TERMS OF REFERENCE

Sustainable development through people-led-initiatives for People living in  
Dan Chu commune, Hoa An District, Cao Bang Province
Consultancy for External Evaluation

Fullname:   The   Center   for   Public   Health   and   Community Development
Address:  Room 1314, C2 Xuan Dinh Building, Xuan Dinh ward, Bac Tu Liem district, Hanoi, Vietnam
Email:  [email protected]

The Center for Public Health and Community Development (CEPHAD for short) is a local Vietnamese NGO, a non-profit organisation. CEPHAD was established in June 1995 licensed by the Vietnam Psycho – Pedagogical Association, Vietnam Union for Sciences and Technology Association by a group   of   experienced   and   enthusiastic   people   in   the   field   of   health, education and social activities. From April 2011, CEPHAD has worked under the umbrella of the Vietnam Association for Promoting Education.

1. Summary

Title:	Final Evaluation Consultancy
(i)	documentation of the project achievements
(ii)	recommendations for the planning of the next project phase
Position:	1 consultant / consultancy team (National)
Duration & timing:	maximum 22 working days from November 31, 2019 to January 15, 2020
Duty station:	Home, Hanoi, Dan Chu commune, Hoa An district, Cao Bang province
Reporting:	The Centre for Public Health and Community Development – CEPHAD

2. Background

The project “Sustainable development through people-led-initiatives for People living in Dan Chu commune, Hoa An District, Cao Bang Province” is continuation of the project ”Health and Livelihood improvement through empowering people living in Dan Chu commune, Hoa An district, Cao Bang province co-funded by BfdW and MISEREOR (phase 1: 09/2014-06/2017). The project has been implemented in 08 villages (continue in five villages of phase 1 and start in three new villages) of the Dan Chu commune. In this phase 2, after assessing the needs and discuss with local people as well as local authorities, 03 new villages of Dan Chu Commune have been selected (hereinafter referred to as the new village). All of 03 new villages are poor villages with nearly 100% of ethnic minorities.

The project villages have low-income, based mainly on agriculture (rice, maize, cassava). Rice productivity is quite low, only 4 tons/ha although recent result of people-led-development (PLD) peer learning in Cao Bang reveal that traditional rice varieties fetch good price in the market and this make up for lower yield levels especially that traditional varieties are grown without expensive external inputs.  Many lowland households only have an average of just under 0.1 hectares for planting so they always face rice food shortages in the months between harvests especially since there is increasing recurrence of draughts. Both the Hmong and Tay communities living in these villages however augment their income by raising livestock (pig and cattle) which is also an important source of organic fertilizers.

Upland area with 100% Hmong people have rugged terrain and transportation is difficult; often by foot. Recent peer learning revealed that the Hmong people have various initiatives and survival strategies on agriculture and sustainable forest resource management since they were forced to do permanent farming because of government restriction against shifting cultivation and pastoralist activities. However, there does not seem to be adequate sharing of best practices within and between and among different villages. 

The project will target to working with:

• The first target group is community in 08 project villages, including:
  
  • 75% of people living in 8 proposed project villages (about 1,255 people among 1,674 people) – 51% female, 100% are ethnic minority and about 77% are poor and nearly poor.
  • The rest of community people in the Dan Chu communes (about 3,850 people including more than 1,900 women) will be benefited directly from the project.
• The second target group is local governments and key village leaders (about 15 people)
• The third target group is CEPHAD staff

The project’s objective and indicators include:

Project objective(s) (Intended outcomes)

• Objective 1: Living condition of poor ethnic people in the project villages is improved

Indicators for the project objective(s)

• Indicator 1: By the end of the project the access of water is improved by 25% (based on the baseline data).
• Indicator 2: By the end of the project, at least 04 initiatives identified are completed for community development by the community with technical assistance from CEPHAD staff using PLD approach.

CEPHAD is currently conducting a participatory and in-depth review of the project implementation at the end of project, looking at the achievements and the challenges encountered so far with the view to reflect on experience and lessons learned in order to adapt the implementation plan of the next phase of the project. This review, which spans from the end of November 2019 to January 2020, involves the project staffs from field level to headquarters and partners and community through meetings, participatory review IDIs, FGDs and consultations.

3. Objective and key issues of the final evaluation

CEPHAD is seeking for a consultant / consultancy team (National) to (i) document the project achievements and to (ii) provide recommendations for the planning of the next phase of the project implementation.

While reporting against project indicators, the consultant/consultancy team is expected to conduct his/her analysis through overarching themes, namely:

• Relevance, Outcomes and Impacts, Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Sustainability, of the activities and approaches.

The detail descriiption of above key themes/issues as follows:

Relevance: The extent to which the project is suited to the priorities and policies of the target group, the organisation responsible for the project and the donor organisation. It is useful to consider the following questions:

Outcomes and impacts: The positive and negative changes produced by a project, directly or indirectly. This involves the main outcomes and impacts resulting from the project. The evaluation should be concerned with both intended and unintended outcomes and impacts.

Effectiveness: A measure of the extent to which a project achieves its objectives, i.e. a comparison of the intended outcome with the observed outcome (see 'Outcomes and impacts' above).

Efficiency: Efficiency measures the qualitative and quantitative outputs in relation to the inputs. It is an economic term which signifies that the project uses the least costly resources possible in order to achieve the desired outcomes and impacts.

Sustainability: Sustainability is concerned with measuring whether the benefits of a project are likely to continue after funding has been withdrawn. Benefits need to be environmentally as well as economically, technically and socially sustainable.

• Innovativeness - capacity to develop innovative approaches for activities implementation and for engaging with stakeholders

The consultant/consultancy team will:

• Provide an assessment of project achievement to date against the intended results
• Identify the project priorities for the next phase
• Identify the potential barriers to project sustainability and provide recommendation for the next phase of the project strategy.

4. Scope and the methodology

The consultant is expected to use a panel of methods and tools including (i) secondary data review, (ii) semi-structured interviews of key informants (PMUs in Cao Bang, CEPHAD project team), (iii) field and households visits, and (iv) group discussions with households, core farmers, and appropriate tools for analysis of people–led-development and community management.

5. Deliverables:

• A detailed plan which include set of tools and methodology, and schedule for the evaluation
• Report outline prior to going for field trip
• Records/minutes of all meetings/consultations conducted;
• Quantitative data, including raw data collected.
• Final report (in English and Vietnamese).

6. Outputs and organisation of the evaluation 

The consultant/consultancy team must have experiences in the field of community development especialy in people-led-development or/and community management.  

The schedule of evaluation as follows:

No	Term of actions	Timelines	Responsibility	Note
1	Consultant selection	9th – 19th December	CEPHAD/Project
2	Review of project documents & reports, secondary     data...    and consultant contract signed	19th – 23rd December 2019	Consultant(s)
3	Finalized tools/questionnaires; set-up data storage system, detail schedule of field data collection, key informants	4 days	Consultant(s)
4	Field data collection in Dan Chu, Hoa An, Cao Bang Province	4 days in the 1st week of January 2020	Consultant(s)	CEPHAD support logistic arrangement
5	Analysis, report writing and first draft Submission	Before 20th January 2020	Consultant(s)
6	Finalized reports and translation	By 31st January 2020	Consultant(s)

Role of the Partners

In support of the consultancy CEPHAD will make their staff available for discussing the strategic approach of the assignment as well as to discuss content and review the draft versions of the reports. The CEPHAD will ensure the logistic and human resource support for the organization of meetings, the field level study.

7. Consultant profile

The consultant/consultancy team shall have the following skills and experience.

• At least 10 years of theoretical and practical work on people-led-development, community management including all crosscutting issues (gender)
• Previous experience working with CEPHAD is an advantage
• Excellent communication and documentation skills in English and Vietnamese
• Results focused and accountable

The consultants are expected to provide samples of previous assignments with a similar content.

8. Consultancy Management

The consultant will officially report to CEPHAD. CEPHAD will be responsible for the coordination with  other relevant stakeholders in the field.

9. Date and timeframe

Maximum 22 working days over the period from 9th December 2019 to 31st January 2020

10. Consultant Fee

Consultancy rate per day basis, including PIT, will be negotiated based on quality and experience of the consultant. Expenses in the field (transport, accommodation, stationaries….) will be covered by the project at CEPHAD’s cost norm. CEPHAD will not pay any health/ accident insurance. The consultant /consultancy team will have to ensure its own health and accidental insurance.

11. Application Procedure

Interested candidates are invited to contact Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong ([email protected]) and [email protected] for additional details about the assignment and then to send their applications by email in English consisting of a CV, a letter of motivation and a financial and technical offer to: [email protected]; [email protected]. Please indicate clearly your application subject: “BfdW - MISEREOR CEPHAD – Final Evaluation consultant”.

Deadline for application:  19th December at 17:00, Hanoi time. Please note that only application which are submitted in English and contain all above mentioned documents shall be considered. While CEPHAD appreciates all responses, only candidate under consideration shall be contacted for an interview.

Organization: CEPHAD
Location:
Application deadline: 2019-12-19
Send application to: [email protected]; [email protected]