Consultancy Services for Kenya Country Program Evaluation

The current DCA Kenya Country Program is based on previous experiences, new opportunities, lessons learnt, events, evaluations and discussions on program development with DCA Kenya staff, partners as well as units and management in DCA HQ, as well as a Theory of Change Workshop, held in two phases, in November 2017 and October 2018, respectively which highlight evolving community needs. Since then annual critical reflection workshops have been held in 2019 & 2020 to review the progress of the implementation of the program and suggest course corrections.

The Kenya County program is working towards achieving the following overreaching goals:

1. Refugees and disaster-affected local communities receive effective, timely and dignifying life-saving humanitarian assistance and protection.
2. Vulnerable refugees and local communities are empowered and have enhanced self-reliance and resilient livelihoods.
3. Empowered refugee and local community youth act as agents of change and have meaningful and dignified lives.
4. Micro and small enterprises (among refugees and local communities) are actively contributing and taking part in local economy and development.
5. Lives and property is saved through peaceful co-existence amongst refugees, local communities and cross-border communities.
6. Responsible private sector and resource base engagement and linkages are contributing to sustainable and innovative pro-poor solutions for displaced populations and local communities.
7. A strong civil society, which supports and stands up for vulnerable communities and refugees including women and youth, and addresses root causes.

The Purpose

DCA’s country program in Kenya is coming to the end of a 4 year cycle in 2022. DCA is seeking to carry out a a consolidated evaluation of DCA Kenya office country program during the 2019 to 2021 program cycle for learning and accountability purposes.

The findings, conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation will provide substantial guidance to the design of next country program cycle, and will contribute to organizational learning at the global and country levels of the organization.

The Objective of the Evaluation

To conduct an assessment of the performance of DanChurchAid’s country program in Kenya, with a specific focus on the contribution of the program to DanChurchAid’s global goals of Save Lives, Build Resilient Communities and Fight Extreme Inequality.

The evaluation should be conducted against the DAC evaluation criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability with a view to draw lessons and make recommendations for future program periods at country and global levels. The evaluation will also review the strategy, management and monitoring, innovation and technology application in the implementation of the country program.

The evaluation is also expected to generate findings for organizational and programmatic learning on DCA’s global approaches and thematic priorities. In particular, DCA is keen to understand how DCA’s rights-based approach and country programming approach (including use of theory of change) has contributed to relevance, performance and complementarity in meeting the needs of the target communities in her program work in Kenya. It will also be important that the evaluation generates findings which contribute to greater understanding of how DCA’s integration of cross-cutting priorities for gender localization, engagement with faith-based actors, climate change and nexus may have contributed to relevance and effectiveness of the program. Finally, the findings and recommendations of this evaluation will be used to in the development of the next country strategy.

Method

It is expected that the consultants will further develop the methodology to be applied within this consultancy. However, the consultants should be guided by the DAC evaluation quality standards for development evaluation in their development of the methodology, conduct of the evaluation and drafting of the report.[3]

In addition, the below key elements should guide the development of the proposed methodology. Participatory methodologies must be employed to ensure that the rights holders targeted by the program effectively participate throughout the evaluation process. The method developed must also be gender sensitive[4] and it must describe how it fits the purpose of the evaluation. In the data collection and analysis phase the team can use both qualitative and quantitative data collection. It is recommended that the methodology focuses on outcomes and allows for collection of data from multiple sources, like document review, stakeholder interviews, focus group discussions, participatory workshops.

Outputs

1. Inception report, which comprises initial findings of document review, fully developed methodology and evaluation matrix for the evaluation, and work plan for the evaluation.
2. A debriefing session on the most significant findings and recommendations to be discussed at the DCA Country Office as well as final report discussed in a Global Debriefing webinar with other country programs and HQ staff.
3. Draft and final evaluation reports in 1-3-25 format which makes use of the suggested report structure below as agreed with the evaluation manager.

Team Composition and qualifications.

The evaluation team is expected to consist of 1 external team leader and an associate consultant, preferably from Kenya or the region.

The team leader should possess the following expertise:

• Proven team leader skills
• Extensive experience with evaluations, reporting and design processes, including skills such as indicator development, sampling, participatory evaluation methodology, appreciative inquiry methods, focus group interviews, etc.
• Experience with multi-sectorial evaluations
• Proven experience from NGO and CBO based development and/or humanitarian assistance in Kenya.
• Proven expertise on the cross cutting issues such as Rights Based Approach, Religion and Development (faith actor engagement) and Gender.
• Experience with faith based organizations in general and DCA in particular is an asset

Further, the team as a whole should have proven expertise in the following areas:

• Build Resilient Communities (community-based disaster risk reduction and risk management, sustainable community livelihoods and development and job creation, community influence decisions for building resilient communities)
• Save Lives (Humanitarian response and Preparedness, Emergency Livelihoods and Early recovery, community safety and protection)
• Fight Extreme Inequality (Space for civil society, and protection of human rights defenders, inclusive participation in decision-making, equitable distribution of resources through inclusive and accountable institutions, gender equality, combating discrimination and promoting rights of excluded groups)
• Anti-corruption and organizational accountability**
• Organizational capacity development**
• Private sector partnerships and engagement in development work.**

Proposal Outline

This annex has been prepared as an adaptation of Annex 2 for DCA’s request for proposal procedure. COs may wish to adjust the requirements below for a simple procurement procedure if appropriate. **

Interested consultants and evaluation teams should submit a proposal using the structure and main sections identified below.

Rationale

• Any comments on the Terms of Reference of importance for the successful execution of activities, its objectives and expected results, thus demonstrating the degree of understanding of the Contract. Detailed list of inputs, activities and outputs. Any comments contradicting the Terms of Reference or falling outside their scope will not form part of the final Contract.
• An opinion on the key issues related to the achievement of the Terms of Reference and expected results.

Strategy

• An outline of the approach and methodology proposed for the evaluation.
• An outline of the the proposed activities considered to be necessary to achieve the contract objectives.
• (If appropriate) A brief description of the backstopping support that will be available to the evaluation team from the contractor.
• (If appropriate) A brief description of subcontracting arrangements foreseen (eg. for enumerators, local consultants and/or interpreters), with a clear indication of the tasks that will be entrusted to a subcontractor and a statement by the Candidate guaranteeing the eligibility of any subcontractor.)

Timetable of activities

• The timing, sequence and duration of the proposed activities considering mobilisation time.
• The identification and timing of major milestones in conducting the evaluation, including an indication of how the achievement of these would be reflected in any reports particularly those stipulated in the Terms of Reference.

Key experts

• The proposal should include a detailed description of the role and duties of each of the key experts or other non-key experts, who are proposed as members of the evaluation team. The CV of each key expert shall be included highlighting his/her experience in the specific field of the services and his/her specific experience in the country/region where the services are to be performed.
• The proposal should clearly state existing commitments of experts which may affect their availability to participate in the evaluation to the extent possible.
• The proposal should clearly state any conflicts of interest which may compromise the objectivity of the experts in the evaluation. (e.g. involvement in the program being evaluated and/or employment by DCA and/or DCA partners.)
• The proposal should include 1 or 2 examples of previous work from previous evaluation assignments or similar.

[1]Note to country teams: Link to program evaluation guideline in DCA Intra; Link to World Bank guidance for drafting ToRs; Link to DCA evaluation policy; Link to DCA procurement manual 6^th edition:

[2] See Annex 1 for the list of active projects for DCA and partners from 2019 to 2021 and their thematic and geographic focus.

[3] https://www.oecd.org/development/evaluation/qualitystandards.pdf

[4] The inception process should ensure the data collected on gender aspects is concrete and differentiated impacts on men & women come out strongly.

[5] DCA Evaluation Policy