Consultant for Microfinance Project Evaluation

The Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT) is a multi-donor fund established in 2010 to address food insecurity and income poverty in Myanmar. LIFT has received funding from 14 donors – the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, Switzerland, Denmark, the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Luxembourg, Italy, New Zealand, Ireland and Mitsubishi Corporation. The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is the Fund Manager to administer the funds and provide monitoring and oversight.

The overall goal of LIFT is to sustainably reduce the number of people living in poverty and hunger in Myanmar. LIFT’s purpose is to strengthen the resilience and sustainable livelihoods of poor people in Myanmar. LIFT’s purpose-level outcomes are increased income, decreased vulnerability, improved nutrition, and pro-poor policy developments.

LIFT works with implementing partners that include international and national non-government organisations, United Nations agencies, the Government of Myanmar, private sector organisations, academic and research institutions.

LIFT is active in the four main agro-ecological zones of Myanmar: the Ayeyarwady Delta, the Rakhine State, the central dry zone (including Mandalay, Magway and the southern Sagaing region), and the upland areas of Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Kayin and Shan States and Tanintharyi Region.

So far, LIFT has reached more than 7.2 million people, or roughly 20 per cent of Myanmar’s population; and is active in almost half the country’s townships. LIFT is funding projects through to June 2019. For more details visit www.lift-fund.org.

Background to the Consultancy – Final and Midterm Evaluations of 4 Projects

Specific Objectives of the Evaluation

• Lessons Learned, Good Practices, and Recommendations:  Identify the major lessons and best practices across all five projects in support of microfinance services, and provide relevant recommendations to microfinance partners and LIFT, particularly in the areas of supervision, monitoring, evaluation and learning.

• Efficiency, Effectiveness and Sustainability:  Assess the institutional performance and quality of financial products to what extent they address the issues of sustainable and responsible financial services.

• Relevance: Appraise the extent to which the microfinance services are suited to LIFT priorities.

Key Evaluation Questions

• Lessons Learned and Best Practices

a)     What is the status of people excluded by the microfinance product and service designs (market failure)?

b)     What are the issues and problems or challenges in promoting inclusive financial services[1]?

c)     How should microfinance institutions promote inclusive financial services?

d)     What are the relevant lessons learned for the microfinance market?

e)     What are the most effective approaches for delivering microfinance (best practices)?

• Efficiency, Effectiveness and Sustainability

f)      What are the types of microfinance services offered by the MFIs?

g)     How did the projects deliver their microfinance services?

h)     Were the microfinance services provided by the time the services are needed?

i)      To what extent did the microfinance services, both in relevance and quality, satisfy the needs of the clients?

j)      Do the microfinance approaches sufficiently address client protection principles[2] outlined by Financial Regulatory Department?

k)     Are the branches operationally sustainable?

l)      Are the branches financially sustainable?

m)    What are the challenges for institutional sustainability?

n)     What are the strategies for selection of microfinance clients?

• Relevance

o)     How did the microfinance activities meet LIFT’s policies and objectives?

p)     To what extent are the microfinance services and delivery methods in line with LIFT Financial Inclusion Strategy?  

• Evaluation against the LIFT Financial Inclusion Monitoring and Evaluation Framework

The evaluation will also assess how the organizations have performed against the LIFT’s Financial Inclusion monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning framework (MEAL Framework). The learning questions will be reviewed and expanded into interview questions during the document review stage, and in consultation with relevant LIFT FMO and MFI staff. The resulting questionnaire will be approved by the LIFT Evaluation Supervisor (see the annex 3 for learning questions and more details).

Evaluation Design and Methodology

The design of the evaluation will be primarily qualitative in nature, using qualitative data collection methods such as: (a) document review, (b) key informant interviews, and (c) focus group discussions.

• Document Review: Project documents to review include project proposals, work plans, logical frameworks (measurement plan), annual reports, and other internal reports. Financial statements, such as balance sheets and income statements reported to LIFT and maintained by the microfinance branch offices, also should be reviewed in order to analyze operational performance. 

• Key Informant Interviews (KII): KIIs should be used to investigate management and implementation issues and problems. KIIs should be conducted with the management personnel of implementing partners such as project managers, branch managers, loan officers, etc.

• Focus Group Discussions (FGD): FGD is the primary method for collecting data from microfinance clients and other community members.  The FGDs should be conducted with a minimum of eight and a maximum of 15 participants, usually with separate groups for men and women, and conducted at the village level.  

A summary of the recommended research methods is as follows:

Deliverables and timelines

The selected consultant must submit the following deliverables. The research should be completed within three and half months with a total of 64 days. Please refer to Annex 2 for a draft work plan.

* Numbers of weeks since the starting date

Reports:

The evaluation covers four projects, an individual evaluation report is required for MAFIN, MARC and MicroLead and Gret (three reports in total) answering the evaluation questions under paragraph 5.   In addition, institutional performance report of each MFI must be included. The summary of reporting requirement is as follows.

• MAFIN: Final evaluation of PGMF’s Dryzone Microfinance business in 6 branches
• MARC: Final evaluation of microfinance business implemented by 9 local MFIs 
• Gret: Mid-term evaluation of microfinance business implemented by Gret in Dryzone and Chin

All written reports are to use standard and grammatically correct English.

Management Arrangement

The LIFT FMO will support the consultant by:

• Making sufficient time and resources available for the mission in Yangon and link the evaluation team with relevant LIFT partners in the field;
• Organizing the logistics and briefing session (including costs for venue and materials required, lunch / refreshments, and sending invitations);
• Providing relevant reports and materials produced by LIFT and LIFT partners;
• Translating during interviews and focus group discussions (to be translated by non-project-focal person from LIFT); 
• Helping for work plan development and adjustment; and
• Organizing field visits.

Education

• A Master degree in business administration, accounting, finance, social science, development studies and management, or related field to the ToR is required.
• A Bachelor’s degree in combination with additional two years of similar experience may be accepted in lieu of a Master’s degree.

Experience

• Minimum 7 years of relevant working experience in evaluation of financial inclusion projects is required.
• Proven experience in microfinance evaluation is required.
• Experience of working with the MF sector in Myanmar is most preferable.
• Proven understanding of the socio-economic and political situation in Myanmar is desirable.
• A sound understanding of livelihoods and food security issues in South-East Asia and/or Myanmar is an advantage.
• Demonstrated experience in monitoring and evaluating projects in developing countries is an asset.

Language

• Fluency in both written and spoken English is required.

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns. Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

Other considerations:

UNOPS supports the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to serve people in need by expanding the ability of the United Nations, governments and other partners to manage projects, infrastructure and procurement in a sustainable and efficient manner.

Working in some of the world’s most challenging environments, our vision is to advance sustainable implementation practices, always satisfying or surpassing our partners’ expectations.

With over 7,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, wherever they need it.

A flexible structure and global reach means that we can quickly respond to our partners' needs, while offering the benefits of economies of scale.