Provision of Third Party Monitoring (TPM) Services of AICS Emergency Programs in Ethiopia and South Sudan At Italian Agency for Development Cooperation

Shortlisted economic operators will be invited to bid to provide Third Party Monitoring (TPM) Services for AICS Emergency projects in Ethiopia and South Sudan, focusing on the following Projects:

– “Emergency response programme in support for basic services and socio-economic reconstruction in the areas affected by the South Sudanese crisis in South Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda” (AID 12459)

– “Response to the complex South Sudanese emergency, in South Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda” (AID 12629)

– “Emergency initiative in response to humanitarian needs caused by conflict and violence in Ethiopia” (AID 12470)

– “Response to drought in Ethiopia” (AID 12626)

SCOPE OF WORK

Field monitoring will be the priority option for monitoring of AICS projects, including assessing whether services and supplies provided actually reach the target beneficiaries on time and meet their immediate needs. Monitoring teams need to travel to the field and conduct monitoring.

Beneficiaries will have an opportunity to provide feedback on the quality, timeliness, and usefulness of cash, supplies or services they received. Direct feedback from beneficiaries, key informants, local stakeholders and service providers will help identify areas of constraints and gaps that affect the timely delivery of services and supply to end user and will inform corrective actions.

Given the scope and multi-sectorial nature of humanitarian interventions, the assignment will cover most affected geographic areas (provinces, municipalities/rural municipalities, etc.) and monitor performance of AICS humanitarian partners.

Third part contractor will work closely with AICS Emergency Department to develop monitoring tools (surveys, questionnaires, checklists etc.) and define the parameters to identify which partners and areas to monitor, reporting template, frequency of the report etc. AICS Emergency Dept. will provide detailed orientation to the third-party monitoring teams on the AICS programmes. In the field, the contractor will work closely with AICS Program and Monitoring teams to coordinate the field visits.

The consulting firm will be responsible to arrange all the logistics for remote monitoring as well as the field work including data analysis, management, and reporting. These will include vehicles for the field work, computers, printers, and phone/tablets for data collection. The contractor will be expected to collect data using the prevalent information technology to facilitate regular and timely reports generation. AICS will require update/reports on a regular and timely basis. For the field visit, monitoring teams should be gender balanced.

The consultant firm shall set out the main conclusions and recommendations based on the main findings of the TPM activity. Recommendations should be as realistic, operational and pragmatic as possible and drafted in a way that the stakeholders to whom they relate are clearly identified. Recommendations are derived from the conclusions and address issues of major importance to the performance of the project. They must take in consideration applicable rules and other constraints, related to the context in which the project is implemented. They must not be phrased in general terms but constitute clear proposals for solutions and target the most important issues rather than minor or less relevant aspects of a project.

Bidders are informed that AICS will provide an opinion on the quality of the reports and each of the contract service components, which should be taken into account. All comments should be considered by the consultant before the reports are considered completed. The consultant shall take note of these comments and decide whether or not to revise the reports and, where appropriate, succinctly explain why comments cannot be taken into account.

KEY TASKS AND DELIVERABLES

The expected tasks and deliverables will include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Inception report detailing the consultant’s understanding of the assignment, detailed work plan schedule, design (of the methodology), sampling processes, risk management strategies, data analysis plan, expected timeline, details on structure for assessment report.
• Third-Party Monitoring Activity Plan for the project. The TPM Activity Plan will complement and align to the existing reporting requirements, defining when and how project activities and outputs will be monitored and verified.
• Indicator Review Process: review and reduce the number of indicators, identify key performance indicators for the health program to support portfolio and project performance reviews.
• Appropriate recommendations and areas that need more attention and focus during the project implementation and ways to strengthen impact.
• Survey tools developed through digital and/or mobile applications, including dashboards and data visualization tools.
• Recruitment of survey team including highly competent data collectors (enumerators), supervisors for training and field work.
• Supervision and monitoring of data collection.
• Information sharing through digital platform, infographics, factsheets, etc. and internal presentation of findings.
• Managing the logistical and administrative aspects of the fieldwork.
• Data collection reports, with findings and analysis regarding any primary data collection, including action taken as a result of any issues arising during the course of data collection, entry or analysis.
• Set of study instruments (data collection tools, implementation plan, guidance framework, participation request sample and consent form for community members interviewed, etc.).
• Inception, regular/quarterly progress and final reports.

AICS Program Team and the MEAL Expert will ensure the overall quality, completeness, and timeliness of the above stated deliverables. The AICS proposals’ full package will be provided to the service provider upon contract signature. A pilot phase of approx. two months should be factored in, allowing for the desk review, testing and amendment of the monitoring tools, results framework, performance framework, quality assurance framework, risk matrix and communications plan to be finalized as required.

TEAM COMPOSITION

The team should be composed of one Team Leader and a sufficient number of team members and enumerators to ensure the successful implementation of the assignment. Team Leader will be the principal monitoring expert with an extensive experience in monitoring humanitarian response and will oversee the entire process and be responsible for deliverables of excellent quality.

The Team Leader must have the following background:

1. Education:

• Graduate or Post- graduate qualifications in Economics, Sociology, Social Studies, Statistics, Humanitarian studies and/or other related areas relevant for the assignment.
• Full proficiency in English and Italian, due to the peculiar nature of AICS project documents.

1. Required Experience:

• At least seven (7) years of demonstrated experience and previous involvement in research or monitoring and evaluation of NGOs and humanitarian projects at national level from a donor’s perspective.
• Full ability to travel and operate in Ethiopia and South Sudan.
• Experience and strong background in methodologies and research work, conducting surveys, studies, and similar publications including collection and interpretation of quantitative and qualitative data.
• Strong organizational skills, analytical capabilities, demonstrated ability to handle multiple tasks and to clearly synthesize and present findings.
• Strong knowledge of Core Humanitarian Standard.

The Third Party Monitoring Team should have the following characteristics:

• University degree preferably in human / social sciences, research methods, administration, etc.
• At least three years’ experience in reviewing and monitoring humanitarian projects in the following areas: Food Security and Livelihood, WASH, Health, Nutrition, Protection, Education in Emergency and strong familiarity with interventions carried out through CVA modalities.
• Gender balanced.
• Extensive understanding of the local context in Ethiopia and South Sudan, knowledge of local culture and languages that are spoken by the communities is essential.
• Excellent English writing skill to produce concise, well-justified, technically-sound and to-the-point survey/monitoring reports.
• Proven capacity to make use of the technology (ODK, excel, etc.)