IMPACT DOCUMENTALIST , Kenya

1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1.1 General Information

The Non State Actors Support Programme (NSA-NET) is a part of the European Union (EU) support to the Governance and Democratisation Sector in Kenya and is funded under the ninth European Development Fund (EDF IX). The Programme is premised on the Government of Kenya commitment to work with all the sectors towards realising the overall objective of Vision 2030, which is “a globally competitive and prosperous country with a high quality of life by the year 2030”. The programme will specifically support the achievement of the political pillar of Vision 2030, which seeks to achieve “a democratic political system that is issue-based, people-centred, result-oriented and accountable to the public”. The Programme builds on the achievements of an earlier EC funded programme entitled Democratic Governance Support Programme (DGSP) which was implemented from 2003 to 2006.

The global objective of the Programme is to improve the quality of life for the people of Kenya, especially the poor, marginalized and vulnerable, in enabling all sections of society to have a voice in national development policies, thus enhancing local ownership of development Programmes. The specific objective of the Programme is to strengthen mechanisms, networks and capacity for deepening and broadening of NSA involvement in development processes.

The following expected results are set out in the Programme’s Financing Agreement:

Result Description
Result 1 Improved democratic governance and cultural innovations for promotion of good governance
Result 2 Improved communication, information, horizontal learning and networking among NSAs at and between all levels.
Result 3 Enhanced institutional and technical capacity of NSAs
Result 4 Improved institutionalized involvement of NSAs in national policy formulation, implementation and monitoring of development Programmes and better dialogue with government, with parliament and with international development partners on sector and cross - sectoral issues.

1.2 Context

The NSA – NET Support Programme is implemented mainly through 12 Non State Actors (NSAs) and Cultural Actors working with 22 partners, who are funded to implement various democratic governance activities related to the NSA – NET objective and results in different parts of Kenya. Since its inception in June 2010, the NSA – NET has made significant achievements in supporting democratic governance initiatives and building the capacities of the Non State Actors. Broad activities which have been implemented by the NSAs include; access to justice, strengthening local and national governance, peace building, security and conflict resolution, promotion of governance through cultural expressions, strategic capacity building of individual NSAs and networks, facilitation of networking among NSAs, institutional capacity building of NSAs and NSA networks, and improved involvement of NSAs in national policy development.

The NSA – NET’s Programme Management and Facilitation Unit (PMFU) has also implemented various capacity building activities. These activities were implemented mainly through coaching and training of NSAs in targeted areas such as financial management, monitoring and evaluation, networking and engagement in policy dialogue at the local and national level.

Whereas numerous actions have been implemented by the 12 funded NSAs and their 22 partners, it is not feasible to demonstrate with precision (at the macro level) the specific impacts of the actions. This is because, impacts in most circumstance result from various interventions. At the global level, the programme will provide a programmatic final report on the way the various actions have contributed to the realization of the four results outlined above.

The Programme also seeks to provide a more detailed assessment of Programme impacts from a sample of the actions implemented by the NSAs. For this purpose, an “impact documentalist” will be required to undertake detailed analysis of the sampled actions and prepare distinct reports for each case, on the basis of these ToRs. The analysis for each case will seek to document the entire continuum of the sampled action – from the problem the action was supposed to address, the implementation experiences and lessons learnt and the impacts/benefits accrued to the beneficiaries after implementation of the actions. The analysis should to show in details the extent to which the initiative(s) have contributed to the achievement of Programme objectives and results and in realising the aspirations of the Programme theme of “increasing peoples’ participation in good governance and development”.

1.3 Contracting Authority

The contracting authority is the consortium led by SOFRECO who were awarded the Programme Manager contract to manage the Non State Actors Support Programme by the Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs.

1. DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

2.1 Global Objective

The global objective of this assignment is to contribute to documentation of the NSA-NET Support Programme impact for current and future reference.

2.2 Specific objective

The specific objective of this assignment is to undertake in-depth analysis of sampled NSA-NET Programme actions and clearly document the impact/effects within the context of the following broad themes;

• Access to justice,
• Strengthening local and national governance,
• Peace building, security and conflict resolution,
• Promotion of governance through cultural expressions,
• Strategic capacity building of individual NSAs and networks,
• Facilitation of networking among NSAs,
• Institutional capacity building of NSAs and NSA networks, and
• Improved involvement of NSAs in national policy development.

The documentation should highlight the inputs, challenges, successes and best practices from the specific cases which will be documented.

2.3 Requested Services

The Impact Documentalist will implement the following tasks towards achievement of the objectives of the assignment:
• Review all the four NSA – NET progress reports which have been documented to date and identify at least 2 potential cases per theme. The identified cases will be discussed and agreed with the NSA – NET Programme Manager;
• Review the list of potential cases submitted by NSAs to the PMFU in comparison with the cases identified with the NSA – NET under the above one;
• In consultation with the NSA – NET Programme Manager, agree on the final list of initiatives which are likely to depict the greatest impact in each of the themes for further documentation based on the how on the information provided in the NSAs reports;
• Organise meetings with all the NSAs whose initiatives are selected for documentation to collect further details of the activities, location, stakeholders among others;
• Prepare a visit itinerary to the various locations and submit to the Programme Manager for approval;
• Prepare an appropriate and comprehensive data collection tool. The data collection should collect information which, among others, answers the following questions.

Problem

 What was the problem before the intervention?
 Who was affected by the problem?
 How were they affected by the problem?
 What was the effect of the problem?

Intervention (initiative)

 What was done to address the problem (interventions)?
 Why were the specific interventions chosen?
 Who executed/implemented the intervention(s)? – Outline the roles played by various actors;
 How were the intervention(s) executed/implemented?

Benefits/outcomes/impact

 What benefits have been realized following the interventions (before and after)?
 What evidence is there to show that the benefits have been realized? – the evidence should be quantitative and qualitative as much as possible.

Challenges and lessons learned

 What challenges were experienced and how were they overcome?
 What lessons have been learned in the process of implementing the initiative?

• Visit the activity locations and conduct interview using semi structured interview tool with relevant stakeholders aimed at answering the above questions;
• Organise the data/information gathered into an approach which highlights the focus of each of the cases;
• Prepare distinct narration for each of the sampled actions. Each narration should integrate and summarize key information around the area(s) of focus;
• Present the narrations for review and validation to the respective NSAs; and
• Finalise the narrations. Each narration should be about 5 pages and a separate one page summary brief.

2.4 Required outputs

• Submit a detailed inception report;
• Present the draft cases narrations for all the agreed initiatives;
• Make a validation presentation of the narrations to the respective NSAs; and
• Submission of final case narration (5 pages and 1 page brief).

1. EXPERTPROFILE

One expert is requested to carry out this assignment. The Impact Documentalist has to respond to the following selection criteria:

3.1 Qualifications and skills
• At least University degree in political science, law, communication, development studies, public administration, or related social science discipline;
• Fluent in spoken and written English;
• Excellent analytical and report writing skills;
• Swahili will be an advantage;
• Excellent diplomatic skills.

3.2 General professional experience
• Minimum of 7 years of experience as a practitioner in democratic governance programming in non - governmental organisations or government; and
• Strong understanding of democratic governance programming among the civil society organisations in Kenya.

3.3 Specific professional experience
• At least 5 years experience in conducting impact reviews and documentation in governance related or social development projects; and
• Demonstrated experience in conducting impact reviews or documentations in at-least one project/programme comparable to the Non State Actors Support Programme.

1. DURATION AND LOCATION

Starting period

Indicative starting date for expert to take up his/her duties is 10th December 2012

Foreseen finishing period or duration

Twelve (12) working days should be done within one and half months. The indicative finishing date for this assignment is end of January 2013.

Location(s) of assignment

The base of activities is Nairobi with four days spent outside of Nairobi (actual locations to be visited will be agreed during the inception meeting with the Programme Manager)

1. REPORTING

5.1 Content
• Inception report of maximum 5 pages which outlines overall approach, list of initiatives to be documented, data collection tool(s) and travel plan should be presented. The report should be prepared after review of NSA – NET progress and potential cases studies documented by NSAs and agreed list of specific cases to be documented as agreed with the NSA – NET Programme Manager.
• Draft impact documentation should contain distinct narration for each of the cases which have been documented in the format approved by the Programme Manager. It should include inputs from the NSAs.
• Final Impact documentation should contain distinct narrative of each case. Each narration should be about 5 pages and a separate one page summary brief.

5.2 Language

All reports and written documents are to be provided in English.

5.3 Submission/comments timing

Throughout the assignment, the Impact Documentalist will produce and submit to the Programme Manager the reports already detailed in Article 2.4. The time frame is as follows : Activity By When Initial meeting and commencement of the assignment 17th December 2012 Inception report 20th December 2012 Meeting with NSAs 7th to 11th January 2013 Field visits 14th to 18th January 2013 Prepare and present draft impact documentation 21st to 24th January 2013 Review and validation by NSAs 25th January 2013 Presentation of draft to NSA – NET for review 28th January 2013 Final impact documentation 31st January 2013

5.4 Number of reports (copies)

Final reports should be submitted in four hard copies (one original) and one soft copy. All the other reports can submit via email.

1. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

6.1 Tax and VAT arrangements

The expert will be responsible for their own local taxes.

6.2 Supervisor

The assignment is under the supervision of the Technical Assistance Project Director and under the direct supervision of the Non State Actors Technical Assistance Programme Manager. However, the expert will work on a day to day basis under the direct supervision of NSA –NET Monitoring and Evaluation Manager.

How to apply:

Send your cv to

info@nsa-net.org