Cameroon: Final Evaluation of a McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program in Cameroon

Please note that this posting is not the full Terms of Reference. Please email pgallagher@nascents.org for the full ToR.

Terms of Reference: Final Evaluation of a McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program in Cameroon - “Advancing Literacy through Good Nutrition (ALIGN)”

Implementer: Nascent Solutions Inc. (Nascent)

Funder: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) (FFE-631-2015/001-00)

Location: Bui division, Northwest region, Cameroon

Duration: March-June 2018 (field work in Cameroon in April-May 2018)

Purpose of this ToR: To introduce and solicit bids for a final evaluation mandated by USDA and desired by Nascent.

Project Description

ALIGN is a three-year project funded under USDA’s McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program. Implemented by Nascent, ALIGN is designed to improve the literacy of school-age children through improved literacy instruction, student attentiveness, and student attendance. Secondarily, the project intends to increase the use of positive health and dietary practices. The project runs from July 2015 to June 2018.

While the primary goal is improving literacy, the staple activity is the provision of a daily lunch using food commodities provided by USDA. ALIGN seeks to improve:

· Quality of literacy instruction, through more consistent teacher attendance, better materials, and training of teachers and administrators;

· Student attentiveness, through the daily lunch program and extracurricular activities;

· Student attendance, through school infrastructure improvements, enrollment outreaches, an increased community understanding of education benefits, and reducing health related absences;

· Use of positive health and dietary practices, through increased knowledge of hygiene, safe food preparation, and nutrition, as well as increased access to clean water and sanitation, preventative health interventions, and provision of safe food preparation and storage items;

· Education systems, through enhancing the capacity of local government and civil society, as well as local education- and nutrition-related policies.

The project will benefit primary-level pupils and their families, teachers, administrators, civil servants, parent-teacher association members, and others associated with 92 primary schools in Bui division, Northwest region, Cameroon. All 92 schools receive the full menu of interventions, with the exception of limited pilot projects involving e-readers and after-school tutoring.

The targeted schools include government-operated public schools, and private schools affiliated with the Baptist, Catholic, Islamic, and Presbyterian faiths. The 92 schools have more than 21,000 enrolled students and more than 720 teachers.

Partners include local authorities from the Ministries of Basic Education, Public Health, Agriculture and Rural Development, and Water and Energy, and Caritas Kumbo. International partners include Books for Africa and Worldreader, and Fantastic Phonics.

Bui division has a population of over 550,000 people spread across 2,300 sq. km. It is predominantly agrarian, with rich soils that produce an abundance of staple maize and other crops. Social services in Bui are weak or nonexistent, including those related to education and health. The educational system suffers from poorly trained teachers and administrators, underfunded schools, dilapidated infrastructure, a lack of school feeding programs, insufficient teaching materials, teacher absenteeism, and a policy environment resistant to change. Meanwhile, the health system struggles to support the nutritional and preventive medicine needs of children. It is hindered by poor water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities, poor access to preventive medical interventions, and a lack of community knowledge surrounding hygiene and nutritionally optimal and safe food preparation.

FINAL EVALUATION

Purpose and Use

The final outcome evaluation will inform Nascent, USDA, implementation partners, and stakeholders of ALIGN’s outcome-level progress relative to the 2015 baseline survey and project targets. We will use its content to scrutinize our successes and shortcomings, reassess our theory of change, emphasize the most viable sustainability paths to stakeholders, and plan for future McGovern-Dole projects in Cameroon.

Evaluation Questions (in order of priority)

1. What outcome-level changes are attributable to the project?

2. For each indicator, how much progress has been made against the baseline and targets?

3. Qualitatively, what changes do stakeholders associate with ALIGN?

4. In which programming areas do stakeholders anticipate that ALIGN’s programming is sustainable?

Nascent anticipates that the final evaluation consultancy team will require no more than 60 working days per person to fully complete the assignment, though the days are not required to be consecutive. Data collection must be conducted on site in Cameroon, while other tasks may be performed remotely, pending a discussion with Nascent.

Profile of Consultancy Team

It is anticipated that a core team of two consultants will be required (not including field level data collectors who will be recruited separately). Their skills should be complementary, with one identified as the lead consultant, who will bear responsibility for all work products and processes.

Combined, the team should have the following skills and attributes:

Required

• Demonstrated experience leading complex outcome and impact evaluations.
• Demonstrated expertise in study design, statistical analysis and sampling, development of data collection tools, questionnaire design, data collection, conducting interviews, data analysis, and report writing.
• Experience in data processing and analysis using statistical software, including analyzing complex sample (two-stage cluster) surveys.
• Experience using propensity score matching and difference-in-differences analysis techniques.
• Demonstrated experience in using qualitative evaluation methods such as focus group discussions and key informant interviews.
• Demonstrated experience in training and managing field data collectors.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
• Strong teamwork ability across cultures and time zones.
• An ability to effectively and respectfully communicate with a variety of stakeholders, ranging from young pupils to government officials.
• Experience using local consultants and data collectors, and involving project stakeholders in the evaluation.

Desired

• Experience with Early Grade Reading Assessments (EGRA), Stallings Classroom Observation system, and/or Dietary Diversity surveys.
• Experience with USDA McGovern-Dole projects.
• Experience with mobile data collection.

Please note that this posting is not the full Terms of Reference. Please email pgallagher@nascents.orgfor the full ToR.

Interested candidates should apply by submitting the following documents no later than 1 February 2018. Submissions must be made via email to pgallagher@nascents.org. Documents must be submitted in a single PDF or Microsoft Word document.

• Organizational/team capacity statement outlining relevant evaluation experience and ability to perform each element of the evaluation with methodological rigor.
• CV of both proposed consultants and their role in the evaluation.
• Financial proposal that includes three items (in US dollars):
  • Daily consultancy rate for each team member
  • Expenses attributable to each team member (note that several expenses are paid for directly by Nascent as detailed in the full ToR, above so should not be included in this financial proposal). This may include airfare.