Consultancy to Conduct Mid-term Review

Background

The programme “Decent work and Labour Rights in East Africa” (hereafter DWLRP) is a 3 year program (2014-17) implemented by youth organisations and trade unions, that are aiming at improving working conditions for workers and increasing and improving job opportunities for youth.

The overall objective of the program is “The employment conditions in Kenya and Tanzania have improved and youth has access to decent employment in line with existing national and international labour laws and regulations.”

The immediate objectives of the program are:

1. The strengthened capacity of partner trade unions in Kenya and Tanzania to advocate for and create awareness about workers’ rights and respect of labour market legislation contributes to improved working conditions.
2. The strengthened capacity of partner youth organisations in Kenya and Tanzania to create awareness and to advocate for increased and improved job opportunities for youth has contributed to better conditions for establishing sustainable businesses and increased success in their job seeking.

The program thus aims to address challenges related to employment and to the labour market faced by youth and members of trade unions in Kenya and Tanzania. The partners work towards ensuring that labour rights in Kenya and Tanzania are upheld, that especially the vulnerable and poor groups with low income and few opportunities in society are empowered and that their conditions and opportunities at the labour market are improved. Geographically the program focuses on Kenya and Tanzania in and around bigger cities (Dar, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nairobi) Geographically the program focus on Kenya and Tanzania. The program activities are implemented in Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa counties and Dar es Salam city. It is envisioned that the activities of both components in the same areas will create a synergy which will ensure better results with regards to decent employment and better job opportunities in the 4 geographical areas.

The program will come to an end in March 2017, however the experiences from the current program will be taken further, and developed in a new program applied for in October 2016 and set to start in April 2017.

Midterm Review

The review will take place in March 2016 and will be conducted by an external consultant in collaboration with the implementing partners. The findings and recommendations from the review will feed into a Midterm review to be carried out by CISU in April 2016. The findings from both reviews will be discussed during the partners’ meeting in Kenya in 2016 and be the foundation for the strategy to be applied in the new program.

Objective of the review

The objective of the review is to assess the overall progress of the program activities and results as well as assessing the strategy applied, and to recommend changes for the remaining period as well as changes in the strategies, focal areas and organisational set up to be used in the new program phase 2, 2017-20.

The report will respond to the 5 DAC criteria that are defined below with related questions:

Criteria Evaluation issues

Questions

Effectiveness

“The extent to which the objectives were achieved, or are expected to be achieved, taking into account their relative importance”.

To what degree is the program likely to succeeded in meeting its objectives?

What intended results and unintended results have been achieved through the program up til now? (According to the outputs and outcomes described in the program LFA)

Effectiveness in reporting and implementation of activities

Relevance

The extent to which the objectives of a development intervention are consistent with beneficiaries’ requirement, country needs, global priorities and partners’ and donors’ policies”.

Is the program relevant to the target group’s needs and requirements?

Is the program strategy the right strategy to achieve the objectives?

What is the relevance of the partners that have been selected and of the approach taken to the operationalization of the Strategy?

Efficiency

“A measure of how economically

resources/inputs (funds, expertise, time, etc.) are converted to results

Has the funding been spent in an optimal way to obtain results? Has the program spent money on activities that benefit the target group?

Sustainability

The degree to which the processes started and results obtained can be expected to remain in place after program completion.”

What measures have been taken to make the program sustainable? Do these measures seem realistic and what are the chances that the initiatives will continue? What factors are influencing the efforts to make the program sustainable? In what way is the involvement of the local governments ensuring the sustainability?

The replicability of the program: Given that the interventions may be implemented in other locations, how is the assessment of the replicability?

Impact The lasting changes – positive as well as negative, planned as well as unplanned – arising from the program.

What is likely to be the impact of the different interventions of the program in a longer perspective? In what way is the program influencing the lives of the target group? How have the advocacy initiatives influenced the situation of the target group?

In both components additional attention is paid to:

• Overall assessment of the logic intervention and strategies applied.
• How does FIC add value to partners work and implementation
• How do the partners in the program interact? An assessment of the monitoring system, including the methods used to gather the necessary data and the division of roles of program staff in the execution of the monitoring tasks. Is the monitoring system functional and does it help us asses the expected outputs properly? Recommendations should be provided for improvements of the system.
• An assessment of the advocacy strategy and the implementation of the same carried out by the partners. Are the advocacy interventions targeting the right people? Is the advocacy effective, does it have an impact on the right people? What is the outcome?
• What lessons can be learned for the future program?

In the trade union component additional attention is paid to:

• An assessment of the partners’ capacity? Are the capacity of the partners progressing in line with the capacity building activities implemented
• An assessment of the activities implemented. Is the content useful and is it likely that it will lead to the expected results.

In the youth component special attention is paid to:

• An assessment of the partners and their performance. Are the partners appropriate and is their capacity sufficient to lift the tasks?
• An assessment of the trainings, the curricula and the trainers. Is the content useful and does the target group apply the skills and knowledge they learn?
• An assessment of the strategy to offer mentorship and guidance to youth participating in trainings. The strategy implies that guidance/mentorship is offered both during the trainings and after the courses. To what degree is this happening and what is the effect of the intervention?
• An assessment of the informal and formal youth networks. Are the networks functioning as planned and has the cooperation with the youth organisations and labour market stakeholders been strengthened?
• An assessment of the use of internships; what are the challenges and successes?
• An assessment of the sustainability strategy of the program. Have the efforts to cooperate with and to include the local governments been fruitful – what are the challenges?
• Does the culture in Kenya and Tanzania require different approaches?

Methods

The evaluation will be conducted by an external evaluator in such a way that it will ensure mutual involvement and learning amongst the implementing partners of the program. The consultant will build on the program application, and use documents already available, including sustainability strategies, advocacy strategies, minutes from cluster meetings, curricula, and the program monitoring systems: LFA, Outcome mapping tools, Program Monitoring plans, the quarterly progress reports and other relevant data gathered during program implementation. The consultant will develop an inception report including tools and interview guides to be used with the partners. Further the inception report will include a detailed plan for the Midterm review, which will be developed in close cooperation with the involved partner organisations and FIC Nairobi. The inception report should be approved by FIC before starting the work.

The evaluator will conduct personal as well as focus group interviews with the program partners and staff, representatives from the clusters, representatives from the trainings, mentoring and counselling activities (youth component), youth from the networks, youth organisations, labour market partners involved in program activities and local authorities; shop stewards and members trained, union leaders involved, enterprises included and relevant federation and local authorities and other relevant stakeholders. A validation meeting of 2-3 hours will be conducted with each partner on the last day of visit.

The program coordinators of FIC in Nairobi will assist the evaluator when needed and ensure that the evaluator complies with the framework stipulated in these Terms of Reference.

Procedure of the review In January 2016 FIC will contract an external evaluator to carry out the evaluation. The evaluation will take place in February 2016. The external consultant will present the results and recommendations to FIC and partners, who will be able to provide relevant input for the review report. By April, the external evaluator will submit the final report to FIC and partners.

HOW TO APPLY:

If you are a qualified consultant residing in Kenya or Tanzania, Kindly send your technical and financial proposal explaining qualifications, how you understand the assignment and the approach you intend to use; to be submitted to maria.justiniano@fic.dk, copied to
annette.larsen@fic.dk, erustusf@gmail.com and casparpedo@gmail.com Not later than 18th January 2016.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.