Consultant for End-line Survey for UAS - LCB at Mercy Corps

Locations: (Maiduguri, Jere, Bama, Gwoza, Damboa, Ngala and Dikwa) Borno
Employment Type: Contract

Background

• Mercy Corps has been present in Nigeria since 2012, focusing its interventions on humanitarian assistance, economic development, and conflict mitigation. With the ongoing insurgency in Northeast Nigeria, causing the displacement of millions of individuals, Mercy Corps started its humanitarian response in 2014 to address the rising humanitarian needs. As the crisis has persisted, Mercy Corps' strategy has also expanded to address the root causes of the conflict and seek to build the long term resilience of communities with integrated programs focusing on governance, the recovery of markets and livelihoods, social cohesion, and social protection, youth empowerment, and local conflict management.
• In Northeast Nigeria, Mercy Corps addresses vulnerable communities' immediate needs by using community-led and market-driven approaches to enable conflict-affected populations to transform from relief to resilience.
• Mercy Corps is currently implementing the 'Using the Airwaves for Stability in the Lake Chad Basin' (UAS-LCB) program. The program uses radio to generate constructive public dialogue and debate to inform more participatory and effective policies, practices, and communications channels related to transitional justice and reconciliation for communities in northeast Nigeria.

The UAS_LCB Program Objectives:

• Communities affected by Boko Haram have a strengthened understanding of local, regional and national government de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration strategies and ways to provide feedback that creates greater ownership, participation and sustainable implementation of policies, and improves communities’ willingness to accept disengaged fighters.
• Potential Boko Haram defectors better understand government de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration programs and modalities for disengagement and disarmament.
• Increased discussion and dialogue that creates greater knowledge of the dynamics of violence and provides alternative narratives that increase support for the de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration of Boko Haram defectors.

The purpose of this end line evaluation are outlined below:

• Evaluate the achievements of the activity in relation to the goal, objectives, results, and targets.
• Evaluate the achievements towards the change of perception on re-integration and acceptance of former insurgent fighters into the community and how it affected certain groups of interest (traditional rulers, C-JTF, women, and men; the youth population; boys and girls, etc.).
• Evaluate the intended and unintended outcomes that can be attributed to the program intervention.
• Identify best practices, lessons learned, strengths, and challenges in the activity design, including the Log Frame and implementation for achieving project achievements.
• To assess the overall achievement of the project against baseline data established at the start of the project.

Consultant Deliverables:
The Consultant is expected to answer the survey questions using qualitative and quantitative means of data collection and analysis. This will include the key deliverables of:

• Develop an Inception report detailing the process, tools, and methodologies to answer the evaluation questions.
• Undertake desk review of the relevant program documents
• The Consultant is expected to carry out the following tasks and produce a comprehensive final end-line report.
• Train, and oversee the work of Enumerators.
• Prepare a draft evaluation report.
• Finalize report, produce a presentation of findings, and share back with MC.

Below is an overview of the activities, their duration, and the stakeholders responsible. The duration/Level of Effort included is an estimate.

The Consultant will be provided with transportation, air travel ticket, local transportation and accommodation in Maiduguri and the field locations for the final evaluation. Mercy Corps will support with access to field/implementation sites. Mercy Corps Research Assistants will be responsible for field data collection, they will be trained by the lead consultant and supervised by the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team in Mercy Corps lead and the consultant. Mercy Corps MEL team will work directly with the Consultant throughout the consultancy duration and answer any question as they emerge. It is important to note that consultant should be willing to travel to evaluation locations which are volatile and prompt to attack.

Report Structure & Content:

• Cover Page, List of Acronyms
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary: This section should be a clear and concise stand-alone document that gives readers the essential contents of the Assessment report, including a summary of major findings, lessons learned, and recommendations.
• Methodology: This section should be sufficiently detailed to help the reader judge the report's accuracy and findings.
• Limitations: This section should address the methodology's constraints and limitations and its implications for the findings, including whether and why any of the evaluation findings are inconclusive
• Results: This section should provide a clear assessment of progress concerning indicators/targets/objectives and or evaluation questions, production of indicator estimate with tables showing the indicators, BL/EL indicator value, and statistically compare the two values. Reference baseline information as well as program logic, the theory of change, etc.
• Synthesis, Recommendations, and Lessons Learned: This is space for the evaluation team to think about the data and results, and make concrete recommendations for current or future program improvements, pull out organization lessons learned, and generally comment on data and results. Everything presented in this section should be directly linked back to the information presented in the Results section of the report
• Conflicts of Interest: Disclose any conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest, including program staff's interest in having a successful program.
• Annexes: These should include a complete file of data collection instruments in English, a list of stakeholder groups with number and type of interactions; SOW, qualitative protocols developed and used, any data sets (these can be provided in electronic format), any required photos, participant profiles or other special documentation needed.

The Consultant will report to:

• Mercy Corps Country MEL Manager

The Consultant will work closely with:

• Mercy Corps' UAS – LCB Program Manager, Senior MEL Officer, UAS-LCB Program team, and Partners.

Qualification

• Must hold a minimum of advanced relevant university degree (MSc or PhD).
• Relevant professional qualification(s) will be an added advantage.

Minimum Experience:

• Must possess at least 7 years of professional experience in programme and project evaluation (designing, conducting and leading evaluations; applying qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods).
• Minimum of 5 years proven experience in evaluation of programs funded by governments, international organisations or other public sector organisation.
• Experience in implementing evaluations remotely.
• Strong understanding of the context in north-eastern Nigeria, especially Borno state.
• Willingness and ability to travel to UAS-LCB program locations (Maiduguri, Jere, Damboa, Bama, Gwoza, Ngala, and Dikwa).
• Excellent command of the English language – written and spoken.
• Must attach financial offer per day.

Required Experience & Skills
The following are the qualifications and experiences the Consultant should possess:

• Strong experience with conducting media programming for peace-building
• Strong experience conducting major research exercises supporting major development programs - in challenging operational environments, previous experience in Nigeria is desirable.
• A strong approach to assuring quality assurance of data collected.
• A robust ethical approach to data collection - while still being able to meet the consultancy's objectives' objectives.
• Demonstrable experience in leading evaluations of humanitarian programs responding to major disasters, Strong analytical skills, and ability to synthesize and present findings, draw practical conclusions, make recommendations, and prepare well-written reports on time.
• Demonstrated experience in both quantitative and qualitative data collection and data analysis techniques, especially in emergency operations.
• Data visualization skills are highly desirable.
• Experience with evaluation of USAID-funded projects.
• Experience, knowledge, and clear understanding of Nigeria humanitarian context.
• Good interpersonal skills and understanding cultural sensitivities.
• Readiness to travel to Borno (Maiduguri, Jere, Damboa, Bama, Gwoza, Ngala, and Dikwa) conduct direct standard assessment activities and field visits to program sites.

Assessment and Award of the Assignment:

• Mercy Corps will evaluate technical and financial proposals and award the assignment based on technical and financial feasibility. Mercy Corps reserves the right to accept or reject one or all proposals received without assigning any reason and is not bound to accept the lowest or the highest bidder. Only those shortlisted will be contacted
• Any sub-contracting under this evaluation consultancy will not be accepted.