SABIR Project Endline and Final Evaluation at Expertise France

TERMS OF REFERENCE

SABIR Project Endline and Final Evaluation

Expertise France

Project Name: SABIR (Syrian Area Based Integrated Recovery).

Sector: Stability and crisis recovery.

Implementer: Expertise France.

Country: Syria, North-east Syria.

Location: Deir ez-Zor, Kisrah.

Duration of assignment: 1.5 months max. spread from 13^th of June to 28^th of July.

Type of contract: Service contract.

Deadline for applications: 31^st of May 2021.

1. Introduction

Expertise France

Expertise France (EF) is the French public agency for international cooperation. It was founded on 1st January 2015 and merging 6 French public agencies under the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economic and Finance supervision with a solid inter-ministerial vocation. It designs and implements projects that aim to contribute to the balanced development of partner countries, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda and France’s external action priorities.

Expertise France in Syria:

Expertise France seeks to support France’s stabilization approach towards the North-East of Syria by supporting the progressive recovery of essential services, stimulating the local economy, and reinforcing the social capital. To support this purpose, Expertise France implemented a 2 million project titled “Syrian Area Based Integrated Recovery SABIR” project, a part of a 9 million Portfolio for North-East Syria.

2. Context

Syrian conflict

The Syrian conflict is having a devastating and lasting impact on Syria and across the region. With the conflict almost entering its ninth year, the needs of the affected populations for assistance, including 13.1 million people inside the country and more than 5.6 million refugees plus their overstretched host communities in neighboring countries, are of an unprecedented scale. In 2013, the Syria crisis has transformed itself from a humanitarian emergency to a multidimensional and protracted crisis directly affecting several countries in the region – mainly Lebanon and Jordan, but also Iraq, Turkey and Egypt – whose social and economic capacity to deal with the ever-growing influx of refugees is all but exhausted. All actors involved in the response agree that this massive challenge requires a comprehensive regional response not only including humanitarian aid but also longer-term structural support to host countries and communities, especially as no political solution to the crisis is in sight in the short-term.

Many communities inside Syria are facing disrupted humanitarian support and quickly deteriorating public services and infrastructure. In that context, and since 2013, Expertise France has developed and manages direct stabilization projects to conflict-affected communities in Syria, in particular through support to civil society organizations.

3. Programme background

SABIR (Syrian Area Based Integrated Recovery)

Expertise France implemented “Syria Area Based Integrated Recovery” (SABIR) project, with the support of French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in order to support the third pillar of its stabilization approach in Northeast Syria: improving access to essential services and stimulating economic recovery and livelihoods.

SABIR has an overall objective to reinforce stabilization and early recovery in areas of North-eastern Syria recently liberated from Islamic State, through the improvement of living conditions. It takes an area-based approach, which is suitable for complex contexts that have been destabilized by multiple factors, an approach which is also justified by the small size and the specificity of Al Kesrah sub-district, as it is one of the two sub-districts gathering the most IDPs and includes on its territory several major IDP camps. The SABIR project also uses a holistic approach in the design of its activities, considering the links and exchanges between sectors, local areas, and stakeholders. Targeting one location – Al Kesrah sub-district – with a multi-sector approach hopes to maximize impact by affecting multiple activities at once (rehabilitation, vocational training, agricultural support, etc.) while acting as potential leverage for sectors not directly targeted by the project (education and child labor, growth of local private sector, etc.). **

In this project, EF had partnerships with 11 CBOs and CSOs, the main activities and targeted locations funded in this project is as the follow:

Activity Type

Activity Location

Number of Beneficiaries

TVET

Deir ez-Zor, Mheimidah

180

TVET and Small Business Grants

Deir ez-Zor, Jazaret Elbuhamied

120

Livestock Support

Deir ez-Zor, Jazaret Elbuhamied, Jazaret Milaj, Shate

678

Livestock Support

Deir ez-Zor, Lower Safira, and Mhemideh

550

Agricultural Support

Deir ez-Zor, Mhemideh, Lower Safira, and Sawa

32

Agricultural Support

Al-Kobar, Sawa, Hawayej Busamaa, and Mhemideh

50

Electrical grids rehabilitation

Jazaret Milaj, Shate, Kobar, Kasrah, Ali, Sawa, Hawayej Thyab Jazira, Al Hisan, Zghir

21,200

Electrical grids rehabilitation

Jazaret Elbuhamied, Al-Kesrah fauqani, Al-Harmousheya fauqani, Harmousheya tahtani, Mhemideh Gharbia, Mhemideh Sharqia, Tayiba gathering.

16,540

Water station rehabilitation

Deir ez-Zor, Abu Khashab, Jerwan, Sabagh

30,000

Schools’ rehabilitation

Deir ez-Zor, Jazaret Elbuhmeid and Jazaret Milaj

5,200

Trainings

Ar-Raqqa, Ar-raqqa city.

1,880

4. Job Description/ Assignment

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

EF is seeking a reputable firm to conduct an endline and final evaluation aimed at supporting the project MEAL processes and providing an independent evaluation of project activities implemented by partners. The core implementation period of the activities will take place over 2 months.

Assignments and tasks:

The purpose for this endline and final evaluation is to:

1. Assess the performance of the project.
2. Capture project achievements, challenges and best practices to inform future similar programming.
3. Ensure accountability towards MoFA as a donor and the beneficiaries of the program.
4. Offer a learning aspect for all stakeholders.
5. Identify key lessons learned, challenges and the flexibility of the programme to adapt and respond to the changes and sustainability of the three key components of the project
6. Provide endline values of the SABIR project key indicators, mainly the outcome indicators.

7. Methodology

The endline and final evaluation methodology will be developed by the TPM firm/consultant as well as all relevant tools and presented in the inception report. The methodology should adopt a mixed-method approach comprising both qualitative and quantitative data including innovative approaches and methods. In addition, the endline evaluation should develop a sound sampling methodology as needed. The data collection should include the use of a number of approaches to gain a deeper understanding of the outcomes of the project, including:

o Desk review of background documents (project document, project monitoring data, progress report, mid-term review report, field visit reports etc).

o Quantitative surveys with beneficiary groups

o Qualitative approaches such as

§ Key informant interviews (e.g., with EF project staff members, partners’ key staff, local authorities, etc.) to gather substantial anecdotal evidence on the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and impact of the project activities implementation and delivery

§ Focus group discussions (e.g., with community members of the infrastructure component, project beneficiaries, others, etc.)

o Other participatory approaches as recommended by the hired company/consultant.

The developed methodology should ensure a participatory approach and should cover the two components of the SABIR project: the livelihood component (agriculture and livestock distributions, TVET and business grants) and the access to basic services component (rehabilitation of water, education and electricity infrastructure). The third component of the SABIR project, the capacity building one, is to be covered in this assignment, at least partially, and it will be discussed with EF SABIR team.

Use of the DAC criteria

The endline and final evaluation should build on the DAC criteria and answer the following questions under each criterion.

A. Relevance

§ How relevant were the objectives and activities, implemented by the project, in addressing humanitarian needs in Al-Kesrah, Deir ez-Zor.

§ How do beneficiaries perceive the relevance of the project?

§ To what extent was project able to adapt and provide appropriate response to change in the political, social and health (particularly Civid-19 response) context and emerging local needs, and the priorities of beneficiaries?

§ Was the basic information on the situation, the needs and the expectations of the beneficiaries, contained in the project document, in line with the reality observed during the project implementation?

B. Effectiveness:

§ To what extent have the planned objectives in the log frame of the project, been reached?

§ What are the current endline values of the key indicators, specifically outcomes and impact?

§ To what extent have the project activities contributed to the overall goal?

§ What were the major factors influencing the achievement of the objectives of the project?

§ What opportunities for collaboration have been, utilized and how have these contributed to increased effectiveness among partners? or otherwise?

§ Have proper accountability and risk management framework(s) been in place to minimize risks on program implementation?

C. Efficiency:

§ How efficient was the delivery of project by Expertise France, not only in terms of expenditure, but also in terms of implementation of activities?

§ Was the project activity implementation (modality), considered to have been cost-efficient, while not compromising quality?

§ What would have been opportunities within project to reach more beneficiaries with the available budget or to reduce costs while reaching at least the same number of beneficiaries without compromising quality?

§ Were, alterations made to the program design in terms of collaboration during the implementation phase based on the reality on the ground?

D. Impact

§ How has the collaboration between EF, local partners, and local authorities contributed to appropriate response of specific needs and priorities of the beneficiaries?

§ What evidence of impact does the project generate?

§ What positive changes has the project brought about?

§ Has the project caused any negative impacts, especially in terms of market in the livelihood intervention?

§ Were other groups positively affected by the project interventions? If so, which ones and why?

§ What measures should be taken to strengthen / consolidate this impact in the longer term?

E. Sustainability

§ Given the development focus of the project, is the project achievement sustainable?

§ What evidence is there to support the sustainability of the achievement?

§ How has the intervention contributed in specific to revitalizing the local market?

§ How has the infrastructure component contributed to sustainable access to basic services?

§ Does the project have a clear exit strategy?

§ Are the capacity building efforts sustainable and how?

8. Deliverables:

The selected firm is expected to lead, accomplish and submit the following deliverables within the agreed timeframe and budget:

A. An inception report, which will serve as an agreement between parties on how the evaluation will be conducted. Items to address:

§ Understanding of the issues and questions raised in the ToR

§ Data sources; how to assess the questions in the ToR

§ Evaluation methodology, including suggested sample and size.

§ Schedule of endline evaluation activities (timeline)

§ Appropriate validated draft data collection tools (e.g., methodological guidelines, group interview questions)

B. A max 35-page draft and final evaluation report (in MS Office and PDF for final), excluding annexes and in English.

The report should cover the below sections:

§ Executive Summary in bullet points (max. 2 pages).

§ Introduction.

§ Methodology, including sampling and limitations.

§ Analysis and findings of the evaluation. The analysis should be done according to the objectives on the DAC criteria and should cover the key log-frame indicators agreed between EF and the selected company/consultant.

§ Address concerns, lessons learned and comments from EF.

§ Stories of change and quotes from respondents.

§ Recommendations for future projects.

5. Eligible entities to apply:

· Local or international private consulting firm or organization with a bank account and an official and valid registration in Kurdistan Region of Iraq or neighbouring countries, existence of a field team in the NES is mandatory.

· For consultancy companies, they need to have a current network in NES, with registration documents (preferrable);

· Coordinated team, through existing TPM, NGO, or association of able individuals.

· At least 7 years’ experience in working with humanitarian sectoral programs relating to livelihood, infrastructure or education;

· Demonstrated experience with quantitative and qualitative research, data base management and statistical data analysis;

· Experience of working in NES is mandatory;

· Previous experience in on-site monitoring activities;

· Ability to deal with hardship and remote area field work

· Strong understanding of humanitarian and evaluation ethics and a commitment to ethical working practices

· Action-oriented and evidence-based approach and strong drive for results;

· Highly developed self-management and communication skills;