Endline Assessment for Enhancing Water Access and System Strengthening for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (EWASSA) Project – Practical Action

Introduction

Practical Action is an international development organization putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world. We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.

We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

Practical Action is committed to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment through all our work. At a minimum we will ensure that all our work is gender sensitive, seeking gender transformative approaches as our overall ambition and in accordance with context.

Project Background

Practical Action has implemented the Enhancing Water Access and Systems Strengthening for Arid and Semi-arid lands (EWASSA) project for the last 3-years in Turkana County. The project was implemented in two phases. Phase I was implemented from Dec 2019 to Dec 2021 and Phase II from Jan 2021 and will end in March 2o23. The project was implemented in four sub counties (Turkana Central, South, East and Loima) in Turkana County.

Project Objectives:

The main objective of the project was to improve access to clean drinking water from improved sources for 48,000 individuals ( 23,000 male and 25,000 female with 18,000 being youth, 8,000 adults and 24,000 children. The project was contributing to the SDG 6 ( achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all).

The project specific objectives included:

1. Improved access to portable water for 48,000
2. Improved hygiene and sanitation for 2000 people
3. Strengthened water governance
4. Increased food production for 400 households

Project Interventions
The project aimed at achieving the desired objectives through implementing the following interventions;

Phase I:
✓ Establishing 8 solar-powered water systems
✓ Facilitate the establishment of community-led water management structures with functional units and train them on the sustainable management of boreholes and solar pumps.
✓ Establish 2 micro-irrigation sites to support over 100 households
✓ Behavior change communication on hygiene and sanitation
✓ Review local policies and practices; build evidence of what approaches to water management are most appropriate and share this with policy makers

Phase II:
✓ Rehabilitation of 4 boreholes
✓ Four pipeline extensions
✓ Support 400 households with water storage facilitates
✓ Behavior change communication activities on hygiene and sanitation
✓ Support 80 CHVs and 12 CHEWs to promote CLTS and PHASE approaches
✓ Support 400 HH with extension services
✓ Train 400 HH on dietary diversification
✓ Establish and train 8 Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs)
✓ Support Water Users Associations and Community Owned Water Operators groups to register
✓ Support county and sub-county water sector coordination forums
✓ Build capacity of water companies
✓ Automate 4 water points
✓ Ground water mapped

Project Achievements

To date, the project has increased access to water for over 25,000 people (12,750 women, 12,250 men) through construction/rehabilitation of 6 boreholes, pipeline extensions ,setting up of 4 water ATMs and 4 deflouridation sites. The project has reached reach 128,340 people (78,993 women, 49,347 men) with hygiene and sanitation messaging. On livelihood diversification, the project has set up 2 micro irrigation sites that benefit 186 farmers as well as supported 10 self-help groups to set up soap making enterprises leading them to earn a monthly income between KES 2000-8000. To support water governance, the project has supported the review and development of water policies and regulations in Turkana County. The policies seek to improve water service provision in the County, as well as increase allocation of resources allocated to the county water sector.

Evaluation Objectives

Practical Action is seeking the services of an independent consultant/Firm to conduct the final evaluation of the EWASSA project. The objectives of the assignment include:

1. To gather and consolidate impact of the project interventions.
2. To document learnings from the project.
3. To capture gender equality perspectives and women’s empowerment impacts through use of gender-sensitive evaluation methodologies capturing how change processes are unfolding for women, for men and for excluded groups.
4. To provide recommendations on optimizing evidence and impact from the project to inform scale up sustainably

Evaluation Questions:

To what extent did the project achieve the intended and unintended outcomes, including negative impacts?
Water Access

1. To what extent did the project contribute to increased proportion of women and men with access to clean and adequate water from the newly constructed/rehabilitated boreholes in the targeted areas? Is the water available in dry seasons? Is it adequate? To what extent has improved access to clean water reduced water-borne diseases in the targeted areas? To what extent did the improved access to water support the multiple needs of the communities?
2. To what extent has the project supported the water management committees to be able to manage the water points? To what extent are the water management committees able to engage with the county government on water dialogues?
3. What has been the project contribution to the water access debates at county level? Has the project influenced changes to policies, regulations, and water delivery in Turkana?
4. What are some of the adaptation measures from the original design of the project taken and why? How did the changes affect project results?

Micro-Irrigation

1. How did PA’s supported micro-irrigation schemes affect food production at household and community level? How did it affect dietary diversification at household level?
2. To what extent did farmers adopt agro-ecological practices? How did the practices impact on farm productivity?
3. To what extent did the micro-irrigation schemes contribute to household income for farmers? What was the impact on gender dynamics at household level?

Hygiene and Sanitation

1. Has the project increased the proportion of the population with handwashing facilities? To what extent has this influenced good hygiene behavior such as handwashing with soap/ash during critical times?
2. To what extent did the project contribute to increased sanitation coverage in the areas? How many new toilets were built, how useable are these toilets to everyone? Do they meet the needs of men, women, children, and other vulnerable groups such as PLWD?
3. What were the most effective strategies/methods/approaches used to bring about these changes?

Gender and Social Inclusion

To what extent has the project contributed to achievement of gender equality and women empowerment? Specifically, what was the impact on decision making and participation of women, addressing time poverty, productivity, impact on gender relations at household level? How did the project address negative social cultural practices to create a more enabling environment for the different gender cohorts?

Project Learning

1. What are the factors that enhance/inhibit access to water in ASAL areas? Roles and challenges faced by different stakeholders including County Government and other NGOs in ASAL areas? What opportunities of collaboration are there between the stakeholders?
2. What are some of the effective gender -sensitive and transformative approaches in water service delivery implemented by the project and how can they be scaled up in future projects?
3. What are some of the best practices/approaches to apply in supporting livelihood diversification in ASAL areas?
4. What are some of the possible interventions, plans and practices including policy options for enhancing resilience to climate change at local level for implementation by Practical Action, other stakeholders as well as the local government?

Sustainability

1. What measures has the project put in place to ensure sustainability of project interventions, how effective are they in the long term?
2. What elements of the project can be taken to scale sustainably to improve the resilience of communities in the ASAL areas
3. In which ways can the project facilitate private sector engagements ?

Methodology

A combination of primary and secondary data collection and participatory methodologies can be employed during the final evaluation. The primary data will include a combination of quantitative, qualitative, and participatory methods which include FGDs, KIIs, observation etc.

Relevant data collection tools will be developed by the consultant in consultation with Practical Action team, and an appropriate and representative sampling method and sample size discussed prior to the approval of the inception report. Project beneficiaries will be actively involved throughout the evaluation as well as relevant county government actors.

The consultant will be required to outline a clear analysis framework as part of the inception report. This is to ensure robust triangulation and clear use of primary and secondary data to generate findings and recommendations.
The consultant will be required to share preliminary findings with Practical Action. This will be a key opportunity to verify findings and support the development of the final report

The consultant will be required to present the findings to Practical Action staff as well as stakeholders who participated in the study. This will include government stakeholders as well as project beneficiaries.

Expected Deliverables:

1. Inception report containing the following:
   • Approach of the study including framework for activities.
   • Work plan with detailed activities
   • Methodology to be applied
   • Analysis framework
   • Proposed content outline for the report
   • Data collection tools
   • Limitation of assessment
2. A draft evaluation report with the main findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
3. Final evaluation report
4. Two learning briefs focusing on agriculture in the ASALs and Water access
5. A power point slide deck summarizing the main findings, conclusions and recommendations from report presented to internal stakeholders at Practical Action and participants of the study
6. Cleaned dataset in SPSS format as well as raw dataset (Excel), final tools used, qualitative data transcripts

Administrative and Logistical Support

1. The Consultants will report to the Project Manager with technical oversight by the M&E team.
2. The project team will provide day to day support during the assignment to support the actualization of this assignment and within stipulated timelines
3. Practical Action will also provide the following:
   • All necessary program documents required.
   • Facilitate travel and accommodation for the lead & Co-lead consultant

4. The consultants on the other hand will:
• Recruit and train research assistants (if necessary)
• Pay research assistants based on reasonable market rates
• Facilitate field travel for the research team

Consultant Profile

Practical Action is therefore, looking for multi- skilled individual(s) or consultancy firm (s) with the following minimum qualifications and experiences to express interest for the assignment:
• Minimum masters level education and /or training in Environmental studies, public health, water engineering, Agriculture, climate change or other related studies.
• In depth understanding of Arid and Semi-Arid development issues with specific interest on migrating communities
• Experience working in Turkana County
• Proven technical expertise in gender, climate change, participatory planning/social inclusion, and governance
• Experience in assessing water access using the Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) ladder approach
• Ability to facilitate and relate to stakeholders at multiple levels and in diverse contexts

Timelines

• This consultancy will take place in the month of February 2023 with the final report submitted within a timeframe of 21 days. Final work plan duration shall be agreed with the selected consultant before signing of the agreement

Guidelines for Submission of Expression of Interest

A consulting entity that meets the above requirements and is available within the time limit indicated above should submit the following:
• A cover letter outlining relevant experience in line with the key competencies required
• Proposal and capability statement with clear methodological approach and tools for community and stakeholders’ engagement that ensure the voices of the most vulnerable are heard.
• Detailed financial proposal in Kenyan Shillings: If the evaluation team consists of several members, the professional fees should not be a mere daily rate, but it should be based on clearly shown time allocation by each member of the team to the various evaluation activities.

• Annexed to the proposal should be CVs outlining previous evaluation experience and accomplishments as it relates to demonstrating the skills and knowledge needed to fulfill this Terms of Reference
• Evidence of experience in similar work.

Terms of Engagement

Payment for the survey shall be done in three tranches as indicated below;
• Tranche 1 (25% of the total cost): Upon successful submission of inception report
• Tranche 2 (25% of the total cost): submission and acceptance of the 1st draft of the report
• Tranche 3 (50% of the total cost): submission and acceptance by Practical Action of the revised final report

Note that the payments will be done subject to the consulting entity meeting quality and timely delivery of stated task.