Terms of Reference – Baseline Survey of ActionAid Women’s Rights Programme III in Kenya – Taita Taveta and Garissa Counties, ActionAid International Kenya (AAIK)

1.0 Background and Context

ActionAid International Kenya (AAIK) is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) working in Kenya since 1972 to facilitate processes that eradicate poverty and ensure social justice through development programmes, local institutional capacity building and public policy influencing.

ActionAid supports programme implementation in the AAIK Local programme rights implementation areas in 16 counties where we have physical presence in Homabay, Taita-Taveta, Embu, Kilifi and Garissa Makueni, Nairobi, Kajiado and Mombasa Counties and working partnership with partners and communities living in poverty and exclusion in the other counties. ActionAid employs a Human Rights-Based Approach to development in focusing on, tackling the causes of poverty – not just addressing the symptoms – our work has gone far beyond service delivery, to empowering people living in poverty to claim their rights and assert their freedoms to address condition and position of constituents of people living in poverty and exclusion. AAIK works in solidarity with women and people living in poverty and exclusion; connecting their voices, sharing ideas, spreading inspiration, campaigning, advocating, and formulating public policy to eradicate poverty and ensure social justice. Girls in Kishushe, Taita Taveta County, are among the most vulnerable in the whole country and are at very high risk of failing to complete even primary education. Located in the Southeast of Kenya, on the border of Tanzania, Kishushe is a rural area next to the Taita hills, about 50 kilometres from Voi town on the Mombasa Nairobi highway. The majority of the area’s inhabitants are poor farmers practising subsistence agriculture and livestock rearing. The area suffers harsh weather conditions and poor road infrastructure, which make accessibility and service delivery difficult. Girls in Kishushe face several obstacles. Large numbers of girls are sold off by impoverished family members for dowry from their husband’s family, many of whom are still in primary school. Child pregnancy is common because of pressure, and in many cases sexual violence, from men and boys.

Kamuthe location, considered to be within the arid and semi-arid zones, has had successive years of drought and poor rains; some areas have not had rains in years. Food security is a serious concern in this region, especially in areas located far from permanent water sources. The area remains particularly vulnerable to food deficits due to largely insufficient rain and poor distribution resulting in very dry conditions and a notable reduction in crop yields.

The community in this area is characterized by poverty, inequalities, marginalization, illiteracy, and women’s subordination. There are factors such as aridity and settlement in areas prone to perennial flooding along river Tana. These factors, coupled with increased frequency of hazards such as droughts, floods, diseases’ outbreak, armed conflicts and human wildlife conflicts has increased community’s risks to hazards and therefore increasing their vulnerable.

ActionAid Kenya is in its early stages of implementing Women’s Rights Programme III (WRP III) 2023-2027, funded by Irish Aid, and implemented across two other countries including Kenya – Nepal and Ethiopia. This programme aims to achieve equal opportunities for women in safe communities. It builds on the success of WRP II (previous programme running from 2017-2022) and focuses on two key outcomes across the three countries a) reduction in GBV for women and girls and 2) greater economic empowerment for women in marginalized communities. It is also supported by two additional enabling outcomes on women leadership and program learning and adaptation. There will also be an additional focus on climate justice within the programme to combat and mitigate the impact of climate change on women’s rights.

The specific expected outcomes of the programme include:

1. To reduce gender-based violence (GBV) in Kenya by enhancing the capacity of women and girls to demand their human rights from duty bearers and service providers at all levels, increasing the confidence of women to report cases of GBV, and promoting behaviours among duty bearers that support women’s rights.
2. To promote economic empowerment for women in marginalized communities in Kenya by enhancing their capacity to organize themselves, engage in livelihood activities and decision-making spaces, and promoting behaviours among duty bearers that create a safe economic environment for women.
3. To promote women’s leadership in Kenya as both a driver and a result of the program by engaging feminist organization at the national level to work closely with community-based partners to amplify the experience of the furthest to reach women that the programme will work with.
4. To ensure the program learns and adapts by collecting program data that shows learning and adaptation, conducting continuous research to support program quality, inform program decisions, and influence other programming, and contributing to overall program learning and knowledge sharing through joint program budgets.
5. Girls and Women are more resilient in the face of climate change and are adapting to its impacts.

2.0 Purpose of the Evaluation

From this call it is aimed to collect baseline data on key areas related to women’s rights, empowerment and resilience to climate change which will guide the project’s implementation and measure its impact and inform the parameters for the log frame. The purpose of this terms of reference is to hire a consultant to conduct a baseline survey for the project.

The consultant will be responsible for conducting a baseline survey for the Women’s Rights Programme III that;

• Documents relevant practices and learnings of WRP I, WRP II, and provides possible targets against the reach for WRP III
• Captures perceptions and experiences among women and girls in relation to GBV, including their feelings of whether risks of GBV are decreasing, whether they feel safe and levels of confidence in reporting cases and demanding rights.
• Captures attitudes and behaviours among women, girls, men, and boys on the underlying gender norms that perpetuate GBV.
• Captures levels of actions taken by power holders (men and boys, religious leaders, community leaders) and decision-makers (councilors, politicians, chiefs, local/county/national government) on gender equality.
• Captures data on access to services, including levels of reporting GBV, adequate and functional referral mechanisms, and access to economic opportunities.
• Captures levels of gender-sensitive policy, legal and budgetary reforms at the local and national level.
• Captures levels of agency of civil society structures and partners, and the situation of civil society space in general.
• Captures data that describes the level of capacity and knowledge to prepare for and respond to gender related risks of climate change.
• Captures data on the types of collective actions by women that influence and engage in policy, planning and decision making on climate change.
• Informs the relevance and effectiveness of various approaches applied during implementation of the previous phases and their significance in the current phase.
• That provides specified recommendations for possible adaptations for enriching WRP work in its third phase of execution.

2.1 Scope of Work

• Execute a mixed approach methodology that will inform the next evaluation points that will track and capture findings from beneficiaries and stakeholders in a longitudinal manner.
• Interpret findings from field in perspective, the set strategic objectives to guide program work
• Analyze the past implementation work, existing scenario and recommendations for project implementing team based on the strategic objectives described above.
• Develop comprehensive baseline report of the program.

2.2 Geographic Locations

The locations of the assessment will be in Kamuthe and Kishushe Local Rights Program areas located in Garissa and Taita Taveta respectively.

3.0 Methodology

The consultant is expected to propose and design a methodology that incorporates a mixed methodology and design approach that will produce both quantitative and qualitative results. Focus will be on ensuring the qualitative data speaks to the quantitative findings to thoroughly inform learnings from the previous phases and provide specific targets and sober recommendations for the next phase of implementation. The methodology should also include case stories collected from beneficiaries during the previous phases and provide guidance on tracking performance related to them moving forward.

3.1 Sampling:

The consultant/firm should provide and execute a sampling procedure which is representative of the project target population. It is important that the baseline achieves a statistically acceptable sample size for the respective project participant categories. The consultant will develop and abide by the approved sampling methodology. Therefore, a clear and unambiguous proposal on sampling methodology and sample size is expected from the consultant. Sampling method should attain representative and generalizable results for all project participant categories. A clear matrix of the distribution of sampled respondents should be provided in the inception report t guide mobilization and understand the analysis of findings.

3.1.1 Data sourcing:

The baseline measurement considers both primary and secondary data sources. The data sources will include, but are not limited to:

• Community leaders within the target communities for the project
• Young people (females and males)
• Religious Leaders, cultural leaders
• Government officials such as chiefs, administration, teachers, health workers, state officers etc
• Local CSOs within the LRP
• National and International development partners
• Participatory Rural Appraisal report for Kamuthe and Kishushe LRPs, ActionAid Country Strategy Paper, Evaluation report for WRPII and other relevant project reports.
• KDHS data
• Kenya Economic Survey 2021
• Any other document upon mutual agreement of the consultant and the project team

3.1.2 Data Quality, Collection and Analysis.

The consultant should adopt an iterative data analysis approach. This approach allows for prompt data validation as enumerators collect data. Hence, the consultant/firm will develop a data analysis plan. Analysis should integrate findings from the different sources of data. The consultant should triangulate data from different primary data sources. Depending on access to the country and within the country, the consultant should factor in remote analysis and presentation of findings and sharing of documents. Data quality procedures during collection, analysis and presentation should be clearly mentioned.

4.0 Desired Qualifications and Expertise

• The consultant should have a minimum academic qualification of an advanced degree in development studies, with special focus on community development, political economy, social and behavioral sciences, qualitative and quantitative research methods with a good track record in conducting similar activities.
• Understanding of women rights and feminist approaches – Ability to use power analysis to bring out inequalities that need to be addressed.
• Understand of policy analysis, formulation, policy influencing and existing policies that protect and empower communities living in poverty to challenge rights violation.
• More than 8 years of progressively responsible professional community development work experience at the national and international levels in planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and management of integrated community development, child friendly communities, community resilience and community led social change programmes/projects.
• Experience in development of community engagement and empowerment approaches, guideline, and tools.
• Experience and expertise in demonstrating the application of the latest software and other mechanisms in data management and documentation.
• Understanding of the local language is an added advantage.

5.0 Liaison and Coordination

AAIK will provide the overall guidance and supervision of the task through its Program Team. The consultant (s) will work closely with the LRP coordinator – Nyokal, MEL coordinator and programs team. The overall accountability of this work rests with the Programs and Strategy Lead at ActionAid International Kenya.

6.0 Expected Outputs

The agreed outputs of the evaluation are:

• An inception report that clearly stipulates agreed deliverables by both the client and the consultant
• A baseline evaluation report of no more than 40 pages, (excluding annexes) as a Word document written in clear and concise language. The report will include:
  • Cover page (title of the evaluation report, date, name of consultants).
  • Table of Content.
  • Executive summary of no more than 4 pages outlining the purpose of the evaluation, main points of analysis, key findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
  • Retrospectively reconstruct and enumerate baseline data for the project and target population.
  • Introduction outlining the background to the intervention and the end-term evaluation.
  • Purpose and objectives of the evaluation.
  • Methodology/approach and limitations of the evaluation.
  • Findings (progress against targets; data analysis, including gender analysis; response to evaluation objectives and specific evaluation questions).
  • Findings and recommendations.
  • A sustainability strategy for the project.
  • Annexes: details of data collection tools, schedule of field visits and meetings; list of people interviewed; bibliography of key documents consulted; TOR for the end -term evaluation.
• The report must allow for a management response from ActionAid, outlining areas that we agree with and will take forward in the project; responding to areas requiring improvement; outlining any findings that we disagree with which have not been resolved through comments on the draft report, and indicating how learning will be taken on board in this project.
• The end – term evaluation team is required to make a presentation of key findings and recommendations – presenting initial thoughts/findings before leaving field site; and presenting overall findings in person or remotely after further analysis.
• A PowerPoint presentation summarizing key findings and recommendations that can be used to disseminate findings within ActionAid and with external stakeholders.
• The raw data (all transcripts, quantitative data, data collection tools) must be handed over to ActionAid together with the evaluation report.
• Photos should be provided to ActionAid in high resolution JPEG format, to be catalogued by ActionAid on Stories hub according to our photo guidelines. The evaluation team must ensure photos are obtained in line with ActionAid guidelines on consent.
• Diagrams/flowcharts/infographics developed by the evaluation team can be included but the original artwork should also be submitted as separate files along with the evaluation. Note ActionAid reserves the right to modify artwork as appropriate.
• Conducting validation workshops with key community stakeholder and project teams
• Presenting the final report during the dissemination meeting as organized by the client.

7.0 Expected Timetable:

The consultant will prepare an evaluation work plan that will operationalize and direct the baseline evaluation. The work plan will describe the evaluation to be carried out, bringing refinements, specificity and elaboration to this ToR. The expected duration of carrying out the assignment is four weeks. This will be approved by the Programs and Strategy Lead as the agreement between parties for how the evaluation will be conducted.

8.0 Budget:

The evaluator is expected to give a detailed breakdown of the budget which should align with the evaluation workplan and showcase value for money.

8.1 Travel, Accommodation and Logistics:

Official transport shall be availed where possible, and or travel expenses reimbursed based on actual and realistic costs. However, the consultant shall seek consent prior to incurring travel expense(s) if not provided with official transport. Accommodation shall be provided by AAIK at the venues of the assignment.

9.0 Application Process

All applications should include the following documents:

1. A covering letter or expression of interest – highlighting relevant experience and skills to the specific evaluation, and the reasons for interest in the work.
2. A brief technical proposal with a cover letter demonstrating how they understand the assignment, the methodology and tools for use, and how the evaluator or evaluation team meet the consultancy requirements and expertise specified. They should also include a detailed workplan of how they intend to undertake the assignment. (1page Cover letter and 8 pages maximum for the proposal)
3. A separate financial proposal with a clear distinction between fee rate and expected logistics costs (3 pages maximum)
4. The CV(s) of the lead consultant and the team of applicant(s).
5. Examples or links of two similar works. One of the links/examples MUST be to past work revolving around evaluation of a livelihoods’ programme/project.
6. Provision of verifiable links to work that has been documented and published through print or social media.
7. The names of at least 2 previous clients to contact for references.