Baseline Evaluation of Kenya Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Integrated Development Plus (RAPID+) Program, Millennium Water Alliance (MWA)

A. OVERVIEW

The Millennium Water Alliance (MWA) is a permanent global alliance of leading humanitarian and private organizations that convenes opportunities and partnerships, accelerates learning and effective models, and influences the WASH space by leveraging the expertise and reach of its members and partners to scale quality, sustained WASH services. Founded in the year 2002, MWA seeks to advance high standards for program quality, transparency and accountability and work with its members, governments, communities, private sector partners and other key stakeholders to bring to scale effective and sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene education solutions.

The Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Integrated Development Plus (RAPID+) program is convened and led by the MWA with primary funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) alongside match and investment funds from private sector actors, implementing partners and participating county governments. RAPID+ builds on the successes and lessons learned from RAPID (implemented between 2015 and 2021) and seeks to not only continue the positive impacts of RAPID but to further build and improve upon them. RAPID+ combine the opportunities presented by the national and devolved water sector institutions, the rangelands resource management capacities, and the assets and experience of the private sector to address the complex problems created by inadequate water access and poor governance of rangeland resources. This five year program (2021-2026) has a geographic focus on five northern Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) counties of Garissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Turkana and Wajir.

The goal of RAPID+ is: Improved access to safe and sustainably managed water and rangelands in RAPID+ counties contribute to resilient livelihoods for communities in a peaceful environment. The goal will be achieved via two outcomes: (1) Pastoralist communities have increased access to sustainable and safe water for multiple uses benefiting men, women and youth, and (2) Pastoralist communities have improved access to safe and ecologically healthy rangeland resources that promotes greater integrity, social cohesion and gender equity. RAPID+ targets to provide first-time or improved access to water and rangeland services for more than 200,000 people in Garissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Turkana, and Wajir counties. The facilitating partners of this program are CARE (Garissa), Catholic Relief Services (Isiolo and Turkana), Food for the Hungry (Marsabit), World Vision (Wajir).

B. EVALUATION PURPOSE

This is a baseline evaluation of select indicators in the RAPID+ log frame. The baseline evaluation report will predominantly be used by RAPID+ partners for three purposes: 1) as foundation to use when setting annual and five-year targets for the program, 2) as a baseline from which to measure progress on outcomes and outputs during mid-term and end line evaluations and 3) as a tool to measure and understand changes in the broader systems and actors in these counties.

Select Evaluation Questions

1. What is the percentage of households with access to safe and sufficient water for basic uses in rural and urban areas in the five target counties?
2. What is the volume of water available for livestock consumption in the five target counties?
3. What is the percentage and location of degraded rangelands in the five target counties?
4. a. What is being done currently to promote reseeding or rangeland restoration?
5. What is the current status of women and girls in the five target counties and their responsibilities and time consumption related to accessing water?
6. What is the percentage of youth that are currently involved in rangeland planning and management activities in the five target counties?
7. What percentage of women and youth are closely involved with water resources management activities in the five target counties?
8. What are current strengths and weaknesses in the operation and maintenance of water points in the five target counties?
9. This is not a comprehensive list of evaluation questions for the RAPID+ baseline evaluation. Additional questions and sub questions will be discussed with the consultant during the first meeting between MWA and the consultant.

C. METHODOLOGY

This baseline evaluation is intended to provide data from which to measure progress and change over the subsequent five years in the five target counties. This evaluation will adopt a non-experimental research design. The evaluation team is expected to propose an evaluation methodology and analysis tools that guarantee the highest degree of rigor to ensure credible findings. Data collection methods could include desk reviews, household surveys, key informant interviews, focus groups discussions and other quantitative data collection. Data collected should be linked explicitly with the program’s log frame to answer specific baseline questions linked to outcomes and outputs and to provide a platform from which to understand system and actor changes over time. Data should be presented using tables, charts, graphs and narratives both on a county-by-county basis and cumulatively across the five counties.

D. EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

The following are the expected deliverables from the consultant:

1. Inception Report: The consultant must submit a detailed inception report to MWA within 5 days after the first meeting between MWA and the consulting team. The report shall detail the evaluation methodologies, limitations and ways to mitigate them, and operational work plan, which must include the proposed data collection and analysis methods to address the key evaluation questions and required indicators. The inception report shall also include questionnaires and interview protocols.
2. Weekly Reports: During field work, the consultant must submit weekly reports to update on progress and any logistical challenges that require mitigation.
3. Draft Evaluation Report: Within 10 calendar days after the end of fieldwork, the consultant must submit a consolidated draft evaluation report, including all data aggregated per county and combined, for preliminary comments. This will facilitate effective review by MWA in preparation for the presentation during the validation meeting. A cleaned quantitative dataset (for quantitative data collection methods) in excel must be submitted alongside the draft evaluation report.
4. Debriefing/Presentation of Report: Within two weeks after submission of the draft report, a debriefing/presentation of the results will be done. During this meeting the team will present the major findings of the evaluation to key stakeholders, either in person or virtually. A PowerPoint presentation will be made by the evaluation team and submitted two days before the presentation. The debriefings shall include discussions of methodology, limitations, key findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
5. Final Report: Within 7 calendar days of the debrief, a final baseline evaluation report shall be presented. The final report shall incorporate the comments and suggestions from MWA and stakeholders. The format shall include an executive summary (highlighting key findings and lessons learned), table of contents, list of acronyms, background information, evaluation design and methodology, limitations, findings, lessons learned, conclusions and annexes. The report shall be submitted electronically in English. The final report must not be more than 50 pages excluding annexes. The report will be presented as one consolidated report with county specific reports as annexes.
6. A summary of the final baseline evaluation report (the popular version), not exceeding 15 pages, excluding any potentially procurement-sensitive information shall be submitted (also electronically, in English) for dissemination among implementing partners and stakeholders. The summary will be summited together with the final report.

All primary source data, both quantitative and qualitative including cleaned quantitative dataset, focus group discussion (FGD) score sheets/reports/recordings and key informant interview forms/reports, related codebooks, and data analysis files (SPSS syntax files), generated during the evaluation must be provided to MWA in an electronic file in an easily readable format; organized and fully documented for use by those not fully familiar with the activity or the evaluation. In addition, all background documents collected for this evaluation and data analysis files must be provided to MWA, along with the final report.

E. ROLE OF MWA, PARTNERS AND CONSULTANT

The MWA together will collaborate with the selected consultant to undertake the following roles:

• Provide consultant with background documents, reports and available secondary data for review.
• Arrange and pay for travel, accommodation and per diem for the consultant during site visits for data collection. Travel must be approved by MWA in advance of any booking.
• Organize validation and dissemination workshop for the presentation of preliminary findings to the program stakeholders.
• Review and provide input on all consultant’s deliverables.
• Ensure smooth flow of consultancy engagement processes including contractual obligations.
• Share the final evaluation report with all key stakeholders, including key program staff, partners, donor representative, national and county governments.
• The roles of the facilitating partners shall include the following:
• Approve the list of enumerators that the consultant will recruit.
• Review documents and confirm that all enumerators have been paid by the consultant after successful completion of tasks.
• Support the consultant in community sensitization and mobilization of respondents.
• The roles of the consultant(s) shall include the following:
• Conduct desk‐review of relevant program documents and other secondary sources.
• Develop an inception report, detailing the agreed upon study design, methodologies for data collection and analysis, indicators, data- gathering tools, work plan schedule and budget to carry out the assignment, in consultation with MWA. Methodologies must be detailed enough to support replication for midterm and end line evaluations.
• Develop or refine quantitative data gathering tools in consultation with MWA.
• Recruit and pay enumerators in each county.
• Plan and coordinate quantitative and qualitative data collection.
• Conduct training for the data collection teams including pre‐testing of data collection tools.
• Work with the facilitating partners in evaluation planning and logistics.
• Review, clean and analyze collected data.
• Incorporate data from other studies such as the RAPID end line evaluations and a gender study to develop baseline indicators and the comprehensive baseline situation to learn from in subsequent studies.
• Write baseline evaluation report capturing findings and recommendations.
• Present preliminary findings and draft report to program stakeholders for validation.
• Incorporate input from program stakeholders and develop and submit the final baseline evaluation reports (full and summary versions).

F. EXPERTISE REQUIRED FOR THE EVALUATION

1. Eligible consultants must possess post graduate qualifications in one or more of the following fields: Livestock Production, Range Management, Water and or other relevant training.
2. The evaluation will require a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in RAPID+ core areas of Water, Rangelands Management, Market Systems Development and Gender. The consultants should demonstrate how they are structured for the assignment and the role each staff will play including the CVs of the key personnel who will take part in the consultancy.
3. Demonstrated skills in research, data collection, monitoring and evaluation of Water, Rangelands, Market Systems Development and Gender donor funded programs in ASAL areas with at least 8 years of practical experience.
4. A proven track record of professional execution of similar consultancies/assignments and demonstrable capacity to deliver high quality outputs within a short timeframe.
5. Proof of experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative studies using mobile data collection.
6. Excellent report writing, analytical, communication skills are essential.
7. Excellent English language writing and communication required.
8. Experience with quantitative and qualitative statistical analysis packages (SPSS, STATA) and excellent experience in mobile data collection.
9. Previous work experience in and knowledge of the context of the five counties is preferred.
10. Consultants based in Kenya are preferred.

G. DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

• The baseline evaluation will be conducted during March and April 2022 and is expected to take a maximum of 45 consultancy days.