Terms of Reference: Establishment of Participatory Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning System:
Transforming Eastern Province through Adaptation (TREPA) Project.
Project title Transforming Eastern Province through Adaptation (TREPA) Project
Consultancy title Short Term Technical Assistance in Design of Participatory MEL System_TREPA
Post level National / international consultancy
Location Home-based / field
Office IUCN Rwanda Office
Language requirements English, French and Kinyarwanda
Estimate start and end date Mid-April to Mid-May 2023
Assignment duration 30 man-days

1. Background
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a membership Union comprising both State and non-State Members. Created in 1948, it is the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of six commissions, and it’s more than 1,300 Member organizations and some 17,000 experts. IUCN finds pragmatic solutions to the world’s most pressing environment and development challenges and works with governments, partners, and the international community to mobilize and implement an ambitious global program aimed at restoring the functionality, productivity, and ecological integrity of landscapes for the benefit of people and nature. IUCN’s current programming is focused on three areas (i) Valuing and conserving nature; (ii) Effective and equitable governance of nature’s use and (iii) Deploying nature-based solutions to global challenges in climate, food and development.
The IUCN Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) operates in twenty-four countries in the Horn of Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa and the Western Indian Ocean. The current ESARO programming is composed of a suite of mutually interrelated programs and projects designed to address some of the most profound challenges affecting people and nature in the region. Among the projects implemented by IUCN’s Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office is the TREPA Project – Transforming Eastern Province through Adaptation. It is a six-year project, based in IUCN Rwanda Country Office, and funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

The TREPA Project intends to restore 60,000 hectares of drought-degraded landscapes into climate resilient ecosystems through re-forestation, agroforestry, restoration of pasture-lands, and soil erosion control measures in the Eastern Province of Rwanda. In addition, irrigation infrastructure projects in the targeted landscapes of the eastern province will be climate-proofed by the TREPA Project. These projects under MINAGRI could include Export Targeted Modern Irrigation (ETI) in Mpanga (600 hectares) and Mahama (1200 hectares), Kayonza Irrigation and Integrated Watershed Management Project in Kayonza (2000 hectares), Warufu- Mugesera in Gatsibo and Ngoma as well as Rurambi dyke in Bugesera.
The TREPA Project will finally support the national and local institutions to effectively plan, manage and monitor climate adaptation outcomes from improved land use at national and decentralized levels.

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The TREPA Project is implemented by IUCN (accredited entity) together with the Rwanda Forestry Authority and Enabel as executing entities in partnership with ICRAF, World Vision, and CORDAID. The Ministry of Environment is responsible for chairing the Project Steering Committee and ensures coherence with national strategies and policies.
For implementation of the TREPA Project, three components will be considered namely:
Component 1: Restored landscapes that support climate resilient agro-ecological systems and livelihoods in Eastern Province
Component 2: Market and value chain development for climate resilient agricultural and tree products linked to financial products and services for sustainable management of agro-ecological systems
Component 3: Strengthened enabling environment to effectively plan, manage and monitor climate adaptation outcomes from improved land use at national and decentralized levels.
In order to ensure that the project activities are implemented in the respective Components, the Executing Entities will enter into relevant subsidiary and/or procurement agreements with Service Providers and suppliers of Goods and Services and in respect of Component 3, relevant TA Provider(s) for the relevant Activities.
While 65% of TREPA budget is funded by GCF, the remaining is covered by co-finance from existing projects such as AREECA, COMBIO and DeSIRA. This financing structure implies the joint implementation and monitoring of those projects is aligned to that of TREPA.

2. Purpose
The International Union for Conservation of Nature intends to use part of the TREPA project funding received from the Green Climate Fund to procure a consultancy for establishing a participatory monitoring, evaluation and learning system for the TREPA project. The main purpose of the assignment is to design, develop, test and deploy the Participatory Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (PMEL) system which will facilitate improved performance tracking, accountability, learning and data assurance, data integration, visualization, retrieval and reporting. The offline, spreadsheet-based system will capture project data at various stages including field/site level, community/beneficiary level, component level and Project Management Unit (PMU) level. The system will be used by the Accredited Entity (AE) and Executing Entities (EEs) project teams and will be the first phase of, and the basis for, an online system that may be developed in the near future.
The MEL system will serve multiple purposes. Most significantly it will enable IYF to:
• More effectively monitor and manage project implementation by efficiently capturing and analyzing key output and outcome data;
• Generate real-time, or short-time lag, reporting on key output and outcome indicators;
• Support project-specific learning and annual theory-of-change reviews
• Create dashboards and other data visualization tools to support data collection, analysis and communications with key project and institutional stakeholders; and
• Provide clean data that can be easily and accurately exported to statistical analysis software packages.
• Provide clean, traceable workflow/dataflow from activity/milestones/deliverable trackers to a clean database that can easily export data into GCF reporting templates

3. Objectives and Specific Tasks
Phase 1: Assessment:
1. Review of the existing M&E framework, IUCN and donor reporting requirement to assess potential for adaptability/improvement to track core IUCN institutional and donors indicators;
2. Determine if and what new platforms need to be created or an existing to be adapted: This system could be an off-the-shelf MEL application, a newly built MEL systems or a hybrid of both. While the preference is to start with an offline system/database, the consultant shall explore all options possible whether online, free ready-to-use, or free open source adaptable.
3. Identify data entry systems best suited for uploading data into the system/database.
Phase II: PMEL System Design
1. Elaboration of a refined M&E Framework & Meta data/Database
2. Development of a Project Monitoring Plan (PMP) and Elaboration of institutional arrangements for operationalization of the MEL system at field/site level, community/beneficiary level, component level and Project Management Unit (PMU) level
3. Development of the key elements of a participatory monitoring, evaluation and learning system
4. Design of a data collection, tracking/monitoring tools and reporting framework
5. Ensure that the developed PMEL responds to National and Regional Forestry, Agroforestry, Restoration, sustainable land management and biodiversity conservation priorities/indicators
Phase III: Pilot testing, deployment, and Training
Advice and Training on project monitoring and evaluation and dissemination of good practice standards

4. Methodology
The consultant will identify and describe the most appropriate and efficient methodology and approach for development of the PMEL system. It is envisioned that the methodology will include (but not limited to) the following:
• Inception: development of an inception report
• Project stakeholder consultation workshops: To validate results framework, core and non-core indicators, and defined MEL institutional arrangements.
• PMEL System requirement analysis: Carry out system requirement analysis through consultations with the identified stakeholders
• PMEL System design based on the agreed monitoring and reporting requirement from donors.
• The project team (PMU and EEs) will test the fully functional first MEL system prototype using real data or imaginary data from different project activities. The pilot test and shall be conducted during the partners’ quarterly reporting window. User feedback will be given to the consultant firm which will address it to the extent possible
• System finalization: Based on the user acceptance and test feedback, the first prototype will be updated to the final PMEL sys
• Capacity building of end user on new PMEL system capacity building: to cover not only MEL system features (tools) but also workflow/institutional arrangements.

5. Deliverables/Outputs of the Assignment
The key deliverables of this assignment include:
1. Inception report
2. Assessment report with
• Revised/validated results frame
• Recommended system requirement.
1. PMEL System: Refined metadata/database with all data tracking tools and reporting format
2. Revised PMP and PMEL institutional arrangements.
1. User acceptance test and pilot report
2. Approved final fully functional softwar

6. Reference Documents
Relevant documents that IUCN will share with the Consultant include (but not be limited to) the following:
• GCF Accreditation Master Agreement (AMA)
• Funded Activity Agreement (FAA)
• TREPA funding proposal (including ESMF)
• Project Revised logical framework
• Project Monitoring and Evaluation plan
• Project Implementation plan
• TREPA Project Feasibility Study
• Map of the targeted landscapes/villages
• Project gender action plan
• Implementing Agreements and Co-financing Agreements between IUCN and EEs
• Inception report and Year 1 Annual Performance Report (APR)
• Monitoring and Evaluation Database of TREPA and its co-financing projects (AREECA, COMBIO and DeSIRA).
• Requirements for the design of the Agricultural resilience and productivity monitoring tool
• Requirements for the design of the SLR M&E Database
• Requirements for the design of the Agricultural resilience and productivity monitoring tool

7. Required Experience, Skills and Competencies - The Consultancy team
The consultant will work independently in collaboration with the IUCN Monitoring and Evaluation Office and TREPA’s Chief of Party providing overall coordination. The consultant is expected to be an experienced Monitoring and Evaluation Expert who meets the following conditions:
• A relevant post-graduate degree at or above MSc level in Monitoring and Evaluation or Project Management, Environmental or Natural Resources Management and/or any other related field
• At least five (5) years’ experience in designing and managing robust MEL system and their information systems for major donors, including conducting project evaluations (annual, midterm, endline);
• Demonstrated experience supporting MEL and reporting functions for GCF funded projects;
• Previous experience in the development of project Theories of Change, log-frames/results frameworks with SMART indicators for forest and landscape restoration and/or sustainable climate smart agriculture projects;
• Clear understanding of research methodologies and experience using a range of research tools and techniques with regards to climate change adaptation;
• Strong skills and exposure to project stakeholder engagement especially with multiple implementing partners and multiple layers of field level activities
• Demonstrated experience in training implementation using learning by doing approaches and able to deliver training while considering aspects of adult learning principles
• Experience in the public participation development and community process associated with the environment, natural resources management and building local institutions for uptake of M&E tools;
• Experience in working and collaborating with national and local institutions is an added advantage;
• Fluent in spoken and written English;
• Knowledge of Kinyarwanda language is desirable.
8. Timeframe of the Consultancy
The assignment will be conducted within a period of 30 days after contract sign off with the pilot test and training coinciding with partner’s quarterly report.

9. Technical Evaluation Criteria
The technical evaluation will be made using the following criteria and maximum points:
No. Criteria Points
1. Clarity and completeness of the Proposal 5
2. Approach and Methodology
2.1 Critical analysis of the project objectives and the TOR 5
2.2 The conceptual and methodological approach
Description of the conceptual and methodological approach 20
2.3 Operationalization of the approach and Methodology
Working program / working schedule for delivery of outputs and deliverable (10 pt.),
Work organization and quality control (5 pt.) 15

3. Consultants Competencies
3.1 Education: Master’s in relevant field (5 pt.);
Work experience: at least five (5) years’ experience in designing and managing robust MEL system and their information systems for major donors, having organized impact, endline, midterm and annual project performance assessments either as a client (user) or as a provider (8 pt.);
Donor experience: Having worked with GCF or GEF funded activity (7 pt.).
Experience in the development of results frameworks with SMART indicators and reporting tools for forest and landscape restoration and/or sustainable climate smart agriculture projects (5 pt.). 25

4. Financial Proposal
Realism and cost effectiveness of the financials 30
Total (maximum) 100
10. Evaluation of Technical and Financial Proposals
The total score will be calculated as the weighted sum of both the technical score and the financial score. Please note that proposal with less than 70 percent for the technical evaluation will not continue with the evaluation.
The relative weights will be:
• Technical: 70%
• Financial: 30%

11. Applications
Interested consultants should email Technical and Financial proposals (in Rwandan Francs) detailing the proposed approach, methodology, and work plan for the assignment. The proposal should be accompanied by (i) detailed CVs outlining the consultant’s academic qualifications, previous relevant experience, contact information, etc.; (ii) documented evidence or reference of at least two similar completed assignments and (iii) and conflict of interest statement.
Both proposals (Technical and Financial) MUST be password protected and failure to do so leads to immediate rejection.
One day after the application deadlines, applicants are requested to send the passwords to the same email used while applying. Applications entitled: “Short Term Technical Assistance in Designing Participatory MEL System_TREPA Project Full names of Consultants” should be sent electronically by email to Rwanda@iucn.org with a copy to Valentine.Ikirezi@iucn.org no later than 24th March 2023 at 5:00 PM, local time in Rwanda.
During the course of this procurement, i.e. from the publication of this RfP to the award of a contract, if you have any question, please address all correspondence and questions by email to the following IUCN contacts: Olivier HABIMANA, email: olivier.habimana@iucn.org and Lamek NAHAYO, email: lamek.nahayo@iucn.org