Consultant

This ToR is developed by Stichting Vluchteling for performing an external evaluation of the Dutch Relief Alliance (DRA) Joint Response Program in response to this Cameroon crisis (CAMJR), financed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). The response is an acute response and started 13/06/2019. The response was supposed to end on 12/12/2019, however, this period has been extended until 12/02/2020 after a No Cost Extension was granted.

While the Dutch Relief Alliance has 16 partners, 3 selected partners take place in this response: Stichting Vluchteling, CARE, and Plan International. Stichting Vluchteling (SV) is the lead organization. Refer to Annexe 1 for the DRA Joint Response Outline as introduced to MFA in June 2019.

The CAMJR targets a total of 49,585 beneficiaries in the divisions of Meme, Fako, Ndian (South West Region) and the divisions of Mezam, Momo and Boyo (North West Region). About 50% of the beneficiaries are targeted in South West Region, 50% in North West Region. In line with government and UN OCHA priorities, members focus in priority sectors across the two regions, with different activities in each location, depending on needs, member and local partner expertise as well as alignment & complementarity with other programming and funding. Therefore the Joint Response focusses on: Protection, Health, WASH and Food Security.

In line with the Humanitarian Response Plan 2019 for Cameroon, the response contributes to the following objectives:

Protection

• Objective 1: Improve the protection and respect for the human rights of people affected by crises, giving priority to vulnerable groups, including women and children at risk of violence, abuse, sexual exploitation and family separation.
• Objective 2: Reduce the vulnerability of affected populations by facilitating non-discriminatory access to basic and specialized assistance and services and by strengthening community protection capacities.
• Objective 3: Strengthen the capacities of the Cameroonian authorities and civil society actors in the protection of affected people with a view to promoting respect for their rights.

FSL

• Objective 1: Save the lives of food insecure populations through coordinated and integrated assistance.

Health

• Objective 1: Provide care to populations (disaggregated by sex and age) victims of physical and mental trauma linked to the conflict.
• Objective 2: Facilitate access to essential health care for vulnerable populations.

WASH

• Objective 1: Improve the access of vulnerable populations to adequate water, basic hygiene and sanitation services in a sustainable way.
• Objective 2: Strengthen the integrated, coordinated and evidence-based WASH response in humanitarian crisis situations.

The End evaluation will build on the results of the Rapid Real Time Review of which the report including conclusions and recommendations can be found in Annex 2.

                Purpose of the evaluation

• The objective of the evaluation is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the results of the CAMJR acute response. This is done in order to learn from the implementation and to ensure downward and upward accountability. The evaluations aims:
• To review the overall performance of the project on the ground, in particular to know the strengths, gaps and barriers to the project in the implementation areas.
• To analyse the design of the project and validate the assumptions of the intervention logic; and evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the project results
• To analyse the projects results according to the OECD DAC evaluation criteria and the additional criteria mentioned under section 4.
• To identify and record lessons learned, best practices, strengths and provide recommendations for improvement.
• To identify the contribution of the CAMJR to the strategic priorities of the Dutch Relief Alliance.

                Scope of the evaluation

The geographical locations of the project are: the divisions of Meme, Fako, Ndian (South West Region) and the divisions of Mezam, Momo and Boyo (North West Region).

The target group are the most vulnerable people affected by the crisis in SW/NW regions. These include IDPs, host communities and indigenous communities.

The sectors addressed are Protection, Health, WASH and Food Security. In addition, the response carries out activities in the areas of Localization and Accountability (strategic objectives defined by DRA, ref. Logframe).

                Evaluation questions

For specific questions, please refer to Annexe 3.

This evaluation shall make use of4 out of 5 OECD-DACevaluation criterion including: Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency and Sustainability. The End evaluation will not include the Impact criteria of DAC as it maybe early to measure the project impact. The End Evaluation will build on the findings of the CAMJR RRTR and is framed around the following:

• Relevance and appropriateness: assessing whether humanitarian activities are in line with local needs and priorities (and donor policies). It refers to the overall goal and purpose of a programme.
• Effectiveness: the extent to which the activity achieves its purpose, or whether this can be expected to happen on the basis of the outputs and the intended and unintended outcomes. The recipients should be disaggregated for age (0-18 and 18+ years) and sex (male and female). If possible, double counting of individuals that received various services/items/cash should be avoided. When avoiding double-counting is not possible, aggregation of reach data of various interventions within a joint response is to be considered.
• Efficiency: measures the outputs - qualitative and quantitative - in relation to the inputs. This generally requires comparing alternative approaches to achieving the same outputs, to see whether the most efficient process has been used. Cost-effectiveness looks beyond how inputs were converted into outputs, to whether different outputs could have been produced that would have had a greater impact in achieving the project purpose.
• Sustainability: The extent to which the net benefits of the intervention continue, or are likely to continue. 
• In addition, the CAMJR End Evaluation will respond to the following issues:
• Context / changes: a brief description of the CAMJR, including the key strategic objectives. Describe the link to the objectives as outlined in the UN Humanitarian Response Plan and the contribution of the consortium to these. Provide a brief description of the context of the Joint Response, including changes that have occurred during the project period. Explain how the JR members have responded to unexpected changing circumstances and general challenges of working in the CAMJR acute crisis context.
• Achievements per sector: for each sector (FSL, WASH, Health, Protection) provide concise information on the main achievements per sector (in addition to the results published in IATI) and explain how the CAMJR has worked in line with relevant quality standards (such as CHS and Sphere). In case of specific changes & challenges, please refer to individual Joint Response members. Formulate lessons learned around these changes & challenges and provide suggestions on how to prevent, improve or solve this in the future.
• Added value / collaborative impact / lessons learnt: describe what added value/collaborative impact was generated and/or gained from the CAMJR or the DRA mechanism by the JR members for the affected population and/or the CAMJR members? Elaborate on lessons learned of the Joint Response, gained through the JR members’ activities or added value activities and provide recommendation for future cooperation.
• Cross-cutting topics: elaborate on each of the three cross cutting humanitarian topics focused on in the CAMJR (Gender, Accountability and Conflict Sensitivity) and describe how these have been applied in the activities of the CAMJR members and in the added value activities.
• Localization: elaborate on how the CAMJR has invested in collaboration with local actors and in capacity strengthening of local actors. Formulate lessons learned & challenges, and provide suggestions on how to improve in the future.

               Methodology   

As part of his/her assignment, the consultant will provide a detailed planning on his/her proposed methodologies based on these Terms of Reference. Stichting Vluchteling and its partner International Rescue Committee Cameroon will review the planned methodologies proposed by the evaluator and provide feedback before the evaluation process begins.

• Mixed qualitative and quantitative methods are required. In case of quantitative method evaluators should clearly explain their sample size and sampling procedures to eliminate bias while in qualitative method evaluators should endeavour to show clearly how qualitative data will be analyse and interpreted to minimize loss of relevant information. Methods can vary, but finding stories of change as well as validation of outputs in the log frame is mandatory.
• Field work (collecting data) is mandatory part of the evaluation.
• Links to resource portals to be included if relevant.

                Deliverables

• An inception report (outlining the methodology, complete tools and planned procedure and approach to the evaluation).
• A Skype briefing session on proposed methodologies and tools.
• An in-country debriefing and validation session to SV/IRC, CARE and Plan to debrief on the major qualitative and quantitative findings before initiating the report
• A draft and final report in English, not exceeding 20 pages (excluding annexes). For a detailed table of content, please see Annex 3.

The report should include:

• Executive Summary (max 3 pages)
• Introduction
• Background and context
• Summary description of Methodology, including limitations
• Main findings
• Conclusions
• Lessons learned, best practices, recommendations

Annexes to the report should include:

• Work schedule

• Photographs of the evaluation areas (separate file).
• Bibliography of consulted secondary sources.
• Finalised data collection tools.
• List of people interviewed (with consent only)
• Financial report supported by copies of related invoices

• This End Evaluation will be performed by a team of two Cameroonian consultants:
• A consultant with thorough knowledge of the SW/NW context and at least 5 years of experience in conducting evaluations of development / emergency programmes. He/she serves as Team leader and contracts the second consultant.
• A consultant with knowledge of the local context and at least 2 years of experience in collecting data for evaluations of development / emergency programmes.

Required experience and competences

• Working experience in SW/NW regions of Cameroon
• Demonstrated experience in leading Humanitarian / Development evaluations.
• Proven knowledge of humanitarian programmes and principles, including use of common standards, preferably in the sectors Protection, FSL, Health, WASH.
• Experience of working with participatory approaches and research methodologies
• Ability to process and analyse different types of data in a critical manner
• Able to write concise, yet comprehensive and attractive reports
• Excellent facilitation and reporting skills in English

                Contract and Budget

The lead agency for the Joint Response (Stichting Vluchteling) will provide a consultancy contract to the Team Leader. During the evaluation, the evaluator and his/her team will resort under the security policies of IRC Cameroon. A total amount of 25.000 EUR is available for this evaluation. This should include fees of field visits and staff hired to complete the evaluation, write the final report and arrange for dissemination locally; as well as costs for local travel, accommodation, communication and so on. Payment schedule of fees:

• 40% of fees upon approval of the inception report
• 60% of fees after delivery, dissemination and approval of final report

Interested consultants are required to provide a budget including travel costs, number of working days per specific activity, daily rate and any other costs. Please consider that hard and soft copies of relevant documents will be provided by Stichting Vluchteling. IRC Cameroon will facilitate entry to the project locations and will coordinate with DRA Partners CARE and Plan.

              Timeline

The evaluation at field level will be planned based on availability of evaluator and team and after consultation with the partners. Preferably from February 1^st – March 15^th 2020. As the Lead (SV) needs to submit the Final External Evaluation Report not later than 11^th June 2020, the contracted Lead Consultant should submit the Final Report preferably before 11^th April 2020 but not later than 11^th May 2020.

How to apply