Call for Expression of Interest (Consultancy) - South Sudan

Call for expression of interest to undertake consultancy assignments for DCAandpartners implemented project, in partnership with Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO), Titled: “Strengthening of Vulnerable Communities Affected By Humanitarian Crisis In South Sudan’’

1.0 Background and Introduction

1.1 Introduction of the Organization
DanChurchAid (DCA) is a decentralised Danish NGO, which primarily works with both local and international NGO partners, and it is a strong member of international networks/ alliances including churches. DCA headquarter is in Copenhagen and has offices in 16 countries worldwide but supports projects/ programs in at least 25 countries. It seeks to assist the most marginalised populations through its four thematic program types in South Sudan, namely, Active Citizenship, Right to Food, Humanitarian Response and Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA). Advocacy, right based approach (RBA), Nexus and Gender are its added value strategies in all interventions to address DCA global goals of Save Lives, Build Resilience and Fight Extreme inequality

DCA works with local communities and is increasingly involved in building the capacity of partners, communities, and local government institutions as well as its own staff. DCA’s South Sudan regional office is based in Juba and implements programmed through its partners in Jonglei, Upper Nile, Eastern Equatorial, Unity and Central Equatorial states.

1.2 Background for Consultancy
This term of reference for the consultancy outlines the terms of engagement for an independent consultant/firm to develop MEAL tools for the project baseline and PDM tools, conduct baseline survey, train partners in MEAL through identifying partners capacity gaps, all respective partners have MEAL staffs supporting this expected to be trained, consult will also do data analysis and reporting for the PDMs for already collected data during implementation by DCA and partner specifically for the PDMs and eventually conduct end of project evaluation at the end of the project.. The assignment includes reviewing of the MEAL plans for the project to develop tools for monitoring and evaluation prior to the baseline, conduct MEAL capacity building. The TOR is broken down into 5 annexes for the different assignment to e carried out by the consultant namely ( Designing MEAL tools for data collection, Baseline, MEAL training data analysis and end of project evaluation).

1.3 Introduction of the Project
DCA and its partners propose an integrated approach to address the immediate needs of 119,100 vulnerable women, men, boys and girls affected by conflict, flood and other disasters from IDPs, returnees and host communities in Upper Nile (Fashoda, Panyikang, Maiwut, Longechuk and Ulang counties), Jonglei (Akobo and Twic East counties) and Eastern Equatorial (Kapoeta East county) states of South Sudan. This will be done through distribution of unconditional multi-purpose cash transfers (MPCT), disaster risk reduction activities while supporting local market actors on strengthen market functionality. Conditional, unrestricted transfers (cash for work) will be utilized throughout the project to rehabilitate community assets, environmental cleaning, and protection activities. This will provide an income to those engaged and will increase community ownership. Livelihood support activities will include comprehensive farming, fishing, kitchen gardening and animal husbandry/dairy production interventions. This project seeks to link the producers to market actors, enhancing both household food production and income generation, thus improving food security, and strengthening resilience to shocks such as flooding. Nutrition, hygiene, and health campaigns, including COVID-19 prevention and response, will be carried out to mitigate the effects of flooding together with COVID-19. Additionally, environmental cleaning, such as garbage pit construction, which reduces hygiene related diseases and malaria will be implemented. Community protection committees will develop community protection plans and close identified protection gaps. COVID-19 preventive measures, youth engagement, gender, protection, and environmental protection are mainstreamed throughout. Women-led protection groups provide a collective voice and support network to women and girls and raise awareness about gender-based violence (GBV) issues. Both protection and GBV concern initiatives will be linked to referral pathways. An emergency response mechanism provides rapid cash-based response to crisis/shock during the project period. The project will integrate assistance to flood-affected communities and will include households affected by COVID-19 through its targeting criteria

1.3.1 Project Goal:
Contribute to improved resilience of vulnerable and conflict affected communities (including COVID-19) in South Sudan.

Indicators
% of households who report being able to meet the basic needs of their households (all/most/some/none), according to their priorities.
% of targeted beneficiaries reporting that humanitarian assistance is delivered in a safe, accessible, accountable, and participatory manner.
% of HHs with a reduced coping strategy index (rCSI)

1.3.2. Project expected outputs:
1.1Targeted households (including flood and Covid-19 affected) receive multi-purpose and unconditional cash transfers.
1.2 Targeted markets are strengthened, continued functionality is supported.
1.3 Targeted households (including flood and COVID-19 affected) have enhanced emergency food production.
1.4Targeted households (including flood and COVID-19 affected) have improved income generation opportunities.
2.1 Targeted communities (including flood and COVID-19 affected) have increased dietary diversity and hygiene awareness.
2.2 Targeted communities (including flood and COVID-19 affected) have better knowledge of health and hygiene related issues.
3.1 Community managed disaster risk reduction (CMDRR) (flood response) is linked to CFW,
3.2 Community-led protection and conflict-mitigation initiatives through participatory approaches are strengthened,
3.3 Women-led protection initiatives are strengthened and linked to local authorities and referral pathways,
4.1 Crisis-affected households can meet their immediate needs through a cash-based Emergency Response Mechanism

2.0. Purpose of the Consultancy
DCA would like to contract an independent consult/firm to undertake the following assignments that will be carried out exclusively by the consultant. DCA and partners will support in logistical support during the assignment and the consultant undertake the technical assignments stipulated in the TOR with only exception of data collection for the PDMs that will be done by DCA and partners he/she will be require to perform the data analysis and reporting

2.1. Baseline Survey
The baseline survey’s overall purpose is to establish the pre-project conditions in key intervention areas from which a comparison can be made for the purpose of monitoring and evaluating the intended goal and outcomes of projects.

Baseline: develop tools for baseline data collection, lead data collection process and conduct analysis and reporting done entirely be consultant will be guided by the project logical framework to track project indicators and targets to establish baseline values. Prior to the baseline, the results should be assessed from an evaluation perspective. If need be, the baseline results will be used to inform revision of the project indicators. It will also establish and validate the evaluation approach with a robust and detailed methodology that will form the foundation for the final evaluation. The survey methodology will clearly outline a sample design and sample size calculation that incorporate considerations of age, gender, diversity, and methods of analysis.

Specifically, the baseline survey seeks to accomplish the following objectives.
Specific objectives of the Baseline:

1. Assess, access, safe and dignified humanitarian, and development assistance through avoidance of causing harm, preventive and minimization of unintended negative effects which can increase people's vulnerability to both physical and psychosocial risks.
2. Assess project response to cash assistance, food security and livelihoods, Community-managed disaster risk reduction (CMDRR), COVID19 protection, HIV and nutrition, appropriateness to needs of all individuals and groups (men, women, youth and children) who may be particularly vulnerable or have difficulty accessing assistance and services.
3. Assess prevailing food security levels in the targeted communities
4. Assess the existing protection issues and efforts by communities or other partners.
5. Establish the livelihood activities mostly engaged by the communities.
6. Determine main needs of the beneficiaries that Cash programming should address.
7. Assess appropriateness of indicators
8. Assess prevailing social and economic contexts in the project area that implementation will need to consider.
9. Determine the synergies of this project with other Partner implemented projects in the same geographic area and coordination with other actors and make recommendation aimed at achieving greater impact.
10. Assess status of markets to ascertain if they can support cash-based programming.
11. Assess any potential risks to the project and how cross cutting themes will be integrated into the project.

2.2. Development of M&E Tools for project monitoring and evaluation
MEAL plan has already been developed by DCA and results framework, The consultant is expected to review the develop data collection tools and plans for baseline and PDMs aligned to the project MEAL results framework her/she will design tools for monitoring and evaluation of the project from baseline to the endline . The main purposes of the M&E Strategy for the one year project funded by Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe is aimed to outlining various roles and responsibilities regarding M&E with a view to tracking progress and demonstrating results, used it as a tool for monitoring progress, communication and documenting the M&E mechanisms. Specifically, an M&E tools will allow DCA and partners to:

• Assess how the program goals and objectives can be achieved more effectively.
• outline specific steps and M&E tools be used for informed decision making.
• develop plans for data collection, analysis, use, and data quality.
• Formulate performance monitoring mechanism in line with the result frameworks to be achieved
• organize various M&E activities that must take place for tracking progress

2.3 M&E Capacity Building
Conduct MEAL training by first identifying partners capacity gaps in MEAL, needed for strengthening monitoring and evaluation capacity within all five implementing partners UNKEA, NH, ICPDO, NRDC, and C&D, such that training will be tailored to address specific needs of the partners
The training will build skills in MEAL design of the project such as the PDMs market assessments, kobo collect application, data analysis and reporting, complaint and feedback mechanism. However prior to the training the consultant is required to conduct a partners MEAL capacity identification to assess the gaps this can be done by designing and capacity assessment tools that will be filled out by respective partners and analysed by the consultant to come up with the training need. It is at the discretion of the consultant/firm to decide on the mode of training, whether virtual or contact training, given the COVID 19 situation. The creativity of the consult will be desirable. Depending on the mode chosen, the consultant shall develop standard operating procedures in addition to the training module, that will spell out how the trainings will be conducted with COVID 19 preventative measures to be undertaken while delivering the trainings it is also expected that the consultant/firm will also bring on board new insights in MEAL informed by the current wave of innovation in MEAL.2.4 Data Analysis, interpretation, and reporting
•The over purpose of the consultancy is to undertake data analysis for ongoing project monitoring tools namely post distribution monitoring (PDM) and market price monitoring data analysis and reporting to produce quality and unbiased independent reports, two set of data will be analysed by the consultant at two intervals after PDM1 and PDM2 and the market monitoring assessment ( includes market price data, consumer survey and will be analysed alongside the two PDMs. These will not require travel by the consultant because data collection will be led by DCA and partners therefore the data collected will be shared with the consultant only for analysis and reporting which can be done from his/her base. Data will be collected electronically using kobo collect application by enumerators hired, trained, and supervised by partners during data collection specially for the PDMs using tools designed by the consultant at initial stages. Partners with technical abilities in computers and basic statistic and humanitarian principal
•Data that will be collect by DCA 5 partners implementing this project across 3 states and 8 counties in South Sudan to establish and assess the impact of project by analysing post distribution monitoring reports and market price monitoring.
•The consultant will also review and summarise finding of the two PDMs and market price to make comparative analysis with the baseline, first and second PDM and eventually monitor indicator performance with the end project evaluation report,

2.5 End of Project the Evaluation
The purpose of the evaluation is to demonstrate how the project achieved its intended objectives and determine what changes it brought to the target communities. The evaluation will be conducted at the end of the project in May 2021, thus this call includes end of project evaluation which is expected to be carried out at the end of the project by the same successful consultant for the rest of the assignments in this TOR..

The specific objectives of this evaluation are to:

• Evaluate access, safe and dignified humanitarian, and development assistance through avoidance of causing harm, preventive and minimization of unintended negative effects which can increase people's vulnerability to both physical and psychosocial risks.
• Evaluate project modality cash assistance, food security and livelihood services Community managed disaster risk reduction (CMDRR) COVID19 protection, HIV and nutrition response are appropriate to needs and without any barriers (e.g. discrimination) to individuals and groups (men, women, youth and children) who may be particularly vulnerable or have difficulty accessing assistance and services.
• Assess the extent to which the project achieved its objectives with special emphasis on the outcomes and impact including most significant and indirect changes attributable to the project.
• Assess whether recommendations of post distribution monitoring and market evaluations been translated into action focus on the modality, transfer mechanism, accountability to beneficiaries.
• Assess the relevance of the project design and strategy with special emphasis on:

• Community needs at the time of project identification.
• Results as articulated in the project’s logical framework
• Cross-cutting issues of gender and a rights-based approach (RBA).
• Local Government Authorities (LGAs), community structures capacity building and its relevance to project implementation.
• The external environment (context) within which the project was operational and its influence on project successes and/or failures.

• Assess the effectiveness of the processes of beneficiary engagement and project implementation against best practices in the project.

3.0 Scope of Consultancy
The project runs for one year from June 2020 to May 2021. This consultancy comprises of number of assignments to be undertaken at different intervals. Baseline survey and development of project M&E strategy be conducted in July/August, partner MEAL training in August, PDM1 and market price data analysis in October, PDM2 and market price data analysis in February/March 2021 and second set of market price data analysis in May 2021.4.0 Evaluation Management and Values
4.1 Management

• A team comprising of Head of Program, Program Coordinator and Program Officers will support the consultancy assignment in various aspects.
• DCA will provide overall operational/logistical coordination for the assignments.
• Accommodation and transport for the consultant during the field work will be catered for by DCA.
• Survey logistics such as translators, bicycle/boat hire, facilitators, office space or training venues, internet will be provided by DCA or its partners.
• DCA will process security clearances for the survey with the respective authorities.
• Domestic travel will be arranged DCA. However, the consultant is responsible for planning their international flights/visa.
• The organizations will reimburse or meet costs associated with registration, e.g. alien registration, only on provision of receipts.
• Please note that in case you are chosen as the successful candidate and it is required for foreigners to be quarantined upon arrival to South Sudan, your consultancy firm will meet that cost.
• Consultant should elaborate on how they will take the COVID-19 situation into account for the baseline given thatvirtual meetings may not be applicable in all project areas in the context of South Sudan.

4.2 Ethical Considerations
Consultant should ensure appropriate, safe, and non-discriminatory participation of all respondents in the survey. This includes obtaining free and informed consent and voluntary participation and ensuring that data is kept in a secure and confidential manner and the anonymity of respondents is protected in the presentation of findings.

• South Sudan is a fragile state with UN security rating of ‘grey’.
• Arabic is widely spoken in South Sudan.
• DCA and partners comply with the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS).
• DCA adheres to Prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) and child protection policies.

Therefore, the consultant must not compromise the values of DCA and will sign the DCA Code of conduct before commencing with any assignment.

4.3 Consultancy Experience:
Below follows a brief explanation of the consultant(s) with emphasis on previous experience in similar work; profile of the consultant(s) to be involved in undertaking the consultancy; proposal for undertaking this assignment as detailed in the ToR is required. A financial proposal including cost estimates for services rendered and daily consultancy fees.
The consultancy must offer expertise with the below essential and desirable profiles and qualifications. A gender balance could enable complete coverage of the different aspects of the consultancy as set out in these terms of reference, including cross-cutting issues.

4.4 Essential:

1. Holding a higher university degree in economics, statistics, Monitoring and evaluation, project planning and management, social sciences, and any other relevant field with over 12 years of experience in food security and livelihoods programming in fragile countries.
2. Knowledge on community vulnerability; disaster risk reduction, protection gender programming, NEXUS; rights-based approach and participatory approaches.

• Strong understanding of the South Sudan context (specifically the context Greater Equatoria, Greater Upper Nile States), policy and advocacy work.

• A solid and diversified track record of experience in running, overseeing, or evaluating cash and voucher assistance and/ or market-based programs.

• Broad knowledge of humanitarian and development issues, specifically in Food Security, livelihoods, and market-based approaches.

• The ideal consultant will have a minimum of 5 to 7 years of relevant experience from a relief and development agency.
• Integration of food security, livelihoods, and nutrition programing
• Sound understanding of SPHERE standards, Core Humanitarian Standards, familiarity with key cash transfer guidelines and MEAL best practices and approaches.
• Fully conversant with the principles and working methods of project cycle management Knowledge of humanitarian evaluation methods and techniques, including a thorough understanding of data collection, evaluation methodologies and design, participatory approaches, and strong qualitative and quantitative research skills
• Experience with evaluations in conflict and drought-affected contexts
• Experience of integrating gender dynamics within participatory data collection
• Fluency in English, strong analysis, report writing and communication skills

• Strong analytical skills, ability to clearly present findings, draw conclusions and make recommendations
• Good interpersonal skills and understanding cultural sensitivities
• Ability to work under pressure and to meet deadlines
• Ability to deal with hardship and remote area field work

4.5 Desirable:

• Experience working in South Sudan or East Africa
• Experience working for German NGOs or experience of evaluating projects funded by German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO).
• Active member of CaLP or other global networks championing research and best practice in the field of cash and voucher assistance.
• Knowledge of local languages is seen as an asset.
• Knowledge of South Sudan context as it relates to COVID19 situation.

NB: Consultants and Service providers to DCA are subjected to comply with the organization’s Code of Conduct and Child Protection and PSEA policy.5.0 How to apply.

This is a two-stage process, interested consultants and or firms should submit expression of interest, CVs and cover letter briefly describing how they intend to carry out the work within the COVID 19 context to the online platform the following. Only shortlisted consultants/firms will be requested to submit detailed proposals and budgets.
Submission: Soft copies of proposal and budget should be submitted not later than September 01, 2020.

Please, the shortlisted consultants will receive detail TORs for the 5 assignments and annex 6 for more information on the project intervention logic.