Save the Children DIFPARK Project Endline Evaluation Consultancy in Kenya

Save the Children

Terms of Reference for DIFPARK Project Endline Evaluation

Programme Title: Delivering Increased Family Planning Across Rural Kenya
 

Subject of Service Contract: Endline Evaluation
 

Duration of study / evaluation: 30 days
 

Contact person: Sarah Mukisa, Head of Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning

 

1. Project Background and Context: The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) supports ESHE, a four and a half -year programme from 2013 – 2018 with the aim of improving reproductive health outcomes by implementing a mix of interventions which will increase the number of rural women and adolescent girls, including those in marginalised communities, using FP and healthy child-spacing in the most appropriate ways in Mandera and Wajir. 

The intended goal of the ESHE FP programme is increased use of FP among women of reproductive age including adolescent girls, and the expected outcomes are greater access to more FP choice, including for the poorest Kenyans, underpinned by four programme outputs:
 

Output 1: Increased access, choice and quality of FP
Output 2: Increased awareness for FP and reduction of socio-cultural barriers
Output 3: Greater involvement and sustainability of the private sector
Output 4: Total Market Approach3 (TMA) for FP effectively planned, coordinated and supported

ESHE is implemented in a consortium led by the Palladium Group, working with Exp Momentum Ltd (EXP), Population Services International (PSI) through their Kenya programme PS Kenya (PSK), Save the Children (SC), Cardno and Well Told Story (WTS). 

The programme contributes to the UK government target of enabling at least 10 million more women to use modern methods of family planning by 2020. 

The programme is positioned to complement other areas of DFID health sector support in Kenya including: Maternal and Newborn Health programme, DFID Kenya’s Adolescent Girls Initiative and African Health Markets for Equity.

Save the Children’s work in Mandera and Wajir contributes towards the achievement of output two – increased awareness of FP and reduction of socio-cultural barriers. 

Wajir and Mandera counties have the highest total fertility rates (TFR) in the country of 7.8, and 5.2 respectively against a national average of 3.9.  Seven out of ten people in north eastern Kenya (Garissa, Wajir and Mandera) are in the lowest wealth quantile and 69% have no education at all. 

Only 51% of girls attend primary education, while only 16% proceed to secondary schools. 75% of women in the north eastern Kenya are illiterate compared to 32% among men. 

Access to media (print radio and television) is extremely low with 72% and 47% of women and men respectively having no access to any form of media. 

The Contraceptive Prevalence Rate in North eastern Kenya is at 3.4% compared to the national average of 58%. (KDHS 2014)

Save the Children employs behavior change communication (BCC) approaches aligned to Islamic context to address barriers to the uptake of modern contraceptive. 

Community health units and religious establishments remain important avenues for FP promotion in resource poor and underserved settings. 

Child spacing champions from the religious institutions identify and sensitize key influencers such as Imams, Sheikhs, elders and husbands on the benefits of birth spacing. These engagements are aimed at securing commitment and pledges for FP support.

2. Purpose of Evaluation

This study aims to assess both processes and outcomes for the project and collect evidence for further programming. Specifically understand whether the ESHE FP demand creation project contributed to reduction of social cultural barriers to FP services among the communities living in Mandera and Wajir counties.

2.1 Specific Objectives

1. To establish the knowledge, attitudes and practice of FP among men and women and whether this has changed over the project cycle compared to baseline.


2. To assess religious leaders’ attitudes towards FP.


3. To estimate contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) among women of reproductive age (15-49years)


4. To assess the common supply side barriers to Family planning in the two counties.  


5. To suggest key strategic recommendations for future interventions on Family planning.

3. Study Design and Methodology
 

The consultant will develop the methodology in collaboration with the health technical specialist and will be expected to write an inception report following review of literature for key project documents. 

The methodology should be able to clearly answer each of the specific objectives and should specify mechanisms to avoid bias. 

The consultant and his/her team are expected to propose methodology and best sampling design to conduct the evaluation.

4. Scope of Work

The evaluation will cover Mandera and Wajir subcounties  where the ESHE project has been implemented through a participatory approach based on active involvement of project beneficiaries. 

Furthermore, the study will be undertaken
 

In particular, the consultant is expected to:

1. Conduct desk reviews of key project documents Key documents to be reviewed include project proposal (which includes indicators and indicator targets), project M&E plan, quarterly reports and annual review reports.


2. Develop appropriate data collection tools for the evaluation and pilot them before use..


3. Meet with key stakeholders who include local authorities; religious leades and MOH management teams


4. Train enumerators (should be a mix of both male and female)


5. Conduct data analysis and write evaluation report.


6. Present key evaluation findings to stakeholders.

5. Evaluation Criteria

The following questions will be used to undertake the evaluation

6. Evaluation Team

7. Evaluation Activities and Time Frame

8. Deliverables

Deliverables under this consultancy will include the following:

1. An inception report: The consultant will share his/her inception report that details the study design (rationale, methodology), data collection tools, and a detailed work plan within 1-3 days of engagement, to be approved by Save the Children (Head of MEAL & Health Specialist).


2. Draft Evaluation report: The consultant will prepare a draft evaluation report with details of findings, recommendations and lessons learnt for review by Save the Children and partners. Evaluation report format will be shared with consultant.


3. Final Evaluation report: The consultant will share a final evaluation report after incorporating the comments from Save the Children and consortium partners. The evaluation report is an exclusive property of the Save the Children should not be released without prior authorization. This will be both in electronic and hard copy. The report shall be presented as MS Word document of no more than 40pages excluding annexes and PowerPoint not more than 12 slides).


4. All data sets: Consultant will deliver the data sets to Save the Children (SPSS, Stata or excel for quantitative and for qualitative the transcribed data).


5. Two pages brief that include the evaluation key findings, recommendations and lessons learnt.

9. Administrative and logistical support

The duration of the assignment is 30 calendar days after signing of contract. 

Days are inclusive of travelling, fieldwork and reporting. 

The evaluation is expected to take place from 16th Oct 2017 to 15th of Nov 2017.

 In support to the consultant(s) to undertake the assignment, Save the Children will:

• Provide all relevant/available materials pertinent to study


• Provide transport and accommodation during the field work


• Recruitment of the enumerators from the local communities


• Mobilization of local communities and other stakeholders such as Ministry of health and religious leaders.

Save the Children will cover for the consultant’s air tickets on economy class to relevant field sites, accommodation on bed and breakfast plus airport transfers in the field. All other costs shall be borne directly by the consultant.

10. Payment schedule
 

The consultant is advised to submit an itemized budget with realistic daily rates for the assignment based on the understanding of the assignment and the current market rates.  

Where need be, Save the Children will engage the consultant to an agreeable daily rate. 

Remuneration will be based on submission of deliverables that are satisfactory to Save the Children as agreed upon after discussion with Save the Children in the inception meeting. 

The payments will only be made when the deliverables have been assessed by the Save the Children team to be of acceptable quality and official sign off by the health technical specialist provided. 

Taxation laws for Kenya will apply on the overall consultancy fee.
 

The following payments will be paid to the consultant using an agreed mode of payment.

• After approval of inception report: 30%


• After approval of Final Report: 70%

11. Qualifications of the consultant / consulting firm

1. Post-graduate degree in Public Health, Social Sciences, Statistics or related field;


2. Minimum of 5 -10 years relevant professional experience in research;


3. Strong background and experience in data collection and analysis; experienced in and able to use mobile technology (tablets) for data collection


4. Proven experience of undertaking evaluations/research or leading evaluation/research teams, with outstanding skills in qualitative and quantitative research and data analysis using relevant software such as STATA or SPSS


5. Technical expertise in assessing health behaviour change, and the ability to draw strong and valid conclusions;


6. Knowledge and experience in RMNCAH programming is essential;


7. Excellent communication and report writing skills.

12. Child safeguarding: As the consultant will be working on behalf of Save the Children he/she will be required to sign and adhere to the Child Safeguarding Policy and ethical guidelines. Note that background checks will be undertaken on all applicants.

13. Intellectual property: The title rights, copyrights and all other rights of whatever nature in any materials used or generated under the provisions of this consultancy will exclusively be vested with Save the Children Kenya country office.All products developed under this consultancy belong to the project exclusively, guided by the rules of the grant contract. 

Under no circumstances will the consultant use the information of this evaluation for publication or dissemination without official prior permission (in writing) from Save the Children Kenya.

14. Submitting expressions of interest

All interested Individuals/firms are requested to express interest following our EOI format ONLY (CLICK HERE to download) by email to: [email protected] indicating the Assignment title on the subject line. 

The applications close on 29th Sept 2017