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Consultant for Project Evaluation

Terms of Reference for End of Project Evaluation Assignment

Assignment Title: End of Project Evaluation

Consultant’s Name:

Location of Assignment: Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South

Duration of Assignment: 14 days

Reports to: The Director

1. Background

The Centre for Innovation and Technology (CITE) is a digital media and creative hub that was formed in 2015 and registered in 2016. It sprang from the need to have an organisation that will ride on the use of new technologies and art to support social movements, talented change makers, and innovators. The organisation was formed after realisations that while new media plays a very important role in creating awareness and raising different social, economic and political issues it cannot be fully effective if it not fused with other offline media. The success of this hub hinges upon the involvement of young people who are mostly the ones who use new media and those in the art sector. It also depends on being rooted in the community and the participation of the community. The Centre for Innovation and Technology seeks to provide a space where young people from different backgrounds and professions can meet to discuss ideas and collaborate on various projects and innovations. It combines digital media and activism to push for positive social change in Zimbabwe.

CITE’s mission is to create space and promote “ARTIVISM” which is the creative integration of art and activism for social change and impact.

2. Purpose

CITE has ended the implementation of a 36 months project titled “Confronting the Past – National Healing, Reconciliation and Transitional Justice in Zimbabwe”. This project started on 1st November 2019 and ended on 31st October 2022, and was being implemented in Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South. In support of achieving the goal, the project sought to achieve the following specific objectives:

1. To promote public dialogue and engagement on the issues of healing and reconciliation

2. To provide a platform for communities to demand justice and redress

The evaluation will cover the entire project duration, from November 2019 to October 2022. Within this period, the evaluation will assess project outcomes at all levels: including all result areas, beneficiaries and project stakeholders. The evaluation will in particular seek to assess the impact and relevance of the project’s intervention on communities to demand justice and redress. The evaluation will assess the project management and activity implementation with a view to addressing the results achieved. The evaluation will also dept into establishing best practice for future engagement.

3. Roles and Responsibilities of Consultant

To evaluate the project in terms of its:

a. Impact

Impact denotes the relationship between the project’s overall objective and specific objectives including the extent to which the benefits received by the target beneficiaries had a wider overall effect on larger numbers of people in the country as a whole. The analysis should generally examine the extent to which the planned objectives have been achieved, and how far that was directly due to the project. The Consultant should therefore consider the following questions;

· What has happened as a result of the programme or project?

· What real difference has the activity made to the beneficiaries?

· Approximately how many people have been impacted?

b. Relevance

The analysis of relevance focuses on the design of the project, including the extent to which the design appropriately:

· Identified key stakeholders and target groups (including gender analysis) and effectively promoted local ownership

· Clearly and accurately identified real problems

· Analysed lessons learned from past experiences and ensured coherence with current/ongoing initiatives

· Established a clear and logically coherent set of project objectives and a set of indicative activities for delivering each project output

· Developed a clear and useful results framework with supporting activity and resource/cost schedule

· Established appropriate management and coordination arrangements

· Established appropriate and effective monitoring and evaluation systems.

c. Effectiveness

Effectiveness concerns how far the project’s outputs were used and the project purpose realized. Determine project cohesion; assessing the extent to which the diverse range of interventions have been linked in order to maximize effectiveness in reaching the objectives of the project and impact at different levels. Evaluate the extent to which synergy and structured vertical linkages between the micro, meso and macro levels have been fostered. The analysis of effectiveness focuses on such issues as:

· Whether the planned benefits have been delivered and received, as perceived by all key stakeholders

· CITE’s capacity to effectively plan, manage and implement relevant interventions in a way that is participatory and empowering to the beneficiaries and communities with whom they work

· How unplanned results may have affected the benefits received

· The extent to which the external environment affected the achievement of the project purpose.

d. Efficiency

This concerns how well the various activities transformed the available resources into the intended output (sometimes referred to as results), in terms of quantity, quality and timeliness. The assessment of efficiency would focus on such issues as:

· The quality of day-to-day management, for example, in management of the budget, management of personnel, information, and whether management of risk was adequate, whether flexibility was demonstrated in response to changes in circumstances and respect for deadlines

· Costs and values for money: how far the costs of the project were justified by the benefits

· Quality of monitoring: its existence (or not), accuracy and flexibility and the use made of it; adequacy of baseline information

· Did any unplanned outputs arise from the activities?

e. Sustainability

Relates to whether the positive outcomes of the project at purpose level are likely to continue after external funding ends. The assessment of sustainability would focus on such issues as:

· Ownership of objectives and achievements

· Socio cultural factors, e.g. Whether the project is in tune with local perceptions of needs and of ways of producing and sharing benefits, whether it respects local power structures, status systems and beliefs, and if it seeks to change any of those, how well-accepted are the changes both by the target group and by others

· Wherever relevant, cross-cutting issue such as gender equity, environmental impact and good governance were appropriately accounted for and managed from the outset of the project.

f. Mainstreaming

The evaluation should determine to what extent cross-cutting issues such as gender, rights of the disability rights, etc – were mainstreamed in the project and how they have been achieved.

4. Deliverables

The consultant is expected to produce the following:

1. Inception Report

2. Draft Evaluation Report

3. Final Evaluation Report

5. Scheduling

The following method suggests ways in which the process will be undertaken:

· Inception Report- This must define the scope of the work with a proposed work plan and evaluation questionnaires to be submitted 5 days following the official commencement of the evaluation.

· Fieldwork Preparation

· Data Collection

· Presentation of Data- Lead Consultant to present to the Search an analysed summary of field data before the writing the first draft report

· Draft Evaluation Report- The evaluator(s) must submit draft report for review and comments by all parties involved after analysis of the field data

· Final Report

6. Technical Direction

Technical direction during the performance of this assessment will be provided by the Director for CITE.

7. Required Skills and Competencies

· Advanced/ Masters’ Degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Development studies or a related fielded

· Extensive expertise, knowledge, and experience in the field of evaluation of development programmes

· At least 10 years of experience in working with international organizations and donors.

· At least 10 years’ experience of programme formulation, monitoring, and evaluation

· Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

8. Tender standards: Applications must be sent by email to info@cite.co.zw and copy zenzele@cite.org.zw by close of business on 7 December 2022

. The Expression of interest should be no more than 5 pages, and is expected to include;

§ A cover letter outlining motivation and summarizing relevant experience

§ Contact details for at least two independent referees with in-depth and proven knowledge of the applicant’s expertise and relevant work experience.

§ CV of consultant/-s involved in the project and examples of previous work should accompany the tender.

§ Budget

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