RE-ADVERTISED – PROJECT MID TERM EVALUATION

Terms of Reference

EVALUATION OF OUTCOMES ACHIEVED THROUGH INTEGRATED HIV/AIDS AND TB PREVENTION, CARE, AND TREATMENT PROGRAMS IN ZAMBIA

Evaluation Summary

USAID Action HIV Contract Number: 72061121C00006
Program Phase: June 2021 to June 2026

Evaluation Purpose

To assess the program’s progress, effectiveness, and provide recommendations for improvement and scale-up.

Evaluation Type: Mid-Term Evaluation
Primary Methodologies: Retrospective observation study

Secondary analysis of routinely collected project data.

Quantitative & Qualitative
Commissioning Organization: Right to Care Zambia
Proposed Evaluation Start: 02nd July 2024
Anticipated Evaluation End: 20th August 2024
Anticipated Evaluation Report Release Date: 9th September 2024

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

USAID Action HIV is providing Direct Service Delivery (DSD) to the Ministry of Health in Luapula, Muchinga and Northern provinces of Zambia under contract Number: 72061121C00006.  The five-year programme begun in June 2021 and is scheduled to conclude in June 2026.

USAID Action HIV Project Goals and Objectives

The goal of the USAID Action HIV project is to support the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) to achieve and maintain HIV epidemic control through the provision of biomedical prevention package of care to those at risk, early identification of new infections, early initiation of highly efficacious treatment regimens, and retaining those on treatment in care. The purpose is to reduce HIV mortality, morbidity, and transmission by achieving the UNAIDS and PEPFAR goal of 95/95/95 HIV treatment coverage and providing comprehensive HIV prevention, care, and treatment maintenance services in Luapula, Muchinga and Northern provinces. Project

Objectives are the following:

• Ensure access to comprehensive HIV prevention interventions.
• Initiate 95 percent of those who tested positive on ART.
• Ensure that 95 percent of those on ART are virally suppressed.
• Reach 90 percent of eligible HIV positive adults and children with NACS and integrated voluntary family planning services in 95% of HIV service delivery points.
• Provide cervical cancer screening services for WLHIV at HIV service delivery locations.
• Provide tuberculosis preventive treatment.
• Strengthen M&E capacity at the facility, district, and provincial levels for improved program management.
• Strengthen facility level commodity management to mitigate the risk of stock outs.
• Strengthen the public financial management systems of the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance to enable the efficient use of direct G2G funds from USAID.

THE SCOPE OF THE EVALUATION

The mid-term evaluation will assess the program’s progress, effectiveness over the first 2.5 years of implementation, and provide recommendations for improvement and scale-up.

PURPOSE, OBJECTIVE, SCOPE, AND INTENDED USE OF THE EVALUATION

1. Assess program progress: Evaluate achievements and challenges against goals and objectives.

2. Improve program effectiveness: Identify and recommend improvements to enhance impact.

3.Inform decision-making: Provide evidence to guide program development and resource allocation.

4. Enhance accountability: Demonstrate program accountability to stakeholders, including funders, governments, and communities.

5. Identify best practices: Document successful strategies and approaches for replication and scale-up and conversely document strategies or interventions that did not produce the desired outcomes and should therefore not be repeated.

6. Address emerging issues: Analyse new challenges and opportunities related to HIV trends, treatments, or policies to inform program adaptation.

7. Strengthen program management: Refine program implementation, monitoring, and evaluation processes.

8. Ensure alignment with national and global goals: Assess program alignment with national and global HIV strategies and targets.

9. Provide a midterm corrective action: Identify areas that require adjustments or changes in the program implementation to get back on track.

10. Prepare for future evaluations: Inform the design and planning of future evaluations, including the final evaluation.

Therefore, the scope of work will include the following:

1. Review program documents, reports, and data.

2. Conduct interviews with program staff, stakeholders, and beneficiaries.

3. Analyse data and results to date

4. Assess program progress against goals and objectives.

5. Identify successes, challenges, and areas for improvement.

6. Provide recommendations for program improvement and scale-up.

EVALUATION CRITERIA AND KEY LEARNING QUESTIONS

Re-AIM (Reach, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance) will be used to assess the effectiveness of USAID Action HIV interventions and the overall program implementation process. This framework is well suited for evaluating public health, behavioural science, and implementation outcomes across clinical, community, and corporates contexts. The evaluation will focus on program reach, adoption, implementation, and maintenance to understand how effective the program is being delivered to the target population with the purpose to reduce HIV mortality, morbidity, and transmission by achieving the UNAIDS and PEPFAR goal of 95/95/95 HIV treatment coverage and providing comprehensive HIV prevention, care, and treatment.

The following evaluation questions will guide the assessment:

Program performance.

How did the project perform towards meeting its set targets?
To what extent have planned activities and outcomes been achieved?
Implementation fidelity and adaptation

Was the project implemented as initially proposed?
What factors facilitated or hindered the reported achievements?
What other activities might be more effective?
How were adaptations or continuous improvement strategies implemented?
Resource Utilization

Were resources (human, financial, and time) allocated strategically, and used efficiently to achieve the reported outcomes?

Stakeholder Engagement

What was the level of stakeholder involvement in the project implementation, and how did this contribute to the project’s successes or challenges?

Inclusion criteria: Indicators found within routine summary reports generated by services provided at health facilities, districts, or health directorates supported by USAID Action HIV.

Exclusion criteria: None.

METHODOLOGY

This is a mixed method design that includes desktop review, secondary analysis of routinely collected patient-level clinical, laboratory, facility, community, and program data and qualitative data (Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews etc). The Evaluator is expected to align with and adhere to the USAID Evaluation Policy.

AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILITY

The Consultant’s roles and responsibility as evaluator

• Prepare and submit to RTCZ the evaluation proposal and the inception report including
  methodology to be used, work plans and schedules for both quantitative and qualitative aspect of the assignment for review and feedback and approval by RTCZ.
• Develop a work plan and deliverable schedule as per outlined scope of work.
• Desk review of relevant programme, project documents, internal system, and reports such as proposals, assessments, project budgets, monitoring and assessment reports, publication etc.
• Identify stakeholders for the mid-term evaluation.
• Establish working contacts with all the relevant stakeholders.
• Undertake the evaluation upon acceptance of the inception report.
• Present findings to USAID Action HIV stakeholders
• Submit near-final draft evaluation final report and slide deck.
• Finalize and submit the mid-term evaluation report.
• Compile and submit all data.

RTCZ Responsibilities

• Brief stakeholders about the purpose of the evaluation
• Briefing of the evaluator and approve the study tools and methodology.
• Provide all the necessary support to the consultant to ensure timely completion and compliance with the international survey standards.
• Avail all the required facilitation and coordination.
• Assist in organizing meetings with stakeholders.
• Prepare and effect payment for the consultant upon completion of key milestones of the assignment.

Logistics

Project Coordinator in close coordination with stakeholders will be required to support the consultants as much as possible to secure logistics preparation needed throughout the whole process of the evaluation.

Note that the consultant’s logistics costs should be included in the financial proposal (ie. Fuel, accommodation, etc.).

BUDGET

The consultant will develop a work plan and detailed budget based on the details of the submitted evaluation proposal and above terms of reference

TIME PLAN AND DELIVERABLES

The evaluation is supposed to be carried out within a period of 50 working days. Below we provide the main deliverables of this evaluation:

Deliverable/Date

Inception report Submitted & Presented
12th July 2024 (Day 10)

Draft Evaluation report
30th July 2024 (Day 35)

Stakeholder Workshop
16th August 2024 (Day 45)

Final evaluation report
20th August 2024 (Day 50)

BRIEFING AND DEBRIEFING WITH RTCZ CONSORTIUM AND STAKEHOLDERS

Before and at the end of the field phase, a Briefing and Debriefing, involving Project Management Team, Consortium and USAID will take place. Preliminary findings will be shared in the form of a presentation or similar.

DRAFT AND FINAL EVALUATION REPORT

The draft and final evaluation reports should include the following sections:

• Executive summary – Summary of the evaluation, with emphasis on main findings, conclusions, lessons learned and recommendations.
• Project introduction/background including logic model and/or theories of change including brief description of the project, and its purpose, logic, history, organization, and stakeholders.
• Evaluation purpose, including evaluation framework/learning questions.
• Evaluation approach and methodology, including limitations.
• Findings, organized in a clear and logical fashion that corresponds to the evaluation questions, assessment criteria, and overall project.
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• Lessons learned.
• 3-5-page evaluation summary for sharing with internal and external stakeholders.
• Case studies, vignettes, infographics and/or stories, some of which sharable with external audiences
• PowerPoint Slide deck

CALL FOR MID-TERM EVALUTION CONSULTANT

Seeking qualified individual or teams to submit proposal for conducting this mid-term evaluation.  To be considered, candidates must demonstrate the following minimum qualifications and experience:

• Proven experience in conduction evaluations of similar nature
• Key personnel need to have master’s or doctoral degree in the health sciences, social sciences, health systems research, or a related field.
• Extensive knowledge of PEPFAR and USAID programming and reporting requirements
• More than 8 years in the field of program/project planning, program evaluation and management, health information system (HIS) strengthening, public health and/or capacity building of government entities within the field of public health and development.
• Strong analytical and report-writing skills
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Familiarity with HIV programming and policies in Experience in conducting of project/program evaluations/reviews.
• Excellent knowledge of the health sector in Zambia, particularly HIV and/or infectious disease
• Demonstrable ability to work across multiple countries and multi-cultural sensitivity.
• Strong and proven capacity in both quantitative and qualitative methods
• Ability to mine and analyse disparate data.
• Strong skills in stakeholder engagement and consensus building
• Computer proficiency – Microsoft office suite applications
• Availability from 1st July 2024 to 20th August 2024.

APPLICATION PROCEEDURE

Qualifying consultants/firms should submit their (i) Technical Proposal (page limit: 10 pages including appendixes and (ii) Budget page limit: 5 pages including appendixes) with (iii) cover letter provide with at least three written references for similar work and all necessary firm/company profile and certifications (in Zipped folder), by 10th June 2024 COB (17.00hrs Zambian time) to the following email Zambiaprocurement@righttocare.org

DISCLAIMER

By applying for the above-mentioned opportunity, you consent to Right to Care Zambia to conduct qualification, ID, criminal, and reference checks. Should you not receive a response to your application from Right to Care Zambia within one month of this advert being placed, kindly consider your application as being unsuccessful.

Only applicants meeting the strict criteria outlined above will be contacted as part of the shortlisting process.  Right to Care Zambia is aware of fraudulent activities by certain individuals claiming to be representatives of the organization.

Be advised that Right to Care Zambia does not charge any fee at any stage of the procurement process, and as such Right to Care Zambia assumes no responsibility for any announcements or activities by such individuals or entities.