External Evaluation сonsultant

General information:

Organization: Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH), Warsaw-based international non-governmental organization with country office in Ukraine

Position: External Evaluation сonsultancy services

Location:  Kyivska, Zaporizka, Dnipropietrovska, Sumska, Donetska, Luhanska Oblasts (subject to security clearance).

Starting date: ASAP

Key Duties and Responsibilities

1. Description of project activities to be evaluated.

The final summative performance evaluation study is to be conducted for a humanitarian response project funded through USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and aimed at reducing the suffering and improving well-being of conflictaffected people in Donetska, Luhanska, Kyivska, Zaporizka, Dnipropietrovska and Sumska oblasts, namely through the following activities:

1) Providing vulnerable men and women with home-based care and individual PSS for the most vulnerable older people, psychological first aid (PFA), and psychological consultations for conflict-affected men, women, and children to improve their psychosocial well-being.

 2) Providing most vulnerable conflict-affected people with MPCA (in the areas feasible for CBA) to enhance their ability to cover basic needs.

3) Rehabilitating critical WASH infrastructure and distributing WASH NFI kits in collective centers for IDPs/social institutions and establishing WASH facilities (toilets, hand washing stations) near the border crossings to improve access to dignified hygiene conditions.

4) Providing highly vulnerable conflict-affected men and women with food kits containing essential food items to enhance their ability to meet basic food needs

5) Providing NFI kits at both institutional (collective centers) and household levels to improve affected population’s shelter solutions. The project is implemented by Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH) and partly by a sub-grantee- local implementing partner. Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH) is an international non-governmental organization which since 1992 has been providing humanitarian and development help worldwide. So far, the interventions have been carried out in 46 different countries. By possessing long-standing expertise in the implementation of projects in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Food Security and Livelihoods, as well as Nutrition and Education, PAH concentrates its global activities on ensuring sustainable and stable development of regions suffering from the consequences of armed conflicts, natural disasters, and other humanitarian crises. PAH has been present in Ukraine since August 2014 delivering humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable of the conflictaffected population. PAH provides assistance to internally displaced people, elderly and other vulnerable population groups, working in the sectors of food security and livelihoods, protection, WASH and Shelter.

PAH Ukraine is currently expanding programming from humanitarian to both early recovery and development-oriented interventions that provide sustainable livelihoods opportunities to the affected population. For more information, please refer to www.pah.org.pl

2. Background

The purpose of this Terms of Reference (ToR) is to call for competitive proposals for providing qualified assistance, namely, conducting a final summative performance evaluation study of the project “Emergency multisectoral humanitarian assistance to conflict-affected people in Ukraine” funded by USAID BHA, as according to the ToR. The study shall provide an independent and impartial assessment, complete with findings, conclusions, and recommendations, of the idem project, based on the use of the best available, objective and accurate analysis of evidence (project documents and primary data collection). The contractor will have access to all project data and monitoring reporting materials, including project proposal, MEAL plan, logframe, periodic monitoring reports (mid-PDM/PIM), regular monitoring reports, minutes from kick-off and project review meetings, as well as secondary data.

3. Purpose

The main purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness and relevance of project activities in relation to the activity’s purposes and results. Also, the evaluation is aimed to identify best practices and lessons-learnt in the activity design and implementation for achieving the activity’s expected results.

PAH adheres to the OECD-DAC criteria for evaluating its programs and projects. For this study, the relevance criterion assesses the extent to which the intervention objectives and design responded to beneficiaries needs and priorities and the effectiveness should be a measure of the extent to which the intervention achieved its objectives, and results, including any differential results across groups.

To assess the relevance and effectiveness of the selected project activities, this evaluation will answer 3 evaluation questions, presented below:

1) Relevance: To which extent have the activity objectives, design and results addressed beneficiaries needs and priorities, including across different population groups?

2) Effectiveness: To what extent were the outcomes and objectives achieved / are likely to be achieved?

 3) Effectiveness: What were the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the objectives?

The main aims of this evaluation are ensuring accountability to beneficiaries and improving PAH’s program effectiveness. The results of the evaluation will be described and grouped into three main sections: findings, conclusions, and recommendations. The recommendations will be incorporated into PAH’s future programming in Ukraine as well as shared with PAH HQ to be potentially incorporated into programming at other PAH missions. Management response will be documented. The final evaluation report will also be shared with USAID BHA through the submission to AOR and DEC. All datasets will be submitted to the DDL in accordance with ADS 579.

4. Evaluation Methodology

 The contractor is expected to develop a specific and detailed evaluation plan with methods and data sources to be discussed and agreed on with PAH MEAL team (evaluation team). The methodology should ensure that the conclusions and recommendations developed are valid and reliable and that the analysis is logically coherent and complete.

PAH evaluation team recommends using a mixed-methods approach with the combination of the quantitative and qualitative data collection methods appropriate to answer the evaluation questions. The quantitative methods will include a beneficiary-based survey that will use a questionnaire to gather information from a probability sample of individual beneficiaries or beneficiary households, depending on the indicators’ units of measure. The qualitative methods will include semi-structured in-depth interviews with key informants, direct observations and focus group discussions. The evaluation team will triangulate the data for each question by surveying beneficiaries, consulting project-related documents and databases, interviewing project managers and field team members, and conducting focus group discussions with beneficiaries and field teams.

Competencies and How to apply

An external evaluation lead will be contracted locally (preferably) either with individual consultancy contracts as physical persons or private entrepreneurs.  The consultant should meet following requirements:

• Academic background and/or at least 3 years of professional experience in research, monitoring, and evaluation, preferably in the international humanitarian and development context
• Excellent knowledge of evaluation principles, standards, methodologies
• Data management and analytical skills
• Communication and interpersonal skills
• Time management skills, ability to respect set deadlines
• Excellent writing skills
• Advanced knowledge of written and spoken English (C1-C2) and preferably Ukrainian

In response to the PAH announcement, interested consultants should prepare and submit their applications in English to the following email [email protected]  , including the following inputs:

1. CV
2. portfolio of evaluation and/or other monitoring studies conducted by the applicant
3. commercial offer for proposed evaluation costs, including all operational support costs, if required.