Final Project Evalution(Accelerating rural women access to markets and trade)

1. Project Information

The “Accelerating Rural Women’s Access to Agricultural Markets and Trade” project is a four year initiative, launched in May 2012 and funded from the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) through the World Bank, Kenya Country office. The project is being implemented by GROOTS Kenya Association.

GROOTS Kenya (GK), which stands for Grassroots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood, is a network of community-based organizations and self-help groups that are women led. It was formed in 1995 in response to the near absence of grassroots women in development processes and decision-making forums, which affect them and their communities. GROOTS Kenya’s theory of change is to shift the perception of the role played by grassroots women in rural and urban poor communities from vulnerable victimized recipients of goods and services to empowered and effective leaders mastering development mainly through movement building, leadership and advocacy.

The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to contribute to women’s economic empowerment and improved livelihoods through enhanced agricultural production and access to markets. The underlying rationale is to equip women with relevant knowledge and skills as well as enhance their leadership and organizational capabilities to enable them become drivers of their own social and economic transformation. The target beneficiaries are 3,400 (the project has since exceeded this target) rural women in two vulnerable areas in Kenya, namely 2,700 in Nakuru County in the Rift Valley and 700 women in Kitui County, Eastern Kenya. In Nakuru County, the project covers three sub-counties, namely Molo, Kuresoi North and Kuresoi South. In Kitui county, the project covers the following three sub-counties, Kitui Central, Kitui Rural (former Lower Yatta) and Kitui West.

The project has a value chain approach with a focus on three sectors, namely horticulture, dairy and indigenous poultry. Specifically, in Nakuru County, the selected sectors are horticulture and dairy while in Kitui County, they are horticulture and indigenous poultry farming.

The project has five major components (objectives), namely:

• To organize women farmers to work collectively in order to economically empower and improve their livelihood;
• To enhance women farmers’ lobbying and advocacy capacities for essential services and factors of production;
• To enhance women farmers’ business capacities and facilitate market linkages;
• To empower women to increase access to microfinance facilities to improve enterprise performance;
• Project management, monitoring and evaluation.

The key outcome indicators of the project are:

ü 20% increase in the number of registered women organizations with steady membership for at least 18 months;

ü 20% increase in productivity of selected commodities compared to baseline by the end of the project;

ü 30 successful agribusiness ventures set up and accessing seed funds from the selected microfinance institution;

ü 20% increase in new development opportunities including access to devolved funds captured by women groups or individually by the end of the project ;

ü 10% increase in number of women in key local development committees by the end of the project.

The total project budget is USD 2,858,500 out of which USD 1,134,000 is a sub grant under the project component 4 (Seed Fund), accessed by the project beneficiaries through a financial service provider contracted by GROOTS Kenya.

2. Purpose of the Evaluation

The project has been implemented from May 2012 to March 2017. The overall objective of the evaluation is to assess the performance of the project over the entire implementation period, draw lessons learnt and give recommendations for future programme planning and design.

1. Scope and Focus of the Evaluation

The evaluation will look at the following areas: Project management, project activities, relationship with County Government and other development partners. It will address the results achieved, partnerships established as well as the issues of capacity and approach.

The geographical scope of the evaluation will cover the entire project area, namely Molo, Kuresoi North and South in Nakuru County and Kitui Central, Kitui Rural (former Lower Yatta) and Kitui West in Kitui County. Since GROOTS Kenya’s secretariat as well as the World Bank and the Embassy of Japan offices are based in Nairobi, the evaluation will also comprise of a number of meetings and interviews in Nairobi.

The following key questions will guide the evaluation:

a) Relevance: design and focus of the project

· To what extent did the project achieve its overall objectives?

· What and how much progress has been made towards achieving the overall outputs and outcome based on the agreed indicators?

· What were the contribution factors to the achievements and what were the constraints?

· To what extent were the results (impacts, outcomes and outputs) achieved?

· Were the inputs and strategies identified, realistic, appropriate, and adequate to achieve the results?

· Was the project relevant to the identified needs?

b) Effectiveness: Describe the management processes and their appropriateness in supporting the delivery.

· Was the project effective in delivering desired/planned results?

· To what extent did the project M & E mechanism contribute to the achievement of results?

· How effective were the strategies and tools used in the implementation of the project?

· How effective has the project been in responding to the needs of the beneficiaries and what results were achieved?

· What are the future intervention strategies and issues?

c) Efficiency of Project Implementation

· Was the process of achieving results efficient? Specifically, did the actual and expected results (outputs and outcomes) justify the costs incurred? Were the resources effectively utilized?

· Could different approach produce better results?

· How was the project coordination with the county governments and other development partners?

· How efficient were the management and accountability structures?

· How did the project financial management procedures and processes affect project implementation?

· What were the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to project implementation process?

d) Sustainability

· To what extent are the benefits of the project likely to be sustained after completion of the project?

· What is the likelihood of continuation and sustainability of project outcomes and benefits after project closure?

· How effective were the exit strategies, and approaches to phase out assistance provided by the project including contributing factors and constraints?

· Describe the factors that will require attention in order to improve prospects of sustainability of the project outcomes and potential replication of the approach

· How were the capacities strengthened at the individual, community and institutional level including contributing factors and constraints?

· What are the recommendations for similar support in the future? Recommendations should provide comprehensive proposal for future interventions based on current evaluation findings.

e) Lessons Learnt

· What would you consider as the key lessons learnt from this project that can be up-scaled or replicated

· Identify some of the success cases and that may be used for knowledge sharing among stakeholders

The evaluation will also assess to what extent the project integrated good programming practices that are also essential under a Human Rights Based Approach including;

· People are recognized as key actors in their own development, rather than passive recipients of commodities and services.

· Participation is both a means and a goal.

· Strategies are empowering, not disempowering.

· Both outcomes and processes are monitored and evaluated.

· Analysis includes all stakeholders.

· Programmes focus on marginalized, disadvantaged, and excluded groups.

· The development process is locally owned.

· Programmes aim to reduce disparity.

· Both top-down and bottom-up approaches are used in synergy.

· Situation analysis is used to identity immediate, underlying, and basic causes of development problems.

· Measurable goals and targets are important in programming.

· Strategic partnerships are developed and sustained.

4. Methodological Approach

The evaluation will use a mixed-method approach that captures both qualitative and quantitative dimensions of the project. The methodologies and techniques (such as document review, case study, FGDs, KII, sample survey, etc.) to be used in the review should be described in detail in both the proposal and inception report. The evaluation should be participatory and ensure the involvement of the key stakeholders of the project in data collection as well as validation and dissemination of the evaluation findings. The sources of information and data shall include but not be limited to the following sources:

• Desk review of the project documents, outputs, financial and monitoring reports (such as baseline report, midterm evaluation report, quarterly narrative and financial progress reports to the World Bank , relevant stakeholder correspondence, terms of references/ contracts and reports from consultants/services providers, etc.);
• Queries from the project’s Management Information System;
• Field visits to the six sub-counties covered by the project (interviews and FGDs with project participants);
• Interviews with GROOTS Kenya project staff;
• Additional meetings and interviews with relevant other stakeholders at the national (World Bank, etc.) and county level.

Duration of the Evaluation

The duration of the evaluation is expected to cover a period of 50 working days.

5. Expected Deliverables

a) An Inception Report

An inception report, outlining the scope of work ,intended work plan and evaluation tools shall be submitted 7 days after signing of the contract. The inception report should detail the evaluators understanding of what is being evaluated and why, showing how each evaluation question will be answered by way of proposed methods, proposed sources of data and data collection processes. It will include proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables, designating a team with the responsibility for each task. The report will be discussed and agreed upon by the client.

b) Draft Comprehensive Report

The draft comprehensive report shall be submitted with within 30 days of commencing the consultancy. The client shall give feedback to the consultant for inclusion in the final report within 3 working days.

c) Final Report

The final report shall be submitted within 10 days after receiving comments from the client. The final report should meet the requirement of the World Bank and should include:

· Cover page

· Table of Contents

· Abbreviations and Acronyms

· Executive Summary

· Introduction

· Description of Evaluation Methodology

· Major Findings

· Lessons Learnt

· Conclusion and recommendations

· Appendices: charts, terms of reference, field visit, people interviewed, document reviewed etc

7. Qualifications and Expertise

A highly qualified local firm will be recruited to perform the assignment. The firm will be selected based on qualifications and experience as per World Bank guidelines on selection and employment of consultants by World Bank Borrowers (revised Oct 2006).The desirable characteristics of the local consultancy firm are:

1. Demonstrated past experience in conducting similar assignment
2. In depth knowledge of agricultural sector in Kenya with special focus on Dairy, Horticulture and Indigenous chicken
3. Sufficient knowledge on agribased markets and trade
4. Good and demonstrated knowledge of the financial sector in relation to small scale farmers and traders
5. Demonstrated experience in conducting rural household surveys in Kenya;
6. Experience with gender analyses and data collection;
7. Clear understanding on research methodology and experience on using different social research tools and techniques;
8. Experience in spatial data systems (GIS, GPS and remote sensing);
9. Knowledge and understanding of project implementation and management in a developing country context;
10. Documented ability to generate high quality data and deliver outputs in a timely manner;
11. Capacity in data entry, processing, analysis and associated report preparation;
12. Strong inter-personal and communication skills (including listening skills);
13. The consultant will be expected to carry out this assignment in an open and transparent manner, with the highest degree of professionalism and integrity.

The firm shall utilize highly qualified experts for the study. Key staff from the firm required for this assignment will include:

• Agricultural Economics
• Agricultural Value chain Expert
• Financial lending expert
• Social scientists
• Statisticians
• Gender expert
• GIS/GPS specialist

HOW TO APPLY:

10. Application:

This call is open to consulting firms only. The Consultants Qualification Selection (CQS) method (Refer to World Bank procurement guidelines) is applicable. Applicants are required to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) that include information on experience and qualification of the firm. Only the selected firm will be asked to submit a technical and financial proposal. The budget ceiling for this assignment is $50,000.

All applications should be delivered by hard copy ONLY to GROOTS Kenya offices before 27th January 2017 addressed to;

The National Coordinator

GROOTS Kenya

Beverly Court

Marcus Garvey, Off Argwings Kodhek

Kilimani Area, Nairobi

254 720898222