Project Final Review (FE) and After-Action Review (AAR) Full-Time

The CARE International is hiring a Project Final Review (FE) and After-Action Review (AAR) Terms of Reference (TORs).

Background

CARE International in Mozambique is a humanitarian non-governmental organization committed to working with poor women, men, boys, girls, communities, and institutions to impact the underlying causes of poverty significantly. CARE seeks to contribute to economic and social transformation, unleashing the power of the most vulnerable women, and girls, while building resilience to the extreme weather events, caused by climate change.

Due to the complex humanitarian crisis for which the country is under-resourced and under-equipped, including intensified security threats by non-state armed groups (NSAG) in the North, the COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerability to climate change and natural disasters, and the 2016-2017 debt crisis, CARE Mozambique is implementing a 20-months project which aims to support IDPs and vulnerable host community members, in particular women and girls, to absorb external shocks and protection risks through principled, gender-responsive, and inclusive humanitarian assistance.

The planning and development of activities included in this intervention take into account that consecutive climatic shocks, insecurity, and violence have led to continued displacement, increased protection risks, and disruption to markets and livelihoods. Thousands of persons have been displaced internally, many of them repeatedly. This mass displacement of vulnerable populations has resulted in insufficient availability and access to food, loss of livelihoods, insufficient availability and access to water, sanitation installations, and hygiene materials, and increased protection risks and psychosocial stresses — all of which exacerbate vulnerability to future shocks.

Thanks to support from Austrian Development Agency, CARE Mozambique proposed to assist 3,000 households (15,000 individuals) in displacement sites to contribute to their household livelihoods through gender-sensitive, climate-smart agriculture-based, and non-agriculture-based activities. The project also aims to ensure that 12,000 displacement site residents can address essential WASH-related needs and safety, and 5,800 displacement site residents, especially women, and girls, adopt positive psychosocial coping mechanisms.

With the project coming to an end, CARE intends to conduct a final project review, followed by an After-Action Review exercise.

A.Final Review

Purpose, Objectives, and Rationale

The Final Review will be conducted to objectively assess the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of the project in light of its objectives and provide recommendations for future programming. The project’s final review shall verify the progress achieved; assess the replicability of the interventions and subsequent outcomes in other similar settings, document lessons learned, and provide evidence-based recommendations to CARE Mozambique. This review is looking not only for intended outcomes but also evidence of unintended outcomes (both positive and negative).

The objectives of the (final) review are as follows:

• Assess and document the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, and sustainability of results achieved (including an assessment of local/participants ownership);
• Assess the appropriateness of project design and strategies, and management structures, to inform other and/or future programming for similar interventions;
• Provide findings, conclusions, recommendations and lessons learned to enhance future programming by CARE Mozambique for similar interventions.

Review Criteria and Questions

1. How has the project addressed livelihood and WASH-related needs and strengthened the resilience of targeted IDPs in Nampula province?
2. To what extent has the project improved access to safe water and promoted hygiene among targeted households, in dignity and safety?
3. How have positive psychosocial coping mechanisms been promoted and adopted by displacement site residents, especially women and girls?
4. How has agriculture and food security been improved and recovered?
5. What approaches has the project followed to mainstream gender and what was the impact of the project on gender equity and related issues?
6. To what extent has the project improved alternative off-farm activities?
7. What are the lessons learned and best practices from the design and implementation of this project that can be fed into similar future programs?

• Relevance: The extent to which the objectives of a development intervention are consistent with beneficiaries’ requirements, country needs, global priorities and partners’ and donors’ policies.
• Effectiveness: The extent to which the development intervention’s objectives were achieved, or are expected to be achieved, taking into account their relative importance.
• Efficiency: A measure of how economically resources/inputs (funds, expertise, time, etc.) are converted to results.
• Sustainability: The continuation of benefits from a development intervention after major development assistance has been completed.
• Impact: Positive and negative, primary and secondary long-term effects produced by a development intervention, directly or indirectly, intended or unintended.

Approach and Methodology

The Final Review will follow a mixed-methods approach that includes a combination of document review, household visits, in-depth interview with key informants, and focus group discussions.

The contractor will be responsible for defining and carrying out the overall review approach, this will include specification of the techniques for data collection and analysis. Review tools, methodology, and findings should be reviewed, validated, and approved by CARE Mozambique.

Primary Data

Primary data collection should follow a mixed-methods approach that includes a combination of quantitative methods: in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with beneficiaries, key informants from host communities, government representatives, and CARE staff involved in the intervention, as well as individual households visits.

Some of the key stakeholders that must be targeted through the primary data collection include:

• Key-project staff;
• Project participants;
• Local authorities, from local and district level.

Secondary Data

The process, of retrieving existing documents and data, will include a desk review of existing literature including the project proposal, PDMs reports, progress reports, M&E data, official statistics, and other relevant quantitative and qualitative secondary data that will support the review exercise. Available information will be provided to the external review team by CARE.

B.After Action Review (AAR)

In line with the Final Review exercise, CARE Mozambique intends to conduct an After-Action Review (AAR) which aims to provide stakeholders with an external, precise, and relevant review of CARE’s response to the IDP crisis in the Memba district as well as help to promote learning and accountability throughout CARE Mozambique.

The AAR will be based on the results of the findings from the primary and secondary data collected in frame of the review, which will be carried out just before the AAR workshop.

Overall Objective

The objective of this exercise is to conduct a comprehensive After-Action Review of CARE’s humanitarian response to the IDPs crisis in Memba district, Nampula province. This includes the documentation of good practices, success and challenges for CARE wide learning, and recommendations for strengthening CARE’s response to the humanitarian crisis.

The specific objectives of the AAR are:

1. Identify and address the strengths and weaknesses of CARE’s response to the IDPs crisis in Memba district, especially in relation to operational efficiency, impact and relevance;
2. Formulate lessons and recommendations for CARE’s humanitarian interventions for similar crises in Mozambique;
3. Formulate specific recommendations for CARE to strengthen its feedback mechanisms;
4. Support CARE to identify and understand good practices to enhance the application of CARE’s PSEA and protection-related policies in the humanitarian response.

Participants of the workshop and venue:

A 1-day Workshop will be held in Nacala with online-participants from CARE Head Office Maputo. The participants of the workshop will consist of CARE staff involved in the implementation of the project, government representatives involved in the interventions, and representatives of the project beneficiaries.

Methodology

The consultant will draft the workshop agenda and methodology to be used (presentations, group work etc.), which will be reviewed by CARE and then finalized.

Roles & Responsibilities of consultant

Pre-assignment preparations:

• Clarify goals, objectives and expectations for the AAR with management (CARE Mozambique);
• Review available documentation about the response including sitreps, proposals, studies, reports, PDM data and other project participants feedback;
• Supervise preparations of AAR workshop (including participants profile;
• Orient specific session leaders and presenters (if any).

Facilitate AAR Workshop:

• Ensure that participants have clearly understood objectives and group tasks;
• Establish an environment where participants can speak openly and constructively;
• Ensure that pre-AAR inputs and analysis are taken into account during AAR discussions;
• Coordinate documentation of all workshop outcomes.

Post-AAR follow-up

• Prepare AAR workshop report, validate with CARE Mozambique and finalize.

Roles & Responsibilities of CARE

• Establish AAR steering group;
• Avail to the facilitator all relevant documentation about the response including internal and external reports;
• Carry out AAR process preparations;
• Organize and document agreed pre-AAR / pre-deployment;
• Provide pre-AAR inputs as required (see above);
• Facilitate visa-application for the consultant (if applicable);
• Facilitate access by consultant to key informants, communities etc;
• Manage invitations and invitees of the AAR;
• Lead implementation of recommendations.

C.Timeline; Process and Expectations

The duration of this assignment is for 18 working days between June 5 and June 30, 2023.

Tentative schedule                                                     Date                               Activity Number of Consultant work days

To be discussed                                         Preparations (Contract sign;                                               3
preparation of review tools,
guiding questions for interviews
etc. and detailed workplan)

To be discussed                                         Field work in Memba District                                            5
(KIIs and FGDs)

To be discussed                                         Data analyses; Workshop                                                    3
preparations in Nacala

To be discussed                                         Facilitation of AAR Workshop in                                       1
Nacala

To be discussed                                        Preparation and submission of                                           6
reports (final review + AAR
workshop)

Total number of working days               18

Expectations

The following documents are expected from this consultation:

• Final Review Report (to be submitted by June 30) with maximum 25 pages (excluding Annexes);
• After-Action Workshop Report (to be submitted by June 30) with maximum 7 pages (excluding Annexes).

Final Report Requirements

The external evaluator is accountable to maintain the requirements for the content, format, or length of the final report, overall quality, and approved timelines. She/He will produce a comprehensive report that assesses the achievements, relevance, coherence, coverage, effectiveness, efficiency, and early outcomes (and impact) of the project and provide prioritized recommendations.

The report must include:

• A Title: A title that conveys the name of the project, location, implementation period.
• An executive summary that focuses both on process as well as impact that is no more than 2 pages in length and is formatted so that it can be printed as a stand-alone 2-pager about the project.
• A display of impact early in the report, including 3-5 key impacts/findings: What changed because of the program? This are the most significant accomplishments, supported by solid evidence. Each impact should be written as one or two sentences.
• A clear methodology section: the methodology should explain the review questions, and how the methodology chose appropriately answers those questions. It should also contain key ethical considerations and a description of how the evaluators protected participants and personally identifiable information.
• 3-5 key lessons learned: These should be short, actionable, and the most important aspects of what the program/analysis found. They need to be relevant and new for people outside of the direct program. They should also include highlights of what to improve in the future.
• 3-5 bullets describing how the project got to impact/3-5 recommendations: It is important to have non-jargon descriptions of what a project did to get to impact. These are highlights of the most effective, relevant, and scalable approaches and tools. If this is an analysis and not an review, then this section should be 3-5 key recommendations for what the project/program/initiative should do based on your findings.
• Shareable Evidence: Evidence collected by the external review from the conclusions and recommendations must be submitted along with the final report. All datasets, qualitative interviews, and underlying data are owned by CARE and are included in final deliverables. Sources of all evidence must be identified and conclusions must be based only on evidence presented in the report, and recommendations must directly correspond to the conclusions.

Intended Users and Use

The review findings and processes will be used and shared with relevant stakeholders, including CARE staff, donors, government and local authorities. The findings from the review (Power-Point presentation and Hand-outs) will be the key elements for the After-Action Review workshop.

D.Profile of Consultant

Successful implementation of these tasks requires a professional with a mix of expertise in agriculture, WASH, and protection. Also, advanced skills in implementation of quantitative and qualitative surveys is necessary. The experts should possess at least MSc/MA degrees and more than 10 years’ experience in evaluating humanitarian intervention. In addition, consultant firm is required to possess the following specific qualifications.

• Proven consultancy and/or work experience with International NGOs, preferably with ADA-funded humanitarian projects, as well as experience with other international and bilateral organizations;
• 10 years relevant working experience in Mozambique/other African and/or developing countries;
• Expertise in data analysis tools and methodologies;
• Good knowledge of gender, youth employment, and climate change adaptation;
• Experienced with the CORE Humanitarian Standard;
• Good writing and presentation skills;
• Proficiency in Portuguese and English;
• Proven history of delivering quality products on time.

Deadline for submission of proposals (technical and financial).