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International Consultant (Mid-Term Review (MTR) for the Accelerated Sanitation in Northern Ghana programme), Accra

Accra

  • Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
  • Location: Accra
  • Grade: Consultancy - International Consultant - Internationally recruited Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Public Health and Health Service
    • Development Cooperation and Sustainable Development Goals
    • Environment
    • Humanitarian Aid and Coordination
    • Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
    • Medical Doctor
    • WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene)
  • Closing Date: Closed

UNICEF Ghana seeks the services of a committed and experienced professional who will be engaged as an international consultant to work on the Mid Term Review (MTR) for the Accelerated Sanitation in Northern Ghana Programme. The consultant will conduct a mid-term assessment of the programme’s progress against proposed targets, verify and triangulate data from a variety of sources, and provide a set of recommendations for the programme going forward. This assignment is expected to be for 8 weeks over a 12 weeks period. Fees will be paid on the basis of deliverables. The consultant will be based in Accra with some travels to the field locations. Only NON-Ghanaians are eligible to apply.

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you.

For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Purpose of the Assignment

Ghana has struggled to deliver sanitation to its population with the data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2014 stating that the access to improved sanitation at household level was only 14%, and nearly 17% of households practice open defecation. The situation in the Northern Region is particularly worrying, with only 3.3% of households having access to improved household sanitation (the lowest in the country) and 67.6% of households practicing open defecation (the second highest rate in the country). As a result of these indicators and other similar metrics, UNICEF received funding from Global Affairs Canada in 2015 to commence the Accelerated Sanitation in Northern Ghana Programme which is currently due to end in mid-2018 and targeting 14 districts.

The intended ultimate outcome of the programme is to observe ‘improved health and well-being of boys, girls, women and men in the Northern Region of Ghana’ and the following three intermediate outcomes will contribute to this ultimate objective:

  • Increased gender responsive and equitable access to suitable household and institutional sanitation facilities;
  • Adoption of gender responsive good hygiene practices for improved health (including maternal, new-born and child health);
  • Increased capacity at the community, district and regional levels to support sanitation service delivery and engage the private sector in sanitation market.

Project activities include the implementation of Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) in rural communities and small towns, coupled with sanitation marketing activities. There is also an extensive WASH in Schools component, including the development of a WASH in Schools costed strategy for Ghana. CLTS activities also include hygiene promotion components, these are further enhanced by a national level social norms campaign. The project also aims to enhance the WASH enabling environment with coordination, monitoring and research support.

A mid-term review of the programme is planned to assess the extent to which project targets are currently being achieved, the likelihood of achieving targets utilising the current strategies, and to develop any key recommendations for changing programme direction in order to reach these overall project targets.

The purpose of this consultancy is to conduct a Mid-Term Review to assess the progress made in these and other areas outlined in the programme proposal, and to evaluate their progress in relation to proposed targets. The individual will also evaluate programme experiences in order to offer recommendations on the direction of the programme, and to establish updated programme activities, outcomes, and targets.

When completed, UNICEF Ghana will use the MTR to re-evaluate the programme’s direction. They will use the recommendations to set updated programme outcomes and targets, and to update guidelines for the monitoring and evaluation of the programme. The results will also be shared with appropriate stakeholders from Global Affairs Canada and the Government of Ghana to update the donors on the progress of the programme to date.

Assignment Tasks

Research Scope and Focus

The individual will review the proposed project monitoring framework within the project proposal, and conduct an assessment of the planning and implementation of programme activities in order to determine the progress of the programme against proposed targets. Some key questions to be pursued in this review include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Is the implementation on track as planned (in terms of activities and results)?
  • Are the targets likely to be reached within the timeframe of the project?
  • Is the current implementation method likely to achieve the targets? What changes are needed, if any?
  • What are the key challenges to reaching these targets, and which challenges are within the scope of the programme to address?

In addition to reviewing project reports and analyses, the individual will conduct stakeholder consultations in the Northern Region (and a selection of project districts and communities) in order to use project experiences to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the first half of the programme, and to re-evaluate outcomes and targets for the programme going forward.

The consultant will provide a comprehensive Mid-Term report that will include recommendations on any programme changes (e.g. outcomes, targets) going forward.

Existing Information Sources

UNICEF Ghana will provide the individual with programme materials needed for a complete MTR. These materials include, but are not limited, to the following: 

  1. Programme Proposal: Project Description, Results Chain, and Budget
  2. Programme Implementation Plans: Action Plan, Communications Plan, and Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (including programme targets)
  3. Finalized Reports: Baseline survey and other programme implementation documents
  4. Implementation and Planning reports: as identified during the inception phase
  5. Monitoring Database: Project implementation data

UNICEF Ghana will also help the individual to access background information related to demographic and other sanitation-related information (e.g. Ghana Census, National Sanitation Strategy, etc), and to conduct consultations with relevant stakeholders (e.g. programme implementers, beneficiaries).

While the individual consultant will have access to the most updated reports and contacts related to the programme, they may encounter inconsistent or missing data that cannot be easily verified. Further, the individual consultant may encounter difficulty in conducting local consultations because of the unavailability of desired stakeholders or their unwillingness to participate. The individual should be aware of these limitations underlying the research process, and should be prepared to make necessary adjustments to the methodology as required.

Research Process & Methodology

The individual will need to use a methodology that enables provision of a comprehensive Mid-Term Review consistent with the programme monitoring framework and other key programme documents.  This will include a review of both quantitative and qualitative data. A general process could include, but is not limited to the following:

  1. Desk Reviews: Assessing quantitative and qualitative data from project proposal materials, action and M&E plans (focusing on project Performance Measurement Framework (PMF) and UNICEF WASH databases), project reports, implementation reports, and process notes
  2. Stakeholder consultations: Collecting and assessing quantitative and qualitative data from programme implementers and beneficiaries in a selection of implementation districts and at regional level
  3. Comparative assessment: Comparing the implementation of the programme across districts, and assessing the areas of even and uneven progress
  4. Triangulation of data: Assessing validity of information provided from written and non-written sources, providing an analysis based on this triangulation of data
  5. Programme monitoring data: the data will be provided showing the progress of implementation and results to date

It is determined that of the 14 districts targeted by the programme (activities are largely homogenous across all implementation districts), stakeholder interviews should be conducted in at least four districts, with community visits in five communities in each of those four districts. Consultants applying should also propose an alternative sample should this be deemed inappropriate.

Stakeholder Participation

For this assignment, the individual should consult local stakeholders, when needed, in order to source information on programme experiences and verify data. These stakeholders may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. UNICEF Ghana staff:  Chief WASH, WASH Specialists, WASH Officers
  2. Regional WASH Consultant and District Resource Persons: These are seconded into government structures at a regional and district level to provide further assistance
  3. Institutional Stakeholders: Municipal/Metropolitan District Assemblies (MMDAs), Community Service Organizations (CSOs), Environmental Health and Sanitation Department (EHSD), Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) and others as identified during the inception period
  4. WASH Stakeholders: Civil society, development partner and private sector WASH stakeholders who are relevant to the project or implementation area (final list to be agreed during inception phase)
  5. Community Stakeholders/Beneficiaries: Artisans who have received training, Community members who have attended triggering events, etc.

Engagement with communities and districts will follow the same guidance sampling as detailed above.

Expected Deliverables

The individual consultant will be reporting directly to the WASH Specialist (Knowledge Management), Accra, Ghana. Under the overall guidance of the Chief of WASH Section, necessary input and guidance may be provided whenever required. The individual will also interact with other members of the WASH team of UNICEF as required.

It is expected that the assignment will be completed in eight (8) weeks (over a period of 12 weeks), including reporting. The assignment is expected to begin in September 2017.

The selected consultant will be required to submit a short inception report and a detailed activity plan within the first week after signing a contract, considering the indicated timeframe.  Any review of the timeframe would be discussed with the WASH Specialist, Accra, UNICEF, after the desk review has been carried out.

The final output of the project will be a mid-term review report with methodology, findings and recommendations not exceeding 30 pages (excluding annexes).

The general timeline of work, including outputs/deliverables, is as follows:

Week 1:           Desk review, Inception Report & Activity Plan

Weeks 2-4:      Stakeholder Consultations (Tamale and four districts within the Northern Region)

Week 5-6:        Triangulation of data & analyses, including national level consultations

Week 7:           Final verifications (including a project workshop), report writing

Week 8:           Finalisation of report following UNICEF and Stakeholder comments

The consultant should be prepared to submit both hard and electronic copies of documents to UNICEF.

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

Education

  • Minimum of a Master’s degree in the areas of monitoring & evaluation, international development, WASH/public health engineering, or related area

Years of relevant experience

  • Ten years of experience in conducting M&E work, documenting and conducting professional writing/analysis for WASH programmes and/or development initiatives
  • Direct WASH programming experience is highly desirable

Competencies of Successful Candidate

  • Strong track record of providing thorough analyses and documentation with excellent “readability” for a specific audience
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
  • Excellent ability to source information electronically and non-electronically
  • Fluency in oral  and written English

To view our competency framework, please click here

The individual consultant shall prepare a short technical proposal (max. 5 pages) outlining the appreciation of the assignment, approach and methodology to be adopted, a related proposed work plan, details of skills in relation to the assignment. The methodology section should clearly outline an approach to the following:

  • Preparatory activities, including desk reviews, stakeholder consultation and information verification/sourcing
  • Methodologies for triangulating data and recommending programme updates
  • Method(s) for reporting

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above (including travel and daily subsistence allowance, if applicable).  Applications submitted without a daily rate will not be considered.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.

This vacancy is now closed.
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