Colombia: FINAL EVALUATION OF NORAD FUNDED HEALTH AND OD ACTIVITIES IN AMERICAS 2013-2016/CONSULTANCY

BACKGROUND

The Norwegian Red Cross has supported 4 interventions in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia as well as regional activities during 4 years (2013-2016).

The projects implemented in each country aim to increase the resilience and the capacities of both communities and the National Societies to cope with humanitarian challenges in terms of health and violence prevention. In Guatemala, the project has an overall goal of improving the resilience of local communities to cope with, adapt to and recover from health risks. It has four main components: 1. HIV prevention (focusing on the youth and risk groups), 2. OD (with a focus on volunteer management and financial development), 3. Mother, New born and Child health, and 4. health in emergencies. The health in emergencies and MNCH components have been focused in the vulnerable communities of the municipalities of El Estor and Santo Tomás de Castilla in the department of Izabal. The HIV component has been centered in 6 departments focusing on in-school youth between 15 to 24 years old; most at-risk populations including: men who have sex with men, female sex workers, transsexual persons, migrant population, at-risk youth, uniformed population, incarcerated population, persons with HIV and their families; the general population and Guatemalan Red Cross personnel - staff and volunteers – with emphasis on Red Cross youth.

In Honduras, the project aims to strengthen the resilience of the communities to address the challenges related to health services, through preventive education approach that promotes sustainable community development, promotion of non-discrimination culture, and institutional development. In order to achieve this goal, different national and regional strategies have been put in place; integral attention focus on childhood and community, communication for behaviour change related to vulnerable population, volunteer tests and technical assistance. The project has been implemented in the municipalities of Chiclana, La Paz department and Quebrada del Sapo in Tegucigalpa. The intervention located in Chiclana has a component on health and in Quebraba del Sapo the project has addressed the effects of the urban violence through the empowerment and participation of the youth.

In El Salvador, the goal of the project is to increase the resilience and capacity of the urban population to address health problems in situations of risk through strengthening the Salvadoran Red Cross. The key components of the project are promotion of health, prevention of violence and institutional strengthening in order to strengthen internal alliances in the Salvadoran Red Cross and provide better quality services for the population in situations of vulnerability. The project has been implemented in Mejicanos belonging to the Great San Salvador along with other additional 14 municipalities. The Mejicanos territorial extension is 22.12 Square kilometres. In the targeted areas of el Salvador, the Red Cross have to deal with the violence due to the influence of organized illegal groups.

In Colombia, the project goal is to strengthen the resilience and capacity of the communities to cope with health problems through sustainable community development, promotion of a culture of peace and non-discrimination, and institutional strengthening. The project focuses on both urban communities in the municipalities of Pasto and Tumaco in the department of Nariño and Buenaventura in the department of Valle de Cauca. Additional smaller scale activities, through support to the Colombian Red Cross National HIV Program, have been carried out in 9 other branches throughout the country. The outcomes of the project are directly related to improving health knowledge and practices at the community level in regards to; prevalent illnesses such as diarrhoeas, respiratory infections, malaria and TB, reproductive and sexual health and violence prevention.

PURPOSE AND SCOPE

The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the achievements of the NORAD funded actions implemented in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Colombia from January 1^st 2013 to December 31^st 2016, specifically with regards to Community Health and Organizational Development. While the designed interventions include other components, such as Violence Prevention, these component will not be subject to the proposed evaluation due to the need to reduce scope and ensure focus on core thematic areas for NorCross. In addition, NorCross wishes, for learning purposes, to focus on areas that have been pre-identified as key components in the 2017-2021 NORADapplication and other similar actions.

There is a specific interest that the evaluation report will contribute with clear findings at the following levels:

· Management: to inform NorCross management decision-making for ongoing or future work related the evaluated thematic areas.

· Learning: collect and systematize lessons (positive and negative) in order to improve programming and to inform strategic policy and planning.

· Accountability: to determine whether the projects have achieved desired results (objectives), and/or have been conducted in compliance with agreed standards and rules contemplated in the Partnership Agreements and specific project Operational Agreements.

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE EVALUATION

The evaluation will be undertaken in three phases:

1. Inception phase in order to plan and scope the evaluation
   and to develop the evaluation tools;
2. Data collection phase using the tools developed during the inception phase to collect the needed information (survey, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions etc.);
3. Data analysis and reporting phase in order to undertake analysis and synthesis of all the collected data using qualitative and quantitative tools and to prepare and present the evaluation report.
   The consultant will be responsible for gathering the information from the NorCross country offices, Nationals Societies from Guatemala, Honduras, el Salvador, and Colombia. The different teams involved on the implementations of the projects from the National Societies of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Colombia will be available and will coordinate the different evaluation sessions with the concerned communities and the different key stakeholders. PMER focal points in each national society should be included as process facilitators and focal points. The facilities and logistics of the different National Offices will be at the disposal of the consultant to carry out the activities related to the evaluation.

All relevant existing documentation will be made available such as initial baseline, intermediate baseline, internal evaluations, end lines and lessons learned.

The evaluation aims to make recommendations based on solid conclusions from the evidence collected during desk review and fieldwork in line with OECD DAC evaluation criteria. The conclusions and recommendations will be derived from in the fieldwork and will reflect a general outcomes assessment of the operating National Societies and IFRC regional office work in health and organizational development.

The evaluation will assess the following criteria:

· Relevance and appropriateness

· Effectiveness

· Efficiency

· Impact

· Sustainability

MAIN TASKS

The final evaluation will be carried out considering the following guiding principles:

· Cross-check reference information with stakeholders at all levels;

· Complement the desk review information and secondary sources of information;

· Identify elements of success and establish the strengths or good practices;

· Identify difficulties in operations; programme implementation and execution

· Make recommendations for improvement.

The evaluation team will undertake the following:

· Develop a work plan for the consultancy

· Conduct a desk review of key documents and communications products

· Develop guidelines for the review including methodology for information gathering and assessment of the information with NS

· Develop question guides for key informants

· Conduct sites visits to all 4 projects to interview project staff, volunteers and beneficiaries.

· Interview any other stakeholders in the region identify by Norcross Team

· Compile and analyse data, and review with technical staff and Norcross Americas team for critical review

· Present key findings and recommendations in a written report

· Present a draft report in Spanish to NorCross Americas team that will be review by the responsible parties

· Submit the final report in Spanish and English addressing comments and feedback from the first draft

TIME FRAME AND DELIVERABLES

The deadline for the submission of the evaluation report is by the end of February in order to allow for its findings to be incorporated into the final report.

It is expected that the evaluation team will provide the following products:

· Evaluation Work plan with schedule of activities

· Methodology design for the evaluation including tools for data gathering

· Desk review of key documents

· Implementation of methodology including field visit

· First draft report

· Presentation of key findings and recommendations

· Final report including the recommendations coming from the revision of the first draft.

The final report will have a maximum of 30 pages plus the annexes which have to include the following:

· Executive summary

· Evaluation methodology

· Key findings, lessons learned and good practice examples

· Conclusions and recommendations

· List of reference and relevant appendices

· A list of key informants

It is expected that the evaluation will last between 45-50 natural days. Starting November 5^th and ending December 22^nd 2016 (Due date for submission of the draft version of the evaluation report) From January 15^th to February 15^th there will be a round of potential clarifications and the submission of the final evaluation report will be scheduled on February 28^th, 2017.

The reports will be submitted to Gonzalo Atxaerandio, Regional Representative Norwegian Red Cross Americas; gonzalo.atxaerandio@redcross.no

TERMS OF CONSULTANCY

The evaluation team should take all reasonable steps to ensure that the evaluation is designed and conducted to respect and protect the rights and welfare of people and communities as well as ensure that the evaluation is technically accurate, reliable, and legitimate, and is conducted in a transparent and impartial manner, contributes to organizational learning and accountability.

The Evaluation Standards are:

1. Utility: Evaluations must be useful and used.
2. Feasibility: Evaluations must be realistic, diplomatic, and managed in a sensible, cost effective manner.
3. Ethics & Legality: Evaluations must be conducted in an ethical and legal manner, with particular regard for the welfare of those involved in and affected by the evaluation.
4. Impartiality & Independence; Evaluations should be impartial, providing a comprehensive and unbiased assessment that takes into account the views of all stakeholders.
5. Transparency: Evaluation activities should reflect an attitude of openness and transparency.
6. Accuracy: Evaluations should be technical accurate, providing sufficient information about the data collection, analysis, and interpretation methods so that its worth or merit can be determined.
7. Participation: Stakeholders should be consulted and meaningfully involved in the evaluation process when feasible and appropriate.
8. Collaboration: Collaboration between key operating partners in the evaluation process improves the legitimacy and utility of the evaluation. **
   QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE**

The evaluation team should encompass the following qualification:

· Minimum qualification of a Masters or PhD with equivalent combination of education and relevant work experience in relevant topics.

· Demonstrated experience planning and implementing final project evaluations required.

· It is required that the evaluation team brings concrete expertise on Organisational Development and community based health programmes as well demonstrated competence in managing quantitative data and carrying out inferential statistics required.

· Proven track record of conducting qualitative and quantitative research including the development of interview schedules and qualitative data analysis required.

· At least five years of direct full-time experience in the monitoring and evaluation field including work with data collection tools (at the community, family, individual and institutional levels).

· Excellent written and spoken English and Spanish required (including analysis, writing and presentation skills)

· Strong computer skills required, e.g. in word, database management, relevant data analysis tools (SPSS, Stata, SaaS etc), and presentation software).

· Strong interpersonal and communication skills skills.

· Experience working in Americas strongly preferred.

· Experience working with representatives of the Government and Health Institutions strongly preferred;

· Knowledge and experience working with the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement preferred.

· Familiarity with trends and developments in international Health preferred.

· Demonstrated capacity to work both independently and as part of a team.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Interested candidates should submit their application material by October 24 2016 to:

Gonzalo Atxaerandio, Norcross Regional Representative: gonzalo.atxaerandio@redcross.no

The application materials should include:

1. Curricula Vitae (CV) of all members of the team applying for consideration.
2. Cover letter clearly summarizing the experience of the proposed evaluation team of as it pertains to this assignment, the daily rate, and three professional references.
3. A brief description of the firm or institution proposed (for applicants other than individual contractors).
4. Technical proposal (when appropriate) not exceeding five pages expressing an understanding and interpretation of the TOR, the proposed methodology, and a time frame for the evaluation as well as an activity schedule.
5. Financial proposal itemizing estimated costs for services rendered (daily consultancy fees), accommodation and living costs, transport costs, stationery costs, and any other related supplies or services required for the evaluation.
6. At least one example of an evaluation report most similar to that described in this TOR.

Application material are non-returnable, and we thank you in advance for understanding that only short-listed candidates will be contacted for the next step in the application process.