Consultancy for undertaking an end-of-programme evaluation for AgriFI programme (Consulting firms only). At Micro Enterprises Support Programme Trust

PLEASE NOTE: THIS CONSULTANCY IS ELIGIBLE TO CONSULTING FIRMS ONLY.

BIDS FROM INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANTS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.

1. MESPT Background

Micro-Enterprises Support Programme Trust (MESPT) is a Kenyan development organization established in 2002. MESPT’s overall objective is to promote economic growth, employment creation and poverty alleviation through enterprise development. This is achieved predominantly through support to the development of agricultural value chains whilst embracing and promoting the green growth and climate change agenda. Through its vision of building a more Prosperous Society, MESPT facilitates increased commercialization, decent employment, and green transformation through targeted interventions in the selected value chains. The Trust is a multi-donor entity jointly founded by the Government of Kenya and the European Union who later relinquished their position to the Royal Danish Embassy in Kenya, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (DANIDA). To learn more about MESPT, please visit www.mespt.org.

1. Programme Background and Results

AgriFI programme is an EU-DANIDA funded Programme whose objective is to support production initiatives for smallholder farmers that are adaptive to the changing climate and market requirements. In this 7-year programme running from 2018 to 2024, MESPT is an Implementing Partner of results area two and three of the overall four Results Areas of the programme.

Under Result Area 2 the programme aimed at strengthening the capacities of actors along selected value chains through the Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education Training (ATVET) system approach. To achieve this, the programme has set up a series of initiatives around review of the training curricula to incorporate food safety, strengthening ATVET Centres, strengthening of value chain actors on sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS), capacity building of farmer cooperatives/associations, linkages to competitive markets and capacity building of the private lead firms and industry associations to strengthen compliance on SPS.

Under Result Area 3 the programme aimed to increase the capacity of private sector and County Governments to implement and enforce standards on animal health, food safety and plant health. Activities undertaken include strengthening County Food and Feed Safety Coordination Committee, support to institutional and legal frameworks (Food safety, ATVET and Wet Market policy and bills), strengthening monitoring, testing, and surveillance in Counties, capacity building of Competent Authorities and support to selected wet markets to improve their unregulated legal and physical environment due to their highly informal nature .

Broadly the programme envisages sustainable Agricultural Technical Vocational Education Training and Food Safety system with proper investment from the County Government and private sector which in turn will bolster competitiveness of value chains of focus.

Programme Goal:

To strengthen capacity of Dairy, Horticulture and Aquaculture value chain actors for a productive, climate change adapted, market integrated smallholder agriculture and overall Agriculture sector competitiveness.

Programme Outcome:

Enhanced productivity, food safety standards adoption and access to markets in the Dairy, Aquaculture and Horticulture sectors in 13 counties.

Programme Outputs: –

Output 1: – Capacities of actors along selected value chains strengthened through broad value chain training and SPS using the Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education Training (ATVET) system approach.

Key activities related to this output include: –

1. Review the ATVET Curricula to incorporate food safety and develop 4 training and learning guides with reference to industry compliance guidelines.
2. Strengthening ATVET Centres capacity to deliver training on broad value chain curriculum & SPS
3. Strengthening value chain actors on SPS
4. Strengthening of farmers cooperatives and associations through training and linkages to competitive market
5. Strengthen industry associations and private sectors lead firms to develop and implement standard operating procedures, self-assessment guides and undertake self-assessment audit.
6. Facilitate private sector lead firms’ linkage with ATVET Centres to offer competency-based education and training.

Output 2:- Capacity of private sector and County level actors to manage and enforce standards on animal health, food safety and plant diseases increased.

Key activities related to this output include: –

1. Setting up and strengthening of County Food Safety Coordination Committees in all the 13 Counties
2. Support the legislative processes at county and national level to facilitate the adoption of food safety practices, ATVET Centres functionality and wet market management.
3. Enhanced Capacity of Counties in Monitoring, Surveillance and Enforcement of SPS regulations
4. Capacity building of Central Competent Authorities to support in implementation of food safety regulations
5. Strengthening of the wet market concept in addressing hygiene and sanitation, ownership and management, regulation and waste management.

Key partners

• 13 County Governments namely Nakuru, Makueni, Machakos, Bungoma, Kakamega, Kisii, Kilifi, Kiambu, Kirinyaga, Meru, Nyandarua, Migori and Embu counties
• National Government targeting the Central Competent Authorities
• Private Sector Lead Farms (PSLFs)
• Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education Training (ATVET)
• Value chain actors (Smallholder farmers / Farmer producer organization, Service providers, off takers, aggregators etc)

Programme target beneficiaries: –

1. 4 curricula reviewed; 4 training and learning guides developed
2. 3000 value chain actors trained specifically on SPS
3. 18,200 value chain actors trained on food safety using the broad value chain curricula
4. 500 ToTs trained to support in delivery of trainings using the reviewed curricula
5. 13 ATVET Centres delivering trainings to value chain actors using the ATVET model
6. 20 farmers organizations/PSLFs linked to competitive markets
7. 15 PSLF adopting standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) and Self-Assessment Guides (SAGs) and undertaking Self-Assessment Audit (SAA)
8. 13 Counties with County Food Safety Coordination Committees
9. 13 Counties undertaking SPS controls
10. 500 spray service providers trained
11. 5 model markets set-up to pilot the wet market concept
12. Objective of AgriFI Endline Evaluation

The overall objective for undertaking an end-of-programme evaluation for AgriFI programme will be assess the programme’s effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, and relevance in achieving its overall goal and objectives as outlined in the programme Development Engagement Document (DED). It also seeks to document success stories, innovative and /or scalable practices, valuable lessons learnt and recommendations for future programme development by MESPT and its stakeholders.

Specific objectives of endline Evaluation

The endline evaluation will establish overall programme performance against set objectives and targets to be achieved by end of the programme. Particularly, the evaluation will account for what has been achieved over the entire implementation period including both intended and unintended outcomes. It will provide MESPT, DANIDA and the key programme partners with an opportunity to: –

• Evaluate relevance of AgriFI programme to the needs and priorities of the targeted county Governments and value chain actors in championing food safety initiatives, market linkages and skill and knowledge dissemination on SPS to Value chain Actors (VCAs), private sector lead firms and county governments. In addition, assess alignment with the county’s priorities and plans on food safety standards.
• Evaluate programme effectiveness and the extent to which set objectives and targets have been achieved with regards to adoption of food safety standards, reduction in volumes of rejects, enhanced agricultural productivity and sales turnover amongst other indicators stipulated in the programme log frame.
• Evaluate programme effectiveness in facilitating knowledge and skills dissemination on SPS/ food safety standards and market linkages amongst Value chain Actors (VCAs) along selected value chains i.e. Dairy, Horticulture and aquaculture, as well as development and enactment of food safety legislation framework in the targeted counties.
• Evaluate efficiency of Programme resource utilization against implementation processes and the achieved results. It will also focus on appropriateness and adequacy of implementation models, strategies and activities adopted for achievement of desired objectives and target.
• Evaluate programme impact by assessing significant changes (both intended / non-intended) experienced by the targeted beneficiaries as a result of AgriFI interventions including the major factors that influenced the achievements and non-achievement of set programme results.
• Assess programme impact on women and youth participation in the programme interventions and the extent to which they are accounted for in the achieved programme results.
• Evaluate the extent to AgriFI contributed to adoption of green transformation initiatives by the targeted beneficiaries and creation of decent jobs.
• Evaluate sustainability of AgriFI Programme results by examining the extent to established structures and mechanisms put in place by the Value Chain Actors and County Governments to ensure the achieved results of the programme will continue beyond the implementation period.
• Evaluate the effectiveness and the sustainability of the Wet Market concept in promoting improved legal and physical environmental with specific focus to; sanitation, hygiene, management, ownership and regulation through enhanced legal and physical environment created by the programme’s interventions.
• Assess how effective the programme risks were anticipated and adequacy of mitigation measures. Validate whether the risks identified by the programme document were the most important ones and whether the risk ratings applied were appropriate and the leanings.
• Assess the extent to which programme management systems, procedures & structures in place and how well were they aligned for effective programme implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
• Evaluating whether the partnerships were appropriate and effective for programme implementation and how stakeholders have been involved in the project’s performance management.

Scope of Work

The endline survey will provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable, and useful to MESPT and stakeholders. It will cover all aspects of programme design, implementation, and management. The evaluation should provide as much gender and youth disaggregated data as possible.

Specific activities to be undertaken include: –

Preparation Phase:

• Review/ develop of the relevant documents related to the programme design and implementation guides.
• Prepare an inception report which will include a detailed methodology, sampling approach, data collection tools and a work schedule with clear timelines.
• Review/develop of the data collection tools with programme team.
• Prepare sampling frame, respondent selection, and distribution lists.
• Recruitment of data collectors and consensus/ rapport building with the farmers.

Data collection, Analysis and reporting phase.

• Training project staff/ data collectors on data collection methods and tools including use of mobile devices in areas where they will be used.
• Coordinate actual data collection process including conducting spot checks to ensure the enumerators are adequately capturing the right data/info needed.
• Meeting and interviewing Value chain Actors (farmers), key stakeholders, including PSLFs, ATVETs and County Government representatives, private service providers among other relevant people.
• All data collected must be disaggregated by geographical location, age, gender, and any other category of interest.
• Review the analyzed data sets to ensure it adequately responds to the needs of each indicator.
• Data Analysis, presentation, and Report writing.

Presentation/ Validation of findings and dissemination of finalized evaluation report phase.

• Review of draft Evaluation report by Programme management team.
• Presenting the key findings and recommendations to Programme team and stakeholders.
• Share/ submit the finalized Evaluation report.
• Update the programme result framework.

AgriFI Programme level indicators

To be evaluated as stipulated in the programme log frame. The data and information of all programme indicators will be compared against the baseline value to establish the extent to which the objectives and targets have been met. In specific the indicators to be assessed include:-

• % increase of Value Chain actors with knowledge and adopting food safety and SPS
• % increase in revenues by the value chain actors
• % Decrease in rejects in the targeted Value chain Actor by buyers based on non-compliance to SPS
• % Increase of Value chain Actors with increased productivity, practicing food safety and access markets
• Production volume per unit along selected value chains among the value chain actors
• No of farmers organizations linked / sustain competitive markets.
• No of Value chain actors carrying out industry self-assessment audit
• County Governments investments in surveillance systems and compliance to food safety standards / SPS
• Percentage increase in private sector investing in food safety and SPS.

1. Endline Evaluation design and Methodology

The evaluation design will adopt OECD/DAC criteria in assessing the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, impact and sustainability of the programme on achieved results. In specific the consultancy Firm is expected to develop a clear evaluation plan including evaluation questions aligned to the OECD/DAC criteria. In overall the evaluation will utilize a highly consultative and participatory approach with a blend of both quantitative and qualitative methods. The key data collection methods will include: –

• Document/ existing literature reviews,
• Use of semi/ structured questionnaires,
• Focus Group Discussions,
• Direct observations, as well as Key Informant Interviews with target beneficiaries and stakeholders.

A detailed methodology, sampling process, tools and field workplan will be designed by the consultancy firm in consultation with the MESPT evaluation team. Additionally, the consultancy firm will be expected to use mobile data collection application especially for farmer data collection tools. The data will be hosted in MESPT Servers.

Principles underpinning the design to the evaluation include:

• Impartiality and independence of the evaluation process from the programming and implementation functions.
• Credibility of the evaluation, through use of appropriately skilled and independent expert and the transparency of the evaluation process, including wide dissemination of results.
• Usefulness of the evaluation findings and recommendations, through timely presentation of relevant, clear and concise information.
• Ethical considerations that will seek to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the participants, voluntary participation through informed consent form by participant, as well as adherence to “No conflict of interest” and “do no harm”.

1. Expected deliverables.

The consultancy firm will provide the following deliverables: –

1. Inception Report:

An inception report outlining the evaluation design, sampling approach, data collection methods and tools to be used in the evaluation. This report will be approx. 20 pages in length and will propose the methods, source of information and procedures to be used for data collection including timelines for submission of key deliverables. The desk study report will propose initial lines of inquiry about the AGRIFI programme hence used as an initial point of agreement and understanding between the consultancy firm and the MESPT evaluation Team.

1. Draft Final Report

The draft final report will follow the same format as the final report (described in the next paragraph) and will be maximum of 40- 50 pages in length.

1. Final Evaluation Report

The final report should be produced according to the DANIDA/MESPT evaluation guidelines and reflecting the key evaluation questions. The maximum length of the final report should be 40-50 pages in length. It will also contain an executive summary of no more than five pages that includes a brief description of the joint programme, its context and current situation, the purpose of the evaluation, its methodology and its major findings and where necessary include photographs, verbatims, and case studies demonstrating evidence of the findings, conclusions, and recommendations. The final report will be signed off by the MESPT evaluation Team.

The consultancy firm is required to append the following items: – Terms of Reference, Data collection instruments, List of meetings/consultations attended, List of persons or organisations interviewed, List of documents/publications reviewed and cited, photo gallery of impacts documented and Updated result framework.

Datasets/ data analysis framework/ field reports/ photo gallery

The consultancy firm will be required to submit all the dataset including the data analytics and visualizations for quantitative data and a full and final typed data set for qualitative data collected. In addition, they shall be expected to submit field reports and photo gallery.

1. Administration and logistical arrangements

The consultancy firm will report to MESPT Evaluation Team and will work closely with AgriFI programme staff. The endline will be carried out with logistical support and services of contracted consultancy firm.

1. Qualifications and competencies of consultancy Firm

The lead consultant should have at least the following qualifications:

• An advanced university degree (preferably master’s degree) in applied statistics, Monitoring & Evaluation, Agricultural Economics, Agri-business, Agricultural Education and Extension, Development studies, programme management and/or other related social sciences.
• A minimum of 10 years of professional experience specifically in evaluating programmes in Market Systems Development, value chain development, food safety /Agri-food systems integrated Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture for international development initiatives preferably in Africa.
• Demonstrated expertise and capability in assessment of SMEs development, regional private sector development, employment creation, improved food safety system related national /counties regulation and knowledge of government operational framework.
• Demonstrated experience in evaluation of green technology projects-climate smart solutions.
• Demonstrated experience in measuring projects promoting access to micro credit among the MSMEs.
• Proven experience with logical framework approaches and other strategic planning approaches, M&E methods, and approaches (including quantitative, qualitative, and participatory), information analysis and report writing.
• Knowledge and expertise of evaluating programmes using OECD/DAC principles and evaluation guidelines.
• Knowledge and experience of the EU/ DANIDA funded programme will be an added advantage.
• Excellent communication and interview skills.
• Excellent English report writing skills. Demonstrated ability to deliver quality results within strict deadlines.

Associate consultants should have the following qualifications:

• An advanced university degree (preferably master’s degree) in applied statistics, Monitoring & Evaluation, Agricultural Economics, Agri-business, Agricultural Education and Extension, Development studies, programme management and/or other related social sciences.
• A minimum of 7 years of professional experience, specifically in the area of monitoring and evaluation of international development initiatives focusing on Market Systems Development, Agri Food & Feed value chain development, integrated Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture.
• A minimum of 5 years of professional experience specifically in evaluating development projects/programmes in the employment area, small-medium scale enterprise development or related areas of work, preferably in Africa.
• A track record of conducting various types of evaluations, including process, outcome and impact evaluations in Kenya.
• Demonstrated experience/engagement in agriculture Value Chain development projects working with farmer groups
• Demonstrated experience in evaluation of green technology projects-climate smart solutions
• Demonstrated experience in measuring projects promoting access to micro credit among the MSMEs.
• Understanding of the OECD/DAC principles and evaluation guidelines.
• Excellent communication, interview and report writing skills.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver quality results within strict deadlines.