CALL FOR APPLICATIONS - END OF THE PROJECT EVALUATION

Project: Piloting the Out grower Service Company model for maize and soybean in Rwanda

Donor: Enabel Belgian Agency

Implementing partner: Agriterra

Implementing subgrantee : Ngoma Out grower service company model Ltd

Position Title:  Evaluator or Consultant team

Place of Assignment: Kigali, Ngoma and Kirehe

Duration: 15^th July- 31^st October 2023

Application by Email only on rwanda@agriterra.org

Deadline of application: Friday 9^th June 2023 by 5:00 PM

Agriterra

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Agriterra is the world’s leading not-for-profit agri-agency from-and-for agricultural

cooperatives and farmer organisations. Our mission is to strengthen organised farmers in

developing and emerging countries, given the importance of effectively organised

farmers to sustainably address food security, economic development, climate adaptation

and mitigation 

The aim of Agriterra is making cooperatives bankable. By focusing on few clients within a limited number of countries, Agriterra is able to target those cooperatives or other farmer owned enterprises, who are ambitious, have good management, have been economically active, have significant amounts of members and who have plans to invest in order to expand their business. Agriterra’s support is especially based on technical support from experts from the Dutch agricultural and cooperative sector. Their advisory services can be applied to all aspects of the business planning process, access to finance trajectory or the implementation phase. 

Introduction of the project 

The OSC model for maize and soybean in Rwanda is a pilot project that seeks to increase the soybean and maize productivity and supplies of raw materials for animal feed production. Several factories have been set-up in Rwanda to process animal feeds, but they all lack sufficient availability of domestic quality maize and soybean, forcing them to import their raw materials. Most maize and soya bean producers have organized themselves into cooperatives, but the efficiency of the cooperatives often requires further professionalization and upscaling. Having seen the situation, Enabel initiated the Out grower Service Company model to provide solutions to challenges faced by both smallholder farmers and animal feed processors. In November 2020 Agriterra received a grant from Enabel to implement this project for a period of 3 years. The targeted number of direct beneficiaries is 3,000 maize and soybean farmers, located in the Eastern province, Ngoma and Kirehe districts. 

Rationale and purpose of evaluation 

Following three years of implementation (November 2020 –  December 2023), OSC model project is going to phase out and close all its activities by December 2023, last two months being the final closure of project. For that, Agriterra would like to commission an evaluation to verify the project’s impacts/outcomes and derive the key lessons learned. 

The OECD/DAC criteria shall be used as the guideline for the project final evaluation to look through the project relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, potential and observed impacts. The lessons learnt from the project will inform the project implementor, partners and the Government of Rwanda stakeholders on how to integrate the OSC model learning in their other ongoing programs. The primary audience of this evaluation will be OSC project partners as well as other development partners involved in the maize and soybeans value chains. 

Agriterra is seeking a team of evaluators or a firm to undertake the Project final evaluation to ensure an objective view and assessment. 

The final project evaluation shall:

1. Assess the project relevance in terms of project approaches, project direction and project adaptiveness to the findings from the M&E review (Baseline and project progress evaluation) conducted by Vanguard Economics.
2. Assess the project efficiency and effectiveness, including the results and achievements at different levels.
3. Assess the sustainability of results.
4. Assess the impacts that the project has created and contributed to so far.
5. Draw out lessons and recommendations to inform the relevant projects implemented by Agriterra and Enabel as the donor, the government programs in similar value chains, OSC project beneficiaries and other relevant development partners. 

Evaluation questions  

The Final evaluation will answer the following questions:

1. How relevant has the project TOC, strategies, approaches and adaptations/changes been in achieving the expected results? 

Sub questions:

1.1 To what extent have the OSC model interventions complied with development policy and planning of the government in the Maize and soybeans value chains at the national level?

1.2 How important has the intervention been for the target group (Animal feed companies, producer cooperatives and their members), and to what extent has it addressed their needs and interests?

1.3 To what extent has the project changed/adapted in terms of approaches, intervention to the recommendations of its partners to address the project gaps.

2. How effective have the project strategies and approaches been in achieving the expected results? 

Sub questions:

2.1 What results have been achieved vs project targets in OSC Model project’s Monitoring Evaluation?

2.2 Has the project achieved satisfactory progress towards its stated Results/Objectives?

2.3 Which crucial factors contributed to achievements or hampered the expected targets?  

Following project strategies and approaches will be reviewed:

• Relevancy of establishing a private company Ngoma Out grower service company Ltd.
• Effectiveness of the subgrantee arrangement between Agriterra and Ngoma Out grower service company Ltd.
• Effectiveness of the Maize/soybeans VCD strengthening activities including extension support, demonstration plots and farmer field schools.
• Effectiveness of project’s activities to strengthen farmer cooperatives
• Synergy and collaboration among the project partners

3. How efficient were the project strategies and approaches in achieving the expected results? 

Sub questions:

3.1 How well have project strategies and approaches (listed above) been used to achieve results against the outcome areas?

3.2 Has the OSC model been the right one?

3.3 What are the advantages and challenges of the project strategies and approaches?

3.4 Is the relationship between the resources and results appropriate and justifiable? What is the cost-benefit ratio?

3.5 To what extent have resources been used economically? Are there any alternatives for achieving the same results with fewer inputs/resources? 

4. How sustainable are the results of the project likely to be?

Sub questions:

4.1 To what extent will the operations of Ngoma OSC Ltd continue after the project has ended?

4.2 What external factors and project-related factors might affect the sustainability of the project activities and achievements? How could these factors be addressed?

5. What could be the positive/adverse, primary/secondary effects produced by the project interventions, directly or indirectly, intendedly or unintendedly?

Sub questions:

5.1 What has happened to the targeted beneficiaries as a result of the OSC model project?

5.2 What real difference have the interventions made to the beneficiaries? How has it changed the behaviors of the beneficiaries?

5.3 How many people have been affected by the project results?

The consultant team is  expected to design and facilitate a final reflection workshop to disseminate, triangulate and reflect on the evaluation findings among all the main project stakeholders. 

• Evaluation approach and methods 

The final project evaluation should apply a mixed-methods approach by using qualitative and quantitative data from primary and secondary sources.

Primary sources include qualitative data collection methods: semi-structured interviews and focus group discussion questionnaire to be used at each of the two districts of project intervention Ngoma and Kirehe. The sample should be drawn from the baseline studies and other project M&E reports. The sample size should be representative and allow the analysis of the difference between baseline and endline point. All data and findings should be disaggregated by sex, age, value chains and specificity on which Agricultural season is concerned (Season A or B as applicable).

For interviews,  the evaluation team shall conduct them with OSC project team,  RAB station managers in Kirehe and Ngoma districts , local government and the team of PRISM Enabel.

Secondary sources include data from desk-study the relevant project documents such as project reports, project MEL data, activity reports, relevant policies and statistical data from the baseline and end-line studies and Government of Rwanda data. 

The project final evaluation process should be participatory, incorporating a cross-section of the main stakeholders, including but not limited to, farmer cooperatives, local government at different levels and processing companies active in the sourcing of raw materials of maize and soybeans.

The evaluation methodology will be presented to the donor Enabel and OSC project team before commencing work. 

When conducting the evaluation, the evaluators should apply the following principles:

• Ethical research principles;
• Judgments should be made relative to context (the evaluators will conclude and identify trends in correlation with the context);
• Engage critical audiences/users of evaluation findings in planning and implementing the final evaluation (respecting time constraints);
• Using/building on previous studies and evaluation;
• Attention to equality and rights in all aspects of the evaluation. 

Reflection workshop approach and methods 

The consultant team is expected to design the reflection workshop that allows the OSC partners and critical stakeholders to :

• share and discuss evaluation results,
• Self – reflect and learn from the project results and lessons learned for OSC Model and
• Documentation of project results/lessons. 

It is also expected that the reflection workshop will provide further inputs for the consultants to triangulate initial findings and finalize the evaluation report. 

Consultant roles and responsibilities : 

The consultant shall have the following responsibilities:  

• Desk review of relevant existing documents.
• Develop a work plan including methodology, sampling strategy, data collection tools , detailed fieldwork plan, analysis plan, quality control plan, and timeframes for management inputs and decisions.
• Field data collection process: the Consultant firm will form a gender balanced field data collection team by themselves and take responsibility for data collection of both qualitative component and household survey under the close supervision of the Agriterra MEL focal person from the project. The consultant needs to employ the data quality control including: providing comprehensive training on data collection tools, the use of selected app for data collection, ethical principles, data collection process; conducting close supervision and daily coaching for data collection team.
• Provide daily field report on data collection progress, results, challenges and solutions to Agriterra MEL focal point.  
• Data composing, cleaning, analysis and interpretation both for qualitative component and quantitative component.
• Qualitative interviews with stakeholders, Ngoma OSC management team, cooperative leaders and other sampled individual members of cooperatives.
• Develop a presentation on the main findings (PowerPoint format) and conduct the debriefing for OSC partners.
• Design and facilitate the final evaluation workshop with OSC partners and main stakeholders at the designated area.
• Writing the project final workshop summary report.
• Write the final report in English with proficiency spelling and grammar checking 

Schedule, budget, logistics 

The evaluation fieldwork is expected to commence from the 15^th July 2023 and the final report shall be submitted by 31^st October 2023. 

It is expected that the consultancy will amount to 50 working days.  

Timeline (by) # days

Please note that timeframes will be finalized in discussion to be held between the OSC project team and consultant.   

• Deliverables and reporting arrangements 

The following are deliverables of the evaluation consultancy: 

• Evaluation protocol in English (inception report) including methodology, sample size calculation and sampling strategy, data collection tools, detailed fieldwork plan, analysis plan, quality control plan, and timeframes for management inputs and decisions.
• A debriefing on the main findings of the evaluation to be presented to the project team and partners.
• Raw dataset as collected by the data collection tools (both quantitative and qualitative data with electronic formats), original records and transcripts (if recording), all completed questionnaires if using paper-based questionnaires as the back-up hard copies, codebook.
• Presentation of the main findings in English (PowerPoint format) to accommodate the views of the OSC partners and stakeholders’ suggestions or recommendations.
• Presentation for the reflection workshop
• Final reflection workshop facilitation plan and report.
• Draft evaluation report in English.
• Final evaluation report in English 

The evaluation will be supervised by OSC project manager and the appointed MEL focal person of the project as well as responsible focal persons from the project partners. 

Final payment will be made on acceptance of final outputs by the OSC project team. 

• Selection criteria 

This tender is open to individual consultant(s). 

The consultant can be a Rwandan national or international professional with relevant academic qualifications and work experience. 

In case of foreign based consultant, it is a must teaming up with a local expert based in Rwanda who is knowledgeable in Kinyarwanda language and the local context. 

Required attributes:

1. The consultant must be qualified in finance holding at least a Master’s degree in Finance or similar field with experience from 5 years and above in investment planning , financial modelling , advanced business analytics, survey data collection and analytics.
2. Proven capacity and extensive experience of at least 5 years

 in managing and conducting project evaluations, including strong analytical skills and expertise in evaluating economic empowerment programs, and market value chains.

1. Familiar with Value Chain Development (VCD) and Market Systems Development (MSD) methodology.
2. Knowledge of the maize and soybeans value chains in general
3. Demonstrated written communication skills including the ability to communicate complex concepts in plain English and develop relevant, useful recommendations 

Preferred attributes:

1. Experience with the Rwandan development context
2. Experience in analyzing donor funded projects

Contact, application and required documents 

Interested candidates should send the following documents and clearly stating in the email subject Application on the tender ”End of the project evaluation for the Project Piloting the Out grower Service Company model for maize and soybean in Rwanda“.  

1. Letter of application addressed to the Country Representative of Agriterra Rwanda
2. Consultant (s) CV or profile.
3. Certified Diploma in the required area of expertise.
4. Two certificates of service completion for project evaluation assignments in a similar field.
5. Two written examples of past project evaluation conducted within the last 3 years.
6. Financial proposal comprised of a daily rate for the consultancy services and the budget for all logistics to execute the field works properly. 

The email is to be sent to: rwanda@agriterra.org by the closing date of Friday 9th of June 2023 by 5.00 PM (Kigali time). Only short-listed applicants meeting the requirements stated above will be contacted for an interview.