Consultancy Services for Mid Term Evaluation (MTE)

1. Background

Sudan is a hub for migrants from across Africa. A country of origin, transit, and destination, it lies at the heart of migratory routes connecting East and West Africa to the Mediterranean Sea and Europe. As of 31st December 2017, an estimated 171,635 refugees and migrants travelled by sea to Europe, with 119,310 recorded arriving in Italy, from Libya, via the Central Mediterranean route. According to the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat (RMMS), East African irregular migrant arrivals to Europe in 2017 were made up of 7,000 Eritreans, 6,200 Sudanese, 2,522 Somalis, and 690 Ethiopians. Migration flows of predominantly Eritreans, Ethiopians, Sudanese and Somalis follow a north-western route, through Sudan to Libya before Europe. Of those reported dead or missing en route to Europe, 92% used the Central Mediterranean Route, making this the deadliest route so far. There are few opportunities for migrants and refugees to access humanitarian assistance. Irregular migrants and victims of trafficking congregate in hubs along the routes, but there is little to no dedicated service provision available to offer safeguarding support, information and counselling services on the risks ahead because so little is known to date about the composition of the migrant flows. As a result of the reticence of migrants and refugees to approach services, it is a challenge to develop programmatic responses that target whole migration routes with evidence-based responses to provide services and to connect to programs addressing the root causes of unsafe migration in countries of origin.

2. About the Consortium

DRC is a private independent organisation whose aim is to protect refugees and internally displaced persons from persecution and promote lasting solutions to forced displacement. DRC has been operating in Sudan since 2004, in Ethiopia since 2010 and in Libya since 2011 and is present in the main countries of departure and transit along the principal migration routes towards Europe. DRC has been engaged in evidence creation, policy influencing and operational response in relation to mixed migration since 2011, which led to the creation of a global Mixed Migration Centre in 2018, integrating multiple regional Mixed Migration research and advisory structures. Since 2010, DRC has implemented more than 50 projects under DFID funding, delivering integrated multisector assistance to refugees, IDPs and vulnerable migrants. Since 1962, Welthungerhilfe (WHH) has undertaken its activities of development and humanitarian support globally. The organisation supports populations in developing countries with integrated aid, ranging from rapid disaster emergency aid, rehabilitation and resilience programmes and long-term development assistance. WHH has had its presence in Sudan since 1998 and brings its experience on resilience programming, focusing on long-term sustainability and reducing external aid dependency. WHH has field offices in Kassala, Gedaref, Red Sea and North Darfur States of the Republic of Sudan where it is currently implementing projects.

3. The Routes-Based Migration Response programme

The Routes-Based migration response programme is a three-year intervention from October 2018 – October 2021, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) designed to target three aspects of migration through and from Sudan; (i) flows through Sudan toward Europe, (ii) returns to Sudan and (ii) lack of full information about flows and risks. The programme is implemented by a consortium of organizations led by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) which plays an overall leadership role and implements field activities as the grant holder. Its partner includes Welthungerhilfe (WHH) which is implementing programme activities in Kassala and Gedaref and the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) which has migration monitors in 15 countries globally and is responsible for the research component of the programme.

The programme aims to achieve its impact using an approach informed by the profile of different migrant groups in mixed flows and the diverse and interconnected drivers of migration while paying special attention to migration routes and their variability. The goal of the programme is to contribute to making migration through Sudan safer, with the most vulnerable protected from harm and able to meet their basic needs. This is aimed to be achieved through three outcomes;

· Outcome 1: Migrants, refugees and host communities along the transit routes are protected from harm and are able to meet their basic needs.

· Outcome 2: Migrants, refugees and host communities are benefiting from improved durable solutions.

· Outcome 3: Contribute to evidence-based programming and policy development by governments, humanitarian agencies, and national partners that is responsive to humanitarian and protection needs for people on the move and enhances durable solutions.

1. Purpose of the Evaluation

The consortium plans to undertake a comprehensive mid-term evaluation to document evidence-based outcomes, lessons learned, and existing gaps in the project implementation and management. This evaluation will focus on testing progress made against all the project outputs, outcomes and establish the initial project impact. The evaluation will provide recommendations on all aspects of the results framework that need to be reviewed and updated based on the project implementation context.

1. Overall Objective

The main objective is to assess actual project achievements against the planned baseline targets and effectiveness to support annual reporting and learning. Additionally, it will document reasons for the observed performance and draw lessons that could be used in the remaining project implementation period, documented as best practices.

6. Specific objectives of the Evaluation

1. Document evidence-based data which demonstrates safer migration with the most vulnerable are protected from harm and able to meet their basic needs.

2. Review the log frame and theory of change and provide necessary recommendations for adaptive programming.

3. Review the progress of the Routes-Based Migration Response programme against stated overall objectives and indicators stated in the programme logical framework.

4. Identify any current or potential issues affecting progress towards the overall objective and specific objectives and recommend corrective actions.

5. Provide recommendations to enhance the successful implementation of the remaining period of the project, including providing a realistic assessment of how much additional time will be needed

6. Provide an analysis on how the programme has addressed Value for Money (VfM).

7. Provide analysis on whether the route-based approach is understood and applied.**

7. Scope of work:

The scope of work for the consultant will include but not limited to uncovering the following in the report;

1. Develop/design the evaluation including questionnaire for quantitative survey and checklist and tools for group interaction including FGD and KII with target and indirect beneficiaries

2. Share evaluation design including process, methods and questionnaires/checklist with project team, collect feedback and finalize the study design.

3. Orient, train and supervise the enumerators.

4. Carryout field work together with enumerators.

5. Ensure the quality of information collected from fields, cross check with the validity of information collected and verify/revise where needed.

6. Update the project results matrix based on the evaluation findings.

7. Assess the project achievement towards against these impact indicators;

8. Describe the actual performance of the project in relation to the achievement of targeted outcomes indicators in the results framework;

9. Project Performance against the actual performance of the project in relation to the delivery of the outputs.

a. Were all planned outputs delivered, to what degree?

b. Did the quality of the outputs meet expectations?

1. What activities have taken place during year one of the project to support the delivery of each output? At this stage, will the project expect to meet year I milestone?

2. Approach and Methodology

   The evaluation will take a mixed method approach. The consultant will be responsible for defining and carrying out the overall evaluation approach. This will include specification of the techniques for data collection and analysis, structured field visits and interactions with beneficiaries and the MEAL team. Evaluation tools, methodology and findings should be reviewed and validated with the partners and approved by the Consortium Management Unit.

   The evaluation shall combine qualitative and quantitative data and gather information from migrants, refugees’ returnees and host community members.

   a) Desk review of the project documents, project periodic reports and other relevant documents to obtain secondary data.

   b) Meetings and discussions (FGDs and KIIs) with programme implementing partners e.g. local partner, government, project staff at different levels, some of the project beneficiaries, individuals and groups. The objectives of the meetings and discussions are to generate information for exploring the project effectiveness, efficiency and achievements of the proposed outcomes and results. It must also explore lessons learned during the implementation, constraints and challenges encountered.

   c) Field visits be conducted by the consultant to observe implemented activities in the target locations. The selections of the sites for the filed visit to be agreed upon with consortium considering access and security to acquire information and knowledge on the project results and impact on beneficiaries, particularly women. The consultant will apply Observations in the field to explore change in practices in the project interventions, and project impact.

   d) Household interviews be conducted inclusive of direct and indirect project beneficiaries. Standard random household and respondent selection techniques should be applied. The collected quantitative information will be triangulated alongside the qualitative information to derive the performance of the project.

   The evaluation report will be informed by the data collected, along with the results of the desk review. The analysis will focus on identifying trends and significant findings as they relate to the evaluation criteria and the evaluation questions.

   The final report structure will be decided upon in collaboration with the Consortium Management Unit. The report will present realistic, achievable and action-oriented recommendations. All deliverables will be first submitted for review and comments before producing final documents.

   1. Expected Outputs/ Deliverables

   · Inception meeting: Between the Consultant, the M&E technical team and the Consortium Management Unit i.e. to jointly have a reflection on the evaluation questions.

   · Desk review: Undertake desk review of the relevant programme documents that include the implementation plans, progress reports, and any other relevant documents

   · Inception Report: An Inception Report detailing the process and methodologies among other things to be employed to achieve the objective of this consultancy. The following documents should be annexed to the inception report; Survey qualitative and quantitative tools, data analysis plan, detailed implementation plan, etc.

   · Final raw and clean datasets: both qualitative and quantitative data as described in the TOR.

   · Data Analysis: A final data analysis output report based on an agreed data analysis plan with the Consortium Management Unit

   · Draft Report: Presented to the contact persons as detailed in the TOR.

   · Preliminary findings presentation: Make a presentation to the Consortium Management Unit based on the preliminary findings from the draft report.

   · Electronic Photographs of respondents with short descriptions.

   · Final Main Report: Submit a hard and softcopy of the final study report to DRC having incorporated all comments from the M&E technical team and the Consortium Management Unit.

   · Summary Report: Refers to a summarized version of the main report.

   · All report annexes - TOR, data collection tools, lists of key meetings held, Household interview database and tools to monitor performance indicator for the project. 1. Duration of the Consultancy

   The consultancy is for 35 days within December 2020 and January 2021. The consultant must ensure that the whole process of the work that includes testing and reviewing of the tools, actual fieldwork, data analysis, dissemination of the key findings to DRC and its partners and reviewing of the final report will be completed within this time frame.

   The composition of the evaluation team is left up to the selected consultant/ on their internal System, ideas and logic. However, the consortium recommends that the team comprises of one Team Leader (TL) to coordinate/conduct the overall evaluation and liaise with the consortium and have at least one expert for each humanitarian WASH, livelihoods and FSL sectors.

3. 1. Qualifications & Experience

   · At least a master’s degree in a relevant field in Humanitarian Action, public policy, development studies and other related fields.

   · At least 5 years’ professional experience in monitoring and evaluation of the multi-sector programme

   · Over 5 years of experience in conducting program/project evaluations in humanitarian contexts

   · Technical knowledge and working experience in the humanitarian WASH, Protection and FSL sectors.

   · Solid methodological and research skills, demonstrated through a list of research pieces and evaluations.

   · Experience in working with humanitarian non-governmental organizations

   · A deep understanding of the Sudan context.

   · Ability to work in complex, insecure environments and be flexible.

   1. Skills and Competencies

   · Excellent Report writing skills, demonstrated by a list of published articles and reports.

   · Excellent analytical, interpersonal, and communication skills.

   · Knowledge and experience of gender equality approaches.

   · Good knowledge of context and local customs.

   · Proficiency in written and spoken English and Arabic.

   · Must be result-oriented, a team player, exempting high levels of enthusiasm, tact, diplomacy and integrity.

   · Demonstrate excellent interpersonal and professional skills in interacting with government and development partners.

   3. We offer

   DRC will offer the successful applicant a 35 working-days contract; the consultancy must commence no later than 1^st February 2021.

   DRC will not provide any logistics cost for international / Domestic flights, accommodation, food and local transportation. All logistics cost will be covered by the consultant.

How to apply:

Download the Documents from https://www.sudanbid.com/jobview.php?id=279&s=

Interested applicants who meet the required qualifications and experience are invited to submit their expression of interest to rfq.sudan@drc.ngo or sealed envelope to DRC office in Sudan House No. 23, Block No. 9/H, Street 29, Al Amarat; Khartoum, Sudan