Impact Assessment of EDACE’s grants

1.                  Background

Development Alternative Inc (DAI) is seeking to hire consultant(s) to conduct and Impact Assessment of its 10 grants being implemented under Enhanced Democratic Accountability and Civic Engagement (EDACE) programme. EDACE is a Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) funded programme managed by Development Alternatives Inc.

EDACE is a grant making programme, aiming to make short-term, high-impact grants to improve rights awareness, citizen engagement, access to justice, and provision of security services to ensure that Pakistani citizen rights and democratic processes are improved, and trust between state and the society is strengthened at provincial and local levels.

EDACE is mainly working around supply and demand side of rule of law and conflict prevention/resolution. Under the supply side of rule of law, the project is focusing to sensitize and improves service delivery of various public departments/bodies. Under demand side of rule of law, the project aims to aware local citizen of their human, legal and civic rights and to link them to public departments/bodies.

Following table describes key information of the project.

2.                  Objectives of the Impact Assessment

The Impact Assessment will assess the progress of EDACE’s 10 grants (Summary of the Grants annexed) November 30, 2014, well as identify issues and recommend course corrections.  It will also highlight issues and challenges affecting effective and efficient implementation of outputs and their contribution to Grants outcomes and impact and recommend whether results obtained thus far warrant an extension of the grants.

The review is being undertaken after the midpoint of grants implementation and will pave the way for improved delivery for the remaining duration duration and propose amendments (if any) required in Grants design, implementation arrangements and/or institutional linkages in order to effectively and sustainably contribute to the improvement in the rule of law and building trust between state and communities in the target areas. 

3.                  Duration of the Consultancy:

The duration of the consultancy is one month. The consultancy will begin by December 1, 2014 and presentation of the Final Repot must be made by or before December31, 2014.

Key Focus Areas

The Consultant will assess grants (awarded under the EDACE programme) according to standard evaluation and impact assessment criteria, as elaborated below.

a)                  Relevance

b)                  Effectiveness

c)                  Efficiency

                    I.                        Assess whether the grants achievements against the grants targets, and comment whether the grants have the capacity to deliver the agreed result at the output and outcome levels

                  II.                        Analyse the performance of the Monitoring and Evaluation mechanism of the Grants and the use of various M&E tools

                III.                        Assess the qualitative and quantitative aspects of management and other inputs (such as monitoring and review and other technical assistance and budgetary inputs) provided by the grants vis-à-vis achievement of outputs and targets.

                IV.                        Identify factors and constraints which have affected grants implementation including technical, managerial, organizational, institutional and socio-economic policy issues in addition to other external factors unforeseen during the grants design.

d)                 Sustainability and Impact

                    I.                        Assess preliminary indications of the degree to which the Grants results are likely to be sustainable beyond the Grants’ lifetime (both at the community and institutional level), and provide recommendations for strengthening sustainability

                  II.                        Analyse the emerging impact on the communities for both men and women in terms of awareness of rights; trust building; and conflict prevention and resolution

                III.                        Based on the findings (relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and impact) recommend whether extension of this Grants is warranted.

e)                  Network /linkages

                    I.                        Evaluate the level, degree and representation by the beneficiaries and stakeholders, (government and  EDACE team) in the implementation of the Grants (with particular attention to the development and testing of grants implementation approaches)

                  II.                        Examine the synergies and potential overlap between particular grants and other donor funded programmes in the relevant districts and propose strategy to enhance complementarities.

                III.                        Assess the Grants’ knowledge management strategies and outreach and communications to all stakeholders.

f)                   Lessons learnt/ Conclusions

                    I.                        Analyze areas for improved programme planning, especially with respect to setting targets

                  II.                        Identify significant lessons or conclusions which can be drawn from the Grants in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and networking. Special attention may be given to the context (Political development, security, and natural disasters) and the coping strategies developed by the Grants to maintain work momentum.

                III.                        Recommend grants continuation or otherwise in the post March 2013 phase.

5.                  Outputs

The Consultant’s findings and recommendations will be thoroughly discussed with EDACE, relevant grantees, and FCO.

The Consultant will complete and submit a draft final report in both hard and soft copies. The Consultant will finalize the report in the light of comments/suggestions of stakeholders. The key outputs are:

a)      Methodology: Submission of detailed methodology of IA

b)      Draft Report Template: Submission of a draft report format containing Table of Contents for the final report for approval by DAI.

c)      An Aide Memoire (including key findings and recommendations) and its presentation: The Consultant will present the aide memoire to FCO, and DAI.

d)      The Draft and Final IA Reports: The report should be logically structured, contain evidence-based findings, conclusions, lessons and recommendations, and should be free of information that is not relevant to the overall analysis. The report should respond in detail to the key focus areas described above. It should include a set of specific recommendations formulated for the Grants, and identify the necessary actions required to be undertaken, who should undertake those and possible time-lines (if any).  Grants stakeholders will provide comments on the Draft Report, and the Consultant will finalize the report in view of these comments.

e)      Presentation: For presenting and discussing the draft final report interactively, the consultants will facilitate a one-day concluding workshop for the FCO and DAI

6.         Qualification of the Consultant(s)

Consultant(s) must have a solid (minimum 10 years) experience of evaluation in the related discipline.

The consultant(s) will be responsible for devising detailed methodology of the IA. However, the consultant will adopt a consultative and participative approach. This will include field visits to Grants sites and meetings with communities / Grants direct beneficiaries in 10 districts namely Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Sukkur, Ghotki, Larkana, Jaccobabad, Kashmore, Hyderabad, and Karachi to collect first-hand information. The Consultant will also meet with the Grants team, relevant government agencies / partners at provincial and district level, if need be. The Consultant may also meet other agencies / Grants engaged in similar interventions. The MTE will start with a meeting at DAI Office and conclude with a debriefing meeting with DAI and grantees. 

Consulting firms or individual consultants may apply. Due to the time frame and complexity of the projects, it is recommended that individual consultants may not apply / be fielded for more than one evaluation study.

8.                  Background Documents