Project Final External Evaluation

GLOBAL PROGRAMME FOOD SECURITY AND HABITAT PROTECTION IN THE KAZA

About WWF

WWF (The World Wide Fund for Nature) is an International Non-Governmental Organization that was born from a drive to conserve wildlife and wetlands in the country. Our mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. In order to achieve this mission, WWF implements projects that aim to conserve the wildlife habitat, improve the livelihoods of the communities around the protected Areas.  In that context, WWF Germany is looking for qualified individuals or firms to plan and conduct the End of Project Evaluation for the BMZ funded project “Global Programme Food Security and Habitat Protection in the KAZA”. This project is also called the KAZA ARISE Project.

The KAZA region in Southern Africa suffers from the intertwined issues of poverty (most live below the poverty line), the increasing impacts of climate change (prolonged and frequent droughts), natural habitat conversion and land degradation. The resilience of ecosystems is negatively impacted as are the livelihoods and food security of rural communities. Eighty percent of the people are heavily dependent upon natural resources and live largely from subsistence agriculture (shifting cultivation). The ever-increasing encroachment onto conservation areas increases the risks of human wildlife interaction. This leads to increased conflict and loss of life but also an increased likelihood of zoonotic diseases and impacts onto human health. Currently, the survival and income of rural communities are largely based on maize, a staple food with a high-water dependency and which suffers from droughts and excess water. Drought resistant crops and the benefits of agroecological approaches to conserve soil fertility and increase harvests and yields as well as the benefits of sustainable cattle production and local supply chains are not widely known or supported politically.

Expectations

The Final Evaluation should use both quantitative and qualitative methods to ascertain the status of the project towards achieving its intended outcomes and impact. Using the OECD evaluation criteria, the evaluation should also assess what factors enhanced and/or limited the achievement of project targets as well as documentation of the results achieved and recommendations/lessons learned for future projects and programming. Interviews of key stakeholders such as Community Resources Boards, conservancies, ward Development Committees, traditional leaders, civic leaders and beneficiaries involved in the project will have the opportunity to have their voices heard and will contribute to the evaluation. This will make the external evaluation credible and unbiased.

Project Description and Details

Title: GLOBAL PROGRAMME FOOD SECURITY AND HABITAT PROTECTION IN THE KAZA

Duration: 38 months (1st November 2021 – 30th December 2024)

Project Number: P5904

Location: Namibia (9 Conservancies in the Zambezi Region), Zambia (6 Village Action Groups in Sichifulo (Nyawa Central and Chooma), Mulobezi (Kalobe and Mabwe) and Mufunta (Litoya and Lalafuta) Game Management Areas South and West of the Kafue National Park; Zimbabwe (selected Wards in Hwange and Binga)

Partners: Namibia Nature Foundation, IRNDC, GLM, ORAP, Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust.

Budget: 6,266, 000 EUR

Primary Donor: Engagement Global

Secondary Donor: WWF Germany

Applicable law: Public Procurement Law of Germany and BMZ’s Contract Award Procedure for Supplies and Services

Contracting agency: WWF Germany, Reinhardtstraße 18, 10117 Berlin, Germany

Type of contracting agency: Non-profit, non-governmental, charity organisation

Title: Procurement of Services: WWF End Term Evaluation for a BMZ-BENGO Project: Food security and Habitat conservation in KAZA TFCA (namely Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia)

Type of Contract: Consulting Services

Consulting services will include the following Work Packages:

1 Desk Study: Project Documents including the Project Proposal Document, Approved Budget, the Technical Reports to review the project.

2. Development of data collection tools for the study.

2. Site Visits to the implementation sites (Questionnaire, focus group discussions, Key informant interviews) to determine level of stakeholder engagement, level of project

3. Examine the relevance of the project assumptions and make recommendations as appropriate

4. Review the implementation of the ESS Framework

Composition of the Consulting Team (1 consultant with a team that represents all the three countries. Required qualifications of the team include ESS Expertise, Natural Resource management, Environmental/agricultural expertise):

Award criteria: Price is not the only award criterion and all criteria are stated in the procurement documents

Duration of the contract:

Estimated Start of the contract: start asap – 12th February 2024

The contract is subject to renewal: no

Additional information: Right of the granting governmental organization for audit according to the project approval

Type of procedure: Negotiate procedure after invitation

Time limit for sending the proposals: 30th January 2024

Time limit for sending questions to this tender is: 2 days before the deadline

Opening of the tenders: 1 day after the deadline for sending, at WWF Berlin Office

Language in which tenders are requested: English

Project Impact Aim

Within the concept of One Health, the program contributes to an increased resilience of communities and ecosystems, as well as improved connectivity of wildlife habitats, through enhanced food security, diversification of income and habitat conservation in the Kavango Zambezi region in Southern Africa.

Overall Outcome:

At least 2.525 smallholder households in five project areas in the Kavango Zambesi transboundary conservation area in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia benefit from enhanced food security and livelihoods while reducing degradation of natural habitats and land conversion.

At the regional level and in the three countries, political and institutional support for sustainable agriculture including livestock keeping is enhanced by the active political participation of civil society actors.

The project outputs:

Output 1: Agroecological methods, supply chain

By 2024, at least 2.300 smallholder households in the project areas in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia are capable to implement agro-ecological cultivation methods and local market access is created in all three countries.

Output 2: Output 2: Cattle Herding

By 2024, 225 livestock holders in the project areas are aware of and starting to adopt the One Health approach on cattle herding, reducing rangeland degradation and wildlife-livestock interface. Pilots of local conservation compliant beef supply chains are supported.

Output 3: CSO platform and policy advocacy

By 2024, the active political participation of civil society actors and government partners in the three countries to support agroecology implementation nationally is strengthened and cooperation to lobby for enhanced institutional as well as policy support for sustainable agriculture is improved.

Output 4: Regional exchange, joint learning

By 2024, improved experience and best practice exchange between program partners and KAZA countries enables the scaling up and transfer of sustainable agriculture across KAZA as a viable rural development concept.

Output 5:M&E System / Grievance Mechanism

By 2024, KAZA governments, CSOs and communities as well as other development partners in KAZA (NGO´s, Aid agencies) can assess the impact of sustainable agriculture on the socio- economic condition of communities and ecosystems and can make adaptive mgmt. decisions for sustainable rural development based on a state-of-the-art KAZA wide monitoring system.

Objective of the Evaluation

The objective of this final evaluation’s is to provide an overall assessment of the performance and achievement of project outputs and outcome. The evaluation should focus on assessing the project intervention’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, sustainability and, where possible, impact. The final evaluation will cover the 28 months of the project from November 2021 to

February 2024 and all the activities carried out in the context of the project. The evaluation should also provide recommendations and lessons learned for a possible second phase of the project.

Scope of Works

The scope of work for the consultancy will include, but may not be limited to:

a.     Review all relevant sources of information, such as the project documents, impact Matrices, monthly reports, annual progress reports, exit strategy, KAZA livelihood diversification strategy, Feasibility report and any other materials that the evaluator considers useful for this evidence-based assessment;

b.     Develop an evaluation matrix with evaluation criteria, the related evaluation questions (and, where needed, sub-questions), the data sources required to answer the questions, the data collection, and data analysis methods. The evaluation should be based on the following five criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability as defined below;

i.         Relevance: Appropriateness of the project strategy to the actual needs and priorities of the target groups/beneficiaries taking into the account the circumstances. Is the project strategy appropriate and logical and does it work directly toward attaining the objectives? Are the Assumptions still true?

ii.         Efficiency: Measures the outputs – qualitative and quantitative – in relation to the inputs. How well are the means/inputs and activities converted into outputs? Are the activities implemented in line with the plans? Are they implemented and the outputs delivered in a cost-efficient manner?

iii.         Effectiveness: Contribution of the project results to the achievement of the project objectives. To what extent are the specific objectives achieved / are likely to be achieved? What are the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the objectives?

iv.         Coherence: Assess how coherent the project is with other interventions within the countries, regions and with development plans including the one health frameworks. How well does the project fit with other interventions? The consultant is expected to look at both internal and external coherence.

v.         Impact: The positive and negative changes produced by the project, directly or indirectly, intended or unintended. Main effects resulting from the project on the local social, economic, environmental and other development indicators. What is the project’s likely contribution to the overall objective?

vi.         Sustainability: Analyze to what extent the effects and results of the project are likely to last beyond its implementation period. What was put in place by the project to ensure the sustainability of the expected project outcomes? Collect lessons learned and good practices and express recommendations for the partners and stakeholders.

The evaluation must provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable, and useful. The evaluator is expected to follow a participatory and consultative approach ensuring close engagement with the local organizations, experts, project consultants, the project team, KAZA ARISE implementation teams in all the three countries, final beneficiaries, and other key stakeholders;

c.     Develop data collection tools to facilitate primary data collection from project stakeholders that include households, farmers, communities, district/sub-national and regional level through mixed methods approach.

d.     Submit an inception report clarifying the methodology, work schedules, tools, sampling frames etc.

e.     Prepare an evaluation report providing descriptive overviews, laying out the facts and lessons learned, providing conclusions and recommendations, and finalizing the report upon feedback from the project team.

f.      Conduct a meeting with the project partners to validate the evaluation findings and recommendations. This will be conducted virtually.

Methodology

The consultant is requested to propose a methodological approach but the evaluation should at the minimum include desk research, semi-structured interviews for key informants, households, farmers, and focus groups. A inception report, a draft and final evaluation report as well as a power point presentation with key findings will also be produced. The consultant should also propose a sampling frame and sample size.

a.     Desk research: should include a review of all the material and documentation developed within the project, the reports of local teams, beneficiaries and consultants, the tools created or adapted, including the monitoring and evaluation ones, etc.

b.     The consultant(s) will develop tools and collect both quantitative and qualitative data using mixed methods approach- thus from the Impact Matrices, list of activities as outlined in the project proposal, number of participants, number of supports, etc.) and primary data from project stakeholders.

c.     Hold a virtual preliminary meeting with at least the donor (WWF Ger) and WWF Zambia to present the methodology proposed and get input (other implementing partners may join).

d.     Key Informant Interviews/Focus group discussions: The consultant(s) should carry out interviews/group discussions with the project implementing staff and all partners as well as representatives of the target groups/beneficiaries and interviews with households and farmers.

Deliverables and Time Frame

Below are deliverables and suggested timeframes;

Submit an inception meeting report, including agreed evaluation approach, outline of the report, timeline, workplan and data collection tools etc on 16th February 2024.
Submit the first draft report/first findings (15th March, 2024) in English of up to 30 pages, including a table of contents, a brief introduction, the objectives and the methodology, and evaluation of the project based on the criteria mentioned above (relevance, coherence, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, sustainability), observations, lessons learned and conclusions as well as a list of recommendations and appendix (e.g. acronyms, list of interviewees, ToRs, methodology, schedule, etc.).
1 final report in English including recommendations and a presentation to WWF (up to 30 pages) before 10th April 2024.
1 presentation: The consultant(s) will finally make a 1hr presentation to the project partners, reviewing the main conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation. This presentation will then be used by the project to present the results to external stakeholders
Overall, the evaluation requires 30 working days spread over the period of February to Mid-April 2024

Supervision and Reporting

The identified consultant(s) will be required to work closely with the Project Regional Coordinator and the Senior Projects Officer- Southern Africa based at WWF ZCO and Germany respectively. The majority of the required work will be carried out independently with the participation of project staff.

Selection Criteria

Applicants must meet the following conditions:

i.         A team with university degrees or professional experience in Agriculture (bias on Agroecology), M&E, Natural Resources Management, Environmental and Social Safeguards.

ii.         Master degrees in related fields will be an added advantage

iii.         At least 7 years of experience in external evaluation, including for international funded projects; for Bengo, BMZ, KFW, EU funded projects would be an advantage

iv.         Experience in evaluation of transboundary projects a strong advantage

v.         Availability and ability to work independently and on a flexible schedule.

Data protection

In carrying out the evaluation of this project, the evaluator must respect the following confidentiality rules:

I.         All data relating to this project are confidential.

II.         The information is only accessible to those whose access is authorized.

III.         The KAZA ARISE authorize the external expert to list the data in paper or electronic media intended to carry out the activities entrusted to him/her. However, the project does not give the evaluator any right to use, disclose or publish the data or results obtained in the course of his/her activity.

Application Submission Process

The applicants must be a team of evaluators. Your application should consist of the following:

i.         1-page expression of interest, highlighting relevant experience and knowledge of the context, daily rate and availability for travel to Project Area;

ii.         A technical proposal detailing your approach to evaluation of the project, including methodology proposal (maximum 5 pages).

iii.         A detailed work plan and financial proposal

iv.         An updated CV(s)

v.         Contact details for 2 references

Submit application by emailing the above compressed in one `folder to zcoprocurement@wwfzam.org copied to Brit.Reichelt-Zolho@wwf.de and achinyama@wwfzam.org with ‘End Term External evaluation of the KAZA ARISE Project’ in the subject line. The CV/s must highlight the candidate’s technical strengths and sufficient experience and knowledge in Monitoring and Evaluation.

Only successful bidders will be contacted.

DEADLINE: 30th January 2024 by 17:00hrs CAT.