Terms of Reference for Kenya Country Baseline Evaluation and Evaluation Plan Development – ChildFund International

1.0 About ChildFund

ChildFund is an international child-centered development organization. We are a member of the ChildFund Alliance; a global network of 12 organizations that assists more than 15 million children in 58 countries around the world. ChildFund works throughout Asia, Africa, and the Americas to connect children with the people, resources, and institutions they need to grow up healthy, educated, skilled and safe, wherever they are. The organization is a member of the ChildFund Alliance; a global network of 12 organizations that assists more than 15 million children in 58 countries around the world.

ChildFund’s vision is a world in which every child realizes their rights and achieves their potential. Our three-fold mission is to help children living in deprivation, exclusion, and vulnerable situations to improve their lives and become adults who bring positive changes to their communities; to promote societies that value, protect and advance the worth and rights of children; and to enrich supporters’ lives through their support of our cause.

In Kenya, ChildFund works through 11 Implementing Partners (IPs) and 2 Direct Implementing Partners in 27 counties. Our thematic focus areas are Child Protection, Household Economic Strengthening, Early Childhood Development, Education, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), Emergency Response, Health, and Nutrition. The programming of interventions in each of these sectors is informed by three Life Stages. These are Life Stage 1 (0 – 5 years), Life Stage 2 (6 – 14 years), and Life Stage 3 (15 – 24 years). Child protection, disability mainstreaming, and gender inclusion are cross-cutting interventions implemented across the life stages.

Under the Early Childhood Development thematic area, ChildFund Kenya works with caregivers, communities, and the government both at the national and county levels to support responsive caregiving, child protection, improved health and well-being of infants and young children (IYC) through systems strengthening of government and community structures to provide nurturing care for ECD interventions. Our aim is to strengthen the nurturing environment to promote protective and responsive parenting and supportive structures for early childhood development.

2.0 Background

ChildFund Kenya is implementing the project, “Strengthening Partnerships for Nurturing Care Project II” from March 2023 to February 2026 in Busia and Homabay Counties. The project builds upon learning and promising results on what works for responsive caregiving through group parenting sessions using existing community platforms. The goal of this project is to improve the development of children aged 0-3 years in priority locations of Mozambique and Kenya by February 2026.

Specifically, the Objectives of the project are:

Objective 1: Deliver an evidence-based parenting program that improves the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of caregivers, (including adolescent mothers) of children 0-3 years old in Kenya and Mozambique.

Objective 2: Improve overall caregiver well-being through holistic psychosocial support and income-generating activities for caregivers of young children 0-3 years in Kenya and Mozambique.

Objective 3: Support the capacity development of local implementing organizations and child protection agencies to enhance local ownership and enable multisectoral coordination at national and subnational levels in Kenya and Mozambique.

The project intend to achieve the project goal and objectives through the implementation of some of the following key activities:

• Training of Trainers and community facilitators on various contents on ECD to strengthen their capacity so that they can support selected caregivers provide responsive caregiving to their children aged 0-3.
• Conducting group parenting education sessions using ChildFund Responsive Parenting and Protective (RPP) package to the selected caregivers of children aged below 3 years through community platforms.
• Conduct outreach health and nutrition events to hard-to-reach areas to expand maternal and child health services such as treatment of minor illnesses, antenatal check-ups, nutrition screening and counseling, immunization, vitamin A supplementation, deworming, community growth and promotion, birth registrations and certification but not limited to these, to children, their caregivers including teenage parents.
• Providing psychosocial support and referral to specific caregivers to enhance their mental, emotional, and general well-being that contributes to their caregiving and child well-being.
• Providing minimal household livelihood economic support to specific caregivers to enhance their economic, food security, and general well-being that contributes to their caregiving and child well-being.
• Building the capacity of Implementing Partners and child protection agencies to integrate and implement nurturing care into their work.
• Support the government at both national and county levels to strengthen multisectoral coordination for implementation and upscaling of nurturing care interventions (good health, adequate nutrition, opportunities for early learning, responsive caregiving, and safety and security) by both government and other actors in the ECD sector.
• Training and engaging with child protection actors to validate, develop action plans, and implement the action plans to address child protection risks for infants and young children.

3.0. The Consultancy Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to work in close partnership, coordination and consultation with ChildFund Kenya, its local implementing partners Lake Region Development Program (LRDP) and Western Community Children’s Program (WCCP), ChildFund International, and the international evaluator, to support all evaluation activities specifically for the design, planning, implementation, reporting and dissemination.

Through this dynamic partnership, this evaluator will coordinate directly with ChildFund’s international evaluator. All logistical support will be completed in coordination with the ChildFund Kenya Project Staff. The evaluator’s main roles will be to:

• Review and provide feedback on a Kenya M&E Plan designed by the international evaluator.
• Support contextualization of study design and tools for the baseline evaluation.
• Manage and implement all aspects of enumerators’ training, field pretesting of tools and data collection.
• Enter the data (if paper-based data collection).
• Support preliminary analysis of data.
• Update the Baseline values of the PMT and generate a high level summary of the findings.
• Review and provide feedback on the analysis and subsequent reports drafted by ChildFund’s international evaluator (baseline assessment report and final evaluation report findings).

The following are the main activities of the country-based evaluator. Related deliverables are outlined below in the “deliverables” section of this Terms of Reference:

1. Review and provide inputs to the design of a Kenya M&E Plan. The international evaluator will lead the development of the Kenya project M&E Plan. The country-based evaluator will work in coordination with the international evaluator, ChildFund Kenya, and IP staff to develop a detailed implementation plan for the baseline assessment, which will be inclusive of:

• Proposing the number of enumerators and developing/finalizing a ToR inclusive of competencies to use to identify enumerators.
• Identifying the timing needed to hire enumerators.
• Proposing the timeline (number of days per community, time required per assessment activity per site, etc.) and logistics (transport, quality assurance mechanisms, ensuring data storage and security in the field) for field data collection.
• Identifying time and resources needed for developing the training agenda and modules for training enumerators on data collection tools and piloting tools.
• Identifying the time and resources required for finalizing assessment tools post-pilot and either printing or including in mobile data collection forms.
• Identifying the time required for creating the data entry forms; entering data; and cleaning data prior to sending to an international research partner.

1. Country-based consultant will be responsible for enumerator recruitment, management, and payment. The country-based consultant will be responsible for fully managing enumerators’ ToR and identifying enumerators with adequate competencies to fulfill the respective ToR.
2. Finalize all baseline evaluation enumerator training agendas and modules. The international evaluator will share the draft guidance for any contextualization needed and will complete the final technical review.
3. Prepare all baseline evaluation training and field data collection logistics in coordination with ChildFund Kenya.
4. Contextualize, translate, and finalize baseline data collection tools in consultation with ChildFund Kenya, ChildFund International and the international evaluator.
5. Train enumerators on how to utilize the baseline evaluation tools based on training agenda and modules agreed with ChildFund’s international evaluator. Training will include piloting the data collection tools.
6. Identify and facilitate the enumerators’ entering the quantitative data collected for the baseline assessment using agreed upon data entry forms determined in consultation with ChildFund’s international evaluator.
7. Identify and facilitate the enumerators’ entering and translating the qualitative data for the baseline evaluation collected using agreed upon data entry forms determined in consultation with ChildFund’s international evaluator.
8. Clean qualitative and quantitative data sets entered for the baseline evaluation.
9. Conduct preliminary analyses of qualitative and/or quantitative data for the baseline evaluation as per an agreement with ChildFund’s international evaluator using the data analysis plan per outcome study’s assessment.
10. Review and provide feedback on the drafts of the report and briefs produced by the international evaluator in coordination with ChildFund Kenya and ChildFund International.
11. Expected deliverables.

Per the terms of this TOR and consultant contract, satisfactory completion of deliverables outlined below per stage must be completed by the international evaluation consultant to continue to the next “stage.”

The deliverables are organized per table below.

Evaluation Stage A Deliverables: M&E Plan (Estimated Timing for whole assignment: June 2023

Estimated Day(s) per Deliverable

Requested inputs provided to the international evaluator to finalize the Country M&E Plan based on review of project documents and consultation with Country Team – 2 Days

Evaluation Stage B Deliverables: Baseline Evaluation Planning, Implementation and Reporting

Estimated Day(s) per Deliverable

1. Spreadsheet of enumerators hired characterizing their competencies against the ToR for enumerators. This is inclusive of timing for hiring and determining enumerators – 0.5 day
2. Final set of training agenda and modules for the baseline assessment enumerators’ training that have been reviewed and finalized in consultation with ChildFund’s international evaluator- 2 days
3. Set of draft contextualized and translated baseline assessment data collection tools to utilize for training enumerators established in coordination with ChildFund’s international evaluator -2 days
4. Training of enumerators and pretest of the tools – 4 days
5. Set of contextualized, translated, and finalized baseline assessment data collection tools – 1 day
6. Baseline assessment field data collection – 10 days
7. Complete set of entered, cleaned (and translated for qualitative data) raw qualitative and quantitative data as per the final baseline assessment data entry forms agreed with ChildFund’s international evaluator – 3 days
8. Preliminary analysis of agreed-upon data (to be determined with ChildFund’s international evaluator) – 2 days
9. Validation of the preliminary results with the county stakeholders – 2 days
10. Update the PMT baseline values for the outcome indicators and data summary of the key findings – 0.5 day
11. Tracked changes and comments provided on the draft(s) of the international evaluator’s baseline assessment report and brief – 2 days
12. Travel – 1 day

TOTAL DAYS EVALUATION STAGE B – 30 days

6.0 Proposed TimeFrame

Not more than 30 days starting from July 1st, 2023, to August 17th, 2023. Specific timelines with a breakdown of activities applicable to this evaluation will be set out in consultation with the consultant.

7.0 Scope of Evaluation

The baseline evaluation will be undertaken in 6 wards in the two counties. These are Bunyala Central, Bunyala West and Bunyala South in Bunyala Subcounty, Busia County and Kanyamwa Kologi, Kanyamwa Kosewe and North Kabuoch in Ndhiwa Subcounty, Homabay County.

8.0. Evaluation Approach

The evaluation will be done in line with Baseline Study Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Plan for Kenya whose draft will be developed by the International Consultant.

9.0 Selection of Consultant

Interested individuals and/or institutions are requested to provide, at a minimum:

• Their CV and CVs of all team members (if institution or team of individuals).
• Daily rate in Kenya shillings
• A budget for travel costs to carry out preparation, training, and data collection.
• Past writing sample of a final assessment report, and
• Reference contact information of at least 3 individuals or institutions that have conducted research with the individual or institution in the past.
• Preferably conversant with Dholuo or Abaluhya languages of Kenya since the work will be undertaken in Western part of Kenya (Homa Bay and Busia counties).

The following additional, supporting documents are also preferred and requested:

• An example of a previous assessment’s/evaluation’s detailed work plan; and
• Examples of past assessment training/capacity building materials used when training enumerators.
• Past evaluation reports or other research reports authored by the individual or institution’s staff.

In terms of team composition, the personnel required for the assignment will include a Principal Consultant and Research Assistants whose number will be at the discretion of the consultant. As the consultancy is multifaceted, the consultancy team is expected to have a mix of skills relevant for the assignment:

• Minimum 14 years’ experience managing household-level surveys of similar scale and preferably in the ECD, child protection, maternal and child health, maternal and child nutrition, and/or other related sectors.
• Demonstrate a record of experience in carrying out evaluations, particularly demonstrated experience with research and participatory methods. This can be shown by:
  1. Strong capacity and experience in planning and organizing survey logistics.
  2. A good network of experienced enumerators, supervisors, and data entry clerks.
• Have relevant experience in working with governments and/or international organizations on consultancy assignments.
• Strong capacity in data management and statistics.
• Strong knowledge in using qualitative and quantitative statistical packages such as Nvivo, SPSS, STATA, and others.
• Strong interpersonal skills and a team-oriented spirit.
• The team should have an expert in Early Childhood Development (ECD), Child Health or Child Protection, and statistics expertise.
• Demonstrate knowledge and experience with the application of a human rights-based approach to programming.
• Strong writing and analytical (a sample of a recent analytical report is requested).
• Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment and ability to establish good and effective relationships with other national and international partners.
• Knowledge of issues of Child protection and violence against children will be an added advantage including knowledge of the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA).
• An excellent working knowledge of Swahili and some knowledge of at least two local languages spoken in the targeted counties i.e. Dholuo and any other Abaluhya Dialect such as Kinyala etc
• Have excellent proven written and spoken English and communication skills.

10.0. Management and Coordination

The key people that the consultant will be working closely with at ChildFund include:

ChildFund Kenya team namely MEAL Manager, Project MEAL Officer, ECD Specialist and Project Coordinator. ChildFund International team specifically the Senior ECD Advisor, Snr. Health Specialist, and Director, Research, and Learning. The day-to-day support of the consultant during the task shall be provided by the Project MEAL officer in consultation with the Project Coordinator.

The consultant will also work in close partnership and consultation with implementing partner Lake Region Development Program (LRDP) and direct implementer Western Community Children Program (WCCP). The International Consultant will provide technical assistance throughout the process.

ChildFund Kenya will support the following:

• Provide access to documents and information needed to undertake the survey,
• Provide day-to-day coordination of activities and as the need arise including mobilization.
• Pay the agreed costs for the assignments and as per the deliverables completed.
• Socialize the consultant and team on Child safeguarding and have the team sign the policy.

Implementing Partners will support with the following:

• Mobilization of respondents in their respective geographical areas.
• Provision of guidance and support during community entry and data collection

11.0. Payment process

Payment upon receipt, review, and approval of the inception report and a final and approved project evaluation plan in readiness to undertake the assignment – 20%

Payment upon submission and acceptance of the final evaluation tools that have been pretested and enumerators trained in readiness for data collection – 50%

Payment upon submission and acceptance of the final evaluation report that has captured input from validation meetings- 30%

The Consultant’s compensation shall be paid NET, in Kenya Shillings within 30 days from receipt of a proper invoice unless otherwise specified.

Payment will be made through Bank Transfer to the consultant’s Bank Account provided in the contract.The payment shall be subjected to a 10% withholding tax as required by the Law at the time of payment.

The full costs include professional consultancy fees, payment of enumerators (meals and professional fees) field logistical costs (enumerators training, field data collection, transport, accommodation, and meals) during the entire assignment quoted in Kenya Shillings.