Final Evaluation Consultancy Tender in Denmark - 25972250

Tenders are invited for Final Evaluation Consultancy.
TERMS OF REFERENCE for Consultancy: final evaluation of ‘Standing Strong: Rebuilding Livelihoods of Displaced Populations in Iraq- project
Evaluation Title: Evaluation Consultancy - World Relief with partner Mission East Rebuilding Livelihoods of Displaced Populations in Iraq

Country: Iraq

Dates Required and Location: Field-based in Iraq: 17 days (northern Iraq)

Home-based: 14 (including days for report delivery)

Duration: 31 days (estimated, subject to visa and access to project sites)

Commissioned by: World Relief

Partner Organization: Mission East
1. Introduction and Background

1.1 Organisations

World Relief (WR) is an international non-profit that has worked for over 70 years to serve the most vulnerable around the world. WR-s goal is to stand with vulnerable communities and partners, focusing on empowering the local church to end the cycle of suffering, transform lives, and build sustainable communities. With headquarters in Baltimore, US, WR has initiatives in disaster response, health and child development, refugee and immigration services, economic development and peacebuilding and now operates in 20 US cities and 24 countries around the world.

In northern Iraq, WR partners with Mission East (ME), an international relief and development organisation, which also works to support vulnerable populations and increase community capacity through both disaster relief and development initiatives. ME-s vision is to empower people and communities in crisis affected countries to lift themselves out of poverty and marginalization.

WR and ME are both members of the Integral Alliance, a global alliance of 22 Christian Relief and Development agencies that work together to present a more effective response to poverty worldwide
1.2 Context

Iraq has been the scene of one of the world-s largest and most volatile humanitarian crises. In June 2014, ISIS seized control of large expanses of territory across Iraq, causing significant displacement and keeping millions of people trapped under occupation. A diversity of armed groups have taken advantage of this context of conflict and instability to commit vast atrocities across Iraq, further entrenching conflict and heightening tensions between the diverse ethnic, religious and political groups in Iraq. Over 3.5 million people were internally displaced, and millions more were trapped in conflict areas behind the numerous frontlines of conflict across the country.

As of early 2018, the Iraq crisis is entering a new phase. The conflict with ISIS has largely ended and the Iraqi Government (GoI) is focused on supporting the return of 2.6 million people still displaced. Families are starting to return to their places of origin, and are beginning the long and arduous work of rebuilding. Many cities and villages were destroyed, and there is a lack of basic public services and infrastructure. Agriculture and animal husbandry were the primary sources of livelihood for the majority of the population in Ninewa. Post-crisis, agriculture production in Ninewa has declined 40%; 80% of sheep and goats were lost; 90% of chickens were killed; and production of honey declined by 50%. This decline has been a major disruption to livelihoods within Ninewa, and as the agriculture sector was Iraq-s second largest contributor to GDP, this disruption has impacted the nation. The need to reverse this decline and revitalize the agriculture sector is therefore crucial for Ninewa and Iraq as a whole. It will take time for these communities to rebuild and restore basic services, but creating opportunities for income generation, restoring livelihoods, and redeveloping markets is an important step of early recovery. This is the aim of the current project.

With a focus on livelihoods and revitalizing the agriculture sector, the current project works to restore livelihoods in Sinjar District and Kirkuk District in northern Iraq and to provide livelihood activities that help people overcome barriers to return home.
1.3 Background

ME worked in Iraq from 2003-2006 and, in 2014 returned to the country following the severe humanitarian crisis after the occupation of the so-called Islamic State (IS). In 2018, ME-s work in Iraq focuses on the distribution of relief aid to displaced populations, the protection of displaced and returning communities, and livelihoods activities, with the current project.

Since 2014, WR has supported ME in Iraq with its protection and relief work, and in 2016, WR and ME together began the current livelihoods project, Standing Strong: Rebuilding Livelihoods of Displaced Populations in Iraq, with funding from the US Government, the Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration (BPRM).

The current project began in September 2016 with two-year targets and one year of guaranteed funding of 2 million USD (through end of August 2017). The program focuses on returning and host communities in Sinjar and Kirkuk Districts with the objective to support emergency livelihoods for IDPs and promote a return to economic self-sufficiency for host community members and returnees. Year 1 concluded with a one-month no-cost extension, through September 2017.

A proposal to extend for the second year was approved by PRM in the spring of 2017 and the second year of the project began 30 September 2017 and concludes 29 September 2018.
2. Evaluation Purpose and Scope

Per the project proposal to BPRM and both WR and ME-s commitment to excellence, due diligence, improvement and learning, an external evaluation will be conducted at the close of Y2 of the project.

The main purpose of this evaluation is to:

• Review the quality of programming with regard to impact to the targeted population, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and coordination.

o Measure to what extent project activities have been or are being implemented, delivered/delivering outputs and attained/attaining outcomes and expected results set out in the logical framework.

o To what extent has/is the project improved/improving income levels among project beneficiaries?

o How has/is the project enhanced/enhancing women-s engagement in productive activities?

o How project implementation approaches/modalities has/is affected/affecting the achievement of project benchmarks?

o Is the project results framework working as intended allowing for strategic steering and follow-up?

o Specifically, how effective have/are the models/approaches been used/being used by the ME/WR in executing this project? Are the objectives being achieved?

o Assess the suitability of the different project elements: Which elements of the project had the most and least impact on the beneficiaries and why?

o Evaluate the degree the project components are interdependent and the degree they stand alone, and the effect this has on future sustainability.

o Which parts of the project appear to give the best value for money?

o Assess the administrative arrangements of the project including the capacity and arrangements for 1) security, 2) logistics, 3) human resource support, 4) financial management and reporting, and 5) the partnership and coordination between WR and ME separately as factors in the successes and challenges of the project.
Specifically, the evaluation will seek to:
1. Highlight key successes and specific impact to targeted communities as a direct result from WR and ME-s two-year ‘Building Livelihoods Project- in northern Iraq.
2. Determine level of project effectiveness with regard to meeting program indicators, targeting of vulnerable communities, coverage, use and function of monitoring and evaluation systems, coordination, and protection and gender mainstreaming.
3. Determine level of project efficiency with regard to financial systems, logistics and procurement systems, and communications (both internal and between WR and ME).
4. Identify key challenges and barriers that affected the project and how they were overcome.
Scope and focus of the evaluation:

The evaluation should attempt to determine as systematically and objectively as possible the relevance, efficiency, achievements (outputs, prospects for achieving expected outcomes and impact) and sustainability of the project. To this end, the evaluation will assess the achievements of the project against its key objectives, as set out in the project document and the inception report, including re-examination of the relevance of the objectives and of the project design. The evaluation will extend over all specific geographic areas covered by the project, and assess the entire results chain, but will focus more specifically on outputs and planned outcomes, and the likelihood of achieving planned impacts.
3. Methodology

The evaluation will be carried out in keeping with agreed evaluation standards and requirements. The standard DAC evaluation criteria should be applied to address, as systematically and objectively as possible the evaluation questions. Achievements will be assessed against the objectives and indicators set out in the project document and in logical framework.

The evaluation consultant will ensure that the findings are evidence based. This implies that perceptions, hypotheses and assertions obtained in interviews will be validated through cross checks and triangulation of sources. Based on the information collected through interviews and desk review the evaluation consultant will do the analysis of intervention logic. This analysis will map out how inputs and activities should have logically led to outputs, outcomes and impacts. This will enable the evaluation to determine in how far the project design and its activities are adequate, whether they are consistent with the intervention and with strategy and/or whether they contains critical strengths and/or weaknesses that need to be addressed.
The five key areas of investigation are as follows.
1. Anal