1. Project Information
The “Accelerating Rural Women’s Access to Agricultural Markets and Trade” project is a four year initiative, launched in July 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 primary focus are 3,400 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 is being implemented in 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 is being implemented using the value chain approach with a focus on three enterprises, 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 expects to achieve the following five outcomes (results):
Outcome 1: 3,400 organized women farmers work collectively to economically empower and improve their livelihoods
Outcome 2: Enhanced Women Farmers’ Lobbying and Advocacy Capacities for Essential Services to Improve Production
Outcome 3:Enhanced Women Farmers’ Business Capacities and Facilitate Market Linkages
Outcome 4:Empowered Women to Improve their Production Capabilities on Specific Commodities and Enhance their Access to Microfinance to Strengthen Enterprises
Outcome 5: Project Management Unit and Monitoring & Evaluation system in place
The key outcome indicators of the project are:
- 20% increase in the number of registered women organizations with steady membership for at least 18 months;
- 20% increase in productivity of selected commodities compared to baseline by the end of the project;
- 30 successful agribusiness ventures set up and accessing seed funds from the selected microfinance institution;
- 20% increase in new development opportunities including access to devolved funds captured by women groups or individually by the end of the project ;
- 10% increase in number of women in key local development committees by the end of the project.
The total project budget is USD 3,000,000 of which USD 1,134,000 are foreseen for the project’s seed fund under component 4, to be accessed by the project beneficiaries directly through a financial service provider to be contracted by GROOTS Kenya within the framework of this intervention.
2. Objectives of the Mid-Term Evaluation
The objective of this mid-term evaluation is to review and evaluate the implementation of planned project activities and outputs against actual results to date, and as far as possible establish the initial project impact, sustainability and execution performance as well as potential for replication. The focus will be on the following contextual and project-related questions:
Overall/contextual questions:
- To what extend did/does the project contribute to fostering peace and reconciliation in the regions targeted by the project (in particular Nakuru County)?
- To what extend did/does the project promote gender equality – particularly how did/does the project empower women farmers to equitably participate in decision-making at individual, household and societal levels? Has this socio-economic women empowerment approach potential to be replicated in other regions of Kenya and country of Sub-Saharan Africa?
- How did/does the project engage men as partners to contribute to rural women’s economic empowerment?
- Review external factors that have or might influence project implementation (positive and negatively); e.g. devolution, governmental financial services targeting women, policy changes at the MOA, etc.
Project-related questions:
- How effectively did the project reach and incorporate the most vulnerable women farmers[1] to strengthen their capacities to improve their livelihoods[2], including ensuring food security in Kitui County?
- Comment on project design, in particular the advantages and challenges of forming and working with women farmers’ common interest groups along the three value chains (dairy, horticulture and indigenous poultry).
- Is the project approach to use community-based coaches/instructors, who were trained by the project, to demonstrate good agricultural practices and train their group members on the latter effective? Will this model serve as reference method and contribute to the sustainability of the project (if so, how)?
- How well is the financial aspect of rural women’s economic empowerment (component 4) integrated in the overall project design and implementation?
- Are relevant stakeholders adequately involved in the development and implementation of project activities under each of the project components and how will this network be sustained?
- Has the participatory project monitoring been designed and implemented in such a way that the results will effectively contribute to the monitoring of potential social and economic impacts?
- Identify lessons learned in both project management and on what works best to economically empower rural women, particularly in accessing markets.
Further, the review will assess the following, among other things:
- Delivered outputs: assessment of the project’s success in producing each of the programmed outputs to date, both in quantity and quality and discuss constraints/challenges/issues affecting progress.
- Project outcomes and impact: evaluation of the project’s success so far in achieving its outcomes and identify opportunities to increase impact.
- Sustainability: analysis of the opportunities and risks that are likely to affect the persistence of project outcomes in the short, medium and long term. The sustainability assessment should address opportunities and risks for environmental[3], economic[4] and social[5] sustainability as well as stakeholder ownership and thepotential for replication of the tested socio-economic women empowerment approach/strategies.
- Execution performance: determination of effectiveness and efficiency of project management and supervision of project activities and identify opportunities to enhance the implementation and management of the project.
In addition to evaluating the status of project implementation, recommendations should be made in support of improving project implementation, particularly, but not limited to, the following areas:
- The structure and operational modalities of project coordination and implementation, especially the collective approach of working with common interest groups and their potential to be upgraded to a farmers cooperative or SACCO.
- Sustainability and replicability of the project - How can positive impacts of the advocacy work, good agricultural production and marketing practices and access to finances be sustained? How can the tested socio-economic women empowerment approach be replicated in other regions of Kenya and country of Sub-Saharan Africa?
- Collaboration with stakeholders and other agricultural and/or women empowerment projects within and outside the region.
The review should also give consideration to the processes that have affected the attainment of project results to date, such as:
- Was the project properly prepared? Were objectives and components clear and feasible? Were the capacities of the implementing agency adequately considered when the project was designed?
- Is the project in-line with the current national (agricultural; women empowerment) and county priorities? Are the participating counties committed to the project?
- Has the project involved the relevant stakeholders through consultation or information-sharing during its implementation?
- Were structural problems of the project adequately identified by the implementing agency, were modifications proposed?
- Has the project done appropriate financial planning and reporting? Has there been diligence in the management of funds and reporting?
- What were the reasons of delays in the implementation of the project and its components? What are the consequences? Have efforts been made to overcome these constraints?
Furthermore, the evaluation should highlight lessons learnt where possible, both positive as well as negative, from the standpoint of the design and implementation of the project geared towards demonstrating successful approaches and methods for ruralwomen’s economic empowerment and improved livelihoods through enhanced agricultural production and access to markets.
3. Geographical and Time Scope of the Evaluation
The mid-term review shall cover the project implementation period from the project inception in June/July 2012 to the moment when the evaluation is taking place.
The geographical scope of the mid-term 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. As 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 the capital.
4. Methodological Approach
The evaluation will use a mixed-method approach that can capture 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 the inception report and are determined by the availability of resources. The evaluation should be participatory and ensure the involvement of the main stakeholders of the project in data collection as well as validation and dissemination of the evaluation findings. The findings of the mid-term evaluation shall include but not be limited to the following information sources:
- Desk review of the project document, outputs, financial and monitoring reports (such as baseline 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 [6];
- 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.
5. Evaluation Deliverables, Timing and Resources
The contract for this evaluation shall begin on May 11th, 2015 and end on June 15th, 2015. The following deliverables are expected:
- Inception report, including data collection tools;
- Draft Mid-Term Evaluation Report and PowerPoint Presentation of the initial findings for internal and stakeholder validation;
- Final Mid-Term Evaluation Report, including brief public version.
The budget for the evaluation, including consultant/s’ fee as well as travel[7] and accommodation for the consultant and any other team member is USD 20,000. However, GROOTS Kenya will cover the costs for the mobilization and participation of beneficiaries in the evaluation and validation activities.
[1] GROOTS Kenya prefers to speak about ‘productive poor’, i.e. women farmers living in vulnerable circumstances.
[2] Parameters to consider: level of income, level and quality of access to basic necessities such as water, food, health services, education level The project refers to a person’s livelihood
[3] Reference is made especially to the drought-prone area of Kitui but also to the environment affected by climate change in both project areas (Nakuru and Kitui).
[4] Reference is made to the seed fund (component 4) to provide bank guarantees against which project beneficiaries can lend money from a commercial bank with a subsidized rate.
[5] Reference is made to the common interest groups as well as various committees created by the project.
[6] The project MIS captures the monthly monitoring data that group members send online using computer tablets to the GROOTS Kenya web-based database. The information includes agri-business performance as well as saving& lending data.
[7] Costs for international flights are not foreseen.
HOW TO APPLY:
Required Skills
The evaluator should have the following minimum qualifications:
- Master Degree or higher degree in International Development, Agricultural or Social Sciences or a similar field related to agricultural and/or economic development
- A minimum of 5 years relevant experience undertaking evaluations
- Proven experience in evaluating similar development project related to agricultural development and economic empowerment of rural women
- Substantial experience in evaluating projects with a strong gender focus is preferred
- Experiences working in Kenya and in the two project regions (Nakuru and Kitui) is preferred
- Should be willing to travel to rural areas involving extensive touring
- Strong communication, organizational and management skills
- Excellent English and Kiswahili writing and communication skills are required
- Working knowledge in Kikamba, Kikuyu and Kalenjin is an added advantage
- Demonstrated ability to comply with tight deadlines and readiness to work over weekends.
Application Procedure
We would request interested professionals/consultancy firms to submit a proposal of a maximum of 5 pages, which must include the following items:
- Summary of consultants experience and background
- List of most relevant previous consulting projects completed
- Brief technical proposal, clarifying the understanding of the objectives and scope as well as proposed methodology for the evaluation
- Team structure, roles and responsibilities and time allocation, if applicable
The following items should be included as attachments:
- CVs of the professionals to be involved
- Detailed work plan
- At least one (1) sample report of a relevant/similar assignment or link to the website where the report can be retrieved
- Detailed budget including costs for consultant’s time, transport[1], accommodation and per –diem as well as communication and any other office/supplies costs.
Proposal should be emailed to admin@grootskenya.org,clearly entitled “*Proposal Mid-Term Evaluation_Access to Market project”*before Thursday, 30.04.2015.
[1] Costs for international flights are not eligible.
