Consultancy Services for the Final Project Evaluation

Terms of Reference (TOR)

(Final Project Evaluation of Empowered Person with disabilities in an Inclusive and Resilient communities-EPIC project)

 (AX24568)

1.   Background

This 42 – month “Empowered Persons with Disabilities in an Inclusive Community – EPIC"  (September 2019 to February 2023) project aims to increase the empowerment, inclusion, and resilience of persons with disabilities in targeted communities of Lamjung and Tanahu districts by, strengthening their self-confidence and empowerment, promoting their effective access to quality services, improving awareness and knowledge of the rights of persons with disabilities, and building their resilience to disasters.  The purpose is to reduce the multiple barriers persons with disabilities currently face in emergency and non-emergency contexts in Dordi Rural Municipality of Lamjung district and Rishing Rural Municipality of Tanahu district, which hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. 

To bring the desired and sustainable changes, the project works with and through government structures and in partnership with communities of concern during all stages of the project cycle.

Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) is an integral part of the design and implementation of all key components: 

1. strengthening the self-confidence of persons with disabilities and their capacity to position themselves as active members of their families. 
2. increasing meaningful participation of persons with disabilities in their communities and 
3. fostering an enabling environment allowing persons with disabilities to fully exercise their rights, and 
4. Local authorities and communities including disability self-help groups, (SHG)) have increased awareness and capacity to take actions towards community resilience through a multi-hazard and Disability Inclusion approach in Disaster Risk Management (DRM).

The project targeted direct beneficiaries 9,231 people, including 1,063 persons with disabilities (617 male, 446 female), living in 17 wards of two rural municipalities (nine wards in Dordi Rural Municipality; eight Wards in Rishing Rural Municipality), in the Lamjung and Tanahu districts, Nepal; as well as 60 Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS)) staff and volunteers.  

The project has supported or has been working with 17 emergency response teams and 17 disability SHGs in each of the 17 wards in those two rural municipalities.  It has also supported the establishment of Disability-Inclusive Ward Disaster Management Committees and Local Disaster Management Committees in all 17 wards and both rural municipalities through its advocacy efforts. Two drinking water user committees were established, and several groups were established for landslide mitigation. More than 300 families have received livelihood support, more than 500 families received PSS support and more than 100 families have received assistive devices and rehabilitation services.  

The project faced a series of implementation challenges including the impacts of COVID-19, local election and national level elections, and an earthquake in the Dordi Rural Municipality in May 2021, as well as annual monsoon-related hazards. The project has been using a flexible management approach, which has - wherever feasible – allowed interventions to be adapted to the evolving context through a proactive and need-based planning and implementation modality.

The project has been implemented by NRCS in a consortium led by the Danish Red Cross (DRC) and comprising the Austrian Red Cross, Finnish Red Cross (FinRC) and the Hong Kong Red Cross branch of the Red Cross Society of China (HKRC).

To be able to assess the success of the project, an external evaluation is being commissioned. The evaluation is planned for January - February 2023, which are the last months of the project implementation period.  

2.  Purpose, Objectives, and Scope

2.1  Purpose

The main purpose of this final evaluation is to assess the extent to which the project contributed towards reaching the intended objective, namely – Persons with disabilities in Nepal fully exercise their rights and are active members of their families, communities, and society. 

Furthermore, the evaluation will assess whether and to what extent the project was able to contribute to national priorities in Disaster Risk Management.  It will especially reflect how those could be replicated as stand-alone disability-focused projects or implemented as an integrated program approach in other rural municipalities, and the benefits and opportunities of doing so.  

It also intends to provide specific recommendations regarding any actions required to effectively sustain or further improve the contribution made by the projects and as such, the opportunities and gaps that need to be considered or designed differently to be able to do so.

2.2  Objectives

This evaluation is designed to assess the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability of the project in relation to the objectives (and supporting outputs) set out in the project documents. The final evaluation will analyze the outputs and results achieved by the project.  It will analyze the challenges, and opportunities faced by the project during the project duration. The study will also look after the management aspect as the project falls under the responsibility of two different Departments of NRCS (Disaster Management Department and Gender and Social Inclusion Department of NRCS).   

The evaluation has a joint focus on accountability and learning, and more specifically, will:

1. Assess the project’s achievements against its intended objectives and outputs as set out in the logical framework.

2. Assess the appropriateness and meaningful use of the project’s community engagement tools and approaches 

3. Assess the sustainability of the tools and approaches developed and supported by the project; with a specific focus on providing guidance on a sustainability strategy.

4. Assess how well the project was able to collaborate and build synergies with other local authorities on disability empowerment and disability-inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction.

5. Identify lessons learned and key recommendations from the project that could feed into program formulation in the future.

2.3  Scope

The evaluation will cover the project in its entirety both in terms of the timeline (1st September 2019 to 28 February 2023) and geographic coverage, Dordi Rural Municipality, Lamjung district, and Rishing Rural Municipality, Tanahu district.  The evaluation will analyze the engagement of stakeholders, disability Self Help Groups, persons with disabilities and their family members, Green Pasture Hospital and ward disaster management committee, community-based emergency response team and local communities, local authorities, health posts and FCHVs and Nepal Red Cross Society.

The evaluation shall comprise but not necessarily be limited to the following areas/ questions:

Relevance

• To what extent are the specific interventions relevant to the needs and priorities of the beneficiaries?
• To what extent do activities include and reach the most vulnerable and marginalized people including persons with disabilities?
• To what extent do beneficiaries/target communities participate in the planning, design, and implementation of the project?

Effectiveness

• To what extent have the project objectives and outputs been achieved? 
• To what extent have any significant unplanned results been achieved (positive or negative)?
• To what extent have the project activities been of the necessary technical quality?
• To what extent has the project activities being of the necessary technical quality? 
• Which good practices and lessons learned shall be replicated in other projects/programs with confidence 
• What conditions facilitated the achievement of results? What conditions were obstacles to achieving the results? 

Efficiency

• To what extent did the project employ new options/technologies/ideas to develop and implement activities in the most efficient and impactful way?
• To what extent did the project successfully adapt to the evolved context (covid-19) and the other challenges?
• What are the internal and external factors that affected the efficiency in implementation (good and not so good)?

Sustainability

• The evaluation is planned to be conducted during the last months of the project while a few activities are in their final stage. Therefore, the evaluation can access only indicators/ signs of sustainability or conditions that promote sustainability. 
• To what extent are the disability SHGs established and to what extent are ward disaster management committees that are disability-inclusive established? Are they sustainable, especially in terms of continuing essential activities and preventing community dependency?  
• To what extent are spaces and linkages established for communities and authorities to engage in discussion and cooperation regarding disability-inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction, and disability-inclusive planning to sustain beyond the end of the project?
• To what extent do communities, and local government have ownership of project activities? What activities are likely to be continued following the withdrawal of the project from target areas? 

3   Methodology

This external final evaluation shall be carried out, using secondary and primary information, in close collaboration between NRCS and Danish Red Cross (DRC). The review should involve a combination of methods:

• Review of secondary information (relevant documents and reports). It is expected that the available documents have good sets of information to use for the evaluation however, it is the responsibility of the consultant to do an information gap analysis and devise good primary information collection tools and methodologies.  The project has a baseline report, mid-term evaluation report, end-line study report, lessons learned study report, success stories and project reports. The detail of primary information collection tools must be presented in proposal and also in the inception report after selection.   
• Focus Group Discussions with members of Ward Disaster Management Committee (WDMC), SHGs, and Water User Groups (WUGs), the person with a disability, and family members of the person with a disability covering all diversified groups and communities, women/marginalized groups’ network.
• Key Informant Interviews with wards and Rural Municipality representatives, SHG representatives, Nepal Red Cross Society  (NRCS) headquarter, NRCS Lamjung and Tanahu district/Sub chapter's volunteers, and DRC Country Office (DRC CO), GESI committee members of both districts ( if possible). 
• Individual interviews should be conducted with community people who benefitted from the project’s livelihood activity, rehabilitation and assistive devices support, psychosocial support, drinking water scheme, small-scale hazard mitigation support, and people who participated in the training, members of the Community Based Emergency Response tools (CBERT) squad, WDMC representatives and other project activities.
• Sample selection and size should be determined to ensure a good representation of all the vulnerable and covering all diversified groups.  
• The consultant should focus on the key questions (section 2.3) while developing the questionnaire and conducting interviews and discussions. 
• Field visit (max 8 days) to Dordi Rural Municipality Lamjung and Rishing Rural Municipality Tanahu and respective district headquarters where the NRCS district chapters office is located.
• Debriefing meeting with a discussion of initial findings with DRC CO and NRCS headquarters team.

Note: In case of any extreme unavoidable crisis that prohibits field travel and face-to-face meetings and small gatherings the consultant and DRC will discuss and revise this above-preferred evaluation methodology 

4   Roles & Responsibilities

The final evaluation team will be led by the external consultant in close collaboration with DRC and NRCS . 

DRC shall be responsible for: 

• Ensuring the DRC’s Senior Programme and Livelihood Officer will closely work with the evaluation team led by the consultant. 
• All the logistics (transportation, accommodation, appointments), linking with NRCS focal person and community will be facilitated by DRC CO.
• Making payments in Nepali Rupees as per the signed contract with the consultant within two weeks of the submission of the invoice and final evaluation report. 

Consultant shall be responsible for: 

• Leading the evaluation team and evaluation process.
• Preparing and submitting an inception report.
• Preparing a debriefing note and/or PowerPoint presentation summarising the findings and recommendations of the evaluation. 
• Presenting the initial findings to the Danish Red Cross and its consortium partners and NRCS  team for suggestions and feedback.
• Preparing and submitting the first draft report and final report to the DRC and its consortium partners as per the DRC final evaluation template.

5   Deliverables & Schedule

The assignment should be able to get started on 01 February 2023 and completed by 28 February 2023. 

Schedule: The evaluation review will be carried out in January and February and last up to 20 working days, including a maximum of 8 days in the field. The exact timeframe will be agreed upon in joint consultation between DRC CO and the consultant. 

6   Skills & Qualifications

• A Master’s or Graduate Degree in the field of development studies (includes, Sociology & Social studies, International Development, Development Studies, Disability, and related) 
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience in designing and conducting development project evaluations
• Proven track record of application of results-based management evaluation methodologies to development programs in areas of inclusion and community-based projects including disaster risk reduction 
• Project evaluation/ review experiences with international organizations are a requirement
• Project evaluation/ review experiences within the Red Cross Movement will be considered as an asset. 

7   Budget

The consultant is asked to submit a budget proposal outlining the costs for working days (fee), along with a tentative work plan including the working days for the main activities and milestones. 

Submit a financial proposal in NPR, with a detailed breakdown of the cost and its related activity including all applicable tax/vat. 

In your financial proposal please mentioned the terms of payment including bank details:

Bank Name:

Account Name:

Account Number: 

Branch:

In the financial proposal, the applicant should mention the detailed terms of payment.

Per diem & Travel allowance

The DRC will cover all travel and accommodation costs as per actual basis & food-max NPR 1800 per person per day.

Available Data & Documentation

• Project document: Project Description, Log frame 
• Project progress reports  
• Project mid-term evaluation report
• Project lessons learned study report
• Data protection policy (DRC)
• Project baseline and end-line report 

Required Documents/Certificates with the proposal

The documents/certificates that should be submitted/attached with your offer are: -

• Acknowledgment of ToR. (Please attach the signed copy of these Terms of Reference with your offer)
• Copy of VAT/PAN registration certificate.
• Copy of Business Registration, if applicable. 
• Copy of latest TAX clearance certificate, if applicable

8  Selection process and criteria 

The applicants will be evaluated as below:

First Round  

• Technical proposal 40%
• Technical interview/presentation 30%

Second Round  

• Financial proposal 30%

The applicant selection will be done in two phases. In the first phase, technical evaluation (Technical proposal and technical interview/presentation) will be carried out. A maximum of the top five consultancies, based on technical proposals, will be invited for presentation/interviews. The applicant successful in technical evaluation only will compete for the financial evaluation.

Selection criteria

• Relevant professional experience, 
• Team composition, competencies of the team members, and qualifications. 
• Quality of samples submitted along with the technical proposal.
• Commitment to quality of deliverables and timely delivery.
• Quality of technical proposal and the total value of the financial proposal.
• Proposal Presentation (ideas, plans, organizing the overall assignments, field plan, team composition, and other details about the work).  
• Experience of working (project designing, evaluation) in disability inclusion and DIDRR 

9 HOW TO APPLY   

Interested individuals and organizations should submit the following documents to Ms. Aliza Baidya at aliza.baidya@ifrc.org latest by 23 January 2023, please be informed that the Technical and financial proposal must be submitted as a separate document. The incomplete proposal in all respect and proposals submitted after the deadline will not be considered. 

• Submit a technical, financial, and timeline proposal demonstrating a thorough understanding of this ToR
• Submit a detailed CV (only of those who will be involved in this project) and application letter showing why you are most suitable for undertaking the consultancy
• Submit an example of any relevant previous work 
• Submit names and contacts for 3 references 

We thank you in advance for understanding that only short-listed candidates will be contacted for the next step in the application process.