Background
A severe drought hit parts of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya in 2021 and 2022, with more than 20 million people suffering from acute food insecurity. Below average harvests, death of livestock, rising prices of food and fuel on international markets and macro-economic disturbances contributed to a spike in food prices. Millions of people could not access enough water for drinking, cooking and cleaning. The drought increased the incidence of disease and had devastating consequences for the health of affected communities. There were alarming levels of malnutrition among women and children.
Close to ten million livestock, which pastoralist families rely upon for sustenance and livelihoods, died across the region. As more than one million families left their homes in search for food, pasture and alternative livelihoods, inter-communal conflict increased and the pressure on already limited basic services grew more severe.
In late 2023 and early 2024, several zones in the three countries that were still reeling from the drought suffered devastating floods, further weakening the resilience of the affected communities. The Horn of Africa is one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world and the population often lacks the resources to adapt to an increasingly inhospitable environment. As climate change progresses, many will find it more and more difficult to achieve recovery after climatic shocks and to adapt to chronic crises.
The shortage of food and water, loss of assets, displacements and health crisis resulting from the catastrophic climate events and conflict in the region between 2021 and 2023 constituted a multidimensional shock. Actions were needed to support individuals and households to recover from it, to build longer-term resilience and to enhance the capacity to adapt to climate change.
Swiss Solidarity response to the drought and conflict-related crisis in East Africa
To respond to the drought and food deficits, Swiss Solidarity launched an appeal for donations in April 2022 and collected more than CHF 15 million. The fund has been supporting projects in the zones most affected by food insecurity in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. A total of 32 projects received funding, of which 9 are still active as of August 2024. All funds have now been allocated. Swiss Solidarity partner NGOs have implemented projects either directly, in collaboration with local partners or with mixed modalities.
Multipurpose cash assistance was a major component in many projects, accounting for approximatively 40% of total programming in terms of funding volume, followed by food security and health services with about 20% each and livelihoods recovery and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) with about 10% each. However, many projects had an integrated multisectoral approach.
Purpose of the evaluation
The evaluation will review the livelihood and food security recovery activities (projects or project components) funded in the framework of this response. Learnings from the evaluation should inform future livelihood and food security programming in this and other contexts. The ultimate goal is for future interventions to become more effective and context-specific and better anchored in the needs and preferences of the affected people.
Evaluation questions
Effectiveness
1. Did the projects effectively support individuals and households to improve their access to food in the short to medium-term? In particular:
o Was the specific support to agropastoral activities leading to improvements of food security outcomes?
o Had the unconditional cash transfers that were carried out alongside livelihood interventions a bridging function until income from the recovery of agropastoral activities or from business activities was available?
2. Did the projects effectively support individuals, households and communities to recover from the shocks and improve their livelihood outcomes?
o Did the projects sufficiently assist new entrepreneurs and community initiatives to overcome the barriers they faced, such as the lack of information, limited access to resources (capital and/or agricultural inputs) and disrupted social networks?
o Has business skills training translated into income?
3. What were the factors of success for financial inclusion programmes (such as saving and lending associations) to result in household resilience and food security?
4. What were the factors of success for agricultural support programmes (such as agricultural inputs distributions, training on sustainable agricultural practices and land restoration) to result in household resilience and food security?
5. What were the factors of success for pastoral support programmes (such animal feed distribution, veterinary services provision and restocking) to result in household resilience and food security?
Relevance
6. How did the new businesses/community initiatives consider, integrate or affect local value chains, food systems and markets?
7. Did the projects consider that they operated in contexts where extreme poverty is systemic and climate shocks recurrent and prolonged? Depending on the projects:
o What were the limits to financial inclusion activities?
o What were the limits to agropastoral support activities?
8. Did livelihood-focused projects consider the differentiated capacities of the targeted persons to create viable businesses? Were the specific barriers that specific target groups, such as women or persons with disabilities, face in developing livelihood strategies taken into account? How could this be improved in future programming?
Economic sustainability
9. Are the diversified livelihoods still pursued beyond the support from the projects? What proportion is discontinued? Depending on the projects:
o Are VSLA/self-help groups still functional? Has any of them managed to sell foodstuffs commercially?
o Are the seed banks functioning? Has local seed production increased?
o Are the restored irrigation schemes still functional?
o Has the health of cattle improved? Has milk production increased?
10. When participants received inputs, have they been able to maintain their resources?
11. Does the degree to which outcomes are sustained differ for women and men?
Methodology
The evaluator(s) are expected to use mixed methods, including:
• A review of the project documentation (funding application, reports)
• Desk research that includes a review of existing literature and reports resulting from beneficiary accountability initiatives and available evaluations
• Project visits and interviews with affected people, project staff, local authorities, aid coordination bodies, local thematic experts and other relevant stakeholders
• Quantitative surveys, to complement the qualitative fieldwork
Bids are required to propose and to justify a methodology and a sequence of activities. The selected evaluator(s) are then expected to present a detailed methodology as part of an inception report.
Outputs
The evaluators are expected to produce the following outputs in line with agreed deadlines:
- An inception report
- A draft evaluation report
- A final evaluation report
- A presentation to Swiss Solidarity and its partners (possibly as part of a wider learning event to be confirmed).
For more details, please click on the following link https://www.swiss-solidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/East-Africa-Fund-Evaluation.pdf
How to apply
Volume of work
We expect the work to be completed within 50 to 70 days, between October 2024 and April/May 2025.
Bid instructions
Bidders should submit the following:
1. A letter confirming that the bidder has contacted the proposed team member(s) and that they can carry out the evaluation in the timeframe given in the ToR. The letter should also indicate the bidding company or group’s experience with evaluations of this type.
2. A short (no more than two page) proposal on the methodology
3. A budget (in Swiss Francs) for the evaluation, setting out the full cost of the evaluation. This should include:
a. The daily cost and number of days (by task) for each expert
b. The daily cost and number of days for other personnel (if required)
c. The costs of per diems by location and number of days
d. The costs related to the quantitative survey (if subcontracted to a survey firm)
e. All other costs for the evaluation (the team will be responsible for their own transport, accommodation and security management)
The costs of hosting the sharing and learning events will be covered directly by Swiss Solidarity and are not part of the evaluation budget.
4. CVs for the proposed team members (no longer than 4 pages per CV)
5. A table showing which of the team members meet the skill requirements (see chapter “evaluation team”: please use scores (0 – no experience, 1 – some experience, 2 – significant experience, 3 – very significant experience)
6. Two examples (or links to examples) of reports drafted by the team leader
7. Two examples of previous evaluations managed by the bidding company or group (if applicable)
In the event of the score of two or more of the highest tenderers being close, a second stage is foreseen. Short-listed tenderers may then be asked to submit a more detailed methodology proposal.
The final selection will be made after interviews.
Submission of offers
Bids should be submitted by 17h00 (Geneva time) on 8 October 2024 to [email protected].