Request for Applications for Conducting an External Evaluation

Near East Foundation, Iraq

Request for Applications for Conducting an External Evaluation

About

The Near East Foundation (NEF) is a non-profit international development organization that has supported livelihoods recovery and community-based economic development in the Middle East, Africa, and Caucasus since 1915. NEF draws on local teams, experience, and partnerships in these regions to create community-led solutions to improve livelihoods and local governance among conflict and crisis-affected groups, while maintaining neutrality and ensuring inclusiveness in our approach. Working through a network of country offices and local partners, NEF has operations in ten countries: Armenia, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Mali, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, South Sudan, and Syria. Our programs are organized around three pillars: Inclusive Economic Development, Climate-resilient Development, and Stabilization and Peacebuilding.

Purpose

The evaluation aims to critically examine project performance. The evaluation will engage project stakeholders to obtain the most objective information possible to evaluate the performance of the project and determine whether it was successful in meeting the stated objectives. The assessment—based on participant observation and participatory processes—will also capture unanticipated and ancillary results, in addition to documenting lessons learned for broader dissemination. It will provide a framework for “double-loop” learning by allowing NEF to improve the implementation of future planned activities and to refocus activities based on knowledge of these lessons learned. Through this evaluation, the assessment team will analyze the extent to which NEF meets its stated goals and objectives and will compare the results to the baseline data and targets. The evaluation will answer questions related to the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of the project so lessons can be learned to improve actions, planning, and decision-making.

Background Information

Project: NEF - Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Livestock ‎Value Chain‎ (WEEL), funded by GIZ under Restoration of Peace, Livelihoods, and Economic Cycles in ‎Anbar (RePLICA).

Duration: 14 months project, from December 2022 to January 2023

Geographical focus: Three target districts - Heet, Ramadi, and Fallujah – in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq.

Project approach: Siraj model of community-based business hubs, comprising an organizational toolkit and eight integrated services

Target beneficiaries: Women engaged in the small ruminants value chain and their households

Key results: Women start or expand self-employed income-generating activities: increase in income, increase in business revenue, entrepreneurial skills development.

WEEL‎ is a 14-month project funded by GIZ to equip and roll out structured agribusiness support services in three locations ‎covering three ‎districts – Heet, Ramadi, and Fallujah – in Al Anbar ‎Governorate, Iraq, with the objective to ‎advance women’s economic ‎empowerment in the small ruminant value chain.‎Master Trainers and Coaches deliver the services, including market ‎assessments, outreach, selection of participants, and structured training for soft skills and ‎agribusiness strengthening for 900 participants. NEF then offers tailored coaching, mentorship, ‎and resources to further support participants who have finalized agribusiness plans. They also ‎receive targeted debt financing through NEF’s Siraj Finance revolving funds model, targeted ‎concessional micro-grants, and advanced support using Siraj agribusiness acceleration involving ‎extension services, product value addition, public-private led services, and access to climate-smart ‎technology. ‎

Theory of Change

The project envisages that:

• If a conducive agribusiness development support ‎environment reduces business risks, ‎increases access to capital and networks, and provides access ‎to high-quality, targeted ‎services for women engaged in the small ruminant value chain‎.
• Then ‎market-oriented women-led agribusinesses will grow, deliver higher and more stable income, ‎and ‎create jobs‎.

Outputs and Expected Outcomes

See the project indicator table (Annex 1).  Download file here:  ANNEX 1

Evaluation Questions

NEF will evaluate the extent to which the project achieved the objectives. This project has an inherent limitation of being implemented within 14 months, with loans and grants disbursement disbursed in the last quarter of the project. It is therefore important for this evaluation to capture the expected results.

The evaluative questions will be aligned with the OECD/DAC Evaluation Criteria. While all six criteria provide useful frameworks around which a project evaluation can be constructed, NEF will base the evaluation around the following criteria and questions:

Relevance: the extent to which the project objectives and design respond to targeted participants needs.

• Question 1: Was the intervention appropriate and effective for the targeted beneficiaries and communities based on their needs?

Effectiveness: the extent to which the project achieved, or is expected to achieve, its objectives, and its results, including any differential results across groups.

• Question 2: To what extent were the objectives achieved and are likely to be achieved?
• Question 3: What were the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the objectives?

Impact:  the extent to which the project has generated or is expected to generate significant positive or negative, intended or unintended, higher-level effects.

• Question 4: What changes – expected and unexpected, positive and negative – were experienced by the targeted beneficiaries and stakeholders and were these changes felt equally across target groups?
• Question 5: How did the intervention cause higher-level effects (such as changes in norms or systems)?

Sustainability: the extent to which the net benefits of the intervention continue or are likely to continue.

• Question 6: To what extent are the benefits of the project likely to continue after funding ends?
• Question 7: What are the primary factors contributing to and undermining the prospects for sustainable results?

Efficiency:  the extent to which the project delivered, or is likely to deliver, results in an economic and timely way.

• Question 8: How well were resources used?

The evaluation will supplement the key themes outlined above with an analysis of the following:

Learning: What aspects of the project worked well? Which aspects of the project could be improved upon? Why?

Proof of concept: Did foundational assumptions underpinning program design hold true? If yes, did they follow the anticipated logical progression as captured in the theory of change? If not, why was this?

Replication and multiplication of project outcomes: Does the project design lend itself to scale-up? How can the team capitalize upon successes achieved moving forward? Is the model applicable to other regions in Iraq?

Evaluation Methods

The evaluation will use a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. It will be participatory, and utilize qualitative methods (i.e., interviews, focus groups) to engage direct beneficiaries and government stakeholders. Data sources will include project documentation and secondary data, project baseline and endline surveys, project records and reports, field observations, focus groups discussions, and key informant interviews.

Anticipated Level of Effort: Up to 15 days.

Evaluation Timeline & Deliverables

The evaluation will be implemented at the end of the project and finalized by the time of submission of the project’s final report.

Evaluation Launch: 1 December 2023

Evaluation Draft: 15 January 2024

• NEF will provide a template with required sections and a Table of Content.
• NEF will review and provide feedback within one week of the submission of draft report.

Final report: 31 January 2024

• The final report should address all comments & feedback from NEF.

Evaluation Findings Dissemination

The final product, as well as an abbreviated synopsis of the evaluation findings, will be published on the NEF website for public consumption. Additionally, the findings will be shared directly with GIZ. The NEF team has relationships with the local stakeholders and NGOs, which will allow for the sharing of evaluation findings and exchange of lessons learned to improve future programming.

Selection Criteria

• Expertise in gender sensitive, external evaluations, experience in the analysis of change and learning processes. 30 marks.
• Expertise in evaluating projects of similar scope and nature. Consultant should provide a list of evaluated projects. NEF will reach out to a selected few for reference checks. 60 marks.
• Knowledge of women enterprises in the agricultural sector, such as women-owned micro household level small ruminant production businesses. 10 marks.

Application

Please apply by submitting the following information in the English language no later than November 19, 2023.  Interested applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis; NEF reserves the right of conducting interviews before the closing date and can close the advertisement earlier in case of finding a suitable candidate.

1. A cover letter;
2. A CV;
3. A brief technical and financial proposal.

Kindly note only finalists will be contacted.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Near East Foundation and its affiliates by visiting the NEF website (www.neareast.org).