1.  Introduction and context

Deutsche Welthungerhilfe e.V. is one of the largest Non-Governmental Organisations in Germany operating in the field of Humanitarian Assistance and Development. It was established in 1962, as the German section of the "Freedom from Hunger Campaign", one of the world's first initiatives aimed at the eradication of hunger. Welthungerhilfe’s work is still dedicated to the following vision: “Zero Hunger wherever we work by 2030“– this is the clear goal for the organisation with reference to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Background

Welthungerhilfe has been operating in Sudan since 1998 with gradual growth in its operational areas since 2013 with presence in Kassala, Red Sea, Gedaref and North Darfur states. WHH Sudan’s goal is to increase sustainable food & nutrition security and has a clear focus on resilience building for rural communities. Sudan has faced economic challenges coupled with increase in prices of food, essential commodities and fuel shortages causing an overall deterioration of food and nutrition security status of the households across the country, particularly among those most vulnerable.

In Sudan, social services provided by the state are extremely limited, found mainly in urban areas, and poor to non-existent elsewhere. The civil society is weak in general and particularly also in Kassala, which creates challenges in service delivery to rural areas. From a sustainability perspective, local NGOs and CSOs provide the linkages between communities and government services and take on an advocacy role for the communities to access their rights. However, local NGOs and community structures are presently too weak to fulfil this role. They need to be strengthened to better serve the communities they represent and increase the populations’ access to services.

Associations are a crucial element of civil society as they organise and represent smallholders and pastoralists, who are the backbone of Sudan’s economy and the main income, employment and livelihood source for the majority of the population. If associations are strengthened and empowered, they contribute to improving the population’s access to services, represent their members’ interests towards locality and State level authorities and extension workers, but also traders, markets and financial institutions. WHH made very good experiences with establishing and working together with producer associations in WeH within the framework of the EU-financed Small Scale Agricultural Productivity Project (SSAP) and will built on the lessons learnt. Women are a vulnerable group in Sudan and particularly in the conservative and gender-segregated area of Hamish Koraib locality. HK locality is a harsh environment and affected by climate change (e.g. irregular weather patterns and frequent extreme weather events), but environmental governance in HK is weak or non-existent. Therefore, initiatives to strengthen environmental governance and local awareness of environmental protection are crucial. The effective management of natural resources is also important to prevent potential conflicts over scarce resources (water, land, firewood) among different user groups (pastoralists, farmers). The project is funded by BMZ, project  code SDN 1157 . It  started on the 4th  of October 2018 and will run until the 31st September 2021 with an allocation of WHH own funds to December 31^st  2021, with a budget of 1,734,814M EUR.

The project objective is to Strengthened civil society and increased access to services in marginalized areas of Kassala State

The project has a direct target group of :

• 2 local partner NGOs who serve remote and marginalized communities in southern and northern Kassala.
• 22 Farmer and pastoralist associations in Wad Elheiw WH and Hamesh koraib HK localities.
• 13 women groups in HK locality
• 2 NRMCs that will each be responsible for a cluster of villages.
• 17 VDCs, that represent the population of the 15 target villages in HK.
• 450 farmers and 450 pastoralists in HK locality.

In addition, the project will reach the following indirect target group:

• 2’100 members of the farmer and pastoralist associations who will benefit from improved capacities of their organisation and improved access to services from government actors and financial service providers. The associations have an average of 50-70 members in HK and 145 members in WeH.
• 9,495 community members in 17 villages of HK (total community population), who will benefit from improved access to resources, services and political representation thanks to the increased capacities of their respective VDCs.

Total 9,495 persons: in Wad Elhilew and Hamish koraib localities, Kassala state.

. The project is implemented with, relevant line ministries MOPER (ministry of production and economic resources and technical line departments, Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), respective localities authorities, and local NGOs: In Kassala State,  Betay Development Organization, BDO and Sudan Vision Organization SUVO.

The Project main Outcomes and Outputs are as the following:

Outcome 1: The strengthened local civil society participates increasingly in planning- and decision-making processes in the community and requests ameliorated access to services. 

Outcome 2: Farmers, pastoralists and women use their acquired knowledge and ameliorate their productivity and diversify their sources of income.

Output 1: Two local NGOs are capacitated to fulfill their functions towards local communities and donors.

Output 2: Farmer and pastoralist associations are formalized and organized in functioning networks

Output 3: Local community structures are established or strengthened and functional (women groups, NRMCs, VDCs)

Output 4: The availability of water is improved.

Output 5: Farmers and pastoralists have gained knowledge on climate sensitive and more productive farming methods.

2. Purpose of Final Evaluation

The purpose of the evaluation is to gather data that will enable WHH to improve the project’s implementation, project steering and future project design and programmatic strategy. As the project ends in December 2021, WHH intends to undertake a Final evaluation which will assess:

1. The extent to which the project met its objectives as stated in the proposal and assess the technical design and strength of the project.
2. Accountability towards donors and all stakeholders.
3. Highlight lessons learned and recommend improvements to apply evidence-based decision on the current project and for project steering and WHH’s future program design in Kassla State.

3. Scope of the Evaluation

This is an external final project evaluation to assess if the project met its objectives from 4^th of October 2018 until 31^st of December 2021 and will be conducted in all project areas, taking into consideration relevant time and logistics limitations. The final review will assess the main international evaluation criteria of DAC (Development Assistance Committee) such as (relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, Connectedness, coverage and impact of the project approach to improving and strengthened civil society and increased access to services in marginalized.  To Improve access to and availability of safe drinking water for human, agriculture and its water resources, adult women being able to influence decision making as well as nutrition and hygiene practices, local NGOs (Project Implementing Partners) fill full their functions towards the donors and local communities in the related project locations. Recommendations & Lessons learned through this evaluation will be applied by WHH to inform and improve current and future strategies and programme design in Sudan. The findings will also be shared more widely through WHH networks, stakeholders and with partner agencies.

4. Users of the evaluation

The primary user of the evaluation results will be Welthungerhilfe in Sudan.  Findings of the evaluation will be shared with internal and external stakeholders such as BMZ Donor, stakeholders and partner agencies. The Consultant shall also provide such assistance and advice to WHH which is ancillary to and commensurate with the above, as requested by WHH.

5. Evaluation questions and criteria

A selection of the OECD/DAC evaluation criteria will be used to guide the evaluation questions.

5.1            Relevance

• Was the design of the project the most appropriate?
• To what extent has the project conformed to BMZ strategy for Sudan?
• To what extent were the interventions selected, the locations targeted, and the timing of the project relevant to the needs?
• Did the project address the needs of the affected population?
• Was the intervention most appropriate and its implementation relevant to the operational context?
• To what extent and how does the project respond to the needs and priorities of the main stakeholders and the project participants? To what extent were partners and project participants adequately engaged during the project development process

5.2             Coherence

• To what extent was the intervention coherent with WHH key policies and programmes or projects – operating in the same context?
• To what extent has the project engaged in stakeholder coordination, including local and national authorities?
• How has coordination – also with national / local coordination mechanisms – affected the planning and implementation of the project?

5.3             Effectiveness

• Was the project design sufficiently adapted to the context of Kassala, to deliver the outputs in a timely fashion and achieve targets effectively?
• To what extent did the project meet its targets against the set indicators in the log frame?
• Did this project effectively reach the targeted project participants?
• To what extent have the expected outcomes and objectives of the project been achieved thus far?
• To what extent are project-level monitoring and evaluation systems, reporting, supporting the project’s implementation

5.4             Efficiency

• Were adequate human, financial and logistical resources applied to delivering project outcomes? Were outputs delivered in a timely fashion?
• Is there any evidence of misappropriation or risky activities which could contribute to conflict within the target community?
• Was the project able to adapt to any changing conditions?
• To what extent has the use of project M&E system been appropriate regarding the achieved outputs / outcomes?

5.5             Connectedness

• To what extent have local capacities (e.g. community-based organizations, service providers) been strengthened so that outcomes are likely to be sustained?
• Are there any factors threatening the sustainability of project outcomes? How does the project seek to mitigate these risks?
• Are there any factors that might strengthen sustainability? Is there any action the project should take to promote these factors?

• Is there an exit/sustainability strategy in place?

5.6             Impact

• Is the project oriented towards achieving the expected impacts?
• Is the project contributing to systemic changes, improved infrastructure, better service provision?
• Is the project contributing to improved nutrition outcomes?
• What was the impact of the project, if any on gender relationships (at community and intra-household levels)?
• Is there any evidence of harm as a result of the project that may increase vulnerability of targeted communities?

The evaluation should also consider the quality of the interventions against international technical standards such as Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS). It should consider the extent to which gender equity issues have been considered in planning and implementation, if there were positive or negative effects of the project on gender equality so far, and if/how humanitarian principles have been applied.

6. Evaluation design and methodology

The evaluation will use a mixed method approach consisting of both qualitative and quantitative data collections. This will include, when available, project surveys and assessments, Baseline, and project periodic reports. The consultant is expected to review the project’s background documentation as part of the desk review phase of the study using the existing project documentation and key documents. The evaluation will be conducted, using gender responsive participatory methods to collect qualitative data, triangulated for validation.

Aligning with the content of the scope of work shared for this study, the consultant will develop the methodology, the data collection tools and propose the team set up for data collection, to be validated by Head of project and MEAL coordinator. The consultant and his/her team will collect primary data through observation, household interviews using baselines tools and same sample size, key informant interviews (KII) with project staff and stakeholders and focus group discussions (FGD) with project beneficiaries and other stakeholders.

A (detailed) design and methodology for the evaluation will be proposed by the evaluator(s) in their offer/or inception report. However, it is expected to be covering:

6.1 Document Review and Discussions with the Project Team

Review and analyze of the following documents:

• Proposal document (narrative, Logframe, budget)
• Interim Report submitted to the BMZ
• Baseline survey
• PDMs and PTMs
• M&E plan: The evaluator will use the M&E Plan as an important tool to assess the status of implementation and the quality of project monitoring. 

Furthermore, discussions and interviews with key programme staff of the SDN 1175 project in all offices, with special focus on the major success and the main challenges in the project delivery.

6.2 Field visit / observation

• Visit project sites and beneficiary HHs
• Observe project impact on beneficiary HHs.

6.3. Survey

Conduct a survey with questionnaire, covering a sample of beneficiaries of a sufficient size and representativeness to allow reasonable levels of certainty that the findings are representative for the target communities. The survey must include women.

6.4 Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions

Meetings and interviews with relevant stakeholders. At a minimum, KII and gender disaggregated FGDs should be conducted with the following groups:

• Government:

• State Water, Environment and Sanitation (WES)
• State Water Corporation (SWC)
• Ministry of Production and Economic Resources (MoPER)

• Betay Development Organization BDO
• Sudan Vision Organization SUVO

Beneficiaries:

• 2 local partners NGOs.
• Women groups WGs (at least 2 groups per locality)
• Producer Association Farmer and pastoralist associations FAs
• Village Development Committees VDCs
• Natural Resources Management Committees NRMCs
• Farmers and Pastoralist

7. Managerial Arrangements/ Roles and Responsibilities

The consultant will be responsible for:

• Do a desk review including review of key project documents before arrival.
• Provide inception report including draft methodology and appropriate data collection tools.
• Responsible for field evaluation process such as data collection, including training and supervising enumerators.
• Conduct fieldwork in an ethical manner and in line with WHH values
• Responsible for drafting and finalizing the evaluation report within the agreed timelines.
• Facilitate opening (inception) and closing (dissemination) workshops at project’s locations, field offices level.

The Head of project/Area Manager, or the Deputy Head of Project, focal point members of the project in project’s locations will help the consultant to identify the relevant actors for interviews and field visits and will provide the consultant with available documentation. While the MEAL Coordinator who will be responsible for providing pre-reading and managing the consultancy.

8. Deliverables and Reporting Deadlines

The following deliverables are expected to be produced by the evaluators:

• Inception report (not more than 6 pages) pages for the main text without front page, table of contents and annexes)
• Methodology and data collection tools including FGD and KII guide.
• Data analysis and PowerPoint presentation of preliminary findings to be shared during a debrief meeting at the end of the field visit.
• Draft report (minimum of 15 pages and a maximum 35 pages, excluding executive summary, table of content and annexes).
• Final Report (minimum of 15 pages and a maximum 35 pages, excluding executive summary, table of content and annexes). Executive summary of evaluation report has to be handed on also as an additional document in a format to be provided by Welthungerhilfe.
• Photos: The evaluators should provide a digital file with photos of the evaluation, including photos related to the evaluation process (e.g. of group discussions, interviews, final workshop). The photos should be submitted in a JPEG or GIF format.
• Closing WS with all relevant stakeholders. Opening WS for all stakeholders no need, but for all enumerators and staff involved only
• Debrief after the field visit with project and management staff.

This consultancy is expected to start by 15 October 2021, with approximately (30) days of consultancy. Consultant is requested to remain available for reviews and improvements until the piece of work is validated by WHH.

Proper workplan with exact timeline will be developed by the consultant depending on the methodology however it is expected to be as following deliverables are expected to be produced by the evaluators:

• Inception report (not more than 6 pages) pages for the main text without front page, table of contents and annexes) (2 days)
• Traveling, Methodology and data collection tools including FGD and KII guide. (15 days)
• Debriefing notes outlining the most important preliminary findings and recommendations (2–4 pages) (After field mission immediately)
• Data analysis and PowerPoint presentation of preliminary findings. (3 days)
• Draft report (minimum of 15 pages and a maximum 35 pages, excluding executive summary, table of content and annexes). (5 days)
• Final Report (minimum of 15 pages and a maximum 35 pages, excluding executive summary, table of content and annexes). Executive summary of evaluation report has to be handed on also as an additional document in a format to be provided by Welthungerhilfe. (5 days)
• Photos: The evaluators should provide a digital file with photos of the evaluation Follow the EU/WHH photo taking regulations of persons, etc. , including photos related to the evaluation process (e.g. of group discussions, interviews, final workshop). The photos should be submitted in a JPEG or GIF format. (By the time of the final report)

9. Confidentiality

All documents and data acquired from documents as well as during interviews and meetings are confidential and to be used solely for the purpose of the evaluation.

The deliverables as well as all material linked to the evaluation (produced by the evaluators or the organisation itself) is confidential and always remains the property of the contracting party.

10. Expertise of the evaluators

At the minimum, the consultant/s must possess the following:

• Advanced degree in alternative dispute resolution and administration or related areas.
• Over 5 years’ proven experience undertaking surveys in the area of food and nutrition security and agricultural production, including data analysis and reporting.
• Have previous (participative) evaluation expertise, technical knowledge on the major evaluation topics.
• Experience in conflict management and different approaches to informal resolution are required.
• Experience with gender-responsive/transformative PME, other relevant cross-cutting topics will be an added advantage.
• Excellent organizing, facilitating, presentation and communication skills.
• Excellent report writing skills.
• Experience working in humanitarian and development context. Experience of working in Sudan or similar context is a plus.

WHH will use the following criteria to assess the offers received:

• Financial offer
• Composition of the team members to cover the proposal sectors
• Education qualification of lead consultant
• Experience in leading evaluation in food nutrition security, agricultural production, conflict management and peaceful coexistence
• Experience in working in Sudan or in similar context
• Coherence and understanding TOR
• Proposed methodology (defined parameters of the evaluation, proposed standards in gathering evidence, use of technologies)
• Proposed feasible workplan
• Quality of proposal (presentation, writing skills and style)
• Example of previous reports at least 3

11.  Technical and financial offer

Applicants must provide:

• Technical offer which includes reference to the perceived feasibility of the ToR. It should also include a brief description of the overall design and methodology of the evaluation and workplan (maximum 4 pages).
• Financial Offer which states the fees per working day (plus the respective VAT or other taxation, if applicable), the number of working days proposed and other costs (e.g. visa costs, enumerators).

12. General conditions of the consultancy.

• Miscellaneous costs directly related to the task that can include photocopying of questionnaires, etc. shall be covered by WHH. Any cost needs to have prior approval from WHH.
• The movement of the consultant and data collection team to and from the field will be facilitated by WHH. Traveling to (project area, Kassala,) the project does cover extra movement not planned for this evaluation.
• Flight tickets and accommodation for the purpose of the evaluation to be covered by WHH.
• All insurances and taxes are the responsibility of the evaluator.
• Soft copies of relevant documents will be provided by Welthungerhilfe.
• Welthungerhilfe will facilitate community entry and contacts to other interviewees.
• Material for workshop facilitation will be provided by Welthungerhilfe.
• Translators, if required, will be provided by Welthungerhilfe.
• Laptops need to be provided by the evaluator.
• Consultant fee payment will be paid in two instalments: First Instalment 30% and the remaining 70% as the final instalment. The first instalment will be paid after completion and validation of the inception report, including methodology and data collection tools, and final instalment will be paid after validation of final report.  

13. Application

Applications should be submitted via e-mail to the e-mail addresses below:

Head of Operations, Welthungerhilfe Sudan Country Office Street 25, Block 12HE, House 8, Amarat, Khartoum : Arnold.Wilson@welthungerhilfe.de

Please include your CV, financial offer, and 2 previous evaluation reports you have conducted.  Offers will be accepted until 31^st September 2021.