Home > Info hub > TOR for the AUSAID Child Health Project end term evaluation

1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

In January 2011, AMREF commenced implementation of a 4 year Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) project in three countries of East Africa: Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. This project is fully funded by DANIDA and ends in December 2014. The specific project locations in each country were:

Tanzania - 4 districts in Shinyanga Region – Kahama, Shinyanga Urban, Shinyanga Rural and Kishapu; Northern Uganda – 2 districts in Acholi Region – Gulu and Kitgum and Kenya – Turkana district.

The overall aim of the project is to reduce reproductive morbidity and mortality and increase enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health rights among the hard to reach marginalized communities who live in these areas.

The specific objectives of the project are defined as follows:

1. Specific Objective 1: To increase the capacity of frontline health services to provide reproductive and maternal health services with a focus on youth, women and girls, and a special focus on family planning uptake

2. Specific Objective 2: To build community capacity to support the reproductive health rights of girls and women, including strong male involvement and gender awareness and adoption of practices

3. Specific Objective 3: To increase organizational capacity for gender mainstreaming and rights based programming for AMREF, community organizations and other collaborators in the project

4. Specific Objective 4: To generate evidence of effectiveness of these approaches to reduce reproductive health morbidity and mortality through operations research and monitoring and evaluation to enhance replication in similar settings elsewhere

Currently a midterm evaluation for the DANIDA project is ongoing and will focus on the above stated four specific objectives.

In July 2011, funding for 2 years (July 2011 – June 2013) was committed by AusAID to jointly fund the project to allow expansion both geographically and in terms of objectives (see specific objective 5 and 6 below). Content wise the project was expanded to improve child health in both the original target locations (Tanzania - 4 districts in Shinyanga Region – Kahama, Shinyanga Urban, Shinyanga Rural and Kishapu; and Northern Uganda – 2 districts in Acholi Region – Gulu and Kitgum. Geographically, the overall project(SRHR and Child Health ) was expanded to two new districts, namely Ushetu in Shinyanga Tanzania, and Pader District in Uganda.

In addition to the SRHR specific objectives (Specific objective 1-4) in the additional districts, the specific objectives of the supplementary project are:

5. Specific Objective 5: Increased capacity of frontline health services to deliver care effectively to ill children using the IMCI approach, including ability to undertake simple diagnostics tests in health facility laboratories and improved case management skills of health care staff;

6. Specific Objective 6: Improved community capacity to link effectively with the frontline health services for early detection and management of childhood health problems (community IMCI)

The end term evaluation will focus on the AUSAID supplementary project with targeted attention on specific objective 5 and 6 and SRHR activities implemented in the two additional districts.

2.0 OBJECTIVE OF THE EVALUATION

The overall objective of the evaluation is to establish the progress made in the two years of implementation and the impact this has had on the target beneficiaries. In addition the evaluation will assess the implemented project activities, outputs and results to date against what was planned. Recommendations emerging from the end-term evaluation will inform and guide the design of future projects and generate evidence for organizational learning and accountability.

Specifically the evaluation will seek to:

•  To determine the completeness of implementation and monitoring against set objectives, benchmarks and processes

• To assess the progress made towards achieving the project goals based on the project log frame and monitoring plan

• To assess the project impact

• To determine the strengths and weaknesses of the project planning, design, implementation and M&E

• To determine how gender was taken into consideration in project planning and implementation

• To determine how the project beneficiaries were involved in project planning and implementation

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the organisational set-up for the project (regional project) and systems in the delivery of the project and to what extent this contributes to or inhibits the delivery of the project outcomes

• To assess the overall management and structure of the project

• To assess the potential for sustainability of the project in relation to its deliverables

• To provide specific, actionable and practical recommendations for future programming

3.0 SCOPE OF WORK

i. Background reading: Review of all relevant project documents including and not limited to proposal, monitoring and evaluation plans, log frames, work plans, budget, and financial and narrative reports.

ii. Develop a detailed inception report that should present the approach and methodology to be used, data collection tools and evaluation implementation plan.

iii. Hold briefing meeting with regional coordination team at AMREF HQ: This meeting will provide the consultants with an update and status of the regional programme coordination and technical backstopping mechanisms

iv. Hold briefing meetings with the country office management: In each country, the consultants will arrive 1 day prior to the actual ETE exercise, to be part of a one-day briefing meeting in the country offices in Dar Es Salam and Kampala.

v. Undertake the ETE field work exercise at the project sites in Tanzania and Uganda

vi. Prepare country specific reports and a regional report based on the evaluation findings that should include concrete recommendations in terms of the objectives as described above. The consultants will document evaluation activities, findings, conclusions and recommendations and present the draft reports to:

a. A one-day validation workshop where key findings from the ETE will be shared with relevant AMREF staff, key informants and stakeholders who participated in the exercise at each project site with the purpose of informing the group of the findings and get feedback for inclusion in the final report

b. Comments and inputs on the draft from the Technical director RCH, Regional Manager, project teams for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, to be sought and incorporated in the final report

vii. The final reports (2 country specific reports for Uganda and Tanzania and a regional report) will be submitted to the Technical Director, RCH no more than 3 weeks after receipt of comments. The consultant(s) will at that time arrange for a half day debriefing meeting at AMREF HQ to share the highlights of the report and final recommendations

4.0 METHODOLOGY

The evaluator will be required to design the methodology for the evaluation and present it in the inception report. It is expected that the evaluation will be participatory using both qualitative and quantitative techniques.

The process will involve but not limited to collection of quantitative and qualitative data through desk reviews of provided documentation, in depth interviews and discussions with beneficiaries and stakeholders. The methodology, tools and scheduling used must be gender and target group sensitive.

5.0 OUTPUTS

5.1 Intermediate outputs

i. A technical and Financial proposal (which should only include the fees payable to the consultants, all other fees related to the evaluation will be taken care of by AMREF) for this consultancy.

ii. A detailed implementation plan for the End Term evaluation

iii. Inception report outlining the interpretation of the TOR, methodology to be applied, resources needed, data collection of tools to be used for the evaluation

iv. Three draft reports -3 separate reports for Uganda and Tanzania and a combined regional report that presents the regional perspective.

5.2 Final output

Three (3) well written and edited End Term Evaluation reports in English. The final reports should be presented in soft copy and 3 bound copies each to be submitted within three weeks upon receipt of comments and after the validation workshop. The final reports should not exceed 40 pages each excluding annexes and should conform to the following format:

• Executive summary
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Results/Findings –Presented per each project specific objective and ETE objectives
• Conclusions and recommendations
• Annexes-including tools, list of research team etc

6.0 QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

The consultant’s team should comprise of 2 consultants- a Lead Consultant specialized in Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) and 1 assistant consultant with specialization in organizational development, public health and monitoring and evaluation. The consultants will have the primary responsibility for conducting the evaluation and writing of the ETE report. The team member(s) should possess strong statistical skills.

Lead and Assisting Consultant:

a) Advanced university degree in public health or medical anthropology or related health field or international development.

b) Sound knowledge of child health issues as well as knowledge of the East African region and its health systems

c) Be well informed in gender and rights based programming in the development sector

d) For the Lead Consultant at least 7 years of consultancy experience in the area of child health and public health. For the assisting consultant at least 4 years of experience conducting similar work.

e) Demonstrated knowledge of project evaluations and posses strong research skills

f) Experience in the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of MNCH projects

g) A demonstrated high level of professionalism and ability to work with tight deadlines.

h) Strong interpersonal and communication skills

i) High proficiency in written and spoken English.

j) Computing skills

7.0 DURATION AND TIMELINE OF CONSULTANCY

The task is expected to take a maximum of 30 days.

8.0 INTELLECTUAL PROPERT RIGHTS

The product of this survey is AMREF’s property. Under no circumstances will the consultant use the information of this survey for publication or dissemination without official permission (in writing) from AMREF.

9.0 SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

The technical and financial proposals should be sent by e-mail by COB 19th July 2013

E-mail: ETE@amref.org

10.0 EVALUATION AND AWARD OF CONSULTANCY

AMREF in consultation with the project partners will evaluate the proposals and award the assignment based on technical and financial feasibility. AMREF in consultation with partners reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal received without giving reasons and is not bound to accept the lowest, the highest or any bidder. The consultancy is subject to AMREF policy.