Evaluation Consultancy

Background

​The Humanitarian, Early Recovery, and Development Program (HERD) is working in eight countries (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe) and is responding to high levels of acute food insecurity due to COVID-19 and other crises. Each of the ten projects funded through the program is providing food assistance to meet immediate needs, while implementing early recovery and development activities to enable participants to better absorb the impact of current shocks and improve resilience and food security for the future. Gender sensitive approaches are woven into these humanitarian, early recovery, and development activities. Where appropriate, partners are also implementing activities intended to strengthen gender equality within the food system. This program will end in December 2023.

​In the final year of the program, Foodgrains Bank would like to conduct a comprehensive, qualitative, learning-focused evaluation to complement quantitative, end-of-program household surveys already planned for each project location. Specifically, the Foodgrains Bank would like this final evaluation of the program to gather and analyze qualitative data which will: (1) complement the quantitative data that will be collected in the household surveys and which have been designed to align with program outcomes described in the program Performance Measurement Framework; and (2) answer the learning questions set out in the program learning framework.

**​Foodgrains Bank is seeking the services of an experienced outcome harvesting evaluation consultant to facilitate this final evaluation. The role of the consultant (described in detail in the attached ToR) will be to: (1) work with the evaluation management group (comprised of Foodgrains Bank staff, member staff, and partner staff) to finalize the uses and key evaluation questions and design a comprehensive outcome harvesting evaluation process, including participatory tools and processes for data collection and analysis, (2) based on this design, facilitate the implementation of the final evaluation data collection and analysis processes by the program implementing partners, and (3) write a final program-level evaluation report that synthesizes findings across the program and responds directly to the learning themes and questions.

Expression of Interest

We are seeking expressions of interest from an evaluation consultant with the following qualifications:

• Minimum 10 years of experience in leading project/program evaluations, including evaluating humanitarian food assistance and/or food security and rural livelihoods projects;
• ​Experience with outcome mapping/outcome harvesting approaches to evaluation;
• ​Minimum master’s degree in international rural development, agricultural sciences, social sciences or a related field;
• ​Knowledge and practical experience in working with rural African communities;
• ​Strong background in humanitarian food assistance, food security, agriculture, and livelihoods, and gender equality;
• ​Demonstrated knowledge of local social-cultural realities and experiences in rural communities;
• Excellent analytical and report writing skills;
• ​Excellent interpersonal and communication skills;
• ​Experience in qualitative and quantitative methods;
• ​Proven capacity to apply and integrate measurement of gender equality and progress towards gender transformation and women’s empowerment;
• ​Language requirements: fluent spoken and written English required; knowledge of French and/or African languages is an asset. Note that three projects are in French-speaking contexts. If the evaluator/evaluation team does not have knowledge of French, describe in your proposal how you will be able to ensure high quality data collection in French.
• Willingness to work and travel in challenging environments.

​Preference will be given to evaluators or evaluation teams based in one of the programming countries (DR Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, or Zimbabwe).

The final evaluation will be carried out between March 2023 and February 2024, with a draft report submitted by the beginning of January 2024, and a final report submitted no later than the beginning of February 2024.

The maximum budget for this evaluation, including the evaluator’s fees and all travel costs is CDN $60,000.