Final Evaluation Consultancy-A Safe Pair of Hands Project (SPOH)

Project Background

Practical Action in partnership with Kisumu Urban Apostolate Program (KUAP) has over the last three years implemented A Safe Pair of Hands project funded by DFID now Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), in the informal settlements of Nyalenda A, Nyalenda B and Obunga in Kisumu, City. The project sought to address malnutrition among children under 5 years through access to clean water, hand-washing facilities and improved hygiene practices. By improving access to clean water, hand washing facilities and through promotion of proper hand-washing, the project was expected to reduce diarrhea, improve health and reduce life-long malnutrition for 3,000 young children aged under-5 years and work with 8,250 child cares in informal settlements of Kisumu City, Kenya.

Specifically, the project seeks to contribute to the following Impact:

• Children under-5 years, in Nyalenda A, Nyalenda B and Obunga, have improved lifelong health and nutrition.

This impact will be realized by achieving the following Outcome:

• Children under-5 years in Nyalenda A, Nyalenda B and Obunga are protected from diarrheal diseases and infection.

‘Safe Pair of Hands’ project activities included:

• Gaining a better understanding about cares of children including early years’ teachers the barriers and motivating factors to proper hand-washing practices, and provide the training and encouragement needed to support change.
• Facilitating local community-based artisans and small enterprises to manufacture and/or market local hand-washing stations and soap.
• Developing and sharing communications materials and support community health volunteers and public health officials in running regular, on-going public health campaigns.
• In addition, the ‘Safe Pair of Hands’ project was to work to improve the supply of clean water by working with the water company and the local managers of individual supply lines to rehabilitate and construct water pipelines and last mile connections. The water operators were to be trained to help them run their businesses better and ensure effective maintenance of their section of the network. Households will be trained on safer water storage, handling and treatment at home.

Evaluation Purpose
Practical Action conducts project evaluations as part of its commitment to result based management of programs; to assess progress towards the achievement of the Change Ambitions and generate learning to inform scale up. The evaluation results will be used to inform strategy as well as future program design and implementation. The purpose of this evaluation is to assess progress against the project impact and outcomes and provide evidence that demonstrate project achievements as well as learning.

Scope of the Final Project Evaluation
The evaluation will measure both the intended and unintended results of the project and will be guided by the project MEL framework among other reference documents. It will be carried out within the confines of the aforementioned “Safe Pair of Hands” project implemented in Obunga, Nyalenda A and Nyalenda B informal settlements in Kisumu County. Specifically, the scope of the evaluation will include:

i) Project review against project design, logical framework, delivery approaches and planned outputs/outcomes/impact
ii) Analysis of the opportunities and gaps in the WASH sector in Kisumu County to inform future programming
iii) Recommendations for major stakeholder groups anchored on the findings and conclusions from the evaluation

The evaluation will use the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) international evaluation criteria of, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Impact and Sustainability. The evaluation will specifically seek to respond to the following evaluation questions:

1.To what extent did the project contribute to the intended impact of improving the lifelong health and nutrition status Children under-5 years, in Nyalenda A, Nyalenda B and Obunga? What was the project’s contribution in protecting children under 5 from diarrhea; diseases and infection?

• Did the project identify cases of diarrhea and malnutrition among children under 5?
• Was there a reduction in the cases reported?
• What was the project’s contribution to the change in numbers of malnutrition reported? What is the evidence of this contribution? What other factors could have contributed to this change?

2.Has the project contributed to increased access to clean, safe, adequate and reliable water in households and institutions that care for children under 5?

• Is the water readily available when needed and is it affordable?
• What has been the impact of improved access at household and institution level?
• What opportunities/gaps that still exist to further improve water access in Kisumu County?

3.Has the project increased the proportion of households and institutions that care for children under 5 with hand-washing facilities and soap? Do they meet the needs of children under and are the functional and user friendly?

• Have they considered new technologies/innovations?
• Has access influenced good hygiene behavior such as hand=washing with soap at critical times?

4.To what extent did the project influence key WASH policies, regulations, guidelines etc. at County level? What has been the impact of these policies in addressing the needs of children under -5 years and their caregivers? What learning can we draw from the policy influencing approaches used by the project?

5.What were the most effective and efficient strategies used by the project that promoted behavior change among children under 5 and their caregivers? For example, which beneficiary feedback/accountability approaches were used by the project? How effective were the approaches in addressing the needs of the beneficiaries? What was
the impact of this?

6.Did the project reach the most vulnerable and marginalized people in the project intervention areas? How effective were the approaches used? To what extent did the project address gender inequalities during project design and implementation?

Methodology
The evaluation will utilize mixed method approaches. The following methodologies can be
utilized, but should not be limited to:

• Desk review of key documents including the proposal, MEL framework, project reports, baseline report, KisumuSan Final Evaluation report among others
• Quantitative data collection and analysis targeting households, health clinics among others
• Key informant interviews (KIIs) and stakeholder consultations
• Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with different categories of beneficiaries such as caregivers of children under 5, ECD managers among others
• Individual case studies through in‐depth discussions with a sample of beneficiaries in the target areas
• Reflection and feedback sessions with staff, community beneficiaries and other stakeholders.

The selected consultant/s will be responsible for identifying a more robust and relevant sampling methodology, drawing a sample, and training of enumerators, field testing of the questionnaire and administering the questionnaire in face-to-face interviews with key informants. The consultants will also perform data analysis based on the collected data.
The project team will provide a list of key stakeholders who will be involved in the KIIs as well as the categories of beneficiaries who will be part of the FGD. In light of the ongoing pandemic, the consultant/s will be expected to demonstrate the use of alternative data collection methods including use of digital tools.

Ethical Considerations
During the survey, the team will make clear to all participating stakeholders that participation in the study is voluntary and that there will be no negative consequences if they choose not to participate. The survey team will obtain informed consent from the participants. The team will ensure prior permission is received for taking and use of visual, still/ moving images. The team will also ensure that participants’ anonymity and confidentiality is protected and used for agreed purposes only through robust data security measures. The survey team will also ensure that the evaluation follows the Ministry of Health guidelines on COVID prevention and containment and prioritize the safety of all involved in the study.

Key Tasks

The key tasks for this consultancy that would ensure that the consultant(s) achieve the above will be to:

• Develop a detailed inception report clearly demonstrating the evaluation methodology, timelines and relevant data collection tools.
• Field work: The survey will involve field visits to a sample of households, government and private sector stakeholders. This will involve meetings, interviews or focused group discussions with main actors who have been involved in the project.
• Conduct a comparative analysis of the findings and present draft report to Practical Action for review.
• Presentation of findings to stakeholders for validation – this will be organized by the project team
• Finalize the evaluation report based on input from the 1st draft review.
• Develop the End of project final report – the consulting firm will prepare the end of project report using a template provided by Practical Action.

Expected Outputs
This final evaluation is expected to take a total of 30 working days. The consultant will
submit the following deliverables:

1. An inception report
2. High quality and concise final report in agreed template (maximum 20 pages with
   appendices)
3. Popular version (summary) of the evaluation report
4. End of project report using the template provided by Practical Action
5. All datasets from the evaluation

Management of the Evaluation Process
The Consultants will report to the Senior Project Officer responsible for SPOH Project implementation with technical oversight by the Head of Impact and the Area coordinator, Lake Basin. The project team will provide day to day support during the assignment. In order to support the actualization of this assignment and within stipulated timelines, Practical Action will also provide the following:

• All necessary program documents
• Logistical support in organizing consultation meetings and forums to ensure that the survey is undertaken successfully.

The consultants on the other hand will recruit, train and provide logistical support to the research assistant team.

Consultant Profile
Practical Action and partners are therefore, looking for multi- skilled individual(s) or consultancy firm (s) with the following minimum qualifications and experiences to express interest for the assignment:

• Minimum masters level education and /or training in Public health, civil/water engineering, , urban and regional planning, monitoring and evaluation, international development or any other related field
• Expert Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) professional with experience in quantitative and qualitative research methodology and experiences with Participatory Market Systems Development (PMSD) approaches as well as Personal Hygiene and Sanitation Education (PHASE) methodology.
• Experienced in implementing nutrition programs
• In depth understanding of urban development issues with specific interest in Low Income Areas (LIAs)/informal settlements
• Proven technical expertise in gender and social inclusion (including knowledge /experience of gender dimensions/ issues in WASH), climate change, child focused development, participatory planning and governance in County level planning and budget cycles
• Familiarity with Low Income Areas (LIAs)/informal settlements in Kisumu
• At least 10 years’ experience in conducting evaluations for WASH programs implemented by government, non governmental and private sector actors specifically in low income urban areas
• Demonstrated experience in using mobile data collection applications such as ODK,KOBO
• Demonstrated experience in designing survey methodology, data collection tools, processing and analysis of data.
• Strong organizational, analytical and reporting skills, presentation skills, attention to detail, ability to meet deadlines, and proficiency in Microsoft Office and qualitative data analysis software/tools.
• Excellent verbal and written communication in English is MANDATORY
• Compliance with MoH guidelines and protocols on Covid-19.

Guidelines for Submission of Expression of Interest

Qualified and interested parties are asked to submit the following:

1.Letter of interest in submission of a proposal

2.A detailed technical proposal clearly demonstrating a thorough understanding of this TOR and including but not limited to the following;

• Consultant profile
• Evidence of compliance to all statutory requirements (KRA compliance, certificates of incorporation (if applicable) and registration with relevant professional bodies
• Description of the evaluation methodology and sampling procedure
• Demonstrated previous experience in similar assignments and qualifications outlined in this ToR.
• Proposed data management plan (collection, processing and analysis).
• Proposed timeframe detailing activities and a work plan.
• Team composition and level of effort of each proposed team member (include CVs of each team member).

3.A financial proposal with a detailed breakdown of costs for the study quoted in Kenya shillings

Terms of Engagement
Payment for the survey shall be done in three tranches as indicated below

• Tranche 1 (25% of the total cost): Upon successful submission and acceptance of inception report
• Tranche 2 (25% of the total cost): submission and acceptance of the of 1st draft of the report
• Tranche 3 (50% of the total cost): submission and acceptance by Practical Action of the revised final report

Note that the payments will be done subject to the consulting entity meeting quality and timely delivery of stated task.