan since 2010. In August 2020, Nonviolent Peaceforce with support from the USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs (BHA) started implementing a project entitled ‘Preventing Violence and Increasing the Protection and Security of Civilians in Greater Upper Nile, Central Equatoria, and Warrap State, South Sudan’. The overall project goal is to Increase the protection and security of civilians in conflict affected areas of South Sudan through protective presence and community-based protection activities

PURPOSE OF THE TASK

Final Evaluation

The final evaluation is intended to assess the progress made by the project in fulfilling its agreed objectives through the planned activities; to evaluate the relevance of the project to the implementation areas; and to assess the efficiency and effectiveness with which resources have been used to generate results and achieve project objectives.

Monitoring and evaluation is an integral part of the overall project management cycle to ensure effective oversight of the project. The main purpose of the task is to conduct a final evaluation for the current project ending on July 31, 2022. NP will conduct an external summative evaluation with the objectives of 1) assessing the progress made by the project in fulfilling its agreed objectives; 2) evaluating the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness and impact of the project interventions; 3) assessing the sustainability of the results, and the degree of satisfaction of the project participants; 4) evaluating the appropriateness of the strategies and approaches used for implementing the project; 5) identifying major external factors that influenced or impacted the implementation of the project and 6) identifying and emphasizing the lessons learned from the project, document best practices and make recommendations for future strategies.

Evaluation Questions

The evaluation will answer five main evaluation questions that are closely linked to the project’s objectives depicted in the project monitoring table. Sub-questions will be included during the preparation of the inception report. The three main questions are:

• To what extent has the intervention under the ‘Preventing Violence and Increasing the Protection and Security of Civilians in Greater Upper Nile, Central Equatoria, and Warrap State’ project been effective in increasing the safety and security of civilians impacted by violent conflict?
• How relevant and appropriate are the ‘Preventing Violence and Increasing the Protection and Security of Civilians in Greater Upper Nile, Central Equatoria, and Warrap State, South Sudan’ project approaches and strategies to the needs of the communities?
• To what extent are the approaches used by ‘Preventing Violence and Increasing the Protection and Security of Civilians in Greater Upper Nile, Central Equatoria, and Warrap State, South Sudan’ project sustainable?
• To what extent did external factors influence or impact the implementation of the ‘Preventing Violence and Increasing the Protection and Security of Civilians in Greater Upper Nile, Central Equatorial, and Warrap State, South Sudan’ project?
• What lessons were the lessons were learned, best practices and recommendations for future programming?

Specific Objectives include:

• To assess the extent to which the project outputs have been achieved considering the indicators given in the project document.
• To evaluate the level of contribution of the outputs towards the achievement of the expected project objectives, goal and impact.
• To assess the relevance, appropriateness, effectiveness, and efficiency of interventions as well as the sustainability of the results and the degree of satisfaction of the beneficiaries.
• To identify major external factors that influenced or impacted the implementation of the project and evaluate their implication on future interventions.
• To highlight lessons learned from the project and make recommendations for future strategies.

DESIGN AND METHODS

A cross-sectional study will be conducted in the project implementation areas i.e. Jonglei (Lankien and Pibor Counties), Unity (Panyijiar County and greater Southern Unity), Bentiu Town (Rubkona County) and Central Equatoria (Yei County), Warrap State (Tonj). The individual consultant is expected to conduct a participatory assessment providing for meaningful involvement by project partners, beneficiaries and other interested parties. Primary and secondary data is expected to be gathered using a mixed method to evaluate programme implementation. Thus, the assessment will involve collecting the following data:

Quantitative data:

It will be used to measure indicators of the project expressed in terms of numbers/percentages (quantitative indicators). Information will be collected using questionnaire survey which will be administered to a sample of households. The consultant is expected to determine the sampling technique and size which would be representative, and adequate to detect the changes observed and do basic descriptive statistics.

Qualitative data:

Qualitative information will be collected through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and In-depth Interviews (IDIs) with key stakeholders including community participants, community leaders, community/traditional leaders, local government offices, civil society organisations, donors, local humanitarian partners, project staff and others to complement the information collected through quantitative approaches.

Secondary documentation:

Review of related documents will also be important to establish key insights relevant to the effective implementation of the project.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITES OF THE CONSULTANT

The consultant will be expected to:

• Design methodology for the collection of quantitative and qualitative data for the final evaluation.
• Draft tools necessary to answer the final evaluation questions.
• Develop detailed field implementation and enumerators training guide for the final evaluation.
• Organize and facilitate training workshop for data collectors (NP will hire the data collectors) and pilot testing of the tool.
• Plan and coordinate the necessary logistics to collect the data in accordance with the selected methodology.
• Conduct the final evaluation at the project locations to measure key indicators as defined in the project logical framework and also set benchmark.
• Develop the data entry template and ensures data entry clerks are trained adequately.
• Collect and analyse available secondary data to augment the final evaluation findings.
• Based upon a reading of the programme documents, propose any additional topics or issues for analysis in the final evaluation.
• Analyse and interpret data to develop a comprehensive final evaluation report.
• Conduct comparative analysis of the final evaluation data with and baseline findings of the current project.
• Share key preliminary findings and insights from the final evaluation with relevant staff through consultations.

EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

• Submit an inception report/proposal which responds to the scope of work by adding any further detail or clarification regarding the study approach, method, or implementation arrangements.
• Field work implementation plan (to be submitted before field work begins). This field work plan should be presented to NP for comment and revised as necessary prior to commencing field work.
• Final evaluation questionnaires and qualitative data collection guides.
• Cleaned data sets in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) format with data correctly organized, variables named and labelled.
• Cleaned qualitative data collection transcripts
• A comprehensive final evaluation report that meets agreed formats.
• High quality validation of the information collected through a validation workshop of the findings.

TIMEFRAME

The task is anticipated to last between 4-5 weeks with submission of final deliverables. The consultant will be expected to start working in Mid May 2022 and complete all responsibilities outlined in the Scope of Work and deliverables by end of June 2022.

Note: The timing might be changed based on the current COVID-19 pandemic situation and the resulting international and domestic travel restrictions and requirements.

RESOURCES

NP will facilitate all visa requirements, transport to South Sudan and to all field sites. In addition, NP will provide accommodation and communications equipment while in country. NP will not provide personal computers and the consultant must use his/her own computer. All necessary logistical arrangements for the assessment will be coordinated through the NP logistics department. The chosen individual consultant will coordinate with the Research Monitoring and Evaluation team, Program Development Personnel, Program Manager and field staff in the planning and implementation of the data collection.

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

Education:

• Master’s degree in International and Political Affairs, Law, Development Studies, Social Sciences or related field.

Required Experience and Skills

• At least 7 years’ experience in the design and implementation of evaluations, assessments or baseline surveys including qualitative and quantitative data collection.

• Previous work experience in the area of humanitarian work specifically protection of civilians.

• Excellent knowledge and understanding of research methodologies and processes.

• Experience in the development of Monitoring and Evaluation frameworks and log-frames.

• Experience in gathering and systematizing large amounts of data.

• Experience managing a diverse team and providing capacity building and training support.

• Experience developing protection projects in conflict affected and/or emergency settings.

• Proven ability to manage highly confidential and sensitive information through a protection lens.

• Experience managing projects in complex, dynamic and volatile environments, where security and political situation is very fluid.