End Term Evaluation of The Global Advocacy Project ( GAP ) under the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative : Focus on Eastern Africa At Biovision Africa Trust

1. Introduction

Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT) wishes to recruit a consultant to undertake the above assignment under the African Union-led Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) Initiative. The Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) Initiative is an African Union-led continental undertaking started in 2011 and currently implemented in nine countries (Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda). It is implemented under the guidance and oversight of the AU chaired Continental Steering Committee (CSC) to establish an African organic farming platform based on available best practices; and to develop sustainable organic farming systems and improve seed quality. Its mission is to promote ecologically sound strategies and practices among diverse stakeholders involved in production, processing, marketing and policy making to safeguard the environment, improve livelihoods, alleviate poverty and guarantee food security among farmers in Africa. The goal is to contribute to mainstreaming of Ecological Organic Agriculture into national agricultural production systems by 2025 in order to improve agricultural productivity, food security, access to markets and sustainable development in Africa. In addition, these efforts are hoped to reduce exploitation of the organic farmers in Africa.

The EOA initiative was started in response to the African Union Heads of State and Government’s call for the promotion of organic farming in Africa. The African Union Commission (AUC), in collaboration with several civil society organizations, organized an inception workshop in May 2011 in Thika Kenya, with financial support from the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) to discuss how to implement this decision. The workshop successfully resulted in a roadmap, concept note and an African Organic Action Plan to mainstream ecological organic agriculture into national agricultural production systems. The Action Plan was supported by SSNC in a pilot undertaken in 2012 in six countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in Eastern Africa; Zambia in Southern Africa; and Nigeria in Western Africa) while the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) supported baseline studies in three Francophone countries (Benin, Mali and Senegal) in the third quarter of 2013. Further discussions led to the development of an 8-country project proposal supported by SDC for the first phase (2014-2018) while SSNC with funding from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) supported the EOA Initiative in some Eastern Africa countries through civil society organizations from 2013 to date. The African Union also supports the EOA Initiative through funds provided by the European Union and other sources. The initiative is in its 2nd Phase of implementation for 4 years from Mid 2019-Mid 2023 in 9 countries.

About the Global Advocacy Project (GAP)

The overall aim of the GAP project is to support increased food security, resilient production systems and better incomes for small (and medium) scale farmers in Africa while at the same time safeguarding the environment for the future. The project aims to stimulate and strengthen partner organizations in their capacity to catalyze change with respect to greater policy attention to EOA programs and investments, in order to influence relevant legislation and regulations and to allocate resources to build capabilities in key areas including extension, education, market development, entrepreneurship, applied research, information sharing and communication among others.

2. Purpose and Objectives of the Assessment

The specific goal for GAP project is to create awareness and better understanding among policymakers, practitioners, technocrats and development partners of Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) and stimulate discussion and debate among them about EOA and its benefits to human, animal, plant and environmental health subsequently leading to efforts of supporting the EOA agenda.
The GAP project has been implemented under the coordination of BvAT and PELUM Kenya from 2018 to 2020 in 5 eastern Africa countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) also involved in the overall EOA Initiative. As we prepare for the next Phase of SSNC funding to the EOA-I project, it would be important to take stock of the success of the project in terms of achievements attained in line with the set goals, challenges experienced, lessons learnt, and recommendations to be considered in the next phase for greater impact.

The purpose of this evaluation is therefore to:

1. Assess the achievements and impacts of the project resulting from interventions by implementing organizations of BvAT and PELUM Kenya in order to strengthen accountability to stakeholders.
2. Provide recommendations on actions necessary to increase GAP project effectiveness, impact, and promotion to scale up the project to full scale in eastern Africa EOA countries.
3. Develop a write up on the best practices and lessons learnt for upscale as well as strategies for roll out of achievements to EOA-I Eastern Africa countries of implementation.

Results and recommendations of the evaluation will inform the designing (including impact generating incentive-setting), programming and management of the upcoming Phase III, starting in January 2022.

Objectives of the Evaluation

• To assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the GAP project in supporting the overall goal of EOA-I of mainstreaming ecological organic agriculture into national policies and plans as well as its contribution to the Outcomes of EOA-I.
• To determine the number (or percent) of policy makers and other stakeholders who have been reached by the GAP project and in what ways.
• To assess the extent to which gender and access by the youth and other vulnerable groups were considered in the project budget and implementation.
• To draw key lessons from GAP Phase 1 to inform recommendations and actions for building on new opportunities, addressing the weaknesses and challenges experienced, most appropriate and motivating funding support arrangements, future programming, implementation, monitoring & evaluation and reporting on a sustained basis at all key levels (country, regional, continental platform and AU).

The Evaluation Deliverables

1. An inception report: Elaboration of the external evaluation methodology and tools including a detailed schedule of activities to be undertaken across the five eastern Africa countries.
2. An Aide Memoir (intermediate report with key findings and recommendations). This will be presented to the the Continental Steering Committee (CSC), the Eastern Africa Steering Committee and Coordinating organizations and partners as well as the donors SSNC and SDC .
3. The External Evaluation Draft and Final Reports: The report should be logically structured including the executive summary, intervention description, assessment purpose, assessment methodology, findings, conclusions, lessons and recommendations, and annexes (key officials interviewed, documents consulted, and data collection instruments). The report should respond in detail to the key focus areas described above. It should include a set of recommendations for the project and identify the necessary actions to be undertaken as advice in “Way Forward”.
4. A Summary of the External Evaluation Report.

4.Background Documents

Various materials that will be useful to this assessment including but not limited to:

• AU Decision on Organic Farming
• EOA Strategic Plan (2015-2025) and EOA Action Plan (2015-2020)
• SDC and SSNC Project Documents (for the period 2014-2023)
• Project Annual Reports (2018, 2019 and 2020)
• Report of the Policy and Legislation studies in the 5 Eastern Africa countries (2018 &
  2020)
• Report of Policy rapid studies in 47 African countries commissioned by AUC
• IEC materials especially Policy briefs produced under the GAP project
• Report of the 1st Agroecology Conference whose seed funding was provided by SSNC under the GAP project.
• The Evaluation Methodology/Approach

5.The Evaluation Methodology/Approach

The Consultant is expected to develop an appropriate evaluation approach/methodology to address the evaluation objectives. The evaluation strategy should demonstrate a close link between the data collected for an evaluation and the methodology that will be employed to ensure the impact estimate is unbiased. The Consultant, in consultation with the project team will develop a detailed and appropriate approach/evaluation methodology. The evaluation methodology developed by the consultant will be reviewed and approved by BvAT before the rollout of data collection. The evaluation methodology will include and not be limited to:

1. Review of relevant documents on EOA-I and GAP project including Project Documents, Strategic Action Plan, Policy and Legislation study reports, Policy briefs, video documentaries, Conference proceedings report ports, bi- and annual progress reports, monitoring reports, publications, etc.
2. Data collection approaches and tools, focusing on structured interviews with partners, policy makers and various committee members (of various committees)
3. Data analysis techniques, capturing the effectiveness, efficacy and impact of the project.

6.Consultants & Minimum Qualifications

The evaluation will be conducted by a consultant or team of consultants with the team leader
and partners having the following main qualifications:

• At least a master’s degree or equivalent in agriculture, sociology, development studies, economics or related social sciences.
• At least 5 years of experience in conducting midterm and end-term assessment/evaluations, impact assessments or similar assignments in agricultural development programmes and projects.
• Demonstrated ability to assess complex situations to analyze critical issues succinctly and clearly and draw conclusions and recommendations.
• Proven in-depth understanding and consulting experiences on institutional set-up of complex development programmes.
• Substantive knowledge of participatory monitoring and evaluation processes and experience with multi-stakeholder/community development interventions.
• Consultants with base or partners in Eastern Africa will be encouraged.

The consultant(s) should not have been engaged in the activities to be evaluated, or responsible in decision-making roles for the design, implementation or supervision of the GAP/EOA projects. The exercise will require impartiality and a comprehensive and balanced appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the project and implementation of activities being evaluated. The selected consultant will be expected to adhere to a code of conduct (Statement on Ethics), and conduct self/ themselves according to the expected ethical standards.