Project End-line Evaluation Consultant

Project End-line Evaluation Consultant-Multisectoral Approach towards Nutrition Adaptation (MANA)

Job Description

Welthungerhilfe is one of the largest, privately held, non-denominational and politically independent German non-governmental organisations in development cooperation and emergency relief. Primarily, in cooperation with local partner organisations, it is tasked with contributing to the improvement of the nutritional and income status of the poorest rural populations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Welthungerhilfe has been implementing projects in Zimbabwe almost continuously since 1980. Currently, the organisation together with its partners is having projects in all provinces in Zimbabwe. Sector focus is on, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Food and Nutrition Security, Livelihoods, and when required Emergency response.
The Multisectoral Approach towards Nutrition Adaptation (MANA) project is a German Federal Ministry of Economic and Development Cooperation (BMZ) funded project being implemented through Community Technology Development Organisation (CTDO). CTDO is a local Non-Governmental Organisation established in 1993 and seeks to contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable development of marginalised communities through gender-sensitive and people-centred work. CTDO works in the area of agricultural biodiversity management; livelihoods; food and nutrition security; WASH, technology development; environmental management and related policies through research, capacity building, advocacy and collaboration. CTDO implements both humanitarian aid and development programmes.

Position Summary:
Welthungerhilfe is seeking for a Multisectoral Approach towards Nutrition Adaptation (MANA) Project Endline Evaluation Consultant. Please kindly refer to the Terms of Reference below for more information on this advert

Project Summary
The multisectoral Approach towards Nutrition Adaptation (MANA) project adopted the Linking Agriculture and Natural Resource Management towards Nutrition Security (LANN+) approach, Farmer Field School, Care-group Approach; to strengthen the capacity and resilience of rural households and communities to combat and prevent malnutrition, improve overall food and nutrition security. MANA project builds individual, household, and community capacity to absorb information, adapt and transform to improve livelihoods. The project promotes improved nutritional diets, increase diverse agriculture production, natural resource management, Nutrition Social Behaviour Change (NSBC) and hygiene promotion. The project is being implemented in six wards per district that is ward 1,5,6,10,17 and 18 in Tsholotsho district (Matabeleland North Province) and ward 7, 8, 16, 17, 18 and 30 in Nyanga district (Manicaland Province) of Zimbabwe. The project has reached 7982 households (6103 Females and 1884 Males) against a target of 7200 vulnerable households.

The MANA Project’s Intervention Logic entails.
Overall objective (Impact): The food security of 7200 vulnerable households in the districts of Nyanga and Tsholotsho and indirectly of 300,000 people at national and district level has improved through multisectoral measures at all levels (macro, meso and micro).
Outcome: The multi-sectoral LANN+ approach is applied at macro, meso and micro level and leads to a) integration of the approach into policy and strategy documents (macro level), b) improved sectoral coordination of food security interventions (macro and meso level) and c) improved food and nutrition security for 7200 poor households in the districts of Nyanga and Tsholotsho (micro level).
Result 1: The National Standardized Care-Group toolkit is developed, tested, and introduced at national and sub-national levels.
Result 2: Improved capacity of government agencies and other stakeholders for better coordination, project effectiveness, and sustainability of results.
Result 3: The availability of and access to diverse and nutritious food in the target wards of Tsholotsho and Nyanga districts has improved.
Result 4: Target households have improved knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding optimal nutritional, gender-sensitive, and hygienic behaviour.

Purpose of the Evaluation
The MANA project seeks the services of external consultants to conduct a Endline Evaluation. The purpose of the endline evaluation is to inform WHH, CTDO, the donor (BMZ), and other project stakeholders on the result of project implementation, i.e., the delivery of planned outcomes, and impact as well as the extent to which the project achieved the respective objectives whilst highlighting the enabling factors and challenges encountered during implementation. The end-line evaluation will also provide a basis for identifying appropriate actions to address challenges in project implementation and management for any scaling up, replication, and/ or continuation. In addition, it will assist to review how the project has delivered effective, efficient, relevant, and timely activities to project participants as set out in the project Log frame. The following specific objectives will be pursued by the evaluation consultant:

1. Assess the extent to which the MANA project achieved its objectives against the planned outcomes and impact indicators in the logframe and identify significant changes attributable to the project.
2. Assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, impact and sustainability of the project and cross-cutting issues of gender, social inclusion, and community structure capacity building.
3. Assess inclusiveness of the project and to which extend vulnerable groups (women, people with challenges, ethnic minority groups etc.) were involved and if they are satisfied with the level of involvement and achieved empowerment.
4. To generate lessons learnt and document good practices, as well as draw practical recommendations to inform future program design and establish how the project paid attention to cross-cutting issues in the local context, protection, and environmental safeguarding.
5. Determine the synergies of the project with other partners’ implemented projects within the geographical area and the coordination with other stakeholders and make a valid recommendation aimed at achieving greater synergy in the future.
6. Test the project Exit Strategy taking into consideration institutions and project synergies in the implementation area.
7. To inform strategies on scaling-up, replication, and/or continuation.

Duties and Responsibilities

Evaluation Scope and Methodology
The evaluation shall cover the entire project period from 1 November 2019 to 31 July 2023 and will be conducted in the two districts of Nyanga and Tsholotsho in Zimbabwe; Welthungerhilfe and CTDO recommend a mixed-method evaluation approach In order to assess inclusiveness, involving high numbers of people from vulnerable groups in the process is essential.
The proposed evaluation techniques should explicitly demonstrate how cross-cutting themes such as safeguarding, gender, and social inclusion shall be integrated across the evaluation modalities and acted upon throughout, and that emphasis put on the meaningful participation of the most vulnerable groups and other key stakeholders in the design and implementation processes.

Evaluation Questions
The MANA project end-line evaluation will utilize the OECD-DAC evaluation criteria. The evaluation will assess the project’s achievements in terms of its Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Impact, Coherence, and Sustainability. This end-line evaluation is therefore expected to provide answers to the following evaluation questions and document the lesson learned:
Relevance:
• Were the objectives and activities implemented by the MANA project in Nyanga and Tsholotsho districts addressing the humanitarian and development needs and priorities of the target population and locations? The evaluation will also assess the design and implementation of MANA project and it’s relevance to local and national development agenda and concerns.
• To what extent does the MANA project address the identified needs of the youth, women, children, and men (in particular also vulnerable groups among participants) in the implementation area?
• How well does the MANA project goal and objectives align with the Government of Zimbabwe and the German Federal Ministry of Economic and Development Cooperation (BMZ) development priorities?
Effectiveness:
• To what extent were the planned objectives in the project Log frame reached?
• To what extent did the project activities contribute to the project’s overall goal?
• What were the major factors influencing the achievement or hindering achievement of the objectives of the project?
• What opportunities for collaboration have been utilized and how have these contributed to the effectiveness of the project?
• How effective was the project approach with project participants (project participants), including the related community structures, and other stakeholders been, in the delivery of the project activities? Did project implementation let women feel more empowered, which activities were particularly impactful in this regard?
• Are project participants satisfied with implementation processes and outcomes?

Efficiency:
• Were the project activities implemented in a cost-effective way?
• What factors contributed to or hindered implementation efficiency?
• Are there more efficient ways and means of delivering more and better results?
• How efficient were the management and accountability structures of the project?

Impact:
• What were the wider effects (intended/unintended) of the project, taking into consideration the social, economic, technical, cultural and environmental impact on individuals, gender and age groups, communities, and institutions? What changes did the project activities implementation make to the project participants’ community in terms of institutional policies, practices, and extension systems?
• Are there any success stories of positive change at the household or community level?

Sustainability:
• What strategies did Welthungerhilfe and CTDO apply to promote sustainability of the key project outcomes and impact?
• Are the sustainability strategies being implemented? What risks and opportunities exist regarding the sustainability of the project interventions, and how likely are their occurrence?
• One prominent sustainability approach has been to build capacities and hand over to relevant government institutions; this has been the approach for years - but due to lack of resources of these institutions not very successful. Are there indications that MANA is more successful? If not, what should be done differently in the future?

Coherence and coordination:
• To what extent is the intervention internally and externally coherent? To what extent were the activities of the project complementary to the work of other stakeholders?
• To what extent was this intervention coherent with the other interventions which have similar objectives in the area?
• What were the problems (internal, external, macro and micro environment) encountered in delivering the project?

Key Target Groups and Stakeholders
The evaluation consultant should plan to include (but not limited to) the following key target groups, stakeholders, and direct project participants in the evaluation.
• Direct project participants (farmers, livestock and crop Farmer Field School members, Care group members, community nutrition garden members, men, women, and youth, focus on vulnerable groups).
• Local authorities (Nyanga and Tsholotsho District Development Coordinators, Chiefs) and other community leaders (women, youth, traditional, faith-based)
• Government Key line Ministries and structures (Food and Nutrition Council, National, Provincial, District and Ward Food and Nutrition Security Committees etc.)
• Welthungerhilfe and CTDO MANA project implementation staff.

Evaluation Approach
The consultant is expected to adopt an inclusive and participatory approach in which key project staff and stakeholders have a chance to meaningfully participate in the evaluation process.\

Endline Evaluation Approach
Literature Review: The consultant will be required to do a critical and objective review of key project documents such as the project Log frame, project theory of change, baseline report, midterm evaluation report, project progress reports. The consultant will also be expected to review other literature that may be relevant to the project and the assignment.
Inception meeting: The evaluation team will attend an inception meeting where the team will be briefed on project objectives and key processes involved and provided with the key project documents for review and any relevant templates.
Inception Report: Submission of an inception report detailing the methodology, sampling, evaluation questions, identified stakeholder groups for interviews and discussions and survey time frame for approval by the MANA project team. Data collection tools and Evaluation Matrix should be submitted as annexes to the Inception report.
Data collection and analysis: Primary data collection will involve discussions with MANA project staff and field visits to the project sites to conduct surveys, focus group discussion and KII with key stakeholders agreed to by the MANA project team.
Preliminary findings: The evaluator will present preliminary findings and recommendations for review with the MANA project team.
Draft report: The evaluation team finalizes the draft report based on feedback on preliminary findings and submitted to the MANA project team for review.
Final report: Upon addressing the issues raised during the review of the draft report the evaluator will submit the final endline evaluation report to the MANA project team.

Timeframe
The evaluation will be conducted from 01 August to 15 September 2023.

Expected deliverables/Outputs of the Evaluation
i. Inception Report: The consultant will develop a detailed inception report incorporating the conceptual framework of the evaluation, stating the key evaluation questions and methodology, including information on data sources and collection, sampling methodology, and key indicators. The inception report should also include a timeline for the evaluation of the project and drafts of the data collection tools.
ii. Preliminary Findings Report: The consultant will be required to present initial findings and recommendations to WHH and CTDO team.
iii. Draft Report: After feedback on the preliminary findings, the consultant is expected to produce a draft report using structure provided by WHH
iv. Final Endline Evaluation Report: The final report will be in hard and soft copy to be submitted to WHH. The evaluation report should show comparative analysis of the key indicators and lessons with the project baseline and Mid-Term Review findings and answers all the evaluation questions. All the documents, including the MANA end line report and data remain the property of WHH and CTDO.
v. Documentation of most significant change stories: The consultant will document success stories, one per location (Nyanga and Tsholotsho).
vi. Field Pictures: The consultant is expected to include pictures captured in the field during the data collection process. All pictures will be accompanied by signed Consent Forms provided by WHH.
vii. Data Sets: Cleaned quantitative and qualitative data set, as well as data syntax produced during data analysis should be submitted to WHH, including GPS data.

Qualifications and Experience

The consultant or evaluation team is expected to have the following qualifications and competencies:
• A relevant academic background with at least an MSc or equivalent in the field of Nutrition, Agriculture, Monitoring and Evaluation, Development Studies, or any other relevant fields.
• At least 10 years of practice experience in monitoring and evaluation of Nutrition and Agriculture projects.
• Strong communication and analytical skills, including communicating with various stakeholders, ensuring that the evaluation is understood and generates valuable output.
• Commitment to delivering timely, high-quality results, ensuring the evaluation report is credible to all stakeholders.