Terms of Reference to Conduct an Endline Study for the Community-led Planning and Management for Biodiversity Protection & Resilient communities in the Catchment Area of Lake Chilwa in the Districts Zomba, Phalombe & Machinga

Key Data

Background

Trócaire is a social justice organization working in partnership with local organisations and communities to tackle the root causes of poverty, injustice, and violence. Trócaire supports people to use their own power to create positive and lasting change. Trócaire is the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland and have supported programmes in Malawi since 1976 with an established a country office in 2007. Globally, Trócaire provides humanitarian assistance and long-term support to communities in 16 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. In Malawi, Trócaire works across three thematic areas of Promoting Climate & Environmental Justice, Supporting Women’s and Girls’ Protection, Voice and Leadership: and Saving Lives and Protecting Human Dignity.

Jersey Overseas Aid (JOA) is the Government of Jersey’s official international development agency, working to reduce poverty and build long-term resilience in some of the world’s poorest countries, including. In Malawi, JOA supports locally led programmes that strengthen rural livelihoods through sustainable dairy farming, financial inclusion, climate resilience, and community development. Through these long-term partnerships, JOA aims to promote self-reliance, economic opportunity, and resilience.

Trócaire Malawi, SCIAF, Churches Action Relief and Development (CARD), Civil Society Network on Climate Change (CISONECC) and International Centre for Research in Agro-forestry (ICRAF) with funding from Jersey Overseas Aid have been implementing a project called-Community-led Planning and Management for Biodiversity Protection and Resilient communities in the catchment area of Lake Chilwa, in the districts of Zomba, Phalombe and Machinga since February of 2023 which ends 31 February 2027.

The project is a four year programme that aims at ensuring that ‘Rural communities living in poverty around Lake Chilwa Basin are more environmentally and economically sustainable and resilient due to a rehabilitated, sustainably managed and protected Lake Chilwa Basin’. The Lake Chilwa Basin (LCB) Programme has three specific outcomes; targeted communities, especially vulnerable and marginalized women, youths and People Living with Disabilities are empowered to protect and manage the Lake Chilwa Basin area; targeted communities’ poverty levels, especially vulnerable and marginalized women, youths and persons with disabilities, are reduced through enhanced and more resilient livelihoods which complement the natural environment; and  collaboration between conservation and development actors is strengthened leading to increased peer learning and better outcomes for targeted communities.

The LCB programme targeted some  9,000 households (approximately 45,000 people comprising of 60% female, 5% youth and 5%  persons with disabilities in 48 communities covering 12 Traditional Authorities (TAs) along the rivers feeding into Lake Chilwa; with TAs Mwambo, Kuntumanji, Malemia and Nkumbira in Zomba District; TAs Mkhumba, Nazombe, Chiwalo and Jenala in Phalombe District; and TAs Mposa, Kawinga, Chamba and Chinguza in Machinga District.

Assignment Purpose

The emphasis on learning lessons speaks to the issue of understanding what has and what has not worked as a guide for future planning. It will assess the performance of the project against planned results, tracking results agains the programs initial baseline data. The evaluation will assess the preliminary indications of potential impact and sustainability of results including the contribution to capacity development and achievement of JOA’s strategic objectives. The results of the evaluation will draw lessons that will inform the key stakeholders of this evaluation who are the Government of Malawi, SCIAF, Trocaire, CISONECC, CARD and ICRAF. The evaluation will generate knowledge from the implementation of the LCBP by the various implementing partners in collaboration with the different Government departments and reflect on challenges; lessons learnt and propose actionable recommendations for future programming.

Scope of Assignment

Project management including the implementation strategies; project activities; it will assess the extent to which the project results have been achieved, partnerships established, capacities built, and cross cutting issues of mainstreaming gender, disability inclusion, policy and women empowerment have been addressed.  It will also assess whether the project implementation strategy has been optimum and recommend areas for improvement and learning. In order to achieve these objectives; will focus on the areas in below.

The Evaluation Questions

The following key questions will guide the end of project evaluation considering Impact (intended and unintended, positive and negative changes as a result of project interventions), as well as Coherence (e.g., consideration of alignment with government policies, district plans, other donor initiatives or complementary conservation/development programmes).:

Relevance – ( Access design and focus of the project)

• To what extent did the project achieve its overall objectives?
• What and how much progress has been made towards achieving the overall outputs and outcomes of the project for the LCBP (including contributing factors and constraints)?
• To what extent were the results (impacts, outcomes and outputs) achieved, set against SCIAF and JOA standard indicators?
• Were the inputs and strategies identified, and where they realistic, appropriate and adequate to achieve the results?
• Was the project relevant to the identified needs?

Effectiveness – (Describe the management processes and their appropriateness in supporting delivery)

• Was the project effective in delivering desired/planned results?
• To what extent did women, youth and persons with disabilities participate in decision-making structures?
• What barriers remained for the participation of persons with disabilities and other marginalised groups?
• What adaptations proved most effective in promoting inclusion?
• To what extent did the Project’s MEAL mechanism contribute in meeting project results facilitate timely and appropriate response to project participants and stakeholders;
• Facilitate adaptive management processes.
• How effective were the strategies and tools used in the implementation of the project?
• How effective has the project been in responding to the needs of the beneficiaries, and what results were achieved – What evidence exists that conservation outcomes contributed to improved wellbeing and resilience?
• Were there any trade-offs between conservation objectives and household livelihood needs?
• Which conservation-livelihood models demonstrated greatest potential for scale and replication?
• To what extent did livelihood interventions reduce pressure on natural resources?
• What are the future intervention strategies and issues?

Efficiency – (of Project Implementation and Value for Money)

• Was the process of achieving results efficient? Specifically did the actual or expected results (outputs and outcomes) justify the costs incurred? Were the resources effectively utilized?
• What factors contributed to implementation efficiency?
• Did project activities overlap and duplicate other similar interventions (funded nationally and/or by other donors? Are there more efficient ways and means of delivering more and better results (outputs and outcomes) with the available inputs?
• Could a different approach have produced better results, was the project adaptive toe a changing context (environmental as well as economic, and how adaptive were partners and donors to this?
• How was the project’s collaboration with the Government of Malawi, national institutions, development partners, and the Steering Committee
• How efficient were the management and accountability structures of the project?
• How did the project financial management processes and procedures affect project implementation?
• What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the project implementation process?

Sustainability

• To what extent are the benefits of the project likely to be sustained after the completion of this project?
• What is the likelihood of continuation and sustainability of project outcomes and benefits after completion of the project?
• How effective were the exit strategies, and approaches to phase out assistance provided by the project including contributing factors and constraints
• What are the key factors that will require attention in order to improve prospects of sustainability of Project outcomes and the potential for replication of the approach?
• How were capacities strengthened at the individual and organizational level (including contributing factors and constraints)?
• Describe the main lessons that have emerged, positive and negative, and unexpected challenges
• What are the recommendations for similar support in future, and are particular elements favoured more by participants, and to what extent do participants feel ownership over the project . ? (NB: The recommendations should provide comprehensive proposals for future interventions based on the current evaluation findings).

Policy and Advocacy

• Review the impact of the LCBP on the current policies on natural resource management, and the extent to which these conservation are integrated at the district level through the programme.
• Assess the impact  of the different policy initatiatives of the LCBP in identifying potential areas of conflicts between livelihood options and the exploitation of natural resources (fishing, water and forests).
• Review the knowledge of the different policies by the current governance structures for the management of natural resources (formal and informal including VNRMCs and Beach Village Committees) as a result of the programme interventions
• Clarify to the extent possible attributable advocacy succeses, at national, district and community level.

Activity 2:  Mobilisation meeting with the project Team: Mobilisation meeting with the End of Programme Steering Committee

Activity 3: Develop inception report clearly outlining the design approach and methodology of the evaluation study, data collection and analysis methods

As part of the design, the methodology must be presented and mutually agreed upon before implementation. At a minimum, the methodology must include:

• a brief description of the approach to the endline study
• data collection and analysis methods to be employed in the study
• data collection tools
• proposed sampling method
• measures to ensure protection, security, and confidentiality of data
• description of the framework to be utilised for findings interpretation
• broad timelines for each activity

Development of the above will be drawn from the discussions with Project Team and the consultant’s knowledge and experience of the Malawi context.

Activity 4: Conduct Field Work/Data collection and analysis in the three operating districts

This should include but is not limited to:

• meetings and interviews with identified and relevant stakeholders within selected traditional authorities and districts, local implementing partners and local NGOs operating in the three districts and indepth household, individual participant and community groups among others.

Activity 5: Preparation and Presentation of the EoP Report for a validation meeting

The Consultant is expected to conduct an out-brief exercise to Trócaire & SCIAF and their local partners. This will be in form of a PowerPoint presentation which will cover among other areas:

• overview of activities undertaken
• the analytical approach
• key findings including a project scoring sheet with results against the outcomes.
• actionable recommendations for Trócaire & SCIAF and their local partners.

The PowerPoint Presentation will accompany the first draft of endline report which will be submitted to the Trócaire & SCIAF for initial review.

Activity 7: Finalisation of the EOP Report

The consultant is expected to make revisions according to discussions with Trócaire & SCIAF and their local partners.

Deliverable 2: Draft report and accompanying PowerPoint presentation to be used to share draft findings and recommendation with programme partners.

Deliverable 3 : A full report on the  Endline assignment based on the agreed questions including the dataset which includes the data for all project indicators, a completed scoring matrix, and any additional indicators that SCIAF , Trocaire or JOA propose.

• Trócaire & SCIAF will provide the consultant with project background documents:  project Theory of Change, project Implementation Narrative and logframe, annual reports, case studies and documentaries produced.
• Trócaire & SCIAF Technical Team will set aside time for on-going consultations to discuss the parameters of the assignment including refining the analysis questions, the approach and methodology.
• Trócaire & SCIAF and their local partners travel expenses if and where needed.

The lead consultant should have expertise and experience in agriculture, natural resources management, agroecology, functional landscape approaches (biodiversity) and forestry, with at least master’s degree in the relevant field and with over 5 years progressive working experience in the field of NRM with proven skills and experience in conducting endline surveys.

Other specific skills and experiences will include:

• Strong analytical and conceptual skills to clearly synthesize and present findings, draw conclusions, make recommendations and to prepare timely and well-written reports
• Excellent skills in facilitation, co-ordination, negotiation and communication.
• Demonstrable skills in written and spoken English and proficiency in spoken Chichewa.

Enquiries on any element of this piece of work should also be sent to this address.

Only applications from shortlisted consultants will be acknowledged. Applications received after the deadline will not be taken into consideration.

The Expression of Interest should include the following:

• The Proposal: The consultants should submit a proposal document of not more than 10 Pages, which should clearly articulate their understanding of the assignment, previous experience, proposed methodology and literature review.
• Summary of Experience: The consultants should submit a two page document highlighting their experience in conducting similar assignments with relevant referees.
• Curriculum Vitae: The consultants should submit a three page CV of the qualifications and work experience which clearly articulates their suitability for the proposed task.
• Budget: A summary budget of the exercise including all anticipated costs and expenses to cover the cost of the consultancy, including transport, food, accommodation, fees and taxes.