Solidarités Somalia Project: Decrease the Vulnerability of Population living in Southern Somalia

Mid Term Evaluation

Terms of Reference
Country: Somalia
Project: Decrease the Vulnerability of Population living in Southern Somalia
Location: Bardera District (South Somalia)
Starting date: 29th April 2010 (22 days consultancy)
Duration of the field mission: 15 days
Time dedicated to the desk review: 2 days
Time dedicated to report writing: 5 days
Under responsibility of: Deputy Country Director for Somalia
Funding Sources for the evaluation: ECHO
Presentation of Solidarités 


Solidarités is an international humanitarian organization which provides assistance to population affected by natural disaster or man-made crisis. For over 30 years, Solidarités has concentrated its action on meeting three vital needs: Water, Food and Shelter. In the Horn of Africa, Solidarités is currently implementing Food Security, Water and Sanitation projects in Somalia and Kenya.

Solidarités started its intervention in Somalia in 2007 in Bardera District with a seeds and tools distribution program for households living along Juba River. Since this first program, the intervention of Solidarités in Bardera District has been progressively increased and diversified. To the farming activities, Solidarités has added the rehabilitation of some infrastructures as well as water, sanitation and hygiene program.

The coverage of the actual program includes protracted IDPs and households living in the rain-fed area in addition to the riverine communities. Solidarités is also helping communities to recover from the recent floods which covered some areas of Bardera District.
Presentation of the project/ program to be evaluated
Historic background

The actual programme in Bardera is the third phase of an intervention started in 2007 aimed at assisting communities living in the District. These communities were affected by the long conflict of Somalia and recurrent climatic hazards.

The first phase of this intervention assisted riverine communities of the Juba River with the rehabilitation of socioeconomic infrastructures and the distribution of seeds and tools so that they can restart their farming activities.

The second phase was designed to address the needs of protracted IDPs living in camps along the riverine area. A water and sanitation component was therefore added to the food security and rehabilitation previous components.

This third phase adds to the list of benefiting communities households living in the rain-fed areas who have not been reached by any humanitarian assistance so far. It is a one year project which started on August 1st 2008 and will end on July 31st 2009.
Objectives and results (Phase III)

The overall objective is to decrease the vulnerability of the population living in Southern Somalia. Most specifically, the programme aims at improving the sanitation and water access conditions, and the food security situation in Southern Somalia.

Four results are expected at the end of the programme:
Result 1: Food security is improved for 3,300 direct beneficiaries through bee keeping and agricultural inputs support in Bardera district.1: Food security is improved for 3300 direct
Result 2: Access to saver drinking water is improved for 26,400 direct beneficiaries in Bardera district.
Result 3: Sanitation condition is improved for 40,070 direct beneficiaries in Bardera district.
Result 4: Flood resilience has improved for at least 3900 direct beneficiaries in Bardera district.
Activities 
In order to improve the accessibility to food of households living in the rain-fed area around Bardera and the IDPs living in camps in Bardera, the following activities are implemented to increase their production capacity:

• Bee keeping: 150 bee keeping units established in rain-fed areas
• Securing farm land for 300 IDPs,
• Accessibility of land for 150 Pastoral drop outs
• Distribution of assorted seeds and tools to households 300 IDPs and 150 pastoral drop outs.
• Distribution of oxen and ploughs to increase the work capacity of the communities especially in preparing arable land for cultivation for 300 IDPs.
• Reinforcing irrigation skills and capacities of the farmers through distribution of water pumps and technical support

It is hoped that the second result will be reached through to the implementation of the following activities:

• Construction of 11 infiltration wells within the rain water collectors in the rain fed area out of which 3 are constructed by SADO and 8 by Solidarites. (To improve quality of water).
• Rehabilitation of 11 rain water collectors (to increase quantity of water).
• Constructions of 5 gully infiltration wells along the Juba River (3 for resident population and 2 for the IDPs).
• Rehabilitation of 3 shallow wells in pastoral areas.
• Formation and training of Water users association to promote quality and access to the water sources.

Various activities are being implemented in order to improve the sanitary conditions in Bardera town and in the IDP camps; these activities include:

• Distribution of kits of tools for 6 Bardera women groups, able to collect garbage + provision of garbage collectors.
• Capacity building for waste management groups.
• Distribution of 1600 hygiene kits (jerricans, soaps and chlorine tabs etc).
• Chlorination Campaign during risky seasons.
• Capacity building for water management committee for chlorination.

Result 4 will be attained through construction of foot bridge between Bardera and Kurman village
Purposes of the evaluation

The purpose of this evaluation is to meet donor requirement as well to draw lessons from the experience that the programme team has built so far.

This evaluation will cover phase III (current phase) of the project, evaluating each and every activity as per the proposal.

Recommendations from the midterm evaluation will help in defining future interventions in the area if necessary in regard to the evolution of the humanitarian context.
Scope and focus

The evaluation will focus on the operation’s approach, the implementation process and the performance of the programme. The evaluation must give answers to the following questions:

• Did expected results fulfill the needs before the intervention? (relevance)
• Do expected results meet the major current needs? (relevance)
• Does the program cover the initially targeted population? (coverage)
• Has the project appropriately targeted the right beneficiaries and the deriving villages? (relevance and coverage)
• Are the project activities timely implemented as planned? ( effectiveness of work plan implementation)
• Is project in course to meet expected results? (effectiveness)
• How are the resources being utilized in the course of project implementation so far? (efficiency)
• Are results of activities sustainable and to what extend?
• What negative or positive midterm influence of the project is already foreseen? (impact)
• Is the program coherent with local authorities’ policies? If no, is this a bad or a good thing? (coherence)

The evaluation should also assess the appreciation of the program by the beneficiaries as well as their participation at various levels of the project management cycle. Finally, the evaluation should assess how the implementation of the program is respectful of the ethic of humanitarian practice vis-à-vis the SPHERE standards and the Code of conduct for the Red Cross Movement and for NGO during emergency intervention.
Evaluation process and methods

• The evaluation methods should be clearly outlined in the report and their appropriateness, relative to the evaluation's primary purpose, focus and users, should be explained pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the methods. A description of the overall flow of the evaluation process (i.e. sequence of the key stages) should be given in the evaluation report. The evaluation approach and the methods used to collect and analyze data should also be described. The nature (e.g., external or mixed) and make up of the team (e.g. sectoral expertise, local knowledge, gender balance) and its appropriateness for the evaluation should be outlined.
• The evaluation report should outline the sources of biases that might affect the evaluation and how these have been addressed.
• The evaluation report should also present the key constraints to carrying out the evaluation (e.g., lack of baseline data, lack of access to key information sources, use of translators), and the effect of these constraints.
• Whenever secondary sources will be referred to, the evaluator should indicate the level of reliability of the given information.
• After the field work, the evaluation team will present and discuss with the project team the preliminary findings and the proposed recommendations.
• A first draft of the evaluation report should be shared with the coordination team of Solidarités before a final version is sent to the donor.

Procedures and logistics

• The evaluation team must comply with Solidarités’ rules and procedures related to security and relations with the media.
• The evaluation team must respect the ethic and the deontology related to evaluation practice
• While working in Nairobi, the evaluation team will find office space in the offices of Solidarités.
• Logistics, movement and security would be provided and organised by Solidarités team

Deliverables

The evaluation report should include at least:

• One narrative report (max 40 pages) including an executive summary (2 pages maximum).
• A separate table summarizing the main findings and the lessons learned.
• A separate table showing the different recommendations and tips for their implementation (who will be in charge of implementing this recommendations, when? dead line? necessary means? who will be in charge of checking that the recommendations are being implemented and when? etc.).
• Relevant maps and photographs of the assessed zone and programme.
• A Power point presentation of the main findings and recommendations of the evaluation must be submitted to Solidarités in order to facilitate dissemination of the results of the evaluation to stakeholders.

Documents of reference (on request only)

• Proposal of the project
• Last Interim report
• Current organizational chart
• Last Activity Progress Update of the programme
• Relevant maps

Qualification of the Lead consultant

• University degree in Project management, Water and Sanitation or related field
• Minimum 5 years of proven experience with NGOs
• Proven experience in similar evaluation context (Somalia)
• Strong methodology and writing capacities
• Somali speaker would be an added advantage

How to apply

Please send your proposal, highlighting the following:

• A brief introduction of bidding firm or person attaching relevant CVs
• Your understanding of the Terms of Reference
• Proposed methodology and approach
• Proposed work plan and budget
• Your availability

All relevant information (CV, cover letter, copies of testimonials, certificate of works and 3 contact references) should be sent to info @ solidarites-kenya-som.org before COB 19th April 2010.

Please indicate the consultancy you are applying for in the title of your email.

Only short-listed applications will be contacted.

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