Consultancy for Echo (A1S) Third Party Montoring at Action Against Hunger | ACF Nigeria LTD/GTE

PD Reference: PD-ABU-03941

CONSULTANCY FOR ECHO (A1S) THIRD PARTY MONITORING

Action Against Hunger Nigeria (ACF Nigeria) LTD/GTE is currently leading the SHIELDS consortium project funded by the European Union Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) which aims at improving access to integrated lifesaving nutrition, health and WASH in health services for vulnerable populations affected by the conflict and natural disasters in Northern Nigeria. The project will ensure affected vulnerable populations have safe and dignified access to quality nutrition and health treatment and prevention services, with adequate WASH access, and enhanced coordination and prioritization through improved information management capacities. 

In addition to the SHIELDS consortium, ECHO also funds 3 other consortia (DRC-led, Caritas-led and MdM-led) and UN agencies who are all implementing lifesaving interventions in Nigeria. This Terms of Reference defines the scope and requirements for a third-party monitoring (TPM) service provider to independently monitor and assess all 2026 ECHO-funded interventions across Nigeria including SHIELDS. 

The purpose of the TPM is to provide independent monitoring of ECHO funded partners across Nigeria in efforts to improve implementation quality. 

This is to ensure robust, independent monitoring of activities funded by ECHO in northwest, northeast, north central and other parts of Nigeria. This will include the monitoring of activities related to supply and management of commodities and supplies (e.g. nutrition, health, food, non-food, etc.) in supported locations by verifying that pipeline gaps are addressed promptly and that no interruption occurs in the treatment of beneficiaries. This is in addition to ensuring that the commodities are reaching the right beneficiaries by tracking the movement of the commodities at the same time monitoring the supported health facilities ensuring that the right beneficiaries are the recipients of humanitarian aid.

The main objective of this TPM is to ensure robust, unbiased, and independent monitoring, oversight, control and accountability of ECHO-funded activities. The TPM will provide a landscape for ECHO to ensure monitoring of project implementations and to also provide real time updates of projects funded by ECHO while ensuring activities are implemented which highest quality by immediately addressing the gaps identified during implementation. The TPM aims to obtain an independent perspective on all 2026 ECHO-funded partners implementing in Nigeria through provision of real-time and valuable insights and feedback that can enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, accountability and quality of the interventions carried out by ECHO partners implementing in hard-to-reach locations.

Geographical scope coverage: Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in the northeast, Sokoto, Katsina and Zamfara states in the Northwest with potential expansion to other states where ECHO funded projects are implemented in other parts of Nigeria.

Profile of the consultant (Qualification and Experience) 

• Registered consulting firm, research organization, or consortium with legal authorization to operate in Nigeria.
• Previous experience in Third Party Monitoring.
• Proven capacity to undertake independent data collection using digital platforms such as Kobo, ODK, CommCare, SurveyCTO, or similar systems.
• Experience in developing dashboards and integration of API web connection, synchronous export URL or API endpoint.
• Minimum of 7 years' demonstrated experience in Third Party Monitoring (TPM), Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL), assessments, verification, or humanitarian program monitoring.
• Proven experience in conducting TPM assignments for institutional donors such as ECHO, EU, UN agencies, USAID/BHA, FCDO, GIZ, World Bank, or similar donors.
• Demonstrated experience in monitoring humanitarian interventions across one or more of the following sectors:
  • Nutrition 
  • Health 
  • WASH 
  • Food Security and Livelihoods
  • Protection 
  • Multi-sector emergency response
• Proven operational presence and capacity to deploy qualified field monitors across Northern Nigeria, including hard-to-reach and conflict-affected areas.
• Experience in data quality assurance, data validation, triangulation, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data.
• Strong analytical and report-writing skills with evidence of producing high-quality monitoring reports, dashboards, briefing notes, and management summaries. 
• Strong understanding of humanitarian principles, Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS), Sphere Standards, Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), safeguarding, and Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA).
• Ability to provide real-time alerts and rapid incident reporting on issues related to fraud, diversion, safeguarding, access constraints, and program quality concerns. 
• Demonstrated understanding of security and access challenges in Northeast and Northwest Nigeria.

SCOPE OF WORK:

The main objective of this TPM is to ensure robust, unbiased, and independent monitoring, oversight, control and accountability of ECHO-funded activities. The TPM will provide a landscape for ECHO to ensure monitoring of project implementations and to also provide real time updates of projects funded by ECHO while ensuring activities are implemented which highest quality by immediately addressing the gaps identified during implementation.

Specific objectives include:

• Ensure independent, neutral, and unbiased monitoring is conducted across all ECHO-funded interventions with reports demonstrating evidence-based findings
• Monitor and share the monitoring findings directly with ECHO and concerned ECHO-funded partners including ACF within 5 working days of field visits
• Provision of real time updates and alerts on critical issues that need immediate troubleshooting of program activities within 24 hours of identification. 
• Freely and independently raise real-time alerts on critical risks (e.g., fraud, diversion, supply diversion, resource misuse, safeguarding issues and other misconduct) within 24 hours of identification, with actionable recommendations.
• Generate monthly field-based monitoring reports using random sampling of activities and project locations.
• Identify and document emerging risks, operational gaps, and implementation challenges 
• Facilitate corrective action tracking by ensuring identified issues are followed up through feedback loops with partners.
• Assess compliance with technical standards such as Sphere standards, national protocols, and ECHO requirements.
• Sample and verify % of beneficiaries in sampled locations demonstrate awareness of available services and entitlements, through beneficiary interviews.
• Assess the beneficiary access to accountability mechanisms by sampling and confirming to what extent beneficiaries can access and use feedback and complaints channels.
• Verify the implementing partners that have functional accountability systems to capture, analyze, and respond to community complaints and feedback and provide recommendations to improve the accountability systems.  

Proposal without request of the full ToR will not be accepted. The prospective consultancy is expected to submit a brief methodology with concept note while responding to this expression of interest (EoI) 

NOTE: The sending of full ToR will commence from 20thAugust 2026 until the deadline of the submissions to all expressions of interest from prospective consultants and submission of proposals will be on or before 21st August 2026 by 5:00PM, Nigerian time.