Mid-term Evaluation for the Gender and Generational Empowerment project in Tanzania.

Transcription

1 Mid-term Evaluation for the Gender and Generational Empowerment project in Tanzania. Twin is a non-profit organization which owns a trading company. This structure allows us to combine trade, marketing, program and advocacy to build market systems that create better livelihoods for farming groups growing coffee, cocoa and nuts. In order to implement the Gender and Generational Empowerment program in Tanzania, Twin partnered with Hivos, an international development organization which aims to contribute to a free, fair and sustainable world in which all its citizens (women and men) have equal access to resources and opportunities for development and can participate actively and equally in decision making processes that determine their lives, society and future. The project beneficiaries are smallholder farmers who are registered members of Vuasu Cooperative Union (VCU) in Same and Mwanga districts, Tanzania. 1. Project Background Most farmer organisations in Tanzania, face a series of interrelated challenges. Climate change exacerbating the impact of intensive agricultural practices, aging trees and poorly maintained fields contribute to low productivity. They lack the capacity to invest in coffee processing and marketing and as such return less value to farmers than the market potentially offers. Young people are discouraged from cultivating coffee due to low prices. Women farmers, who play a crucial role in ensuring coffee volumes and quality, have traditionally been excluded from ownership of assets, active involvement in farmer organisations as well as from opportunities for training and economic and social development. All of these factors contribute to a weak smallholder coffee sector, which lacks the dynamism to offer a viable way of life to coffee farming families. In October 2013, Hivos begun working with five out of the 16 cooperatives belonging to VCU, under the Coffee Partnership for Tanzania (CPT). The project s goal was to promote gender and generational equality and women s empowerment, strengthen farmer business skills and improve agricultural and coffee processing practices through a series of trainings primarily using the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) tools. Within 6 months, the 20 farmer champions (including women and youth) who were trained in GALS tools reached and trained a further 1500 farmers despite minimal financial support. The five cooperatives experienced increased coffee deliveries by 9% and income increased by 12% in the 2013/4 coffee season. The CPT project also registered in an increase coffee production as a means to attain goals, such as increasing savings, educating their children and diversifying income generating activities for the 1,500 farmers trained in GALS. Agricultural and domestic work is more equally shared in these households; families decide jointly on the use of coffee income, and more than 200 men and women are planning joint land agreements. At the PO level the five primary societies and the union were assisted to develop a gender balanced vision, and identify characteristics of good membership and leadership. At least three of the original champions have been elected to leadership positions. 1

2 During the course of this work Hivos and VCU identified additional areas of work needed to meet the challenges of the coffee market, mainly relating to increasing coffee productivity and quality. Hivos approached Twin to develop a joint approach to address those challenges, in particular on business strengthening, coffee quality and marketing. Consultation with VCU board and staff shows that the PO s business model is still fragile with minor losses made over the last 2 years, making it difficult for VCU to access working capital in order to boost its trading volume. It is upon this backdrop that the Gender and Generational Empowerment program was designed and is being implemented by Twin and Comic Relief. Project Name Project Aim Project Outcomes Project Targets 2. Project Summary Gender and Generational Empowerment. To build Vuasu Cooperative Union s capacity and foster the active involvement and participation of young people and women in the coffee sector. 1. More equal division of labour, and participation in planning and decision making, between men, women and young farmers. 2. VCU s members, including women and youth, increase coffee productivity and quality and adopt GAP. 3. Governance and business performance of VCU is strengthened, leading to greater robustness and member loyalty. 4. Coffee income increases by accessing higher value markets, through improved quality, certification and marketing support. Increase in female and youth membership and participation in VCU 20% increase in productivity for smallholder farmers attending Farmer Field School and reduce barrier for adoption of GAP Proportion of farmers coffee sold to the union increases to 60% Export 6 containers of Arabica coffee to at least 3 new international speciality coffee buyers. 20% increase in coffee income for smallholder farmers and increase farmers resilience to market volatility January 2016 December 2020 Project Period Beneficiaries Vuasu Cooperative Union which is made up of 19 AMCOs and 3,317 smallholder farmers. (17% are female) Key Twin, Hivos East Africa, Tanzania Coffee Board, Same and Mwanga Stakeholders district officials 3. Purpose of Evaluation The project begun in January 2016 and is currently in its third year of implementation. The overall objective of the mid-term project evaluation is to assess the extent to which the project is moving towards achieving the objectives set out at inception stage, assess the project s effectiveness. This evaluation is scheduled to start in October

3 4. Scope of the evaluation This evaluation will be conducted in accordance with the OCED/DAC guidelines and will be required to answer the following questions: Relevance: Are the project interventions aligned with Vuasu and its members needs- the needs of women, young women, men and young men? To what extent does the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) methodology result in better performance of producer organisations? Is this project consistent and complementary to activities supported by the government and other actors in the coffee sector? Effectiveness: To what extent are the project interventions improving social, environmental and business performance of VCU? What are the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the project outcomes? Efficiency: Is the project being managed/ implemented efficiently? To what extent will the project achieve its objectives in the given timeline? Impact: To what extent have the objectives of the project been achieved, and what unintended results have been achieved to date. Identify intended and unintended, positive and negative outcomes of the project? To what extent can identified changes be attributed to the project? What would have occurred without the project? To what extent has active participation of youth and women in the union/ AMCOs contributed towards addressing youth and gender inequalities? Sustainability: What benefits/ project initiatives are likely to be sustainable? What mechanisms have been put in place to ensure sustainability? Are there additional mechanisms which should be implemented to foster sustainability? 5. Methodology Twin seeks a most robust gender responsive participatory evaluation design and methodological approach that is appropriate for the scope of the project, resources, and audience. The consultant is expected to use scientific and technically sound methods of collection and analysis data. A mixed methods approach is preferred in this evaluation to appropriately assess the processes and the outcomes of interventions. The consultant will treat the evaluation questions as a hypothesis and use scientific methods to verify them. 3

4 The evaluation team is required to justify the evaluation approach they intend to use in the technical proposal as well as give details on the sampling methodology that will be used. They will also be expected to conduct field visits to a sample of Vuasu s primary societies in Tanzania. These include (but are not limited to), Tanzania coffee board, Same and Mwanga district officials, Mambo coffee and the Tanzania Coffee board. The evaluation team should also provide a minimum of 3 case studies showcasing both project successes and conveying lessons learned. 6. Expected Deliverables The required outputs of this consultancy will be as follows: a. An inception report for the evaluation (maximum 15 pages excluding annexes) outlining the approach/methodology and work plan. This report shall be submitted for review and approval by Twin within (two weeks) after the signing the contract before commencement of the work. The detailed inception report should comprehensively demonstrate the technical approach (and data collection tools in the annex) that will effectively and efficiently address the evaluation questions within the consultancy timeframe. b. 1st draft evaluation report and a Revised 2 nd evaluation report presented a week after receipt of comments. The consultant will be required to make a presentation of the 2 nd evaluation report to the steering committee, selected staff and stakeholders) in person in Same, Tanzania. c. A final draft evaluation report incorporating comments from the steering committee. The evaluation report shall be written in English, be of no more than 35 pages in length (excluding annexes), the report should consist of a concise executive summary of no more than 3 pages of the report (including the summary evaluation scores for each of the 5 criteria as mentioned in the methodology section). The report should use numbered paragraphs. Structured sections in the report will include a brief of the evaluation process, methodology and approach; findings, recommendations on; 1) relevance, 2) effectiveness, 3) efficiency, 4) impact 5) Sustainability 6) challenges, 7) lessons learnt and 8) recommendations and conclusion. Annexes will include 3 cases studies; and other detailed information collected during field visits (focus discussion reports, summaries of interview sheets, summaries of responses to questionnaires), also list of projects reviewed, Stakeholders interviewed, the evaluation matrix etc. d. Full set of data collected- Sex, Age, and Disaggregated Data (both raw and cleaned). e. Any field photographs of the project sites and primary beneficiaries-both women and men (including selected stakeholder meetings) and any audio recordings of the interviews. 4

5 7. Schedule of Deliverables Proposed Timeline Deliverables Contract signed 10 working days after signing the contract Inception report No later than 25 working days after receipt of Steering Committee comments on the inception report 5 working days after receipt of Steering Committee comments on the 1 st draft evaluation report 5 working days after receipt of Steering Committee comments on the 2 nd draft evaluation report First draft project evaluation report Second draft project evaluation report Revised 2 nd draft of project evaluation report 5 working days after receipt of Steering Committee comments on the 3 rd draft evaluation report Final project evaluation reports It is expected that the final Evaluation report incorporating all stakeholder s comments should be submitted no later than January 30 th, Required Expertise The evaluation team composition needs to have an appropriate balance of expertise in evaluation methodologies, relevant technical expertise and practical experience. The Evaluation team should combine the following expertise and experience: The Evaluation team leader is expected to be an evaluation professional with at least 10 years of experience leading and managing evaluation assignments of similar nature in developing countries. The evaluation team should have a minimum of two experts (an evaluation expert and a technical expert in the agricultural sector. At least one member of the team should have strong experience in monitoring and evaluation of programs associated with trade, agriculture, and coffee value chains in developing countries. Education qualification of at least a Master s Degree (Team Leader) and Bachelor s Degree(Team members) in Development Studies, Economics, business development, or relevant Social Sciences; Experience of designing and undertaking evaluations of multi-component development programs, using mixed methods approaches that meet recognized standards for credibility and rigor; Demonstrated experience of using evaluations as a tool for lesson-learning both during program implementation and beyond; 5

6 Demonstrated experience in working on similar assignments involving public, private sector development and market systems; Strong stakeholders management skills and ability to work flexibly with donors, partners, private sector entities; as well as demonstrated ability to manage sensitive relationships tactfully and productively; Working knowledge of gender analysis. Knowledge of Swahili is required. 9. The technical bid/proposal The consultant should produce a high quality technical proposal for conducting summative evaluation based on this Terms of Reference and accompanying project documents in the annex. The proposal should include: A high-level plan for the evaluation, including: 1) Proposed methodology including sampling methodology 2) High-level work plan including key milestones 3) Allocation of Human resources (including time allocation) to the schedule of deliverables 4) Financial proposal should include all associated costs to the evaluation and should not exceed 10,000GBP. At least three examples of final reports from similar assignments A minimum of three references from recent clients- similar assignments (contact details only) CVs (with referees) of the entire proposed evaluation team Any other applicable supporting documents 10. How to apply Interested consultancy firms or independent consultant(s) can apply. The application should be accompanied by: Technical proposal not exceeding 5 pages including a summarized firm profile, CVs of the lead and associate consultants in the annex. Financial proposal should be submitted as a separate document from the technical proposal. Applications should be submitted to Jobs.Kigali@twin.org.uk by the 9 th October, Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. 6

7 Annex 1: Evaluation criteria Criteria Points A. Qualification and Competence of Consultants 1 Professional experience/expertise of the firm in relevant technical field 10 2 Qualification of the consultants 5 3 Evidence of meeting specific requirements in the TOR 10 B. Technical Approach 1. Adequacy of understanding of and own interpretation of assignment objectives 2 Gender inclusivity. This is in the full continuum of the proposal review including both implicit and explicit references, the way the consultants articulate themselves. It should also be visible in the analysis, data tools and proposed data presentation (if any). It should also be reflected in the qualification of the staff 3 Adequacy and gender responsiveness of proposed methodology to address the objectives of the assignment (data collection- sex and age disaggregated data, data triangulation sampling, analysis, validation) 4 Adequacy of the proposed work plan of the assignment (logic, sequencing, interrelation of activities and realistic work plan) C. Financial Proposal 1. Financial proposal 15 Total 90 7

8 Annex 2: Results Framework Outcomes Indicators Definition More equal division of labour, and participation in planning and decision making, between men, women and young farmers. Percentage change in female and youth VCU members Percentage change in female & youth representation on the AMCO & VCU boards. Involvement of women and youth in decision-making at households, primary society and at the Union Members of VCU who are female Members of VCU who are youth (15-35yrs old) Female representation on AMCO & VCU boards Youth representation on AMCO & VCU boards This qualitative indicator aims to understand the level of engagement women and youth have at the Union, primary society and at household levels. Is the involvement at actually meaningful or are they there just to fulfil statutory requirements? VCU s members, including women and youth, increase coffee productivity and quality and adopt GAP Distribution of labor between men and women with households Number of farmers attending farmer field school who have experienced at least 20% increase in productivity. Number of farmers adopting GAP taught in Farmer Field Schools This is a qualitative indicator which seeks to understand the extent to which household and agricultural tasks are shared between women and men in households. Of the farmers attending farmer field school, how many are actually experiencing any changes in productivity. Farmers who are adopting the methods being taught by field officers in farmer field school. Adoption goes beyond trying a new method and we ve limited the sample to those attending field school because the field officers will be able to monitor the farmer field school. 8

9 Outcomes Indicators Definition Coffee Quality Scores. Buyers rate coffee quality is graded according to how it cups using the SCAA scale. Coffee scores range from however only coffee which scores above 80 points is considered specialty coffee. Our target is to get a score >82 points. Governance and business performance of VCU is strengthened, leading to greater robustness and member loyalty. Coffee income increases by accessing higher value markets, through improved Barriers to adoption of Good Agricultural Practices taught by field officers Farmer assessment of the extension service provided by the field officers VCU score on Twin s Development Framework Proportion of farmers production delivered to POs (Loyalty) Percentage of members who reregistered with VCU VCU developed and implemented their business plan Coffee income generated by farmers (disaggregated by youth, male and female) Volumes of coffee exported We want to understand if the smallholder farmers are experiencing any barriers to adoption of GAP taught by field officers. This is a qualitative indicator that will gather farmers feedback about the extension service delivered by the field officers. Farmers will be asked about the mode, timeliness and frequency of the trainings delivered. The score VCU gets on Twin's Development Framework The quantity of coffee which is sold to the VUASU versus the production capacity of the farmers who are members of the Union Measures the number of former members who re-register with the Union This a qualitative indicator that will assess the extent to which VCU implements the business plan developed with Twin. Has the Union taken ownership of the plan and are they putting necessary measures in place to facilitate the implementation of the business plan? Coffee income generated by members of VCU disaggregated by gender and youth The quantity of coffee which is currently being sold to the export market 9

10 Outcomes Indicators Definition quality, certification and marketing support Improved gender and youth responsiveness in service delivery by government institutions, civil society, private sector and development partners in the coffee value chain in Same and Mwanga districts Number of specialty buyers VCU profile with buyers Farmer s resilience to market volatility. No. of MOUs drafted in support of creating/enhancing gender responsiveness No. of policies at the district level which have been amended/improved based on evidence presented by the program in support of gender responsiveness in the coffee sector The degree of gender and youth responsiveness in service delivery by government institutions and civil society in Same and Mwanga districts The number of specialty coffee buyers doing business with VCU This is a qualitative indicators that requires buyers' to rate VCU's coffee in terms of quality and evaluate the extent to which contracts have been fulfilled in addition to their engagement with buyers. This is a qualitative indicator which assesses the extent to which farmers exposure to external shocks is reduced during the project lifetime. The number of MOUs signed with government or other development partners targeting the increased involvement of young people and women in initiatives targeting the coffee sector The number of policies at the district administrative offices which are amendedd/amended in support of increased gender responsiveness in the coffee sector. This a qualitative indicator which will assess the extent to which government institutions and civil society respond to the needs of women and youth in the coffee sector. 10