CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES

UNITED STATES CATHOLIC CONFERENCE OF BISHOPS

TENDER NOTICE FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICES

Title of the Tender: Hiring of External Consultant to evaluate East and Central Africa Rapid Response Fund & West Africa Rapid Response Fund.

Tender Reference Number: CRS-Rwanda 022-FY23-TN/2023

NATIONAL OPEN COMPETITIVE TENDER

Hiring of External Consultant to evaluate East and Central Africa Rapid Response Fund & West Africa Rapid Response Fund.

1. Introduction and context 

Globally the number of people internally displaced by conflict and violence is the highest it has ever been. Consistently in 2017 and 2018, natural disasters, predominantly droughts, floods and storms, forced an estimated 2.6 million in the sub-Saharan region to flee their homes.[1] Sub-Saharan Africa also continues to experience ongoing as well as new conflict. In 2018 the Global Report of Internal Displacement estimated that 69 percent of all new displacements globally occurred within the sub-Saharan region, resulting in 7.4 million newly displaced people. East, Central, and West Africa countries are susceptible to a diverse variety of shocks, each requiring unique strategies and approaches. Coastal East African countries have been battered by cyclones over the past year; conflicts in the Republic of the Congo and Burundi are dormant, but the potential for escalation remains. Protracted conflicts in neighboring states continue to push refugee populations, the potential for further spread of infectious diseases such as Ebola and cholera. In West Africa, multiple protracted conflicts in the Sahel continue to destabilize existing states and create new waves of IDPs. The region has seen an increased prevalence of drought, making communities food insecure and contributing to the spread of infectious diseases.   

2. Project

In response, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) implemented the East & Central Africa RRF (ECA RRF) in Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Djibouti and Republic of Congo (RoC), and the West Africa Rapid Response Fund ( WA RRF) in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Cameroon.  This rapid response mechanism leveraged CRS’ existing network of local and international partners, who have deep community knowledge and demonstrated technical expertise in emergency response. This network enabled the mechanism to rapidly monitor triggers, conduct assessments and respond with contextually and technically appropriate activities.

This RRF mechanism was designed to meet unanticipated needs as they emerge, ensuring rapid, short-term, life-saving assistance through shelter and settlement; water, sanitation and hygiene; WASH activities; and multipurpose cash assistance (MPCA) interventions, along with the logistical support required to implement these activities. Technical approaches were designed considering the shocks most likely to occur in the target countries.

The technical approach utilized these partnerships to maximize the efficiency of its response and start an intervention within 72 hours of a disaster declaration by the USG. Once a shock occurred, CRS and its partners analysed assessment and secondary data, to determine if sectoral responses under the rapid response fund mechanism have been triggered; if so, CRS would submit a request for funding to BHA Agreement Officer Representative for approval.

The project emphasizes the use of its local partner network in order to deepen the potential for sustainability and transition. To ensure local partner appropriately response to emergencies, the projects commit resource to build the existing institutional capacity of these local- partners in the areas of potential intervention through a variety of tailored capacity strengthening activities (Training and personalized capacity building support). These local partners underwent emergency capacity self-assessment using CRS emergency response capacity assessment tool to better understand the strengthen and weakness and developed a capacity strengthen plan.

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3. lObjectives of the evaluation

In line with CRS and the USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) requirements, a final evaluation for the RRF project will be conducted. This evaluation will be summative and learning will focus on the efficacy and effectiveness of using a Regional Rapid Response Fund of this nature.

Evaluation objectives:

• Evaluate the efficiency of the Regional Response Fund
• Evaluate the relevance of the project sectors/sub-sectors and awarded responses
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the Regional Response Fund
• Provide recommendations for future projects of this nature

Evaluation Questions:

Efficiency

• To what extent and how did the ready availability of funds via the RRF support rapid startup of activities?
• Were there bottlenecks that affected the rapidity of the response and how can they be mitigated in future RRF projects? (Consider all steps of the response cycle)

Relevance

• Were the sectors selected for this RRF appropriate to achieve desired program outcome of addressing priority needs of affected populations?
• Were the triggers selected appropriate for the RRF?

Effectiveness

• To what extent did the project achieve the intended outputs, outcomes and impact?
• Did the RRF provide an effective bridge to longer term support to the affected populations?
• How effective was the RRF in building capacity of local implementing partners in leading the design and implementation of rapid emergency responses?
• What aspects of MEAL systems were effective/not effective for rapid response projects?

4. Evaluation methodology

The evaluation will be conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods.  Qualitative methods may include include focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews, and/or workshop with beneficiaries, partners, staff, government and other stakeholders. Qualitative methods include an anlysis of the partner self-assessed capacity, comparing the endline to the baseline.  The consultant may propose other quantitative methods.

5. Deliverables

The consultant is expected to:

• Prepare a methodological proposal/plan that links the evaluation questions to the data collection tools and includes a timeline (must be reviewed and approved by CRS)
• Develop the quantiative/qualitative tools (except for the partner self-assessment) (must be reviewed and approved by CRS)
• Conduct a review of existing documentation (Both East & Centeral Africa and West AFrica RRF)
• Collect, compile, clean, and analyze primary data. The consultant should submit a codebook (or code tree for qualitative data analysis) and all other data and analyses to CRS. The consultant should specify the software to use in the methodology proposal to be submitted to CRS for approval.
• Write two final reports in English: one for West Africa and one for East Africa ( East and Centeral africa- Award # 720FDA20CA00054 and West Africa –Award # 720FDA20GR00333) (max 30 pages), including the following sections: 2-page executive summary; introduction; methodology (including limitations); Results organized by evaluation question (with visualization of text and data to maximize understanding); recommendations ; conclusions
• Combine the two reports into one shorter synthesized report (max 12 pages), which highlights the results, lessons learned and recommendations from both reports. This report should be written in English and translated to French.
• Give two virtual presentations (one in French and one in English) to present the findings

The consultant must submit all deliverables, including a draft of the final evaluation narrative for review and approval by the CRS RRF Coordinator and Regional Technical Advisors prior to finalization.

6. Timeline

CRS proposes the following timeline:

7. Profile

The evaluator should have the following qualifications:

• previous experience conducting project evaluations and knowledge of quantitative and qualitative methodologies of research;
• a strong understanding of the early phase of humanitarian response operations and the sectors covered by this project (Shelter & Settlements, WASH, MPCA and Logistics);
• knowledge of and preferably experience in the countries covered by the project;
• and the capacity to undertake interviews/focus group discussions, analyse data and write the report in both French and English.

8. Application

Consults should submit the following documents in PDF format:

1. Methodological proposal (up to 5 pages)
2. Financial proposal
3. CVs
4. Two examples of previous evaluations

9. EVALUATION OF THE CONSULTANT
   • Evaluation criteria and methodology

The consultant will be selected using the quality and cost-based selection and the evaluation will be conducted against the following criteria:

• Administrative Evaluation

1. The consultant should be legally operating as consultant/firm
2. VAT and/or Tax clearance certificates
3. Bid validity period
   • Technical Evaluation

N.B:

• The minimum technical score for the consultant to pass the technical stage is 70%.
• The consultant should provide a brief description of why he/she consider him/herself as the most suitable for this assignment.
• The consultant to provide a detailed and clear methodology on how he will approach and complete this assignment.
• Individual profile indicating Education/professional qualifications, relevant experience, contact details and 3 recent professional references.

• Financial evaluation

The financial score for each consultant/firm will be calculated using the following formula: the financial weight is 30%.

Financial score (FS) = (LF x 100)/ Fi

LF = The lowest financial proposal.

Fi = The proposal to be evaluated.

The winning consultant/firm will be determined by combining the technical score and financial score as per the following formula:

Final score (S): (TS x Tw%) + (FSxFw%) where:

S= Final score

TS = Technical score

FS = Financial score

Tw = % Weight of technical score (70%)

Fw = % Weight of financial score (30%)

• Other considerations

• Data Rights Clause

Who owns the data?

CRS will own all data generated during the evaluation.

Who keeps the data?

 Evaluators should expect to turn over all data collected to CRS. 

Who can use the data?

Data may not be used for any purpose other than the evaluation, except with the express written permission of CRS.

• Ethical considerations

According to CRS ethical standards, the consultant must obtain written permission from the Department of the Interior before beginning the field survey. All interviewees will also be assured that they will voluntarily participate or withdraw from the study and that all their responses will be treated as confidential. In addition, the selected consultant will be required to demonstrate how they will address other ethical considerations regarding interviews with children.

• Accountable and Open Data

For this study, data must be collected in a manner that protects the privacy and rights of constituents and is consistent with the values and principles of CRS Responsible data and international and local regulations. For all study participants, informed consent will be obtained prior to data collection, as well as oral consent/consent for those who cannot read.

Refugees and displaced populations are considered vulnerable populations for the studies and therefore all team members involved in data collection and analysis should have additional training in ethics on children and/or vulnerable populations. 

Prior to data transfer and analysis, data will be de-identified. Unique identification numbers will be used on all questionnaires to enable the production of de-identified data sets. When presenting the results of the research, special care will be taken to ensure that the information presented is sufficiently aggregated so that no individual can be identified.

The consultant will be expected to produce complete and de-identified data sets.

With regard to the risk that participation may cause discomfort in answering certain questions, field supervisors and enumerators should remind participants that they have the right to end the interview at any time and for any reason, especially if it is uncomfortable for them.  Field supervisors and enumerators should be trained to minimize any potential discomfort or harm to all subjects during all study activities. Training should emphasize skills related to respectful and non-judgmental treatment of participants.

10. Application process

Interested or individual consultants are encouraged to send their applications to rwandabids@crs.org  no later than Friday, June 14, 2023, at 9:00am Kigali time. The title of the email must include: “East and Central Africa Rapid Response Fund & West Africa Rapid Response Fund Final Evaluation’’ and the application document should include the proposal as one (1) document in PDF format with. A late submission will not be considered.

Done at Kigali, May 31, 2023

Jude Marie Banatte

Country Representative