Cameroon: Consultancy for an Interim Evaluation of a USDA McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program

Please note that this posting is not the full Statement of Work. Please email pgallagher@nascents.org for the full SOW.

Implementer: Nascent Solutions Inc. (Nascent)

Funder: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Location: Bui division, Northwest region, Cameroon

Duration: 26 days in January-March 2017

Purpose of this SOW: To solicit bids for an interim evaluation mandated by USDA and desired by Nascent.

Project Description

Advancing Literacy through Good Nutrition (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.

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 18,000 enrolled students and over 550 teachers.

INTERIM EVALUATION

Objectives and Audience

The interim process evaluation will provide an opportunity for Nascent, USDA, implementation partners, and stakeholders to reflect on internal processes, strategic direction, and implementation fidelity and quality. We will use its content to reassess our theory of change, redirect programming, improve data systems, and emphasize the most viable and effective partnerships and sustainability paths.

Evaluation Questions (in order of priority)

1. In which programming areas is implementation inconsistent with project work plans? Why?

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

3. Do stakeholders still view ALIGN’s results framework as relevant and valid?

4. In which programming areas are ALIGN’s partnerships enhancing implementation? In which areas does the project need to strengthen partnerships?

5. Does project data meet acceptable data quality standards?

6. How much progress has ALIGN made toward its output indicator targets?

7. To what extent is project implementation aligned with relevant national and local development policies and programs?

8. What are key recommendations to address deficiencies hindering the achievement of outcomes?

Profile of Consultancy Team

It is anticipated that a team of two consultants will be required. Their skills should be complementary, with one identified as the lead consultant, who will bear responsibility for all work products and processes. The team should have the following skills and attributes:

Required

• Demonstrated experience leading complex process evaluations.
• Demonstrated expertise in study design, development of data collection tools, questionnaire design, data collection, conducting interviews, data analysis, and report writing.
• Demonstrated experience in using qualitative evaluation methods such as focus group discussions and key informant interviews.
• Demonstrated experience conducting data quality assessments.
• 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 involving project stakeholders in the evaluation.

Desired

• Experience with USDA McGovern-Dole projects.
• Experience working in Northwest region of Cameroon
• Consultants based in Cameroon or the region.

Please note that this posting is not the full Statement of Work. Please email pgallagher@nascents.org for the full SOW.

Interested candidates should apply by submitting the following documents no later than 21 November 2016. 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, with each expense listed (note that several expenses are arranged and paid for directly by Nascent as detailed above)
  • Miscellaneous expenses associated with the team as a whole, with each expense listed