Improving the food security situation of vulnerable urban population affected by the food crisis in Kenya

Terms of Reference for Final Evaluation

Country: Kenya

Location : Nairobi – Urban Slums (Kibera, Mathare, Kiambiu, Lunga-Lunga)

Project to be evaluated: Improving the food security situation of vulnerable urban population affected by the food crisis in Kenya

Project Number: EU/778

Starting date: 22nd August 2011

Duration of the field mission: approx 17-18 working-days (2 working-days desk review, 10 working-days field work, 5 working-days report writing)

Presentation of Solidarites International

Solidarites International (SI) is an international humanitarian organization which provides assistance to populations affected by natural disaster or man-made crisis.

For over 30 years, SI has concentrated its actions on meeting three vital needs: Water, Food and Shelter. In the Horn of Africa, SI is currently implementing a series of Food Security, Water and Sanitation projects in Somalia and in Kenya.

In Kenya, SI is running projects in North Horr and the Nairobi informal settlements.

Presentation of the project/ program to be evaluated

Background

The Nairobi’s informal settlements food security project started in 2008 as a response to food security crisis and price hikes triggered by the post election violence and global economic meltdown. Soaring food prices in the region aggravated an already difficult situation.

The phase 1 intervention aimed at restoring household’s financial capacity in order to stabilize food security, while phase 2 and 3 focused at livelihoods restoration mainly through promotion of gardens-in-sack and other livelihoods alternative.

The third phase, which is the subject of this evaluation, started in January 2010 (21 months intervention).

It targets four informal settlements (Kibera, Mathare, Kiambiu and Mukuru-Lungalunga) and targets a total number of beneficiaries 20,000 households under three components: Garden-in-a-sack (18,500 HH), poultry rearing (1,500 HH) and greenhouse production project targeting at least 7 self -help groups within the same slums.

SI is working with a series of stakeholders in the slums including the Ministry of Agriculture, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), and The Horti Cultural Development Agency (HCDA), an array of NGOs, CBOs, FBOs, schools and churches.

The project’s Overall Objective is to improve livelihood of the vulnerable populations affected by the food price crisis in Kenya. The specific objective seeks to improve the food security for the vulnerable people affected by the food price crisis in the Nairobi slums.

The expected results from this intervention include:

1. Food quantity and diversity increases for 20 000 households living in Nairobi slums
2. Households’ incomes increase for 20,000 households and allow the beneficiaries to increase their resilience capacities to the surge of food prices

Activities

Activity 1. Promoting Urban Agriculture through garden-in-sack and kitchen garden techniques (target 18,500 households)

• Purchasing seeds and other inputs.
• Set up and maintenance of demonstration plots
• Community mobilization and sensitization
• Set up and equipping of 7 nurseries
• Production of seedlings in nursery beds
• Distribution of seedlings and inputs

Activity 2. Vegetable production in greenhouses (target 7 units run by 70 households)

• Identification and selection of beneficiaries
• Identification of the plots where the greenhouses will be installed.
• Construction of 7 greenhouses
• Installation of a drip irrigation system in each greenhouse
• Purchase and distribution of seeds of highly productive vegetable varieties as well as other agricultural inputs
• Trainings on vegetable production

Activity 3. Poultry rearing (target 1500 households)

• Selection of the 1,500 most vulnerable households
• Purchase of 1500 poultry cages
• Purchase and distribution of 9000 chickens (1 cockerel and 5 hens per beneficiary)
• Distribution of feed and other veterinary inputs
• Training on poultry rearing

Project monitoring

A comprehensive mechanism for project was developed which includes a mix of tools. In the first instances, Solidarites uses an Activity Monitoring plan (APU) to capture activity progress on a monthly basis across the entire project.

This is a detailed data base showing all activities, estimated start and end dates and key players.

In addition, different types of forms were generated for the purposes of progress monitoring:

• Beneficiary registration form: this forms capture the socio-economic characteristics of the beneficiary by the time of entering into the project
• Seedling distribution form: this capture number and variety of seedling distributed to individual registered beneficiary under 1 above.
• Nursery Production forms: captures quantities of seeds sown and produced from main production nurseries
• Seedling supply forms captures individual seedlings supplied by supplementary nurseries to registered beneficiary
• Other monitoring tools include field visits, photography and beneficiary tracking sheets developed to track performance of a cross section of beneficiaries over a period of time.
• Impact assessment tools whose findings are included in the monthly context reports
• Two project reviews are planned as an internal way of assessing progress and achievement during and after project implementation. The first internal review will take place during the month of October and report shall be availed for the purposes of this evaluation. The second review shall take place one month before the end of the project (August 2011).

Purposes of the evaluation

As part of this project, SI is to conduct an external final evaluation to assess the results of this intervention.

This evaluation shall cover every activity as per the proposal, define and try to quantify impact of the activities on people’s livelihoods, assess sustainability of the activities and identify key lessons learnt so far, and best practices to achieve the desired goal that can be replicated in future projects.

The findings of the evaluation will not only be useful in evaluating how the project reached the target goal, but also assessing sustainability of the intervention and helping the organization in designing future interventions. The report of the evaluation will be shared with the project donors as required in the contract agreement.

Scope and focus

The evaluation will focus on the approach and strategies, on implementation process and performances of the activities/programme. The evaluation shall assess the relevance of the intervention and each of the activities individually, the coverage effectiveness, the efficiency, the sustainability, the impact and the coherence.

The evaluator will be required to respond to the various key questions:

1. General evaluation questions

• Are the established targets reasonable?
• Have the local government authorities supported and participated in the project?
• Does the project relate to the local developments plans and local authorities?
• Has the project ensured women’s participation at all levels? How do women evaluate their situation and what are their suggestions for improvements?
• How does clan issues influence cooperation and contact between villages? What are the reasons for possible conflicts? What intervention may be implemented to enhance cooperation between village and clans?
• What are some of the major challenges?

Relevance

• Was the intervention appropriate in responding to the community felt needs
• Are the expected results addressing current needs?
• Is the intervention in tandem with local government policy?

Effectiveness

• Is the time frame of the proposal respected?
• Has the project achieved its targets to date? If not, why not? Does the project target appropriate beneficiary group
• Have planned activities been carried out appropriately?

Efficiency

• Are funds well utilized and for the intended purpose?
• Are there clear processes and procedures on how the project will achieve its goal?
• Are these processes and procedures followed?
• Are activities implemented within the planned project period?
• Is there foreseeable indication of project extending beyond the planned period?
• Are project inputs utilized properly

Sustainability

• Were the communities involved adequately?
• Is the capacity of the beneficiaries well built to sustain the initiative well beyond project time?
• Are other stakeholders sufficiently involved?
• Does the policy environment support growth of project results after project intervention?
• What other factors could be considered to enhance project sustainability?
• Is the project well encompassing in terms of socio-cultural (gender, ethnic orientation etc) representativeness?

Impact

• What final impact can you foresee?
• Has the project met its goal?
• Is the intervention coherent to local needs?
• What long term benefits do you for see from the project?

The evaluation shall also assess the appreciation of the program by the beneficiaries as well as their participation at various levels of the project management cycle.

Evaluation process and methods

The consultant will have to develop his/her methodology and tools for data collection. The detailed methodology and tools will have to be validated by SI technical team before proceeding with the data collection.

The evaluation methods should be clearly outlined in the report and their appropriateness, relative to the evaluation's primary purpose, focus and users, should be explained pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the methods. A description of the overall flow of the evaluation process (i.e. sequence of the key stages) should be given in the evaluation report.

The evaluation approach and the methods used to collect and analyze data should also be described. The nature (e.g., external or mixed) and makeup of the team (e.g. sector expertise, local knowledge, gender balance) and its appropriateness for the evaluation should be outlined.

Data collection methods

The consultant will be expected to develop a brief paper (3 pages max) detailing his/her data collection methods and tools to be utilized in data analysis.

This paper should come to SI Field Coordinator as proposal attached to application for consultancy services and shall be evaluated against the task and other bidders.

Tools for data collection should be developed before to the field and shared with the project team for comments and validation. Altogether, data collection method should be participatory and inclusive as much as possible.

Preliminary findings

After the field work, the evaluation team will present and discuss with the project team the preliminary findings and the proposed recommendations.

Report presentation

The consultant will present his/her report to SI one week after the data collection exercise has ended. SI team will review in three days and hold a debriefing where both parties will share comments and give feedback.

The consultant will then, having been given all necessary comments will then be expected to submit the final report in one weeks time after the debrief.

The evaluation report should outline the sources of biases that might affect the evaluation and how these have been addressed.

The evaluation report should also present the key constraints to carrying out the evaluation (e.g., lack of baseline data, lack of access to key information sources, use of translators), and the effect of these constraints.

Whenever secondary sources will be referred to, the evaluator should indicate the level of reliability of the given information.

Procedures and logistics

SI will arrange all transport requirements of the consultant from SI office in Spring Valley and back and in the field.

In addition, SI will facilitate meetings with stakeholders and beneficiaries as may be required by the consultant.

SI will also provide sitting space for the consultant at its Spring valley office during the period of this assignment if deemed necessary by the consultant.

The evaluation team must comply, at all time, with SI’s rules and procedures related to security and relations with the media.

The evaluation team must respect the ethics and the deontology related to evaluation practice.

Deliverables

At the end of the evaluation exercise, the consultant is expected to submit a well written final report within the following specifications:

• One narrative report (max 35-40 pages)
• One executive summary (2-3 pages max)
• A table with the main findings and the specific recommendations (separate short, medium and long terms)and the lessons learned
• A table showing the different recommendations and tips for their implementation (who will be in charge of implementing this recommendations, when? dead line? necessary means? who will be in charge of checking that the recommendations are being implemented and when?
• Relevant maps and photographs of the assessed zone and programme.

Note that the quality of the data collection methodology, analysis, documentation of issues and written quality of the report is paramount and no substandard report will be accepted.

Documents of reference (on request only)

• Proposal and LFA
• Situations and context reports
• The Activity Plan
• Existing beneficiary data base
• Filled monitoring forms
• Current organizational chart
• Last Solidarites International monthly pack
• External Mid-term review report
• Any other documents if necessary

Qualification of the Lead consultant

• University degree in Development studies, Social Sciences, Food Security, Agriculture or other relevant field.
• Minimum 5 years of proven experience working with NGOs.
• Proven experience in similar evaluation context (Urban Milieu).
• Strong methodology and writing capacities.

How to apply

Please send your proposal, highlighting the following:

• A brief introduction of bidding firm (3 pages max)
• Relevant CVs
• Your understanding of the Terms of Reference (3 pages max)
• Proposed methodology and approach (3 pages max)
• Proposed work plan
• Financial proposal
• Confirmation of availability for planned dates

All required documents should be sent to info@solidarites-kenya-som.org by 30th June 2011.

Please indicate the title of consultancy you are applying for in the subject of the email.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.