South Sudan: End of Program Evaluation for Jonglei Food Security Program (South Sudan)

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) South Sudan intends to conduct a final evaluation for the USAID Tittle II funded Jonglei Food Security Program (JFSP) in order to assess the program’s achievement of its intended outcomes and impacts and draw lessons from the program. The evaluation will use both quantitative and qualitative approaches to fulfil the objectives of the task. The quantitative approach will assess the extent to which the program achieved its intended outcomes as benchmarked by the baseline survey conducted in 2012. In conducting this evaluation, the program acknowledges the effect of the violent conflict experienced in December 2013 that altered the operating environment and forced changes in the focus of the program from developmental to emergency and early recovery. The evaluation will also employ qualitative approaches to draw lessons on how the program was responsive to the altered environment and managed to respond to the needs of the communities. JFSP will engage an independent third party consultancy firm to carry out the evaluation.

Objective of the evaluation

The purpose of this evaluation is to assess the current level of achievement for selected outcome and impact indicators since 2012, and to draw lessons learned on implementation transitions during the ongoing conflict. (See the attached scope of work for full details and application details).

Specific objectives:

The specific objectives of this end of program evaluation are to;

• Determine outcome and impact indicator values and compare with benchmarked outcome and impact indicators values from the baseline outlined in the indicator performance tracking table (IPTT);

• Identify program strategies, structures, systems and interventions that contributed to or impeded the achievement of intended impact of program interventions;

• Assess the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of JFSP program strategies and interventions in achieving the intended project outcomes;

• Assess the major challenges faced by the JFSP program and the ways in which these challenges were addressed;

• Draw lessons on the transitions undergone by JFSP and results achieved in various implementation phases in order to inform future CRS and FFP programming in South Sudan.

Duration of the assignment

The assignment is expected to take ±62 working days from the date of signing the contract.

Required qualifications and experience

Composition of the consultancy team

JFSP intends to hire an international evaluation contracting firm which will provide a team composed of senior professionals with established track records in analytical and evaluation methods skills for livelihoods and food security programs. The prospective contractor should develop a technical evaluation proposal using the suggested proposal outline as a starting point together with a budget for the team’s work.

The minimum core expertise required in the international contractor is as follows:

Consultancy firm qualificationsand experience (see SOW for more details)

Team leader and quantitative evaluation consultant(1) must have experience in leading evaluations for FFP Tittle II projects with extensive experience in data management, cleaning and analysis using statistical software such as SPSS or Stata. The lead writer should be proficient in written English. Experience in writing baseline, mid-term and evaluation reports also a requirement. Previous experience in the region and especially Sudan or South Sudan is desirable.

Technical consultants in agriculture and livestock, livelihoods and resilience, WASH and nutrition (3) each consultant must have experience in at least one technical sector of JFSP’s programming and be responsible for evaluation of that sector’s performance under JFSP. Previous experience in the region and especially Sudan or South Sudan is desirable.

Qualitative evaluation consultant (1) must have experience of qualitative evaluations in the social sector with track record of documenting lessons learnt and best practices. Previous experience in the region and especially Sudan or South Sudan is desirable

Interested consultancy firms should develop a technical research proposal using the format on the SOW as a starting point together with a financial proposal to Jonglei[dot]Consultancy[at]gmail.com (jonglei.consultancy@gmail.com) no later than 24^th of June 2016 with the subject title “End of Program Evaluation-JFSP”. Please note that applications may be considered on a rolling basis.

Please download the SOW on this link https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3AYMgQpBHqQTFhyakdrbDJZaGM