Closing date:

Consultant for DIPECHO-1 assignment

City/location:
Kabul and Badakhshan province
Organization:
Afghanaid

This job posting has closed

Background
 
The context
 
Afghanistan is prone to multitude of hazards both natural and human-made. The predominant natural hazards causing colossal damages and disruption in the country are earthquake, landslide, snow avalanche, drought, and flood. Since early 1980s, an estimated 19,000 people are killed and 7.5 million persons are displaced. 9 major earthquakes have killed 1,223 since 2000. Between 1980-2008, 6,427,631 persons are affected by disasters (flood 52% & earthquake 24%), both are the major contributing disasters affecting the lives & livelihoods of people. Current drought situation in the country has affected thousands of families in Afghanistan. Additionally, the prolong conflict, high level of poverty, lack of livelihood and income generating options, poor state of infra- structure and very limited knowledge of likely hazards and risks, all contribute to increasing vulnerability of Afghan people in relation to natural hazards. 

Like many countries in the region, DRR is emerging as a high priority to Afghan government, which is evident from adoption of disaster management legal framework, establishment of Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA), and National Disaster Management Committee. ANDMA is the principal institute at the national level with the mandate to coordinate and manage all the aspects related to disasters mitigation, preparedness and response through its national and provincial offices. 

The organization 

Afghanaid is an international NGO registered in the UK, specializing in Afghanistan since 1981. Afghanaid has been assisting and facilitating people-driven processes of recovery and development to address rights, entitlements and needs of Afghans in some of the most remote areas of the country for nearly three decades. Afghanaid’s Board of Trustees is based in the UK, together with its registered office. The Head Office is located in Kabul. Afghanaid works in four provinces, namely Badakhshan (north-eastern region), Samangan (northern region), Ghor (western region) and Nuristan (eastern region). 18 district offices and 4 provincial offices serve these provinces, which are well resourced with experienced and skilled Afghan women and men staff, with management support and technical guidance provided by a roving team of senior national and international managers based in Kabul. Afghanaid has over 400 staff members, 97% of them are Afghans. 

Afghanaid is mandated to facilitate and support Afghan women, men and children in their fight against poverty, inequality and vulnerability through a range of interventions, most supporting grass-roots and local level capacity development, facilitating local development processes, and institution building. Evidence of change from Afghanaid’s programme work leverages its national level advocacy and policy influencing work, which is embedded in its grassroots work. The evidence of the impact of Afghanaid’s work has earned it recognition, respect and identity with stakeholders within and outside the country. Afghanaid’s sectoral work includes Food Security; Agriculture and Livelihoods; Economic Development (Rural Savings & Financing, Market Access and Rural Enterprise); Community Physical Infrastructure; Water & Sanitation; Social Sector Development (Local Governance, Community Development, Education) and Humanitarian Response. All sectoral work is supported by cross cutting themes of gender equality and disaster risk reduction (DRR). Afghanaid is a rights-based learning organization that works with both right bearers and duty holders through grassroots programming and advocacy and policy initiatives at the micro, meso and macro levels. 

The project 

Afghanaid in partnership with European Commission Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid – DG ECHO has started implementation of a disaster risk reduction project in Badakhshan titled “Promoting and Strengthening Disaster Resilient Communities and Institutions in Afghanistan through Building Preparedness, Risk Reduction and Building Response Capacity”. The project aims to support communities, local institutions and schools to build their resilience to natural hazards in Afghanistan

Principal objective of action 

To support communities, local institutions and schools to build their resilience to disasters 

Specific objectives of action

To enhance capacity of the vulnerable communities, Community Development Councils (CDCs), District Development Assembly (DDAs) and educational institutions to mitigate and respond adequately to local disasters and hazards. There are four results of this action mentioned below.

Result 1

The Community Development Council (CDCs), District Development Assembly (DDAs) and DRR team, have enhanced their knowledge and skills on CBDRM and integrated DRR in the CDPs 

Result 2

Target communities will develop and implement CBDRM actions 

Result 3 

Increased awareness, skills and knowledge of students, teachers, and parents on local disasters and hazards with school contingency and preparedness plans in place 

Result 4

Increased knowledge sharing enables a greater impact in risk reduction and strengthens a culture of safety in the project areas 

The consultancy assignment 

Purpose and scope of mid -term review 

As per agreement with European Commission and in line with Afghanaid’s own policy to promote accountability for performance and learning for future programming and wider sharing, mid-term external evaluation has been planned to review the project performance to improve the performance and quality of the project in the remaining period of project cycle as well as to inform future programming. This will enable European Commission and the commissioning organisation (Afghanaid) to know whether the good practice in development programming was practiced and guided the project cycle management. 

The scope of mid-term review includes

• Performance (quantitative and qualitative) against the project’s specific objectives and deliverable at activity/output and outcome/impact level approved in the project documents (primarily the proposal, LFA and work plan) 

• Identification and analysis of what is working and what is not working and why 

• Propose recommendations for course correction measures. More specifically the mid-review will assess/determine the following through measurable evidence (both qualitative and quantitative) and its analysis: 

• The technical soundness as well as relevance and appropriateness of interventions to the context and the needs of the population including how work plans and LFA were adapted during the life of the project. 

•The efficiency of the relationship between project costs and results 

• The effectiveness of the programme in attaining its stated objectives 

• Progress made towards the achievement of results at the outcome and output levels 

• The immediate impacts resulting from the project 

• The degree to which the programme has meaningfully targeted the vulnerable
respect for and adherence to the guidelines and regulations of EC

• The performance in terms of the planned sustainability of interventions and their outcomes 

• The connectedness of this project with other similar initiatives within Afghanaid, and within the district and province where the project is implemented 

• The contribution towards the integration of cross cutting issues (esp. equality and gender) 

• Project’s fit with the Afghanaid’s Strategic Plan 

•The project represents good value for all the monetary and non-monetary investment made in change process through this project 

• A well thought out project exit strategy is in place

Methodology

Among the guiding principles of this consultancy assignment will be inclusiveness, listening and respecting views and opinions of women, vulnerable families and other stakeholders of the project on the project’s implementation and its outputs and outcomes. The selected consultant will be required to develop detailed methodology including methods and checklists that will be used in this assignment. For the mid-review, the consultant will be expected to make active use of results chain – a series of cause and effect relationships linking input to intended outcomes and impacts, which will in turn enable to fill the gaps identified in order to improve on future interventions.
The specific methods proposed to be used in this exercise include, but not limited to: focus group discussion, interview with key informants, and hazard & vulnerability in the target communities. In addition, semi-structured interviews would be held with concerned government departments as well as with the project staff. Other appropriate tools of qualitative and quantitative investigation and enquiry would be added in this list by the consultant. Based on the review of the project documents (proposal, LFA, budget, progress reports, etc.) the consultant will draw up a list of stakeholders – from focused communities, DRR teams, CDCs, local leaders, local authorities, project staff and management, and others, who will be consulted and interviewed to develop understanding of the operating context, and whose views and opinions will be sought on the outputs, results and outcomes achieved thus far under this project. The assignment will include visits and meetings with a representative sample of villages, DRR teams, and other key stakeholders across the two project districts in Badakhshan province as well as in Kabul. These stakeholders will be selected by the consultant through a criteria shared with the commissioning organization i.e. Afghanaid. 

Following specific actions will be covered under this methodology

• Review of published and un-published literature and data from secondary sources pertaining the operating context 

• Review of the project documents: narrative proposal, LFA, work plan, and progress reports 

• Field visits and meetings with relevant stakeholders (as described above) 

• Discussion / meetings / workshops with the project staff 

• Discussions with relevant TA and other EC representatives 

• Debriefing meetings at district and provincial offices of Afghanaid with relevant project and provincial management and technical staff; and at Kabul level with the Afghanaid Managing Director and senior management and sectoral teams.

• The scope of assignment must also cover any additional conditions described in the grant application as well as addendums and subsequent correspondence with Afghanaid donor i.e. European Union. The report will include guidance on the process by which findings will be shared and discussed with all stakeholders including those who have benefited from the project and how any resulting changes in the report will be included. 

Evaluation timeframe and duration 

The consultant will be required to complete the work over a period of 12 days as outline in the below table. The resource person will include following specific activities in the assignment and will indicate in their proposal number of days they propose for each activity to be discussed and agreed with Afghanaid. The consultancy expected to start in May, 2012.

Activity

Number of Days

- 2 days: Review of documents (literature and data from secondary sources and project related documents) ;
development and agreement with Afghanaid on methodology, detailed planning e.g. survey, formats, meetings

- 4 days: Field visits (visiting DRR teams, CDCs, mitigation sites, schools, briefing/debriefing
Meetings/debriefings with the project teams in provincial and district offices, and meetings with local government representatives and other stakeholders

- 1 day: Briefing meetings in Kabul with Afghanaid and ECHO desk in Kabul

- 2 days: Draft report

- 1 day Final report

- 2 days: Travel time (actual) – international

Total: 12 days

Deliverables
In accordance with agreed standards, the consultant will prepare mid-term evaluation report in English. The main text of the reports (excluding appendices) should not be more than 20 pages single spaced, font size 11 Arial.

Consultant Expertise and Skills

Hands on track record of at least 10 years experience in the field of Disaster Risk Management or related field and conducting analytical research studies, impact assessments, and evaluations.

• Experience of evaluating community based DRR projects

• Previous work experience in Afghanistan, particularly in remote areas, and directly relevant to this assignment

• Well developed knowledge and practical experience of financial and economic analysis and the relevant methodological tools

• Have sound understanding of mainstreaming DRR in development planning and implementation

• Experience in developing and applying gender sensitive participatory research, particularly in the context of DRR

• Evaluation and review methodologies in traditional Muslim cultural contexts

• Good knowledge and experience of conducting surveys and data analysis

• Familiarity with EC requirements for assessments/evaluations

Explore further

Hazard Flood
Country and region Afghanistan
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