End-term evaluation of ACT Horn and East Africa Drought Appeal response (HEA 221) in Marsabit, Kenya

Background Information and Rationale

ACT Alliance is the world’s largest protestant and Orthodox alliance with 72% members from the global South and 23% from the global North. ACT Alliance is a faith-motivated, rights-based, impact-focused network committed to working ecumenically inter religiously with the communities we seek to serve and accompany at the center of our work. ACT currently has 153 members located in 120 countries and operates through 59 forums.

The Horn of Africa recently experienced one of its most severe droughts in recent history, with more than 15 million people acutely food insecure in three affected countries of Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. The drought was catastrophic for people and livestock. During the drought period, the key needs were poor access to food, safe water, basic education, support to livelihoods, psychosocial and protection (due to migration of affected Households). ACT members in the region came together and raised an appeal (HEA 221) to respond the crisis. The appeal was funded and through it, ACT members were among the first agencies to deliver aid to Marsabit, Kenya through humanitarian relief when drought was declared a national disaster. Drought affected over 5.4 million people in Kenya with the worst affected areas being Marsabit, Turkana, Wajir and Mandera. The appeal was implemented for a period of one and a half years from July 2022 to December 2023.

ACT Kenya Forum members: Church World Service and Christian Aid responded to the drought through the regional appeal (HEA 221). Their responses aimed to reduce morbidity and mortality of drought-affected communities in Kenya through access to life-saving food assistance. This was achieved through food distributions, provision of multi-purpose cash (MPC), and support to community groups through the provision of seed capital.

With the appeal coming to an end in December 2023, an end-term evaluation is proposed. Its main aim will be to measure the extent to which responses under the appeal met its objectives as per the appeal document. It will also assess the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the appeal responses on drought. This will be measured alongside relevant core humanitarian standards.

Scope and Purpose of the Evaluation:

The evaluation will focus on communities reached with interventions under the appeal in Saku, Laisamis and North-Horr sub-counties in Marsabit, Kenya.

The purpose of this evaluation is to provide an independent assessment of the responses under the appeal to establish its impact, relevance, effectiveness and efficiency. It will also support members to learn from each other’s achievements and provide lessons for future programming. Learning from the evaluation will support CWS and CA together with their local partners to improve the implementation of similar projects in the future.

Specific Objectives of the evaluation:

1. To assess the extent to which the appeal responses have met its objectives as per the approved appeal document.
2. To assess the appeal responses against relevant core humanitarian standards
3. Create evidence for accountability and inclusivity under the appeal responses
4. To assess the extent to which the ACT secretariat has contributed to the achievement of the project objectives.

Intended users of the evaluation***.***

The intended users of the evaluation are the following stakeholders:

ACT Kenya Forum members and their implementing partners, ACT secretariat/ other members and donor members of HEA221.

The stakeholders will use the evaluation findings to assess achievements, and challenges and identify ways through which implementation of similar projects could be improved.

Approach and Methodology

The consultant will adapt a methodology appropriate to the context and scope of the evaluation and will be responsible for developing their own plan and tools to be approved by CA and CWS to collect and analyze data. It is expected that the methodology used will rely predominantly on qualitative data. This will include but not limited to partner sessions through KII and desk reviews and community sessions through FGDs. This will be characterized by data collection where the consultant will put it in an evaluation report.

Proposed Timeframe

The evaluation will be conducted in November 2023 and will commence at the signing of the contract. Presumably, 20 working days would be required for the task, which can also be decided upon discussions during inception. The final report will be due by the 30th of November 2023.

Evaluation management and values

The consultant must not compromise the values of CWS, CA or other implementing members and should address systematic inquiry, competence, integrity, respect for people, and common good and equity.

The evaluator is expected to sign the ACT Code of Conduct and comply with the CHS General Data Protection and Requirements annex.

Expected Outputs

It is expected that the consultant will produce a report of max 20 pages excluding annexes covering the findings, lessons learnt, quotes by participants from the process and case studies where applicable.

The consultant(s) will also lead a presentation of their main findings to key stakeholders, which will include members of the Kenya ACT forum.

Professional Qualifications of the Team

• Advanced university degree in a relevant field.
• Experience in the use of participatory research methodologies
• Core competencies for the evaluation of projects, including designing, conducting and managing evaluation processes, survey design and implementation, research, project management and monitoring.
• Working knowledge of the Core Humanitarian Standards, Charter for Change, and the Grand Bargain.
• Knowledge of the humanitarian context regarding ASAL counties of Kenya as well as its vulnerable communities.
• Strong skills in community facilitation and facilitating FGDs with community members.
• Proven experience in the evaluation of projects in ASAL counties of Kenya, ideally Marsabit itself.
• Computer literacy (MS Office tools).
• Well organised and independent, able to meet deadlines.
• Excellent spoken and written English, proficient for report writing.

Ability to constitute a team that includes both males and females and members who can speak the dialect in Marsabit county.

Deadline and guidelines for application

The submission deadline is on 16th October 2023. All applications must meet the following requirements to go through the analysis and selection process:

1. A 2–3-page technical proposal including brief methodology, and proposed timeline and budget. All logistics related to accommodation and transport will be under the consultant/firm responsibility and should be covered in the budget.
2. A cover letter that explains how the consultant or the firm meets the technical specifications of this call, how the objective will be achieved and the CVs of the proposed consultant(s).
3. A brief presentation of the consultant/firm experience in carrying out similar work during the past 5 years:

• Provide an example of an evaluation report that you have produced in the past.
• Provide the necessary detailed information for the recent consultancies completed successfully in this area and the references of these employers for the past 5 years. Please, use the table below for that purpose.

List of contracts and references of employers (International NGOs, UN Agencies or Donors)