South Sudan: Consultant/s required for Final Evaluation – South Sudan – “Inspiring Healthy Communities…”

ACF-UK is currently recruiting a consultant or a team of consultants with experience in WaSH (specifically water supply and sanitation infrastructures, hygiene promotion, WaSH governance), Social Behaviour Change, Market Interventions (desirable) and the South Sudan context for its Final Independent Evaluation.

The start date of the evaluation is intended for 14th November 2016 and should run through to 14th January 2017. This will comprise of approximately 35.5 days of work during that period, including 16 working days in the field in South Sudan.

The Call for Expression of Interest can be found below.

The deadline for applications is midday on 7th November 2016.

CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

Independent Final Evaluation of Action Against Hunger’s Programme

“Inspiring Healthy Communities: Integrating Health, Water Supply, and Market Interventions to Build Resilience”

1 Programme background A complex humanitarian catastrophe characterized by a poor water, sanitation and hygiene situation, food insecurity and poor household dietary diversity scores was, and is, affecting returnees, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), and vulnerable host populations in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal (NBeG) state, considered to be the most rural and poverty-stricken state of South Sudan. Present in the country since 2005, Action Against Hunger has gained an understanding of the needs and challenges of delivering humanitarian assistance in the area, which it has used to identify multiple key issues to focus on in the current programme. Using a governance and market based approach to WaSH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) activities, the programme integrates health, water supply and market interventions with the aim of building resilience.

The programme’s principal objective is: • To sustainably meet the humanitarian WaSH needs of vulnerable communities for early recovery in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, while increasing resilience to shocks, through participatory, market-based approaches, and capacity building in local institutions.

The programme’s specific objectives are:

1. Targeted communities have functional water points which account for multiple uses of water and are maintained throughout the year using community contributions;
2. Targeted communities have improved hygiene and sanitation practices, which contribute to better health and nutrition status, particularly for children;
3. Local Government capacity to utilize management and information systems in target counties has increased, with government offices and communities understanding the processes for reporting and monitoring.

This is a 24 month programme, with an additional no cost extension period, funded by USAID (OFDA) for a total of 4,000,000 USD. The project is expected to finish on the 14/12/2016.

2 Scope of the evaluation The general objective of the evaluation is to assess the performance of the programme and to determine if it has reached its intended objectives looking at all the components of the result chain (inputs, activities and results) as well as key contextual factors that might have enabled or hindered its delivery. It will use the DAC criteria evaluation approach and will focus on only the first of the three specific objectives of the programme, which has proven to be the most challenging.
This final evaluation will aim to draw lessons learnt, good practices and long-term operational and strategic recommendations that can be used to inform the direction of future interventions to address WaSH programming for the AAH-USA South Sudan mission, as well as the Action Against Hunger network more generally.

It will require the following deliverables:

1. Inception Report outlining the evaluation methodology to be used by the evaluator and a final work plan;
2. Stakeholder workshop: The evaluator shall facilitate a learning workshop in country to present the draft report and the findings of the evaluation to the project and key stakeholders; to gather feedback on the findings and build consensus on recommendations;
3. Draft evaluation report with specific recommendations; lessons learnt and good practices;
4. Final evaluation report (max. 30 pages) incl. executive summary.

Gender equality issues shall be explicitly addressed throughout the evaluation activities of the consultant and all outputs including final reports or events need to be gender mainstreamed.

3 Evaluation arrangements and professional requirements An independent evaluator or team of evaluators will conduct a final independent evaluation between 14th November 2016 and 14th January 2017. The assignment is for approximately 35.5 work-days during that period, including 16 working days in the field in South Sudan. The field office in the country to be visited and Action Against Hunger programme’s staff will help in organizing accommodation, arranging meetings and transportation.

Please note that teams of evaluators are highly encouraged to apply, ideally including a lead evaluator, a local specialist and a WaSH expert. The first two profiles are considered essential, so be advised that in the case of a successful individual application, the evaluator will likely be paired with a local specialist recruited by the field.

Shortlisting of the Independent Evaluator/s will be done by the Evaluation Learning and Accountability (ELA) Unit at Action Against Hunger UK based on their expressions of interest and profile criteria stated below. Final selection will be done jointly with the USA HQ and the country office in South Sudan.

Interested candidates should include in the expression of interest (for each person, if applying as a team):

1. An updated CV;
2. A detailed presentation of their background and experience, highlighting significant field experience in the evaluation of humanitarian / development projects relevant to this assignment;
3. A statement of availability for the entire duration of the assignment;
4. A daily consulting fee in USD;
5. A couple of work samples.

Applicants should have: A relevant degree / equivalent experience related to WaSH (specifically water supply and sanitation infrastructures, hygiene promotion, WaSH governance), Social Behaviour Change (SBC) and Market Interventions (desirable); Significant experience in coordination, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects; Good knowledge of the South Sudan context and understanding of donor requirements, USAID in particular; Ability to manage the available time and resources and to work to tight deadlines; Independence from the parties involved; Excellent written and oral communication skills in English. Local languages an advantage.

The deadline to submit expressions of interest for the evaluation is midday (UK time) on Monday 7th November 2016.

Applicants should submit a complete expression of interest (including all 5 elements highlighted above) via e-mail to ela@actionagainsthunger.org.uk and indicate: ‘South Sudan Evaluation’ in the e-mail’s subject line.

For further information contact: Macarena Magofke, Senior Evaluation and Knowledge Sharing Officer, ela@actionagainsthunger.org.uk