CONSULTANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

ACDEP is looking for a consultant to carry out evaluation of West Africa Regional Rice Project (WARRP) conducted from 2014 to 2017.

The specific objectives of the assignment of the evaluation are to:

• Assess the level of achievement of project goal, objectives and other results as indicated in the project key performance indicators

• Assess the appropriateness and effectiveness of project strategy in the context of the institutional and operational environment

• Assess the relevance of the project design in relation to the needs of the target country projects

• Identify the factors which might have facilitated or inhibited the achievement of expected results

• Examine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats during project implementation and how ACDEP might have adapted to address or take advantage of such issues to facilitate the achievement of expected project deliverables

• Advice on how project results and lessons learned can be used to achieve overall project objectives beyond the funding period

• Identify possible intervention strategies to sustain project success (follow ups)

• Provide recommendations on performance and delivery for similar future projects in ACDEP.

Qualification

The consultant is expected to fulfil the following minimum requirements:

• Post graduate qualifications in Agriculture/Agricultural Economics or related fields with expertise in project management

• Experience in development research preferably in agricultural related fields.

• Strong quantitative and qualitative research skills.

• Familiarity with value chain facilitation and relationships

• Preparedness to travel within the West Africa.

  Additionally the following are also required

• The consultant is expected to be fully familiar with the Project Management Cycle and Logical Framework Approach.

• Demonstrated sound experience and knowledge in planning, implementation, follow-up, monitoring and evaluation preferably in value chain development/design, facilitation and analysis.

• A proven experience in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Agriculture/marketing projects.

• Computer skills in Ms-Word, Ms-Excel, and Ms-PowerPoint in addition to ability to use computerize databases.

Mode of Application

Interested applicants should submit bids per ToR attached to:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. on the subject line WARRP: End of Project evaluation proposal on or before close of business March 1, 2017

TERMS OF REFERENCE

IMPACT STUDY OF THE WEST AFRICA REGIONAL RICE PROJECT (WARRP)

GENERAL OVERVIEW

The Association of Church-based Development Projects (ACDEP) is a network of forty church-based development NGOs in Northern Ghana. The member NGOs are active in a number of areas, including agriculture, healthcare, social services, micro-credit and gender mainstreaming. ACDEP and its members are, collectively, the largest local NGO in Northern Ghana.

ACDEP and its agricultural network partners are located in rural parts of the three northern regions and work directly with rural farmers, providing agricultural extension services and other rural development interventions in a bid to increase production and productivity and thereby enhance increase incomes of rural farmers. Many have implemented agricultural programs for 30 to 40 years in the area.

In April 2014, ACDEP launched the West Africa Regional Rice Project (WARRP) to provide technical backstopping and light coordination that will enhance national and regional networking and collaboration for knowledge sharing among value chain actors in 5 West African Countries namely Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Nigeria. These countries had in 2013 received funding from Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to implement projects that sought to increase local rice production to reduce importation and increase food security. The WARRP is also funded by AGRA.

The overall goal of the project is to help improve the capacity of West Africa country rice project teams to increase the commercial production and marketing of quality rice in their respective countries.

The specific objectives are:

• To improve country teams’ capacity to link rice value chain actors to sources of inputs, good agronomy, and remunerative markets
• To improve country teams’ capacity to collate, analyse and synthesize data generated
• To enhance national and regional collaboration for knowledge sharing among value chain actors in quality rice production

ACDEP is seeking the services of consultant(s) to conduct an end of project evaluation to assess the results of the project, determine the level to which the project has achieved its main objectives as specified in the project proposal, what visible changes or impacts have been made and make overall recommendations that will inform future project designs and implementation strategies

1.0      DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

1.1       Overall Objective of the assignment

The overall objective of the evaluation is to assess the extent of attainment of the overall project goal and objectives, outcomes and outputs as against the project key performance indicators including impact trends and sustainability.

1.2       Specific objective(s) of the assignment

The specific objectives of the evaluation are to:

• Assess the level of achievement of project goal, objectives and other results as indicated in the project key performance indicators

• Assess the appropriateness and effectiveness of project strategy in the context of the institutional and operational environment

• Assess the relevance of the project design in relation to the needs of the target country projects

• Identify the factors which might have facilitated or inhibited the achievement of expected results

• Examine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats during project implementation and how ACDEP might have adapted to address or take advantage of such issues to facilitate the achievement of expected project deliverables

• Advice on how project results and lessons learned can be used to achieve overall project objectives beyond the funding period

• Identify possible intervention strategies to sustain project success (follow ups)

• Provide recommendations on performance and delivery for similar future projects in ACDEP.

In order to fulfil the objectives of the evaluation, the following issues will be critically examined by the evaluator(s) among others

1. Project concept and design and implementation

The WARRP was designed to provide technical backstopping and light coordination that will enhance national and regional networking and collaboration for knowledge sharing among value chain actors in the 5 countries for quality rice production. This was to be done through the planning and implementation of joint activities, training, meetings and knowledge sharing workshops and communication tools development with AfricaRice and CABI-led Africa Soil Health Consortia. It was expected that countries put together a multi-stakeholder team along the rice value chain to execute their project. These country teams have varied expertise and competences in rice production, processing and marketing. The degree of success of the projects depended on the expertise and experiences of the country teams that managed the projects and shared information and experiences made in implementation with other countries. The WARRP created a platform for knowledge sharing and exchange between country teams that exposed them to expertise and experiences available within the sub-region and beyond rather than relying solely on local expertise and experiences. This was possible since the projects are similar for all the countries and hence can benefit from information sharing and cross learning.

The evaluation will therefore seek to answer the following questions:

1. Was this project concept adequately implemented?

1. Was the proposed implementation strategy sound?

1. What were the facilitating and militating factors contributing to the achievement or otherwise of the project concept.

1. Were the specific objectives realistic and relevant to the overall goal, the problems to be solved and the overall context including the policy environment, market dynamics and relationships etc. during the project period?
2. Is the relationship between the overall goal, objectives and outcomes and input internally coherent?
3. Were the key performance indicators of the project valuable for monitoring and planning?
4. Is there a direct relationship between project activities implemented and results achieved there off, taking into consideration the resources mobilized for implementation?
5. What were the unforeseen factors that affected the achievement of project objectives and outcomes both positively and negatively

1. Improved Access to Information on Rice Production

At the onset of the project, the country teams were assisted to compile and submitted a list of rice seed and fertilizer distributors, rice processors and marketers in their countries to the regional project. The data was compiled into a database and shared with country teams. This database is stored on the web-based West-Africa-Rice Portal (WARP). The West-Africa-Rice Portal is a database platform that was designed and run by the regional project and contains database on rice seed producers and distributors, marketers, harmonized agronomic protocols, meta-data and published work from country teams. The project also designed and circulated widely protocol on best agronomic practices and recommendations on rice production for both irrigated and favourable rainfall conditions. In line with the above, the evaluation will address the following questions:

1. Was the strategy adopted to disseminate and share information on key value chain actors across the different countries sound and realistic for reaching out to a wider audience?

1. Has the knowledge shared on good agronomic practices and recommendations on rice lead to changes in behaviour and

1. Have project beneficiaries been able to adapt and successfully make changes to their behaviour and practices as a result of the new knowledge and information shared through the project team?

1. Have the beneficiaries acquired basic knowledge and skills and are they employing same in their decisions and operations?

1. Was the method of information disseminating from the country teams down to the beneficiaries sound and valuable?

1. What further strategies need to be put in place to sustain the results achieved so far in terms of implementation beyond the project phase?

1. C.Improved data collection and documentation capacity of country teams  

Generic data collection tools were designed and shared with country teams for adoption to use for data collection. The data collection tools were designed to collect data on key output indicators of the project including quantity of seeds mobilized/used, response of rice to fertilizer, quantity of rice produced, marketing of local rice, and price of local rice and so on. The country teams were trained to synthesize and analyse data generated using Genstat and the meta-data was collated and uploaded on the WARP.

The project provided a trainer of trainer (TOT) capacity building through AfricaRice on Rice Advice for fertilizer recommendation and response analysis. The Rice Advice tool can be used to generate fertilizer recommendations at farm level. The training also included data management, processes and procedures to extract and exchange information for metadata-analysis towards the development of ISFM recommendations. We therefore seek to know:

1. To what extent has the training received on data collection and analysis improved the capacity of country team towards data collection and analysis?

1. Was the TOT approach to training on the Rice Advice useful to country teams as far as fertilizer recommendations were concerned?

1. Did the training in data synthesis and analysis improve clarity of data generated?

1. D.Knowledge sharing

The WARP hosted by the regional project was to facilitate information sharing/exchange between country teams and other stakeholders in the rice value chain. Relevant information on rice production generated during the course of the project is posted on the WARP. A training workshop was organized for country teams on the development of communication tools/products. The evaluation will seek to answer the following related questions:

1. To what extent has the WARP been a source of useful and valuable information exchange platform for rice production among country teams?

1. What is/are the hindering factors in the use of the WARP? What are the enabling factors? What are the strategies to address this going forward?

2.0      REQUIRED OUTPUT

The major output of the consultancy will be an evaluation report answering all the questions detailed in the TOR including recommendations for future interventions.

1. 2.1EXPERTS PROFILE OR EXPERTISE

The consultant contracted for this assignment should have expertise in Agricultural economics with particular reference to agriculture value chains and market linkages.

Profile or expertise required (education, and experience as appropriate)

A.  The consultant is expected to fulfil the following minimum requirements:

• Post graduate qualifications in Agriculture/Agricultural Economics or related fields with expertise in project management
• Experience in development research preferably in agricultural related fields.
• Strong quantitative and qualitative research skills.
• Familiarity with value chain facilitation and relationships
• Preparedness to travel within the West Africa.

Additionally the following are also required

• The consultant is expected to be fully familiar with the Project Management Cycle and Logical Framework Approach.

• Demonstrated sound experience and knowledge in planning, implementation, follow-up, monitoring and evaluation preferably in value chain development/design, facilitation and analysis.

• A proven experience in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Agriculture/marketing projects.

• Computer skills in Ms-Word, Ms-Excel, and Ms-PowerPoint in addition to ability to use computerize databases.

2.1.1. Working language(s)

The working language of the present assignment will be English. Excellent written and oral skills are a strong requirement for the assignment. However it should be noted that during field work and interactions with country teams French will be required to facilitate the gathering of relevant information in Niger and Mali.

1. 2.2LOCATION AND DURATION

3.2.1 Location of the assignment

Location for the assignment is in the Northern and Upper East regions in Ghana, Niamey in Niger and Sikasso in Mali.

3.2.2. Starting period and foreseen finishing period or duration

The assignment is expected to commence no later than 13^th March 2017 for a total of 16 working days. The review of relevant documents and completion of field work leading to producing a draft evaluation report is expected to be concluded by 3rd April 2017.

A tentative time schedule is annexed to this ToR as appendix I.

1. 3.REPORTING

Beyond the consultant detailed technical and financial proposals, the consultants will be expected to produce an inception report upon review of the documents provided. This inception report is expected to provide the framework for the entire assignment, the data collection tools, and on site visit plan and proposed schedule of meetings with country teams and beneficiaries and other stakeholders etc.) for review/discussion with ACDEP/AGRA before the commencement of field work. The expected key deliverables are:

1. Inception report (evaluation framework with draft data collection tools for review by ACDEP/AGRA
2. Draft report
3. Final report

4.1 Language

The language prevailing under the contract is English.

4.2 Submission/comments timing

The consultant will receive written comments from ACDEP and AGRA on the draft evaluation report including recommendations within seven working days upon submission of the draft report for incorporation and finalization.

4.3 Number of report(s) copies

5. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

5.1      Logistical support and reporting

ACDEP will provide all reasonable transport for fieldwork, and working space in ACDEP offices as required for the review of documentation and for the duration of fieldwork. ACDEP will also provide support in terms of board and lodging and organizing meetings with relevant stakeholders. The consultant(s) will report to the Executive Director. Implementation will be coordinated by the WARRP Project Manager and the ACDEP Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist.

5.2 Submission of bid

Interested consultant(s) should submit a short methodology (max 10 pages) outlining the approach to the assignment as well as financial component. This document should be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. marked on the subject line WARRP: End of Project Evaluation proposal on or before close of business March 1, 2017

Annex 1: proposed assignment time schedule for the evaluation team