Terms of Reference (ToR) for Final Evaluation of ‘Youth and Women Entrepreneurship Development Project’

Terms of Reference (ToR) for

Final Evaluation of ‘Youth and Women Entrepreneurship Development Project’

1. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

Introduction

In technical and financial support from Lutheran World Relief (LWR), Dalit Feminist Uplifment Organization (DAFUO) and National Environment and Equity Development Society Nepal (NEEDS Nepal) is implementing the ‘Youth and Women Entrepreneurship Development Project’.

The ‘Youth and Women Entrepreneurship Development Project’ is designed to enhance the employability and employment opportunities of youths and women to improve their economic competitiveness through on-farm and off-farm small and micro enterprises in collaboration with local government. The project aims to increase youth’s and women's access to economic resources and opportunities. The project is strengthening the opportunities of women and youth in entrepreneurship, finding jobs, accessing financial services, skill development opportunities and market information. The project promoted youth, women and marginalized section of the community people led small and micro enterprises to increase their economic competitiveness and establish business networks and relationship with financial institutions and engage with institutionalized markets.

It has been realized that for developing an entrepreneur it is essential to develop entrepreneurial attitudes that help them to understand the basic principles of entrepreneurship and markets, have knowledge on financial management and skills to operationalize the enterprises with profits. It has also been learned that mentoring, counselling and follow up is equally important to keep the youths engaged and motivated and that if they continue business for one year it is very likely that they will be continuing the enterprises in the long run, thus, project tried to build their capacities in the entrepreneurship for sustainable solutions of the above issues and challenges.

Youth and Women Entrepreneurship Development Project aims to ‘improve economic competitiveness of youth focusing to women through entrepreneurship development’, it has emphasized three key components:

1. Start-up of resilient enterprises or improve the profitability of their small and micro enterprises; 
2. Establishment of market connecting with private sector actors for downstream value chain activities and 
3. Improve access to financial services when needed by their enterprises.

The project is being implemented in 2 districts of Nepal, across 4 different municipalities/rural municipalities in Bardiya and Kailali districts. The project aims to reach 500 youths (250 each district) including women entrepreneurs. The project is being implemented from January 2023 till January 2025.

In particular, the Youth and Women Entrepreneurship Development Project is being implemented at Gulariya Municipality and Madhuban Municipality of Bardiya District by DAFUO and Godawari Municipality and Chure Rural Municipality of Kailali District by NEEDS Nepal.

2. OBJECTIVE OF THE SERVICE

Primary Objectives

The primary objective of the final evaluation is to document and analyze the post-project outcomes observed at target beneficiaries and geographic areas, aligning with the log-frame indicators established.

Specific Objectives

The evaluation will be carried out following the OECD/DAC evaluation criteria and will capture the key lessons learnt. However, the focus of the evaluation will be developed together with the evaluation team during the inception phase. The following are the OECD-DAC criteria and key questions proposed for the evaluation.

1. Relevance (Is the project doing the right thing?):

• To what extent does the project objectives and design respond to beneficiaries, government and organizational (partner NGO) needs, policies and priorities, and continue to do so if circumstances change?

2. Coherence (How well does the intervention fit?):

• To what extend does the interventions within the same project and projects within the same organizations are aligned?
• To what extent does the project complement/coordinate/harmonize with other organization’s project, including government’s plans and programs?

3. Effectiveness (Is the intervention achieving its objectives?):

• To what extent does the project achieved or is expected to achieve, its objectives, and its results, including any different results across the groups?
• To what extent does the project achieved or is expected to achieve relevant and sustainable impacts, efficiently and coherently? 

4. Efficiency (How well are resources being used?):

• To what extent does the project deliver, or is likely to deliver, results in an economic and timely way?

5. Impact (What difference does the intervention make?):

• To what extent does the project generated or expected to generate significant positive or negative, intended, or unintended, higher-level effects at household, community, institution and government level?

Part of impact is the report of the project achievement against outcome/output indicators. The relevant outcome/output indicators are provided in the table as below.

6. Sustainability (Will the benefit last?):

• To what extent does the project impact last or are likely to continue? 
• What measures are in place to ensure that the project can continue without LWR’s support?

3. METHODOLOGY

LWR generally prefers Mix-Method Evaluation using participatory and descriptive data collection and analysis tools. The evaluation will be carried out in a transparent manner, making sure that all relevant stakeholders participate, as appropriate. As the Project did not collect data during baseline, a retrospective post-then-pre design (Recall Method) will be used. Retrospective post-then-pre design is a way to control response shift bias in self-reported changes in knowledge, awareness, skills, confidence, attitudes or behaviors among program participants. The evaluation team should design an appropriate methodology demonstrating all key evaluation components i.e. context, impact, effectiveness, efficiency, relevancy, coherence, inclusion and sustainability. 

4. KEY TASKS/ DELIVERABLES 

The firm/evaluation team/individual will provide the following deliverables:

The evaluation is expected to produce, in addition to the key findings of the evaluation, clear and practical recommendations for both implementation and future.

• An inception report, including:
  • A detailed methodology based on this ToR, including a rationale for the choice of methods and how they will be used to highlight different elements of the programme.
  • A detailed evaluation timeline
  • Evaluation matrix (main questions, sub-questions, sources of data, method).
  • Initial findings based on review of the programme documentation, existing data and secondary data.
  • Suggested areas for investigation not covered by this ToR and any suggested additions/alterations.
• Raw version as well as clean version of quantitative data collected including analyzed version in SPSS or any other statistical software. 
• One electronic copy of (a clean version of) qualitative data collected.
• Final Evaluation Report (both electronic and hard copy) after incorporating the feedbacks and comments
• Power point presentation containing findings and recommendations.
• Two-page standalone summary sheet of evaluation
• Two-pager learning document covering major project approaches.

5. TIMELINE

The consultancy service will be undertaken in the month of November 2024 to January 2025. The following are the suggested tentative timeline: 

• 4th week of November 2024: Administering agreement.
• 1st and 2nd week of December 2024: Developing tools, inception plan and data collections.
• 3rd and 4th week of December 2024: Drafting report, to and from feedback and finalizing the report, presentation and submission to LWR.
• 1st and 2nd week of January 2025: Reporting back to local community and local government by partners (major finding). 

6. BUDGET

The total allocated budget for this assignment is NPR. 3,20,000 (including taxes and all associated costs).

7. COMPETENCIES AND QUALIFICATION

The selected consultants/firm must meet the following criteria:

• A minimum of 5 years of experience in project evaluation, preferably in livelihoods and entrepreneurship projects, with at least 2 examples of evaluating projects.
• A relevant academic background (at least Bachelor) in agriculture, social sciences, economics, environmental sciences, climate change, DRR or a related field.
• Have advanced skills and knowledge in monitoring, evaluation and learning methods and approaches, conducting community-based evaluations, and project sustainability mechanisms and processes.
• Considerable technical knowledge and experience in evaluating thematic areas such as agriculture, climate change, livelihood, gender equality and social inclusion, enterprise development.
• Strong analytical and report writing skills.
• Familiarity with theory of change approach and methodology.
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Nepali.
• Strong coordination and facilitation skills, including ability to work in different culture and context.
• Capable of working and travelling within Nepal.
• Commitment to accomplish work within given deadlines.

8. SELECTION PROCESS

LWR including DAFUO and NEEDS Nepal will review proposals based on the following criteria:

• Technical competence and understanding of ToR.
• Cost effective budget proposed for the service.
• Qualifications and experience of the proposed team.
• Proposed methodology and intervention plan.
• References and past performance.

9. APPLICATION PROCESS

Interested consultants/firms are requested to send an Expression of Interest (EoI) and provide evidence to support claims of knowledge, skills and experience:

• A short proposal (not more than 5 pages) including proposed budget on how to fulfil the requirements of the ToR),
• Resumes/CVs with references,
• A sample of a similar assignment.

Please send your proposal including financial proposal details to- needsmnr2008@gmail.com and dafuonepal@gmail.com with compulsory CC to lwrnepalcontact@lwr.org  no later than CoB  21st November, 2024. No phone calls will be allowed.