Final External Evaluation “Third Party” – Increasing The Resilience Of Vulnerable Populations In Yemen Towards Health Risks Through Sustainable Wash At Solidarités International

YEMEN – CONSULTANCY

FINAL EXTERNAL EVALUATION “THIRD PARTY”

Increasing the resilience of vulnerable populations in Yemen towards health risks through sustainable WaSH (R-WaSH)

ALMOKHA / TAI’ZZ AND HUDAYDAH GOVERNORATES, YEMEN

Date : 18.03.2024

Deadline date for reply : 28.03.2024

Start Date: 18.03.2024

Duration : from 10th of April until the end of April

Location: Almokha / Tai’zz and Hudaydah Governorates, Yemen

Reference of the CFT/Consultancy : PL-YEM-00941

ABOUT SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL

SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL (SI) is a French NGO, independent of all political, economic, ethnic and religious groups. For over 40 years, it has contributed to provide humanitarian assistance to populations that are victims of armed conflicts and natural disasters by meeting their vital needs (water, food and shelter) and strengthening their resilience capacities. Particularly committed to the fight against water-borne diseases, the world’s leading cause of death, SI provides expertise in the areas of access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene promotion, as well as in the essential domain of food security and livelihoods and shelter. SI teams are present in about 25 missions – a total of 2,494 employes, including expatriates, national staff, permanent staff at Headquarters, and a few volunteers.

ABOUT THE MISSION

SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL (SI) is a humanitarian NGO which is committed to meeting the vital needs of populations faced with a major crisis of human or natural origin and to strengthening their resilience, particularly regarding Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, and food security.

The Yemeni conflict, now in its eight year, has evolved into one of the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. An estimated 23.4 million people in Yemen require some form of humanitarian assistance in 2022, of whom 12.9 million people are assessed to be in acute need, and 4 million people are currently displaced. Half of the displaced are women and 27% are under the age of 18. Food affordability is a critical concern with only around 25% of food being produced domestically and COVID-19 related trade restriction and currency depreciation risk increasing food prices even more. Remittances from migrant Yemeni workers, which made up 13% of the country’s GDP in 2019, have seen a dramatic decline and reduced the availability of hard currency. The impact of conflict on displacement and economic collapse has resulted in worsening social-economic vulnerabilities and acute need for food, water sanitation and hygiene (WASH), shelter, food security and livelihood and protection services, leading to a situation of Protracted Emergency, driving acute vulnerability and increasing exposure to protection risks.

In 2017, SI launched its operations in Yemen. Currently, the SI Yemen is operating in five bases of EPRT covering (Abyan, Lahj, Al Dhale’e and Al Waz’ayah districts), West Coast covering (Al Khawkha, Mokha, Mawza and Dhubab districts) Marib covering (City and Marib Al Wadi districts) and Taiz covering (Al Mudhaffar, Salah, Al Qahira, Jabal Habashy districts) with the close support of the coordination (main) office. The different bases is currently implementing mostly an emergency multisectoral (WASH, shelter and FSL) projects and one WASH resilience project in the west coast through various donors served/reached an estimated of 144,470 individuals in YR2023. By 2025, SI Yemen aim to fulfill the following main strategic pillars:

– To provide multi-sectorial rapid response to shocks/sudden onset crisis including floods, new displacements, re-igniting frontlines, and AWD/cholera/diseases outbreaks response.

– To provide dignified living conditions to vulnerable populations affected by protracted crisis, through tailored WASH, Shelter and FSL interventions.

– To rebuild and strengthen conflict-affected communities resilience through sustainable and integrated interventions.

PURPOSE OF THE EVALUATION – ABOUT THE MARKET

The final evaluation is to be carried out as one of the evaluation procedures mentioned in R-WASH proposal. As the project implementation will be completed by April 30 , 2024, SI is committed to oversee the project expected performance, outcomes, intended goals and objectives by carrying out the agreed activities and understanding the unintended consequences of SI interventions. The evaluation outcomes will be used for learning and good practices to inform project management, program design, resource mobilization and MEAL for possible adaptation in future programming both internal and external levels. The purpose of the evaluation is multi-fold:

1- To assess the effectiveness of the designed project, meaning the extent to which the intervention has achieved or is expected to achieve (by the end of the project) the objectives and results planned in terms of functionality, accessibility, availability, and quality of the WASH outputs (including adoption of appropriate hygiene behavior and practices) following rigorous scientific methods and their resilience to different disasters/adverse circumstances;

2- To assess the relevance of the project, meaning the extent to which the methodologies, approaches (community engagement) and the partnerships are responded or will respond to beneficiaries needs and will continue to do so even if the circumstances change.

3- To assess the impact of the project, meaning the extent to which the project is generated or will generate indirect, secondary, or potential consequences by looking at social, environmental and economic effects.

4- To assess the sustainability of the project activities in the pilot locations and other areas of intervention, meaning the extent to which the benefits of the project intervention are continued so far.

5- To identify good practices, lessons learned and recommendations of this project that could be duplicated in other projects at local, national, and global levels for future programming.

6- Identify the strengths and weaknesses in terms of the approaches adopted during the project implementation (Phased project approach –Research, pilot, implementation; Community Action Plan -CAP; Approach focused on Behavior Change Determinants – ABCD; sequence of WASH components– Hygiene – Sanitation – Water supply ; use of Commodity voucher for latrine and kits materials distribution, Schools Promoting Learning Achievement through Sanitation and Hygiene -SPLASH; SI collaboration with ground Water Relief- GWR, REACH and Mentor initiative and their deliverables)

TIMETABLE FOR THE CONSULTATION

(ACTIVITY // Deadline)

1. Withdrawal of offers // 18th of MARCH– 28TH of MARCH 2024(Deadline included)
2. Clarifications for bidders // 24th of MARCH 2024
3. Opening session // 31 March 2024
4. Evaluation // 03 April 2024
5. Contract is expected to be signed // 08 April 2024

REQUIRED PROFILE

The elaboration and validation of final terms of reference for the external evaluation will probably be conducted by the MEAL Coordinator with the support of Country Director and SI HQ MEAL advisor and Desk Program Manager.

In general, the evaluators’ team will combine the following criteria:

• Training and qualifications:
• Advanced university degree in one of the following disciplines relevant to the following areas: Public Health, water engineering, hydrogeology or related field (preferred, not mandatory);
• The bulk of the project comprises WASH interventions, hence at least one member of the team should be an experienced WASH professional – water engineering, or hydrogeology with solid hardware experience; and another team member experienced in community engagement and participation.
• General Professional experience:
• A solid and diversified experience in monitoring and evaluation of humanitarian assistance activities and information management and information systems;
• At least 7 years’ professional work experience in humanitarian intervention, including significant field experience, in international humanitarian organizations, especially in Resilience WASH projects, community mobilisation and engagement, integrated water resource management
• A solid experiences in impact evaluation for multi-year resilience projects.
• Minimum of 3-5 years of experience in conducting studies, collecting data and producing quality baseline/midterm/end line study reports, preferably for international non-governmental organizations or multilateral agencies (mandatory for lead evaluator);
• Specific Professional experience:
• Experience in Resilience water supply, sanitation, hygiene promotion and food security (mandatory);
• Experience working in the conflict or post-conflict environments; (preferred, not mandatory)
• Experience working in Yemen (preferred, not mandatory) and Middle East (mandatory)
• Languages:
• Excellent spoken and written communication skills in English (mandatory) and Arabic (preferred, not mandatory)
• Other:
• Evidence of similar work in the recent past (mandatory);
• At least one field team member must be a woman and one field team member must be a man (mandatory)
• Strong knowledge on data protection (mandatory);