* Institution: International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD)
* Countries: Guatemala, India, Madagascar
* Project: Scaling up micro-Irrigation Systems in India, Madagascar and Guatemala (SCAMPIS)
* Sector Micro-irrigation
* Summary: An evaluation of the outcomes and impacts of the 3-year SCAMPIS programme in the three countries ( http://www.ifad.org/english/water/scampis/index.htm )
* Loan / Grant number: SCAMPIS 001
* Contract / offer number: EVAL 01
* Deadline 04 June 2012
The following is to give a clear and extensive description of the services to be contracted to a not-for-profit institution. 1. Background 1.1 Initial situation
Programme implementation covers the period from 29 December 2008 till 31st December 2012. 1.2 Evaluation objective (brief description of the programme)
Scampis is financed through a supplementary fund contributed to the FUND by COOPERNIC, a consortium of 5 European retail businesses. The goal of the scaling up micro-irrigation systems project in India, Madagascar and Guatemala (Scampis) is to improve the livelihoods and food security of 30,000 smallholder farmer households, especially women, in these countries. To achieve this goal, the project is using micro-irrigation systems (MIS) and where appropriate uses liquid organic fertilizer systems (LOF) to address the following challenges:
- water scarcity and low soil fertility which negatively impact productivity
- providing organic fertilizers to smallholder farmers The programme funds amount to 3,0 Million euros. 1.3 Objectives of the programme
The main objectives of the project are: Objective 1: To improve the management and increase water availability for intensified cropping activities with adapted Micro-Irrigation Systems (MIS). Objective 2: To improve agricultural productivity with MIS and (liquid organic) fertilizers (a fertigation system is the application of fertilizers or other water soluble products through an irrigation system) thus contributing to improved health of people (better nutrition) in the pilot communities. Objective 3: Raise awareness of overall advantages of MIS in Institutions/Government/Private companies working in the field of irrigation/agriculture fostering the integration of MIS into their work and policies. 2. Evaluation objectives
The review has to assess the achievement of the programme objectives and outcomes with regard to its components and corresponding target groups. Lessons learnt and recommendations have to be provided for IFAD with regard to improvement of design and implementation of future programmes. Replicability and scaling up are core concepts in this context. Special attention has to be put on the sustainability especially with regard to any future activities to be implemented by the different stakeholders along the water value chain of MIS/LOF. 3. Evaluation criteria
The evaluation has to follow the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) evaluation criteria, relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability - supplemented by the criteria of coherence, complementarity and coordination by the Programme Management (PM) at IFAD. Additionally the institutionalisation, didactic principles, synergies and scaling-up potential and crosscutting issues such as, e.g., gender, youth and private sector services along the supply and service chain of MIS/LOF have to be taken into account. In close cooperation with PM, the reporting format (main report) and all the standard questions, supplemented by specific questions as needed, are to be agreed by PM prior to their use. These need to be included in the detailed evaluation design, i.e. inception report following the approach paper directly after commissioning of the evaluation contract. An Evaluation matrix with questions, corresponding indicators and methods for data collection will be part of the inception report of the evaluation but may already be referred to in the approach paper (i.e. as part of the bidding documents). 4. Management of the Evaluation
IFAD PTA Water Unit (PM) is responsible for managing the entire evaluation process. PM will be responsible to accept the Inception Report and the main report. PM will be responsible for providing the required documentation:
• Country progress and annual reports
• IFAD HQ progress and annual reports
• Supervision and monitoring and evaluation mission reports
• Knowledge sharing documents on SCAMPIS (communication, learning, specific studies)
• Videos (http://www.youtube.com/ceciliaruberto)
• Photos (https://picasaweb.google.com/ceciliaruberto) PM will be responsible to arrange for selected in-country transportation within project areas (to be supplied by the national partners). 5. Tasks / Supplier services 5.1 The Contractor (supplier) provides the following:
Tendering by Monday 04 June cob (Rome time)
- To submit a methodological approach paper to the evaluation as part of the tender (technical bid) to PM; considering different target groups and involved key stakeholders (private sector suppliers of goods and services, government and other staff involved in the participating IFAD projects, national partner organisations - AVSF, IDEI, FunCafe).
- To include short CVs of consultants in charge of the evaluation.
- To include a description of critical time lines and key activity milestones.
- To define the proposed budget (in Euros, no VAT).
- To propose reporting formats. The following is to be submitted with the bid (offer):
- The contract shall be offered at a flat cost (i.e. excl. VAT and other payments or legal charges to be paid by the Contractor), including all costs (such as fees, international transportation, communication and stationary, material).
- List of reference projects of the contractor. Inception
Following commissioning the contractor delivers:
- A draft and a final Inception Report containing an Evaluation matrix as based on the programme's log frame and given indicators and the activities.
- A meeting at PM to discuss inception report and roll-out of field phase. Field phase (per country ):
- A short briefing of partners
- Site visits to target areas in each country (India, Madagascar, Guatemala) collecting primary information using the methods described in the evaluation matrix (e.g. standardised questionnaires and guide-aided interviews (telephone interviews, interviews on site) and others.
- An analysis and interpretation of the information collected and information available.
- A debriefing of field partners (in-country IFAD office, pertinent IFAD loan projects, NGOs) and presentation of preliminary results (synthesis report). Reporting
- To present the evaluation report including results, recommendations and annexes in a suitable form in English, first as draft version, then following and incorporating PM and partner feedback, as final report.
- Debriefing PM with appropriate presentation in Rome. [1] The implementation of the evaluation must be coordinated with the PM. [1] This may be complemented by findings of desk surveys during inception/field phase. 5.2 Contractor’s responsibility
The Contractor is responsible for professionally managing the evaluation. In detail, this requires:
- Guaranteeing the quality of the evaluation and its products,
- Guaranteeing a professional evaluation process, incl. communication, logistics and administration,
- Appointing a properly qualified team of one (1) senior evaluator and 1 (one) country evaluator fully conversant with the selected country for each of the 3 (three) countries, and team management.
- Good cooperation with PM. 5.3 Evaluation methods
A mix of robust and rigorous qualitative and quantitative data collection methods is to be used in answering the formulated evaluation questions and fulfilling the tasks. Appropriate triangulation models for the methods used are to be drafted to analyse and evaluate the issues under consideration. The methods used and evaluation model are to be comprehensively detailed in the report. The evaluation is to ensure as broad a participation as possible of key stakeholders. Special emphasis is to be placed on incorporating the voices of involved women and rural youth. 5.4 Evaluation products
1. Inception Reports (draft, final) in English including a description of the evaluation process, the evaluation matrix and the planned methodologies, the on-site research in the partner countries and/or other particularities (maximum 5 pages).
2. Briefing and debriefing presentations at PM and per partner country with list of attendants and salient features of interaction with audience by evaluation team.
3. 3 short country reports (synthesis report) following each field phase (maximum 10 pages each)
3. Consolidated comprehensive draft and main report in English following pre-given reporting format with lessons learned and recommendations for the evaluation users, and with summary (maximum 40 pages, excluding Annexes) – as draft for discussion and clarification.
4. Annex with evaluation and interview schedules, addresses, questionnaires, etc.
6. Executive Summary of main report in English, Spanish and French (maximum 4 pages each).
7. Presentation at PM with the main results and recommendations (maximum 25 slides, in English).
8. CD/DVD with all the relevant evaluation data and documents. 6. Evaluator qualification profile
The review shall be implemented by a team consisting of a senior evaluator (maximum 50 days in total, including max 30 field days) and one country evaluator per partner country (maximum 20 days each). The Senior Evaluator is responsible for overall quality management. The evaluators have to be completely independent of the Scampis programme to be evaluated and may not have had any direct or indirect interest in the programme. The Senior evaluation expert has to have professional expertise and experience in the following areas:
- Expertise and experience in planning, implementation, compiling reports, as well as experience of (complex) evaluations in an international context,
- Expertise and experience in the use of qualitative and quantitative methods in empirical social research, participative methods and data processing and evaluation,
- Expertise and experience in the area of evaluating innovations and scaling up of such poor rural smallholder programmes around sustainable water and natural resources services and being familiar with Most Significant Change, Impact Pathways and other means of capturing client satisfaction,
- Relevant expertise in the corresponding partner countries or regions,
- Experience (during the period of active consulting) of cooperation with state and non-state development organisations,
- Language proficiency in English, Spanish and French as required on a per case basis. The country evaluation experts have to demonstrate proven references in evaluation. See attachment for complete details | 
Post a Comment