Bread for the World - a relief agency of the Protestant Churches in Germany. In more than 90 countries all across the globe we empower the poor and marginalised to improve their living conditions.

POSITION : Consultant - Evaluation of an Integrated Community Based Development Programme

Introduction/Background 

• The Church of the Brethren Mission in Nigeria was founded in 1923 by two American Brethren: H. Stover Kulp and Albert D. Helser. It is the largest national body of the Church of the Brethren in the world. With a vibrant history of more than 90 years, EYN has placed a high emphasis on education, health, and agriculture.
• Today EYN is being ravaged by attacks from the militant group Boko Haram. Before the destruction by insurgents, EYN had nearly a million people attending services. EYN is a member of the World Council of Churches and the Christian Association of Nigeria. Its Headquarters are based in Kwarhi/Mubi, Adamawa State.
• The EYN Integrated community development programme (ICBDP), which is also based in Kwarhi, is an arm of EYN working to holistically empower rural communities and transform them through a participatory process towards self-reliance and to sustain the services through capacity building of staff and the securing of sufficient financial means. Bread for the World - Protestant Development Service collaborates with EYN-ICBDP since 1985. Currently, it is the only donor organization for the programme.
• The overall goal of the current project is to contributes to strengthen the rural communities against the background of the current crisis in the project region

Specific Project Objectives

• Self-help capacities and social cohesion among the rural communities is strengthened by the end of 2017
• Food security of the rural communities is improved

The agreed indicators to measure the extent of achievement of the above mentioned objectives are:

• For project objective 1:
  • The rural population of 54 communities has analyzed and prioritized their basic needs in local development plans and has started the implementation of the plans.
  • The existing conflicts in the communities have been discussed with the rural population and peace-building strategies have been developed.
  • The rural population of 54 communities has dealt with their personal traumas.
• For project objective 2:
  • 3240 households in 54 communities have stabilized their crop yields on the level of the harvest in 2014.
  • Target groups and operational area
  • The Programme's target groups are poor and neglected rural communities in all their facets and subgroups are children, women, men, disabled and the vulnerable, irrespective of religion, ethnicity and race.
  • In the operational areas of EYN Integrated Community Based Development Programme currently comprises 8 Local Government Areas (LGAs) - 5 in Adamawa State, and 3 in Borno State covering total communities of 54 communities. In general, the operational area of the ICBDP can be defined as southern Borno and northern Adamawa States. The project targeted to meet 25, 920 direct and indirect beneficiaries, at an average percentage of 60% women and 40% men respectively. About 30% of the target groups are Muslims.

Political context and current situation in the project area:

• In the last several years, nearly 70 percent of the EYN church buildings were lost (1,668 churches burned or abandoned), the EYN headquarters were overrun, more than 11,000 EYN members have been killed, thousands have been kidnapped including the Chibok girls, and hundreds of thousands are still displaced. Even with improved security in the second half of 2015, millions of both Christian and Muslim families are impacted and terrorized by this crisis. Since then, families from Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria (EYN, Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) and their neighbors have started the long journey to recovery and return of self sufficiency.
• As at the moment, the project area is experiencing relative peace as the security has now captured the stronghold of boko haram (Sambisa Forest). But there is still attack and fear in other areas of North East. The government is working hard to help refuges in IDP camps with basic needs and most importantly relocation to their homes. Though motorcycle is still banned by government, some remote communities could use motorcycle for conveying their goods.
• The major challenges generally faced in the country as regards to economics recession is the increase in prices of goods and services which still have an impact on the livelihood of our target population. Specifically, most schools have increased the school fees, transportation cost, increase in food prices and other commodities.

Cause and Objective of the Evaluation

• The current project started on 1st January 2016 and will end on 31st December 2017.
• The evaluation was initiated by Bread for the World - Protestant Development Service and scheduled at the beginning of the second year of implementation in order to provide a substantial assessment of the project with regard to a possible continuation of the project after 2017.
• The overall objective of the evaluation is to carry out a participative examination of the impact and effectiveness of EYN-ICBDP's activities, approaches and its organizational structure in the implemented project.

Detailed objectives of the evaluation are:

• To assess the performance of the programme based on the agreed objectives and indicators indicated in the cooperation agreement and project application form as well as to assess the effectiveness and impact of its activities on various aspects of the project and other indirect beneficiaries
• To identify and document lessons learnt and faced challenges
• To analyse the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and constraints of the organization (EYN-ICBDP)
• To examine the management (Structure and procedure) of EYN-ICBDP
• To learn on how to improve future implementation, to give recommendations based on findings and provide relevant information for the development of a possible next phase of the project.
• The evaluation is intended to assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the project. It looks at signs of potential impact of project activities on various aspects of the project and other indirect beneficiaries.

Key Questions

• The guiding evaluation questions are based on the 5 DAC Criteria. Please find a detailed list of questions below. In addition to that, it is expected that the evaluation team compiles a detailed description of approach, conducted activities related to the different project objectives.

Relevance:

• Did we plan the right thing? Do we do the right thing? To what extent are the objectives, planned activities and planned outputs consistent with the intended outcome and impact? Are there differences between the time when the programme/project was designed and today?
• To what extent are the objectives of the project/programme still valid?
• With regard to the overall situation in the project region, is the focus on activities related to Community Development - as opposed to activities related to Agriculture or Rural Health - well chosen?

Effectiveness:

• To what extent the objectives of the project/programme will be achieved?
• What are the short or intermediate-term medium term (intended or unintended) outcome of the programme/project?
• To what extent could the selected target group be reached?
• To what extent women are addressed in the project?
• In how far are included Muslims and Christians into the project? How exactly the project staff is working with the/ bringing them together? What is the approach of the project?
• What were the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the objectives?

Efficiency:

• Will the objectives be achieved in an economically viable manner?
• Were activities cost-efficient?
• Was the programme or project implemented in the most efficient way compared to alternatives?
• Is there a good relation between admin staff, programme staff and field staff working for ICBDP?
• How did the different departments and ministries of EYN (e.g. peace building desk, Ministry for Emergency response, EYN Ressource and Competence Centre) work together?

Impact:

• Will the project / programme contribute to the attainment of overall development goals? Additionally, whether and, if so, which other positive and negative changes have occurred will be investigated.
• What has happened as a result of the programme or project? (Intended and unintended impacts, equal opportunities for women and men, improvement of social and economic infrastructure, poverty reduction, cross sectoral impact or other relevant cross-cutting issues).

Sustainability:

• To what extent will the positive impacts or changes of the programme/project (are likely to) continue beyond the end of the project period?
• Which measures are implemented in order to support sustainability?
• What were the major factors which influenced the achievement or non-achievement of sustainability of the programme or project?
• To what extent the project collaborates with other relevant stakeholders to strengthen the sustainability of the achievements of the project?
• Additionally, there should be an assessment of the programme's structure including financial management, procedures and standards, M&E system and human resource recruiting policy .

Evaluation Design/Methods

• The evaluation is to be conducted in line with the OECD/DAC standards.
• Bread for the World - Protestant Development Service is not committed to any specific evaluation method, but endeavors - in dialogue with the evaluators and the other parties involved - to ensure the appropriate evaluation design and the best possible choice of methods for evaluating the object in question.
• Methods applied must be participatory, appropriate for viable data collection, displaying and respecting different views. Methods should enhance joint learning of all actors implied. The gender perspective should be systematically integrated in the methodology.

Possible methods/procedures include the following:

• Review of project files, especially reports, evaluation reports etc.
• Interviews and dialogues with involved stakeholders and project beneficiaries at different levels (such as such as ICBDP Board members, Community Development Committee (CDC), Community members, ICBDP staff and management, women representatives, community representatives
• Interviews and research for context description
• On-location visits
• SWOT Analysis of ICBDP

Process of the Evaluation/ Time Frame

• Deadline Tender: 12 March, 2017
• Selection of evaluator: End of March, 2017
• First kick off meetings to clarify contract details, inception report, analysis of documents and interview in Germany: Mid of April, 2017
• A one day organizational assessment workshop with ICBDP staff, Board members and selected beneficiaries to clarify the ToR of the evaluation, to clarify mutual expectations, to assess the organization, to clarify last details and logistic arrangements for field visits: Two days before the field visits commence (8 and 9 May, 2017)
• Field mission, fact finding at 4 communities (the selection of the communities will be made by the evaluation team in discussion with ICBDP staff, considering among others the following criteria: Accessibility of the communities, Fair affiliation to different project zones: 10th - 21th May, 2017
• De-briefing with ICBDP staff: End of May, 2017
• Draft report: Mid of June, 2017
• Presentation of findings and recommendations in Nigeria and Germany: End of June, 2017
• Final version of the report: Mid of July, 2017

Expected products
Inception Report:

• The inception report should be prepared after the kick-off meeting, first interviews and a studying of key documents and state:
  • If the objectives of the evaluation can be reached, possible restrictions and additional issues and questions
  • Which methods and instruments will be used
  • Which products will be presented
  • Which kind of support will be needed
  • Samples of interview guides.
  • The inception report must be written in English and be accepted by Bread for the World - Protestant Development Service.

Draft Report and Presentation:

• After presentation of the draft report to EYN-ICBDP staff and Bread for the World - Protestant Development Service, both stakeholders have the possibility to give feedback on the draft report. The evaluators are obliged to revise the draft report accordingly.

Final Report:

• The draft and final report should be written in English and should not exceed 40 pages plus annexes and respect the quality criteria which will be combined between the evaluator and Bread for the World - Protestant Development Service. A sound description of the project, detailing the approach itself - the instruments, the principles, the critical circumstances, etc. should be part of the report.

Key qualifications of the evaluators

• The evaluation is to be conducted by an evaluation team comprising of one international and one local consultant. The local consultant already was appointed by EYN-ICBDP. To complement the qualifications of the local consultant, the international consultant should possess the following qualifications:
  • Be an agricultural expert, horticulturist or expert in an akin field
  • Have experience working with civil society structures in Africa, experience with church structures is an asset
  • Have extensive experience with evaluations

How to Apply
Please send the under listed documents to:Matthias.Magnussen@brot-fuer-die-welt.de 

Required Documents

• CV of the evaluator
• Technical / specific proposal: "Outline of the planned evaluation procedure"; "short explanation and justification of the methods to be deployed considering relevant cross-cutting issues".
• Financial proposal: Complete cost estimate that includes both, the fee as well as any ancillary costs to be incurred, such as transport, accommodation, taxes, fees and costs of workshops in the scope of the evaluation etc. All incurring costs of the local evaluator will be covered by a separate budget.