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DAI works on the frontlines of international development. Transforming ideas into action-action into impact. We are committed to shaping a more livable world.We tackle fundamental social and economic development problems caused by inefficient markets, ineffective governance, and instability. We work with a wide range of clients, including national and local ...
DAI Global UK Ltd. is seeking to hire an evaluation consultant to conduct an independent external evaluation and assess impact across the Policy Innovation Facility in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. This Terms of Reference serves as a request for proposals from individual experts interested in the evaluation.
The Policy Innovation Facility (PIF) is a 4-year initiative funded by the department of the Government of the United Kingdom - Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). In 2019, the FCDO awarded the contract to DAI Global UK Ltd. in consortium with International Alert, BizExpert (Kyrgyzstan), Imkon (Tajikistan), and University of Central Asia.
The PIF was designed to support the UK’s NSC Strategy for Central Asia and the UK Government’s goal to provide technical assistance to the governments of Kyrgyzstan (GoKR) and Tajikistan (GoTJ) to strengthen and diversify their economies by delivering better economic development policies and programmes.
The PIF through its networks of international and local consultants supported the government champions - Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in providing a tailored advice and assisting in implementing high-profile types of assignments - the technical assistance (TA) projects.
The TA projects supported the development of policies, strategies, programmes and implementation plans that expected to lead to economic development and inclusive growth, including private sector development, trade and investment policy, financial sector development, support to specific sectors, business environment reform and/or public financial management so that in the long-term, to contribute to creating more and better jobs for the poor.
PIF’s expected Impact is greater economic growth and increased well-being in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, contributing in the long term to greater investment and trade opportunities for the UK.
The outcome “High quality economic development policies, strategies and programmes are developed and implemented by the governments of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan” is pursued through two outputs:
Output 1 (80% impact weighting): High-quality technical assistance projects developed and implemented; and
Output 2 (20% impact weighting): MDAs received capacity-building and skills transfer support in developing better evidence-based policies, strategies, programmes and implementation plans.
Under this programme, PIF Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan Offices implemented 18 technical assistance projects:
Year
Technical Assistance Projects Developed and Implemented
2020
2021
2022
Workstream 1: Creative Park Law (CPL)
Workstream 2: Action Plan for the CE Concept Implementation
Workstream 3: Amendments to the Tax Code and Law on Social Insurance Payments
2023
TJ: Review of Development Aid Coordination
Total
18 technical assistance (TA) projects – 8 in Kyrgyzstan (KG); 10 in Tajikistan (TJ)
Programme Management Arrangement
The PIF is managed by a Team Leader (TL) based in the Programme Offices in Bishkek and Dushanbe and reports to the Senior Project Manager, Economic Growth/Delivery Unit based in England. The TL is the principal staff responsible for Programme implementation, supervising staff, allocating Programme budgets. The TL is supported by Senior M&E Lead based in Pakistan and two country offices based in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - each consisting of Facility Leads, National Programme Officers and M&E Managers - responsible for various components and preparing progress reports, maintaining Programme relations with government and the private sector employers as well as local development and donor organizations. A National Steering Committees including the development partners are also established to provide overall governance structure at the national level. The Programme is technically backstopped by a number of specialists based in Bishkek (operations unit) and DAI Home Office in England.
Purpose
The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the processes and achievements of the PIF, including the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, coherence and sustainability of PIF’s interventions in policy area from April 2019 until the time of evaluation and judge the significance of changes (intended and unintended) brought about by those interventions (either directly or indirectly) in the face of a rapidly changing context in beneficiary countries and multiple different actors contributing to change.
Client
The primary client of the evaluation is the Policy Innovation Facility as the implementor of the initiative. PIF/DAI will analyse the conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation and, where appropriate, in agreement with the key stakeholders, jointly decide on the follow-up actions to be taken. The evaluation report will be shared with FCDO, which will use the findings of the evaluation to assess results achieved, sustainability and value for money.
Scope
The evaluation is expected to highlight achievements and lessons learned in active communication with PIF’s management and country teams. Evaluation will cover the entire project duration until the evaluation’s start and take into consideration ongoing activities. Although the scope of the assessment does not include the inception phase of the project (April 23 - July 23, 2019), the evaluator should consider that phase as contextual background in framing the conclusions. The geographical area that should be covered by this evaluation includes Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The field trips duration will be decided together with the consultant based on the proposed methodology.
Focus
The evaluation will use the six main OECD-DAC criteria (relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability) as well as cross-cutting issues of gender.
This evaluation is an attempt to answer some basic questions:
An important aspect of this evaluation is also the search for unexpected changes, whether positive or negative, that were not anticipated at the planning stage, but which have happened anyway. Unexpected benefits, once known about, will be included in future evaluation plan of the Programme Completion Report, FCDO’s terminal evaluation to be held in March 2023.
Evaluation methodology
The Evaluator will create an Inception Report that will provide more details on the proposed methodologies to be used, to include an evaluation matrix, initial drafts of interview guides, and agenda for interviews and field visits (to be confirmed and coordinated with PIF team). The selected approach should favor capturing changes at the outcome level and the explanatory factors considering relevant evaluation ethical guidelines.
The PIF M&E Lead will coordinate to support the Evaluation Consultant to provide project specific information, relevant documents, and information on follow up actions that illustrate achievements of the project. The PIF M&E Lead will be responsible for managing the process including feedback and comments to the inception report and draft evaluation report and helping to address any issues or challenges flagged by the evaluator. The Evaluator should provide periodic feedback as needed to the M&E Lead on progress and any challenges faced.
Evaluation deliverables and Timeline
The evaluation is planned to take place between 9 January 2023 until 28 February 2023. The estimated number of days for the evaluation is maximum 30 work days. A precise timeline will be established with the selected evaluator in the inception report and will consist of the following stages:
Description Of Activities
LoE
Deliverable
Due Date
Initial meeting between evaluator and PIF/DAI team to review the ToR and discuss next steps and timeline
1 day
An inception report including a detailed methodology of the evaluation, a specific workplan for data collection and analysis, draft interview guides and any other needed data collection tools, an evaluation matrix as well as a structure of the narrative case studies (n=2). The report shall be shared with the PIF team for review prior to the start of data collection.
16 January 2023
Desk review of the existing documents
3 days
Draft inception report indicating scope of work evaluation plan and methodology with detailed
evaluation questions
2 days
Review and approval of inception Report by PIF/ DAI
2 days
Data collection, including interviews, meeting stakeholders and field visits (as necessary)
8 days
Following the desk research and the field visits/interviews, as needed, the evaluator will prepare a short presentation of the initial findings and tentative conclusions and recommendations.
This will be used to debrief the DAI PIF team and other relevant parties to identify and address any misinterpretations or gaps.
30 January 2023
3 February 2023
Preparing a short presentation of the initial findings and tentative
conclusions, recommendations
3 days
Debrief with the project team of the preliminary findings
1 day
Preparation and submission of the
draft report
3 days
Building on the debrief and initial feedback received, the evaluator will produce a draft evaluation report that shall be shared with the PIF team for their review. The team’s feedback should focus on technical aspects and not on the conclusions or findings, unless those are based on inaccurate or incomplete information, in which case corrected or supplemental information should be provided.
10 February 2023
Review of the draft report
3 days
Integrating feedback and finalization and submission of the final report and two case studies
5 days
Once feedback is provided, the evaluator will prepare the final report in English for a non-academic audience, proofread, laid out well, including executive summary, list of acronyms, introduction, evaluation context and purpose, evaluation framework and methodology, findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
The evaluator will also prepare a two-page case studies including best practices and lessons learned under key thematic area as a compelling story for the public, policy makers, and donors submitted together with final evaluation report.
24 February 2023
Communication/dissemination of results
The evaluation report and case studies shall be written in English. The final report and case studies will be shared with all partners and be posted on an online repository of evaluation reports open to the public.
Budget:
The evaluation will be funded under the PIF budget. Logistical/travel assistance will be provided as necessary.
The Consultant/s should have the following qualifications and experiences:
Applications should contain the following:
Qualified and interested candidates are requested to send their offer to the following address: nazgul_aitmamatova@dai.com by 16.12.2022, referring to this advertisement.
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