Consultancy Services required for Developing HealthRight Kenya’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) System

Title: Organization Systems Strengthening

Subject: Developing HealthRight Kenya’s Organizational MEAL System

Duration of task: 40 working Days

Background and General Guidelines

Background

HealthRight Kenya (HRK) is a health and human rights organization whose mission is to empower marginalized communities to live healthy lives. We achieve lasting change for marginalized populations through locally built and owned solutions; equitable access to health services; and better health outcomes for marginalized populations. For more than a decade, have been using a rights-based approach to HealthRight, working with local government and implementing the national government’s community engagement strategy in more 10 counties across Kenya. HealthRight has also demonstrated its ability to forge relationships from the community level right up to the county level in the most remote and impoverished areas of the country.

HRK is seeking services of a reputable consulting firm/individual, to undertake design/development of a robust Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEAL) system as a critical part of good project/program management and accountability. It hopes that the MEAL system will be functional in bringing changes to the organization’s planning systems in order to generate, implement and report on project and strategic objectives that are more efficiently monitored and evaluated. This MEAL system should ultimately balance requirements such as organizational learning, improving performance and accountability upwards to donors, governments and supporters, accountability downwards to partners and service users, providing evidence for advocacy work, project and program management, supervision and control, and resource allocation.

Consultancy Outline

a. Organizational MEAL System

HealthRight Kenya seeks to develop a functional MEAL system that will generate timely and reliable M&E information to:

• Support project/program implementation with accurate, evidence-based reporting that informs management and decision-making to guide and improve project/program performance.
• Contribute to organizational learning and knowledge sharing by reflecting upon and sharing experiences and lessons learned so that we can gain the full benefit from what we do and how we do it.
• Uphold accountability and compliance by demonstrating whether or not our work has been carried out as agreed and in compliance with established standards and with any other donor requirements.
• Provide opportunities for stakeholder feedback, especially beneficiaries, to provide input into and perceptions of our work, modelling openness to criticism, and willingness to learn from experiences and to adapt to changing needs.
• Promote and celebrate our work by highlighting our accomplishments and achievements, building morale and contributing to resource mobilization in robust reports.

HRK expects that the key elements of the Organization’s M&E System shall contain the following criteria:

• Accuracy: assurance of accuracy entails performance of quality control procedures locally at all stages of data collection, processing, storage of data and reporting documents
• Timeliness: our MEAL system shall be able to provide the latest organizational data to its users, especially when it comes to operational decision-making.
• Coherence: to ensure reliability of data, the system will have to be processed and compiled in a uniform, coherent, and regular way. This is because inconsistencies in collection and submission of data can distort information and analysis of trends
• Completeness: we expect the MEAL system to provide the entire picture; all elements of the organizational/program’s MEAL System will have to be united as a completed jigsaw puzzle. Accurate and timely decision-making demands that data is integrated and information is presented in generalized form.
• Relevance: we are aware that irrelevant and unnecessary data and information run the risk of ruining a program or stifling organizational productivity. To operate more efficiently, the Program’s M&E System has to provide information that is relevant to donors. Monitoring reports will therefore have to be presented in an orderly way that excludes voluminous detailing to prevent “information overload”

The developed MEAL system is expected to:

1. Capture all project activities and outputs – targets, achievements and lessons learnt
2. Track activities implemented and report on outputs achieved by projects and organization departments.
3. Report on progress towards achieving the organization’s Strategic Objectives and goals

b. Objectives of the Consultancy

The objective of the consultancy is to develop and implement a MEAL framework and system for accurate programmatic and administrative data collection and analysis, results reporting and information management at both the main office and field offices.

Specific Objectives

1. To develop a robust internal organizational Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) system
2. To develop organizational tools for implementing the MEAL system
3. Develop a field operation MEAL guidelines, SOPs and standards for quality, capacity and training.

c. Proposed Design Areas and Scope of the Consultancy

The M&E system that HRK anticipates to implement has four major aspects:

1. M&E framework that aligns to HRK strategic plan, work plans and annual reports and policies.
2. Gathering and managing data(qualitative and quantitative) and information (tracking outputs, outcomes and goals, capturing lessons learnt and success stories)
3. Analyzing the data and preparing reports
4. Communicating and reporting results (for evidence-based decision-making)

A multi-level design for the MEAL system, with efficient provision for data flow (between and within the respective tiers) for reporting and analysis. The first tier is the community level where CHVs collect data and report to the facilities or project officers where data cleaning and preliminary analysis is done, followed by reporting to the organizational managers for advanced analysis. The second tier is submission of reports to the M&E Manager/Associate Programs Director (APD) for quality review and third tier is donor reporting/report submission. All information will be aggregated at the head office level to give the overall status of implementation.

Location of the Assignment

The MEAL system will be designed and implemented across the organization’s country office in Nairobi and in the various field locations.

Consultant Qualifications

• Independent consultant/consultancy firm with at least 5 years’ experience of designing Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning systems
• A minimum of degree-level qualification preferably in Monitoring & Evaluation, Public Health, Project Management or any relevant degree from a recognized institution, Masters degree will be an added advantage.
• Minimum of 5 years professional work experience with donor organizations
• Demonstrated conceptual and analytical skills.
• Written and verbal communication skills such as reporting and presentation
• Excellent time management skills, with an ability to deliver high-quality outputs on time.
• Experience in the use of participatory and gender sensitive evaluation methodologies

Responsibilities

The Consultant

In setting up the MEAL system, the consultant shall be expected to:

• Undertake MEAL system design, customization and testing against the organization’s requirements including flow of data and information
• Develop standard organizational data collection tools and templates for quantitative and qualitative indicators and for tracking program success/impacts.
• Develop a Monitoring and evaluation dashboard f
• Develop project M&E System Manual that will include but not be limited to:
  1. Goals, tasks and main elements of the HRK M&E System
  2. Electronic M&E System’s intermittent reporting forms
  3. Electronic M&E System’s inputting manual (including Dharma Platform) which shall be used for data collection and disaggregation by quantitative and qualitative targets
  4. Sample M&E System targets’ data collection tools (organizational and programmatic)
• Develop organizational M&E policies and SOPs to guide implementation and sustenance of the MEAL system
• Develop a connection between the local country M&E indicators and the corresponding parent organization data base at HealthRight International (HRI) to enable quick synchronization of data.
• Conduct user training for HRK staff who will be involved in various projects and to introduce them to the organizational MEAL System and instruct them on how to use it.
• Upon operationalization, evaluate the system in terms of performance, usability and other metrics
• Develop a comprehensive Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) plan including results, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, indicator reference sheets, logical frameworks, collaboration, learning and adaptation plans.
• Train HRK staff on the MEAL system components and its implementation and document the training

HealthRight Kenya

HealthRight Kenya will:

• Provide relevant information that may be required by the consultant during implementation of the assignment
• Participate in decision making according to consultant tasks above and be available for consultation as needed
• Supervise the consultant in the delivery of their assignment
• Review draft report and provide feedback.
• Facilitate payment as specified in the contract document.

Duration and Work Plan/Itinerary

The proposed consultancy timeline will be 40 days with the finalization and submission of the final Mid-term Evaluation Report.

Outputs /Deliverables

The consultant will be expected to submit the following:

1. An Inception report highlighting system approach, workplan, design specifications and desk review findings within 3 days of signing the consultancy contract.
2. M&E Manual detailing M&E guidelines for project and organizational indicator setting and data collection processes, analysis, reporting and information storage and retrieval, and use of data to improve organizational functioning
3. Requisite M&E policies and specific SOPs on data collection, analysis, reporting, storage and retrieval
4. Proposed information and data flow and custody of data/information
5. A training manual for Monitoring and evaluation
6. An Implementation report after deployment and full-rollout of the MEAL system.
7. A Final Report after three months post-implementation review