Afghanistan: Evaluation and impact assessment of Mission East’s WASH Programme

TERMS OF REFERENCE for: Consultancy for the “Evaluation and impact assessment of Mission East’s WASH Programme in north-eastern Afghanistan”

Summary

This consultancy is intended to conduct: (i) an evaluation and impact assessment of Mission East’s WASH programme in Afghanistan and (ii) to provide well-substantiated recommendations for future programming.
Project Title: “An Integrated, Community Based Approach to Relief, Rehabilitation and Development in North Eastern Afghanistan”
Project Location: Afghanistan (Takhar, Badakhshan and Baghlan Provinces) N.B Security and weather permitting, either one or both consultants will be expected to travel out to project sites in hard-to-reach and remote areas.
Project Duration: About 15-20 billable days (including travel, fieldwork and report writing) in the period March – April 2016 (TBC)
Project Objective: Thematic evaluation of Mission East’s WASH programme activities in Afghanistan
Consultancy Purpose: Evaluation and Impact Assessment

Consultancy Objective(s)
The consultancy has the following key objectives :

1. To critically evaluate ME’s current approach and achievements in WASH programming to date to assess their relevance, effectiveness, impact and sustainability;


2. To provide input through well-substantiated recommendations for necessary shifts and adjustments to ME’s current WASH strategy and programming in order to increase impact and sustainability and to respond better to specific capacity building needs.

Output(s)
• A final written Evaluation report outlining findings, recommendations, lessons learnt, and best practices etc.
• Concrete recommendations for future strategy and programming
• Presentation to the field team of the evaluation’s outcomes

Consultancy Scope of Work
The consultancy has been scoped for a team of 2 people (1 international consultant and 1 national consultant) for about 15 – 20 billable days of work in the period March – April 2016 with the following provisional schedule:

1. Location: Out of field location – 2 working days
   • Desk Review and preparation on the basis of key project and programme documents


2. Location: In-Country-about 12-15 working days (including travel)
   • Inception Report
   • Visit to project sites and review of projects, meeting with relevant stakeholders and project beneficiaries
   • Small presentation to field staff of key evaluation findings


3. Location Out of field location – 2 – 3 working days
   • Final Evaluation Report

Background
Mission East is an international humanitarian and developmental organization, founded in Denmark in 1991, and working in Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Mission East has been engaged in Afghanistan since 2001 undertaking relief and recovery activities with remote rural communities in the north-eastern provinces of Takhar, Badakhshan and Baghlan.
Activities have been undertaken as part of an integrated, holistic programme in the sectors of water, sanitation and hygiene, rehabilitation of roads and irrigation canals, support to small scale agriculture and other alternative livelihood activities such as kitchen gardening to build up household food and livelihood security, civil society capacity-building and building up community capacities for better natural resource management.
The organisation has established strong community links over the years and works closely with local Community Development Councils (CDCs) in coordination with district and provincial government authorities and the established UN Clusters and civil society networks to implement project activities.
Disaster risk reduction and gender mainstreaming are key cross-cutting themes. The overall objective of the WASH component of ME Afghanistan’s programme is to ‘decrease the vulnerability of under-served rural communities to excreta-related and water-borne diseases through improved access to potable water and adequate sanitation facilities at household and community level, and improved hygiene practices.’
This is achieved by supporting targeted local communities and their Community Development Councils (CDCs) to construct and/or repair water supply systems and household and public latrines, and through the provision of hygiene promotion trainings and hygiene kits.

Person Specification & Selection Criteria
Qualifications required:
• Education should be of degree level or higher, preferably in WASH-related engineering, public health, international development, etc. (with a focus on community-driven approaches for WASH and public health work).
• The team of consultants (ideally 1 expatriate, 1 national) will be an experienced team of professionals with varied experience of working in conflict-sensitive humanitarian environments. Experience of working in the Afghan context with its specific challenges of security and access would be highly desirable together with knowledge of the local language, Dari.
• At least one or both consultants will have a technical background in WASH or public health-related programming (particularly in complex, protracted crises in rural settings) and will preferably have knowledge and experience of working on CLTS and Behavioural Change methodologies. Overall expertise in monitoring and evaluation, Results-based Management, Outcome Mapping etc. and proven experience in participatory evaluation methods is sought.

Experience required:
• Previous overseas experience/consultancies in an international relief or development setting, preferably with a non-governmental organisation.
• Experience of working with host governments, their agencies and national NGOs is an advantage.
• The candidates will have previous experience monitoring/evaluating projects and of impact assessment. This will include large projects for institutional donors.
• The candidates will demonstrate a good understanding of the needs of rural communities in developing countries, and of appropriate ways of tackling these needs, particularly in the context of a protracted emergency and fragile state such as Afghanistan.
• Experience of working in Afghanistan and/or South Asia, particularly in sensitive security environments would be highly desirable.

The final decision for this consultancy will be based on:

• Best fit with selection criteria


• Best value for money.

Notes
Standard text below in tender documents for Danish-funded projects (Danida, PCS (PR), DMCDD)
”No offer, payment, consideration or benefit of any kind, which could be regarded as an illegal or corrupt practice, shall be made, promised, sought or accepted – neither directly nor indirectly – as an inducement or reward in relation to activities funded under this agreement, incl. tendering, award or execution of contracts. Any such practice will be grounds for the immediate cancellation of this agreement/contract and for such additional action, civil and/or criminal, as may be appropriate. At the discretion of the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a further consequence of any such practice can be the definite exclusion from any tendering for projects funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.

Ineligibility criteria

Tenderers falling into any of the following cases are excluded from participation in the procurement procedure:

(a) They are bankrupt or being wound up, are having their affairs administered by the courts, have entered into an arrangement with creditors, have suspended business activities, are the subject of proceedings concerning those matters, or are in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure provided for in national legislation or regulations;
(b) They have been convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct by a judgement that has the force of res judicata;
(c) They have been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means that the contracting authority can justify;
(d) They have not fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of social security contributions or the payment of taxes in accordance with the legal provisions of the country in which they are established or with those of the country of the contracting authority or those of the country where the contract is to be performed;
(e) They have been the subject of a judgement that has the force of res judicata for fraud, corruption, involvement in a criminal organisation or any other illegal activity detrimental to the Communities’ financial interests;
(f) Following another procurement procedure or grant award procedure financed by the European Community budget, they have been declared to be in serious breach of contract for failure to comply with their contractual obligations.
(g) They are engaged in the exploitation of child labour
(h) They do not respect their employees’ basic social rights and working conditions.

Candidates or tenderers must provide a written statement with their tender documents that they are not in one of the situations listed above.

Grounds for Exclusion
Contracts shall not be awarded to candidates or tenderers who, during the procurement procedure:

(a) Are subject to a conflict of interest;
(b) Are guilty of misrepresentation in supplying the information required by the humanitarian organisation as a condition of participation in the contract procedure or fail to supply this information.
(c) Have engaged in corrupt, fraudulent, collusive or coercive practices.