Endline Project Evaluation Consultant

DUE: 25 JULY 2023

Welthungerhilfe is seeking for an Endline Evaluation Consultant in the Strengthening Competitiveness and Potential for Export for Inclusive Value Chains in Zimbabwe ( SCOPE4IVC.) project. Please kindly refer to the Terms of Reference below for more information on this advert

Terms of Reference

Project Summary

The Strengthening Competitiveness and Potential for Export for Inclusive Value Chains in Zimbabwe ( SCOPE4IVC)” project is funded by the European Union under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) to support the efforts of the Government of Zimbabwe through the Zimbabwe Economic Partnership Agreement support programme (ZEPA). The global objective of the ZEPA programme is to enhance Zimbabwe’s economic competitiveness and integration into the regional and international trading system. The SCOPE4IVC Project is being implemented by Welthungerhilfe, Bio-Innovation Zimbabwe (BIZ) and Empretec Zimbabwe and seeks to improve the competitiveness and export capacity of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in Bambara nuts, Chili and Marula value chains. Specifically, the project supports Business Support Organizations (BSOs) as well as MSMEs to improve their services/products with the overall goal to strengthening the export capacity of Zimbabwean MSMEs. The project is being implemented in Bubi, Chivi, Gokwe South and Umzingwane districts. The duration of the project is 3.5 years, from January 2020 to June 2023.

Project’s Intervention Logic:

Project impact: Improved competitiveness and export capacity in inclusive and pro-poor value chains (chili, nyimo, marula).

Strategic Objective 1: MSMEs in chili, nyimo and marula Value Chains have improved productivity and export competitiveness.

Output 1.1 Processor MSMEs in targeted Value Chains have improved capacity for accessing export markets.
Output 1.2 Improved efficiency of MSMEs in the targeted Value Chains.
Output 1.3 MSMEs meet requirements for export markets relevant to the targeted Value Chains (EU, regional and international).
Strategic Objective 2: BSOs deliver high-value services to MSMEs at all levels of the Value Chain.

Output 2.1 Improved BSO strategic, managerial, and financial capacity.
Output 2.2 Improved capacity of BSOs to deliver services relevant to the targeted Value Chains
Output 2.3 Improved capacity of BSOs to advocate for improved enabling environment for targeted Value Chains

Project Stakeholders:

Producer MSMEs – These are the producer farmers or collectors responsible for the primary production of the three value chains at district level.
Aggregator / Processor MSMEs – These are the processing companies that procure the primary product for further processing and or value addition for target markets.
Business Support Organisations – These are not for profit organisations, government and non-governmental, which directly or indirectly help and support the commercial or industrial organizations engaged in the production and distribution of the commercial products and services (in this case MSMEs)
Ministries – Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement through AGRITEX Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works through the Rural District Councils and District Coordinators Offices

Duties and Responsibilities

The evaluation will focus on the collection and analysis of end-line data for a set of indicators outlined in the log-frame, assessing the status of progress and achievement against baseline values of project indicators and targets. The specific objectives of the evaluation are:

• Assess the relevance and appropriateness of the project and its underlying design and theory of change approaches.
• Assess the results and contributions of the SCOPE4IVC Project interventions, (particularly the effectiveness of the different approaches used and where possible their impact and sustainability).
• Assess the programme’s overall efficiency, including its implementation strategy, institutional arrangements as well as its management and operational systems.
• Identify lessons learnt, good practices and success stories that can be scaled up or fed into the broader policy-making efforts.
• Provide actionable recommendations for future programming.

Scope of the Assignment

The endline evaluation will cover the four districts of operation namely Bubi, Chivi, Gokwe South and Umzingwane.

Evaluation Criteria: The evaluation will assess, the project’s performance on outputs, services and outcomes using the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Development Assistance Committee (DAC) framework: Relevance, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Impact and Sustainability.

Relevance- evaluate the extent to which the key activities or processes aligned/contributing to each stated component/outcome remain relevant to the context. Relevance of intervention results to address the contextual challenges and extent to which project design and approach are relevant to national and global development objectives. Coherence and coordination-internal coherence, between the different components of the project, among partners, operational modalities and governance structure.

Efficiency- in resources management, and project partnership and structures. Analysis should also include strategic and timely implementation of activities and quality of the internal project monitoring systems.

Effectiveness- evaluating the extent to which the project objectives and targets were achieved.

Impact- look at the wider range of outcomes (intended and unintended) and project contribution to social, economic, technical, and environmental consideration.

Sustainability- prospects for sustaining the achieved results, and scaling-up activities beyond the projects’ closure. Design of project sustainability and exit strategy and their implementation to promote national and local capacity to sustain the positive changes after the end of the project. Sustainability analysis to include institutional, economic, social, environmental components.

Evaluation process and deliverables:

Inception meeting: The evaluation team will attend an inception meeting where the team will be briefed on project objectives and key processes involved, reporting standards and provided with the key project documents for review.

Inception Report: Before field work commences, evaluation team to submit an inception report detailing the methodology, sampling, identified stakeholders for interviews and timeframe for approval by SCOPE4IVC team. Survey tools, KII guides and Evaluation Matrix should be submitted as annexes to the Inception report.

Data collection and analysis: Primary data collection plan to be developed by Evaluation team.

Preliminary findings: The evaluator will present preliminary findings and recommendations of the review to the SCOPE4IVC Project team.

Draft report: The evaluation team will submit a draft report for SCOPE4IVC team review.

Final report: Upon addressing the issues raised during review of the draft report the evaluator will submit the final Evaluation report to the SCOPE4IVC team, including survey tools, data syntax and completed Management Response Matrix.

Endline Design and Methodology:

The evaluation team will design the evaluation methodology, including sampling for geographic sites, sampling for respondents and sample sizes. The sampling for respondents and FGDs and KII will be guided by the project participants and actors as defined in the project documents. The sampling will be done in consultation with SCOPE4IVC team.

Data collection: The evaluation team has the responsibility to design data collection methods and tools in consultation with the SCOPE4IVC team.

Data analysis: The end-line evaluation team will develop the data analysis plan and define data analysis tools.

Time Frame & Schedule:

The evaluation will be conducted from the 1st of August to 15 September 2023

Confidentiality:

All documents and data acquired from documents as well as interviews and meetings are confidential and to be used solely for the purpose of the end-line evaluation. The deliverables and all material linked to the end-line study such as pictures, geo-locations are confidential and remain property of WHH.

Qualifications and Experience

• Master’s Degree in one of the following fields: Development Studies, Agriculture, Business Studies, Monitoring and Evaluation or any other relevant fields.
• The team leader must have at least 8 years of working experience in international development, particularly trade/ export facilitation, value chain development,
• The team leader must have at least 5 years demonstrable experience in conducting external evaluations, particularly in agriculture (Value Chain Development project), including at international level,
  Good command in both writing and speaking in English, Ndebele and Shona.
• Value Chain Development and markets analysis expertise
• The team should include experts with advanced knowledge in participatory appraisals, documentation, reporting skills Strong communication and analytical skills, and Commitment to delivering timely, high-quality results.
• Experience in evaluation of EU funded projects will be an added advantage.
• Technical and Financial Offer.

TO APPLY

Interested Consultants or firms are requested to submit:

• Technical Proposal detailing the Consultant’s understanding of the Terms of Reference (TORs), proposed methodology and work schedule.
• Financial Proposal detailing the proposed budget for conducting the assignment. This should include daily professional fees including VAT, field travel costs and any other costs.
• Capability Statement demonstrating how they meet the required qualifications and experience requirements in the form of samples of similar previous evaluations done on value chain development.
• Copies of all relevant Curriculum Vitaes (CVs) for the evaluation team including two references.
• Legal documents (registration and tax clearance in case of consulting firm).

NB: The technical offer should not exceed 10 pages and must comply with the Terms of Reference.

During the application process, WHH will not charge any fee nor will it require any payment for an application to be considered. WHH is an equal opportunity employer and employs personnel without regard to race, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, language, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status and or physical handicap: Persons with disability are encouraged to apply:

Interested candidates should submit proposals via email to: recruitment.zimbabwe@welthungerhilfe.de indicating the position in the subject line.